What is the most advantageous starting equipment for the Magicka: Vietnam rescue mission?

Solution 1:

The Patriot Staff is pretty much objectively the best choice. The grenades do decent damage, and you can even push them closer to your enemies (by casting empty). All other starting staves aren't all that useful.

• The Basic Staff has no bonus at all, of course, so it's disqualified.

• The Staff +1's attack bonus is laughably low (literally doing just 1 extra damage), and it provides no other advantages.

• The Bug Staff's active ability is pretty much useless in any context. The summoned bugs do low damage, can get in your and your teammates' way (damaging you), have a short summoning reach and are very slow. It's doubly useless in the Vietnam DLC, where all the enemies use ranged attacks.

• In terms of general usefulness, the Staff of Endurance would come in at a close second; however, if there's one thing you're not up against in the Rescue Mission, it's elemental effects.