Recent updates

March 14, 2024: We added the LAS-16 Sickle and the SG-8P Punisher Plasma from the new Cutting Edge Warbond to our list.

Puzzling out the best Helldivers 2 weapons is a trial-and-error process. While you have Stratagems that’ll let you call down heavy weapons, there are also lots of primaries to pick from when sorting your character’s loadout. As you progress through the game and gather Medals, you’ll be able to unlock even more guns in the Warbond, including assault rifles, shotguns, and even energy weapons.

Some of these are really good, and some of them, well, they’re not worth the effort or the Medals it’ll cost you to claim them. Here I’ve laid out my rankings for the best weapons in Helldivers 2. Since there are now also two premium Warbonds in the game—Steeled Veterans and Cutting Edge—I’ve ranked those guns as well and have marked each with SV or CE to show which they come from.

Helldivers 2 best weapons tier list

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S-tier

JAR-5 Dominator (Steeled Veterans)

Imagine your SG-225 Breaker now penetrates medium armour and deals explosive damage. That’s it, that’s the gun. The JAR-5 Dominator is the best weapon in the Premium Warbond and arguably one of the best in the game, with high-damage, plenty of ammo, and that weirdly precise shotgun damage cone that lets you pick off enemies a little further away. The JAR-5 is also fantastic for headshotting enemies with its scope and it can pop most bug or bot heads with a single blast.

SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary (Steeled Veterans)

The SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary isn’t quite as strong as the JAR-5 Dominator, but it serves a different purpose in spreading fire amongst groups of enemies and damaging them over time. This gun has the same wide projectile spread as the SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray, but the key difference here is that every projectile sets enemies on fire. This can be very strong when you’re moving and firing, blasting into tightly packed groups of enemies, then repositioning as the fire damages them over time. Since it loads clips and fires fast, too, you can also effectively blast any enemies that get up close. It’s worth noting that while this gun is one of the best against bugs, it isn’t so great vs. bots.

SG-225 Breaker

Why are shotguns one of the best precision weapons in the game? I couldn’t tell you. While the SG-8 Punisher struggles in high-pressure situations because of its limited ammo and single slug reload, the SG-225 Breaker is perfect for them. This shotgun retains the weirdly long range of the other so you can pick off enemies, but since it reloads clips and fires full auto, you can let loose when you’re getting mobbed. It also just deals a massive amount of damage and is available midway through the regular Warbond vs. most of the other really good weapons.

P-19 Redeemer

Though there are only two base secondary weapons in the game, the best is undoubtedly the P-19 Redeemer. It doesn’t hold many rounds, but it does so much burst damage that it’s the perfect weapon to whip out when you’re in a bad spot. Like the primary SMGs, it also makes an effective weapon for when you’re carrying an objective in your other hand.

A-tier

LAS-16 Sickle (Cutting Edge)

The LAS-16 Sickle is a hell of a lot better than its LAS-5 Scythe counterpart. This energy weapon is more like a Liberator assault rifle that trades infinite ammo for a few drawbacks, namely, that it has to charge a bit before firing and that it can overheat. On a damage basis, however, it’s as good as the AR-23 Liberator.

While I wouldn’t recommend this gun for bugs—the delay before firing is very annoying when you’re getting swarmed—I wholeheartedly recommend it for bots, where a lot of its disadvantages don’t really matter. If you’re going to bring the AR-23 Liberator to an Automaton mission, I’d simply bring this gun instead now for better ammo efficiency and much the same result.

SG-8P Punisher Plasma (Cutting Edge)

Hey, want a primary weapon that’s also a grenade launcher… kind of? The SG-8P Punisher Plasma is a weird gun; an energy shotgun that fires an explosive ball of plasma in a downward arc similar to the grenade launcher. This deals AoE damage and momentarily stuns nearby enemies, making it an effective tool against swarms and troublesome foes when used in co-ordination with your team—especially as direct hits with the ball also do good damage.

I’d recommend this gun for bots more than bugs, since it’s incredible at flinching all of the really annoying Automaton enemy types and can even take out Scout Striders with a frontal hit as with the grenade launcher. It’ll also stop a group of berserkers in their tracks or prevent a rocket devastator from blasting you. The only downsides to the SG-8P are its pitiful mag size meaning frequent reloads and, since it fires slow moving balls, hitting individual targets. Also, be warned: this gun can hurt you and your squadmates since it’s explosive.

This weapon is definitely strong, but I think it’ll require a close-knit squad of players to really bring out the maximum benefit of its AoE stun potential for the team.

AR-23P Liberator Penetrator

It may have less stopping power than the basic assault rifle variant, but this gun can be pretty useful, and that’s down to its ability to pierce medium armour. Its clip might be a little on the lighter side, but it can shoot through just about any armoured bug, and is fairly effective against robots. Save shooting a Charger in the face, it can pierce their leg armour, and it also has very good range.

R-63 Diligence and R-63 Diligence Counter Sniper

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Considering you don’t generally want enemies to get close to you in Helldivers 2, it makes sense that the marksman rifles would both be pretty strong. Of the two, my personal favourite is the Counter Sniper, which trades some of the basic version’s ammo in exchange for superior stopping power. It also fires single rounds instead of a burst.

AR-23 Liberator and AR-23E Liberator Explosive (Steeled Veterans)

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The standard Helldivers 2 assault rifle has exactly what you need—decent damage, range, and ammo capacity. It’s not going to win any competitions for being the absolute best, but if you’re looking for a reliable primary and don’t like swapping weapons lots, it’ll get the job done. If you switch to first-person aiming mode, it also has a scope with a handy targeting crosshair.

You can also unlock the explosive version of this assault rifle in the Premium Warbond, though I wouldn’t say it’s significantly better. While it deals more damage and is slower firing, its recoil is tough to handle, which makes it hard to use as more of a precision weapon. Still, it’s strong enough and offers a different playstyle variant of the original gun.

SMG-37 Defender

The better of Helldivers 2’s SMGs is so good because… well, it’s more like an assault rifle. The SMG-37 Defender has better range, recoil, and a slower firing rate than its MP-98 cousin, but offers slightly higher damage than, say, your Liberator assault rifle. Due to that slow firing rate, it also doesn’t eat through your ammo the way that the Knight does. If you’re looking for a slightly more close-range focused weapon that still performs decently at mid-distance, you should try this out.

B-tier

PLAS-1 Scorcher

The PLAS-1 Scorcher is the hardest gun to unlock in Helldivers 2, requiring you to get to the final page of the regular Warbond and spend a tonne of medals. Is it worth it? Not really. The main benefit of the PLAS-1 Scorcher is that it causes a small explosive effect that can stun enemies, but I feel like stunning is ultimately less ideal than just bringing a gun like the SG-225 Breaker to kill them instead. In terms of the way it shoots, it feels like a far worse version of the JAR-5 Dominator, with less damage and not much ammo to work with. While it’s nice to have lots of weapon options, this is definitely not a priority to unlock or spend your valuable medals on.

SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray

The problem with the S-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray is that it lacks the single target damage of the gun’s regular variant, as well as the burning effect of the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary, making it less worthwhile in both cases of tackling single targets and dealing with groups. That said, you might not have the Premium Warbond to get the incendiary version. While I’d recommend both of the other versions above this, if you want a gun for mowing down swarms of standard bugs, this’ll at least do that much.

MP-98 Knight

The MP-98 Knight has everything you’d expect from an SMG; high damage at close range, fast-fire rate, and little to no long-range accuracy. The problem is Helldivers 2 is the kind of game where you don’t want to be close to enemies—if you are close to enemies, you should get away from them. A secondary like the P-19 Redeemer is all the SMG you need, i.e. it’ll let you quickly blast everything that got too close so you can back away. Having a main weapon that only performs at close range necessitates a dangerous playstyle that’ll get you killed lots on higher difficulties.

SG-8 Punisher and SG-8S Slugger

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As mentioned above, the problem with the SG-8 Punisher is that it doesn’t fulfil the role you want from a shotgun, i.e. hip-firing to blast enemies that are up close. Due to its weirdly precise damage cone, you often have to aim at close range if you don’t want to shoot right past the enemy you’re targeting. It also eats through its ammo very quickly and has a slow shot-by-shot reload. All in all, definitely the worst of the two shotguns you unlock early.

You can also grab the SG-8S Slugger variant of this gun later in the Warbond, but my advice? Don’t. This weapon makes zero sense to me; it apparently fires higher damage slug rounds, but it actually deals less damage than the original version stat wise. It might have made sense if this was a medium armour penetrating gun, but since it isn’t, I’d spend your Medals on something better.

P-2 Peacemaker

The standard Helldivers 2 sidearm is alright—certainly a lot better than the incredibly slow-loading revolver in the premium Warbond. However, it doesn’t fulfil a focused role in the same way that the P-19 Redeemer does in getting you out of sticky situations. The P-2 Peacemaker is essentially a gun for finishing off an enemy coming at you when your primary is dry, and it does that just fine.

C-tier

LAS-5 Scythe

This energy primary weapon is a confusing gun. The concept seems to be you trade lower damage for potentially unlimited ammo, provided you wait for it to cool down after you’ve fired the beam. The problem is this just doesn’t work on mid-to-higher difficulties since you need to be firing lots in order to stay alive. And if you’re not waiting for its cooldown, meaning you’re reloading its heatsinks as you would with a magazine gun, what’s the point?

You may as well just bring a gun with actual bullets and decent damage rather than trying to play into the gimmick of this one. It’s not like ammo is the biggest issue for primaries when you can find it in the world and Supply Packs exist.

P-4 Senator (Steeled Veterans)

Besides looking kind of cool, the P-4 Senator is the worst weapon in the Premium Warbond. Its super slow reload might be justifiable if it penetrated medium armour and did a lot more damage so you could pull it out as a last resort, but as it stands, it’s hard to choose this sidearm over the far more reliable P-19 Redeemer and P-2 Peacemaker.

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