The Nailgun is the third base weapon found in ULTRAKILL, first unlocked in 1-1: HEART OF THE SUNRISE (or 1-2: THE BURNING WORLD if the player does not collect it in the prior level) with the weapon's blue variant, the Attractor. Its green variant, the Overheat, can be purchased in the shop for 25,000P, and its red variant, the Jumpstart, can be purchased for 35,000P.
The Nailgun is a large, deep black double-barreled gun. On the base of the weapon is a handle, a small screen which acts as the weapon UI, and two drums which connect to the barrels. The barrels are held in place by supports that run down the top middle and bottom middle of the weapon. On each of the barrels are sets of lights towards the base, corresponding to the weapon's variant color. When firing the weapon, the two barrels begin to rapidly spin and glow slightly orange, slowing down when the weapon is released.
Mechanics
The Nailgun's primary fire shoots a sustained volley of nail projectiles when fired, which have a slight amount of spread and begin to fall off at long range. Depending on the variant and conditions, nails fire at a rate of 12.5 to 25 nails per second. Firing any Nailgun variant will result in the barrels heating up, an effect which carries over to all other variants.
Different nails will be fired according to the current variant. The Overheat and Jumpstart Nailgun fire normal nails which deal 0.185 damage each, while the Attractor fires unique silver nails which deal 0.205 damage each, and possess additional damage modifiers against enemies.
When hitting an enemy, the nails fired will embed inside it, giving the enemy the ability to chain conductor shocks from the Jumpstart Nailgun or 
Electric Railcannon, and allowing certain enemies to be pulled by magnets depending on the amount of embedded nails.
Nails are attracted to magnets, and will attempt to get as close as possible to nearby magnets, or to the closest point between each if multiple magnets are present. Magnetized nails will become suspended in midair until the magnet they are attracted to breaks, or upon hitting an enemy. When a magnet breaks, any nails magnetized by it will blast outward in random directions in a technique called a Nailbomb, dealing damage based on the total number of nails that were attracted to the magnet before it broke.
Unless attracted by a magnet, nails will be launched away from explosions when within their radius.
Usage
As a uniquely sustained-fire projectile weapon in the player's arsenal, the Nailgun is a weapon that shines best in close-to-medium range. With a high firerate and relatively controlled spread, it can output consistent and high DPS against enemies even when the player is at a relative distance. This is helped by its advantageous damage modifiers against enemies such as 
Malicious Faces or 
Virtues, which can both fly and are therefore more difficult to get into close range reach without mobility tools/weapons.
Despite its automatic nature, the Nailgun, just like many weapons in the player's arsenal, can be used well in bursts in between swaps to other weapons. This works most often in situations like closing in gaps or picking off low-health enemies where mid-ranged explosives like projectile boosts and rockets would deal self-damage while trying to approach, or have to face against possible explosive resistances. Using the Nailgun economically alongside other weapons can also help overcome the firing restrictions that come with certain variants, such as reduced firerate or ammo cooldowns.
Nails have limited piercing power, only being able to hit a single enemy before embedding inside. This makes normal nails a suboptimal option for crowd control outside of extremely low health enemies like 
Filth. Despite that, silver nails, with their damage bonuses against low-health husks, are well suited to eliminating clumps of such enemies.
Variants
The Attractor Nailgun is the blue variant of the Nailgun, first obtained in 1-1: HEART OF THE SUNRISE or 1-2: THE BURNING WORLD. Its alternate fire shoots a small magnet that attaches to enemies and surfaces, attracting various magnetic projectiles.
Mechanics
The Attractor's alternate fire shoots out a magnet projectile which sticks to surfaces and enemies. Magnets have a cooldown of 0.35 seconds between firing, and up to three magnets can be placed at one time. Magnets will last 12 seconds before breaking, indicated by a rapidly increasing alert sound and flash emanating from the magnet. Magnets can be prematurely broken by shooting them with any hitscan attack, ground slamming them, or overloading the weight of a magnet. Once broken, a magnet will be instantly able to fire once again.
When attached to a surface or enemy, magnets will cause nearby magnetic projectiles (nails, saws, rockets, and chainsaws) to be attracted to them in a pull radius. Magnetized nails will become suspended in midair and will attempt to get as close as possible to nearby magnets, or to the closest point between each if multiple magnets are present. Magnetized saws and chainsaws will begin to orbit magnets in a circular motion.
Magnetized rockets shot by the player will home in towards the closest magnet when fired, but will only do so if the magnet is attached to an enemy, otherwise ignoring it. However, magnetized rockets that were shot by enemies such as the 
Guttertank will home in on magnets even if they are attached to a surface. Magnets break after 3 hits from any rocket. Normal rockets count as a single hit, while freeze-charged or airshot rockets count as two.
Magnets have a maximum weight value that determines the amount of projectiles that can be attracted to them before breaking. A single magnet can hold up to 75 nails, 30 normal saws, 15 silver saws, or 5 orange saws/chainsaws. Rockets do not possess magnet weight. When a magnet breaks, any nails, saws or chainsaws that were attracted to the magnet will fire outwards in random directions. The damage of nails which fire out from a broken magnet is dependent on the total number of nails that were attached to the magnet before it was destroyed.
Magnets are one of multiple projectiles which can receive and transmit conductor shocks from the Jumpstart Nailgun or the Electric Railcannon. In the levels 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA and 5-4: LEVIATHAN, magnets attached to enemies will slowly cause lightning to target and eventually strike the enemy.
Usage
The Attractor Nailgun's magnets, although not able to deal damage directly, are a very powerful tool with the ability to augment the strength of other weapons in the player's arsenal. As nails are attracted by magnets, they can be attached to enemies to greatly mitigate the spread of the Nailgun's primary fire and increase overall DPS. They are also useful for damage setups involving charged frozen rockets from the 
Freezeframe Rocket Launcher, which can otherwise be very difficult to aim directly at enemies.
Magnets additionally allow the Attractor to be used as a trap weapon. By placing magnets to cover common pathways or large, open spaces, the player can create fields of nails that catch enemies in their path and cause lighter enemies to become magnetized, meaning they'll be much easier to fire at and kill. This strategy is particular effective against 
Streetcleaners, as it greatly reduces their ability to dodge projectiles, and 
Stalkers, able to manipulate their positioning and reduce the radius of their sand blast. The player should, however, be wary, as magnets may cause nails to overshoot and fly away from the trap if they are at too high a speed when they reach the magnet's pull radius.
Magnet traps also lend themselves well to the use of the 
Sawed-On Shotgun, whose chainsaw can circle magnets when detached from its tether, creating a grounded obstacle which hits multiple times at once and has significant enough durability to deal with large crowds and low-health enemies that the Nailgun may otherwise be less effective at dealing with all at once. The chainsaw trap can also serve as a good way to recover health quickly in crowds, especially since the Nailgun often struggles with healing and recovery.
The Overheat Nailgun is the green variant of the Nailgun, obtained in the Terminal Shop for 25,000P. Its alternate fire charges up to release a large volley of flaming nails with a large spread.
Mechanics
The Overheat Nailgun's alternate fire must be initially charged up by using the weapon's primary fire for a few seconds. It can also be fully charged instantly by heating up the Nailgun's barrels using the primary fire of any other Nailgun or 
Sawblade Launcher variant (with the exception of an untethered Jumpstart), then swapping to the Overheat. If the alternate fire is not used after being charged, it will slowly decrease back to having no charge over time.
While the Overheat's alternate fire is at low charge, the weapon will fire nails at a rate of 25 nails/sec. When at full charge, it will fire at 12.5 nails/sec.
When using the alternate fire, the Overheat will perform a heatsink, releasing a massive burst of flaming nails with very high spread and a firerate of 62.5 nails/sec, setting any flammable enemies on fire. At full charge, a heatsink will last roughly a second, but a heatsink can be fired at any amount of charge that is not completely empty, albeit with a shorter duration. The Overheat Nailgun has up to two heatsinks at a time, each of which can be charged and fired. Once both have been expended, the primary fire will be reduced to a firerate of 8 nails/sec, and heatsinks will begin to recharge over the course of 8 seconds. Heatsinks will be unable to recharge while firing the primary fire in this state.
Usage
The Overheat transforms the Nailgun into a weapon focused on burst damage and close-range focus fire rather than sustained, mid-range DPS, making it a more effective weapon to use in quick combos and swaps between weapons. Heatsinks have a very high spread, meaning that in order to maximize their effectiveness the player must be very close to their target. For this reason, the Overheat is particularly effective against big or tanky enemies, especially in combination with the 
Firestarter Rocket Launcher which can make many normally non-flammable enemies flammable.
Due to the fact that heatsinks are charged instantly by using other variants to heat them up, it is often easier and more efficient to fire something else before switching to the Overheat, then have the weapon ready with an immediate full charge to maximize damage.
The Overheat's large spread can be taken advantage of in some scenarios to deal with large crowds of low-health enemies, covering the Nailgun's usual weakness against groups. This works especially well against Husk-class enemies which are usually flammable and will take residual damage from the Overheat's heatsinks. Additionally, the Overheat is a strong weapon choice to deal with 
Insurrectionists due to their fire weakness and increased damage vulnerability when inflamed, quickly reducing their otherwise bulky health.
The Jumpstart Nailgun is the red variant of the Nailgun, obtained in the Terminal Shop for 35,000P. Its alternate fire releases a small cable which attaches to enemies, charging up over time to release a powerful, damaging electric shock.
Mechanics
The Jumpstart Nailgun's alternate fire releases a small plug attached to the player by a cable with limited range. The cable can be repeatedly fired with little to no cooldown. It will break instantaneously on contact with surfaces, and will attach to any enemies that it comes into contact with. The cable will persist even when swapping to different weapons. When a cable is not tethered to an enemy, the Jumpstart Nailgun's primary fire shoots at a rate of 12.5 nails/sec and will not heat up the Nailgun's barrels, but when it is tethered, the firerate will increase to 25 nails/sec and be able to heat up the barrels.
Upon attaching to an enemy, the Jumpstart will begin to charge an electric shock over the course of 5 seconds which will eventually damage the enemy, or immediately if the enemy dies before the shock is complete. During this time, the player must stay within a range of 20 units indicated on the weapon's UI, and not have any objects directly between the player and enemy, to keep the cable from disconnecting. If the player leaves the indicated cable range, the Jumpstart will alert for 1 second to allow time for the player to move back in-range before breaking. The damage of the Jumpstart's electric shock can be increased and charge time decreased by hitting an enemy with sawblades from the Sawblade Launcher while the cable is attached. After a shock, the Jumpstart will enter a 5 second cooldown before it is able to shoot a cable again. There is no cooldown if the cable is broken before the shock is performed.
If the enemy shocked by the Jumpstart has nails embedded inside of it, the weapon will perform a conductor aftershock, causing the enemy to be launched into the air if they are Light or Medium weight, destroying all nails previously embedded inside, and causing the shock to be chained to all nearby grounded enemies and conductive projectiles, dealing damage based on the number of nails inside the original target (2 base damage plus 0.06 damage per nail, up to a maximum of 2 + 6 damage at 90 nails embedded in an enemy). Conductive projectiles include magnets, coins, rockets, tethered chainsaws, and 
Screwdriver Railcannon drills. Conductive projectiles will receive and transmit the shock to other nearby enemies or projectiles, functionally extending the shock's range. If any enemy it is chained to also has nails embedded inside it, they will do the same. Airborne enemies will not be able to receive shocks transmitted by conductors, but are able to transmit them to other enemies themselves. Underwater, the Jumpstart's electric shock will always trigger conductor aftershocks, regardless of whether the enemy has nails embedded in them or not, as well as dealing the player with 50 self-damage.
The Jumpstart Nailgun's cable has the ability to activate certain electrical coils used in some level secrets. It can also charge trams on contact to make them move much more quickly for a brief period.
Usage
On its own, the Jumpstart Nailgun's shock deals significant damage, but it will function best with the support of other attacks. Due to the cable's persistence when swapping weapons, it can be maintained alongside other weapon combos and techniques. As well as this, the Jumpstart incentivizes firing at enemies which are attached to the cable by greatly increasing its firerate when tethered, meaning that the weapon has the ability to maximize its damage over the course of the shock's charge-up time. This works well in combination with the Attractor's magnets as they allow the Jumpstart to more easily focus fire on enemies which move around quickly or have a small hitbox.
The Jumpstart's conductor aftershocks triggered by shocking enemies embedded with nails can be one of the most powerful forms of area-of-effect damage in the game if used right. Filling a small enemy with nails and shocking them prematurely can turn them into an epicenter for an electric attack capable of clearing crowds of low-health grounded enemies and fodder. The Jumpstart can additionally work well with groups of big enemies, as enemies with more health are able to survive more nails before death and therefore are able to transmit greater-damage shocks to other enemies. The downside of this is that with enemies of greater health the player must wait longer for the charge to finish. This, however, can be circumvented by using a Sawblade Launcher variant in conjunction with the Jumpstart, as it will be able to speed up the charge time of the shock and increase damage on the original target as well.
Conductive projectiles are very useful for extending the range of aftershocks in larger arenas, and can also transmit shock damage back into enemies that have already been hit, increasing the overall strength of a single aftershock. This is best achieved by using magnets, as they are easy and quick to fire, last a while, and can stick to both enemies and surfaces.
Advanced Techniques
Magnet Missile
By breaking an active magnet nearby (best done with a ground slam) that is currently holding nails and/or sawblades, and then firing a new magnet at the same time, the fired magnet will pick up all of the projectiles being held by the last magnet and carry it along its flight trajectory. This can be used to deliver magnet-based traps prepared beforehand into position to strike enemies if they do not spawn close enough to any available surfaces.
Catapulting
Enemies vulnerable to being pulled by magnets can have their velocity massively accelerated by embedding them with nails and placing magnets on nearby surfaces when the enemy is in midair. This can be used to instantly kill enemies that are able to die from fall damage by accelerating them to terminal velocity without requiring much vertical force. The efficiency of this technique can be increased by embedding more nails in the targets or using more magnets. While certain magnet setups can allow for multiple separate catapults, the most simple and consistent method is to launch the nailed targets up into the air or force them off a ledge before directly firing magnets into the ground.
Overheat Storage
By repeatedly swapping between the Overheat Nailgun and another Nailgun or Sawblade Launcher, the player can mitigate the cooldown of the Overheat's heatsinks. Swapping to another weapon before a heatsink is fully depleted will cause it to not be expended, and then firing another Nailgun or Sawblade Launcher variant will instantly recharge the heatsink allowing it to be fired once more. This technique can be very powerful against enemies vulnerable to fire, but comes at the cost of quick depletion of weapon freshness.
Style Bonuses
| Name
|
Points
|
Description
|
| + RIDE THE LIGHTNING
|
200
|
Deflect the lightning strike summoned by a  Ferryman back into itself or another enemy by using a  Coin, the Jumpstart Nailgun, or a parry.
|
| + CONDUCTOR
|
1–90
|
Hit an enemy stuck with any type of Nail with an Electric Beam or Lightning Strike, or kill an enemy with the shock produced by the Jumpstart Nailgun or  Jumpstart Sawblade Launcher.
Point gain is equal to the number of Nails in the target, up to a maximum of 90.
|
| + BIPOLAR
|
120
|
Kill any enemy with any type of Nail,  Sawblade or Chainsaw orbiting around or between two or more Magnets.
|
| + ATTRAPTOR
|
60
|
Kill any enemy with any type of Nail, Sawblade, or Chainsaw stuck to or orbiting around one Magnet.
|
| + NAILBOMBED
|
120
|
Kill any enemy with any type of Nail that explodes from or deorbits a Magnet.
|
| + NAILBOMBED
|
10
|
Hit any enemy with any type of Nail that explodes from or deorbits a Magnet.
|
| + ROCKET RETURN
|
100
|
Hit an enemy with their own rocket, either by  Whiplashing it, or using a Magnet.
|
| + CATAPULTED
|
240
|
Kill any light enemy stuck with Nails by flinging them into a surface while being attracted by a Magnet.
|
Media
The previous Nailgun model that was used in older versions of ULTRAKILL.
Trivia
Idols can be attached to the Jumpstart's cable, despite the fact that they take no damage from the electric shock and cannot be filled with nails, meaning that they cannot chain to other enemies or projectiles.- The Jumpstart's alternate fire pushes the player forward by an almost imperceptible degree, due to the cable being able to move "soft bodies" and influencing the player in this way as the cable's plug intersects them at the start of their travel. This is occasionally used in speedruns for minute movement optimization, known as Duck Boosting. This effect is magnified by Dual Wield power-ups, though the distance gained still remains very small.
- This technique can also be performed by repeatedly firing the
Shotgun's primary fire. In this form it is also sometimes referred to as Swap Boosting.
Terminal Entry
DATA:
A combination of parts from an industrial nailgun and an old bullet gun. Most likely engineered by a machine that was built for construction work, as all machines, even those not built for war, had to learn to fend for themselves after the extinction of mankind.
Bullet guns were largely abandoned after the invention of infinite ammunition systems such as electric weapons and heat weapons, largely due to how much cheaper not having to buy ammunition for large-scale armies becomes overtime.
Although the original ammunition system made it useless and largely abandoned, this gun was still excellently designed and built, so with some retrofitting of parts from an industrial nailgun, it has become a rapid-fire projectile weapon with practically infinite metal ammunition.
As is to be expected from an improvised weapon though, its design is far from perfect. As the nail regeneration system was not designed to work at such a high rate, it's liable to overheat if a hard rate limit isn't set on it, though some variants have instead opted for built-in heatsinks.
STRATEGY:
- Due to the nature of its limited ammunition, the nailgun is best used in short bursts rather than extended periods of time.
- The Magnet variation's magnets will also affect the nails from other nailgun variations, allowing the bypassing of otherwise limiting factors such as the burst from the Overheat variation having poor accuracy.
- Some enemies, such as Malicious Faces, are generally weak to nails, and in particular the higher quality nails from the hard-limited Magnet variation will decimate most weak foes.
ADVANCED STRATEGY:
- Nails become embedded in enemies, causing some special effects. Electric weapons will receive a damage boost from hitting an enemy that has nails in it, and with enough nails, light enemies become magnetized and pulled by the Magnet variation's magnets, allowing for easy temporary disabling of durable light enemies.
- The speed of the barrels' spin carries over between variations, meaning shooting even once with the Magnet variation gives maximum heat for the Overheat variation, allowing for an instant full overheat burst.
Color Customization
Each unlockable preset is reproducible one-to-one with custom colors; their corresponding color and hex codes are also in the table below.
| Name
|
Soul Orbs
|
Color Code
|
STANDARD
|
0
|
N/A
|
ACIDIC
|
10
|
R: 0.60
G: 0.60
B: 0.60
R: 0.60
G: 0.60
B: 0.60
R: 0.33
G: 1.00
B: 0.00
|
CLEAR SKY
|
25
|
R: 0.12
G: 0.48
B: 1.00
R: 0.12
G: 0.48
B: 1.00
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
|
SNOW LEOPARD
|
50
|
R: 1.00
G: 1.00
B: 1.00
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
|
VAMPIRE
|
100
|
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
R: 0.50
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
R: 0.50
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
|
All Nails
Gabriel, Judge Of Hell:
Gabriel, Apostate Of Hate:
Mysterious Druid Knight (& Owl):
Flesh Prison:
Flesh Panopticon:
Stray:
Schism:
Soldier:
