UNDERPOWERED Or A Hidden GEM? Berthier Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, rex here! The Berthier is a long ammo bolt action rifle that I don’t see very often, yet every time I play it I seem to really enjoy it! The Berthier comes with a regular iron sight variant as well as two scope variants – the deadeye and the marksman. It features a 3 bullet magazine that is reloaded with a stripper clip. Each time you reload the Berthier, all remaining bullets in the magazine are lost unless you have the bullet grubber trait, which makes partial reloads really punishing for this weapon.

The Berthier deals 130 damage and has 120 meters drop range. This is enough damage to down a hunter that is missing a health chunk with a shot to the torso, and far enough that you don’t need to worry about drop range in most encounters. The velocity is 590 meters per second, which is great. You can further increase the velocity and drop range with the use of spitzer ammo, which brings it up a whopping 780 meters per second and 140 meters drop range, which is perfect if you prefer to keep a distance or a near hit-scan experience due to the very high velocity. With spitzer ammo you lose 10 damage and the recoil slightly higher, but you get drastically better penetration power and the ability to penetrate multiple targets with a single shot.

Aside from spitzer ammo, the Berthier can also run incendiary ammo. For long ammo rifles, incendiary ammo sets enemy hunters on fire with the first shot up to 40 meters away unless they have the salveskin trait. As per usual, fire ammo does not penetrate surfaces. Speaking of fire ammo, because the Berthier has 2 ammo slots, you can run two different ammo types for the weapon at the same time. If you run regular ammo and one special ammo type, this allows you to loot ammo from both regular ammo boxes and special ammo boxes which results in better ammo sustainability overall. If you loot a deployable ammo box and you have two ammo types available for the weapon, you gain ammo for both ammo pools instead of just one.

I played all three main variants of the Berthier over a couple of days, and this video features the best rounds. At the end of the video I will share my thoughts and recommendations for this weapon, so stay tuned, but without further ado – let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

After having played the Berthier for a couple of days, I have to say I really enjoyed it! Overall the weapon feels great and performs well. I particularly enjoyed the iron sight and the marksman scope, but even the deadeye worked out well overall, although I should add that I’m not that fond of deadeye scopes in general. Having the ability to run two ammo types made for an interesting gameplay experience, and I ran half regular and half incendiary ammo for all my rounds. I did not play spitzer simply because I prefer having a consistent bullet velocity when possible. Since most rifles can get a velocity close to 600 meters per second I always strive to keep it as close to that as possible. This makes it a lot easier to lead my shots correctly, rather than switching back and forth between ammo types and having to adjust accordingly.

I ran the hunting bow with the scoped variants, which made for a well rounded and effective loadout that is suitable for most scenarios. For the iron sight variant I ran the hand crossbow with revive and choke bolts which was perfect for teamplay utility. For solo gameplay, a sparks pistol silencer would be an optimal secondary weapon to the Berthier, as it greatly increases your shared ammo pool. If you want a more reliable sidearm, an uppercut would certainly do the trick. I would definitely recommend taking the bullet grubber trait when possible when you are playing the Berthier, since partial reloads will cost you a lot of ammo in the long run, although If you are good at managing your ammo and reloading effectively you might not need it.

So what is the final verdict? Is the Berthier a hidden gem, or is it just another mid-tier rifle? I would say the Berthier overall plays quite well, and gets the job done. It’s not quite as expensive as other more popular long ammo rifles such as the mosin or krag, but likewise it doesn’t offer quite the same firepower overall. The Berthier comes with a deadeye scope, unlike the most popular long ammo rifles, which could be a potential selling point if you like this scope variant. For iron sights, the mosin, lebel or krag are likely all better options, and the lebel marksman outperforms the Berthier in just about every aspect. Overall, I would say the Berthier deserves more love, as it is a very solid mid to high tier option that gets the job done, but as it currently stands there are few reasons to pick this rifle over other more powerful options.

What do YOU think about the Berthier? Is it worth playing over other long ammo rifles? Let me know in the comments, and until next time – I’ll see you in the bayou!