The development of the Sprout Rifle rounded out the Elegant Rage and gave the thorn-covered mech a chance to leverage her advantages at a distance.
To be honest, Ves did not expect the performance of the Sprout Rifle to be good at first. The weapon was largely based on improved ebony wood, so it was not weak by any means.
That did not change the fact that Ves had to develop the weapon in haste by making use of suboptimal materials and tech. The terrans could easily present the Elegant Rage with a first-class gauss rifle that vastly outperformed the Sprout Rifle in terms of size, mass, ammunition capacity, per-shot power, firing rate, interchangeability and overall efficiency.
That said, there was nothing stopping the mechers from upgrading the Sprout Rifle. Ves had already created a solid base that contained all of the essential elements. The materials, the technological implementations and even the appearance of the weapon could be changed.