[@FrozenEcstasy] I may be understating the gradual nature of the lantern's effect. It's purely a drawback, meant to keep anyone that seeks its shelter from actually getting any rest. The average person will have a "Wow this sucks," reaction to it, and it takes a considerable amount of continuous exposure to have a profound effect. His lack of reaction to it (or perhaps being just so mad he's inundated to it) is meant to emphasize his detachment from humanity.

I'd personally choose the gun over the lantern if made to choose between the two. It represents him as a hunter foremost. Hunter of beasts, hunter of monsters, and if need be hunter of men. I'd say more than going it alone, his personality is better as sort of "live by the sword, die by the sword." Someone mentioned Dark Souls earlier in the thread, and I'm basically up front about my character being much more influenced by Bloodborne.

I'd like to bring up as well, since you sort of mentioned it, his "influence" on the setting. I'd almost intentionally make his influence practically negligible, to represent the futility of his struggle. Despite his fantastic tools and centuries of work, he's still only a single, lonesome man, and the world is no better for his efforts.