*Old news*

Naw, the best guns you can equip before leaving Liberty are the Xenos ones (Scorpion, Adv. Scorpion). The Pyros Type 1s that you can loot from Outcasts are also excellent but there are no decent guns with the same speed for the class 3 slots; a mixture with the Barragers should work well, though.

The Barragers are not bad and they are easier to get but they are not even in the same league as the particle guns. Advantages of the Xenos guns:
- highest damage of all guns available
- 700 m/s projectile speed (also matches most turrets)
- excellent efficiency
- bonus against graviton shields (multiplier 1.20)
The Barragers do less damage, have less projectile speed, are less energy efficient and have a penalty against graviton shields (multiplier 0.80). This all adds up.

For ultimate fun, equip a Dagger thusly:
1 x Adv. Stunpulse
3 x Adv. Scorpion
1 x Pyros Turret Type 1 (or Rowlett's Revenge)
and then start mowing down Defenders, Wolfhounds, Stilettos, Centurions ... This setup does 1511 shield (1665 against graviton) and 1529 hull with an efficiency of 4.80 for hull.

If you are only concerned about soft enemies with small shields (Libery, Bretonia) or if you are not comfortable toggling weapons then you can simply use a fourth Adv. Scorpion instead of the shield buster. This gives you 943 shield (1132 against graviton) and 1887 hull with the same 4.80 efficiency.

The Dagger has a strong powerplant and efficiency is not overly important for it against enemies of level 7 or less. So you could swap 2 Adv. Scorpions for looted Dragoon Type 1s to get the ultimate kick*ss damage output: 1937 hull with an overall efficiency of 4.43.

I used the first setup in the maximum-fun campaign during mission 4. Near Manhattan I got 10 Defenders and a cruiser (counts as battleship kill), at Benford Station I got another 10 Defenders, and in Magellan I got 7 of the 8 Bounty Hunters (speed and precision are extremely important there because the Lane Hackers shoot well).

I have my Startracker outfitted with 3 Scorpions which I picked up from Xenos I killed (bloody nice guns). I was thinking of buying the Advanced Scorpions from the Xenos (neutral to me). If I just kill the buggers, will they drop Advanced Scorpions or only drop normal Scorpions?

Adv. Scorpions drops are rare - I'd say one drop per one or two dozen Xeno Startrackers on average. It is usually much faster to shoot a couple of depots so that the Xenos are no more than 20% unfriendly and then you can simply buy the guns.

I never thought about the Xenos before.
Thanks.

If it's lasers you're asking about, the Vengence Mk2 isn't all that bad. If you want to stay legal in MP, it's a pretty decent laser weapon. I really like the ROF on them...but their damage is a little low for the mid-game. Pretty much the only place where I could find them were in the Magellan system...just outside of Liberty.

I am sure 'laser' was only a manner of speaking (the Barragers are photon guns). The laser weapons do not fare well overall compared to other weapon types and like the photon weapons they are least efficient against the graviton shields that are so widely used in Liberty.

If you want a high firing rate but acceptable energy/damage stats then have a look at photon weapons like the Barrager. Most photon weapons have 600 m/s projectile speed instead of 700 or 750 m/s, though. This makes it a bit more difficult to hit a target.