HFCBE - Nerf Elite Retaliator

The Retaliator is one of the first Elite blasters, being a remake of the old Recon CS-6. With it comes a slide priming which many people feel is awkward and uncomfortable. Additionally without slam fire it cannot fire as fast as an Alpha Trooper, but how fast can it fire?

Even without slam fire, the Retaliator can put out a very decent ROF.
Time: 5.53sec
No. darts fired: 18
ROF: 3.07dps or 184.4dpm

Loadouts 10: Personal Loadouts Part 2

Scenario Description: Loadouts that we use.
Keys to Victory: N/A
Unnecessary Burdens: N/A

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Clip (Mag) System 1a (General use)

Primary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (Retal stock, EPPS, 12/18 dart clip [mag], Secret Strike Pocket Shotgun on side rail, BT V2 8.5kg spring)
Secondary: Elite Triad EX-3
Gear: N-Strike Tactical Vest
Ammo: 12/18 dart clips (mags), whatever suitable darts (most likely to be stefans or Elite darts) 
Purpose: To provide well rounded, tacticool and generally awesome clip (mag) system-ness.

Strengths: Range (primary), ROF, reloading is fast, SSPS provides emergency/spread shots at reasonable range, secondary is good and reliable, jamming is rare, looks amazingly tacticool and awesome
Weaknesses: Accuracy (unless use of stefans, primary specific), primary is useless while reloading
Description: Because the Elite AT uses a direct plunger over the N-Strike AT's reverse plunger, the EAT has more potential and is easier to get up to great ranges. Additionally firing it is much more quiet because the AR is still intact, and the EAT looks much better because it has had minimal modding done to it. I am awaiting the results of an AR removal test to see whether or not I should remove it.




Clip (Mag) System 2a (General use)

Primary: Elite Stryfe (whatever attachments I feel like, 12/18 dart clips [mags], 2 or 3 14500s, rewired)
Secondary: Elite Triad EX-3
Gear: N-Strike Tactical Vest
Ammo: 12/18 dart clips (mags), whatever suitable darts (most likely to be stefans or Elite darts)
Purpose: To provide tacticool flywheel goodness, which gives easy to get high ranges and spammability
Strengths: Range (primary), ROF, reloading is super fast, secondary is good and reliable, practically no chance of jams
Weaknesses: Accuracy (unless use of stefans, primary specific), primary must be revved up for max range, rapid fire reduces range temporarily, range lost over time due to draining of batteries
Description: As said earlier, the Stryfe is the most tacticool blaster I've used, beating the Recon by one tac rail. It's also very light, surprisingly thin and looks awesome, along with performing very well. Essentially it acts the same as a Rayven, but is more quiet, more tacticool and more smooth to use, which is why I prefer it over the Rayven.

Clip (Mag) System 3a (WIP, Sniper)

Primary: N-Strike Longshot CS-6 (brass breech, varying spring combinations, Scout IX-3 on bottom, N-Strike Pinpoint Sight, Slydev Front and Rear Iron Sights (no drop), Slydev Longshot Front Tac Rail, Slydev Tac Rail Sling Loop, Secret Strike Pocket Shotgun on side, 12 dart clip [mag])
Secondary: Spectre REV-5/Snapfire 8/Triad EX-3
Gear: N-Strike Tactical Vest
Ammo: 12 dart clips (mags), stefans
Purpose: To provide high power, high accuracy clip (mag) fed goodness from the revered Longshot.
Strengths: Range (primary), reloading, blaster can still be loaded while reloading, accuracy, can have shotgun effect by double/triple feeding
Weaknesses: ROF is lacking, Longshot is quite bulky
Description: Simply updating the tacticool on the Longshot. Thanks primarily to Slydev for allowing so much tacticool. Ranges with stefans are beyond 30m (100ft), and Elites/Streamlines are far to unstable to accurately measure range.

Single Shot 1a (Sniper)

Primary: Avengers Hawkeye Bow (modded to fire darts)

Secondary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (BT V2 8.5kg spring, 12/18 dart clip [mag])
Gear: N-Strike Tac Vest
Ammo: 12/18 dart clips (mags), suitable darts (Elites or Stefans)
Purpose: To provide high range and accuracy firepower, with clip (mag) fed rapid fire backup
Strengths: Range (primary), accuracy (primary), rapid fire (secondary), reloading (secondary)
Weaknesses: Reloading (primary), accuracy (secondary)
Description: A Stryfe is a great blaster, but the fact remains that because it's a flywheeler it need to be revved up to fire. In those times when you don't have time to rev up, you're left with the sole option of running away. To avoid this, you need a non-flywheel secondary, and thus the EAT was chosen. Why? Well, besides the EAT being an all round great blaster, most importantly it has no fire delay. While with the Stryfe you have to rev up to fire, with the EAT you can just whip it out and fire. Obviously the EAT is larger than the Stryfe, but as a sniper I don't really intend to do a lot of running unless absolutely necessary.

Airgun 1 (Sniper)

Primary: Buzz Bee Big Blast (couplered, Raider stock on pump)
Secondary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (BT V2 8.5kg spring, 12/18 dart clip [mag])
Gear: N-Strike Tac Vest
Ammo: 12/18 dart clips (mags), suitable darts (Elites or Stefans)
Purpose: When you just have to outrange everyone else by a ridiculous margin
Strengths: Range is absurd (primary), accuracy (primary), rapid fire (secondary), reloading (secondary)
Weaknesses: Reloading (primary), accuracy (secondary)
Description: Just a quick note to make this section make more sense, the average engagement ranges that my friends have is at most 15m, because the blasters we use are generally stock or lightly modded. Buzz Bee Big Blasts are well respected blasters in the modding community, because of their huge airtanks, low retail price and general modding potential and ease of modding. Anyway, when I say 'range is absurd', I mean it. My 4B can fire stefans beyond 55m (180ft), making it a true Nerf sniper. So we've got range well and truly covered, the EAT is for if someone gets too close. It's not like I actually want to hurt my friends...

EDIT: Don't pay the exact range claim too much stock, just know that 4Bs far outclass the blasters we normally use when it comes to range.


Airgun 2 (Psuedo-Sniper/NIC war)

Primary: Nerf Supermaxx 1500 (overhauled for stefans)
Secondary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (BT V2 8.5kg spring, 12/18 dart clip [mag])
Gear: N-Strike Tac Vest
Ammo: 12/18 dart clips (mags), suitable darts (Elites and Stefans)
Purpose: For a balance of high range and ROF
Strengths: Range (primary), accuracy (primary), ROF vs other airguns (primary), ROF (secondary), reloading
Weaknesses: Accuracy (secondary), ROF (primary)
Description: The Supermaxx 1500 is well known among the Nerf modding community for respectable ranges (100-130ft depending on stefan) as well as a higher than usual ROF for an airgun (has a turret as well as a small tank, meaning low pump count). This makes it superior against most other airguns at mid range encounters, but without the ridiculous range of (say) a 4B, it isn't a true sniper type blaster. Again, because of the inherent slow firing of an airgun plaguing the SM1500, I have an EAT for backup close-mid range rapid fire.

HFCBE: Nerf Rayven CS-18

As requested, a HFCBE video of the Rayven, as well as a demonstration of how I empty semi auto flywheelers so quickly.

Time: 2.23sec
No. darts fired: 18
ROF: 7.62dps or 457.4dpm

How Fast Can it Be Emptied Youtube Series, Magstrike AS-10 firing vid

So with the slam fire and rapid fire vids I've been making recently, I thought I'd make an actual YouTube series out of it, called How Fast Can it Be Emptied?
First up of the 'official' HFCBE videos is the Nerf Magstrike AS-10. As the fastest firing production Nerf blaster, I thought it'd be a good blaster to start off with.

Time to empty: 0.68sec
No. darts fired: 10
ROF: 13.2dps or 794.1dpm
To compare, a stock Stampede or Vulcan fires at 3dps, and although I dislike firearm analogies when regarding Nerf, I have to use this. The M16A3 assault rifle according to Battlefield 3 fires at 800rpm.
There is literally no Nerf blaster I've used that is anywhere near comparable to the Magstrike in terms of ROF.

Look out for HFCBE videos in the future!

Nerf Elite Stryfe Rapid Fire Vid

The second of the videos I recorded, I show how fast you can fire a semi auto flywheeler when you really put effort into it.

Time: 2.1sec
No. darts: 18
ROF: 8.10dps or 485.7dpm

For reference a stock Stampede or Vulcan 3dps or 180dpm, and the 16.8v Rapidstrike featured in RandomShadow09's video empties an 18 clip in 2.2 seconds.
Also the EAT slam fire vid features around 7dps or 420dpm.

Nerf Elite Alpha Trooper Slam Fire Vid

It's been a while since my last vid, so I thought since I had a bit of spare time I'd shoot some quick vids for you guys.
First up is a slam fire vid of my EAT. Now you may be wondering "It's just an Alpha. What's so special about slam firing it?" Well, this is my modded EAT with the 8.5kg BT spring in it, over 3 times stronger than the stock spring.



Time to empty: 2.58sec
No. darts fired: 18
ROF: 6.59dps or 395.3dpm

For reference, my Pyragon slam fire vid has a ROF of around 6.8dps and a stock Stampede or Vulcan is around 3dps.

Just a note on modding the EAT, I would not recommend removing the AR as with the 8.5kg BT v2 spring it gains hardly any range (with Elites) and of course without the AR there is more internal stress. Average range does get pushed up to the magical 30m (100ft) mark though.
EDIT: Don't pay that range claim too much stock.
Muzzle velocity is increased so if you're a stefan user ranges will be increased more significantly.
It does make an awesome sound so if you're into that sort of thing go ahead, but otherwise I'd leave the AR in there for use with Elites.

Pump Action Nerf Retaliator

Back when the Recon first came out (2007-2008?), people criticised it's uncomfortable top slide priming and some modders (me included) made the useless included light into a pump to make a pump action Recon. This not only improved its ROF and comfort of usage, but also rapid-fire accuracy. Fast forward to 2009 and the Raider comes out, with foregrip pump action and slam fire. This made priming much more comfortable and gave the Raider a much higher ROF, although the side magwell was a criticised point for many, including me. A bit further forward to 2010 and we have the Alpha Trooper, with pump action slam fire like the Raider, but with a vertical magwell instead of a horizontal one. That combined with above average stock performance, the AT's other features and its low price made the Alpha Trooper an extremely popular blaster. Some however preferred the foregrip pump action of the Raider.
Now recently in 2012, when the Elite line was first launched, two of its blasters were revamped versions of old blasters, namely the Retaliator (Recon) and Rampage (Raider). While the Retaliator was well received by many, the Rampage has a number of fans but seemingly not as many as the Retaliator. They shared similar problems to their predecessors, namely the awkward top slide action for the Retaliator and side magwell for the Rampage.
To improve the Retaliator's ROF several people did the same pump action mod as they did with Recons, except with the Retaliator's foregrip, making the Retaliator a foregrip pump action blaster like the Rampage, but with a vertical magwell and without slam fire.

I am one of those people, although I performed the pump action mod in August 2013 rather than upon Elite release in 2012.