Suggested Weapon guide

A very basic guide with suggestions on the most useful weapons of each class.

Basic Weapon Suggestions

I wanted to go over some of the better examples of weapons available, and explain why I think they are good. There are so many choices, it is easy to miss over really good weapons because they may have a quality that doesn't seem great. Here are some examples:

Pistols

Wu Pistol AP-Currently the best Wu tranq pistol in my opinion. It pierces glass and face shields, and with a rank 2 supressor pretty much lasts as long as the infinite supressor counterpart.
Uragon Air shock- A 'loud' stun pistol, its utility is a 1 hit stun anywhere on the body if you're close enough. When things get hairy, it can be more useful, particularly in pvp.

AM D114LB-9- This lethal pistol can penetrate helmets. With a rank 2 supressor, you can stealthily kill a lot of guards with it. In situations where ammo is scarce (like FOB invasions) this is very useful, since you can efficiently go around headshotting nearby guards regardless of armor, and save your other ammo for more dire situations.

Submachine guns

Submachine guns feel much more balanced to me than some other weapons. Generally all of them get the option to take a foregrip (I always take this). Submachine guns can still be used with a shield, offering a lot of lead you can throw out while still protected under a shield. They have a very simple breakdown:

Sz-336 sprays a lot of bullets but is the least accurate/shortest ranged.
Ze'ev is balanced between accuracy and rate of fire.
Mact is like a pistol slot Assault Rifle, with slower, more accurate shots and a smaller magazine.
Riot SMG is your nonlethal SMG. It is useful in pvp to spray at invaders/defenders.

Assault Rifles

UN-ARC- Not only a fairly accurate assault rifle, but can take underbarrel weapons making it a lethal though pricey way to maximize killing power. The only nonlethal AR is the counterpart to this weapon, and like its lethal counterpart, encourages short bursts and headshots.

Shotguns

Karbarga 83- Fully upgraded, you get an automatic shotgun with a huge magazine. Great in pvp situations or when you want to go full rambo, just hold down the trigger and shred anybody close by if you don't mind being insanely noisy about it.

S-1000 Slug- Concentrates all of its power in a specific point. Treat it like a hip-mounted semi auto sniper rifle, as that's what it is. With a rank 2 supressor and reliable headshots, you can wreck a lot of havok with this baby. Generally the other shotguns make bigger sacrifices, such as magazine size (all the double barrels) or range (all the standards).

S-1000 Air S- One of the newer shotguns, it is the best nonlethal weapon in the game; an instant stun from any body hit about 40 meters out, and even past that will still 1 hit stun on a headshot. If you've unlocked the S-1000 slug, you can mount a rank 2 supressor on this baby which makes it incredibly useful for FOB invasions. Defenders better watch out, since even just 1 hit will send them on their butt!

Grenade Launchers

Hail MGR-4- Without a doubt the best standalone grenade launcher. Bar none the best weapon to defend a FOB, as you can spam tons of AoE goodness at invaders. Ammo is limited overall, but that is the case with grenades in general. The fully upgraded version gives you a whopping 20 round magazine which will be more than enough. The other grenade launchers are generally meant as underbarrel options, and the six shot semi auto version isn't worth wasting a whole hip slot for a particular grenade type.

Sniper Rifles

Brennan Anti Materiel Rifle- A 'mini-bazooka' of a sniper rifle which can effective damage vehicles and helicopters and also easily pierces the toughest of armored soldier. Not quite as useful for FOB stuff, but as a jack of all trades rifle it works great. The Serval is the semi-auto counterpart.

AM MRS-73 NL- Your tranq sniper rifle. The tranq round is stronger than the Wu, so even without headshots you'll still knock guys out pretty quick. Once you can put a supressor on this baby, raiding bases becomes a cinch. Compared to the M200 NL, this one is semi-auto, which is good for follow up shots if you're unlucky enough to be spotted.

AM MRS rifle- A semi-auto sniper rifle that can take underbarrel options. While the dedicated bolt-actions will boast somewhat better range and accuracy, the utility of followup shots in clutch situations, and the underbarrel weapon is not to be ignored. Extremely useful for FOB invasions where you can use all the weapons/ammo you can get.

Machine Guns

I feel like there is far less variation with the 3 different machine guns. Basically you have an American, European, and Soviet version each with pros/cons of fire rate, accuracy, and damage. Much like the lethal SMGs, its up to you to decide which you value more.

Rocket Launchers

Falkenberg- Has more ammo, faster projectile speed and 2 different options: "Anti tank" for tankbusting roles, and "Grenade" for a bigger AoE for versatile functions. Grom is cheaper, which is really all its got over the Falkenberg.

Cluster Guided Missile- Far superior to the Killer Bee, at max rank this monster can target 8 targets at a time. Its damage is based on how many 'mini missiles' hit. When doing 'Destroy Armored unit' side Ops, often you can practically wipe out the whole enemy unit before you get off the helicopter by locking them all on and letting loose.

Thrown weapons

Sleep Grenade- At max rank, the sleep grenade will give you a huge radius and spews sleep gas for a long time. You also get 8 of them. This, in my opinion is the best 'thrown' weapon; it is silent and guards will only report 'smoke' if they have LoS to the grenade going off, the radius is big enough to knock out multiple enemies and lasts long enough to catch other guards running to help their knocked out comrades. Grenades aren't bad but they are noisy (along with stun grenades) and smoke grenades have their uses but don't have the same big radius or aftereffects that sleep grenades offer.

Silent vs Noise, Nonlethal vs Lethal, semi vs auto

Some weapons in the guide can take a silencer, while others cannot. It is important to decide whether or not this is a priority. Silenced weapons can allow you to fire undetected if you are careful. On the flip side, 'noisy' weapons tend to be more powerful, have splash damage, or other utility. Which is more useful?

If you intend to remain undetected, then obviously silenced weapons are preferred. As long as you stay on the move, it will be difficult for the enemy to get a fix on you. However, a silencer doesn't make you completely undetected- abusing a silenced sniper rifle, for example, will have enemies sweep the area looking for you, and prompt them to start firing the mortar. Something else a lot of people might not realize is that if they have them, guards will start using their binoculars and scanning the area, making their vision range much longer and making it much more possible for multiple enemies to spot you at once.

Noisy weapons are much more useful when the poop hits the fan and a lot of enemies are firing on you. It might take some time to find a safe place to hide, or you may just prefer to go full Rambo and mow everybody down instead of trying to flee. Noisy weapons tend to help dispatch groups of enemies or vehicles.

Typically nonlethal weapons give you a better score and give you the opportunity to fulton away sleeping/knocked out soldiers. Just like health, guards (and players) have a 'stamina' bar. Stamina gets drained from nonlethal weapons, be it 'rubber bullets' or tranquilizer/sleeping gas. Generally the guns function similar to their lethal counterparts- head shots offer knockouts much faster. Sleep weapons keep enemies unconcious longer than stun weapons, and the location hit also matters- all tranquilizer weapons will instantly put the target to sleep on a head shot if the projectile can hit an unprotected area (or can penetrate). Sleeping gas is based on the time spent in the cloud and the rank of the weapon; high rank sleep grenades will instanty render guards unconcious while sleep grenade launchers have a smaller cloud and take a bit longer to work. In addition, guards with gas masks are completely unaffected by gas (not sure about smoke).

Lethal weapons have a few advantages and disadvantages over nonlethal. They tend to be quicker, as you don't have to wait for a tranquilizer round to kick in. If the enemy was somewhere you can't easily fulton, you don't have to worry about them waking up. Knocked out or asleep guards can be woken up by other guards or by enemy vehicles honking at them. Dead enemies will not wake up, obviously. Another advantage of lethal weapons is the ability to mortally wound enemies. This is somewhat similar to stunning them except they might have the chance to take potshots at you with a pistol. However, you can fulton them (the chance based on your medical team, until you get wormhole fulton when it always is 100%). When you have wormhole fulton, you can 'kneecap' enemies and fulton them away, which is useful if you want to still have a 'no kills' bonus, capture enemies, or avoid the nasty heroism/demon point penalty you get for letting enemies bleed out. Lethal weapons also tend to have more 'concussive' force, allowing you to knock enemies off cliffs and ledges.

Weapons that are not even considered 'semi auto' need to be reloaded every shot. These include bolt action rifles, the Wu tranq pistols, and rocket launchers. In the case of rifles, they tend to offer better range and power per shot at the cost of firing speed. If you think you can nail your target in 1 shot, they are worth it (sometimes they are also cheaper too, if that's an issue). Semi auto will fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. Firing quickly messes up your accuracy, but it has a big benefit: If you've triggered Reflex Mode and miss with your initial shot, lining up a second or third shot is still a possibility before Reflex Mode expires. Automatic weapons fire shots continuously as you hold down the trigger. These generally include Assault Rifles, Submachine guns, and machine guns. Automatic weapons work best to compensate for fast moving enemies by 'walking' your fire to the target. Alternatively, short range automatic weapons like SMGs can spew out a lot of rounds on the target and kill/disable them before they can react.

The other pistols

In the basic suggestions I mentioned weapons I felt were optimal for their intended use. Obviously there are a ton of guns in the game, and I encourage all players, novice or veteran, to play around with guns. You may find a 'favorite' even if it isn't the technically 'best' gun. For those curious, here's a very simple breakdown on all the 'other stuff'.

Burkov- This is the soviet line of pistols. They start out very average, but at the end of the research tree you get two gimmick pistols: A semi-auto tranq pistol and a lethal pistol with unlimited silencer. The semi auto tranq pistol can throw multiple follow-up shots that the Wu can't, but it won't benefit from all the upgrades you get down the Wu tranq pistol line (glass penetration). The unlimited silencer Burkov sounds nice on paper, but has some serious drawbacks- it doesn't have the same penetration power of the AMD 114-9. A rank 2 silencer will pretty much last the duration of your ammo, so with careful fire you won't worry much about running out of ammo with a pistol that is much better suited to helmeted/amored enemies.

Uragan- While the stun version has its uses, the lethal version is essentially a pistol mounted shotgun. However, it comes with many downsides; shorter range, noise, and very limited ammunition. Slug rounds can concentrate the power into a single point, making head and upper body shots pretty lethal if you're close enough. Shotpistols are fun, but there are more effective ways of blapping opponents. Still, pair it with a shield and get up close and personal if you want some fun.

Windurger revolvers- Fairly conventional revolvers that in this game feel like the worst of both worlds; loud, slow, not particularly accurate. I'm personally not a fan, but if you feel like Dirty Harry go for it.

Zorn grenade pistols- Early game these are handy; they shoot grenades much more accurately than throwing them and greatly increase your total supply of a given type. However, I feel that once you get underbarrel grenade launchers these become kind of obsolete. 16 shots isn't much, and keep in mind all grenade launchers are loud, so don't think guards aren't going to notice when you fire your oversized popgun at something.

Water Pistol- A novelty item that does no real damage. However, squirt it in a guards face and you can blind them momentarily (similar to shining a flashlight at them). Squirting electronic equipment like radios will short them out, and you have unlimited 'ammo'. However note that the Water Pistol will not disable security devices on FOBs.

Other shotguns

Standard shotguns fire a bunch of pellets, with each pellet doing damage. The main advantage of shotguns is they tend to have a 'knockdown' effect, which is useful to immobilize enemies for follow up shots. However, standard shotguns have several downsides; they have lousy armor penetration, their damage is widely distributed, and their effective range is fairly short. Only the S-1000 family of shotguns can mount silencers, though don't discount their effectiveness on such a powerful, otherwise noisy weapon.

Rasp- These are double barrel shotguns. The gimmick is you only get two shots, but if you double-tap an enemy that's usually enough. I generally don't care for the lack of range and tiny magazine size. Unlocking the 'sawed off' rasp allows you to take it as an underbarrel attachment, where it is far more useful; run out of primary ammo or have an enemy far too close and you can blap them quickly then switch back to your primary weapon again. The non-lethal variant can quickly knock out an enemy in 2 shots, but this becomes obsolete when you get the rank 7 S-1000 (which can do it in 1 shot and mount a silencer as well)

S-1000- these are pump action shotguns that I find are a little more versatile than the Rasp. In addition to the standard type, you also get slug variants, which concentrate all their damage on a single round. This tends to be a bit more accurate and these variants can allow for effective head shots. At the higher ranks, an S-1000 with rank 2 supressor is very similar in function to a semi auto sniper rifle, with the added benefit of being hip mounted.

Bullhorn- Somewhat shorter ranged but more accurate than the S-1000 family. Bullhorn is useful for rapidly firing at targets and not worrying about your aim going all over the place. You also get the ability to mount one as an underbarrel option like the Rasp, though I'm not sure if one is particularly more useful in an underbarrel role than the other.

Thrown weapons

Thrown weapons have less accuracy than grenade launchers but give additional utility. You can take many support weapons, so you'll always have a wide variety of options at your disposal. While I think sleep grenades are the 'best' overall, there are plenty of other decent options:

Hand grenade- The basic thrown grenade that you get from day one. Upgrades let you carry more, improve blast radius and make them more lethal. The only problem I have with grenades is that any explosion tends to draw a lot of attention, and since you can only throw them so far, it tends to attract a lot of attention on you. Grenades seem to have a 'kill radius' where they will kill enemies, and outside of this they will just wound them. However, they give a lot of concussive force, and even if its not close enough to kill the guy hit you can often knock them off a ledge or platform which will stun/kill them from the fall.

Stun grenade- Nice in theory, overrated in my experience. It is very difficult to not get caught in the blast effect of stun grenades yourself. Stun grenades release a flash and loud noise which will stun enemies if they are too close. However, I found the effective radius tends to be too small, and too likely you'll just blind yourself. Like grenades, they are extremely loud, but don't have the added benefit of killing their target. They are definitely useful against other players in fob invasions/defenses, since you can white out their screen and disorient them.

Smoke grenade- Almost as useful as sleep grenades in my opinon. Smoke grenades have a ton of uses. First, they will block line of sight so long as guards don't have night vision. You can throw one in a jeep and drive it right past guard posts, and while the guards will see the smoke itself, they will not notice the driver. Smoke is quiet and guards only get alerted by the actual presence of smoke, not the noise. Enemies and players that are in the smoke effect's radius are semi-stunned (you cannot take any action in the radius, but you can still move around) for enemies, they will just stand there coughing so it can be handy to preoccupy guards to either ambush or bypass them.

Petrol bomb- The only other lethal thrown weapon you get besides grenades. Petrol Bombs are somewhat controversial; burning enemies alive gives you a big hit to heroism and adds a lot of demon points. However, they leave behind a pool of fire, which can damage enemies. Like grenades, they are good in enclosed spaces, and if you don't care about heroism/demon points they're useful in Fobs as well since your ammo is limited.

Decoys- Decoys are inflatable decoys of Snake which can distract guards. They are thrown like other weapons, though once they hit the ground they dont really bounce/slide unless they hit a wall. There are three varieties: Standard, which is just the decoy. Standard decoys have their own upgrade path that keeps going past the other two types. The only real advantage of using the vanilla one is cost. Active Decoys 'talk' "Kept you waiting huh" "You're pretty good" which can get the attention of guards that didn't have the decoy in their line of sight. Both standard and active decoys can knock down enemies that stand very close to them. E-stun decoys are like standard decoys but emit an electric shock when deployed. This will stun nearby enemies. When undetected, you can use decoys to draw away enemies, but even if the alarm is raised, enemies will sometimes shoot at the decoy instead of yourself.

Flares- Either resupply or air strike variants. Air strikes are costly, and A rank limiting, so they aren't as critical in my opinion. However resupply flares are very useful since you don't have to bring up your I droid to call in for resupply. This is particularly nice on missions like Metallic Archaea or Sehelanthropus where you're probably running around trying not to get shot up to bother messing with your Idroid.

FOB Guard arsenal

What weapons are the FOB guards equipped with? Generally these guards get the most 'balanced' weapon of their type to guard your FOB. There are a few exceptions, but overall the game favors taking an average, non gimmicky weapon. This is very good to know not just for knowing what is protecting your stuff, but to know what you're up against when invading FOBs.

Short Range:

Lethal: Karbarga-83 auto shotgun, Ze'ev SMG+shield
Nonlethal: S-1000 air, Riot SMG+shield

Lethal guards tend to fire their shotguns at whatever range they see the invader. This means that guards on distant platforms will hang back and shoot instead of approaching. SMG armed guards fire in bursts but are difficult to approach from the front due to their shields. Nonlethal short range is particularly effective, however, because guards tend to be close to the invader. Once the Rank 7 S-1000 air is unlocked, the guards can knock out an invader in 1 hit making it extremely dangerous to get spotted.

Medium range:

Lethal: AM MRS-4R Assault Rifle, ALM 48 Machine Gun, Killer Bee
Nonlethal: UN-ARC-NL, ???

The most balanced of range settings. The AI's behavior of throwing down supressive fire works really well with a combination of assault rifles and machine guns. Against novice invaders, the guards can pin down an attacker by throwing a lot of lead at his area in a short amount of time. While the Assault rifle taken isn't the strongest a player can take, the sheer number of guards that might get a clear LOS to a spotted enemy can potentially drop him in seconds. Guards armed with Killer Bees aren't a huge threat; the lockon time gives the invader time to get out of LoS so it is rare to be hit by missiles, and the time taken to get the shot off makes the guard very vulnerable to getting shot first. The nonlethal counterpart here is only average; the stun AR is ok but nothing to write home about, and the guards no longer get shields, which is a big deal when they have sneaking suits and not battle dress armor.

Long range:

Lethal: AM MRS-71 Semi auto sniper rifle, Killer Bee
Nonlethal: Renov-ICKX TP, AM MRS-73

Through binoculars and scopes, long range guards boast the longest detection range of any type. They tend to be positioned high up to give a good field of fire, but can be completely bypassed by a careful invader. I believe the Renov gets replaced by the AM MRS-73 when you unlock the latter; I assume this means at rank 5 the nonlethal guards will fire faster with a semi auto vs a bolt action. Non lethal guards will knock out an invader in two hits, though its hard for them to fulton the invader since there's seldom a guard nearby before they wake up. Nonlethal long range is fun in confunction with defending using nonlethal weapons; the invader gets spotted very easily and a defender can dart over to fulton a knocked out invader.

[Republic]

Ah right
Thanks for the help!

[Panfilo]

You can only toggle short/medium/long and lethal/non lethal I believe. The actual weapons they use are based on these settings.

[Republic]

How can one change the FOB's arsenal?
I can just tweak from Short/Medium/Long and Lethal/Non-Lethal

[Panfilo]

Coolguy1771 I find the Falkenberg with the grenade variant to be superior for base defense- it has a much greater blast radius, and the second the invader gets damaged the alarm gets set off allowing your guards to start engaging the invader. This means you can fire it indiscriminately near corners in the hopes of catching an invader hiding on the other side.

[awawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaw]

The WU Pistol AP doesn't actually pierce the face shields of riot suits, and the rocket launcher for non-lethal FOB's is the Falkenberg Multi-Role NLSP , which fires sleep gas grenades.
Other than that, the guide's pretty good.

[Coolguy1771]

Whats the best loadout to use to defend you FOB? You mentioned all of the pros and cons of each but you never gave you opion on what you thunk is best.

[Psychopseudonym]

something also worth mentioning, if you throw a decoy and deploy it right on top of the guard, it will stun them

[a231]

You can't use the bullhorn as an underbarrel tho, only the s1000 and RASP

[Friki]

Nice guide, pretty good

[fytogili]

how to be a complete assshole in online?? use the uragan stun and the saiga 12 (karbarga 83) and as for back weap maybe a machinegun for enemy suppression (lpg 61 recomentation) or the antimaterial sniper riffle because FCK YOU thats why or a rocket launcher (grom 11 or fb mr r-launcher because they are faster than the rest and also because if you hit the enemy defender/raider then he will fall down and by the time he gets up you are already done reloading your next rocket and BOOM he dead