I never needed the extra nine BBs, but I did notice the stability decrease that comes with the 36-round mag. I also found the 27-round mag superior to the 36-round mag. The automatic pump, which keeps the pressure in the green when you have it stowed, is a little easier to use, but I preferred the persistent overcharged rounds of the airtight variant. This ensures that you never lose pressure until you fire a shot, allowing you to overcharge the Tikhar's pressure and preserve it. With that in mind, I used the airtight pump for most of my playthrough. It just needs a little extra upkeep in the form of an occasional pump-up. It's relatively quiet by default, it's accurate enough to properly support a 4x scope, you can craft ammo for it on the go, and it'll take down common mutants and most bandits as long as you land your headshots.

6x scope and reflex sight are both goodįor most of the game, the Tikhar rifle is your best friend.

Suppressor and long barrel are both good.

That said, the Bulldog can still be used as a bullet hose if a mutant gets up in your grill. You can even put a suppressor on it if you're worried about noise otherwise, its accuracy-boosting long barrel will do just fine. By pacing your shots and treating the Bulldog like a semi-automatic rifle, you'll get more mileage out of your limited ammo reserves. (This is largely why ammo-hungry guns like the Bastard SMG and the Gatling Gun don't rate highly.) This is where the Bulldog's slower rate of fire shines. It's also much more powerful when fired in controlled bursts.Īmmo is scarce in Metro Exodus, and even though it's cool, laying on the trigger and dumping rounds into your targets and everything around them is just inefficient. The Bulldog has the same flexible sights and high-capacity magazines that make the Kalash deadly at medium range, but it's more accurate and deals more damage per shot.

The relationship between the Bulldog and the Kalash is similar to that of the Shambler and the Ashot: the former is unquestionably better, but you don't get it until a little later in the game.

Shogun 2 bows sound like guns