Are the purple weapons the highest grade you can get?

[River Victor]

Topic. If they are, I'm about to buy double of these to customize for specific elements. If not, I'll hold on to having only one and customizing for versatility until I can get the top tier.

[Grim Abstract]

Adept weapons are the highest i beleive, the dlc weapons

[Mononymouse]

I don't believe there are adept weapons, Shadow weapons are the best i have found, and even if there were Adept weapons they would be available in New game+.

Though i guess the hunting grounds weapons are better in some way.

[Guts]

"Adept" is the NG+ tier. Adept versions of the banuk weapons are the most powerful. Before frozen wilds your most powerful weapons are the shadow and lodge weapons.

[heronumber00]

The Frozen Wild dlc offer some bows (3) that are a bit better than the one you got in the base game (even the lodge bow). But to get them you first need to get to the dlc area, and collect bluegleams to trade for them.

[Mononymouse]

Originally posted by crueldamoiselle:

"Adept" is the NG+ tier. Adept versions of the banuk weapons are the most powerful. Before frozen wilds your most powerful weapons are the shadow and lodge weapons.

TY, i have yet to fully beat the game.

[justinjl]

Basic (green) -> Carja (blue) -> Shadow (purple)

Each tier has identical stats. Increasing tier adds 1 ammo type and 1 mod slot up to 3 ammo types and 3 mod slots.

Lodge weapons are same ammo types/mod slots as Shadow variants but have slightly better stats.

Banuk bows from FW are same ammo types/mod slots as Shadow variants. Stats are complicated...

Adept are NG+ variants of Banuk/Shadow/Lodge weapons. Identical stats but they have a 4th mod slot.

Banuk bows don't necessarily replace the Shadow/Lodge bows. They have much higher damage if you hold draw long enough for a powershot, but much lower damage if you dont hold long enough. Really good for high damage single shots (especially with 3 arrows in 1 shot), but they are really bad for rapid fire/high damage per second.

Edit:
I guess to summarize, yes purple is best, but depending on how you play you might prefer Shadow/Lodge or Banuk or both.