The choice of weapons in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is overwhelming. There’s lots to choose from, and every weapons has its pros and cons.
However, some weapons are simply better than others – they do more damage, penetrate harder armor, offer more stability or a higher rate of fire. If you’re having trouble with choosing, take a look at our list of
best weapons in MGSV.
UN-ARC Assault Rifle
The UN-ARC assault rifle has the best accuracy in its class, high range and even a decent damage output. When you get it to grade 2, you’ll get a dot sight, 2 customization slots and a magnifier for the scope.
Geist P3 Handgun
The Geist pistol is the fastest firing handgun. It also offers good armor penetration. At grade 3, it gets a flashlight, a bigger clip and a customization slot.
Riot SMG Submachine Gun
The Riot submachine gun fires rubber bullets. It stuns enemies instead of killing them. It isn’t all that accurate, but it shoots fast. At grade 3, it comes with a dot sign, customization slot and bigger clip.
Isando RGL-20 Grenade Launcher
The Isando grenade launcher has a long range and fast firing speed, for its class. It’s hard to handle, though, and offers no armor penetration. The grade 3 version gets a scope, 2 customization slots and a range upgrade.
WU S333 Handgun
The Windruger 333 revolver is a large caliber handgun that has a high reload speed, easily does away with armor and does decent damage. The grade-4 version has gains an increase in reload speed.
FB MR R-Launcher
- Price: 500,000 GMP, 2000 Common Metal
- R&D Team Level: 29
- Blueprint: FB MR R-Launcher blueprint
The Falkenberg rocket launcher actually launches special warheads. It offers amazing damage, couple with a whole lot of impact force and a great range. At grade 4, it gets even more stopping power and a shield.
Ze’ev Submachine Gun
- Price: 380,000 GMP, 2000 Common Metal
- R&D Team Level: 32
- Blueprint: Ze’ev blueprint
The Ze’ev submachine gun has a suppressor, a high rate of fire and decent armor penetration. It lacks in impact force and range. At grade 4, it offers a dot sight, a bigger magazine and one customization slot.
Bambetov SV Sniper Rifle
The Bambetov is a semi-auto sniper rifle with a decent firing speed and amazing armor penetration. It gets a suppressor at grade 4.
Uragan-5P Handgun
The Uragan handgun is a revolver that fires shotshells. It has a higher range than other pistols, a high damage output and penetration. The grade-4 version comes with a built-in flashlight and dot sight, and two customization slots – a scope mount and an undermount.
Kabarga-83 Shotgun
The Kabarga is a clip-loaded automatic shotgun. It combines the raw short-range power of the shotgun with good firing speed. The grade 4 upgrade brings a scope mount, dot sight and a bigger clip.
G44 Assault Rifle
The G44 bullpup assault rifle offers a high rate of fire, high armor penetration, decent range and damage. The grade-4 version comes with 4 customization slots.
UN-AAM Machine Gun
The UN-AAM machine gun has high accuracy, firing speed and armor penetration. The damage and impact force are low, but the number of bullets sprayed out evens it out. The grade 4 version has a dot sight, bigger clip and a customization slot.
Zorn-KP Handgun
The Zorn Kampf is a hand cannon – it fires grenades. The range is better than throwing them by hand, as is the accuracy. At grade 4, it comes with a laser sight and one customization slot.
Macht 37 Submachine Gun
The Macht 37 submachine gun has a very high firing speed, ignores a lot of armor and is surprisingly accurate for its class. At grade 4, it comes with an undermount and foregrip slots.
LPG-61 Machine Gun
The Gryzov machine gun does low damage at a high rate of fire, with great armor penetration. If you can deal with the heavy recoil, it’s also quite accurate. At grade 4, it gets a 4x scope, bigger clip and a customization slot.
AM MRS-71 Sniper Rifle
The MRS-71 sniper rifle has a high rate of fire for its category, does decent damage and penetrates a lot of armor. Grade 4 comes with a 6x variable scope and improved stability.
Bullhorn SG Shotgun
- Price: 864,800 GMP
- R&D Team Level: 43
- Blueprint: Bullhorn SG blueprint
The Bullhorn shotgun does a whole lot of damage at close range, with a lot of spread and a low firing speed. At grade 5, it has a flashlight and 3 customization slots.
Hail MGR-4 Grenade Launcher
The Hail Magazine grenade launcher has small caliber grenades packed in a magazine – it does decent damage, with a higher rate of fire and reload speed than other launchers. Grade-4 has an added long magazine.
Brennan LRS-46 Sniper Rifle
The Brennan sniper rifle is a show-stopper. It has high damage, completely ignores armor and has a practically infinite range. The trade-off is the low rate of fire. At grade 5, it gets a range upgrade and a muzzle for accuracy
Thanks for the guide and I dont mind the spelling of aome words, people are so affected they need to chill
The fact that you left out the Brennan makes me phisically ill.
You left out the Serval, which in my experience is one of the best Snipers in the game. Also, maybe have a guide on custom weapons.
It’s not a fucking clip, it’s a magazine.
Translation: “I hate fun.”
While the Brennen is good, the overall weapon king is the Serval AMR-7. Has all the power and penetration of the Brennen, but it is not bolt action and has a much higher fire rate. This means you can shoot through the scope and NOT be taken out during the bolt reloading sequence and also it fires bullets much faster. Thanks to the Customize screen you can give it a suppressor and also the Higher Grade Muzzle for Better Accuracy!!
Um, where is the Bullhorn BP found BTW?
Bullhorn BP comes from another of the “key” (marked yellow) dispatch mission: “Prevent the Coup d’etat”
12.7mm, or .50 cal suppressors are not only real, but commercially available in some countries, there are plenty of youtube videos on their effectiveness if you are interested, especially for the Barret .50 sniper rifle.
Anyone else amused by the fact that you can get a silencer for the last varient of the Brennan? I mean, really, a 12.7 MM SILENCER? I’d love to see one in Real Life. Thankfully for my nitpicky side, the silencer barely lasts a magazine, so its not TOO OP I guess….
Also, Someone should add the Fakel; true, the standalone is garbage, but the underbarrel is AWESOME, especially for FOB runs, as a single stun grenade anywhere within about 10-13 feet of the guards usually blinds and stunlocks them, and does the same for any pesky attackers/defenders; within about 7 feet of the impact point, it usually knocks them out… and you too, as I’ve done this a few times by accident when I’m going down a corridor and not noticing I have the underbarrel going and NOT the AR itself. Luckily most people don’t know what to do when knocked out/stunned as it doesn’t happen all that much in the main game, so I’ve sent more than a few people to Davy Jones when they run over to me to either coup’de grace me or fulton me, I wake up, knock them on their ass, and tranq them.
good basics to look over, until you do the side missions for the legendary gunsmith, then everything goes out the window. Check out the wiki page on him:
http://www.gosunoob.com/metal-gear-solid-5/legendary-gunsmith-location/
Once you have him you can start with a base weapon, and swap out parts from similar weapons as you desire.
My personal favorite is taking the UN-ARC-NL, then adding a supressor, FAKEL undermount grenade launcher, and 6x rangefinder scope. The 6x rangefinder scope switches from bullet to grenade mode as you do, so it predicts the grenade’s point of impact while still offering a 2-6x variable rifle scope.
This is an excellent all-inclusive package you can easily have the researched parts for by the time you recruit the gunsmith, I owe most of my perfect stealth, no kill runs to this setup. this setup also works with any of the other non-bullpup assault rifles if you prefer the purely lethal option.
How do you add a suppressor on the UN-ARC-NL — I do not find that option?
If memory serves, the suppressor unlocked from the *1 AM MRS-4 assault rifle is the earliest compatible one with the UN-ARC-NL
also, a correction on the scope I had mentioned: One of the three 3x rangefinder scopes unlocked on most early grenade launchers is the easy to unlock one that switches from rifle to grenade prediction, once you get used to predicting the launcher underbarrel’s arc, you could switch to the harder to unlock 2-8x rangefinding sniper scope if you feel you need the extra zoom on an assault rifle, sadly the 2-8x rangefinder only indicates range at cross hair, and not grenade impact point.
Super helpful and informational! Thanks guys!!
This was basically a list of every gun, not quite a best weapons list.. still good info
AM MRS 71 says penetrats instead of penetrates 🙂
Fixed it, thanks for the heads up. 🙂
Where are you guys from?
Abit of a mistake there “At greade 5, it gets a range upgrade and a muzzle for accuracy ” might wanna change greade 5 to Grade. XD
Thank you for reading in detail our guides! 🙂
*detail
lol the burns
We got a living grammar-nazi here
Spelling ≠ grammar.