S-Tier Guns:
These guns are the cream of the crop. You’ll see them extremely frequently at 6 star play, because they’re powerful:
- Nitro Express Rifle
- Mosin-Nagant M1891 (+sniper variant)
- Lebel 1886 (+marksman variant)
- Dolch 96 (+ dolch precision)
- Caldwell Conversion Uppercut
- Sparks Pistol
- Specter 1882
- Crown & King Auto-5
1. Nitro Express Rifle
If there is a single “best” gun in the game, it would be the Nitro Express Rifle. However, you won’t encounter this gun much because:
- It’s very pricey
- It has a very high skill ceiling
The gun is very difficult to use, but is the only gun that can one tap to the body over long distances.
Whenever I hear a Nitro Express Rifle, I start sweating. Fighting against a Nitro Express Rifle is extremely scary, because it’s super easy to get one-shotted.
Always take “Shredder Ammo” if you’re going the Nitro Express Rifle. It allows you to one-tap people over extremely long distances.
2. Mosin-Nagant M1891
Hands down the best sniper in the game. You’ll see this gun all the time at 6* play.
It can double tap to the body and one-hit kill to the head at extremely long distances. It allows you to fire 5 rounds before reloading and fires slightly faster than the Lebel, the second best sniper in the game.
This gun is best taken with the “steady aim” perk if you have the sniper variant, and “spitzer ammo” if you can afford it.
Spitzer ammo allows the shot to land faster. Think of it like playing on less ping.
3. Lebel 1886
The next best sniper in the game, only very marginally worse than the Mosin-Nagant. It’s slightly cheaper and easier to unlock and performs extremely similarly to the Mosin.
The difference between this and the Mosin is that it fires a tiny bit slower, even though the stats say they both fire at 34 rpm, it’s a bit misleading.
See this video for more detail:
4. Dolch 96
The Dolch 96 is best paired with long ranged guns like the Mosin and Lebel. It’s a fast-firing pistol that can double tap to the body and single tap to the head at short to medium distances. Holding up to 10 rounds in the chamber, I’ve been able to solo wipe trios with this gun alone.
If you have the quartermaster perk, picking up the Dolch 96 precision is also an upgrade with improved handling – yielding in less recoil, less sway and bullet spread.
The downside of the Dolch is the price. Costing 750 hunt dollars, for a secondary slot, it can quickly burn through your money.
5. Caldwell Conversion Uppercut
A solid option for a secondary pistol. Think of the Uppercut like a poor man’s rifle. It’s slow firing, but offers good damage over long distances.
If you’re running shotguns, having an uppercut or a Sparks pistol is a must-have for secondary slot, otherwise you’ll find yourselves in situations where it’s a stalemate (e.g. when you have the bounty and a team of snipers are waiting outside).
If you’re running long ammo snipers, the Uppercut can also provide more starting ammunition which is a good plus, however, you’ll be a bit weaker in close range combat. Having the “fanning” perk can mitigate this a lot.
6. Sparks Pistol
Sparks Pistol by itself isn’t a great gun, but pair it with a shotgun and it becomes lethal. Why?
The Sparks Pistol does 149 damage to the body. If you hit someone with this gun, all you have to do is deal 1 more damage and they’re dead. That allows you to pull out your shotgun and fire it at long distances. With the wide spread of shotguns, it’s extremely easy to land the shot.
So: Fire your sparks pistol, switch to any shotgun and landing the shot will kill them.
It’s best to pick long barrelled shotguns like the Romero Alamo or Specter.
7. Specter 1882
One of the best Hunt Showdown players calls this their favorite shotgun to use against trios.
It allows you to fire multiple shots before reloading, has okay fire rate and a long barrel that makes it have the second tightest spread in the game (after the Romero variants).
Always pick this with Slug ammo if you can afford it. Slugs allow you to one-tap at pretty long distances (15-25m)
8. Crown & King Auto-5
A fast-firing, semi automatic shotgun. The appeal of the Crown & King is indeed it’s fire rate, which makes it one of the most powerful shotguns in the game.
The drawbacks to the Crown & King are that it has slightly more spread than the Specter and is much most costly. However, if you have the money, this gun feels really good to play. Always get Slug ammo with this if you can.
9. Winfield 1893 Slate
This is like a Crown & King Auto – extremely fast firing rate and also much cheaper. It’s highly popular for this reason.
The drawbacks to the Winfield Slate is it’s got a short barrel. For this reason, it has slightly less damage and more spread than the Specter and Crown & King. This is quite minor though, and the Winfield Slate is extremely powerful right now.
No bullet grubber is also needed whenever you want to reload this gun.
A-Tier Guns
These guns are very high performing, but often cheaper and has some drawbacks that prevents them from being S-tier.
Romero Alamo
The best shotgun at longer distances. It has the tightest spread in the game, allowing you to consistently get kills over long distances (15-25m).
With slug ammo, aim for the upper chest or neck area. The spread will cause some bullets to hit the head, adding a nice multiplier to the damage, allowing you to OHK people at 25-30m.
The drawbacks of this gun is the rate of fire and slow reload speed. If you miss your shot, you will be in jeopardy. It’s also not ideal for fights against multiple people.
Winfield M1873C Marksman
Another underrated sniper rifle. It’s very versatile, allowing you to get the levering trait for close quarters combat. At long range, it’s one of the best budget snipers that’s easy to unlock.
Explosive Crossbow
Very strong – able to one-tap at any distance if you land the explosion correctly. The hard part is just landing your shot. Best paired with a Dolch pistol to finish off enemies that you wounded from the explosion.
The reason why this weapon isn’t S-tier is because people can get the “bulwark” trait, which makes this weapon unable to one-shot. It becomes quite weak in this situations. You’ll need to finish them off using a pistol.
If you use the explosive crossbow, try to position yourself on the high-ground, as it’s much easier to land your shots that way.
Guns to Avoid (F-Tier Guns)
For serious competitive play, avoid these weapons.
For fun gameplay, any weapon is viable.
Bomb Lance
Works well in lower star MMR (1-4 star), especially as a melee weapon, but gets demolished at higher MMRs.
The bomb lance shot is also incredibly difficult to land, and not guaranteed 1-shot kill if they have bulwark.
Good for killing bosses, but a sticky bomb can do the same thing.
Caldwell 92 New Army
It might be an attractive pistol due to it’s high fire rate, but it’s very inaccurate and has very poor projectile speed. Overall, it’s very poor at long distances, and only semi-viable at short distances until you run into a shotgun. This is one of the worst pistols in the game.
Most Handcannons
Most handcannons are underperforming. They’re not entirely useless, but the only time I would pick one is if I have a long range sniper + quartermaster perk. Then I might pick a handcannon for close combat. Other than that, avoid these weapons.
Bow
Fun to play, especially with explosive arrows, but under-performs against other weapons. At close range, it loses to shotguns. At long range, it loses to any rifle.
Mosin-Nagant M1891 Avtomat
Basically a machine gun, which might tempt a beginner into thinking it’s strong. It’s got very high recoil (both vertical and horizontal recoil), making it an RNG-fest.
In the right hands, it’s a decent weapon, but you need to be good at controlling the vertical recoil. However, for the price, it’s a rip-off and still under-performing. This is more of a meme gun than anything. Although, I find myself using it time to time just for the fun of it.
Skill is More Important
A gun might be weak or strong, but that only slightly tips the scale in your favor.
It all comes down to how good your aim is.
If you have slightly better aim than your opponent, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a Vetterli Karabiner and they’re using a Mosin sniper. You’ll come out on top most of the time.
