The Returnal best weapons you can find will turn a bad run into a blaze of glory, provided randomly with special perks and drawbacks each time. Unfortunately, while there’s a lot of great guns, the randomised roguelike elements means that finding the best gun isn’t guaranteed, or that the one you want might be compromised by variations that change how it works. If you’re struggling to know what to choose, to separate your Dreadbounds from your Rotglands, we’ve laid out all the Returnal best weapons and guns below.
Returnal tips | Returnal patch notes | Returnal no save | Returnal Ixion boss | Returnal cheats
Returnal best weapon – Tachyomatic Carbine
Kicking things off in the list of Returnal best weapons is the Tachyomatic Carbine, which is the closest thing to an assault rifle you’re going to find on Atropos. Depending on the weapon traits, it has multiple firing modes like a slower rate of fire with higher damage per shot or akin to a chain gun that fires faster the longer you hold the trigger down for, but either way the Tachyomatic Carbine is the best all-round weapon in Returnal that can deal serious damage up close or from a distance. It’s especially good against flying enemies.
Spitmaw Blaster
The Spitmaw Blaster is essentially the shotgun of the Returnal world, which means it knows its role and it fills it well. Firing from the hip when you’re in the face of enemies and dashing about the place as quickly as you can works well, or you can aim down the sights to focus your shots and hit targets slightly further away. It’s not quite as versatile as the Tachyomatic Carbine but will serve you well up close.
Atropian Blade
This is sort of a trick inclusion because you’ll always have the sword on you (once you unlock it for the first time), but it is seriously good at taking down smaller enemies. Test it out on the standard foes in the Overgrown Ruins and you’ll find it one-hit-kills basically all of them, along with being a useful tool to finish off tougher enemies in later areas like the Derelict Citadel.
Electropylon Driver
Finally, we have the Electropylon Driver. You won’t unlock this lightning-themed weapon until much later in the game so don’t think you can find it from the get-go, but when you do unlock it and start coming across it, we don’t recommend passing it up. This essentially sends out pylons that can attach to enemies and surfaces, causing damage over time.