Beating Darkness levels in 20 Minutes Till Dawn requires a careful choice of three things: character, level-up upgrades, and weapon. Even though all three are important and define how your gameplay will look, weapons have a special place in that choice. If you’re wondering what’s the best fighter for you, you can head over to our 20 Minutes Till Dawn Character Tier List.
There are currently 11 weapons in the game that you can choose from. Most of them will need to be unlocked through purchase with in-game points that you earn by surviving in the darkness and some of them are unlocked by beating certain maps. Our 20 Minutes Till Dawn weapon tier list article will present what we believe are the best weapons but in the end, this often comes down to personal preferences and powerful combos that you can create.
S Tier
Dual SMGs
Dual SMGs are one of the best weapons in the game, not for their Bullet damage potential but for their effects potential. With this weapon you’ll get to fire 24 bullets with every magazine, creating a great opportunity to trigger Burn/Freeze/Lightning/Curse, and the more projectiles you manage to get the better it will be for your build.
So, don’t focus too much on getting Bullet damage. Instead, go for the Fire rate upgrades like Rapid Fire and Reload rate (alongside effects).
Batgun
The easiest way to describe Batgun is that it’s a weapon firing homing Summon bats that attack nearby enemies. This means it’s best to focus on getting more summons and boosting Summon damage.
Still, don’t overlook the obvious powerful Bullet damage buffs as well because Bats you’re firing scale with both Bullet and Summon damage.
A Tier
Crossbow
The Crossbow is a powerful weapon for those a bit more skilled in roguelikes. It can ammas plenty of damage that is then fired in a direction piercing everything in its path. Bonuses that increase your Bullet size like Big Shot are more than welcome with this weapon as it lets you get more enemies at once.
It can be paired up greatly with Luna, as her Black Hole can create some wonderful setups for the destructive shot.
Watering Gun
This is a weapon that confuses a lot of players because it’s played differently. Like with other weapons, you get a gun in your hands but with this gun, you shouldn’t aim at your enemies but at the plant flying around you instead. Every 5 shots the plant takes, it fires 7 spores that are sent flying around the map, hitting enemies.
To boost this effect, it’s best to pick up extra Summons like Magic Spear or Magic Scythe that will additionally damage the flower making it shoot more often. Buffing Summon damage is obvious here as it will allow you to completely dominate the map.
B Tier
Shotgun
The Shotgun is a great weapon when you’re careful with it. Since the weapon starts with 2 bullets only, you need to time your shots right so you don’t get attacked while reloading. Having said that, it means that you can benefit greatly from last ammo-fired effects like Fan Fire, Ice Shard or Holy Arts.
Try to boost your Reload speed and Fire rate with this weapon.
Revolver
When thinking about the best weapons in 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Revolver is a solid choice that lets you create a variety of builds. Its six-bullet magazine allows you to experiment with effects builds, Bullet damage builds, or Summon ones. An all-around reliable choice that doesn’t have any big advantages or disadvantages which is why it ended up in the middle of our list.
Magic Bow
Magic Bow is in B-tier because it can be a little bit tricky to play. First of all, the arrows you fire at enemies come back damaging them again, so you’ll need to calculate that when attacking (which is why we don’t recommend using auto-aim with this weapon).
On top of that, try and get Max ammo upgrades like Armed and Ready and Light Bullets so you have more arrows that will be flying around. On-hit effects apply both when you’re firing arrows at enemies and when they are coming back to you so they are great to have whenever possible.
C Tier
Grenade Launcher
In short, Grenade Launcher is a high-risk high-reward weapon as it is the only weapon that can kill you as well. It’s risky to pick up upgrades that give you extra projectiles that will fly around with this weapon as that will increase the chances of unexpected friendly fire. However, there is an upgrade from the boss drop that allows you to be immune to grenade damage but this only spawns sometimes so you can’t really count on it.
If you decide to go for the Grenade Launcher, try to upgrade your Movement speed and Bullet damage and tread lightly. Hina can be a great character to be paired with the Grenade Launcher as she can dash with her ability, saving you from potential self-harm.
Cyclone Sword
Cyclone Sword is a weapon that is not great and not terrible. Its starting damage output isn’t that great but its upside is that after you spend all your ammo, your character spins around dealing Bullet damage. This means that essentially you don’t have any downtime and are always attacking enemies.
Salvo Knife
Salvo Knife tracks enemies as you move and then lets you shoot precise projectiles at them. However, in order to get a perfect horde-clearing burst, you need to walk around without attacking anyone and let the tracking lock down on enemies. Then you can fire your whole magazine killing them. This doesn’t mean that this weapon is bad, but it is hard to play around that perfect timing.
D Tier
Flame Cannon
Flame Cannon is at the end of our list since it’s the weapon with which we struggled to most to win. The Burn effect that deals 3 damage per second that you automatically get with it doesn’t really do much on the battlefield as enemies won’t be dying for a while but instead running at you while burning. Later Darkness levels that upgrade enemy HP only make this worse.
This doesn’t mean that Flame Cannon is unplayable, but it’s definitely one of the hardest weapons to play with so if you want a challenge definitely try and pick it up.
Conclusion
All in all, every weapon has its weak side and its strengths so it has really been tough for us to rank them. As you can see in our 20 Minutes Till Dawn weapon tier list, some weapons give you an easier time while some others will make you grind and will put up quite a challenge in front of you.
If you’re a beginner we definitely advise you start with those simpler ones, and if you want some extra advice on how to play the game you can check that out in 20 Minutes Till Dawn Beginner’s Guide.
Photo credits: Erabit.
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