There are a lot of weapons currently in the game, and with new updates bringing in more of them, it should come as no surprise that not all guns were created equal.
This article is up-to-date as of the release of the Freedom’s Flame premium war bond. We’ll keep it relevant as updates to the game shift the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
In this article, we’ll briefly go over all the weapons currently in the game and explain which of them are the most popular in the current Helldivers 2 weapons meta on high-difficulty missions. Without further ado, check out the best weapons in Helldivers 2.
Assault Rifles
The AR-61 Tenderizer in action.
Full Guide on: Assault Rifles in Helldivers 2
The AR-23 Liberator – A simple starting assault rifle that teaches new players the ins and outs of the game. Because of modest total damage reserves and moderate DPS, players will quickly graduate to greater or more specialized weapons.
The AR-23P Liberator Penetrator– Is a Liberator version that trades DPS for Medium armor penetration. Same total damage reserves as the regular version. A low tier weapon in dire need of a buff.
The AR-23C Liberator Concussive – This Liberator variant trades a large chunk of its fire rate for the ability to stagger targets. A powerful crowd control tool with some of the lowest DPS numbers in the game, best bring an actual weapon instead.
The AR-23A Liberator Carbine – The Carbine version of the Liberator has the same damage reserves but a much faster fire rate and increased recoil. This increase in DPS can keep Helldivers safe in close quarters combat, but comes at the expense of burning ammo reserves. A cut above the rest of the Liberators in an anti-bug role.
The BR-14 Adjudicator – A medium armor penetrating assault rifle that deals good damage per bullet and has solid damage output. This makes it decent-ish against both factions, however because of its awful recoil it usually ends up in an anti-bug role.
The AR-61 Tenderizer – An accurate all-rounder that deals the most damage per bullet of any assault rifle and has the highest DPS in this category. Its downsides are, once again, its damage reserves and lack of medium armor penetration. Hitting weak points reliably is a necessity to make this weapon work.
Conclusion: Assault rifles struggle to find their foothold in Helldivers 2 weapons meta on high difficulty missions. The Tenderizer is one of the best in this category thanks to a nice combo of accuracy and high damage output. The Adjudicator is kept relevant due to its medium armor penetration and reasonable damage output.
Shotguns
SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary spraying into the bugs.
Full Guide on: Shotguns in Helldivers 2
The SG-8 Punisher – A pump action shotgun which reloads one shell at a time and whose shells deal an impressive amount of damage per shot and can stun lock enemies through stagger. Solid 30k damage reserves, but modest DPS due to its slow fire rate. Decent, but its power starts to drop off the more targets there are on the screen.
The SG-8S Slugger – A modified version of the Punisher that fires medium-armor penetrating slugs. This makes it the only shotgun that can realistically deal with bots. A mid-tier, low-mid range anti automaton weapon.
The SG-451 Cookout – Is a Punisher variant that sacrifices damage output and total damage carried in reserves for incendiary pellets that can set enemies on fire. A solid weapon for clearing out swarms of low tier bugs. The combo of lowest durable damage among shotguns and lackluster DPS makes it anemic against larger bugs. If it weren’t for its potent mix of stagger and knock back, the Cookout would have been made entirely obsolete by the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary.
The SG-225 Breaker – An autoshotgun that has the highest damage output of any primary weapon. This insane DPS means it can take on even mid-tier bugs through sheer brute force despite only being light medium armor penetrating. It burns through ammo quickly and has to reload often. While a strong gun, these two things keep it from being a more common pick in high level missions.
The SG-225SP Breaker Spray & Pray – Is a Breaker variant that saturates the nearby area in birdshot. It has basically no accuracy past point-blank range, but with a large mag size and impressive 45k damage reserves, it can spam like no other weapon. One of the best guns for clearing swarms of low tier bugs.
The SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary – This Breaker variant fires incendiary ammo that sets enemies on fire. The nerf left it with 30k damage reserves, making it easy to run out of ammo, but the gun still deals an impressive 1200 DPS to keep you safe in close-quarters combat. Spray the swarm from one side to the other and watch the bugs burn. Still the strongest anti-Terminid gun in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
Conclusion: This will come as no surprise to anyone who has played the game recently (or at all), but when it comes to clearing large swarms of bugs, very few things come close to the Breaker Incendiary even after its frankly unnecessary nerf. This cements its place in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta. The Breaker Spray & Pray is a good weapon that fulfills the same role and is worth using if you lack access to the incendiary version. Shrieker patrols further increase the value of these guns, as both are excellent at quickly mopping them up.
SMGs in Helldivers 2
The SMG-72 Pummeler and Ballistic Shield combo going up against a Devastator.
Full Guide on: SMGs in Helldivers 2
The MP-98 Knight – Is a bullet hose with the fastest fire rate of any weapon in the game. This means impressive DPS numbers that keep the player safe in close range combat, but with only 20k in reserves, it can’t sustain such a performance for long. High recoil when in full auto mode, but can be used with some accuracy in burst mode. An OK weapon on its own, but it’s rarely seen in the field, as it’s outcompeted in its niche by other options.
The SMG-37 Defender – A simple SMG with solid 25k damage reserves. More damage per bullet lets it hit more breakpoints than the Liberator, such as 2-shotting Devastators. Lower fire rate makes for nonexistent recoil but also a similar DPS output to the Liberator. An unimpressive weapon rarely seen outside the Ballistic shield niche on Helldive difficulty.
The SMG-72 Pummeler – A Defender variant that trades DPS for the ability to stun targets. The stun is a unique effect similar to the stun grenades, though obviously far shorter. It fulfills the role of a support weapon in a player’s loadout. Its unique ability makes it the most commonly used SMG.
Conclusion: A category of low-range, lightweight, and somewhat inaccurate guns that can be wielded in one hand. Their one-handed trait means they can be used in conjunction with the Ballistic Shield stratagem, which gives them a niche to occupy. Honestly, a group of weapons that could really use some tweaks to give them an identity of their own. In the Helldivers 2 weapons meta, the Pummeler is the most commonly seen SMG on higher difficulties.
Explosive Weapons
JAR-5 Dominator vs Berserker.
Full Guide on: Explosive Weapons in Helldivers 2
The CB-9 Exploding Crossbow – Is a one-handed medium armor-penetrating explosive weapon whose damage is a mix of explosive AoE and projectile damage. This lets it have some crowd control, good medium-sized target removal as well as the utility of being an explosive weapon.(Destroying bug holes/fabricators/crates) It has a faster firing rate than the Eruptor which can result in faster kill times on some mid-sized targets, but it’s heavily limited by its low 5-round magazine and long full reload of almost 3.5 seconds.
The R-36 Eruptor – Similar story for the Eruptor, but its projectile and much larger explosion deal more damage. This is balanced by the lowest RoF of any primary at just 25, though very few non-heavy enemies can survive two shells from the gun. Its projectile is much easier to aim, but it automatically explodes after traveling 125 meters. Originally a great weapon, it has since been through a rollercoaster of buffs and nerfs, and now it’s just all right.
The JAR-5 Dominator – A heavy gun that handles like a brick when firing and can be annoying to use before the player adjust to its sluggish projectiles. But also, a single-target powerhouse whose medium armor penetrating bullets hit like a truck and deal enough stagger to keep targets stun locked. Near 30k damage reserves and almost auto-shotgun levels of DPS output. Bring a factory strider from full HP to 0 in 2 mags by shooting its stomach and laugh maniacally while doing it.
Conclusion: Interestingly enough, the guns on this list are all relevant in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta. The Crossbow and the Eruptor both bring a mix of crowd clear, medium-sized target removal and utility that ensure the player has an answer to most things on the battlefield. That being said, the Eruptor is considered the better weapon of the two. The Crossbow can fire faster, which leads to quicker kill times on some mid-sized bugs, but its extremely slow arcing projectile makes using it against bots a pain.
The Eruptor can deal with most things in a shell or two, making it more consistent on the battlefield, but extremely sluggish due to its low fire rate. The winner in this category is the far less fancy single-target powerhouse that is the JAR-5 Dominator. If the Breaker Incendiary is the king of bug missions, then the Dominator is the king of automaton missions. Unsurprisingly, the Jar-5 easily carves its place in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
Marksman Rifles
The R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper headshots a Heavy Devastator.
Full Guide on: Marksman Rifles in Helldivers 2
The R-63 Diligence – A light armor penetrating rifle with 25m/75m/150m zoom magnification options that deals 125 damage per shot. Projectiles are subject to damage falloff once they leave the barrel, and as such the Diligence can’t one shot devastators, limiting its use against the bots. It has a higher damage reserve, so it’s best used spammed against the bugs, but that is a scenario where a single target weapon is going up against a horde faction. An unimpressive weapon, in short.
The R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper – A medium armor penetrating rifle with 50m/100m/200m zoom magnification options that deals 140 damage per shot. The higher damage per shot lets it hit many breakpoints on small and medium-sized targets. A reasonable anti-automaton option for long-range sniping. In this role, it often finds itself in competition with the Anti-Materiel Rifle support weapon. It’s further limited by its pitiful ammo reserves.
Conclusion: A weapon category that could really use a buff to either damage or ammo reserves. The Counter Sniper finds itself in high-difficulty missions against the automatons sometimes. Not surprising since its long-range capabilities give it a niche in the current Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
Energy Weapons
PLAS-1 Scorcher going up against a Rocket Devastator.
Full Guide on: Energy Weapons in Helldivers 2
The LAS-5 Scythe – A very accurate but low-damage weapon that shoots a continuous laser beam at the enemy. The idea is that the Scythe is a laser scalpel that removes enemies with surgical precision. Despite the occasional flash of brilliance when chaining multiple headshots, in reality, its low-damage output and light armor pen make it a low-tier weapon. Infinite ammo if managing heat properly.
The ARC-12 Blitzer – A short-range energy shotgun with infinite ammo that fires bolts of electricity. A good anti-bug weapon, its performance is limited by its low fire rate. The main issue is the automatic targeting on the energy bolts, which require some finesse as well as proper movement to either make it work well or hit enemy weakpoints.
The LAS-16 Sickle – An energy assault rifle with an extremely large magazine capacity and infinite ammo if its heat is managed properly. Modest damage output and low damage per bullet, but it can keep firing for a long period of time. The spread is tight enough for low-mid ranged combat but as it’s decided by RNG, accuracy is achieved through volume of fire rather than skill. Considered to be the best assault rifle in the game by many a helldiver.
The PLAS-1 Scorcher – An accurate and easy-to-use rifle that fires bolts of superheated plasma which explode on contact. While it has no medium armor penetration, the explosion lets it deal damage to tank and cannon vents as well scout striders from the front. Solid damage per shot and damage output but somewhat modest ammo reserves. A versatile gun, but it’s still best used against the bots. Used to be the no 1 anti-automaton weapon before the JAR-5 Dominator knocked it down a place in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
The SG-8P Punisher Plasma – A Punisher shotgun variant turned into a plasma mortar. It can do the same things as the Scorcher, but as a mortar, it can fire from behind cover and hit targets from angles that would be impossible for other weapons. Its explosion is larger and can stun-lock enemies. The downside is its low fire rate, which makes killing mid-sized enemies a slower process. A reasonable gun that brings a lot of utility to automaton missions, but is one small buff away from greatness.
The PLAS-101 Purifier – A weapon that feels like a downgrade to the Scorcher. It’s a plasma weapon that can do all the things that a Scorcher can, but far slower while keeping you exposed for longer thanks to its charge-up mechanic. It deals more damage to compensate for this, but not enough to make this weapon worth using over the other plasma options.
Conclusion: Honestly, an interesting bunch. Most of them manage to find their place in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta. The Scythe and the Purifier are outclassed by better options and are rarely seen, if at all. The Blitzer has issues, but as a shotgun with infinite ammo it manages to find its place on high difficulty bug missions from time to time. The Sickle’s possibly infinite damage reserves have kept it loved by players and relevant in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta since its introduction. It’s better as an anti-bug gun, but some people bring it to automaton missions as well.
The Scorcher is a simple great weapon for use against both factions, though its modest reserves and the ability to kill scout striders from the front see it used in an anti-automaton role more commonly. The Punisher Plasma also remains relevant as a primarily anti-automaton weapon, functioning almost as a Scorcher spinoff that brings utility through AoE and stagger rather than direct damage (The introduction of the new scout strider variant has made it drop in popularity somewhat, however).
Special
The FLAM-66 Torcher, a primary flamethrower.
The FLAM-66 Torcher – A primary flamethrower whose low DPS, lack of stagger, and short range make it a high risk but low reward type of affair. Thanks to a generous fuel allotment and the ability to set the ground on fire it can actually kill an impressive amount of low tier bugs. Anything larger than that and you’re better off running.
Conclusion: The first (and currently only) weapon in this new category. The release of the flame-themed war bond was preceded by a change to flamethrower mechanics, resulting in a massive nerf to this weapon type. As a result, and despite the hype around their launch, this weapon type failed to make a splash in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
Secondary Weapons
The GP-31 Grenade Pistol taking out a bot fabricator.
Full Guide on: Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Pistol
The P-2 Peacemaker – The starting pistol. Like the Liberator, it’s a simple and reliable weapon that the player will eventually outgrow and move on to better or more specialized weapons.
The P-113 Verdict – A simple, reliable and reasonably accurate sidearm. It deals a good amount of damage per bullet, has good DPS, and it carries a high amount of total damage in its reserves for a secondary weapon. There’s nothing fancy about it, however, it’s just a big gun you carry around when you need a general-use secondary. Its biggest downside is that it only gets 50% of the ammo back from ammo sources.
The P-4 Senator – An accurate revolver whose rounds penetrate medium armor and deal a high amount of damage. Low DPS and pitiful ammo reserves. It only gets 50% of the ammo back from ammo sources, thus making its poor ammo economy worse. As a result, it’s imperative to go for weakpoints when wielding the Senator
The P-19 Redeemer – A somewhat inaccurate close-range bullet hose that acts as a panic button or brings some burst damage to a loadout. It deals 1100 DPS before running dry and comes with an average 9,3k total damage reserve. Another popular gun in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta.
Special
The GP-31 Grenade Pistol – A miniature grenade launcher that’s a decent weapon on its own, but its cling to fame in the Helldivers 2 weapons meta is the utility it brings to a loadout as an explosive weapon. The downside is its low ammo reserve of just 7 grenades. Ammo boxes return 2 grenades, while resupplies will give 4.
The LAS-7 Dagger – An anemic pistol that’s basically the miniature version of the Scythe, and therefore comes with all the problems its big brothers has. As a laser weapon, it can potentially have an infinite amount of ammo with proper heat management. This is its only good feature. Players use this gun to save primary or support weapon ammo.
The SG-22 Bushwhacker – A triple-barreled shotgun whose shells have very similar performance to those on the Punisher. It deals high damage per shot and comes with a mode that lets it unload all three barrels at once for a catastrophic burst of damage. Occupies the same role in a loadout as the Redeemer. It suffers from a long reload that leaves the player defenseless.
The P-72 Crisper – is a miniature flamethrower whose minimal DPS, lackluster range, tiny fuel allotment and lack of stagger make it usable only in a low tier bug removal role. It’s best used to ignite large swaths of terrain and then bait the bugs to pass through the flames. This way, it can clear more low tier bugs than any other secondary before running out of ammo.
Conclusion: Unlike primaries, which are workhorse weapons that often have to carry a lot of weight on their own, secondaries mostly exist to either round out a loadout or bring additional functionality to it. Because of this, what’s meta is less relevant in this category, as most players chose a secondary based on what they need to get the job done. In other words, so far most secondaries have managed to find their place, though this could be because there is far less competition in the secondary weapon slots compared to those in the primary. Still, when it comes to popularity, very few things beat the GP-31 Grenade Pistol at the time of writing.
Closing Thoughts on Helldivers 2 Weapons Meta
To keep this brief, the state of the Helldivers 2 weapons meta is one that we find puzzling because out of all the guns in this roster, very few of them are truly brilliant. This is a shame because in a game with low mechanical complexity like Helldivers 2, variety really is the spice of life. There are so many options to choose from, and most of them are actually fun to use, but they find themselves lacking either the damage or ammo reserves to make them a solid choice on high difficulty missions. As a result, the Helldivers 2 weapons meta has been a bit stale lately. It’s rare to see a Super Helldive difficulty mission that doesn’t have one or two Breaker Incendiaries for bug missions or a Dominator and Scorcher for bots.
It has become apparent that whatever vision the devs have for the game doesn’t align with that of the community. Whether intentionally or not, the devs have created a horde shooter, but they balanced the game as if it were still a tactical shooter. It’s true that a team of experienced Helldivers can beat the game’s hardest difficulty with any weapon. We know, we’ve done it, and so have plenty of others. The issue is that with so many weapons having either low effectiveness or low ammo reserves, dealing with enemies on higher difficulties becomes a tedious process. To the point where sometimes it’s just better to avoid engaging enemies altogether, which further lowers the fun factor for some people.
Image Credit: Arrowhead Game Studios.
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