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Cave Story Weapons

The guns from Cave Story do not all belong to the same weapon type, but they're grouped together here due to sharing a different mechanic: like in Cave Story, these guns can collect XP and level up. Their power will generally increase at higher levels, but in some cases there are other changes as well. Also just like in Cave Story, they can level back down; a Cave Story gun loses XP whenever the wielder takes damage with it equipped, with XP lost equal to HP lost, a.k.a. damage taken. Therefore, the gimmick of these things is to level them up and then avoid being hurt to keep them strong. Their stats are taken directly from Cave Story but toned down on the higher end to be more compatible with Paper Mario-type numbers; nevertheless, when fully leveled up, these will probably be the strongest projectile weapons you'll find in Arpeggio, but of course the possibility of leveling back down helps balance this.

Because player characters will eventually max out their own level and stop receiving XP, Cave Story weapons are all considered to be at Level 0 in terms of XP received from enemies, receiving the full XP amount instead of that minus the user's Level. Therefore, they will usually receive more XP than the player using them. Because XP is only received at the end of battle, players can perform a trick similar to switching out weak Pokémon: by changing which weapon they have equipped just before the battle ends, they can choose which of these weapons receives the XP from the battle. By allowing a teammate to perform the finishing blow, they can even have a little breathing time to decide about this; this is especially relevant with the Spur, which uses up any XP that it has acquired when fired. Meanwhile, more relevant to the Nemesis, a single hit of damage taken can only level down these weapons by one level, so if the amount of damage taken was mathematically enough to drop a weapon from Level 3 all the way back to Level 1, the weapon will instead be left at Level 2 with 0 XP toward regaining Level 3. However, each hit of multiple-hit attacks counts separately for this, so they can level down these weapons multiple times. You could also award XP to these weapons in mid-battle as soon as a particular enemy is killed, just remember not to give them that same XP again at the end of battle.

Name: Polar Star
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Pistol
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 1, 2, 4
Hits: 1
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 20XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› MAX
Information: The starting weapon from Cave Story, a pistol-like gun named after the North Star. It's very weak, but gets slightly decent at Level 3. In Cave Story, it can be traded for other weapons at different points in the game, but these trades are mutually exclusive.

Name: Missile Launcher
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Bazooka
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 8, 12, 8
Hits: 1, 1, 3
Ammo: 10 (Missiles)
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 20XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› MAX
Information: The missile launcher from Cave Story. This is the only weapon in Cave Story that had ammunition that functioned the way that it does in Arpeggio, although even then, most Bazooka-type weapons in Arpeggio can only hold one missile at a time, requiring the use of a turn to load in each next missile, whereas this can hold multiple ones more like a Rifle or something (really more like the Donkey Kong 64 guns and the Star Pointer). Because this already makes it better than most bazookas and it can also level up to make it even better, I've only given it its minimum missile capacity of 10, but it could be possible to let the players find missile upgrades for it like in Cave Story, with each increasing the number of missiles that it can hold by 5. At Level 3, the Missile Launcher fires 3 missiles with a single shot, but this still only uses up 1 missile ammunition item.

Name: Super Missile Launcher
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Bazooka
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 12, 20, 12
Hits: 1, 1, 3
Ammo: 10 (Missiles)
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 30XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 60XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› MAX
Information: The upgraded version of the Missile Launcher in Cave Story. It functions exactly the same way, but missiles fired from it deal more damage, and it requires more XP to level up.

Name: Fireball
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Pistol
Element: Fire
Ailment: None
Power: 4, 6, 6
Hits: 2, 3, 4 (Target: One or More)
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 20XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 20XP ‹-› MAX
Information: A gun inspired by Mario's Fire Flower, it shoots similar bouncing fireballs. Although the Lv3 fireballs are blue, they do the same amount of damage as the Lv2 ones, so I used the limit for the number of fireballs onscreen at once as the number of hits per turn here, turning the weapon into more of a machinegun. However, each fireball can, if the shooter so desires, be aimed at a different opponent, making this the only Cave Story weapon that can easily hit multiple targets in a single turn. That said, the fireballs are affected by gravity, so while they do count as projectiles, they will miss flying targets if the gun user has a Platform stat lower than the target's, just like melee attacks would.

Name: Bubbline (or Bubbler)
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Machinegun
Element: Water
Ailment: None
Power: 1, 2, 3
Hits: 1, 5, 5 to 15
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 20XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 5XP ‹-› MAX
Information: Called the Bubbler in the original translation, but the Bubbline in the official release, it's a sort of bubble machinegun. At Level 1, it's only more of a pistol, but Level 2 gives it five hits per turn; Level 3 is complicated: the user can choose to deal a simple 5 hits per turn, or to spend a turn sending out bubbles around themself. Once bubbles are set up, if they remain set up, the user can continue firing to deal 5 hits every turn, but on any given turn can choose to unleash full bubbly wrath, which causes all bubbles to pop and fire, dealing a total of 15 hits, with each hit targeting a random enemy. Once bubbly wrath has been unleashed, the user is back to un-bubbled status and must spend another turn if they want to set up more bubbles. But in addition to that, bubbles once set up have a protective effect: any attacks targeting the Bubbline user, after their initial accuracy calculation, have a 50% chance to hit a bubble instead, which effectively causes the attack to miss but also removes that bubble from around the character; since there are 15 bubbles in a setup, up to 15 attacks may be blocked by them, and if the Bubbline user chooses to unleash full bubbly wrath on the turn after one or more bubbles have popped due to blocking attacks, then each bubble popped makes the attack deal 1 fewer hit, but if this would be less than 5 hits, then the Bubbline user may simply fire new shots to get in 5 hits, although this will only target one opponent like a normal use of the weapon and any bubbles that had been left over at that point do not get their hits in, just popping and doing nothing. Even if full bubbly wrath was not unleashed, if 10 or more bubbles are popped by blocking attacks in a single turn, then the Bubbline user is no longer considered to be set up, and must spend another turn setting up more bubbles if so desired, although in cases of 9 or fewer bubbles having been popped, if the Bubbline user does not unleash full bubbly wrath on their next turn, then after that turn the bubble count will be back to its full 15. If an unarmed melee attack is blocked by a bubble, the attacker takes 1 Water damage as if attacking a target who was Made of Water, but if such an attacker is immune to the Water Element, or if this damage is absorbed by armor, then the bubble pops but the attack still goes through and hits the Bubbline user. Psychic attacks cannot be blocked by bubbles due to not operating on the physical plane. If the Bubbline levels down while bubbles are set up, those bubbles all immediately pop without dealing any damage and no longer protect the user.

Name: Blade (King's Sword)
Type: Melee
Subtype: Sword
Level: E
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: Attack x2 (Projectile), Attack x2 +2 (Projectile), 1 [X] (Projectile)
Hits: 1, 1, Attackx4
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 30XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 60XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 0XP ‹-› MAX
Information: The sword given to Quote by King the Mimiga upon his death. Yes, it's a sword, not a gun, so it actually counts as a melee weapon, but it's traditionally thrown to attack. Like the Cave Story guns, it can acquire XP and level up; at any level, it still counts as having a Weapon Level of E, so anyone can use it regardless of how powered-up it is. At its own Level 1, it's identical to an Iron Sword (except for being thrown) at Attackx2 damage. At Lv2, it rises to Attackx2 +2. At Lv3, the sword is merely pointed at the target, and King's ghost appears and flies in that direction, slashing repeatedly to attack; the number of slashes will be equal to the sword user's Attack x4, and each will deal 1 [X] damage, penetrating all defenses. Because it hits MAX as soon as it reaches Lv3, any amount of damage will level it back down to Lv2, so strike quickly while you can.

Name: (Curly Brace's) Machine Gun
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Machinegun
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 1, 2, 3
Hits: 6
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 30XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 40XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 10XP ‹-› MAX
Information: A machinegun originally used by Curly Brace in Cave Story, she'll trade it to Quote for his Polar Star after he defeats her. I had to halve its power, as most machineguns in Arpeggio only deal 1 or 2 damage per hit, with the number of hits being the defining feature, and this did 6 per hit at Level 3 in Cave Story, which was just too much here. But like in Cave Story, the Level 3 shots are so powerful that firing them downward will propel the user up slightly, effectively allowing them to fly; this allows the user to perform Platform-based field tasks of any difficulty value, whether horizontal or vertical, making it the only Cave Story weapon to have a field use as well as a battle one. In Cave Story, it could be upgraded with the Turbocharge to increase the rate at which its ammunition replenishes, but that doesn't really translate to anything here.

Name: Snake
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Pistol
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 4 [X], 6 [X], 8 [X]
Hits: 1
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 30XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 40XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 16XP ‹-› MAX
Information: A "wave motion gun" in more ways than one, which in Cave Story was made by combining the Polar Star with the Fireball. Its snaking shots travel through walls, and here armor. The shots are trails of squares that are reddish at Level 2 but bluish at 1 and 3.

Name: Spur
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Pistol
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 4, 10 [/], 20 [X] (MAX Target: All)
Hits: 1
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: n/a
Information: The Spur is the final form of the Polar Star, the latter actually having been an unfinished version of the Spur taken by Quote before completion. Forgoing the entire weapon level up system, the Spur instead can charge up its power (which in Cave Story used the same display that other weapons used for their level and XP). An uncharged shot deals 4 damage (the same as the Lv3 Polar Star), charging for one turn results in a shot dealing 10 damage with a [/] effect, and charging for two consecutive turns deals 20 damage with a [X] effect. By charging for three consecutive turns, the shot becomes multitarget, hitting the entire enemy battlefield for 20 [X] damage. Since the gun rather than the user is charging, this doesn't count as the Charge Status Condition and can't be removed by abilities that remove Status Benefits; if the Spur user becomes Paralyzed or such while charging, the gun continues charging through those immobile turns, and will be ready to unleash a charged shot upon the user's recovery. However, if the Spur is unequipped (including forcibly via the Disarmed Status Problem or such), any charge it had built up is lost.

Name: Nemesis
Type: Projectile
Subtype: Pistol
Element: None
Ailment: None
Power: 16, 8, 1
Hits: 1
Ammo: Infinite
Level System: Lv1 ‹-› 1XP ‹-› Lv2 ‹-› 1XP ‹-› Lv3 ‹-› 1XP ‹-› MAX
Information: Perhaps the strangest weapon in Cave Story, the idea here is that it levels up immediately with any XP acquisition, but gets weaker at higher levels instead of stronger, so you have to strategically avoid leveling it up in order to keep it useful. (Hence the name; it's working against you.) It's very strong at Level 1 and still good at Level 2, but at Level 3 its shots turn into rubber duckies that only do 1 damage. In Cave Story, you have to trade the Blade to get the Nemesis, but they can be traded back (and back again).