Standard Weapons

Standard Weapons type is one of the four weapon types in System Shock 2. It consists of four weapons:
 * Wrench
 * Talon M2A3 .45 Caliber Pistol
 * 10 Gauge Shotgun
 * M-22 Assault Rifle

It is also a combat skill in the game, and depends on the difficulties, one can normally specialize in 1-2 combat skills in a game.

Damage bonus
Whenever a player upgrades a combat skill by one level, each weapon of the same type below that level gains a bonus damage of 15%. For example, when a combat skill reaches level 2, weapons that required level 1 will gain a 15% extra damage, and weapons that required level 3-6 cannot get any bonus, of course. One should note that level 6 weapons will never obtain any bonus from combat skills.

Requirements
Some weapons require minimum statistics or skill levels to equip and use.

Advantages

 * Standard Bullets, which are used by both the Pistol and the Assault Rifle, are the most common types of ammunition in the game, and the player can hardly run out of them.
 * They are commonly sold by Replicators.
 * Anti-Personnel Bullets and Armor-Piercing Bullets are also fairly common, though both are rare on the MedSci Deck and Engineering Deck.
 * Rifled Slugs and Anti-Personnel Shotgun Shells, used by the Shotgun, are common as well.
 * Shotgun Hybrids always drop a broken Shotgun, which can be unloaded to obtain 1 Rifled Slug. They also have a chance to drop 6 or 12 Rifled Slugs.
 * The Pistol and the Assault Rifle can apply bonus damage to nearly every type of enemy depending on the type of ammunition used, and hence will reduce the overall difficulty of the game.
 * Anti-personnel ammo is the most effective way of killing half-Annelid enemies, dealing 4 times the weapon's base damage. This is the highest multiplier against half-Annelid enemies available, and is exclusive to Standard Weapons.
 * An Assault Rifle can take anything down in 5 shots.
 * The Wrench is a useful tool to eliminate minor threats when it is too wasteful to consume any ammunition, and hence should be suitable to every character build. The Standard Weapons skill can greatly increase its power.
 * Combined with Lethal Weapon and increased Strength, the Wrench can become powerful against weak enemies.
 * Both the Marine and Navy Sailor start with a Standard Weapons skill of 1, and both can choose a +2 starting bonus (allowing them to use the Shotgun as soon as they find one). This initial boost allows the Soldier to reach a high level of Standard Weapons faster. Additionally, it is the only weapon skill that can have a starting bonus of higher than 1.

Disadvantages

 * No Standard Weapon can inflict area damage.
 * Will degrade somewhat faster than comparable Energy Weapons.
 * All ranged Standard Weapons have recoil/kickback, especially when using their alternate firing modes, though this can be mitigated by upgrading Agility and temporarily eliminated by using Neuro-Reflex Dampening.
 * The Shotgun has the most recoil of them all, but its level 2 modification reduces it by 66%.