A guide to get the most mileage out of your coins and take down targets in style!
Introducción
As an avid fan of this game’s HTML predecessors–Adversity Weapon Pack, Tactical Weapons Pack, and Tactical Weapons Pack 2–the amount of options that a player has in Arsenal Online is beautifully expansive. Eso dijo, although part of the fun is the ability to customize to your tastes, let’s face it: balance-wise, some weapons are just going to perform to a higher standard than others. This guide seeks to pick out both the diamonds and the stinkers in the rough to ensure that good style translates into good scores.
Bear in mind that due to the vast number of weapons in the game, most will go unmentioned. A weapon’s lack of inclusion in this guide doesn’t mean I think it’s bad or that you can’t perform well with it. It’s just a statement that it’s outclassed by the truly great weapons. Even the weapons I will recommend players avoid are usable–they’re just not quite optimal.
(I will also add the obligatory disclosure that for those of you who just like playing around in Firing Range or admiring the cool guns–this guide’s probably not for you. Your style and aesthetics are personal, to be enjoyed by you and you alone. And as fond as I am of the look and feel of guns like the Foxtrot 300BLK, Mk20 SSR, DSR1, and XM25, I also have to admit that they’re all rather average weapons that get outclassed very quickly in the level progression.)
As a general rule of thumb, there are a few things that I looked for when determining the tiers of weapons:
- Effective DPS in a reasonable variety of situations. This one’s pretty obvious. A weapon that struggles to get kills isn’t much of a weapon, now is it? Like I said before, even the worst weapons in the game are usable, as frustrating and inefficient as it may be. Además, some weapons may shine in certain game modes or situations, but overspecialization is rarely a good idea.
- Ease of accessibility. Being easy to use or obtain adds a lot of bonus points onto higher-tier weapons. Después de todo, the audience of any guide is someone who doesn’t know everything or doesn’t have much experience. En cambio, if a weapon is wickedly strong but only with a hyper-specific playstyle or exploit, or requires so much of a grind to unlock that it’s little more than a trophy for players who have proven they don’t need it to dominate, it wouldn’t do well to suggest them over a much more accessible weapon that has only minor differences.
- A unique advantage within its class. Given that there are only a few base stats to manipulate, dozens of guns per category, and a lot of care put into balancing the drive for realism with the drive for fun gameplay, there are more than a few weapons that have relatively marginal differences from each other, and not always for the better. As much as the last two points extolled versatility, a weapon with even a slight comparative advantage to four or five others can exploit that niche for truly optimal performance. And that’s before we get into weapons that have a truly staggering difference from their peers that make them notable.
With that out of the way, empecemos! What should (and shouldn’t) you buy in Arsenal Online?
pistolas
BUY: The best and most versatile pistol is, en mi opinión, la M2011: it has a huge 17-round magazine, un impresionante 45 daño, and very little recoil even when fired quickly. (Just don’t abuse it or try to run it with an autoclicker or the Full Auto mod–even with a Suppressor, that tiny recoil adds up quickly at its maximum fire cap of 3600 RPM.) los Colt SAA is another very strong contender that’s unlocked strikingly early, with damage higher than most early-game Sniper Rifles while being semi-automatic and fitting in the secondary slot. Not to mention that it counts for some weapon class challenges that may not be obvious right away. For those looking for a different high-power option, try the strong and speedy XTEN Executive, the little brother of the Diceros and Desert Eagle that lacks the raw power and penetration but makes up for it with an earlier unlock, speedy reloads, and lower recoil.
DON’T BUY: As tempting as it is to ditch the PMR30 as soon as humanly possible, you’re not likely to get much mileage out of the USP .45 before the P320 bests it in accuracy and magazine size and the MK23 then completely blows it out of the water. los Five-Seven is an odd duck with an impractically high rate of fire that doesn’t make up for its pathetic damage. On the other end of the spectrum is the Basilisco, the revolver with damage too low to seriously compete with the other revolvers and the Desert Eagle, but with capacity and recoil too poor for spamming it at its maximum fire rate of 900 RPM to be a decent tactic. The classic M1911 falls victim to the same trap as the USP .45. Five extra points of damage isn’t enough to stop it from being very quickly outclassed by its modern descendant, the M2011, which has smoother recoil and more than twice the magazine size.
Machine Pistols
BUY: los TEC-9 is surprisingly strong for its low unlock level and is a versatile, easy-to-use backup to slower primary weapons like DMRs and Sniper Rifles. On the other end of the spectrum, la GS Magna combines the ridiculous power of .50AE with full-auto fire, making for excellent burst damage against single armored targets.
DON’T BUY: High penetration isn’t enough to save the MPX-CH from irrelevancy in the face of the FDC-9’s superior capacity or the Micro-Uzi’s superior damage profile.
escopetas
BUY: los AA12 reigns supreme when it comes to crowd control, capable of rapidly flattening anything at close ranges and receiving a massive 20-round drum when equipped with Extended. The earlier SCAR-12 is a great alternative that trades some magazine size, recoil, and rate of fire for more raw damage. For the more conventional portrait of what a shotgun should do, look no further than the Mossberg 590M, which has much better sustained DPS than the other pump-action shotguns thanks to its drastically faster reload on top of its already formidable damage profile that saves you the pain of being dependent on the Speed Loader perk to make it work well.
DON’T BUY: The poor damage of the Saiga-12 makes it swiftly outclassed by the next two shotguns unlocked: the previously-mentioned SCAR-12 and its bullpup brother, the Saiga-12 CBRPS, that almost doubles its rate of fire. Desafortunadamente, having a high capacity can’t hide the fact that the Expedite 12 is an upgrade to the M1014 that’s really a secret downgrade from most other shotguns by lacking the damage of the pump-actions or the ease of use of the automatics–not to mention how long a reload takes when you’re loading each of those ten shotshells one by one.
Lanzadores
BUY: los XM25 is a low-level but worthy upgrade to the M203, serving well until the XM29 OICW está desbloqueado.
DON’T BUY: los MK13 EGLM‘s improvements over the default M203 are laughably minor, and it comes with a significantly longer reload time–a death knell for a single-shot weapon.
SMG
BUY: The low damage of SMGs means that high rates of fire and big magazines are essential for making up the DPS. To that end, la PP19 Bizon is a phenomenal weapon for low-level players that should be upgraded into the P90 for midgame before culminating with the AR57. On the opposite of the spectrum is the AS VAL, which has staggeringly high damage per shot and a very high rate of fire at the cost of a small 20-round magazine.
DON’T BUY: los AUG PARA y Vector have tiny mags that will make you spend more time reloading than shooting. los Vaznev 9k is almost completely inferior to the cheaper Thompson and AKS-74u, both of which boast better damage and penetration that more than make up for their very minor handling changes. los Banshee Mk9 has laughably poor damage, paired with a slower rate of fire and much smaller magazines than other low-damage SMGs.
Rifles de asalto
BUY: Probably the most versatile assault rifle overall is the Galil ARM, with fairly average-to-good stats paired with the highest magazine size of all assault rifles. los VHS-2 deserves special mention for its blisteringly high rate of fire and how early it’s unlocked, serving all the way until the endgame when a full-auto FAMAS o AN-94 could fill the role (or remain in burst mode to combine speed, daño, and accuracy). Rounding them out is the incredibly high damage of the SCAR-H, which more than compensates for its slow rate of fire and 20-round mags.
DON’T BUY: Most of the assault rifles here are outclassed by their peers in some way. los SCAR-L y Banshee Mk4 are both completely inferior to the HK416, la PAR4-C has negligible benefits over the much more accessible AUG A3, and two measly points of damage is a bad reason to pick the AK47 over the later AK104. But perhaps the worst of the bunch are the P416 NP3, M4A1, y G36C, all of which have few discernible and no good advantages compared to the very accessible Foxtrot 300BLK, to say nothing of the previously-mentioned Galil ARM.
DMRs
BUY: los EBR-14 is by far and away the best DMR, combining the highest damage per shot of the semi-auto marksman rifles with a 20-round magazine and a rate of fire that pushes it to the limits of its sustained fire accuracy. Eso dijo, it’s a fairly late unlock, and until then the G3SG1 makes for a great substitute. A somewhat unconventional build is to take the VSS Vintorez, with low damage and penetration that would make it otherwise unsuitable for a DMR role, and throw on Full Auto to take advantage of the high fire rate and low recoil to turn it into a pseudo-assault rifle that cuts through targets like butter.
DON’T BUY: los reconocimiento .308 y M14 can’t hold a candle to the earlier G3SG1, and by the time you’re close to unlocking the SA58 SPR y BAS-B, you should just go for the EBR-14 instead. Both the SG 550 y CMMG Endeavor fail to fill the niche of a rapid-fire DMR as well as the VSS Vintorez. Being the highest-damage DMR may sound like a point in favor of the Lever Action X Model, but the advantage of the faster-reloading Marlin 1895 adds up quickly when they both reload one round at a time.
Rifles de francotirador
BUY: los Courier MVI is a better DMR than most of the proper DMRs in the game, and comes with a massive 30-round magazine to boot. Although it’s a late-game unlock, the incredibly high damage of the Barrett M95 makes it the best for proper sniping. Hasta entonces, the speedy reload of the SP-X 80 or big magazines of the SA-B 50 make them great choices for sniper weapons. los M40A5 deserves a special shoutout among the early-game snipers for its unique advantage of a far faster reload time than its peers, which more than compensates for its fairly weak damage per bullet.
DON’T BUY: los AX-50 is completely inferior to the M95, just as the SP-R 208 is almost completely inferior to the earlier DSR-1. The high recoil, small magazines, and lethargic reload of the Barrett M82 y, to a lesser extent, la W2000 undermine their key selling points of being semi-automatic rifles with the same damage as bolt-action rifles.
LMG
BUY: los PKP Pecheneg may very well be the single best weapon for low-level players, with high damage, a fairly high fire rate, a massive 100-round belt, and all available to players before level 20. The three proper LMGs with the highest rates of fire–la M249, MG36, y MG3–are all insanely powerful once players learn to tame their recoil and put their ridiculous sustained DPS to good use.
DON’T BUY: los AUG HBAR y RPK-12 are both almost completely inferior to the Colt LMG, and the accuracy bonus of the RAPP H doesn’t justify its use over the PKP Pecheneg, which is unlocked earlier and has better damage and recoil. The same could be said of the L86A1, which has a minor accuracy bonus that doesn’t justify having to deal with its tiny 30-round magazine that will be emptied in no time.
Super Weapons
Nota: The Super Weapons are unequivocally the most powerful, most hilariously broken weapons in the game. Even the worst weapons in this category will handily outclass any conventional weapon, provided you can pay for them.
BUY: los Compromise RG Railcannon is handily one of the most powerful yet versatile weapons in the game. los Etowal y Annihilator Alpha are both unparalleled when it comes to filling the screen with lethal projectiles, making them the go-to weapons for players looking to make it onto the leaderboards.
DON’T BUY: Although relatively cheap and still effective in their own right, la Compromise SI Magnum, Arrangement Eclipse, y Compromise RG Magnum are quite pricey for weapons that are little more than stepping stones towards the Railcannon. los Boltcaster’s Lance is a victim of crippling overspecialization–although it may have insane damage and penetration, the fact that it’s limited to one shot with a three second reload means that in most modes, you’ll be relying on your secondary weapon and only using the Boltcaster’s Lance for an emergency–and exactly one, since the long reload means you won’t get a chance to make it up again.
Attachments
BUY: The most valuable attachments tend to be those that boost DPS. For the perk slot, this means that the Speed Loader is practically mandatory for single round-loaded weapons, Totalmente automático for many other semi-automatics, y Fuego rápido for most automatics. For more accurate shooters and anyone playing Defender, Hollow Points should be your go-to ammo, pero FMJ can work in a pinch, and both can be amplified even further with the Refuerzo muzzle. In this same vein, la Buckshot y Extended attachments can be hit-or-miss, the former because of its reduced accuracy negating the ostensible damage increase, and the latter based on how it changes every weapon’s magazine size slightly differently, often more or less than the default 50%. Greed, although fairly grueling to unlock, is insanely helpful for players looking to level up quickly and obtain better gear.
DON’T BUY: Unlike Tactical Weapon Pack 2, where different optics changed the view range or accuracy multipliers, every optic in Arsenal Online has the same accuracy buff, which means that all optics other than the Reflex are little more than wastes of money. Explosión does little more than slow down an automatic weapon when you could just learn to control your bursts of automatic fire manually. Few weapons have recoil high enough to justify equipping the Supresor, and those that do are better served by the Grip, Bipod, or Shock Damper rather than occupying the valuable Muzzle slot with something that seriously hurts your penetration stat. Slugs may seem devastating in the stats menu, but their insanely high recoil, corto alcance, and poor penetration means that whatever purpose they might have served would be better taken by a Sniper Rifle. Speaking of roles better served by a dedicated weapon, the three underbarrel weapons–la Masterkey, Lanzagranadas, y Rifle de francotirador–cannot accept attachments or be reloaded like their standalone weapons could, making them little more than gimmicks.
Wrapping Up
What do you think? Are there other overrated or underrated weapons in Arsenal Online? Any particular specialized weapons that deserve a second look, or attachment combos that drastically change a weapon’s performance? Add your feedback in the comments below and be sure to leave some likes, favoritos, and awards if you found this helpful!
