Joke Rifle

The Joke Rifle is an item added in Downpour that can be used in Arena Mode and as a perk in Expedition that shoots rounds that differ based on the item that has been loaded into it.

Use
When the Joke Rifle and another valid ammunition item are held at the same time, holding Grab for about 0.5 seconds loads the item into the Joke Rifle, consuming it. Loading the Joke Rifle plays a brief animation and gives a slight boost of vertical momentum. The type of ammo and number of rounds added to the Joke Rifle depends on the item used to load it.

The Joke Rifle can be aimed in any cardinal or diagonal direction by pressing a directional input. Pressing Throw fires the Joke Rifle, spending 1 round and producing a projectile matching the currently active ammo type. Firing also pushes Slugcat in the direction opposite the firing direction. The strength of this push depends on the ammo type.

Throw can be held to continuously fire as long as rounds are available. While firing this way, directional inputs do not change the angle of the Joke Rifle, and Slugcat can move normally. Tapping Throw does not allow for a faster fire rate. The fire rate depends on the current ammo type.

When loaded or fired, the icon for the current ammo type and the number of currently loaded rounds appears briefly in the bottom-right of the HUD.

Loading multiple ammo types
The Joke Rifle is capable of storing multiple different types of ammo at once, but only fires the most recently loaded ammunition. For example, if the Joke Rifle is loaded with a followed by a piece of  it fires the Rubbish projectile when next used. If Blue Fruit is loaded into the Joke Rifle next then it adds this additional ammo to the already stored Blue Fruit, and also switches the active ammo type to Blue Fruit. When the active ammo type runs out of rounds, the Joke Rifle does not automatically switch to another ammo type. Accessing a previously-loaded ammo type requires loading another item of that type to make it the active ammo type. The Joke Rifle can hold more ammo than is loaded by a single item, allowing ample opportunity for reloading and maintaining multiple ammo types.

Trivia

 * The Joke Rifle has roots in the earliest days of the Rain World modding community and is present, albeit in attenuated form, in the source code of Version 1.5, being created directly by Videocult. This was purportedly to demonstrate the potential of modding Rain World.
 * The recoil for some ammo types is powerful enough to cause a crouching Slugcat firing downward to automatically turn around but remain crouched, as if a directional input opposite Slugcat's facing direction was input.
 * The recoil can also push Slugcat off of a vertical pole, especially if their body is on the side opposite the firing direction.
 * If Slugcat is crouching and the Joke Rifle is pointed in the direction opposite Slugcat's facing direction (possible by tapping the opposite direction very briefly), the projectile fires in the direction Slugcat is facing instead.
 * If the Joke Rifle is pointed diagonally downward and opposite Slugcat's facing direction, the projectile fires diagonally downward as well, but still in the direction Slugcat is facing.