Though the Steel Cities are safer than the wildlands, violence is all too common all across Alver. Bandits prowl the wildlands where they use force to survive, while the cities deal with street crime. Across the planet people arm themselves with whatever they can get: from handmade clubs to high tech submachine guns.

Knives and Swords

Knives are common as a backup or general utility tool, amd almost all wildlanders carry one. Swords are still used by some military units, but are rarely ever found outside of those. Instead, bayonets are more common as a form of long knife. Swords are extremely dangerous in the range of 1-2m, but are otherwise conspicuous and clumsy, while knives are less dangerous in general but easy to conceal and use.

Basic projectile weapons

In the wildlands, quality firearms and their ammunition are harder to come across than in urban areas. Improvised handmade black powder muskets and blunderbusses are sometimes seen in the hands of wilderness folk, and in some cases bows and arrows are favoured by hunters. Muskets are wildly inaccurate, but are simple to build and use, and can fire anything roughly round as long as it fits in the barrel. While not very effective in a sustained fight, a musket blast is often enough to scare off a bandit or wild animal.

Revolvers and Pistols

Pistols, especially revolvers, are fairly common across Alver. Some are very well made, but many are old pre-cataclysm weapons that are poorly maintained.

Revolvers, sometimes called six-shooters, are a cowboy's bread and butter: reliable, rugged, and effective at short through to medium range. Their quality can go from scrap metal constructions to ultra lux nickel plated engraved luxury items. Revolvers fire a large pistol calibre round that has reasonable stopping power and range.

Pistols are modern Steel City produced semi-auto handguns with hand loaded stripper clips of low-calibre bullets. They are much quicker and more sustainable than a revolver in use, but have less range and stopping power; they have trouble piercing even wood. These pistols are hard to find outside of the armed forces of the Steel Cities.

Shotguns

Shotguns are fairly common across Alver. They are the simplest modern firearms, and are cheap to buy. Shotguns are dependable sidearm for hunting or blasting bandits in close range.

Shotguns are also preferred by combat engineers in Steel Cities due to the ability to use exotic ammo (incendiary, explosive, etc.) for utility purposes. In more ordinary use, shotguns are usually loaded with slugs or buckshots for hunting or defence.

Rifles and carbines

Rifles are highly valued in Alver for the accuracy and power. Most rifles are bolt action single fire weapons fed from stripper clips. Very accurate or semi-automatic rifles are a lot rarer and much more expensive than ordinary rifles.

Rifles are mass produced in Steel Cities. They are generally heavy, expensive, and cumbersome, but deadly accurate at vast range and able to shoot through even thin armour. Different cities have different ideas of what matters most in a rifle, so there are different styles available to suit most needs.

Carbines are basically shortened semi-automatic rifles. They are much faster and lighter than a rifle with only modest accuracy and range tradeoffs, but are very expensive and rare. They are usually only seen in the hands of elite Steel City units, like Saxa's Royal Highlanders.

Rarest of all rifles are the automatic rifles. These experimental weapons are highly accurate and capable of automatic fire - but with the great penetration of a rifle calibre round. They are basically light machine guns that are near impossible to control in automatic mode without a stable mount.

Submachine guns

Submachine guns were invented recently, and are rare. They are only being made in and issued to Steel City soldiers, though some find their way into the hands of criminals or wildland bandits. They are powerful and dangerous.

The first and most common submachine gun in existence is the Mk.1 Repeater. It is a solid SMG from Vulcania, the original and most common submachine gun. It is a little flimsy and heavy though, simultaneously overengineered and cheaply made. The gun is very inaccurate at range and uses the same low calibre pistol bullets as the handgun, with their low stopping power, with a solid rate of fire. The Mk.1 jams and overheats quickly and doesn't handle rough handling or weather well, but despite all its flaws is still an incredibly powerful weapon.

The Typewriter gun is a high quality handmade and expertly tooled submachine gun built in Modopolis. The weapons is favoured by gangsters and private shooters, but is too expensive for armies or security forces to afford. The Typewriter is heavy and with a slow rate of fire, is accurate even to medium range, and has little recoil. It is also extremely durable. It shoots high calibre pistol bullets, like the revolver, and can shoot right through thin metal.

The most modern submachine gun is the Vulcanian crew gun. It is an expertly made folding sidearm designed for vehicle crews or police who need a light weapon that can quickly deal with close encounters. Is extremely lightweight and fires very fast, but is difficult to control - exceptionally deadly at close range.

Machine-guns

Machine guns are huge guns incapable of being fired without a mount. They fire rifle calibre bullets at a devastating rate, able to blast through material and armour alike. They are often found in bunkers or outposts, or sometimes mounted to airships.

Canons and artillery

Canons and artillery are massive guns capable of delivering massive shells to distant targets. Their development in the 1500s eventually let the creation of the Space guns, but they are still in use today around Steel Cities. There have been attempts to mount cannons to airships, but so far these experiments haven't resulted in much success.

Explosives

Explosives are fairly common on Alver, being used for construction as well as combat.

The cheapest and most abundant explosive is black powder: a chemical powder that burns quickly when lit. It is a cheap explosive when packed into bombs, or otherwise useful as a fuse or component for bullets. Black powder is very common and easy to buy, especially in wildland towns, where it is made in small workshops.

More powerful than black powder is dynamite; an effective explosive better at smashing structures than injuring people. Dynamite is fairly easy to get a hold of in small quantities in normal shops inside cities and towns because it is used extensively in mining and demolition.

Red powder is an extremely dangerous high explosive powder that reacts violently to shocks or heat. It is dangerous to handle but tremendously powerful. 10g could destroy a house. Red powder can't be bought by ordinary people, but is made in small quantities for specialty military and mining use.

Fireoil is a napalm mixture that burns for a long time and produces thick black smoke. It is able to be made with basic chemistry equipment and knowledge and is frequently used in the wildlands by bandits.