How do Platinum Bullets Work in Enter the Gungeon?

Making bullets out of precious metal is a cool-sounding, but ultimately impractical process. Most precious metals aren’t dense enough to make good bullets, at least in real life. In Enter the Gungeon, though, if it sounds cool, that makes it stronger, and what’s cooler than pure platinum? So, how do Platinum Bullets work in Enter the Gungeon?

How do Platinum Bullets Work in Enter the Gungeon?

Platinum Bullets is a passive item you can randomly obtain in Enter the Gungeon after unlocking it from Ox and Cadence’s shop for 200 Hegemony Credits. When you first pick it up, it may seem like it doesn’t do anything besides give most of your weapons a shiny, silver sheen, but in actuality, it’s one of the best passive items in the game.

With Platinum Bullets, the strength and fire rate of all of your guns will start increasing for every enemy you successfully shoot for the duration of the run. These bonuses can go as high as triple your default damage and fire rate ratings which, combined with the right guns and skills, can make you an unstoppable juggernaut.

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The way it works is combo-based; for every cumulative second you sustain fire on an enemy, your stats will increase. So, for example, if you maintained 250 cumulative seconds of fire on enemies, assuming every shot hits, that would double the fire rate of your guns, while 500 cumulative seconds would double your damage. You won’t lose your bonus if your combo stops, you just won’t build any more bonuses until you start consistently hitting enemies again.

There are a few things you should remember when using Platinum Bullets. Firstly, to make your bonuses actually apply to your weapons, you need to swap to a different one. If you keep firing with a single weapon, you’ll still get bonuses, but they won’t actually apply until you use or pick up a different weapon. Secondly, weapons that fire sustained beams aren’t a great match for Platinum Bullets, as their weak individual shots don’t get much of a damage boost and the higher rate of fire just burns ammo faster. Lastly, if you drop the Platinum Bullets item for whatever reason, you’ll lose your bonuses, even if you pick it back up.

As a side note, if you have both the Face Melter weapon and Platinum Bullets, you’ll get the synergy Alternative Rock. This trades the Face Melter’s usual four streams of notes for two parallel, concentrated streams, and replaces the amplifier it drops on reload with a flying guitar pick that can stun enemies.