Impact is the actual amount of damage dealt with a weapon. However, Attack is how effective that impact is against certain enemies. A gun with high attack will do more damage compared to the same gun with lower attack. As you fight higher levels, your weapons with lower attack will actually take damage penalties and do less damage whereas a weapon with higher attack will do the right amount of damage. Range is how long until your damage begins to drop off. Let's say an auto rifle does 30 damage per shot. It will maintain that 30 damage for some distance and then the damage will drop to let's say 10 damage at range. A sniper, having much more range, will maintain their damage for a very long distance so that you could hit a target and close range for lets say 100 damage and a target at very long range for still 100 damage. This is common in FPS games. Also, you may see snipers with a lot of range (duh) but kind of low impact, this is because the stats are only in relation to the weapons of the SAME type. So compared to shotguns and fusion rifles, it does less damage per shot, but does ALOT of damage down range not to mention headshots, which is my next topic: Headshots have a different damage multiplier for different weapons and will appear in yellow numbers (they are technically called precision shots/kills). From what I tested, they are: Auto Rifles: x1.5 Pulse Rifles: I haven't tested, maybe x2? Scout Rifles: x3 Hand Cannons: I haven't tested, maybe x3? Shotgun: I think it's x1.33 or x1.25, I forgot. Fusion Rifles: (Explanation below) Snipers: x5 I haven't tested heavy weapons. Fusion rifles have NO headshot multipliers, so always aim for the body as it shoots multiple shots once you charge it. You may think "why would I use a fusion then if i can use a shotgun?" Well, although shotguns have more damage, they have very little range and fusion rifles have very good range (less than snipers and scout rifles though) and more damage per shot, but less shots per trigger pull/hold. However, I would wouldn't use it at medium range as you will probably miss your shots as it shots a spread. Shotguns, you will do almost no damage unless you are in maybe around melee range. And you won't do high damage unless you are point blank. Also, you can do headshots with shotguns, unlike fusions, but remember: you have NO range. Shields: Some enemies have shields, like fallen captains and hive wizards. You CANNOT do headshot damage on shields, HOWEVER: elemental damage will INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY your damage. NOTE: You will get this bonus damage when using the right element: Arc for Fallen shields. Fire for Hive shields. Void isn't known yet. Since fusion rifles can't do headshot damage anyways and ALWAYS do elemental damage, they are pretty much the go to weapon to take out shields without having to get too close. A shotgun with the right element aiming for the head at super close range (like hugging range) will do a lot more damage, but its not easy to get a headshot from that close as the target will move and you put yourself in a lot of danger, that's when fusion rifles obviously come in. Now, your thinking: "what do you mean? Headshots don't work on shields!" Well your right, but with a high damaging shotgun with the correct element, it will easily cut through the shield and all that extra damage, that was aimed at the head, WILL become headshot damage. So I have been going over special weapons for a while now, I'm going to explain them with more simplicity: -Snipers do least damage, but do the most with headshots. -Shotguns do most damage (besides sniper headshot) but have almost no range. -Fusion rifles are a good mix of range and damage, but can't do headshots, but ALWAYS have elemental damage With Primary weapons, currently, hand cannons are simply outclassed by scout rifles, never use hand cannons -Scout rifles have highest damage, but are semi automatic. -Pulse rifles fire in bursts, and are a middle ground in terms of damage. -Auto rifles are fully automatic, but generally do the least amount of damage -Hand cannons technically do the most damage, but their small mag and very little ammo and high recoil makes them worthless. With heavies, it's either: -Do I want to blow things up? -Or do I want to spray people down? Both are very effective. I want to also mention, every weapon can have elemental damage except for Primary weapons. I hope this help, tell me if you had anymore questions :)