Helldivers 2: 10 Best Primary Weapons, Ranked

The many weapons of Helldivers 2 are meant to provide flexible playstyles, and niche builds against certain types of enemies. However, knowing what to take when requires game knowledge that most players won’t have at first. What weapons are worth unlocking with your precious medals? Which ones should you pass on?

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This is going to vary slightly based on your playstyle, but there are several clear favorites in terms of stats and versatility. Here are the top ten primary weapons in Helldivers 2, with a discussion of their statistics, playstyle, and missions that they are best for.

Helldivers 2

Franchise

Helldivers

Released

February 8, 2024

Developer(s)

Arrowhead Game Studios AB

10 The Slugger

High Damage But Short Range

The SG-85 Slugger is a shotgun found in the Helldivers Mobilize Warbond Page. This weapon boasts nearly the highest damage in the game, which is why it ranks on this list. However, the gun has some glaring weaknesses too.

The main weaknesses of this shotgun are its range, reload speed, and lack of armor penetration. Most Shotguns fall off at long range, but the Slugger struggles even at medium range, putting you in melee to deal damage. Additionally, you need to aim directly at weak spots since this gun cannot blow off or penetrate enemies with significant armor. The result? You’d have to be up close and personal with the business end of highly dangerous enemies to be effective. Even more unfortunate, you’ll be a sitting duck for some time as you reload each bullet individually.

9 The Liberator Penetrator

A Questionable Upgrade Until Armor Is Patched

The Liberator Penetrator is designed to be a direct upgrade to the default primary weapon, the Liberator, for higher difficulties. It sports much better armor penetration in exchange for losing some damage and magazine size. This could be a good trade-off in later patches, but bugs in the game at release make this “upgrade” questionable at best.

Armor currently does not function as intended, meaning that not only does your Armor not protect you as it should, but your guns don’t react to enemy armor effectively. The result is that the default Liberator performs just as well as the Liberator Penetrator against armored enemies, essentially removing this gun’s reason for existing. Still, considering that a fix is likely to come soon and that it is still miles for effective than most shotguns, there might be hope for the Penetrator yet.

8 The Jar-5 Dominator

If You Enjoy High Risk, High Reward

The Jar-5 Dominator is a weapon designed for players who want a big impact and don’t mind a little risk. Like the Slugger, the Jar-5 quickly starts to fall off at range. However, it makes up for it with a significantly faster reload, lower recoil, much higher fire rate, and medium armorpenetration.

This results in a weapon that plays like a good shotgun should. Potentially devastating in the right hands but a bit risky against melee attackers like the Charger or Berserker. Pair it with a longer-range support weapon so you don’t feel useless at range, and enjoy the firepower.

7 The Scorcher

Explosive, energy-based, Niche Effectiveness

The Plas-1 Scorcher is an energy-based weapon similar to the Scythe but has a magazine instead of a heat mechanic. If you like the idea of the Liberator Penetrator but need something to deal with armor better, this might be the gun for you – many of the Scorchers’ statistics are similar to the Liberator Penetrator, but it can blow off enemy armor as well.

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However, while it does its job quite effectively and is by far the best energy-based weapon in the game, the Scorcher is held back by its small magazine size. It won’t be able to deal with swarms well because of how often you need to reload, and it’s crucial to take a gun for smaller enemies such as the Stalwart or P-19 Redeemer.

6 The Liberator

A Solid All-Rounder For Early Game

The AR-23 Liberator is the weapon every Helldiver receives at the start of the game. As the default weapon, this gun is tuned for early gameplay. Lacking any interesting properties or significant armor penetration, the Liberator no less has enough of the standard statistics to deal with most enemies.

Among other things, the capacity of the magazine is high while the recoil is low. This allows you to take out large numbers of enemies with some accuracy without having to reload. While the damage isn’t great, it’s often enough to down small enemies such as Scavengers. For bigger enemies, the gun has a high enough fire rate that you can put a whole clip into larger enemies quickly.

5 The Diligence Counter Sniper

Scratch Your Sniping Itch Here

The R-63 CS Diligence Counter Sniper is a marksman rifle often used in the Sniper loadout. This gun hits hard, and aims precisely even at long range, but has a recoil out of this world as a trade-off. To reduce that recoil, it’s advised to use the gun while crouching or prone. You can also wear an armor that gives recoil reduction.

The precision of the Diligence Counter Sniper takes significant skill to use, so it’s not going to be the most popular weapon, but it will likely maintain a cult following. When used well, you can take out larger enemies from a great distance by lining up on their weak spots. This is especially effective against Automatons, whose hitboxes reward precision above all.

4 The Liberator Explosive

Even though the Liberator Penetrator is meant to be the Liberator’s late-game upgrade, the current heir to the throne is the AR-23E Liberator Explosive. This gun maintains the base gun’s damage while also having explosive ammo to knock off the armor. In exchange, the magazine capacity and fire rate both fall slightly, but this doesn’t feel overwhelmingly weaker than the standard counterpart during gameplay.

Unfortunately, this gun is found only in the premium Steeled Veterans Warbond, so you’ll need to either have the Super Citizen version of the game or buy the premium Warbond with Super Credits to get your hands on it. Gathering Super Credits can be a bit of a hassle.

3 The Breaker Incendiary

Not The Best Breaker, But The Flashiest

Along with the Liberator Explosive, you’ll find the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary on the Premium Steeled Veterans Warbond. Unlike The Liberator Explosive, this gun isn’t an upgrade over its counterpart in terms of raw numbers. It is, however, loads of fun to use and not a bad gun.

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Whenever you shoot the Breaker Incendiary, fiery trails follow the bullet spread of this shotgun, and light enemies hit on fire for DoT. To balance this additional fire damage, the base damage of the gun has been substantially reduced over the base Breaker. The magazine capacity in the Incendiary Breaker nearly doubles, however, and all other statistics remain consistent.

2 The SMG Defender

The Bread & Butter SMG Weapon

The SMG-37 Defender is one of only two SMG Primary Weapons currently available, but it fills that role swimmingly. With a mighty fire rate, huge magazine size, and nearly no recoil, you can count on this weapon to mow down enemies with accuracy at mid-to-close range. In addition, the high-powered rounds the gun utilizes give it higher damage per second than either the Liberator or the Knight.

As a cool side bonus, this primary weapon can be used one-handedly. A rare quality, this means that you can continue using it even when carrying a quest item such as an SSD. If playing in a coordinated squad, it is worth designating someone to transport these quest items in advance, so they can bring this gun on the mission.

1 The Breaker Shotgun

Head & Shoulders Above The Rest

The SG-225 Breaker Shotgun is almost universally considered the best gun in the game’s current state. This is due to its high damage, high fire rate, and surprisingly good range for a shotgun. In fact, most of the games‘ best builds use the Breaker in some combination, often with the Railgun.

Once the armor in Helldivers 2 has been patched to work as intended, we might see the Breaker lose its meta dominance. The Breaker should struggle against armored targets very badly (it doesn’t have medium armor penetration). However, players don’t see that in their games because of the armor bugs. Hopefully, to keep builds fresh and varied, the developers buff up other weapons and make this fix soon.

To learn about unlocking these fantastic weapons, try our articles on how to get the P-19 Redeemer and how to acquire new guns.

NEXT

Helldivers 2: 10 Best Defensive Stratagems, Ranked

With so many Defensive Stratagems to choose from, a meta is inevitable. Read about which ones you should be taking on your next operation!