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EDF 5 Comprehensive (ONLINE!) Weapon Meta Guide and Tier List
By gamadaya
Your one-stop-shop for answering the question "Is (INSERT WEAPON NAME HERE) good?" This guide will tell you that and more.
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Created by
gamadaya
Offline
Category: Classes, Co-op, Multiplayer, Weapons
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
15 Dec, 2023 @ 3:25pm
12 Jul @ 9:22pm
5,355 Unique Visitors
264 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Intro
 
Ranger
 
Assault Rifles 
Shotguns 
Sniper Rifles 
Rocket Launchers 
Missile Launchers 
Grenades 
Special 
Support Equipment 
Tanks 
Helicopters 
Bikes 
Wing Diver
 
Short-Range 
Dragoon Lances (yeah, they get their own section). 
Mid-Range Kinetic Weapons 
Mid-Range Engergy Weapons 
Mid-Range Pulse Weapons 
Long-Range 
Ranged Weapons 
Homing Weapons 
Special 
Plasma Cores 
Air Raider
 
Artillery Units 
Gunships 
Bombers 
Missiles 
Satellites 
Limpet Guns 
Stationary Weapons 
Support Equipment 
Special 
Tanks 
Ground Vehicles 
Helicopters 
Powered Exoskeletons 
Powered Exoskeletons (continued) 
Special Vehicles 
Fencer
 
CC Strikers 
CC Strikers (continued) 
CC Piercers 
CC Piercers (continued) 
Shields 
Autocannons 
Autocannons (continued) 
Cannons 
Cannons (continued) 
Missile Launchers 
Enhanced Boosters 
Enhanced Shields 
Enhanced Cannons 
Enhanced Exoskeleton 
Good weapons to take against problem enemies
 
Colonists/Cosmonauts 
Bees (Flying Aggressors) 
Tadpoles 
Other Useful Resources
 
Conclusion
 
Comments
Intro
Motivation
Over the years, I've seen endless repeated questions about which weapons are good and in what situations. I wrote this guide to try to answer as many of those as possible. EDF5 is a bit old now, but the pace of these questions has been pretty consistent for years, and I'm guessing it will increase with the coming launch of EDF6.

Knowledge assumptions
This guide assumes you know the basic controls for all classes, and that you know, or at least can Google, what all the enemies are. It uses some abbreviations like RoF and AoE, probably others, but if you don't know what those are, you're probably not reading this. You don't need any weapon-specific knowledge. If you are a total beginner, I recommend this guide: https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1801781107

How to read and interpret this guide
The title is admittedly a little click-baity. I don't think there is a meta in EDF5. At least not one worth following. The primary reasons for this are 1) there are far more viable weapons in EDF5 than in most co-op shooters, and 2) what is good is often very level dependent. There's just a much larger variety of situations in this game than most games like it.

It's important to understand how tiers work in this guide. Tier 1 is the highest, tier 4 the lowest. But what you don't want do if you're still leveling up your weapons is to see a tier 3 and think "this is bad, I'll ignore these weapons." None of them are actually bad. I might even say "this isn't worth using" for a tier 3, but that assumes maxed stars on everything and some level of competence with the majority of good weapons. I call them tiers, but you should think of them as "looks". As in, here is your first look to solve a problem, here is your second, etc. You might get to tier 3 and find something that solves your problem, especially if you're still playing through the game for the first time and leveling weapons. It's less likely for any given tier 3 than it is for any given tier 2 or tier 1, but it probably will still happen a lot. You really shouldn't get to tier 4 though. That's a level of desperation you want to avoid.

If a weapon or weapon type has a .5 after the tier, that's because I wasn't sure which tier to put it in. If a weapon type has a range (3-4, for example), then it's because I think there is a range of quality within that type of weapon. I tried to avoid doing that, since it goes against the spirit of a comprehensive guide, but I did it anyway. I never put any tier 1 or 2 weapons in a range though. Generally, if something is noticeably different from other weapons of its type, I will talk about it.

Not every single weapon will have a comment, but I strived to include comments on every weapon that was unique or was different enough from other weapons of its type to warrant comment. Still, most weapons will just be covered by a comment on the overall type. Take for example the "lance" type weapons. There are different sub-types of lances (which is the kind of thing I will talk about in the comment on lances) and not all lances are exactly equally good, but I consider them to be close enough in quality and function so as to not need individual sections for any of them.

Weapons are also ranked pound-for-pound. There can be tier 1 weapons in the 20s or 30s, it's just assumed you are using them for the level range for which they are appropriate.

Most of this guide was written with 4 player multiplayer in mind. All good online weapons are good offline, but not vice versa. I included comments when I thought a weapon would be significantly better in single player than in multiplayer, but you can also assume that most tier 2 or 3 weapons get a -.5 to -1 tier boost in single player. I am not nearly the expert in single player as I am in online mode, but it's OK. Just remember, most things are good in single player. I try to make a note of it when a weapon type becomes significantly better in single player, but I almost certainly missed some examples. A small percentage of weapons would also change tier if you were playing with 1 or 2 other players, but it's not enough to be worth going into, and none become game-breakers because of it.



I'll say it again: All rankings assume max stars. Don't let that discourage you, as you can still using this guide, but you need to account for the RNG by giving the tier rankings a little bit more slack. For some weapons it doesn't matter, but some weapons really need to be maxed or near that in some stat in order to be good. I'll note whenever this is the case. If you're playing through the game for the first time, luck of the draw could easily mean a tier 3 is your best weapon for a while. That said, on average, weapons will tend to level into the tier they should be in when maxed assuming you just play through the game normally.

TL;DR: Tiers are probabilistic ratings. They tell you how likely a weapon will be to solve a problem you might be having in the level-range that weapon was designed for.

This guide is for Hard difficulty and above. Normal is just not hard enough to need actual strategies.

Ranger
I'm not doing class overviews btw. There's not really much of a point. Everyone can fill every roll (this is different than every class being equally good), and the classes don't fall into the typical co-op shooter archetypes. There are already a lot of guides that explain how classes function at a basic level, not to mention the in-game explanations.
Assault Rifles
A weird column to start with. I think Assault Rifles might have the biggest quality discrepancy within a column between offline and online modes, and the G&Ms have the biggest quality range based on your IRL physical ability. Assault Rifles are mostly very good general purpose weapons offline. Online, however, they are outclassed by shotguns at close range and snipers at long range, with a few exceptions. What is left is a narrow mid range where they are better than either alternative for de-limbing aliens, while having borderline servicable DPS. If you have super-human fingers or an auto clicker though, G&Ms compete with shotguns for overall goodness. Blazer is broken good both on and offline, but it kind of has to be for Ranger to have any use whatsoever in the DLCs. Later models of most Rifles actually are better than earlier models, even accounting for enemy buffs. This is largely because their minimum damage as a percentage of maximum damage increases. Because of the way damage attenuates with distance for Assault Rifles, this pumps their effective ranges out beyond what just looking at the range stat suggests. And this is pretty much the last time (except for Bulge Lasers) that you'll hear me suggest weapon viability changes as a general trend within a specific weapon column.



General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Stork
3-2.5
General purpose Assault Rifles. There is a 3 round burst version which is basically just worse, as well as a piercing version which is basically just better. These are about as generic as weapons get in this game, and I don't have much to say about them. They're OK. Nothing here is going to blow your socks off though.
Raven
3-2.5
The idea behind these is high close range DPS but also high damage falloff. It's a shame that that is a use case which shotguns usually fill much better. There are some rate of fire and accuracy differences between the models, but it's not really worth noting, as they all have the same basic use case. Like Storks, they get better the farther into the game your are.
Orchid
3-2.5
Basically just another Stork (no, they're not actually a Slugger variant in practice). They have higher damage falloff, but also longer range. It kind of evens out in gameplay. These first 3 weapon types are actually very similar to each other. Their differences don't really change the fact that most of what they are good at online is de-limbing aliens at mid range. Orchid and Stork are just generally going to be better against monsters due to their superior range and faster bullets, and raven will be a better shotgun replacement against aliens at close range. None of them are ever particularly impressive online.
Minion Buster
2
The minion series is overall pretty useful, as it's going to be your best DPS beyond 100m (think teleportation ships) unless you have an autoclicker because it's projectiles are sticky explosives. The delayed damage doesn't really hurt it much either once you get used to how many shots it takes to kill enemies and break armor. What does hurt it a little is low-velocity rounds that can make hitting moving targets harder
G&M
1-2, depending on click speed
If you don't have above average click speed, these will generally be lower DPS than the full auto guns. Even so, I consider them more useful, as they have much lower damage falloff and are generally piercing weapons, making them more effective against monsters. If you can actually achieve a 12 ROF, they make most other ARs obsolete, and become good DPS weapons.
Slugger
3
Similar DPS to Ravens with more damage falloff and less range. These compete almost entirely with shotguns, making them generally undesirable assuming your shotguns are appropriately upgraded. The only one I occasionally use is the level 62, since it comes in the level range when shotguns are at their worst. Besides that one, the only time I would even slightly recommend using them is against gammas, where it helps to have a rapid fire weapon with good reload and good close range damage.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Minion Blast
1
Maybe tier 2 if you have abysmal click speed. Just a really, really powerful fusion of minion buster and G&M. Useful in basically all roles. Arguably Ranger's best pound-for-pound weapon outside the Blazer.
Blazer
1
Arguably the best weapon in the entire game. It's the DPS equivalent of a suped-up Air Raider Vulcan Cannon that you aim like a regular gun, and it has perfect accuracy. Great for literally anything other than extreme crowd control, as it has no piercing.
MXR Sirius
2
MXR Sirius isn't good for much other than green ants, but it completely hard counters green ants (on Hard). It's like a very high capacity Raven with piercing.


Noob Traps
None. Maybe the Storks/Ravens/Orchids online, but it's not like they're bad. They just fall much farther behind shotguns due to shotguns often behaving the same as offline (1-shot 1-kill) but ARs taking ~2x as long to kill.

Most under-rated
Minion series. MXR Sirius often gets overlooked, but it solves some levels people have a lot of trouble with (green ants).
Shotguns
One of the best columns in the game. Ranger bread and butter. This is where most of your damage usually comes from.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Slaughter/Fracture
1
Slaughter is a true close-range all-rounder. Good stats all around, with great range for a shotgun. It's actually one of Ranger's best anti-air options. When in doubt, grab a Slaughter.
Monsoon
1
Monsoons kind of fall off after the M2, but they're still pretty good, and you always get them before the level equivalent of their direct competitor, the Slaughter. Their gimmick is that they reload extremely quickly, but have less range than Slaughters. See under-rated for more details.
Breacher
1
Breachers are point blank monsters. They can one-shot a heavy armor cosmo's leg at any point on any difficulty. Their main weakness is low range, but they absolutely can make due as your general purpose shotgun (not against air threats though); it's just harder to do so than with the Slaughter.
Slug Shot
4
This is a tier 4 weapon type that I actually used for a single level on a single playthrough due to horrendous luck with drops. Why would you want a single projectile shotgun that has terrible range, terrible damage dropoff, and weak point blank DPS compared to other shotguns?
SGN (Semi-auto varients)
1
A lot of people use these in place of Breachers. I prefer Breachers as my main DPS option, but SGNs might be a little better for general purpose use, as they have longer range and a much larger magazine. Their weaknesses are their reload time and comparatively low damage per shot.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
SGN-10A
3
Only reason to use this is if you have terrible click speed. Otherwise, it's basically just a worse version of the previous SGN (the K9). It's full-auto, but with a low fire rate
SGN-11A
2
Upgraded 10A. Now it's actually powerful enough that it's long term DPS is significantly higher than the SGN-K9, and anything else that comes before it. Also has a big 30 round mag, as opposed to 20 on the 10A.
Buster Shot
1
Minion Buster version of a Breacher shotgun. As you might expect, it is very, very good, especially for the DLC, where you will encounter tons of high HP enemies. I don't think I need to work hard to sell anyone on this weapon.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Monsoon is not a worse Slaughter with better reload. Until the Slaughter E23SAS, it's basically a better Slaughter with slightly worse range. It does have another weakness though, which is less penetration range. In practice, however, it doesn't seem like it's that big a deal. Monsoons still deal with hoards of enemies very well, as the first enemy you shoot with it will often be within the penetration range. Breachers are also slept on because they are unweildy, but you trade fire rate, range, magazine capacity, and reload time for unparralled damage and coverage at extreme close range, which is exactly where you will be using it.
Sniper Rifles
Workhorse column. Even the tier 1 stuff isn't really that impressive, but often the best option for long range that ranger has.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
KFF
1
Standard bolt-action rifle. These are good if they are one-shotting ants. If they aren't one-shotting ants, well... they're a lot less good than if they are, but still good. Mainly used for killing monsters and drones, but can also de-limb aliens somewhat efficiently beyond assault rifle range.
Lysander
3
If you expect to pop off a quick sniper shot once in a while before going back to fighting at close range, then they are pretty alright. This is rarely something you will want to equip yourself for in lieu of other, better setups, but their garbage DPS doesn't make them entirely useless.
NP series
2
I really don't like these burst fire rifles, but they're sometimes the best long-range DPS you have at the time. Used basically the same way a KFF is. For some stupid reason, their magazines are not divisible by their burst count. Make sure to manually reload after firing your last full burst, as not doing so decreases your overall DPS.
Dunkel
1
Pretty high DPS (for a sniper) full auto rifles. These are much more oriented toward fighting aliens and areanas. They can, of course, be used against anything, but they have a much harder time than KFFs against flying enemies, especially tadpoles, as flying enemies get knocked around by bullets, so it's preferable to just one-shot them.
Eagle
1
Pretty much just a KFF with a better zoom.
Flounder
4
No idea what these are even for. They're like shotgun snipers, but with shotgun accuracy and sniper damage. They're seriously not even strong for snipers, which is the only thing that might have made them worth it in some situations.
Ptarmigan
1
Very handy semi-auto multi-role snipers. These have a mix of good DPS and good damage per shot, although you will still generally be 2-3 shotting things. The final version is my 2nd favorite sniper (outside the Pylon). Pretty much as good as snipers get against cosmos.
Penetrator
3
These shoot a horizontal line of bullets that pierce, but are pretty weak. The only things they are really good at online are green ants, and even then, I don't think they are ever Ranger's best option.
Fang
3
High damage single shot piercing rifle. Even if you animation cancel the recoil, it's DPS is never will never be higher than a nearby competitor (either KFF or Ptarmigan, depending on which model Fang). The only time it might be worth it is when using it in combination with an Epsilon against deroys. I have done this a lot though, and I can't really say it's better than just using another sniper rifle in that same situation. Even if it is technically better, assuming you have perfect timing in getting in and out of the Epsilon, it's firmly in "it doesn't matter" territory.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Lysander ZF
2
Essentially just a Lysander with good DPS.
Pylon A1
1
Very unique piercing rifle with characteristics similar to the KFF series, but much lower range. This is actually my favorite rifle, as it has very good DPS (for its level) and crowd control properties. The range can be a weakness, but it maxes out at 600m, which is still more than you usually need. Another weakness is that its damage is slightly below spider health in the level range you get it. That said, it's still overall better than the KFF for dealing with swarms due to its piercing ability.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Lysander, maybe slightly.
Rocket Launchers
One of the worst columns in the game for multiplayer. Does it one shot ants and/or spiders? If not, there's probably no point to it. If it does, then it has some worth at least, but overall this is a bad column for multiplayer. Guided rockets are a potential exception, as they can be useful for taking out deroy legs, and taking out armor on cosmos maybe slightly easier if your aim sucks. Are they better than snipers or Emerald for any purpose though? IDK, you decide. Obviously will be much better in single player, as then they will actually be one-shotting.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Grant lvl 0 - lvl 41
2.5
Grants are kind of the Stork of rocket launchers. Why are only the Grants you get in Hard in tier 2.5? Solely for the reason that they are technically involved in Ranger's best long range DPS options at level 41 or below up until the level 41 Grant MA50. This DPS advantage falls off hard after the Ptarmigan shows up (actually, not just because of the Ptarmigan, but this isn't worth getting into), and Snipers on Hard are more useful basically everywhere else besides pure DPS and ability to destroy structures. You should also remember that Grants are still only ever Ranger's best long range DPS option, meaning outside the range of the Minion Busters.
Grant lvl > 41
3
These Grants don't have any DPS advantage going for them.
Leopard
2.5
Guided rockets. See the main text. I've used these with good results against deroys, queens, and even cosmos, but I can't say they've ever impressed me enough to recommend them strongly.
Goliath
2
This one shots anything below red ants and has a large blast radius, so it's basically by definition pretty good against grounded monsters.
Cascade
2.5
Surprisingly, this and Volcano have a situational use: building clearing. They fire a lot of rockets really quickly, and most buildings take one rocket to destroy. That's basically it, but it's a legitimate use on some maps. Just to make it clear, these are not the DPS Rocket Launchers. I sometimes see people ask about that, assuming that's what they're for, but no.
Hornet
3
The Raven of rocket launchers. Not really, but I never use these, so whatever. They have a delay between pulling the trigger and the rocket firing off, so even though they're much faster than the Grant rockets, it's still significantly harder to make precision shots with them than with than a sniper.
Volcano
2.5
See Cascade. These do actually have good DPS for Rocket Launchers, but you're not really going to be able to make use of it due to the huge spread.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Goliath ZD
2.5
The final version of the Goliath line. A little gimped by being converted into a guided rocket, which means you don't reload until it explodes, which drastically reduces DPS, but more importantly drastically reduces the amount of crowd control you can do. Goliaths were not precision weapons beause they didn't have to be.
Ibis Guided Rocket
2.5
See Leopard


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Nothing
Missile Launchers
Very solid column overall. Its weapons (homing missiles) have use cases spanning pretty much every situation.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Emerald
1.5
General purpose homing missiles that have respectable damage per-shot. Popular against flying enemies, but will work reasonably well against all non-mutant bugs. They're a little sensitive to how upgraded the capacity stat is, since they all have between 4 and 8 missiles tops. If you use a multi-lock support gear, you can turn this into a single-target ranged DPS weapon.
MLRA
1
These fire a lot of weak missles at a bunch of targets, and have extremely fast lock-on times. Most people like the Emerald the most, but the MLRA can bully hordes of spiders and tadpoles, which are easily ragdolled and tossed by a single missile. The double missle MLRAs (the ones with ×2 in the damage stat) in tend to knock entire swarms of bees down into the ground. This is because the first missile that hits ragdolls the bees momentarily, but the second missile hits immediately afterward, giving them no time to recover from ragdoll state. If you use a multi-lock support gear, you can turn this into a single-target ranged DPS weapon.
FORK
1.5
Fork is a good option for fighting aliens, imperial drones, and even bosses (especially kings and queens), and it doesn't require a support item to make all its missiles target one enemy, as it only has one lock on by default. The Emerald and MLRA lines actually have better DPS when using the multi-lock equipment, but I find that it often isn't worth sacrificing a slot for that. Fork has a good launch angle that allows its missiles to fly over low obstacles, and they don't destroy buildings you might be using as cover.
Prominence
3
These are sort of like Air Tortoises, but not really. They are high damage, large radius explosives that take a long time to make impact after firing, but that's because they first shoot high into the air. They are actually quite fast moving. Anyway, good lord are these things dangerous. If you take this in multiplayer, someone on your team will be killed by it at some point in that level, I guarantee it. I actually love these, as you can just sit way back behind friendly lines and initiate chaos mode. They are not very good.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Falcon
3
Tier 3 because Blazer exists, probably tier 2 otherwise. Just a DLC Emerald with an extremely high launch angle.


Noob Traps
Emerald, a little bit. It's certainly not bad, but people treat it as the end-all be-all Ranger Missile Launcher, with some people even going so far as to say it's not even worth using sniper rifles in light of the Emerald. In reality, the Emerald is simply a Jack of all trades (but actually a Jack, not a 6 like Ranger as a whole).

Most under-rated
MLRA and FORK. They form the triumvirate with Emerald, and I don't really think any of them eclipses the others in usefulness.
Grenades
Crapshoot for the most part. Lots of different stuff, largely situational or unimpressive. Hard to write an overview when there's so much variation.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
MG
2.5-3
Grenades. Just grenades. They explode on impact, and are kind of hard to aim without practice. They're kind of cumbersome to use, but unlike a lot of explosives, they actually have one-shotting power. Their best use is in tunnels, where a lot of bugs will be bunched up.
MGJ
2.5-3
Timed detonation version of MGs. I don't think the time delay is really a detriment. In fact, I kind of like the MGJs more, since they do more damage and sometimes have a larger blast radius.
DNG
2
Extreme long range grenades with a long throw animation and massive blast radius. DNGs can be optimal crowd control in certain cases if you animation cancel (hit run key to initiate the throw, hit run key again after grenade leaves your hand to cancel follow-through animation), and can even be very effective against groups of cosmonauts if they are stacked close enough to each other, but they take a lot of practice to actually get good with.
UM
3
The Grant of the grenade launchers.
UMJ
3
Like a Grant with a time delay detonation.
Splash Grenade
4
I have absolutely no idea when this thing is supposed to useful. The projectiles bounce so violently that they aren't even remotely functional outdoors, and I haven't even gotten good results with them indoors in tight tunnels.
BRUTE/Crumble
3? Maybe?
These are 2-3 projectile grenade launchers, one of them having a timed detonation. I'll be honest, I have no idea how good these can be. The Crumble literally shoots off in a split fork pattern. I've used all of them with some moderate amount of success, they can one shot certain enemies in certain level ranges, but if you get really good with these weird things, you might be the first to do so. Godspeed.
Flame Geyser
3
Primarily used to (kind of) seal off tunnels. I really don't like these very much. If one attaches to the wall at an awkward angle, it can become useless. I've actually used these, as well as flame geyser and volcanic napalm with some success against tadpoles, standing in or moving through an area designed to make them land in the flames. They are overall not that good though.
Stampede
3
See noob traps. Yeah, I said it.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Volcanic Napalm
2.5
See Flame Geyser, except I actually kind of like this one. It's not like... good, but it can completely seal off basically any tunnel while your team shoots through the flames. It reloads in less time than the flames take to dissipate, provided you just sit there doing nothing but reloading it.
UMAX
1
Do you want a handy ranged AOE weapon with more than one round in the magazine and the killing power to 1-shot ants on the difficulty you get it? This is the only one in the game. I think people just don't know about it because every other UMA(*) weapon is a rocket launcher by another name.
MG13J
4
30 Second detonation time. Nostradamus might call this Tier 2.
Bound Grenade
2
These are weird, bouncy timed detonation grenades. Surprisingly, they are kind of good. I don't advocate kiting in general, but what you can do with these is just sort of drop them at your feet as you are backing away from enemies. They will bounce along at a slower rate than you walk, leaving a trail of explosions behind you. Mix in some shotgunning, and you have a kiting strat that isn't embarrassing to use. You can also use them like MGJs.


Noob Traps
Oh boy, here comes the hot take. Stampedes. These are possibly the single most over-rated weapon type in the entire game. They amount to a lot of bark, not that much bite. I can only assume these are as popular as they are due to a mixture of the cool name and people seeing "1132.5×30" in the damage column of the XM. But, as anyone who has actually experimented with getting damage out of Ranger knows, that number is not even slightly representative of this weapon's effectiveness. The spread is simply gargantuan, which alone would make this not a very good burst damage weapon against most targets, but beyond that the Firecracker series absolutely clowns on these for pure DPS in a spead-shot explosive weapon. You'd think maybe they are held in such high regard because they are good crowd control, but even that isn't true. The massive spread means that you'll often be missing with a lot of shots. It's basically the equivalent of an AR bombing run in spread, except with just 30 1000 damage projectiles that have a comparatively tiny blast radius. The only places where they might be good are against bee globs and very low flying teleportation ships. "What about bosses?" The XM does 5662.5 DPS, which is... fine. It's not great, not terrible, but that assumes every projectile is hitting, which in turn implies you are quite close, which implies you are in or near shotgun/firecracker range, soooo... why are you using a Stampede? But they are far better in any of the aforementioned situations than they are against cosmos, which is, paradoxically, the use case for which they are recommended the most. They are terrible against cosmos. You want to see why? Go to Army Group Raid (mission 52, one of the earliest cosmo levels), run right up to the nearest cosmo, as close as you want to get, and try to one-shot him. Don't even worry about killing yourself, just try to one-shot. In fact, try to break chest armor. Now that that's failed, if you are still alive, wait through the 6 second reload to get your next shot, and try to 2 shot. Maybe you'll finally get him. Yeah, these are offline weapons (and not even that great there either).

Most under-rated
UMAX. DNGs are also a potential answer, but they take like 5x more skill to use well than any of Ranger's other weapons, so I can't really call them under-rated.
Special
All kinds of stuff of varying quality. Reverse shooters/bomber and (fully upgraded range) Super Acid Gun are some of the best weapons Ranger has. High cycle reversers are good for repairing vehicles. C Bombs are Ranger's best burst damage, and can be used to set traps for any grounded enemy. Impulses, especially anti-air, can be used to seal off tunnels, as the projectiles bounce and pierce. They are not very good outside of tunnels though, and you'll often be better served by placing C4 and waiting for a tunnel to fill up with enemies, assuming you can get out before detonating.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Acid Guns (Non-Super)
3-4
These are basically just not good. Wait until the Super Acid Gun.
Flamethrowers
2.5
Flamethrowers can shoot through the top of teleportation ships, and are pretty good against green ants. They have other weird properties that are not really worth discussing beyond their ability to shoot through the top of teleportation ships. They aren't that strong overall though.
Firecracker
1
Like a handful of exploding pebbles. They do serious damage and are good CC. They are anything other than joke weapons. Can stunlock kings to death easily, and can even take down queens if they stray too close to the ground.
C70/C30/CX Special Bomb
2
IEDs. They can be strapped to people, vehicles, or just the ground/walls. These are extremely powerful explosives that can dump a ton of damage into any enemies that walk near them. Best used with a plan for where to plant them, but you can absolutely just chuck them down and run if you have to.
Impulse
3
IEDs. Claymore mines. Pretty much the only place these are useful is in tunnels (you can kind of make them work in densly packed buildings), and the Anti-air Impulses are better there, so moving on to them.
Anti-air Impulse
2
Like the name suggests, these are to be used in underground tunnels. The reason for this is that projectiles pierce and bounce. Unlike the regular impulses, which have forward facing sensors that annoyingly activate beyond the effective range of the weapon, the AA Impulses have upward facing sensors, causing them to only activate when an enemy is right on top of them. They also shoot upward, which maximizes the amount of bounces, and therefore the damage, in a short portion of the tunnel. They can actually kill silver spiders on inferno. As for using them against air enemies, they just don't hit very well.
Reverser
2.5-3
Healing guns. These are alright, but I find they don't heal quickly enough, and I find their cousins to be much better.
High-Cycle Reversers
2
Healing guns that don't heal you. That sounds worse than regular Reversers, but these heal other people, and more importantly, vehicles, much more quickly, and have a lot of ammo. I mainly use these to repair vehicles.
Reverse Shooter/Bomber
1
Long range burst healing. This is unique to Ranger, and therefore maybe the one thing he does better than anyone else. These can be incredibly useful for keeping masses of NPC allies alive, which in turn helps keep you alive. A popular generic setup is reverse shooter + shotgun.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Super Acid Gun
1
If you have its range maxed, or at least near maxed, this is Rangers best weapon on Hardest, and is even pretty good on Inferno. Basically, it's a very long range super soaker that can be used for anything from crowd control to single target DPS. If range isn't near maxed though, it's not nearly as useful, as shot speed is tied to range, and you end up with very slow moving projectiles that are very difficult to hit with.
Burner
0
Use it and you'll see why it's tier 0; just don't over-rely on it.
Other C Bombs
2
The first 2 C bombs are just too weak for me to care about them on Hard.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Firecrackers.
Support Equipment
Ranger's modifier gear. I pick almost everything here at some point. Don't just default to the hybrid liquid whatever armor thoughtlessly every time.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Liquid/lightweight/hybrid (LLH) armor. The normal stuff
3 (Yes, I'm serious)
Basic speed-increasing gear. Here's my problem with this stuff: You're still slow. I've never faced a real, serious challenge with Ranger that this stuff was the solution to. It's nice, I suppose, and I do take it when I have literally no need for another option, but it almost always amounts to just a small upgrade, usually at the cost of passing up something that greatly expands Ranger's options. The liquid versions are my favorite of these, as they at least have speed reduction resistance, but I find Under Assists to be better at that anyway. This might be where my anti-move pro-shoot bias comes in a little bit, but I don't really think so. I think people often just take this because they don't know what else to take.
Under Assist
1
To me, these are the worthwhile running gear. Using under assist, you are now a notch above slow. It's a small notch, but it matters. Barreling up hills, closing the gap on aliens firing at you, and to the dashing to the rescue becomes significantly easier with this gear. Downside is you can't turn so well. They all also reduce how much enemy fire slows you, which is incredibly useful.
Multiple Lock On Device
2.5
Allows you to lock on multiple times to an enemy with with an Emerald or MLRA. These do more DPS than FORKs, so it's sometimes arguably a good option (although I'm still more likely to just use a FORK).
Radar Support System
2
These increase your missile lock on range, which can be useful when you need more missile lock on range.
Relief Assistance Equipment
2.5
These increase the health your NPC allies recover when you pick up health crates. I'm still on the fence as to whether they are ever worth using over a Probe Type, so I'm just going to put them at a solid 2.5.
Probe Type
1
Increase the range of your (now permanent) pickup circle. These can massively boost your survivability, as killing a heavy cosmo will usually flood the area with health crates, which you don't have to move to grab. Also effectively boosts your NPC healing abilities by making sure you suck up all the health crates near you. Downside is you need to be more careful to preserve health for your teammates.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Hybrid Protector XE
1.5
It's LLH armor that's fast enough to actually matter.
Perfect Liquid Armor
2
Doesn't increase your run speed, but makes you immune from slowdown. Actually hard counters tadpoles on hard if you just roll around in a circle.


Noob Traps
LLH stuff

Most under-rated
Everything that isn't LLH
Tanks
Lackluster in general, but sometimes you just need a bit more ranged DPS and defense at the same time. Use in conjunction with snipers to boost ranged DPS.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Epsilon
2
Lackluster in general, but sometimes you just need a bit more ranged DPS and defense at the same time. Use in conjunction with snipers to boost ranged DPS. Same thing I said in the overview.
Menace
2
I legit don't know the difference between these and Epsilons. I don't think there is one.
EMC
3-2.5
EMCs can be OK if you can get the credits and can sit in one place safely, but the problem is that they are extremely expensive, and later versions of the Brute helicopters do basically the same job way better. Just use this to knock down the tadpole waves in winged legion.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Menace 4D
4
Just abysmal accuracy for a 4 shot burst fire rail gun. Accuracy actually matters with rail guns, so that basically kills it, but the kicker is that it isn't even that strong if all 4 shots hit.
Blacker
IDK
You get one of these Air Raider Tanks right at the beginning of the game, and I don't play early levels enough to know about it.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Maybe the column as a whole. These will never be that good, but LLH stuff is so massively over-rated that people frequently take it when there is no benefit to it at all, and where there might be at least some benefit to a railgun.
Helicopters
The last Brute is the standout, with some of the best ranged DPS in the game, but Brutes are basically stationary gun platforms instead of helicopters. Other helicopters are mostly unimpressive, unless you're dropping C4 from them (exit the heli, drop C4, re-enter, and repeat).

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Nereid
3-2.5
The basic helicopters with autocannons and missile launchers. I don't know about these. They're fun, I like them, but they are hard to fly, never really do that much damage, have very little range on their autocannons, and take a long time to get off the ground.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Fire Nereid
2
Has a flame turret instead of an autocannon, which really doesn't hurt its range as much as you would think, but more importantly drops massive bombs instead of shooting somewhat wimpy missiles. Considering enemies tend to gather directly underneath you, this can be quite useful.
Eros
IDK
See Blacker.
HU04 Brute SA9
1.5
See general description. This can be insanely useful if you can find a place to set up and rain hell down on anything downrange. They can be pretty OK when flying too, although Fencers and WDs probably wont care enough to get in the gunner seat unless it's a WD needing to recharge energy.
Brute Hell Flame
3
The flame turrets are actually really strong, but at this point your using at least 2 people to pilot a helicopter and shoot at, presumably, anchors at extreme close range, and I don't really see the point beyond just having fun.
Other Brutes
2.5
I'm not really sure where to put these. They don't differentiate as much from rail guns as the final Brute does, and I think I prefer rail guns for most purposes.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Final Brute, as mentioned. Also, the fire nereid's bombs are actually pretty strong.
Bikes
One of ranger's best columns overall, and very underused. Can Akira slide and do donuts.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Free Bike (Non-Custom)
1
Great for escaping, going to the rescue, killing hordes of non-mutant bugs relatively safely, or running up on cosmonauts before they can react. Do you want to be slightly faster, but still the slowest thing on the battlefield, or do you want to actually be fast and have the DPS equivalent of 2 high-power assault rifles strapped to the front of your bike? I don't really have any general tips for these, other than they are good at a lot of things, and there is no trick to getting good besides gittin' gud. You need to practice with them, but I'm not lying when I tell you I have no problem corralling ants and spiders into a kill circle and going from cosmonaut to cosmonaut blowing off legs and and firing into their taints until they die. Actually, a couple tricks: 1)You can quickly exit and re-enter the bike if you are flipping, and it will flip right side up. 2) If you're on PC, you can hold down both S and W keys to increase stability on rough terrain.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Free Bike War Custom
3
Shoots strong homing missiles instead of machine guns, but doesn't have much ammo, and is slow.
Free Bike Mad/Hell Custom
3
These are too slippery and fragile to really be useful IMO.


Noob Traps
Nothing

Most under-rated
Basically the whole column, by a lot.
Wing Diver
Short-Range
Best column in the game. Short-Range contains a pretty wide array of weapons of both the magazine-based and charge-based variety. The ones to pay special attention to are Lances, Dragoon Lances, and Phalanxes. They form the core of WD's short-range offense, which in turn forms the core of her playstyle.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Rapier
2.5
Magazine weapons. Rapier's 30m range and huge spread is what prevents it from being a better weapon than it is. While it's long-term DPS is similar to all of WD's other high DPS short range weapons, its burst DPS is substantially lower. It still has the DPS to quickly kill any bugs in range, but any bugs in range will also be able to attack you. While it can do well against cosmos in theory, you need to be at basically point blank range in order to kill them quickly, and other weapons do the job of killing cosmos much better. I don't want to unceremoniously throw it in in tier 3 though. Short-range as a whole is a pretty busted column, and this weapon would be quite valuable if only a few other WD weapon types didn't exist. Try using it against tadpoles and green ants.
Lance
1
Some people consider this WD's bread and butter, and whether you agree or not, what is true is that lances are the easiest way for WD to get short range damage on a budget. They are charge-based weapons, with each charge costing almost nothing, and they do enough damage to one-shot ants out to around 80 meters. There are both multi-shot and single shot variants, with the single shot variants generally being a little better as they have more range, are more efficient, and dump all their damage in one shot (usually a desireable quality). Lances are generally used against all types of small targets, flying and non-flying, to devastating effect, but they have enough DPS to serve as a main DPS weapon in a pinch. If I could tell new WD's to use one weapon type to make their and all their teammates' lives easier, it would be this one.
Spark Vine/Whip/Foil
3-2.5
I'm not doing different sections for each of these. Yeah, that's how notable they are. Check out this guide for a good breakdown if you are really interested: https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138317457 These are mag based weapons that shoot out electricity for a short distance. They generally don't do a lot of damage, but the electricity can hit a lot of enemies. This means they function almost entirely as suppression weapons to use when your core is recharging, something that they are at least somewhat good at. Offline, they do enough damage to actually be decent crowd control, but not good crowd control. They are not that good overall, and I basically never use any of them. I prefer the Whips to the Vines, as they tend to have more spread. The Foils have low fire-rate, making them pretty awkward suppression weapons, and I would put them in tier 3 for sure, however, if you absolutely need to take any weapon other than Blink Fork to cover your emergency recharge (something I highly recommend getting out of the habit of doing) then Vines and Whips would be my recommendations. Use any of these for a few minutes and you'll probably wonder why I spent this much time talking about them.
Phalanx
1
Rapier's cooler charge-based cousin. Phalanx takes Rapier's weaknesses and mitigates them. They have longer range and a more concentrated fire pattern, with higher burst DPS. They do have damage falloff though, so you still need to be pretty close to whatever it is you are trying to kill in order to get the benefit of their DPS, just not as close as with Rapier. A lot of people use these as their main DPS weapon for all the big targets (cosmos, anchors, bosses, etc.), and for good reason. They can kind of be used for crowd control as well, but they aren't that good at it. They aren't cheap to opperate, and their effective range is still well within the attack range of most bugs. Their lack of piercing can also sometimes cause issues, not so much with bug corpses blocking the way (they will be quickly pushed aside) but with severed alien limbs blocking shots. All in all, they are a mainstay of WD's arsenal; a weapon type that defines the class like few others. I basically never use them, because of what you will see in the next section.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Monster Lance
2.5
This low only because Dragoon Lance ZM exists, otherwise it would be one of the best weapons in the game. Yes, that's how good Dragoon Lance ZM is. It straight up dominates a top-tier DLC weapon in the same category. The only thing that Monster Lance has over ZM is it can hit multiple enemies that aren't in a line because it fires its payload over the course of a second. It can also damage cosmo flesh after breaking armor with the same "shot". But these are not big enough advantages to really ever make it worth using over the ZM imo.


Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Lances. It's pretty much impossible to over-rate lances. They're that good.
Dragoon Lances (yeah, they get their own section).
This technically isn't a weapon column, but it didn't fit in the short range section. It deserves its own anyway.

General Weapons
Dragoon Lance
1
Good God do I hate Dragoon Lances. These are the ABSOLUTE CORE of high level wing diver play, and the closest thing in the game to true general purpose weapons outside of the Blazer. I think every weapon should have some weakness, but Dragoon Lances don't really have a weakness. They are high-power, longer range, slower (kind of, but not even really though) versions of the regular lances. You could argue lack of range and high energy cost are in a way their weaknesses, but those aren't real weaknesses imo, they are just not outright strengths. Dragoon Lances are still lethal to most bugs out to their max range of at least 150 meters (and much, MUCH farther than that later on), and in terms of energy efficiency they only look weak in comparison to regular lances. Actually, I would say energy efficiency is yet another strength of theirs if you know how to use them to their full potential. They're busted, simple as that. The only thing that might keep them from being busted is if you get bad rolls on both their energy cost and your core's energy capacity. Getting a fairly bad roll on damage doesn't even matter that much since they will still be one-shotting the things you need them to be one-shotting anyway, you just might have to adjust your range closer. You can use them in literally almost every situation, and they will be at least really good, if not completely amazing. They are so good that I almost never use regular Lances anymore, and regular Lances are so good that they could arguably be called the best overall weapon type in the game outside of Dragoon Lances. Using them like this does actually take some skill though (their one saving grace that keeps them from being my least favorite weapons). Learning how to put in just enough energy to kill your target (short charging) is what allows them to be energy efficient and fast enough to deal with hordes of enemies as a general-purpose crowd control weapon. If you are just full charging every time, they will be too slow and too costly to use for that purpose. But, to illustrate how incredible they are, they would still be one of WD's most valuable weapon types even if you just did full charges every time, as that would still make them arguably the best weapons in the game for dealing with high HP targets (which include cosmos, colonists, and silver spiders) at close to mid range. Some people like taking 2 different Dragoon Lances on the same mission, with the older version serving as crowd control while the newer, more costly version serves as DPS. I personally never found this necessary, as I find proper short charging is more than enough to handle not just most multiplayer crowd control requirements, but maybe even the majority of solo online crowd control requirements. Oh, and they have piercing, because why not.

Specific/Unique Models

Dragoon Lance ZM
0
Unsarcastically tier 0. It deserves it's own tier. It's a Dragoon Lance with a 279.3 m range. 279.3. Meter. Range. Straight up irresponsible that they put this in the base game. It could be considered the best overall weapon in the DLCs (I would put only the Blazer and Blast Twin M5 slightly above it), and it's not even a DLC weapon. I consider it a full-fledged mid-range crowd control/anti-air monster that just happens to be one of the best close range damage dealers in the game. It's essentially a tippy-top tier weapon in all categories outside of long-range sniping.
Mid-Range Kinetic Weapons
I'm not writing a summary for these. Just know that I started writing this guide years ago after frustrations caused by people using Mid-Range Kinetic Weapons online and being beyond useless to the team. It used to be a small WD overview not intended to be public. I'm not even going to rank any of them. I know I can't be objective about it, so I'm not going to bother. I literally never take these. One thing I can say, objectively, is that I've never once seen anyone use them in a multiplayer setting and do something I considered genuinely impressive or useful with them.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Mag Blaster
Unranked.
The normal version of these. Fires a laser that gets weaker as ammo depletes. Has a few different sub-versions with some different characteristics. D's are stronger with more ammo, V and W shoot more than 1 beam.
Destroyer Blaster
Unranked.
Kind of a shotgunny Mag Blaster. Does more damage, but shorter range. Has piercing.
Spine Blaster
Unranked.
Piercing version of Mag Blasters, but does less damage.
Reflectron Laser
Unranked.
Bounces off walls.

Noob Traps
Everything. Them being noob traps is the reason why this guide even exists. Even if you think these weapons are good, it's still a fact that they are noob traps, because noobs use them in awful ways to achieve terrible results while forgoing other, much more effective options, far more frequently than any other weapon type. Please, please stop using these for DPS. If you do nothing else, just do that, and I will consider this whole guide a success.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Mid-Range Engergy Weapons
This column is kind of just there. Totally unexceptional. Thunder Crossbows have true mid-range capability without being pathetically weak I guess, and the DLC one is actually pretty good.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Lightning Bow
2.5
Lightning Bows are actually somewhat OK at crowd control on grounded bugs. The biggest problem with these weapons is that they lose accuracy as its charge depletes. "Lose accuracy" actually doesn't do justice to what happens at lower levels, but its sufficient to say that probably around 1/2 to 1/3 of the charge for these weapons is basically useless (Except in tunnels. I'm so, so tired of talking about tunnels in the WD section). It's a real shame, because I think these would actually be really good multiplayer weapons if the whole charge was actually usable. That 1/2 charge goes a longer way in single player, so you might be able to get more worth out of them there. I'm putting them in 2.5 because I feel bad putting them in the Bolt Gun tier, because they really are much more useful.
Bolt Gun
3.
I have no idea why Bolt Guns even exist.I guess the draw is that they are mag based and decently powerful, but their massive engergy requirement offsets any mag-based advantages that they might have and makes them quite cumbersome weapons. Bolt guns also have a weird projectile trajectory that makes them sometimes miss targets at close range.
Thunder Crossbow
2.
Wing Diver's designated marksman's rifle. Not a sniping weapon, but they have some range, and they have some damage, so they fill that drone and bee plinking roll pretty well. They're kind of OK everywhere though.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Thunder Crossbow W
4
Yes, just what WD needed. A Thunder Crossbow that shoots out in a spread pattern for crowd control, because she doesn't have enough of those weapons. And why not make it the worst of those types of weapons while you're at it?

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Mid-Range Pulse Weapons
Kind of mediocre in multiplayer, except for the excellent Stardust cannons. Those are absolute killers against bees and in under ground levels. The other weapons are only really useful for stunlocking a tunnel, which Stardust Cannon does better in an MP environment, especially with a big core.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Pulse Machine Gun/Rapid Gun
3
I think these are actually fairly good weapons in single player, where their DPS is enough to quickly dispatch hordes of bugs if you have a vantage point above them (and you're WD, so...). This is not the case in multiplayer, where they are relegated to being crowd control weapons of the stunlock variety. There are single projectile and multi-projectile versions (up to a 10-way), with the single projectile versions being more useful in multiplayer due to their ability to easily stunlock tunnels. One of the main dangers of these weapons is self damage caused by their large projectiles and explosive radius, and its easier to avoid self damage in tight spaces if you only have to worry about one projectile stream. Just remember, you don't have to charge these all the way before firing. Charge level doesn't affect damage, only how many shots you fire before the charge runs out. Don't try flying and shooting with these. You can do it, but there's really no point. Find a place to plant your feet. I like n-way versions if shooting from down onto enemies from above, and the regular versions for tunnels.
Pulse Buster
3.
These have a much lower fire rate than the Machine Guns and fire in a shotgun like pattern. I use them in the exact same way as the Machine Guns though.
Stardust Cannon
1
Unlike Pulse Machine Guns, these are not very energy efficient. Also unlike Pulse Machine Guns, they are extremely powerful. They are best used against large swarms of bees, but can be fairly effective against all types of fodder, as well as bosses. One of my favorite combos for WD is a Stardust Cannon with a Big Core and a Gleipnier. This setup is an absolute nightmare for any bees that dare come near you. I see people use these against cosmos and colonists sometimes, and they do work OK, but I wouldn't recommend it as a primary strategy (you have Dragoon Lances after all). Just make sure not to blow yourself up.


Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Long-Range
Very situational at best. Raijins WRECK deroys, but the rest of the weapons lack punch in online mode.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Closed Laser
2.5
Only reason I'm even saying 2.5 is because early game you might not have any other long range options. These are very low DPS sniper weapons with range that could mostly only generously be described as "long."
Bolt Shooter
2.5
These are basically just Closed Lasers with a magazine. That might might seem like an odd statement, as their projectiles are very different in appearance (and technically can bounce and pierce), and some models shoot single projectiles at a low RoF, but they are all still only to ever be used if you for some reason need the somewhat meager range they offer. The only one of any note is the Bolt Shooter ZF, which comes in hot with a 2527m range out of nowhere.
MONSTER
2.5
These would be very good if they didn't have a hidden damage degredation component as their charge ran out. They still boast pretty good long-range DPS as they are now, but they gobble too much energy to actually use them as ranged DPS for more than a few seconds, even with a Big Core. They are also kind of overkill for small targets, and even using the level 55 Monster GA with Inferno cores is pretty expensive, not to mention WD doesn't really need a long range option for most targets. All of this leaves WD long-range options that are either underpowered (Closed Lasers/Bolt Shooters) or overpowered (Monsters) for ants and spiders, but not powerful enough for larger targets.
Raijin
2
Here is where WD gets some relief in her sniper column. Raijins do absurd amounts of burst damage. Charging one shot requires multiple bars from any energy core that isn't a Big Core, But in return you get something that can one-shot deroys and do significant damage to bosses in a single shot. The fact that they are charge weapons means that you can spend multiple bars charging in safety and then fire on a boss after your energy gauge has fully recovered. Another little-known use case for them is tunnels. Firing the Raijin α down a tunnel can completely clear it of silver spiders if you get good bounces.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
MONSTER ZERO
4
Pretty sure this was supposed to be a joke weapon.
Raijin Limit
2
The DLC Raijin is very different than the base game verions, but perhaps even better. It's a mag based weapon where each shot does about 10k damage giving it some of the highest ranged DPS in the game. It's almost as expensive as its base-game counterpart, but since it's never going to serve as your primary weapon, you have a good deal of control over when you want to to reload it and initiate the overheat. Usually, whatever job you are using it for will be finished before it runs out of ammo.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Ranged Weapons
Like Ranger's Rocket Launcher column, this is another instance of "does it one shot bugs?" where the answer is usually "no," and the weapon therefore has little use in online play. The main exceptions are the Plasma Great Cannon, which is one of her best weapons, and the Plasma Heavy Cannon, which is like an earlier, much slower version of the PGC.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Every Plasma cannon that isn't Heavy, Great, 4D, M3, or M2.
3
I don't have a very high opinion of Plasma Cannons, even in single player. Most of them are slow, don't do very much damage, and don't have as big a blast radius as I would like. I just can't recommend them highly, especially when most people use them in the sameway they could use Blink Balls. Their one-shottability in single player does boost their usefulness quite a bit though, similar to Ranger's Rockets.
Plasmafall
4
Trash, even with Big Bang Core. I have no idea what these are supposed to do. I could be missing something, but they seem absolutely garbage in literally every aspect. Their name implies that you are supposed to use them by shooting them up into the sky and letting them fall, but the most success I've had with them has been fighting bees, a job at which they still fail miserably. I haven't really tested them offline, so if they're usable anywhere it's there, but I doubt it.
Blink Ball
2
These are free! As in they take no energy to recharge, just time. They also one-shot ants. These properties make them very attractive weapons, because, as I said in the lance sections, you often don't even need 2 weapons as WD. But if one of those weapons doesn't take energy away from lances and can occasionally knock out a group of bugs, why not take it?
Split Ball
3
Like Blink Balls, but you throw a bunch of weak ones at once. I don't like these because they don't one-shot unless a bunch hit.
Grit Shot
3
A little like n-way Pulse Guns, but for plasma cannons (Except the first one, which is like the Pulse Busters. God I don't care). I have nothing to say about these weapons. I think these are probably the most often forgotten weapons in the game, and for good reason. I've never even tried using them on green ants or tadpoles, but if you want to use them on something, that's probably where I would start experimenting.
Grit Gun
3
Same thing I said above, but the regular Pulse Machine Gun version.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Plasma Great Cannon
1
This cannon is extremely energy hungry, but it also hits insanely hard (over 20k damage) and has one of the biggest blast radiuses in the game. This allows it to actually one-shot huge numbers of bugs and even colonists, as well as strip armor from entire groups of cosmos.
Plasma Heavy Cannon
1
Like the PGC, but with a much slower, cheaper, weaker projectile (still over 7k damage). You get it early in Hard mode, where it functions as a super-weapon that traumatizes Colonists everywhere. It's expensive relative to its level, but by the time you reach Inferno, it can function as a low cost but mid power general purpose Plasma Cannon.
Plasma Cannon 4D
2
Unlike other multi-shot Plasma Cannons, the 4D has a fire rate of 15/sec. You can treat the 4 shots as effectively one projectile, meaning it is technically capable of "one-shotting" ants, even in endgame Inferno.
Plasma Big Cannon M2
2
While it is a little bit expensive when you get it at level 10, the M2 is significantly more powerful than its predecessor relative to its level. It can one-shot ants through about half of Hard mode with starred damage. A lot of people would probably put this and the 4D in tier 1, but to me they don't rise to that level. Their sandwich is eaten by the Heavy and Great Cannons on one side and the Blink Balls on the other. Then, as usual, you have to consider the fact that you are basically always incentivised to take some kind of Lance. So while they are definitely outliers in the Ranged column, I still consider them very situational.
Plasma Big Cannon M3
2.5
Everything I said about the M2 applies to the M3, but to a more severe degree. It's good for about the first third of Hardest, but it's also the exact same level as the Blink Ball D
Blink Fork
1.5
The Blink Fork was designed to allow you to ragdoll yourself and throw enemies away from you when you are in emergency recharge mode. Honestly, this could be a high tier 1 for all I know. I consider it such a shameful weapon that, while I did frequently use it, I never put a ton of time into optimizing it. Nevertheless, I still consider it to be the best "backup" weapon to the Lances, if a backup weapon is even something you care about. Not only does it make you temporarily invincible due to the ragdoll state, it gets you a lot of free height by launching you into the air. It can be used in combination with the Big Cores to give you much more mobility than you would normally have with them.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Blink Fork, probably because people just don't know it's for generating i-frames.
Homing Weapons
Wing Diver's version of the missile launcher category. Rule of thumb is that more shots within the same weapon type is more better.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Mirage <= 5-Way
3
Mirages without a lot of projectiles don't do enough DPS or stunlock enough enemies to be worth using. Remember, almost every weapon WD has is competing in some way with Lances.
Geist 1/2
3
Fire slow-moving explosive energy orbs. The same logic of the previous entry justifies their placement.
Fenrir
4
Trash. I don't understand what these were supposed to do. Even with the Big Bang Core, they don't have particularly high DPS, and they chew through energy like few other weapons. Their performance against Cosmos is even worse in my experience than their calculated DPS would suggest, to the point where I wonder if their damage number is actually wrong. There's also no point in using them against bugs when so many other options work much better. To top it off, their tracking and range are quite bad. I know tier 4 is usually reserved for basically unusable weapons, but these things are just so far below average in every category that I have no problem putting them here.
Geist 3/D
2
These Geists shoot 3 projectiles at a time. They are only worth using with Big Cores, but with Big Cores they provide surprisingly high DPS. They don't completely stunlock Cosmonauts, but they can shoot so many slow-moving projectiles that they can keep Cosmos occupied and rolling around, and thus unable to fire back at you.
Mirage 15
2
These are good mostly for stunlocking up to 17 bugs at a time. Contrary to popular belief, their DPS isn't bad at all, you just need to have enough targets to get good DPS. Most bugs don't really need stunlocking though, so the best use case for these is probably for when you want to freeze a bunch of bees in place while you kill them, but still want mobility and good energy efficiency. You can triple their DPS with a Big Core, but in my experience there just weren't any levels where I wanted to both bring a Big Core and stunlock a medium amount of something.
Psiblade
3.5
The regular verison is only "good" DPS with Big Core, and it still drains energy way too quickly to be really worth using. Alpha is in awkward space between Big Core and Big Bang Core, so it never has good DPS, and also drains a lot of energy.
Ghost Chaser
2
Definitely WD's most interesting homing weapons. They have a fairly long lock-on range, and technically have high DPS if you use them with a big core (you need to be standing on a ledge to do this with the level 68 version), but the real function of these is to ragdoll spiders and tadpoles. Since each of the many little chasers that split off from each shot is explosive, and since they have basically perfect homing and extremely high speed, firing off a single shot of a Ghost Chaser will ragdoll multiple spiders or tadples I don't think there is another weapon in the whole game that shuts down a specific enemy type, pretty much regardless of circumstance, better than Ghost Chaser. They do also actually do significant DPS, so don't think they are just for keeping swarms busy. No, they will kill the stuff you are ragdolling in fairly short order. The problem is they are expensive to run, and using them while maneuvering around takes some skill.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Mirage Rumble
4
Absolute Trash. Explodes at feat with Big Core, the only core that could have made it worth using, and it still wouldn't be worth using if it didn't.
Geist G
4
Literally broken. I'm convinced they messed up when programming this weapon and didn't catch it in time for the release, but didn't secure permission to do a patch for DLC2.
Rapid Mirage
2
Kind of like the Rumble, but usable. It doesn't do good enough DPS to be worth it though, especially since it comes well before you get access to the Big Core.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Geist 3/D and the Ghost Chasers. The multi-shot Geists are maybe annoying to some people trying to fight cosmos close range, but their efficiency and safety against cosmos when used in combination with a Big Core makes them almost hard counters. The Ghost Chasers are likewise hard counters against tadpoles and spiders. This is not a game where there are a lot of hard counters, so that's pretty notable.
Special
A variety of throwable weapons, most of which take some forethought to use. Some interesting stuff in here, although I can't say it's a very good column on average.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Gleipnir
1.5
Gleipniers harass everything in range. You just plop one down (or up) somewhere and it fires homing shots all over the place. None of them do particularly good DPS, but they don't need to be minded. I primarily use them as passive CC when using a Big Core, as the Big Cores allow you to reload a Gleipnier before it uses up all its shots, and the energy drain is not really that noticeable to the Big Cores. They're more difficult to use with flying cores, as their energy drain is now pretty noticeable, and they won't fully reload before running out of shots, meaning they are just sucking energy without doing anything for a certain percentage fo the reload time. Four WDs all wielding double Gleipnirs can actually clear a lot of levels on Inferno basically just by standing there doing nothing.
Heaven's Gate 10 and D10
2
Both the 10 and D10 have 10 orbs that fire lasers downward and spread out the farther you throw them. They are almost free and can be used to take out big anchors quickly and safely. Pair great with Dragoon Lance as a general purpose setup. You can lead swarms of bugs through them to help with crowd control, or set them up in a tunnel.
Diffuser
3
I'm talking about all non-Air-to-Surface models here (including the Anti-airs). There are anti-air models that shoot upward, and regular models that shoot all around themselves. Neither are ultimately that useful. You can put the regular models in a tunnel, but it can be kind of annoying for everyone else in that tunnel. Also "it's OK in a tunnel" is something that can be said about a lot of weapons for a lot of classes, so it really doesn't earn too many points in my book. Anti-airs can be placed under teleportation ships, but those don't have enough health for WD to want to do that. They also aren't really even that good against flying enemies.
Thunder Cluster
3
Shoots lightning downward. This column is not fun to write. Maybe use in tunnel? Whatever.
Psi Cluster
2.5
There are two of these. One fires forward, the other fires down. I don't remember which is which. The nice thing about these is they come between the mediocre Heaven's Gate and the good Heaven's Gate 10, and serve the same purpose when it comes to taking out anchors. Aren't nearly as versetile as the HGs though, but the forward firing one is easier to deploy in a tunnel.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Thunder Cluster alpha
4
This looks like it would be for crowd control, as the lightning spreads along the ground, but it barely hits anything. Has terrible DPS on top of that, making it an entirely useless weapon.
Diffuser Air-to-surface Custom
2.5.
This has higher DPS than any Special Weapon below it, and fires downward. It comes between the Psi Cluster and Psi Cluster alpha, and I basically treat it as another Psi Cluster.
Diffuser Anti-air Custom D
3
Jesus Christ, this column gets so granular. Basically an upgraded Diffuser Air-to-surface Custom, but it's kind of pointless now since it comes way after the Heaven's Gate D10. Does comparable damage though, so it's very possible it will be higher DPS if you got unlucky with D10 stats. The main issue with it, however, is that it's actually kind of expensive. If it was as cheap as the D10, I would definitely recommend just throwing it in with a Dragoon Lance, but sadly that's not really a good option. Maybe you could make it work with a Power Lance though.
Heaven's Gate
3
Heaven's Gate but with only 4 orbs and not that much DPS.
Final Days
3.5
Sideways Heavens Gate, but expensive and weak. I can't call it trash, it is useable, but IDK why you would want to use it.
Psi Blast Wall
3
Sideways Heavens Gate, but sideways in a different way. This ones actually strong, but it's still less DPS than Heaven's Gate D10 (and Diffuser Air-to-surface Custom D) while being very expensive. It does OK against Gold Ants, but I've never used it and thought "that was definitely easier than just shooting them."
Thunder Orb
2.5
It'S gOoD IN tUnnELs. But this one is actually good, not just OK. Shoots lightning all over the place, has high DPS, and there are 2 orbs. Not really good anywhere else though due to the extremely high energy cost and the fact that you really need all the shots bouncing to make the most of it.

Noob Traps
Maybe Gleipniers without a big core. I don't know if I would really recommend them unless you can have 100% uptime.

Most under-rated
Heaven's gate, and maybe Gleipniers with a big core.
Plasma Cores
Good variety, they do what their descriptions say. Usually your highest level one will be the best until the end game Inferno ones, so there isn't actually that much decision making unless you're going with a big core.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Plasma Core
1
Nothing to say about them other than the final one in the base game has the most energy in the base game.
Rush Core
1
Increase the charge speed (and therefore fire rate) of weapons. Obviously these don't have much effect on mag-based weapons, but due to the fact that Rush Cores don't have a downside and are almost always the highest energy capacity flight cores at their level, you will still probably find yourself picking these simply for the energy capacity at some point. I personally don't find the moderate (up to 50%) increase in charge speed worth it over picking cores with more energy, but it can help a lot if you have, for instance, a Dragoon Lance with good stats on everything but charge speed.
Bird Core
1
These allow you to fly a lot faster. Unlike Rush Cores, neither of the two bird cores have the highest energy capacity of any flight core at their level, but they are both still very worth it due to how much more they allow you to fly. You can gain height very easily with these, then coast for a long time using boosts.
Jet Core
2
Like Bird Cores, there are only 2 Jet cores, and both increase your forward boost speed by 100%. The higher level one also increases sideways dash speed by 50%. This comes at a huge cost however. Boost energy consumption is increased more than 100% over that of an equivalent Plasma Core, so you will quickly run out of energy if you attempt to kite in the same manner as you might with another flight core. For that reason I consider these to be better offensive cores than defensive cores. Their speed allows you to dodge enemy fire more easily, as well as get into a good firing position more quickly. They are particularly good against Archilus, who loves to keep stumbling out of range if you shoot him with a Dragoon Lance.
Loading Core
3
Loading Cores come with decreased flight speed and greatly increased energy capacity. They do not, however, come with an increase in charge speed or emergency charge speed. For most intents and purposes, this basically just means you are slowering if you use one of these cores, and you will take much longer to recover your movement ability after over-heating. The increased energy capacity is almost never useful in light of the downsides. In fact, I can think of only one level on one difficulty where a Loading Core is just plain good. They aren't unusable or anything, so it's conceivable that RNG could land you with one worth using for a time, but overall these are WD's only dud cores.
Return Core
1
These are basically just Plasma Cores with increased backward speed.
Big Core
1
There are two Big Cores, and both of them increase charge speed by 200% and have massive energy capacity. Recovery and emergency recovery speed don't quite keep up with the increase in capacity, but they are still both much higher than what you will find in any other cores. The catch is that you pretty much can't fly. This seems like a pretty big detriment, and it definitely is, but the increased firepower that you get in return is often times more than worth the tradeoff. The weapons that these cores affect the most are Dragoon Lances, Gleipnirs, Geists 3 and D, Plasma Cannons Heavy and Great, Raijins, and last but definitely not least Stardust Cannons. A WD with Stardust Cannons and a Gleipnir is a bee swarm's worst nightmare. I really do think that that setup is even more devastating to bees than an AR running a full KM6/Spritefall/ZEXR Gun loadout, and if something is ever more effective, or even close to as effective as an AR in some kind of swarm killing situaiton, you should take note. Additionally, a Big Core setup is not necessarily a completely imobile turret setup. Taking a Blink Fork will give you at least some ability to escape from enemies if that is what you need to do, even if you can't do any sort of meaningful kiting. I think most people would but this core in tier 2, but I've used a fat diver setup enough to know that it's good in enough situations to be considered a primary playstyle, at least in the ranges where you have access to a level-appropriate Big Core.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Sky-High Core
1
This is arguably the most OP core in the game. It's boost energy consumption is absurdly low, to the point where you can recover more energy between boosts than you expend on boosts. This means you can fly forever by gaining height and then boosting until you gain enough energy to fly up again. It's so efficient that you can run a plasma lance in a fairly normal fashion and still be able to consistently gain height. You might be thinking "what's the downside," but there isn't one. It's just a normal core with much lower boost
Reverse Core
1
Like... a slightly better Plasma Core. I don't know why this exists as its own unique core.
Mighty Core
1
The final DLC core. Better stats in everything than almost any other core, and slight buffs like those of boost/rush/jet cores. There is almost no reason to use another core once you have access to this one.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Big cores. There is a whole non-mobile meta that a lot of people just don't experiment with because they like flying too much, but fat diver is literally optimal on some levels.
Air Raider
Artillery Units
Basically everything here is too slow to be that useful, and not as easy to aim as bombers. Certain strikes may be useful before you get Phobos 3, and the howitzers cover enough area that they are basically guaranteed to hit something, but overall they are not very good. Cannons do stupid damage though, so they're useful for danger-close call-ins on bosses and groups of silver spiders. Cannon D is more powerful than a Phalanx ZAT if it hits.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Howitzer
3-2.5
Howitzers have huge radii, so it's possible you will find some use for them, especially the level 10 one, which comes before you get any big air strikes. They are still much slower, weaker, more expensive than Phoboses, so I rarely see them taken.
Cannon
2
Unlike Mortars and Howitzers, Cannons have an obvious use. Nothing competes with them in terms of pure damage. The only enemies that can survive a volley are Archelus and Erginus. It's pretty trivial for AR to kill most boss monsters though, so you might be wondering why Cannons might be worth it. They really come into their own in the DLC, where there are more bosses in general and more bosses hanging around silver spiders. Silver spiders don't care about most AOE weapons, but Cannons will get their attention.


Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Cannons. They are a little unreliable, but their unparalled power (across all weapons in the game) makes them still sometimes useful, especially in the DLC.
Gunships
Almost everything here is great. Usually AR's most picked column. Not that unusual for 120/150 + Vulcan + 105 to be my setup. Rocket cannons are kind of bad though, and >150 mm can sometimes be a little unwieldy due to their very low fire rate and ammo. The 120 mms have some of the highest DPS on a ranged weapon in the game, provided all the shots hit. It also is very good at tagging fast moving targets compared to the single-shot cannons. They aren't that great against the tall, skinny cosmonauts though. 150 and up are better for that purpose, but generally worse against bug type enemies, and have lower overall DPS. Vulcans and 105s are pretty similar in their use: fire and forget single-target DPS weapons.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
150mm Cannon
1
Flexible gunships that are especially good against cosmos and colonists. They don't have the DPS of 120mms, but they concentrate all their damage onto on projectile, and have OK tracking. They can be fairly effectively against just about any enemy, but can struggle with tracking enemies when they are moving, especially Red Drones and tadpoles. Not that I really recommend any gunships against tadpoles anyway.
150mm Multi-Barreled Cannons
2
I don't like these as much as the singe-shot 150mm Cannons. These are still good for slow to medium speed targets, but they are just less flexible, have a higher reload time, and don't hit all their shots as much as I would like.
Rocket Cannon
3
At least they one-shot (at least I think most of them do). Problem is, if there's one thing AR absolutely didn't need it was a low DPS explosive gunship with low ammo capacity and a fairly long reload. He pretty much has AOE covered. In like 5 different ways.
120 mm Cannon
1
The shotgun gunship. And like most shotguns in this game, it's really, really good. If all shots are hitting, these dump DPS like nothing else in the gunship column. Makes them murderous against bosses and anchors (as if AR wasn't otherwise already murderous against bosses and anchors). Their spread out shot makes them excellent at grazing fast moving enemies, and their massive damage means that even hitting a fast moving enemy with 1/3 of its pellets will probably hurt it quite a bit.
Vulcan Cannon/Minigun/Autocannon
1
These are all the same type of weapon. I don't know why they renamed it twice. In any case, these are very good fire and forget weapons that you will regularly be planting on aliens, bosses, anchors, imperial drones, and particularly unlucky ants while you turn your attention to something else (or just stack other beacons on the same target). They have pretty good tracking and don't destroy buildings.
105mm Cannon
1
There are a couple varients of these, but they all have the same function. They're similar to vulcan cannons, but they have fewer, more powerful projectiles that DO destroy buildings. Vulcan cannons have higher DPS and reload more quickly, except for the final 105, which has higher DPS than the final Vulcan. I take them for the same jobs, but they have different flavors. They're both tier 1s in my book, so you'll just have to experiment with each to see which you like better.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
180mm Cannon
3
This thing is unwieldy, but comes quite a bit before the first colonists show up, which is why I've never really used it.
190mm Cannon
2
Also unwieldy, but hits like an absolute truck, and is actually pretty good against cosmos and colonists.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Bombers
This is a very good column overall, but the bottom line is it depends on the specific bombing pattern. You'll have to experiment with this to find what you really like. I generally like things with good spread that call in fast. Phobos and KM6 is where it's at, Phobos are bombers for ground-based enemies (and destroying buildings), KM6 are strafe planes for basically everything (and not destroying buildings). The reason they are so good is because, in addition to just doing good damage, they are much cheaper than they have any right being. A somewhat poor placement of a wide-area KM6 or Phobos can be enough to refill the weapon. Any half-decent placement is a guaranteed refill. The tier 3 stuff tends to be either too slow or too skinny for me to care about it, but there could be some places where they are very useful that I don't know about.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Combat Bomber Kamuy
3
Fast call-in single line bombers. I don't really like these for anything. The point of bombers, in my opinion, is coverage. Kamuys don't really have a lot, but they also don't really hit hard either. Their gimmick is their call-in speed, but they're still ultimately quite delayed weapons. There will always be a good deal unpredictability in enemy movements, and the slower bombers that have much wider coverage do a much better job at handling it.
Heavy Bomber Vesta
4
Trash. See noob traps. I don't care what people take offline, but there's no reason to see this thing online.
High-Speed Bomber KM single line
3
I don't like these for the same reason I don't like Kamuys. Strafe plans actually do good damage, so they have a little bit of use against high HP large single targets, and they're very cheap, but you still just one line. The only way I find them useful is to supplement multi-line KM6s, and doing this can make the difference between killing and not killing a boss, but it's almost never a big enough deal for me to care.
Combat Bomber KM triple line
1.5
Now these are starting to get good. Slower than High-Speed Bombers, but still pretty fast. 3 lines offers good coverage and that means both crowd control and boss killing potential.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Heavy Bomber Phobos Plan 10
2
Just a line of 10 bombers that come one after another. It's not bad. You can set it in an area where there is a lot of traffic and get a lot of kills. Sort of complements the aging Phobos 4 in Hardest difficulty.
Heavy Bomber Phobos BX
3
A high damage single line bomber that just doesn't have the AOE to be very useful.
Heavy Bomber Phobos Cluster Bombs
3.5
Honestly just kind of sucks.
Heavy Bomber Phobos Z
2
Kind of like the BX, but will a blast radius of 50m instead of 15m. This makes it fairly usefull for crowd control even though it's only a single line.
High-Speed Bomber KM6 F2 Plan W2
1
I actually really like the 2nd W2. They still call in very fast, like the single line high speed bombers, but they have 2 lines instead of 1. Still not very good coverage, but much more spammable, and the fact that there's 2 of them actually makes them really powerful against single targets, even by themselves.
Combat Bomber KM6 Plan X2
2
Has an X pattern, so you can put the center on what you want to take the most damage, but this still doesn't have much coverage and isn't particulalry fast for a KM6.
Combat Bomber KM6 Plan W2
2.5
Like the X2, just with no X.
Combat Bomber KM6 Plan X4, X5, Z4
1
Now we're at the really good stuff. These strafe plans strike a good balance of speed (well, the Z4 is fast anyway), affordability, coverage, and ridiculous single target damage on bosses and anchors. These are wide enough to even use on deroys. They also shred bee swarms, and are fairly good against grounded monsters. Bonus points for being unlikely to do significant friendly fire damage to anything other than Bargas. Overall, these are some of the best weapons in the game. The X versions are a little slow though, so be warned (but not that warned). But you can call the X5 and then the Z4 right on top of it and have both of them hit at the same time, which can do an absolutely monstrous amount of damage to whatever is in the area, or you can place them side-by-side for maximum coverage. The X4 is much lower level, being a Hard difficulty weapon, but it actually has a crossover point where all the runs converge, meaning you can target small anchors with it.
Combat Bomber KM6 Plan X9/18
2
OK, now maybe we've gone too far with adding lines. JK, not really, but these extreme wide area strafe plans start to get very expensive to call in. Still very useful, but you need to make sure you have a sufficient amount of enemies around you to warrent taking these.
Heavy Bomber Phobos
2.5
The KM single line version of Phobos bombers. Thing is, you don't really have a lot of options for bombers in the beginning, so it's still maybe kind of useful.
Heavy Bomber Phobos Plan 2
2
Arranged in an X pattern. This thing actually hits harder than the Phobos 3, but the coverage is worse due to the pattern and only having 2 lines.
Heavy Bomber Phobos Plan 3, 4, Z Plan 4
1
There's our boys. The 3 is fantastic, and basically turns AR into AR as everyone knows him, but the 4 and Z Plan 4 are just monstrous. Both have enormous coverage (with the Z Plan 4 having a convenient fan pattern with a convergence point right at the beginning (so a divergence point?)), and can pretty much break the game on a LOT of levels. Their primary use is instantly destroying large swarms of grounded monsters, but they're pretty good against aliens and bosses too. The only thing these are not good against is silver spiders, which have too much health to care about bombers.

Noob Traps
Somehow Vesta. This is AR's Stampede, but even more so, in that I have no idea why this garbage is popular with so many noobs. Unlike Stampede, it doesn't even seem like it would be immediately impressive from a noob perspective. Bad damage over time with no stunlock ability and it blocks your own view and movement. Literally no idea why nublet ARs flock to this as much as they do when AR is THE super-weapon class. Completely inexplicable.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Missiles
I don't have a lot to say on these, other than you don't have to hold down the fire button the whole time the missiles are coming in. You can call them in and then do other stuff for a while until a bunch of them show up in the air. Then you guide them to targets using the laser.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Cruise Missile
3
Medium sized missiles that are OK on aliens. These are hard to rank. They would be a mainstay of any other class, but for AR they're mediocre. They have fast reload compared to Lionics, but they're just not in a DPS or AOE tier that AR cares about.
Lionic
2.5
Numerous small missiles with a long reload. These are quite good against large swarms of bees, as each individual missile will one-shot if sufficiently upgraded, and there are a lot of missiles. They are also pretty good against deroys. So why the 2.5? It's because even with Lionics being one of the best anti-swarm weapons in the game, they're still AR's 3rd best anti-swarm weapon at best, and AR also has no shortage of weapons that are great against bees while being generally more flexible than missiles.
Tempest
2
Unlike his other missiles, Tempests reload using credits. These are very situational nukes, but they can take out, or at least severely injure, non-Kaiju bosses and big anchors. It's best to call them in before you have aggroed the target. They can also be used against large swarms of silver spiders, something that mainly occurs in the DLC, but is a rare situation that AR doesn't dominate using his usual first look weapons.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Satellites
The rich get richer. This is another winning column for AR. The weapon types are very different, so I'll just get into it.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Bulge Laser R2 and onward
1.5
Bulge lasers are continuous fire beams that can do pretty good DPS and do lots of damage over the course of their firing cycle, but have long reload times. They can be useful for stunlocking a queen or alien type enemy, parking on an anchor, or for following a boss around, but they do have to be minded if you are attacking a moving target. They're also pretty good against large bee swarms.
Bulge Lasers before R2
3
These are just kind of weak. Their DPS/enemy health ratio is much lower than later models, presumably because they were not balanced for Hard difficulty.
Spritefall
1
Spritefalls are multi-shot AOE laser weapons. They can double as pretty effective crowd control and DPS on large targets, while being fast and easy to aim. They can even be pretty good against groups of aliens, especially maximum and power mode. Where they really shine is large swarms of bees (these can't catch a break against AR). I personally prefer KM6s for that purpose, but it's close.
Spritefall Shooting Mode β
2
I have never maxed damage on these which means I have never experienced them at their full potential. At least the final model requires you to do max damage if you want to one-shot type 2 drones in multiplayer. This is a huge deal, as type 2 drones will refill a maxed reload stat Spritefall Shooting Mode. The first Spritefall Shooting Mode β is also too slow to accurately track any flying enemy. Even still, I really like them. On a good team where other people are actually getting kills it's like "why can't I hold all these Spritefalls?" On a bad team, it can be incredibly frustrating to be focusing on one boss or pylon and see your credits not moving while you know for a fact the rest of your team is surrounded by enemies. In single player, the faster ones are for sure tier 1 weapons, as they can pop colonist heads and get their charge back in one shot.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Bulge Laser Beam Mode D
3
This bulge laser is very slow, somewhat slow to reload, and the shots scatter around a little bit. I think I've had cosmos escape stunlock due to it. I just don't like this one.
Spritefall Destroy
3
I don't know about this one. The Destroy has the largest radius and most shots of any Spritefall, as well as the longest firing time. I think the idea was to use it to kill waves spawned from large anchors. The problem is that the Spritefall Power Mode does this pretty well, while also doing more damage to the anchor. The Destroy has very weak shots, not even being able to one-shot bees in single player for most of Inferno. Enemies also have an easier time escaping the attack radius unscathed due to how spread out the shots are. DPS is low due to low total damage and long firing time. It's still a good weapon (because AR is busted), but I've found myself using it less and less as time goes on.
Spritefall Maximum
1
I guess this is in the same tier as other Spritefalls, but it's better, and should be talked about. The Spritefall Maximum dumps all its shots extremely quickly. While it does less total damage than the Power Mode or even Spritefall R, it finishes firing much sooner, meaning you can call another one in immediately provided you refill the credits before it finishes firing. This happens a lot more often than you might initially think. It's my favorite Spritefall overall, but less of an crowd control weapon and more of a DPS weapon than prior Spritefalls.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Limpet Guns
Not the worst column in the game, but very outclassed by other stuff, except for the snipers (don't use them for DPS) and, in some rare situations, the detectors.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Limpet Gun
3
They fire little mines that need to be detonated manually. Don't take these above ground; they're weak compared to gunships. They're more useful underground, but I still always favor turrets or Limpet Splendors, if given the option.
Limpet Sniper
2
Compared to the Limpet Guns, Snipers have much more powerful mines with a lower fire rate and lower capacity, but a much higher projectile speed. The reason these are tier 2 is that they are excellent pulling weapons, and not too bad at dealing with flying enemies. They are also one of AR's best weapons against red drones, which are difficult to hit with pretty much any of his other weapons.
Limpet Splendor
2.5
Limpets explode into bouncing, piercing flechette rounds. OK underground, and probably should be bumped up a tier in single player, but should not be a first choice for underground levels in multiplayer.
Splendor Shot
2.5
Same as above, but in shotgun form.
Limpet Detector
2
These are sort of like Ranger's AA Impulses in function. They lay flechette-shooting mines with proximity sensors, but they're much more powerful than similar level Splendor's. These can absolutely shred enemies in tunnels.
Limpet Chain Gun
3
These are actually pretty high DPS on paper, with the level 89 one has higher than the level 84 Stork at point blank range (lol Ranger). The problem is they are still limpet guns, and the actual DPS will be lower, as they don't start reloading until after all the limpets have detonated. They have less range than AR's gunships, and they don't stun humanoids immediately after they are fired like AR's 105, Vulcan, and 150mm gunships are able to. Overall, not bad, but 'm not sure I would ever take them over gunships. Maybe for teleportation ships, but I find Nixes to be more than enough for that job.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
Buster Bomb
2.5
Shoots a massive Limpet Splendor mine, but ultimately has the same function and similar effectiveness as any other splendor weapon.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Limpet detector, but not everyone knows it can be really good underground. Other than that, maybe Limpet Sniper. People tend to talk about all Limpets like they are equally bad, but Limpet Sniper is clearly a cut above almost all the others, and has legitimate uses.
Stationary Weapons
A lot of these aren't even stationary. Another crapshoot. This are mostly your personal defense turrets. In general, 4 or more turrets is better beause they can target more enemies at the same time, but you don't always get 4 or more turrets. 2 is sub-optimal, but sometimes you have to make due. You can attach turrets to vehicles, which can make your vehicle much harder for bugs to attack. Stuff that isn't turrets is generally OK to ignore, although you might want to take a look at Robot Bombs if you are playing offline.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Robot Bomb
3
Little Roomba bombs. They are OK. I could even see them being pretty useful underground, depending on the circumstances, but I personally don't take them. Their main purpose, besides being a weapon that you can take underground, is that you can lock onto enemies that you can't see (and that can't see you) and just let them loose. They even do pretty good damage. The reason I rate them this low is solely because AR is stuffed to the brim with OP weapons,
Beetle
4
I took down a moving teleportation ship with the Stag Beetle (which flies in an upward curve after you let it go) once, and it's still maybe the most impressive thing I've done in EDF. There are only 3 models of beetle. The Stag Beetle that flies upward is truley worthless. I wouldn't even bother using it on a stationary teleportation ship. The other two just bounce forward and attach themselves to enemies. They inherit your momentum, so you can run backward while laying them down and having them bounce in place, waiting to attatch to enemies that are following you. That makes them kind of like Ranger's timed grenades, but much worse, since they require remote detonation. And no, they aren't good in tunnels.

Specific/Unique Models
Name
Tier
Description
ZE-GUN
2
The initial 2 turret... turrets. They're those guns from Aliens. They don't do that much damage, but they can keep you safe while you're doing other stuff.
FZ-GUN
2
Flamethrower turrets. These pierce enemies, so a single one can stunlock a whole bunch of enemies if they line up right. They do not, however, have very much range, so they are not very effective against bees. You also only get 2 to start with. FZ-GUNs have a LOT of ammo.
ZE-GUN 2A
1
The first ZE-GUN with 4 turrets. These are amazing for their level. They might be the only weapon in the game that is straight up better than their direct successor, if you consider the ZER-GUN the successor to the ZE-GUN 2A.
ZER-GUN
3.5
Longer range than the previous 2 models, but does bad damage.
ZE Sniper
4
Extremely long range and might as well do zero damage.
FZ-GUN M2
1
FZ-GUN with 5 turrets. Obviously very good.
ZERA-GUN
2
This version only has 2 turrets. It's still more effective than the level 6 ZE-GUN 2A, as it has a higher fire rate on top of double the damage per shot, but it's not as much of an upgrade over a level 6 weapon as you would expect from a level 46 weapon. This is more because of how good the ZE-GUN 2A is than the ZERA-GUN being mediocre.
FZ-GUN MD
2
The 2 turret capacity on this one really hurts. Unlike the ZERA-GUN, the level 53 FZ-GUN MD competes with a 5 turret level 35 weapon that doesn't have significantly less DPS. I really don't know which one I prefer in early Hardest difficulty.
ZE-GUN10
1.5
Having 12 turrets allows it to engage a lot of targets at once, but it's also pretty difficult to deploy 12 turrets at the same time. You don't have to deploy and activate them all at once of course, but doing so is what actually gets you the DPS that this weapon is capable of. It's definitely a bit of a tradeoff, but even having a few turrets out can give you the staggers you need to deploy the rest safety, and when all 12 are out they do pretty good DPS. The rate of fire for each gun is low though, meaning they can't really stunlock things on individually, and tracking leaves something to be desired. Still really useful at times, but it's a weapon that requires some finesse.
ZEXR-GUN
1
Final bullet-based turret weapon. Just generally good. Has 4 high DPS long range turrets.
FZ-GUN MX
1
Basically the FZ-GUN M2 but for Inferno.
ZE Blaster
1
A lazer-based turret weapon with peircing. Has by far the highest DPS of any turret weapon, and this is very necessary for a DLC filled with gold ants and silver spiders. It's by far the best turret in the game, and its fast projectile speed makes it extremely good at tracking arial enemies, but it does burn through its ammo faster than the FZ and ZEXR turrets.
Speed Star
0
You'll see when you use it. Don't use it online so much so that other people actually get a chance to kill enemies.
ZE Launcher/ZEX Rapid Launcher
Annoying
I don't know where to put these because I don't know how good they are. What I do know is that they shoot or kill teammates virtually every time they're used (maybe I should be taking them more...). Their projectiles are grenades with considerable AOE, and you have no control over where they go after you slap the turret down. NEW INFO: I found a pretty good use for these. Put them on top of a Nix and go to town on some cosmos. They're actually quite strong, and they work very well with cosmos because their big explosions can break multiple armor pieces and hit multiple cosmos at once. I'm still rating them as "Annoying" because I still don't think they're anywhere near optimal in an anti-humanoid role, and they're annoying in every other situation I know.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
ZE-Gun 2A. Besides the first FZ gun, which can sometimes be good because of its piercing, this is basically the only usable turret until almost mission 100 on hard, but it's stats are so high for its level that it stays useful for a long while.
Support Equipment
These do what they say in their descriptions, and there isn't that much I feel like I need to say about them. I don't focus on them myself, as I think bringing your own offense is usually more effective than boosting other people's offense/defense (they don't boost air strikes, lasers, missiles, or gunships btw), but they definitely have their situational uses. Tend to be better with a lot of NPC allies. They are obviously much more useful underground, where you only have access to a small fraction of your total arsenal.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Guard Post
2
Decreases damage taken within a radius. Really useful when you can fit a lot of allied NPCs in the radius.
Zone Protector
2
Same as Guard Post, but has a much larger radius with less of a damage decrease.
Guard Assist Gun
2
Gun form of the Gaurd Post. Last for a shorter amount of time, but reload quickly. They have small radii, so they are more suited for human teammates and vehicles than NPCs.
Power Post
2
Same as Guard Post, but boosts attack instead of defense.
Offensive Territory
2
The Zone Protector of Power Posts.
Power Assist Gun
2
The Guard Assist Gun of Power Posts.
Life Vendor
2
Heal within an radius. Can be very, very useful if you have a lot of NPCs holding one position. Unlike the Zone Protectors and Power Posts, they don't reload, so ration carefully. Or don't ration carefully and stick several on the foot of your Nix to become a cosmonaut's worst nightmare for 60 seconds.
Life Spout Gun
2.5
Gun form of the life vendor. I don't take these very often, but they can occasionally be really good. They heal much more quickly, but that's actually often a detriment. Life Vendors can essentially buff an entire group of NPCs, vehicles, and teammates for a whole minute. Life Spout Guns can heal one thing for 10 seconds (unless you miss, which you are likely to do). You can use them to heal helicopters mid-air. It's kind of tricky, but you can exit the chopper, turn to the right and fire, and re-enter before you leave the blue circle. You can also use them to momentarily make someone else or your vehicle functionally invincible for a very brief time if you fire a bunch of themcof them on one target.
Laser Guide Kit
2
These allows homing weapons to lock onto them. They also drastically increase lock on range and speed.This isn't limited to Fencer's co-op exclusive missiles either. You can even control where Gleipnier shots go. But the most common use is with Leviathans. Pick a spot on the map to hold the laser, have the Fencer lock onto it, and move it onto the target. You can also pick another spot far away from where existing missiles are and have the Fencer lock on to that and fire more missiles while the others catch up. Very good for one-shotting bosses.
Guide Beacon Gun.
3
These attach to enemies. You dont't have to actively mind them like the Laser Guide Kits, but they don't increase lock on range or speed nearly as much (if at all).

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Guard Post M2
1
This post has a small radius, but is the only one gives you a 68% defense buff. Very good at any difficulty because you can put it on a Nix's foot and make it even more OP than it already is.
High-Speed Laser Guide Kit
3
Range is too short to be that good.
High Output/Power Beacon Gun
2
Two of the Beacon Guns increase lock on range and speed considerably more than other models. The downside is they have low capacity, but it doesn't really matter since pretty much every time you are using a Beacon Gun/Guide kit, you're using it for either burst damage or DPS on a single target. For that reason, I like these Beacon Guns sometimes, because they allow you to just tag a boss for the Fencer and then do your own thing.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Guard Post M2, probably because people don't look too close to the numbers on such an early level weapon.
Special
Lot of solid force fields here. Those are especially good against alien type enemies and red drones. One interesting property of force fields (maybe all of them, though I'm not sure) is that the shield extends below the shield generator. That means you can place them on most vehicles and get a shield that still extends to the ground, depending on if the surfaces your vehicle has allow for the shield to be placed relatively flat. Shield generators don't rotate with the thing they are on though, so whichever direction the shield is facing when it's placed, that's the direction it will always be facing.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Electromagnetic Bunker
1.5
Standard force fields. When deploying these, make sure to put them down one in front of the other. A lot of people try to make a circle of force fields or something, but you don't need to do that. All force fields are curved at least a little bit, so stacking them tightly creates a defensive lasagna of sorts, and you can just hang out in the middle of it and be almost 100% completely protected. You can also put them on vehicles (or even people) to give them a bit of a defense buff, provided they happen to be shot in the force field.
Anti-Aircraft Bunker
1.5
Basically just taller, skinnier Electromagnetic Bunkers. I use them almost interchangeably. Both can protect you against ground or air threats. The biggest difference is that AA Bunkers deploy farther away from the shield generator, making them not as good for putting on vehicles.
Personal Shelter
2
A single force field tube that one person can stand in. Remember how I said that shields extend below the shield generator, and that you can place shield generators on vehicles? Well you can also place them on people.The personal shelter is a tube, so it will always surround the character model that it's placed on. Basically, you can give a teammate 18k extra health by slapping one of these on their head. Takes a little bit of skill to get placement right though. You can do the same thing with other shield generators, but it's harder to be reliable with their placement, as you usually need to put all of them on the other player in order to mostly surround them in shield. You can also just stand in it, which I'm pretty sure was the intened purpose.
Suppress Gun
4
AR's shotguns. They are simply not worth using. They have basically no range, nor are they very powerful. They would make sense as a last-resort self defense weapon for when you have been grabbed bya a tadpole or a red ant if the 120mm gunships didn't exist, but unfortunately for these, the 120mm gunships exist.
Decoy
2.5
Decoys act as high priority targets for all enemies. There are decoy guns, but they are paid DLC, and I never bought them. Normal Decoys require you actually place them down, kind of like a bunker. This limits their usefulness, as none of them really have enough health to act as a true decoy to aid in your escape if you are facing some kind of extreme swarm situation. Where they are good though is when you can put them in a place where the enemy cannot reach, such as under an awning, or between tightly packed transformers. This can cause enemies to group up in one area far away from you, which is exactly how AR wants them to behave.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Electromagnetic Prison
1.5
Very interesting forcefield that has a giant U shape and a ton of HP for its level. Its use is a little unintuitive. Instead of plopping it down in the direction of the threat, what you will usually want to do is find a large building an put it down facing the building, so that only the bottom of the U is sticking out. This gives you a ton of protection while exposing only a small amount of the force field to enemy fire and relying on the building to block anything coming from the back and sides. I suppose this strategy works for any force field, but it's especially effecive with the Prison. They can also serve as emergency barriers for teammates or NPCs since they are so long.
Borderline/Heavy Bunker
2.5
Read the last sentence of the Electromagnetic Prison description. They are not U shaped, so they will always be subject to large areas of attack.
Electromagnetic Wall
3
HUGE circular wall with a ton of HP. This will encircle you and basically all your allies on almost any level. Its enormous size means that it will be being shot from all directions by a lot of enemies, so its really something to be used to momentarily catch your bearings before it's quickly destroyed. Thing is, I can't really think of a place where this is particularly useful.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Tanks
Tanks.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Blacker
3-2.5
Blackers are basic tanks that are pretty much entirely outclassed by Nixes after you get the Red Coat at lvl 10. They are simple to operate, but lack any sort of notable power or speed while being inaccurate at long range. Their only real benefits are simplicity of operation and lower cost. There are two variants, the A series, with piercing projectiles, and the E series, with explosive projectiles. Of the two versions, I prefer the E series. The reason for this is that both versions have B+ accuracy. For the E series this isn't as bad, because you just need to hit near your target, but it makes the A series almost entirely pointless. What is the use of a long-range piercing projectile if it doesn't actually have the ability to hit things reliably at range. I really have no idea why they made these so inaccurate. If they had A accuracy, they might have gotten a bump into tier 2, but IDK.
Titan
2
Titans are the better tank overall, as they actually have armor, a machine gun with which to defend themselves with at close range, extra seats if needed (from which you can fire either missiles or grenades, which are... OK), and a decent AOE weapon in the Requim Cannon. But how often are you really craving a decent AOE weapon as AR? Well, not that often, but sometimes you aren't craving any sort of mobility or close-range fighting ability either, so why not take one?

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Melt Buster
4
Oops, I forgot about this thing entirely for the first version of the guide. Not that it mattered.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Ground Vehicles
These have some support/mobility utility.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Grape
2
Fast movement with a compartment for carrying people. These exist basically as rescue devices. The DLC one has a decent peircing shotgun, but their guns are basically a last resort weapon, and their primary function is to move you and your teammates around. They aren't as fast as Freebikes, but they don't take impact damage and you don't fall out if they tip over.
Naegling
2
Missile platforms with some very situational use as back-line supplements to your air strikes, but I think I might be pushing it with tier 2. They have paper armor and very little ability to avoid any incoming fire, so a single bug can ruin your day pretty easily. But... they do good damage, and have a huge lock-on range.
Caliban
2
Ambulance. I literally never take these, but if you have no idea what else to take, they are an OK option. Technically the only source of infinite healing in the game, they are tanky enough to provide teammates with a place to recover their health in relative safety. WDs especially like them because they can also regain their energy while waiting for their health to fill up.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Helicopters
There are 2 versions, although often times it doesn't matter which version you are taking. Helicopters can allow you to reach places where no other vehicle can. Sometimes these are places of complete safety. For this reason, they are popular for cheese strats. The simplest form of cheese strat is to just fly above where any enemy can hit you and then use air strikes. This can be acheived with a little bit of practice by getting out of the chopper, hitting the fire button, and then re-entering immediately. Obviously, this won't make you invincible if your enemies have guns or wings, but you can take a healing gun and use the get out and back in method to attach healing stickies to the helicopter to try to get some more life out of it. Helicopters are significantly harder to fly with KBM than controller. With a controller, you can pretty easily strafe in circles and actually engage in some effective close quarters combat. On KBM, this is almost impossible. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's much, much harder, and most KBM players use helis in a more defensive manner. The biggest weakness of all helicopters is that you lose access to your more complex AR abilities while in the helicopter, such as aiming your air strikes or using satellite lasers or gunships.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
N9 Eros (Non-Vulture)
2
The non-Vulture variants have high DPS double machine guns and lock-on missiles. The machine guns technically peirce, but they have so little range it doesn't really matter. Definitely the better offensive helicopter, but like I said in the general description, they are difficult to fly well on KBM.
N9 Eros Vulture
2
Vultures variants have twin laser guns and a napalm launcher. The napalm is predicably fairly pointless, but the lasers do respectable damage. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to hit small targets with. This isn't a KMB thing either, it's just hard to hit a small target with a fixed gun with a low RoF on a helicopter.


Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Powered Exoskeletons
This column is, by itself, 50% of what makes AR the best class in the game. Look at this glorious column. Outside of the very first units and the one-off Battle Cannon, there's nary a 3 or even 2.5 in sight. It's largely these, in conjunction with Bombers, Gunships, and Spritefalls, that kind of allow AR to just not have to "play the game" on a lot of levels. He can just choose to win, and do so by basically selecting the things which he wants to die before going back into the safety of his Nix and just watching it happen. They have tons of health, especially at later levels, good-great mobility on a lot of units, and tons more versatility than other vehicles. They are more expensive than most other vehicles, but it really doesn't matter that much, as AR's ability to afford game-breaking weaponry scales with the difficulty of the level. If you actually need to be able to afford constant Nixes, you will be able to. They are often capable of just walking up to crowds of aliens and killing them as they flail ineffectively against you, even without assistance from other weapons/buffs. All other classes can board them. They don't start off super-OP, but pretty quickly get there. An AR stacking Gunships, Spritefalls and Nix fire on a group of cosmonauts makes him look straight-up unfair (because he is). Later ones are so strong that you can safely call Spritefalls and Phoboses directly on top of yourself, killing most things around you and leaving yourself with a few scratches.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Nixes < LV 10
2.5
Only reason I'm mentioning this is that I kind of sold Nixes as a broken column, which they are overall, but the of early ones aren't. The level 10 Nix Red Coat is awesome, but the 3 before that just don't have the armement, armor, or speed that makes Nixes so good at every other stage of the game. I just don't want anyone to use the Nix A2, for instance, and think "wtf, these aren't good at all." Trust me, they get a lot better.
Nix Red
1
The Red series all have at least 1 flamerthrower and 2 cannister shotguns on their shoulders. Two of them have a machine gun instead of 2 flamethrowers, which I actually kind of like since it gives them some extra mid-range ability. But the point of these are that they are FAST. Like really fast. The final Nix Red Gaurd is actually one of the fastest modes of travel in the game, and its thrusters can fire long enough for you to be able to jump on top of tall buildings. This combination of close-range power and high speed covers most of ARs very few weaknesses, which is probably why these are the most popular Nixes online. You can fight your way out of a swarm and reposition yourself very quickly, and the Canister Shots are particularly good options against bosses, bees, large anchors, and teleportation ships.
Powered Exoskeleton Nix
1
The standard Nixes. They have a variety of configurations as you go through the game. Early ones have a pretty awful rocket cannon that is only really useful for destroying buildings, but later ones see you outfitted with a full set of revolver cannon, flamethrower, howitzer, and and missile pod. This configuratoin gives you damage options at every range, with the revolver cannons and howitzer being particularly good for fighting humanoid enemies. They aren't that fast, but they aren't slow either.
Nix Cannon
2
Cannon type Nixes are very slow and sport dispersal mortars on their shoulders. These are like mini air strikes (but actually kind of effective as air strikes, unlike the Stampede). Their hand-mounted weapons are rocket revolver cannons; burst fire weapons which are notparticularly good, but the purpose of the Cannon type Nixes is to serve as gun platforms for the dispersal mortars anyway. The reason I have these in tier 2 is that AR usually has all the AOE damage he could ever want, and would usually perfer more speed and close range DPS than he would more AOE. Still, like with the Titans, sometimes he can get away with taking even more AOE, and the 2 Cannon type Nixes are well positioned in the level list so that they don't feel superfluous.
Nix Missile Gun/Revolver Custom
1
These come equipped with 2 revolver cannons and 2 missile pods. They are slow, but not as slow as the Cannon series, and their aim speed is quite good. They shouldn't be used for maneuvering, but they have superior firepower to other Nixes and are good against every type of enemy. Unfortunately, there is no Inferno level version. Rather, the final Powered Exoskeleton Nix gets its single revolver cannon's power boosted to 2x that of the Revolver Custom.
Nix Grenadier
1
Grenadiers move like standard Nixes and have two shoulder-mounted "Explosions." Yes, that's the weapon name, and it's aptly named. Explosions do some of the most burst damage and highest DPS in the game. They are excellent against bosses and Cosmonauts, and are even powerful enough to be effective against silver spiders, something few explosive weapons can claim, but they are basically point-blank weapons. And this is where the weakness of the Grenadier series shows itself: terrible primary arm-mounted weapons. Grenadiers have time-delay grenade launchers on their arms, and no, they are not at all powerful. You basically have no close range defensive capability beyond the Explosions, and you will naturally want to save those for high value targets. This means that you really need to choose the right time to go on the offensive with a Grenadier, and maybe take some time to dress it up with turrets for personal defense.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Nix Grenadier M2
1
It's a Grenadier with a machine gun. So, in other words, a Grenadier without its main weakness. So, in other words, the best pound-for-pound Nix in the game, save for arguably the DLC Nix Assault. This model comes near the end of Hard difficulty, which is a hilariously unfair placement for it from the Primer's perspective. It has enough HP that nothing in the base game really threatens it, other than red bees. There are also fewer heavy-armored Cosmos than in Hardest and Inferno, so it has to do less work to massacre the average Cosmo. It's technically in the same tier as the other Grenadiers, because even a Grenadier without a mid-range weapon is one of the best vehicles (or even things) in the game, but I thought it needed special mention.
Nix Saber
2
The weirdest Nix in the game. First, yes those Power Saber numbers are real (not that they'll do you much good). Second, while the shoulder-mounted Powerdynes don't have much ammo, they have highest long-range DPS in the entire game, and there are a few instances in the DLC where they are useful to have. Third, that is how it's supposed to control. No, your controller/mouse isn't broken. I can't describe how weird this thing is to aim, you just have to try it for yourself. It is possible to get used to, but yeah, you will miss quite a few shots at first. Fourth, whichever way it is facing when you call it in is probably the way it will be facing when it dies. It is so slow at turning that you are often better off just waiting until you can call in another one in the proper direction.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Powered Exoskeletons (continued)
I guess I wrote too much on these.

Specific/Unique Models (continued)

Name
Tier
Description
Nix Assault
1
Kind of like the Grenadier M2 in function, but faster than a Red series Nix and with 2 machine guns instead of 2 Explosions. The Assault is AR's ultimate blitzing weapon. The 2 machine guns do a combined 18,000 DPS, and the Explosion is always there to seal the deal. It has tremendously high walk and turn speed, making it even better than the Red series at close quarters combat. Mobility is more important in the DLC than in the base game, so it's a good thing that AR gets this model in Inferno.
Nix Battle Cannon
2.5
Weird one-off with two Heavy Revolvers and two shoulder Howitzers. It is very slow, and neither of those weapons is that accurate, but it's serviceable enough as a long range artillery piece.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Like with Freebikes, everything. They're so good, but a lot of people just never use them because they're cumbersome.
Special Vehicles
Another good column. Nixes can't go underground, so there's Depth Crawlers. Bargas are the only vehicles more effective against cosmonauts than Nixes, but are useless against swarms of bugs except as a decoy (which can actually be pretty important). Proteus is pretty mediocre in general, as it takes 3 people to man all the guns, which are good, but are usually not worth the time or manpower. However, it can still be pretty good in maps where you know you won't have to move at all and just want to pump out air strikes and Buster Cannon shots (like Plain of Conflict).

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Depth Crawler
2
There are a few versions of these, but they are all in the same tier. They have a mix of side mounted sniper cannons, heavy revolver cannons, flamethrowers, and rapid-fire rocket launchers. Each has a front-mounted machine gun. The reason they are in tier 2 is because they are the only vehicle AR can even take underground, so they are by definition situational. I never use them above ground though. Some people do, and they like to climb buildings, but I think something else is always better when it's actually available.
Barga
2
Giant Robot. Has virtually infinite health from the perspective of a Cosmonaut, but not from the perspective of a swarm of insects. They are sometimes very useful for passive tanking. Cosmos will prioritize one even if you havent gotten in it yet, and bugs/tadpoles will get stuck crawling/landing on it. They can also block incoming enemy projectiles. The game pitches them as boss killers, but the ones that you call in yourself don't actually do that much damage. They're still powerful enough to make short work of Cosmos though,
Proteus
2
"Hey guys I have a Proteus. Everybody get in my Proteus." You hear this at some point if you play enough. Unfortunately, like all multi-seat vehicles, Proteus isn't powerful enough to warrent the entire team stopping what they are doing to man its guns (unless everyone else is Ranger). On the plus side, its guns are actually good. It has 2 powerful rocket launchers and a 30x lock missile launcher that does good damage/shot. There are a few levels where pretty much any AR will just want to hang back and throw down air strikes, so kind of like the Titan, Proteus is not a bad option when you know you will not be needing a Nix for anything.



Noob Traps
Barga. Don't get me wrong, its great, but a lot of people default to it when in reality there is usually no reason to take one at all. But maybe they just like giant robots.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Fencer
CC Strikers
Just use piercers for the most part. A lot of the early strikers are shockingly horrible. Most low level weapons are at least balanced to be usable in early-game hard, but I think a lot of these were balanced exclusivley for a single-player normal playthrough.The D3 and D9 vibro-rollers are surprisingly good because of their fast charge time and good damage reduction. Great for tadpoles and green ants, and the D9 can be used to kite any amount of red wasps (this isn't actually worth doing). Vulcan hammers are over-rated. Swords and axes oddly pierce shield screens for whatever reason, but their stats for online are so low that this isn't really ever useful unless you're playing like a giant ♥♥♥♥♥.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Vibro Hammer (and Finest Hammer XE)
3
Multi-level charge weapons that create big shock waves in front of the user. Only the final level of charge does even close to enough damage online to be usable, but every level of charge gives you the same amount of damage reduction while swinging the weapon. Problem for most of them is that it's only 50% damage reduction, which is really quite low for how uninspiring the damage these weapons do is. The Finest Hammer XE is an exception, doing 90% damage reduction, but it's a DLC weapon that does only a little more damage than a level 69 weapon in the same category while having no other advantages, so it's basically just as mid as its predecessors.
Haken
3
The Haken type weapons are some of the weirdest in the game. They are multi-level charge weapons that create one or more shock waves, either in front or behind the user, while applying damage reduction when swinging. I guess only the middle 2 Hakens are that weird, since they fire backward on the final (and only worthwhile) charge level. The damage reduction is kind of nice I guess, but all of these weapons are pretty weak and have very little range, and 2 of them are literally designed for running away, which I can't abide.
Vulcan Hammer
3
Big hammers that make a small explosion when you swing them. Like Hakens, they have 3 charge levels. Unlike Hakens, the 2nd charge level can actually kill stuff, but it has a tiny blast radius, so good luck hitting anything with it. They provide good damage reduction, but the problem is their blast radius is just not big enough to kill very many things at once, and, while their burst damage is high, enemy fire will often push you out of range before you can finish your swing. The best use I have for them is just standing in a crowd with 2 of them and firing off max charges as fast as I can to take advantage of the damage reduction. It works, but I think there are better strategies for attacking large crowds.
Dynamo Blade (and Dyna Force Blade)
3-?
Energy swords with 3 charge levels. Man, these could have been great (and are offline) if they just did a little more damage on the 2nd charge level. Unfortunately, they don't. The third charge level unleashes a powerful slash with a lot of range, but it takes a really long time to charge. The first version at level 19 is a bit of an exception though. In theory, it's maxed charge speed isn't that long, but mine is still sitting at 5 stars somehow, so I guess I'll never know how good it could have been... (still not that good)
Force Axe (except the first one)
3
Like a stronger, shorter range Force Blades, but with 3 charge levels. The damage they do at final charge level is actually good, but unfortunately you need to be grounded to swing on final charge, which really limits its usefulness. These would honestly be much better if they were just slightly lower level than they are. Then you could use that second charge to one-shot stuff, if only just for a short window and at max stars. Or if they had damage reduction. Alas, neither is the case.

CC Strikers (continued)
Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Vibro Roller D3 and D9
2
The D3 and D9 vibro-rollers are surprisingly good because of their fast charge time and good damage reduction. Great for tadpoles and green ants. The D9, with 70% damage reduction, is especially good for kiting. See under-rated section for details.
Vibro Roller and Vibro Roller D2
4
These have different problems. The first is way too weak to be usable on Hard, and the second has a very long charge time for its final charge, but only has 40% damage reduction. There's just no point to either of them.
Finest Hammer
2.5
I'll throw this one into 2.5 because of the 90% damage reduction and so-so crowd control ability. It's actually not that much weaker than the level 107 Finest Hammer XE, which is pretty insane. The Finest Hammer XE is weak as hell, so that's not that much of a compliment, but the Finest Hammer is at least suited to Hardest difficulty.
Force Blade and Force Blade D
4
Energy swords that have 2 charge levels. Just way too weak. Normal mode weapons.
Force Blade MA and Force Blade MAXE
3
These are stronger than the first 2 versions, but still ultimately not that good online. You'll still be 2 shotting at best with the Force Blade MA. The MAXE actually has 3 charge levels and the damage stats of the Dyna Force Blade, but with much less charge time for the final charge level. The problem is that the final charge level is a wide spread-shot style slash. This could be good in base game, but its a DLC weapon, where that level of damage would only be good if it was concentrated on a single projectile. You don't want to be getting close to gold ants just to try to do 6794.7 damage to them.
Force Axe (the first one
4
Just a way too weak Force Axe. I have no idea what this thing is doing at level 39. You can't even get it in normal, so it's not like it's balanced for that. It's like a single-player only Force Axe that wouldn't even be very good there.

Noob Traps
Vulcan hammers, especilly the ZD. I don't think it's a noob trap so much as it is incredibly over-rated, but I didn't make an over-rated section. You take pushback when shot while swinging this thing and its explosion radius is quite small, which in turn means you will be missing a lot of attacks with it. Actually, in terms of pure DPS, it's damage output wouldn't be impressive regardless of whether you had pushback or not. If you really want point blank range DAMAGE, just use flame revolvers (assuming you have the spin-up upgraded). If you want to de-leg a group of cosmos, you'll have much better luck just shooting them with 2 shots from heavy mortars. If you want damage reduction against a swarm of grounded monsters (not something that usually even matters), just use a shield setup. Or, on inferno, use the significantly better Vibro Roller to mitigate damage.

Most under-rated
Vibro Roller, mostly D9. D9 is actually a fairly good offensive weapon against swarms, but I really can't over-state how survivable it makes you. Wasps are not particularly good at hitting something that is ascending or descending quickly. The D9 allows you to dash boost as fast as you can, giving your substantial horizontal and vertical speed, and then recover your boosts during its long attack animation. All you need to do is start the animation a little after you begin descending. You still might get hit on your way down, but attacks will only do 30% damage, and they tend to knock you out of the way of other incoming attacks. Do you actually need this level of survivability in multiplayer? No, not really, but it's there.
CC Piercers
Everything here is good-great, except for the flashing spears, which are more just outclassed than bad. It is very rare to see a Fencer who knows what they're doing not using a Piercer, although it can happen. Everything here has a dash, and this column is almost certainly where the dash portion of your mobility will be coming from.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Blasthole Spear
1
Blasthole Spears are largely unexceptional, but generally good at most things. Decent range, especially with the second swing, piercing, pretty good damage (although definitely not a DPS weapon), and good reload and ammo capacity. They are primarily crowd control weapons for ground enemies (but not Silver Spiders), although the second swing has enough range that you can usually hit nearby flying enemies as well. They take a little getting used to, as they have some delay before firing, and have a 2 hit combo with different attack animations, but overall they're... fine.
Flashing Spear
3
Flashing Spears' major weakness is their range. They have less range than Jackhammers for almost the entirety of the game. Their range isn't much lower, but they don't have anything other than piercing to make up for it, and Blastholes and Blast Twins also have that. If Flashing Spears were DPS weapons, then that would be a mitigating factor, but they aren't. They are designed as if they are, but if you actually calculate their long-term DPS, they aren't that much more powerful than Blasthole Spears. This is because of their long reload time, which bottoms out at 4 seconds. Their burst DPS is pretty good, but given how little ammo they have, reload time is a very important attribute. They won't be able to take out groups of strong enemies without reloading, so their burst DPS number pretty quickly becomes meaningless. In fact, they can't even take out a single Heavy Cosmo in one mag. The final Flashing Spear contains 50960.5 damage in its magazine. The earliest Heavy Cosmonauts encountered on Inferno have almost that much health in their torso armor alone. Finally, you can't fire them at the same time as another weapon, so no supplementing their mediocre DPS with a Dexter like you can do for the Jackhammers. I can't even really say anything good about them in single player. Yeah, their DPS isn't as much of an issue, but that can be said for every other weapon as well.
Jackhammer
1
Jackhammers have so-so DPS by themselves, but they can be fired at the same time as another weapon. Jackhammer + Dexter shotgun is probably the most popular combo in the game, as it's one of Fencer's best DPS options that also allows for decent mobility. I say decent because you cant cancel a dash by firing a Jackhammer or a Dexter. If you are in a dash animation, you either need to wait until you stop, or you need to have a boost to spend. This, combined with the fact that they aren't piercing weapons, makes them less than optimal as crowd control. They also have pretty low range, meaning they aren't very good at anti-air (the DLC version has 96m, but its largely pointless as an anti-air weapon in lieu of just using the DLC Dexter). Their primary use case is therefore doing damage to Cosmos and Colonists, a job they do pretty well. They have enough ammo to easily kill most non-boss enemies in less than one mag when paired with the Dexter, and they stunlock basically anything they hit. They also reload fairly quickly, so you shouldn't find yourself out of completely defenseless on a Dexter+Jackhammer setup for too long.
Spine Drive
1
Spine drivers may seem weak at first, but they are excellent anti-air weapons, and can safely kill gold ants outside of their attack range. There's not much to say about them. They fire a high damage projectile instantly when you hit the fire button and have significantly more range than other piercers. They don't pierce, but that's OK, as they were never meant to be heavy crowd control weapons. Their accuracy and speed also make them good at hitting humanoid limbs, so even though they don't have the DPS to be effecive humanoid killers, they can temporarily colonists and light armor cosmos relatively quickly.
CC Piercers (continued)
General Weapons (continued)

Name
Tier
Description
Blast Twin Spears
1
Blast Twins are Fencer's best weapon line, by a mile. They operate sort of like Blasthole Spears, but much faster and with an un-slowable forward dash built into their attack animations. The un-slowable part is really, really important. They are great weapons regardless, with extremely high DPS and fast reload, but the fact that they can move you forward even while you are getting hit by enemy attacks is invaluable. This property not only makes a Blast Twin Fencer much faster than a normal Fencer (you don't have to worry so much about counting boosts/dashes, and your attacks' forward movements are added to your dash boost forward movement), it also makes enemies miss a lot more. The attack movement is extremely fast, much faster than any enemy can properly track. Enemies missing means you take less damage. Enemies missing also means you can perform a regular dash without being stuck in place. Being able to dash more often when under fire means enemies miss more. Enemies missing more means etc, etc, etc... Blast Twin is just a straight boost to Fencer's base power. The catch is that they are 1) much harder to use than almost any other weapon, and 2) very reliant on their ammo stat. Obtaining their maximum theoretical DPS requires performing a maneuver where you dash boost backwards between attacks in order to counter-act the forward movement of the attacks. Even doing this at a basic level will be very difficult for new players, never mind being good enough to target specific body parts or re-align yourself on another side of the enemy mid-combo. Blast Twins also have very short range, topping out at 64m. This makes them often unsuitable for taking on flying enemies by themselves. As much as I've talked them up, they are really nothing like WD's broken and poorly designed Dragoon Lance series. They have actual, major weaknesses and require a tremendous amount of skill to use to their full potential. But they are powerful enough when mastered that I recommend everyone who has completed at least Hard difficulty with Fencer give them a shot. At worst, they will still be a valuable part of your weapon repertoire in instances where you require more speed than what you usually have.

Noob Traps
Nothing. Experienced players might say Jackhammer, but a lot of people can't use Blast Twins, which is one of the very few high skill floor weapons in the game. If you can't use Blast Twins, then everything else, including and especially Jackhammer, becomes a lot more useful.

Most under-rated
I guess I'll put Blast Twins here. I was hesitant to put such a difficult weapon in under-rated, as most people would probably benefit from ignoring it at first and focusing on other, easier options that are still effective, but Blast Twin really is just that good, and I rarely see anyone using it online, let alone using it well. Only Dragoon lances and arguably KM6/Phobos are better weapon types. When mastered, it can, in combination with other weapons, essentially supplant the rest of the Piercer column, which comprises some of the best weapons in the game. The long and short is that you get Jack+Dexter DPS with MUCH better additional benefits, especially to your overall agility. Another thing I didn't mention in the main text is that the second hit of the 2 hit combo can one-shot Cosmonaut limbs, as it is technically a 2 projectile attack. This is an extremely valuable property in high level play, allowing you to instantly turn a full health Cosmonaut into your own cover. It also massively boosts the effectiveness of dash only setups, increasing both their DPS and mobility. Fencer players can sometimes feel locked into taking certain combos because they feel they require a certain degree of mobility and a certain level of close-range DPS, but Blast Twins allow you to meet mobility and DPS requirements for most levels regardless of what your dash/boost setup is otherwise. They are are completely transformative weapons when used properly.
Shields
A Shield paired with a Deflect Cell and Dash Cell is a generally good tactic that works especially well against humanoids and Tadpoles. Some people prefer pairing them with Shield Protection Armor for the increased block angle, but I find Deflect Cell is usually more useful, for reasons I explain in the Enhanced Shields section. Also, see Most Under-Rated for my overall thoughts on Shields. Spoiler, they're under-rated.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Deflection Shield
1.5
The mid-weight shields. Deflection shields lower your turn speed when held up, but not just by being equipped.
Ion Mirror Shield
2
Similar damage reduction an durability as the Deflection Shields, but with a smaller deflect angle. They reload more quickly and have no turning speed penalty even when held up. They use less durability to reflect, but have a reflection distance of only 5 meters, as compared to the Deflection Shields' 10.
Tower Shield
1
Tower Shields have significant turning speed reduction both when held up and when just equipped. They have the longest reload times at 15 seconds, but also by far the highest durability and deflection angle, as well as the most damage reduction. Their reflects have a massive 15m range, which allows you to push a tremendous amount of acid back toward a Mother Monster, and even reflect all of a Queen's needles. For this reason, they are actually probably the most useful reflectors in the game, even though their reflect animation is very long in comparison to other shields. That said, their main use is damage reduction. Paired with a deflect cell, they pretty much last forever, and let almost no damage through, making you functionally invincible against all but the largest Cosmonaut armies. Gold ants still don't care though, and there are instances where there are enough red bees that you won't be able to get by on tanking alone.
Reflector
3
Shields designed solely for reflecting, these don't have that much use in EDF5. Reflecting isn't what it used to be in 4.1, and these provide no real blocking capability. They are fast at reflecting, but like I said, Tower Shields are still probably the best reflectors since volume of projectiles reflected is more important in this game than how fast you can spam reflect.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Master Shield
1
Pretty much just a super-powered Deflection Shield. It has about half the durability of the final Tower Shield, but this is usually more than enough when paired with a Deflect Cell or Shield Protection Armor. It has negligible turning speed reduction when held up.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Basically everything except reflector. A lot of people say to never use shields, and frankly most of those people would probably be better at the game if they always used shields. They are easy, safe, hard counters against certain difficult situations, and they build good positioning fundamentals. Noobs who start out with a lot of dash-boost can often come to rely on it as a crutch, and often develop into pretty much just a less effective version of a what a Wing Diver can become with much less effort. Shield Fencer might be slower and less capable of dealing damage, but speed and power are not always your main priority, especially in multiplayer. But rest assured, there is no legitimate shield Fencer vs. mobility Fencer debate. That's not a real thing. You will be better if you use both styles, period.
Autocannons
Overall solid column, with Dexters probably being the most common sidearm to piercers. These weapons all have a boost, and are for close to mid-range fighting. Wide gamut of DPS values though, so they don't really fall into one type of use case. Everything has a boost.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Hand Gatling (both UT and FG)
Unranked
It's pointless to even try to tier these, or explain how they can be used. See noob traps.
Galleon Cannon
2.5
Galleon cannons have a boost and fire a usually accurate projectile for a moderate distance immediately as you pull the trigger. For these reasons, people tend to like them as a general purpose weapon, but I personally almost never use any of them. It might be a personal preference thing, but I find them to be too lacking in DPS, and I don't find the boost to be enough of an incentive. They will still do OK against all small and weak enemies though, so you won't be gimping yourself that much if that's what you're using them against. Also, guarantee at least one of these will be your best option for something at some point if you're going through the game for the first time.
Dexter Automatic Shotgun
1
Actually one of the best, most versitile weapon lines in the entire game. The first 2 are a little underpowered for hard, but they can still serve their secondary purpose quite well, which is stunning enemies. If you are using them with a piercer, which you probably are, they can be fired between piercer shots in order to keep enemies flinching, or to cover your reloads. Later models do all that while also being some of Fencer's highest DPS weapons at close range. They are even pretty good against bees, which tend hang out somewhere within the first 2/3s of their range, where they are still doing acceptable damage.
Flame Revolvers (non-Hellflame)
2
Fencer's pre-Hellflame Revolvers are some of the highest DPS at their levels. I think only Wing Diver can do more using the Big Core to boost weapon charge rate, but regardless of where exactly they stand, a single one is pretty much all the DPS you need. This is nice, since that means you can take just one and not worry about taking a muzzle stabilizer (if you're on controller; KB+M players will either need to take a muzzle stabilizer or get comfortable dragging the mouse down over and over, which is doable). Alternatively, you can forego some mobility and gain apocolyptic levels of face-melting DPS by taking 2 Flame Revolves and a muzzle stabilizer. I keep referring to their DPS because that's mainly what they're for. They will kill everything in range, but they have very short range. Everything you are firing at will be in range to fire back (except red ants and gammas, obviously). I mainly use them to take out cosmos and colonists, but I do sometimes use them for underground tunnel clearing. Word of warning: the spin up stat needs to be near maxed for these in order for them to be useful.
Disruptor
1
See under-rated section. If these could reload, I think they would be a top 5, maybe top 3 weapon. You should be using these. New players should be using these. If your problem is you are getting killed by aliens too much, or you need to take down teleportation ships faster (they are my favorite way to kill teleportation ships), these are often a really, really good solution. Just remember: you can switch weapons in order to stop them from draining ammo.

Autocannons (continued)
Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
FGS Diffusion Gatling
3
I don't think these are very good CC weapons, which is I think what their intended role was given that their bullets spray out kind of randomly in front of you. I actually use them for DPS in some rare instances, but only in combination with a glitch. They are alright as CC, just not good enough for me to recommend them as anything more than a last resort.
Hellflame Revolver
1
OMG, this thing is amazing. It's basically the DC2's Flame Revovler with 3x the range. Considering it's a level 82 weapon, that means it's no longer a DPS god, but it still does respectable damage if crowd control is your objective (which is now very possible with the added range), or if you just want to use it as a supporting weapon against high-HP targets. Doubling up will comfortably put you in face-melt territory again though, and considering you have access to the 3-4 and 4-3 Multichargers at this point, you can actually maintain decent mobility while also taking a muzzle stabilizer. However you want to use them (I switched to "them" here because I so often take 2), they are good against every enemy in the game, except maybe some of the drones. They also make you effectively invincible in tunnels. There isn't one single tunnel based situation in the game where enemies can advance on you if you are spraying 2 of these down the tunnel (make sure to offset them a little bit so you have ammo from one to cover the reload of the other). But they have the same weakness as the other revolvers. Unless your spin up time is near maxed, you will be using them more as defensive CC weapons when you know you have 4+ seconds before you need to start firing.
Galleon Rapid Fire Cannon M2
2
The only Galleon Cannon I kind of like. It does impressive DPS for its level. Actually, it does more DPS than the next Galleon Cannon (the Galleon Armor-Piercing Cannon, which does not pierce anything, least of all armor). While it does have a longer reload time, it's long-term DPS is still higher, and it has more than enough range for plinking bees and drones. I've even used it late game Inferno, despite it being a level 68 weapon.

Noob Traps
Hand Gatling and Galleon Cannon. Do not use Galleon Cannons for dps. That is a horrible idea, and maybe the biggest mistake fencers make overall. As for Hand Gattlings, I don't really know how to put it. I've tried to do a write-up succinctly explaining why, but have been unable to do so. They are not general-purpose weapons, because they aren't actually very good at crowd control, and they aren't particularly good DPS, but they aren't bad DPS either. The weird thing about them is that I think they can be very good at noob level and absolute top level (i.e. regularly using a difficult glitch that this guide assumes you will not be using), but nowhere in between. And what they are good at is weirdly variable and doesn't follow a pattern. I'll say this about them to try to sum it up: If you are using them for something and you are satisfied with how they are performing, I guess keep using them. But if they feel even slightly underwhelming, don't put effort into making them work. Just move on quickly to another option.

Most under-rated
Disruptor. People are scared of the limited ammo, but that ammo goes a long way. Lvl 23 Disruptor in particular is a super-weapon on Hard. There is really no downside to these other than ammo, and if you save them for taking out high-value targets, you'll have plenty of ammo. This is pretty easy to do, as Fencer can take 4 weapons, and usually 2 is all you really need in order to complete the mission. Flame revolvers are also maybe slightly under-rated. They are tricky to use, as they have a spinup, massive recoil, and very short range, but a lot of people don't know that the DC1 and DC2 are Fencer's highest pound-for-pound DPS by a wide margain. Makes frying cosmos with a single revolver a breeze.
Cannons
Another good column. Shelling, anti-air, and long-range crowd control are here.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
NC Hand Cannon
1
These are fast-shooting, high DPS (for a ranged weapon), accurate, penetrating artillery. Like the Dexter Shotguns, they are extremely flexible. I like them against literally everything, from ants to cosmonauts to teleportation anchors. You can even use the final muzzle stabilizer with the final Hand Cannon to completely eliminate recoil, enabling you to stunlock cosmonauts to death from long-range. Why aren't they used all the time by everyone? They have a zoom instead of a boost. But anyway, I want to use this section to talk about what is by far the biggest oversight in the current EDF 5 "meta": Pairing a Cannon with a Piercer is a criminally under-rated playstyle, even among good players. Who needs boosts when you can just kill everything at any range efficiently? When people say that Fencer has trouble switching between long and short range targets, or is generally "less flexible" than Ranger (lmao), you know they never use this style, because switching ranges seamlessly is actually something Fencer excels at. Probably the most mid-tier advice that gets repeated over and over again is "take a mobility set and a ranged set," with handcannons or gallic cannons often being the ranged set, and Jack+Dexter being the mobility set. And yeah, this kind of works, but it's also the leading cause of death among Fencer nublets. There's nothing worse than getting stuck in recoil animation just to die far away from your team while never really doing great DPS or tanking anything. It's often much better to sacrifice about half your ranged DPS (far less actually, since most of your time in the x2 setup is usually spent either aiming or running) for the ability to cancel recoil with a dash that you can attack out of. You can now quickly and effectively re-position if enemies start shooting at you, instead of waiting for recoil to finish while you take large amounts of damage before switching to your mobility set in order to run far away so you can switch back to your cannons and do it all over again. Hand Cannons are especially good for this stick-and-move strategy because they're just so fast. If you get good with them, you can de-limb aliens from what would otherwise be inside their effective range while taking little damage because you are now a moving target instead of a still one that they can easily hit. And do you remember what I said about Blast Twin Spears being completely transformative weapons when used properly? Well using them with a single Hand Cannon means you can be constantly mobile (and fast) without even needing a boost cell, while also having literally everything on the battlefield in your effective range at all times. Twin cannons has a time and place, but its a setup that needs to be used carefully.
Gallic/Battle/Rage Cannon
1
I hate when there's no consistency in the naming for a weapon line. These are like NC Cannons, and most of what I said there applies to them as well, except you don't really need muzzle stabilizers for them because they're so slow that you can easily re-acquire aim while the recoil animation is happening. Other than the M3, they have higher DPS than NC Cannons, but they are less flexible since they take a lot longer to fire after pulling the trigger and to finish their recoil animation.
Canister Shot
2.5
These are kind of cool. They fire bouncing, piercing projectiles. Their stats look bad on paper, and they usually are, but there are a few levels in the game where these can be used in tunnels and are weapon level appropriate. And in that situation, they're really good. They tear up swarms of ants and spiders beforefore you have access to the Hellflame Revolver that would have made them completely irrelevant.
Light Mortar
2.5
These are probably the best weapons (don't mistake this for me calling them good) that I almost never, ever, ever use. I just don't like how weak they are. Not very good at DPS, not very good at crowd control. Unless its one of the few levels where they are one-shotting spiders, I don't care about them. Not even for tadpoles, which are probably what the handle best. Still, they are not terrible weapons by any means, and as long as noobs don't try to use them for DPS (please stop doing this), I don't really have a problem with them unless you use them to pop an enemy I was about to kill into the air with an explosion.
Heavy Mortar
1
My favorite mortars. Unlike they light mortars, they hit hard and have a massive blast radius. They're harder to use at first due to their recoil and not having a boost, but it's well worth it to get good with them. There's nothing like placing a shot perfectly and seeing like 15 spider corpses go flying in every direction. They are also surprisingly good against cosmonauts, despite being low-DPS weapons. The reason is that they have a large AOE, and 2 shots can take out cosmo leg armor. Considering the second shot can cancel the recoil animation of the first, you can get 2 shots off fairly quickly. Just boost into the air a few times and fire off 2 quick ones to de-pants every cosmo in a 24 meter radius.
YH3/YH7 Dispersal Mortar
1
Everybody else's favorite mortars. And for pretty good reason: they delete targets. 2 YH7s can dump 115k damage in under 4 seconds. While they can be used for crowd control, they're actually more effective as burst damage against single targets like teleportation ships, anchors, or bosses. A lot of people like them against aliens, but I think they are overkill unless you have a group that's perfectly positioned. The problem with them is that you get at most 3 shots per mortar, 2 with the YH7, and they have a 10 second reload time. If you're doubling up on them in one set, this will translate to probably at least 15 seconds before they are reloaded. They have a boost, so a lot of people also like to take a single one as a sidearm to a piercer. I've never liked setup, but it's valid. Also, they yeet Kings like nobody's business.
Cannon Shot
3.5
Some people like this thing. I have no idea why you would ever use this online. Maybe it's because it goes completely against my preferred playstyle of doing good DPS and not spending a lot of time running, but I hate this weapon outside of a few very specific uses that normal players will never and should never need to consider. Offline, sure, knock a point or two off its tier. There it hits hard enough to be a legit burst damage weapon like the Dispersal Mortar, but online it's just anemic. I first thought it would be similar to a punt gun that you could use against swarms of bees, but it just doesn't have enough damage per projectile for that purpose. Any ranged DPS you can achieve with it against large targets is not worth actually achieving imo, and it has a lot of overlap in that department with the otherwise far superior Dispersal Mortar.
Cannons (continued)
I guess I went pretty hard on Cannons too.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
30mm Gallic Heavy Cannon M3
3
A Gallic Cannon with less DPS than the previous NC Cannon. It can be nice in some cases to have your damage concentrated into a single projectile as opposed to multiple weaker ones, but the NC 103 Cannon that comes before this already has excellent per-shot damage. As a result, I've never felt a need to use this weapon.
Super-Heavy Crusher Mortar
2
Actually not a joke weapon, if you can beleive it with its 60 second reload time and 60m blast radius. The DLC has a few places where there are dozens of silver spiders in a group, and this thing will hit all of them, doing levels of DPS you can only otherwise achieve as Air Raider.
YH1/YH2 Dispersal Mortar
2.5
Literally just a bit underpowered for hard. That's the only reason they're not with the others in tier 1.
FHD1 Heavy Mortar
3
I'll be honest, I forgot why I put this here. Is it underpowered? Capacity 2? No idea. It's a level 9 weapon, so it will stop mattering pretty quickly on Hard anyway.
Powerdyne
2
Well these are certainly cool. They're basically the Nix Sabre's shoulder lasers. Too bad you only get one variant at level 2. I've used them though, and they were good for taking out some anchors. No idea why they just drop these after the first ones in every EDF since 4.

Noob Traps
Light mortars are some of the most overused weapons online. If they aren't killing in one hit, they generally aren't worth using (NOTICE A PATTERN FOR SINGLE-SHOT AOE WEAPONS???). People like them because they have a boost, but people over-rate boosting pretty hard in this game. Not only is it usually not needed to kite effectively, but kiting in general is usually not worth it over just taking deadlier weapons and killing targets faster. There are a couple levels where they do one shot most monsters in a level, even with 4 player scaling, and in those levels they are very good. Same with single player. It really demonstrates how important one-shotting is.

Most under-rated
Heavy Mortar. These aren't that under-rated, but it's odd that most people think they are the "bad" mortar. They are not only overall much better than Light Mortars, they are better than Dispersals at crowd control. They are also pretty good against crowds of light-armored cosmos, as they can 2 shot the legs. The only downside is they don't have a boost, but again, learn to not rely on dash boosting for literally every part of your gameplan and you should be fine.
Missile Launchers
Another good homing column. Like Ranger and Wing Diver, Fencer has homing weapons for a variety of different situations.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Arm Hound/Rapid Hound
2
These get a bad rap. The only weapon outside of the Piercer or Striker categories with a dash, Arm Hounds let you both stay on the move and not have to worry about aiming. They don't do very much damage per missile, and their DPS is nothing amazing, but they are still powerful enough to make most fodder enemies sweat. A very good Fencer probably won't find that much use for these as they could kill enemies more efficiently with melee or other ranged weapons, but I've seen how most of you play. Consider taking Arm Hound once in a while. Rapid Hound is just the DLC version. It's maybe slightly less useful due to the prevalence of high-HP enemies in the DLC, but it has faster missiles and greatly increased fire rate, which makes it kind of a wall against tadpoles when paired with shield.
Leviathan MA/Wild
2
Mini-Tempests. Leviathans are boss killers, in the same vein as Tempests.. They excel at getting first strikes. They don't hit nearly as hard, even when you take 2, but they reload on a timer. Fencer can hang back and continuously launch as long as he needs to. They can be used with either Beacon Guns or Laser Guide Kits. Using a Beacon allows the AR to go do AR things while you hammer the boss from long distance, but using a Guide Kit allows the AR to queue up 4 Leviathans at once (maybe even 6, I don't remember) and make them all hit at the same time by kiting them around until he is ready to strike.
High Altitude Impact Launcher
2
You've probably heard about these. One of Fencer's most popular weapons, and also one of the most maligned by good players who don't want noobs pulling all of Monster Banquet and destroying all cover in Flying Unit. HAILs can be very good because they shoot up very high (avoiding nearby hills and buildings), and they have a lot of range. They have a long reload time, but they're still pretty efficient when it comes to killing fodder, especially bees. That said, I don't think they're anywhere near a top tier weapon, and most of the time when I see people using them, they're kind of just using their range as a crutch. But then again, if you're one of those many, many people who thinks aiming doesn't matter in EDF, well, 1) it does, a lot, and 2) you probably will get a lot more utility out of these than people who can actually hit fast long-range shots with Handcannons.
Arcane 6-Barrel Launcher
3
Kind of weird launcher without a strong purpose. They look good on paper, but they fire slow missiles that don't track as well as Arm Hound or HAIL, and they launch out to the side, meaning they will often hit buildings. They actually launch way farther to the side than you would think. They also lack a jump or dash, which is more common than not in this column, but most of the others lacking either movement option are co-op weapons.
Phoenix
3
Co-op only weapon. Some are able to hit red drones, but some are definitely too slow. I haven't experimented enough with these to really know tbh. Outside of red drones, IDK. I just don't think they're that good.
Haytal Multi-Missile Launcher
3
Co-op only weapon. I have literally the same opinion as for Phoenix. Just don't worry about these unless you're curious.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Leviathan
3
First one comes way before any bosses worth using it on in Hard, and is out-leveled by the time you would need it. I guess it's a Normal/Easy mode only weapon.
M1 Blood Storm
1
The M1 Blood Storm is quite powerful early in Hard. It remains pretty good far longer than one would think a level 2 weapon would. This is because it's way overkill for single targets early on, being more of an anti-colonist weapon, but then later can just be used against ants and spiders and still perform alright.
M2 Blood Storm
3
I've heard this called trash more times than I can count, but it's definitely a usable weapon. I think people are just really salty after experiencing the M1 (which they over-rate anyway) Problem is, it's still maybe sometimes worse than the M1 in terms of crowd control (depends on how big/dense the crowd is), and it's not usable as an anti-colonist weapon anymore because of its huge spread. But hey, guess what: If you shouldn't be using the M2, then you also shouldn't be using the M1 anymore either.
M3 Blood Storm
4
Alright, this version is actually pretty unusable. It's an appropriate buff over the M2, but the problem is that it comes in the DLC, and it's again a high-spread weapon. Unlike in the base game, CC against hordes of fodder far away from you is the absolute least of your worries in the DLC.

Noob Traps
HAIL, by far. And make no mistake, these are good weapons. They just aren't the super weapons a lot of people treat them as. At least not unless your gameplan for every level is to kite out of range of every enemy and slowly whittle them down. Which is sadly a lot of people's gameplan...

Most under-rated
Arm Hound.
Enhanced Boosters
Pretty self explanatory. They give you more boosts and/or dashes. Taking your best add booster
and best dash cell is pretty much just what you do unless you're going no boosts, no dashes, or need to take another modifier equipment and still want both boosts and dashes, in which case you just take your best Multi-Charger. Nothing here stacks.

General Weapons

Name
Tier
Description
Dash Cell
1
Nothing to say.
Add Booster
1
Nothing to say.
Multi-Charger
2
Nothing to say.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Enhanced Shields
If you're using a shield, you're probably taking at least one of these, at least after Hard.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Deflect Cell
1
Deflect Cells give you good damage absorption and shield health, while allowing you to take a mobility cell of your choosing. For reason, they're my personal favorite of the shield enhancers. They don't boost your deflection angle, but I'm generally OK with that. They also reduce knockback, making it easier to hold your position against hordes of enemies.
Shield Protection Armor
2
These massively boost shield health while also increasing deflection angle, but don't add any more damage absorption on top of what the shield already provides. I think these are the most popular online, but I like Defelct Cell more because if I'm taking a shield, it's usually for a situation where there is enough incoming fire that I would feel it even through a Tower Shield. However, Shield Protection Armor can be paired with Barricade System in order to make you the ultimate anti-cosmo tank. Your DPS and movement won't be great using this setup (use Blast Twins to retain some speed) but there are a few levels where it makes you basically invincible.
Barricade System
2
Beyond pairing with Shield Protection Armor for cosmo levels, I'm not sure I would take this. Barricade System reduces the damage your take through the shield, but it increases the damage the shield takes, and if you're using a shield, you need it to last.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Everything, because people don't use shields enough.
Enhanced Cannons
Need your Hand Cannon or Flame Revolver recoil stabilized? Use one of these.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Muzzle Stabilizer
2
Nothing to say.

Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Enhanced Exoskeleton
Non-leg stuff helps control handling when aiming. Not really necessary IMO, but sometimes neither is movement, so why not make aiming easier in those cases.

General Weapons
Name
Tier
Description
Exoskeleton
2.5
The normal kind. Basically improves the handling (decreases inertia) of your weapons (and walk speed, but that doesn't matter). I take these a lot, since I'm often running just a Piercer and 3 Handcannons. It's not necessary by any means, but it's fun, and if you have a no boost, no shield setup then why not?
Leg Exoskeleton
4
Improves walk speed. I don't think these are trash, it's just that I never see any reason to take them. You're still slow no matter which one you pick, unless you're boosting or dashing, in which case, just do that.
Arm Exoskeleton
2.5
Solely improves weapon handling. They're just other Exoskeletons. You never have to make a choice between this and a basic Exoskeleton. They're all just level ups of each other.

Specific/Unique Models

Name
Tier
Description
Gale Exoskeleton
2
This is a DLC Leg Exoskeleton, but it increases your walk speed by 300%. You're actually kind of speedy now. But the main reason it's tier 2 is because of the DLC Hand Gatling, which is actually pretty powerful. Double up on that and take the Gale Exoskeleton, and it's kind of like another Fencer playstyle.
Bombardment Exoskeleton
2
Mix of an Exoskeleton and Muzzle Stabilizer. There are some places in the DLC where you can be effective as a long-range gun platform, and this is actually kind of good in those situtations.


Noob Traps
Nothing.

Most under-rated
Nothing.
Good weapons to take against problem enemies
I've decided to add a very, very short section on specific enemies. I frequently see questions about how to deal cosmos/colonists, bees, and tadpoles. This is basically me listing some good weapons against those enemy types, and I encourage you to go read their sections in the main guide for more detail. The following isn't remotely close to a comprehensive list.
Colonists/Cosmonauts
The general strategies against both these types of enemies are pretty similar. They're all just big guys with guns. What differs is their armor level and how easy they are to hit. All classes except Air Raider will sometimes want to take out their legs first, as an alien body on the ground will create cover, but this isn't a hard and fast rule. You just need to get a sense of when it is a good idea to do so. For Ranger, it's usually advisable.

Ranger
Short range: Shotguns. Breacher is especially good, but also has the shortest effective range. Go for leg shots first in order to down enemies and get some cover.

Mid/Long range: Snipers, Assault Rifles, and the Fork series of Missile Launchers. With Snipers and Assault Rifles you will generally want to take out the alien's right arm first, so as to stop them from firing, and then focus on taking out other limbs/moving into shotgun range. Remember that the first headshot against any humanoid will stun it briefly, regardless of how much damage it does. Breaking armor pieces also briefly suns colonists. Use this to your advantage when you're trying to close the gap on them. If you don't have a good Fork, you can substitute an MLRA or Emerald with multi-lock.

Blazer works absurdly well at any range, but is DLC exclusive. Minion Blast and Super Acid Gun can also be very good options when you first get them.

Bikes and Under Assists can help you get into the range you want, as they make you faster and harder to slow down with damage. When you get good at riding Bikes, they actually become effective alien killers all on their own.

Wing Diver
Short range: Dragoon Lance and Phalanx.

Mid range: Also Dragoon Lances because they're absolutely broken. Geist 3/D with Big/Big Bang Core. I don't recommend wasting time with lower DPS options at mid-range. The Geists get a recommendation because they're basically a hard counter. Other than that, try to remember that you're a Wing Diver. It takes only about a second or two for you to move into your most effective range.

Long range: Plasma Heavy/Great Cannons. Other than that, I generally don't advise engaging aliens at long range with WD.

Air Raider
Air Raider doesn't really have a concept of long and short range like the other characters do. He also has no shortage of good weapons against aliens. Gunships are generally good, Phobos, while it won't often outright kill any aliens, can hit big groups for a huge amount of collective damage. The entire Satellite column can be very good, depending on level. Nixes are also usually very good. This is all stuff that AR players generally take anyway though. He doesn't really have to prepare anything special for aliens. His more alien-specific stuff are his force fields and Barga

Fencer
SHIELDS! Shields with some shield support equipment are very tough for alien weaponry to deal with. You don't necessarily have to kill them quickly if you can just wall them out.

Close range: Blast Twin Spears, Flame Revolvers, and Disruptors are the best stuff Fencer has for killing aliens. Unfortunately, they're all either hard to use, have limited ammo, or are very upgrade reliant. You should absolutely still use them if you can, but a more accessible close range solution is Jackhammer + Dexter Auto Shotgun. If you're going with a shield, you could get by with just a regular old Blasthole Spear in most cases.

Mid/Long range: Cannons of the Artillery column. Heavy Mortars can also be good if you fire them into a group.
Bees (Flying Aggressors)
Ranger
Short range: Slaughter series. If I'm in the thick of it with bees, I want a trusty Slaughter.

Mid (and also short) range: G&M Assault Rifles, and the MLRA and Emerald series of Missile Launchers. I like the MLRA series the most for large swarms, as it can stagger the whole swarm at once. Obviously, it gets less effective as the number of bees decreases.

Long Range: Snipers.

Also, Blazer, Minion Blast, and Super Acid Gun are all really good, as usual. You need to have Super Acid Gun's range upgraded though.

Wing Diver
Short range: Dragoon Lance and regular Lance. Heaven's Gate is also really good against a medium sized amount of bees, but you have to be in a position to kite them through it.

Mid range: Dragoon Lance again. Stardust Cannon. Technically Stardust Cannon is good short range too, but it excels when you can just fire into a large swarm from a couple hundred meters. Mirage 15s are OK, but they can only stunlock up to 17 bees at once. If you primarily have to worry about bees, Stardust Cannon + Big Core and Gleipnir is arguably the best anti-bee combo in the entire game, because you can focus on farther away bees with the Stardust Cannon while the Gleipnir defends your immediate location from anything that might have wandered over.

Air Raider
120mm Gunships are very good against small to medium amounts of bees at all ranges. Above that amount, you want to hit them with either Spritefalls or KM6 strafe runs. Range doesn't really matter, as long as you don't Spritefall yourself (and if you're in a Nix, that doesn't really matter either). Another option is to eschew large AOE weapons and hit big swarms with Bulge Laser or Lionic missiles. I prefer using the AOE option for the AOE job, but that's just me.

Close range: For close range defense purposes, ZE-GUNs are actually quite good, functioning much like the Gleipnir.

Fencer
Close range: Dexter Shotguns, surprisingly.

Mid/close range: Spine Driver. Take special note of this. Most Fencers I see seem not to realize that the Spine Driver is his signature anti-bee, anti-drone weapon.

Mid/Long range: Hand Cannons or High Altitude Impact Launcher. Go read both of those sections, especially if you want to main Fencer. They're very important.
Tadpoles
Ranger
See the Bees section. Most of that still applies, but I want to draw special attention to the MLRA series. MLRA missiles ragdoll tadpoles, and tadpoles take a long time to recover from ragdoll state. One Ranger with an MLRA can incapacitate a very large swarm of tadpoles that would easily kill him otherwise.

Wing Diver
Short range: Dragoon Lance and regular Lance. Rapiers are actually pretty legit against tadpoles on the ground.

All ranges: Ghost Chaser. It works the same way MLRA does, but much better. You can ground any amount of tadpoles with it. Focus on keeping the whole swarm stunlocked, not so much doing DPS. You will quickly run out of energy if you hold the trigger down on Ghost Chaser.

Air Raider
Barga. Tadpoles don't actually do that much damage, and they will land on Barga and can be killed with punches. This strat can be sped up by calling down a Spritefall or KM6/Phobos on yourself, but that will obviously damage Barga. Other than that, all the stuff I said in the bees section still works, but less well for tadpoles. They are smaller than bees and don't swarm as tightly, and therefore KM6 and Spritefall tend to miss a lot more of them. Flame turrets can be pretty good against them though, as they like to land near you. Phobos can be really good for the same reason, just be aware that you're probably going to be damaging friendlies with it if you're hitting tadpoles.

Fencer

Close range: One of the few instances where Strikers shine, specifically Vibro Hammers and Rollers.

Mid range: SHILEDS! Yes, shield + Arm Hound can wall out a huge number of tadpoles. Just keep dashing backward and firing at the approaching swarm. Heavy Mortars are also very good for when there are a bunch of tadpoles on the ground.
Other Useful Resources
This isn't really a beginner's guide, but I wrote it so that hopefully beginners could reference it as they played through the game. If you want a good beginners guide, check out this one: https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1801781107

Leafierlemon's enemy health tables and other resources.: http://leafierlemon.com/

Zeddy's weapon data: https://invadersfromplanet.space/

This new WD guide: https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138317457
If that had existed before I started this guide then I probably wouldn't have even bothered writing this guide. It is by a wide margin the best single character guide that exists for any class in this game (except for Vlady's advanced Fencer guide, but that's much more narrow in scope). Follow the advice in it. I'm not even going to say the few things I disagree with because it doesn't matter. Anyone who does what this guide says will be a top 1% wing diver easily. Actually, read that guide before you read mine. It's 2024 and I still see people pairing Mag Blasters and Closed Lasers on Inferno, and it needs to stop. Please, please just stop being horrible as WD online.
Conclusion
Let me know if you find anything confusing about this guide. I've been playing a while, and there might be some things I assumed were obvious that weren't.

16 Comments
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Wozherd$PS4🐧 3 Sep @ 12:35am 
This part was funny to me and i haven't really touched online all that much, getting up close with dual Hellflame and/or Twin Spear with something else to synergize from is so satisfying.

"Noob Traps
HAIL, by far. And make no mistake, these are good weapons. They just aren't the super weapons a lot of people treat them as. At least not unless your gameplan for every level is to kite out of range of every enemy and slowly whittle them down. Which is sadly a lot of people's gameplan..."
Wozherd$PS4🐧 3 Sep @ 12:27am 
I adjusted my Fencer and having a blast with below:
LHAND1. NC202 Hand Cannon
RHAND1. Twin Spears M4
LHAND2. YH7 Dispersal Mortar
RHAND2. Hell Flame Revolver
Supp1: Multi-Charger 4-3 (Might change?)
Supp2: Muzzle Stabilizer S
I|III||I|||II|IIII| 4 Aug @ 3:23am 
Grit Shot W15 is a pretty amazing gun. Probably the strongest gun for underground missions. Also works great against arenaes missions and breaking nets from a safe distance. It shreds armor off of soldiers as well. Sad to see it dropped down that low. For it's level it's an absolute beast off a gun. It is extremely strong for when you unlock it.
Nadrie 31 Jul @ 11:27am 
If you ever do one for EDF 6, I would be glad to help as soon as I will get the game.
Thanks again for this guide, it's amazing.
gamadaya  [author] 28 Jul @ 6:47pm 
I don't know, but if I do, it won't be done for a while. I started this guide in 2019. There's well over 1k hours of experience that went into it, and I can't just marathon that over the course of a year or so like some people. Based on what I've seen of EDF6, I don't think I could even re-use that much of this. It looks like they shook up the balance quite a lot.
Nadrie 28 Jul @ 4:03pm 
thanks a lot for the guide!! will you do the same with edf 6?
Georgeth 17 Jul @ 3:25am 
thank you
Ellanines 27 Jun @ 10:39pm 
I personally thing that Mid-Range Kinetics for WD aren't half bad. Yeah its not incredible DPS or anything but they do have a lot of ammo. Their great for preserving energy until you *choose* to recharge them.

I like to use it as a secondary to switch to when I wanna focus on using energy to fly while still being able to fire.
Aether 19 Apr @ 5:22am 
Yeah it's a joke.
Rextron 18 Apr @ 11:53pm 
I'm guessing it's a joke but I also could be stupid and missing something so I'm asking just in case. The burner is useless no? Unless Tier 0 is bad not good but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss read that.