Weapon damage ever get better?

I have the first bolt action sniper rifle Deadbolt that has a damage of 1271, and a FRC Bolt Action Repeater with an EGO rating of 164 with the same 1271 damage. My question is does weapon damage ever get better on new equipment?

I ask this because I'm currently doing missions out of Shondu's Consulate and getting multiple Hellbug Monarchs at my side mission locations (not a random arkfall). It took me every last drop of ammo in my weapon to clear the trash and take down 1 of the monarchs.

Hell I've had a basic raider rifleman take 3 shots from an 808 damage rocket launcher and still be alive. This seems pretty ridiculous and may be one helluva deal breaker.

First off, consider the fact that 164 is closer to level 16 in other mmos. Secondly, they stated that the goal of the game was for people to always be competitive, regardless of what level they were. So you probably won't one shot kill without reaching a much higher level. Plus, damage might always be relative, the guns just get better in other aspects.

Designers have stated that you can play solo.. They've also stated that you will be better off in a group.

on another note, how are you fighting the Monarchs? I can kill it with my alien magnum thing no problem, and I'm doing crits of 904...

I gave up on rocket launchers. Grenade launchers seem to be much better in terms of magazine size and ammo.
Also, keep multiple weapons. This allows you to switch for another when you've run out of one type of ammo. Very useful.

Killing a Monarch isn't hard just time consuming. Keep dodging until it does its roll attack then shoot it in the soft spot on its ***.

I just made a new survivalist character to see what the tutorial sniper rifle is like. EXACT same damage as the crap Ive gotten at 164. I'm not asking to 1 shot stuff but making the solo content solo-able without being a terrible grind would be nice.

The only guns I don't keep on me are LMG's because the damage/fire rate is terrible.

ego1000 weapon is almost the same as ego10.

For weak weapons say "thanks!" to PvP balance.

Use infectors on bosses and elite mobs, assault rifles on others.

Crit from sniper rifle can go up to 4.5k on standard mobs.

Shoot yellow spots on all mobs. Like hellbugs' mouths and arsoles.

The reasoning behind the weapons not becoming "Uber Powerful" as you progress through the game lies with the fact that this really isn't a progression-based MMORPG. Defiance is a co-op shooter and introducing incredibly powerful weapons would take away from the overall game experience. Weapons, coupled with the Ego Point system, you can make some really powerful builds to utilize every bit of power from even the "weakest" weapons in the game.

Defiance, being a shooter, is inherently focused on pvp and player balance through that avenue. There are PvE elements added to the game for those who prefer that type of experience, but even the genre of the game itself is pvp focused from birth. That being said, because there are non-pvp elements added, so you can enjoy those instead if you prefer them over the pvp aspects of the game.

For weapons itemization and balancing, PvP is probably used more because that's going to be the "end-game" (between seasons/episodes/events). There are no tiered raids or PvE content so balancing weapons for PvE isn't required.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful :)