Hunt Showdown: Weapon Tier List 2021

This guide is a tier list of every weapon in the game, ranked by performance alone.

When appraising a weapon I am generally not taking price or unlock requirements into consideration. It is extremely easy to get money in Hunt, to the point that even a relatively casual player like myself can get over $70k in a few months; the economy is not anything a remotely good player needs to worry about. In the same vein, unlock requirements are only relevant for players who prestige, and even then only once per prestige level.

For the sake of brevity and my own sanity, I will be omitting weapon variants that do not offer a significant change in performance or playstyle. Consequently, all melee variants and some scoped variants will be omitted and can be assumed to have the same ranking as their parent weapon. I will also be omitting melee weapons and bows.

Below is a legend for what is meant by each letter ranking.

SS – Overpowered weapons, capable of doing too much with too few downsides, or being so dominant in their niche that their weaknesses outside of it become irrelevant. They are mostly conceptually flawed weapons whose only proper balancing strategy is being deleted from the game. Thankfully, there are few of these.

S – Competitive weapons that occupy a clear and distinct role and excel in it. The weapons in this category are the only ones I would consider properly balanced.

A – Mildly underpowered weapons. These can still compete with S tier weapons, but their shortcomings will be noticeable and occasionally get you killed.

B – Underpowered weapons. These weapons generally have a few considerable strengths and a number of significant weaknesses, and require the user to be significantly better than their opponent to win against A or S tier guns.

C – Very underpowered weapons. These generally only have one or two strengths and a ton of weaknesses, and are never really worth using.

D – Trash. These weapons have a ton of weaknesses and very few, if any real strengths. Their badness warps the mind and stains the soul.

Please note that strength and weakness here is often relative. There really isn’t an objective measure for how “good” or “bad” a certain damage number or bullet velocity or reload time is; they can only be gauged by comparing them to what is available on other guns.

C

A starter weapon very quickly eclipsed by other guns. The full-size Winfield has a larger magazine and better variants, and the Officer Carbine offers a much higher rate of fire in and out of iron sights.

C

Takes the 1873’s two biggest weaknesses – sharp damage dropoff and low velocity – and amplifies them even more for the dubious benefit of being silenced. High velocity ammo counters the lowered velocity somewhat but the Vetterli Silencer is still far superior.

S with High Velocity ammo and High Velocity Officer
A with High Velocity ammo
C otherwise

Most people will agree that a 400m/s muzzle velocity doesn’t pair well with a Marksman scope. Crytek seemed to realize this as well when they added High Velocity ammunition, which immediately made this thing a contender. It trades the damage and range of medium and long ammo rifles for a faster rate of fire and the ability to have absurd ammo reserves when stacked with an Officer.

D

An 1873C that’s even worse in several ways. Awful sway? Check. Smaller mag? Check. Lower velocity? Check. Unusable Levering spread? Check. As dubious a choice as it is itself, the Nagant Precision or Deadeye is a much better weapon in the same niche. The only way this thing could be worse is if you put a comically unstable scope on it.

C with Dumdum ammo and Dumdum Pax
D otherwise

Takes the cake for the single worst 3-slot in the entire game. A single-shot rifle with less penetration, velocity, damage, and range than even the Sparks, thing thing has no reason to exist. Dumdums give it decent utility but not enough to save it.

D

The Marksman scope lets the Springfield’s middling velocity have some value and softens the impact of its low rate of fire, but other Marksman rifles will still wildly outperform it.

S with High Velocity ammo
A otherwise

The Vetterli was always a sleeper hit before 1.6.2, and the addition of High Velocity ammo let it ascend to godhood. It excels in mid range, where its higher rate of fire, faster reload, larger magazine, and higher reserve ammo give it a serious edge over the Mosin-Nagant while retaining high velocity and damage and decent penetration. It can also compete with the Winfield 1873 in the same range, beating it in damage and headshot range while only being mildly outclassed in fire rate. The low velocity was the only thing holding it back, and that’s not a problem anymore.

S with High Velocity ammo
A otherwise

This weapon bears the distinction of being the only gun to reach 600m/s with a low-sway Deadeye scope, and for mid-range combat that’s pretty friggin’ powerful, especially when combined with all of the Vetterli’s other advantages.

S with High Velocity ammo
C otherwise

This would have been a strange addition were it not for High Velocity ammo, but as it stands it’s a solid sniper rifle that trades damage, penetration and access to spitzers for a faster rate of fire and larger ammo reserves while retaining the necessary velocity and headshot range.

A with High Velocity ammo
C otherwise

A silenced rifle actually worth something. HV ammo gives it respectable velocity while allowing it to quickly dish out considerable damage from short to medium range. Excellent for harassing and damaging enemies while teammates fight them head-on from another position.

C

It’s not the Springfield, but it’s also not the Sparks. A long ammo single-shot with a muzzle velocity of 400m/s feels like a bad joke, especially when the medium ammo single-shot does 490. A Vetterli or Sparks would be better in pretty much any situation.

S

The Winfield does a little bit of everything, and does it well. It has a fast rate of fire in iron sights, even faster with Iron Repeater. It can two-tap to 43m and headshot to 96, which is good enough for something using compact ammo. Levering allows it to compete with dual pistols and semi-autos and participate in close-quarters rushes. High Velocity ammo lets it fish for headshots against a Mosin or Vetterli and win because of its increased magazine size and fire rate, although forgoing special ammo grants it absurd ammo economy and longevity. When paired with an Uppercut to one-tap downed players, the 1873 is the single most versatile primary in the game, with its only glaring weakness being a slow reload from empty.

S with High Velocity ammo
C otherwise

Apertures are already a hard sell because of how much they obscure the screen. An aperture on a gun with 400m/s is harder. Bump it up to 600 with High Velocity ammo and we have a more serious contender. Toggling between regular iron sights and Marksman-level zoom to aid in those 96m headshots is a powerful ability indeed.

SS

A Winfield 1873 with a lightning fast reload. There’s a lot of ways to run this thing and they’re all valuable; Uppercut or Officer, high velocity or standard, it’s absurdly strong no matter how you cut it. The weakest weapon I would label SS, but still veering into problematic territory.

B

It’s not the Martini-Henry, but it’s also not the Mosin-Nagant. The Sparks has extremely high damage, great penetration, and high velocity, but its single shot and slow reload weaken it significantly to the point that it’s a flex weapon and not much else. Prior to 1.5 it had higher total ammo, but apparently that was overpowered.

A

As with the Springfield, the weaknesses of the Sparks are softened in a long-range sniper context. The Mosin still has a faster fire rate and access to spitzers, but a skilled Sparks user can keep up and put the heat on.

B

This would have been A tier if it weren’t for the Vetterli Silencer. It has the best damage and range of the silenced rifles, the Vetterli’s fire rate edges it out. In any case, a single-shot rifle with 300m/s feels real bad.

A

Good velocity, good damage, extreme range. Trades the Mosin’s faster reload for a larger magazine. What kills the Lebel is its inexplicably bad ammo economy; where the Mosin will get 2-3 rounds from a small box and 3-4 from a large, the Lebel will get 1-2 from a small and 2-3 from a large. In a comparison of two largely-identical rifles, the Mosin’s slight advantages make it the clear winner.

S

What saves the Lebel are its sighting options. As with the 1873, the ability to toggle between irons and Marksman-level zoom is extremely strong, and it’s more appropriate for a long ammo rifle like the Lebel than the Winfield. It doesn’t hurt that the Lebel’s aperture is the least obtrusive in the entire game.

S

Many people find the Marksman scope much more versatile and useful overall than the Sniper, and for them the Lebel Marksman is the clear choice over the Mosin Sniper. An extremely deadly rifle at mid-long range.

D

A victim of Crytek’s recent inability to make new guns that aren’t dead on arrival. The Centennial looks decent at first glance until you realize it’s worse than the Vetterli in every way except for velocity and magazine size – and only in velocity if the Vetterli isn’t using HV ammo. It’s also a worse lever-action than the 1873, having a smaller mag, less ammo, slower rate of fire, and abysmal levering speed and spread. An entirely purposeless weapon.

S

A sweaty gun for sweaty people, the Mosin has identical total ammo and functionally-identical velocity to the Lebel while having better ammo economy, higher damage, more practical magazine/reload balance, stripper clips, and sights more appropriate to a long-range rifle. The king of long-range combat.

B

What if we took the Mosin and gave it abysmal sway so it’s only good at close-mid range? I’d rather take an Uppercut any day over this thing.

SS with spitzers
S otherwise

The highest-velocity sniper rifle got even higher velocity with 1.5. Spitzers make absurd long-range headshots much easier, and even without them, this is still the most powerful sniper out there.

B

A shotgun substitute for before they added slugs. The Avtomat is great at scaring the absolute ♥♥♥♥ out of people and spraying through walls but is fairly mediocre outside of close-range combat. It’s deadly in extremely skilled hands but most people will just waste all their ammo and die. The only weapon in the game with spread while in iron sights, every hit with this thing feels like a stroke of good luck.

D

43m one-taps don’t justify the intentionally abysmal iron sights and lack of ammo. The amount of effort spent getting good with this one gun would be better spent learning to get headshots at 16-43m or simply using a Rival with slugs. A joke weapon and a relic from early access.

A with Fanning *or* High Velocity ammo
D otherwise

The starting pistol. A 7-shot revolver with low damage, low velocity, low fire rate and low range, the Nagant’s saving grace is its exceptional fire rate and accuracy with Fanning, and its ability to carry High Velocity ammo for the Winfield 1873. I would, however, not recommend doing both of these at once, as the increased recoil from the HV ammo will diminish the accuracy of the fanning and you really don’t want that.

D

A 2-slot Nagant that can’t be fanned. I’ll pass. Still better than the Vandal, though.

A with High Velocity ammo
D otherwise

A highly-stable Deadeye scope that shoots at 490m/s as a 2-slot is a much more appealing prospect. Capable of supporting dual pistols at longer range, but shines mostly with Quartermaster and a shotgun.

D

Worse damage and fire rate than the Pax, and worse velocity than even the Conversion, for a two-second faster reload and marginally better fanning. RIP to all the homies that begged Crytek to add this.

B

An extremely middling pistol that doesn’t have the range and damage of the Uppercut or the ammo and spammability of the Conversion or Officer, the Pax performs decently but lacks a real niche and mostly exists to give the Vetterli more ammo.

SS

Holding 7 rounds and two-tapping to ~30m at 100rpm from iron sights, this gun singlehandedly broke close quarters combat even worse than the Dolch on account of being almost as good and twenty times more common. If you ever corner a Mosin user, expect them to have this baby in their pocket and mow you down with it.

SS

The Officer, as a 3-slot with lower recoil, higher damage, range, and velocity. I can’t tell which one is more broken at this point.

A with Fanning or dual wield
D otherwise

Only marginally better than the Nagant, the Conversion likewise shines as a Fanning or dual wield option with great accuracy and fire rate. Dumdums make grazing or single hits count for more, and you get plenty.

D

The Conversion, but it’s bad at fanning and dual wielding. A 17 round magazine isn’t too helpful when it shoots as slow as a standard Conversion.

S

The Uppercut has ballistics similar to a Vetterli as a 1-slot pistol. Functions as a mid-range option for shotgun users and gives Winfield users the ability to 1-tap downed players. Can also be used to grant Mosin users extra ammo and pickup if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t shower or go outside.

D

The only weapon in the entire game that takes three bodyshots to kill at close range, the Bornheim shoots faster than even the Dolch but still takes longer to fire those three shots than it does for the Officer to fire two. Useless except as a dedicated headshot fishing rod.

A

Now we’re going places. The Match *can* kill in two shots out to about 22m, and with its rate of fire that’s pretty dangerous. Its headshot range of 68m is low, but High Velocity ammo makes any shots in that range effectively hitscan.

S with Fanning and Slug ammo
D otherwise

The LeMat holds 9 shots that function identically to the Nagant, and one shot of the single worst shotgun in the game. When you add Fanning and slugs, however, it’s an absolutely devastating CQC weapon, with high accuracy, a high fire rate, and a 9m one-tap.

SS

The most infamous weapon in the game, the Dolch is still an extremely dangerous weapon after its nerfs in 1.5. With a rate of fire of 167rpm and a ten-round magazine with ten in reserve (plus a stripper clip if you use the whole thing) the Dolch hands out free kills left and right.

I’ll preface this section by saying that I find shotguns very difficult to rank. As close range one-shot weapons they all exist in a matrix of fire rate, spread, and capacity and aren’t all that dissimilar from each other outside of those three factors, so I apologize if my notes on shotguns are somewhat minimal.

C

The Romero is an extremely popular and beloved shotgun, and my issue with it is one of philosophy more than raw stats. The Romero does have the longest effective range and tightest spread of any shotgun in the game; so that should make it the best, no? No. Shotguns, in my opinion, are for close range reactive gameplay, and the Romero’s single shot and tight spread means it will lose frequently in those split-second scraps. It’s good for camping corners, but any other shotgun playstyle will demand more margin for error – a higher spread so that a near miss can grant a kill and not a miss or graze, an extra shot for emergencies – and the Romero doesn’t have that. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Romero’s main advantages – long range and accuracy – are now available on all other shotguns with slugs.

A

Two shots, a fast rate of fire, and medium-tight spread is enough to feel properly equipped in the average CQC scenario. With slugs, the Rival gives up its CQC hipfire for reliable 15m one-taps with a rapid rate of fire, balancing it more toward defensive and predictive play.

B

The Specter’s spread is tight enough to be reliable, loose enough to be usable in CQC, and yet its fire rate isn’t enough to make it feel like more than a fancy Romero. Slugs make it deadlier as a slow-paced predictive shotgun but I’d still take the Rival most days.

S with Levering
C otherwise

The Terminus’ base fire rate is inexplicably slower than the Specter’s, meaning it’s Levering or bust with this one. With Levering, however, you get a very capable room clearer. Dragonsbreath turns it into a flamethrower than can burn away entire health bars and flechettes make a great harassment and pressure tool at range.

SS

Without slugs, it’s a rapid-fire rain of death in close quarters that compensates for high spread with unrelenting aimpunch and a giant magazine. With slugs, it’s like a Dolch that can one-tap.