In the name of the emperor, we revere the bolter.
By the worship of the emperor, we venerate the bolter.
On the wrath of the emperor, we embrace the bolter.
For the curse of the emperor, they fear the bolter.
Welcome to Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr, a game developed and published by NeocoreGames on 31st August 2017. Commencing in early access, the game has certainly traversed a long road to glory in the grim darkness of the universe, by the grace of the eternal Emperor on the golden throne. Having played the game in said early access, I can attest to the bugs, internet connectivity issues, graphical lags, stutters, and a host of other problems that the developers have worked assiduously to address. I stopped playing the game by the end of September 2017 and returned to it in December 2022 and by the grace of the emperor, what a return it has been!
Over the span of five years, NeocoreGames has continued to support and improve the game. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all the graphical and connectivity bugs of old had long vanished. Here I was in the grim dark of a dystopian universe, in a future that knows only war, where man fights both himself and everything else, luxuriating in the exquisite pleasure of mowing down the Imperium’s enemies who are merciless and perennial. I have yet, over the course of a month’s play, to find a single bug that has marred my experience. Despite the repetitive nature of the task-at-hand, which is to destroy the heretics, eliminate the chaos, and root out all heresy everywhere in the Imperium, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr is an immersive, addictive, and thrilling experience. While the game offers a litany of weapons and equipment afforded to the Imperium’s lackey… *cough, cough* valued, loyal soldiers who are ever-ready to die for the emperor, there is one weapon in particular that lends itself to making Inquisitor – Martyr an amazing game. Forever the mainstay of the Imperium’s Space Marines, this armament makes the game fun in so many ways.
The Bolter
Clearly the result of an affair between an arsonist and a gun-nut, the bolter can be charitably called an enlarged sub-machine gun. Think of an Uzi, except exponentially larger, shooting fist-sized bullets from a barrel that is suspiciously, sufficiently robust to handle the recoil and backblast. What you get is a bolter, a gun that is ubiquitous in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The emperor’s space marines wield this terrifying weapon to mercilessly crush the xenos, the heretics, the mutants, and all the enemies of the Imperium. In Inquisitor – Martyr, the bolter, or rather its tougher cousin – the heavy bolter will take any player through an exciting, gore-filled, sadism-fulfilling journey of wanton slaughter. All in the name of the emperor, of course.
VENERATE THE HEAVY BOLTER
The Heavy Bolter
The heavy bolter is a two-handed, ranged, heavy weapon with supposedly limited ammunition that poses no problem to any player whatsoever. As you rend and tear your enemies to tiny bits and shreds, the heavy bolter will carry you through the carnage, with plenty of bullets to satisfy your need to wreak havoc. If you are lucky, you can purchase a heavy bolter from Ragna van Wynter early on, or pick one up from the carcasses of your enemies. Regardless, you won’t have to wait too long before you get your hands on one and thereafter, you will coast through Inquisitor – Martyr with nary a drop of sweat shed. The heavy bolter comes with four abilities.
Skills in Sadism
- Full auto – This default attack is channelled by holding down the left mouse-button, damages unarmoured targets by an additional thirty percent, and rips enemies that venture too close to you by another additional thirty percent. It delivers incredibly high suppression damage to its target and roots it in place, until the channelling is stopped. Technically, the full auto attack is a single-target attack, even though you routinely decimate entire rooms with it, holding down the left mouse-button and gently gliding your mouse from left to right and back.
- Concentrated Salvo – This is the heavy bolter’s armour-breaking, cover-rending, alternate attack. Although it is slightly slower than the full auto’s sadistic splendour, it inflicts torrential damage on champions and elites, tearing their armour to shreds and exposing their vitals to your just, almighty, emperor-blessed wrath.
- Disengage – The third ability of the heavy bolter allows the inquisitor to back away from torrents of enemies while inflicting the emperor’s retribution on them. The fire rate of this ability is higher than the primary attack and you walk backwards while using it. It is classified as a salvo and so, doesn’t benefit from channelling perks and bonuses. It also slows foes who have been suppressed. It doesn’t have any inherent bonuses to armoured targets.
- Hellstorm – The fourth and only area-of-effect ability that the heavy bolter possesses will become one of your favourites when dealing with chaos space marines, like the Word Bearers. Even though hellstorm inflicts less damage on armoured targets, it can knockdown overwhelmed targets and knockback suppressed ones. This ability is particularly useful, given its AoE, when you face five or six chaos space marines spewing flames and shooting plasma at you. Knock them down and tear them asunder in the emperor’s name.
The Mainstay
Whether by happenstance or intent, the heavy bolter is your go-to to complete and dominate Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr. While there are other weapons, such as the chainsword, the thunder hammer, the lasgun, and other implements of the dark, eternal war, none are as effective and as thorough in the decimation of the xenos as the heavy bolter. I have levelled a character to level fifty and until this point, the heavy bolter has not faced an enemy it could not conquer. Everything from tyranids to chaos space marines died to its rage.
The only downside is that you cannot wield a shield, the heavy bolter being a two-handed weapon. You rely more on your damage reduction and resistances to mitigate damage, using Disengage prudently to create distance between friend (namely you) and foe (pretty much everyone else). The careful management of your inoculator is essential in the early levels, especially when a young inquisitor becomes overly confident and full of blasphemous pride, attempting to scale levels far beyond their capabilities. Given sufficient vigilance, any player will find his journey to the heights of the Ordo Malleus a blissfully violent and exhilarating one. The heavy bolter will not disappoint.
EMBRACE THE HEAVY BOLTER
Attributes in Bolting
While wielding a heavy bolter is indeed fun and raining torrential death upon your foes gives simple, bloody ecstasy, choosing the right attributes and passives will make you even better with the fist-sized bullets. From the get-go, I pursued the maximisation of warfare, which provides a fifty percent damage bonus against bosses and elites at level five. Thereafter, I will choose to level virtue which will provide a thirty five percent damage bonus at level four, so long as my suppression status is green. Mind Fortress, Cull the Weak, and Attack Anchor are my perks of choice, supporting my channelled skills and boosting my damage when I stand still. Debuffed enemies take bonus damage, too.
In my passive repertoire, I have maximised ranged combat, single DPS, and physical attacks. The heavy bolter inflicts physical damage per bullet and targets single enemies with three skills. It is a ranged weapon and hence, I chose the passive buffs accordingly. I am working on specialising in critical hits, now. At level fifty, with a Relic Heavy Bolter dealing 153 base damage, I inflict over 10,000 DPS regularly. It is thrilling, exhilarating, and sadistically fulfilling to mow down the emperor’s enemies. It’s a harvest in his majesty’s name and may the heavy bolter’s bloody offerings please the golden throne.
A Prayer
If you are a returning player to Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr or a new arrival to the game, wield the heavy bolter and claim your rightful place as a hand of the emperor, destroying heresy throughout the galaxy. The game plays very well, with hardly any lag or stuttering. It’s graphically pleasing, with the various levels modelled and lit beautifully. The game brings the Warhammer 40,000 universe to life and provides many hours of flesh-rending joy and bloody slaughter.
It is better to die in the emperor’s name than to live a slave to chaos.
