Helldivers 2: The Best Secondaries, Ranked

Highlights

Secondary weapons like P-19 Redeemer can provide a crucial advantage in Helldivers 2 for dealing with various enemies effectively.
The GP-31 Grenade Pistol offers a unique ability to break structures, making it more versatile than other secondary weapons available.
Selecting the right secondary weapon can enhance your loadout, complement your primary weapon, and add flexibility to your overall tactics.

Super Earth provides many tools for us in Helldivers 2, allowing players to call in everything from a flamethrower to a heavily armed Mecha and all the way up to a tactical nuke. Seasoned divers know that drop equipment is just as important as the stratagems, making selecting the best secondary weapon an important consideration before deploying to help spread managed democracy to all the worlds of the known universe.

A grid showing three different scenarios in Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2: 7 Underrated Stratagems That Are A Lot Of Fun

Certain stratagems tend to fly under the radar in Helldivers 2. Players should give these examples a shot since they’re so much fun to use!

While having the best secondary weapon is a less pressing concern to the average Helldiver than what primary weapon will serve them best, choosing the right secondary weapon can supplement a loadout or fill out a particular niche need, enabling the use of different weapons, stratagems, and overall tactics. It’s basically certain that more sidearms will be coming in future premium Warbonds, but at present Helldivers can choose from five options in total.

5 P-2 Peacemaker

Old Reliable

Helldivers 2 P-2 peacemaker secondary weapon

Damage: 60
Capacity: 15
Recoil: 23
Fire Rate: 900
Cost: Free for everyone

The P-2 Peacemaker is the classic sidearm available to all Helldivers immediately from the tutorial and onwards. It offers a reliable blend of decent damage, solid capacity, and low recoil, making it a decent sidearm to take while spreading Managed Democracy if not convinced by any other options.

That doesn’t mean it is without flaws, as the Peacemaker is typically totally replaced by the P-19 Redeemer as soon as possible, given the latter has access to an alternative fire mode that operates similarly to how the Peacemaker behaves. This leaves the peacemaker in an odd spot as one of the few weapons with a direct upgrade available to it.

4 LAS-7 Dagger

Lightweight And Always On

Helldivers 2 Las-7 Dagger secondary weapon

Damage: 150 (/sec)
Fire Limit: 5 Seconds (Beam weapon)
Recoil: 1
Cost: 60 Medals (290 total)

The LAS-7 Dagger can seem a bit underwhelming at first. This isn’t helped by the requirement for a deep dive to page three of the Cutting Edge Premium Warbond to even access it in the first place. It takes around a second to dispatch basic enemies due to its nature as a laser beam weapon, which may be off-putting for some.

Three Icons For Boosters In Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2: All Boosters, Ranked

Boosters are passive buffs to different traits that Helldivers have. Some are universally useful while others are only helpful in specific situations.

Being a beam weapon does have its own benefits, however. It’ll always have a charge ready for use on demand, provided it isn’t left overheated, allowing hot swaps to it and back without worry or any reloading involved. The dagger comes with 3 fresh charges for when it does overheat, allowing Helldivers a few mistakes with the timing. Due to this, it makes a good sidearm to handle the occasional smaller nuisance enemies such as the exploding jump pack bots, but Helldivers looking for firepower are best served looking elsewhere. Particularly considering the medal cost involved will likely need a few completed major orders to afford.

3 P-4 Senator

Hard-hitting Hand Cannon

Helldivers 2 P-4 Senator secondary weapon

Damage: 150
Capacity: 6
Recoil: 43
Fire Rate: 200
Cost: 15 Medals

The P-4 Senator is a revolver-style sidearm and packs a hefty punch. Capable of knocking down medium-sized enemies like Automaton Devastators or Berserkers with one neat shot, it makes for a good short-range answer to some mid-sized enemies when a primary weapon runs dry.

On the flip side, the Senator struggles with limited capacity, meaning each and every shot counts. This is further compounded by being a round-reload property weapon, which means it has to be reloaded bullet by bullet, making it less desirable for any extended firefights. The popularity of shotguns in Helldivers 2 thus far hasn’t helped the Senator either, as it has mostly overlapping use cases, leaving it a rare pick in many loadouts.

2 P-19 Redeemer

Strongest Classic Sidearm

Damage: 60
Capacity: 31
Recoil: 11
Fire Rate: 1100
Cost: 5 Medals (13 total)

The P-19 Redeemer is the first fully automatic traditional sidearm available in Helldivers 2. It’s also the first secondary weapon that packs an alternative fire mode, which is accessed by holding the reload button. While fully automatic by default, it can be toggled into a state similar to the Peacemaker, allowing a few more precise shots than the automatic mode would permit.

A grid showing n explosion, a dead Helldiver, and a Hellpod in Helldivers 2

8 Funniest Ways To Die In Helldivers 2

There are a lot of ways to die in Helldivers 2. Some of them, however, are just downright hilarious.

Between the more precise mode and the fully automatic one, the Redeemer is easily leading the pack of all classic Helldivers sidearms. It’s equally capable of handling a small horde of bugs, as it is at dropping mid-sized automatons like Devastators or Berserkers whenever they get too close for comfort. Unlike other sidearms, getting the Redeemer couldn’t be easier, requiring only 5 medals to purchase and accessible as early as page two of the Helldivers Mobilize standard Warbond. With all the value this sidearm brings as an upgrade over the Peacemaker, it makes a great choice for a standard issue secondary weapon going forward. It even features in our best Automaton loadout guide!

1 GP-31 Grenade Pistol

Liberating Helldiver Loadouts

Damage: 600
Capacity: 1
Recoil: 43
Fire Rate: 900
Cost: 60 Medals (290 total)

The latest addition to the Helldivers secondary weapon arsenal and only special sidearm thus far, the GP-31 Grenade Pistol from the Democratic Detonation premium Warbond is already a stand-out. This pistol packs a punch, coming in as the hardest-hitting secondary weapon available in Helldivers 2 which makes it a strong contender outright. However, unlike the rest of the secondary weapons available, the GP-31 offers a unique advantage that other sidearms lack, making it more than a simple backup tool to kill bots and bugs.

The GP-31 Grenade Pistol flings a grenade when fired, giving it the unique advantage of being able to break structures for secondary objectives without using stratagems or actual grenades. For a secondary weapon, this is a major advantage, and bringing along the GP-31 unlocks flexibility, as the secondary slot becomes a dedicated building-breaker. This, in turn, increases the viability of other options, such as running grenades that don’t deal damage, but that will stun enemies, or using stratagems with more firepower and a longer cooldown that otherwise might have been avoided.