[quote=Sage]
[u]No mention of what they were firing was even made,[/u] but I wanted you to assume ballistic rounds. These gangsters can't come into contact with actual military - remember, they were more of an all show gang, like the one publicized by mass media. Because of this, they could only get this basic shit made. And yes, Iktomi is OP as hell, but that's because I let him be. These Blood Saints aren't all that dude... the small GM squad wiped out like all of them without losing anyone, until they got to the boss kages.EDIT: For BBeast, hell yes, there are guns that shoot fire lightning and what not. In fact, that's the majority of the military's weaponry. They have plasma rifles.
[/quote]

Really? Did you read the collab?
[quote]...
It was only moments after his exclamation that a wave of bullets pelted the ground around them from above. The gangsters wielded a variety of guns - from handguns and revolvers to sub machine guns and shotguns. As the bullets rained upon the squad,
...
The two others closed in, but Kisheto dove in front of Hector, taking two bullets to his upper back and a single bullet to his lower left abdomen.
...
The Saints were pushed back, and two of them were thrust backwards as their bodies met with a wave of bullets.
...
In response, the mercenaries, who had three grenade launchers prepared, fired off one round of their explosive weapons and caused the entire wall to explode into a mess of debris. The second the grenades made contact,
...
and they began unleashing a spray of bullets upon the men who were focusing on Julian.
...
Iktomi's body twisted and turned as he darted along the walls, bullets flying all around him.
...
As he did this, the two Golden Mercenaries fired off the last of their current magazine's rounds,
...
as the Golden Mercenary tried to spin into his deflected attack, he was met with a burst of bullets that ran up his spine,
...[/quote]
I think the collab explicitly states that both sides used bullets, and absolutely no mention of other firearms (aside from the RPGs).

The argument for core guns being exclusive to the military while the gangs have to use the "basic" guns is unfounded. It is much easier to build a core gun, a length of pipe with a core in one end, a trigger mechanism and a stock to hold it, than it is to build a ballistic firearm, which is quite complex as it requires many moving parts. Zachary's primary weapon, as you've seen, is a wind cannon. It is little more than a length of pipe with a wind core in one end and a means to activate it. The only moving part is the trigger, and the most complicated part is the power supply (a battery and some capacitors to make it come out as a strong pulse). A conventional gun, on the other hand, has many moving parts which have to line up exactly or it will jam, especially in an automatic weapon. The only way around that is to use a musket or similar weapon instead, which again has no moving parts other than the trigger but at the cost of a very long manual reload time.

By your logic, that the gangs can't get the good weapons, means that they'll be stuck with the core weapons (simple core weapons, of course) while military will be the only ones with access to assault rifles and RPGs. The Golden Mercenaries are like the military, so there's no problem with their kit, but you must be careful to not break the world you have made.