TEDDY...

It all depends on hero and play style. You can’t really compare a shotgun and a sniper, for instance.

Just gonna repost this here:

Ultimately it depends on what niche you want to fulfill, what hero you are playing, and your personal playstyle.

Shortranged DPS ARs: Silenced Specter, Bobcat, Hacksaw, Swan, Typewriter

Medium to Longranged General Purpose ARs: Tiger, Wraith, Gravedigger, Ratking

Burst Damage AR: Bundlebuss

Healing AR: Candy Corn LMG

Area Damage AR: Dragon's Roar

Burst Damage Shotguns: Tigerjaw, Roomsweeper

Longdistance Shotguns: Longarm Enforcer, Nightclaw

Ammo Efficient Shotgun: The Bear

Versatile High-performance Shotguns: Husk Buster, Stampede, Ground Pounder

Area Damage Shotguns: Dragon's Might, Dragoon, Vindertech Disintegrator, Ol' Smoky, Thunderbolt, DragonFire

Shortranged DPS Pistols: Viper, Last Word, Ratatat

Single-Shot Pistols: Bald Eagle, Dragon's Breath

Area Damage Pistols: Tiny Instrument of Death, Revolt, Freedoms Herald

Mediumrange General Purpose Pistols: Duelist, Whisper

Blaster Killer Snipers: Ol' Betsy/Spyglass, Obliterator, Ralphie's Revenge

CC Sniper: Tsunami

General Purpose Sniper: Crankshot

Mediumrange Sniper: Super Shredder

Spammy Launchers: Trash Cannon, Bazooka

Damage Per Shot Launchers: Dam Buster, Bowler

Noble Launcher: Noble Launcher

Suppression Fire Launcher: Snowball Launcher

Minefield Launcher: Easter Egg Launcher

Chokepoint Launchers: Quad Launcher, Dragon's Fury

Optimal Sword: Stabsworth

Impact Sword: Pressure Cutter

Hearty Strikes Sword: Masamune

Elemental Scythes: Elegant Scythe, Fishing Hook

Energy Scythes: Reaper Scythe, Neon Scythe

Hardware: Lead Sled, Mr. Red, Vindertech Slammer

Melee Weapons for Heroes with No Melee Perks: Lead Sled, Mr. Red, Vindertech Slammer, but with different rolls

Statstick: Six Feet Under

It is up to you and your playstyle to determine which of these niches you value more than the others.

Lead sled with syd is a monster

Your mind

Tommy gun not that good, definitely not worth weapon voucher. Xenon bow is probably best overall weapon, especially with Stoneheart Farrah.

no such thing other than the most universally useful. Xenon, vacuum Tube, Discharger

everything else is mostly personal choice down to personal builds.

Once you get your hands on a Xenon Bow, you pretty much win the game

wtf u guys talking about, theres no tommy gun

Dem'there fighting words Son... Best Guns.. Meh...

It comes down to multiple factors - Hero used, hero support build loadouts, power stats, play style, resources etc

Commonly used weapons:

Xenon Bow - a low cost per shot weapon, that does decent damage that pierces and continues thru to other husks if in line. Useful also for shooting Daily/Quest targets from a far. A horrible weapon to use on 'rescue the survivor' missions as it can actually remove spawn before found (destroyed camp tents).

Potshot - a strong damage Launcher, useful for Smasher and other mini-boss killing

Popshot - a fast firing decent damage shotgun

Pulsar 9000 - a really powerful and useful shotgun that fires a ring that damages all in its path. Reasonable cost per shot, but does eat your energy cells

Candycorn LMG - kills drop healing candy - useful mainly for that (has good sound effects) and reasonable damage.

Vacuum Tube Bow, Launcher, Rifle + Vaccum Tube Melee - decent weapons that when set with the 6th perk of arc damage (damage jumps to nearby husks - up to 6) can clear out waves of husks. The V.T.Sword is a personal fav and one of my earlier 144's) - its often the weapon I gift at pl77 to newer players to help them out

the list goes on.. and on... and on... have not even mentioned things like the pain train, wraith, ground pounder, or bonus giving items like The Baron (for movement, or for Armour) etc

Additionally, there are some very niche weapons that are extremely fun to play with, that can be powerful/good in just the right circumstances, like the Snowball launcher against fire etc..

There is over 970 different weapon/special perk combinations in the game (not counting legacy ones), some can have great combo's (Duet with steam cloud, Blastotron 9000 with star burst etc)

My favorite is the dragon’s roar that spawn Roman candles on elimination.

I also like the Freedom’s herald because it’s efficient as hell& it’s a neat gun lol; it shoots fireworks deals damage to an area—think a grenade launcher that uses shotgun ammo.

Xenon Bow and the potshot.

Tiny instrument of death and paper shredder.

Complety depends on what build you wanna run, just look up beasts yt videos. He has the best weapons for each individual class as well as a top 10 weapons video. But typically speaking, the xenon bow with a bow build is insane for CC. And the potshot shreds bosses and tanky enemies.

The wraith, it can be used in any situation beside long range engagements. I used it until canny then started using other guns because I got bored of it. But it’s hands down the best assault rifle in the game if it wasn’t the best gun in the game, it shreds and it’s researchable too. Using it with sledgehammer is key

Absolutely agree with you, a BETTER spectral blade and the noble launcher, DOESNT use expensive ammo like the other mythics, one shots 140 smashers (with deadly blade crash & fiona), the abolute coolest, most raw visual design in stw, 130/10

Pain Train got me from plankerton to MSK and I still love using it. Even better when people around you use it too and you get the train really going.

Hemlock and Santa’s Helper always get the job done

gRAve DiGgEr

Honestly I rarely use the mythic launcher unless absolutely necessary because it destroys power cell supply. The sword is good. I disagree that siegebreaker/gravedigger isn’t viable, I mean if you are running an AR build it could potentially work. That or the candy corn LMg. I mostly use the Xenon or the mythic sword. But I’m usually playing constructor or ninja. I find when I’m playing constructor I can give up one constructor perk and add stoneheart to make the xenon do some extra damage.

Potshot, xenon now, and (personal choice) pulsar 9000. With these you have something for every scenario, small groups with high health targets, large groups with low health targets, and the nuke in a can that's the potshot.

Gravedigger and super shredder are NOT viable weapons, especially in end game.

The answer to your question depends on how you like to play the game.

Check out Beast's channel. He has some cool weapons analysis. Here's a tier list to give you a general idea. https://youtu.be/Z9Fpir-8l5A

Neither of those 2 are viable late game weapons. All the mythic weapons, noc, potshot, de atomizer, xenon bow, the floor flusher, the pain train, pop shot, ground pounder, husk buster, stampede, thrasher, silenced specter, whisper 45, pulsar 9000, spectral blade, storm blade, double boiler, and bobcat are all good weapons for the late game.

De atomizer, potshot, xenon bow, vaccum tube bow, spectral blade, pulsar 9000, ground pounder, roomsweeper, founders revolt, bundlebuss are all considered "the best weapons" excluding mythic weapons

Baron, obliterator, neon sniper are must haves for utility

Just don't recycle any legendary schematic. Every weapon can do decent damage when perked right (even the nailer) so it'll come down to the weapons that you enjoy the most.

I like my Ground Pounder, Maverick, and Siegebreaker. My mate loves his Plasmatron 9000 cause it's nearly endless shooting, and another mate loves his Art Deco range.

The biggest issue is people aren't taught how to get the best out of a schematic and I see so many people run with the weirdest setups trying to make the weapon perform in one way when it should be set up a completely different way.

Extremely high dps against single targets tho im pretty sure potshot is higher

It has a Unique Perk that allows for every shot to chain to an additional target. Meaning for just one bullet, you can easily hit two enemies at once. You magdump into a Smasher and find yourself taking out any lesser enemy that happens to have been dumb enough to walk near it.

There are definitely weapons with AOE, but none quite as crazy efficient as a well-perked Revolt.

Founder's Weapons like Nocturno, Drumroll, Deconstructor, Quickshot, Blazing Murasame and Revolt are fairly good weapons. Revolt is probably the only Epic Schematic that can stand as strong as Legendary or Mythic weapons. If you don't have the schematics though, the only way to get the weapons now is to get a buddy who can craft them to pass em over.

My favorite Off-Meta Weapons are Typewriter, Blastotron Mini, Boom Bow. Hacksaw is also really good despite it being the only weapon in the game to not have any Crit Perks.

Baron is great because it's the only weapon that can have 3 Additional Movement Speed Perks and Leap Attack Weapons like Guardian's Will, Lead Sled or Walloper used to be essential for non-Ninja players.

Most of the military set is really good and will last you through the entire game. They can be researched from the collection book. The Wraith is an excellent assault rifle and the Groundpounder a great shotgun. The Silent Spectre smg is available from the blockbuster questline and that will take you far, it's considered one of the best smgs in the game.

Silenced specter is really good, from blockbuster. I can craft you a spectral blade for the materials needed to make it. And no shotguns are THAT good.. unless you got pulsar.

I'd grab the silenced spectre from the event. That'll last you the entire game pretty much.

I switched to an LMG recently (from fixer)....lots of fun! I was bloodied but switched to a ghoul.

Gunther's big iron is fun, got to have speed demon though. I run it as my main ghoul, the game is when to reload, use Wild West hands if Ghoul for the 36% chance for instant reload, non optional build but hits for 600 or 1200 in stealth l. Also use a perfect Ultracite laser gun, can take out 2 SB adds and 1 3* SB in a rad zone.

I also have an AE with the mod that blows up limbs. Silly good fun....but mainly use a QE.

Goddamn I love my V63 Carbine since I got it. I’ve been wanting one since right after they made them untradable.

I recently happened upon a cursed nocturnal rolling pin with +40 power attack and +3 strength. I haven’t used it, but I can’t bring myself to scrap it. I can’t say that I’m not a little bit intrigued. I may have to dig out my bathrobe and start an angry housewife build after the perk changes tomorrow.

I love cremator and holy fire together. Not the highest DPS, but a very fun build. I’ve been using it on my main since the cremator first came out

SMG. It's simple, intuitive, good DPS, good with lifesteal, and a lot of potatoes can use it.

Sniper gun is disgusting

stick

I will never not promote spiky shield.

Prob SMG for overall utility and accessibility on so many tatos. Honorable mention to thief dagger for being absolutely free wins on a decent number of characters.