Current state of crossbows

[Sanger]

I recently loaded up my old crossbow character to see how it fared in the game's current build, and was surprised by how effective it was, in fact I've been breezing through most of the game with it. Crossbows seem much, much better than they used to be and much stronger than e.g. chemical/energy pistols presently are. Anyone played all the way through with crossbows in recent builds who can tell me whether their old foes are still nigh undefeatable? I've had some trouble already with bladelings/dreadnoughts (which I was nonetheless able to brute force my way past by machinegunning shock bolts), but I'm interested in whether industrial bots/deep worms and particularly the big bad are still as much of a brick wall for crossbows as they once were, or if they're now easier to overcome.

[DemoneNero]

Since elemental bolts can hit critically you can deal huge electric/heat/acid damage, deadly snares gives you always a critical hit (except for npcs immune to critical hits), bowyer gives you better criticals. Bladelings if I recall are immune to criticals, poison and hypertoxicity work great anyway

[MirddinEmris]

Since elemental bolts can hit critically you can deal huge electric/heat/acid damage, deadly snares gives you always a critical hit (except for npcs immunt to critical hits), bowyer gives you better criticals. Bladelings if I recall are immune to criticals, poison and hypertoxicity work great anyway

Bladelings are not immune to critical. Though if you are not using elemental bolts or poison, it won't do you a lot of good due to their insane mechanical resistance.

[Tygrende]

Bladelings are not immune to critical.

I'm fairly sure both blade and shroomlings are immune to criticals, meaning they are converted to regular hits.

[Sanger]

They are immune to criticals, all psimorphs are. I found them annoying to deal with using a crossbow, but not so much that I regretted not taking Hypertoxicity, or even felt as though I needed to switch strategies. No doubt it would've been quicker to kill them with acid or burrower poison.

[DemoneNero]

Yes, I prefer to avoid hypertoxicity since there are better traits, poisoned traps are great to kill them even without that trait

[Fenix]

Bladelings dying fast without Hypertoxity, with usual burrower poison arrows.
Otherwise - Elemental Bolts is a king.

[Sanger]

Just slaughtered my way through the end game. Much fun. Crossbows are in a pretty good place now, I think. Not so overpowered as a burst-happy SMG or AR build, but so much more potential strategy and the ability to just cut multiple soft targets down in a single round from stealth is pretty glorious.

[harperfan7]

I recently loaded up my old crossbow character to see how it fared in the game's current build, and was surprised by how effective it was, in fact I've been breezing through most of the game with it. Crossbows seem much, much better than they used to be and much stronger than e.g. chemical/energy pistols presently are. Anyone played all the way through with crossbows in recent builds who can tell me whether their old foes are still nigh undefeatable? I've had some trouble already with bladelings/dreadnoughts (which I was nonetheless able to brute force my way past by machinegunning shock bolts), but I'm interested in whether industrial bots/deep worms and particularly the big bad are still as much of a brick wall for crossbows as they once were, or if they're now easier to overcome.

I recently played through as a sneaky crossbow sniper with traps and throwing.  Rathound King was tough for me, until I found a trick.  Bladelings just require bear traps, molotovs (I think), burrower poison bolts, aimed shots, snipes, gas grenades, etc, and patience; basically you just need to keep them tied up and lay down either very high amounts of physical damage or other types of damage.  Never fought a dreadnought.  Industrial bots are too slow to be dangerous; snipes/aimed shots and shock bolts/emp grenades/mines worked for me.  Deep worms are not tough at all; just snipe and aimed shot and you're done. 

The enemies that gave me the most trouble were other crossbow users (because they're often stealthed and can spot/disable traps) and psi users who I either didn't see or otherwise got to me unexpectedly, because I had no real defense against psi.