Let’s start from the very bottom:
Fuck this
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A.J.M 9: it fires 3-round bursts, and the recoil offsets your aim so much that you prolly hit only one or two shots every time. Each missed shot hurts like hell because of Short ammo’s scarcity. Only reason you ever try to craft this is to farm Short ammo.
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M1891 Avtomat: yeah yeah I get it, you can mow down entire bosses within seconds with this thing, but the recoil is ass so you miss most of your shots. And the reload time is so horrendous that not even speed stims can save it.
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.22 Broomhandle: Weak and pitiful. Thats all there is to it. I know light ammo is supposed to have the least damage, but cmon wtf is this, why do I have to shoot a guy’s head >3 times to kill him?
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Caldwell Handcannon: I swear on whatever god is in control of the universe, I tried to make this work. I fired this thing at point-blank range at the head of most Scavs and they just don’t die. Scrap on sight, please. Damage is just nonexistent and it’s a waste of your shotgun shells
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FAMAS F1: Aside from the French memes, this things has the same issue of 3-round bursting all your spare ammo away because of the horrible recoil-induced accuracy. You can’t trust this to get you out of a pinch when you need to spray and pray, either. If you find this in a crate, free 25 Medium ammo.
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Commissioned Musket: I used to actually enjoy this weapon until the recent update where they added a crap ton of enemies that had too much hp for this to 1SK. Now I use the musket only as a melee
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MilBow, Recurve Bow, and Crafted Bow: I hate bows. They buffed them, but I still hate them.
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PGM FR-12.7: Idk why but theres currently a bug where the iron sights are obstructed. Immense damage, sure, but terrible speed on pretty much everything from reload to recoil recovery. Has such high damage that it doesnt even matter.
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PPSh-41: I wanted to love this gun, until I realized that the recoil and damage is far too low for it to be a reliable magdump-into-a-boss weapon. At least I get 71 Light ammo every time I fish it out of a crate.
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1927A1 Deluxe: I wanted to love this gun too, until I realized how bad the damage is compared to other Short ammo guns, coupled with scarcity of ammunition and the long reload time.
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FN M249: Don’t ever use this, the damage is ass. Exploiters often spawn these things en masse in public servers, but theyre mostly just for the 200 Medium ammo it carries.
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Simonov SKS: Why would you use this when there are plenty of better Medium ammo guns out there? If you want precision semi-auto fire then just get a sniper rifle instead of this crappy wannabe.
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Ruger LCP: Same as the Broomhandle.
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Dolch 96: I mean, it’s kinda outclassed by things like the Deagle or the Peacemaker. The reload and recoil are a pain to endure, that’s for sure.
Bad
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M14 EBR: its damage is just shy of what’s necessary to 1SK most Scavs, although you can kill some of the weakest enemies in the game with it. That’s really the only complaint I have.
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Model 870: It’s like a buffed Handcannon but not buffed enough to actually be good. You have to close in to dangerous distance to make sure those shells count, and the firerate leaves much to be desired.
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Modded Rifle: Only issue I have with this thing is that I have to use up precious salvage to craft it which I could’ve used for an AKM. And by golly does an AKM worth a lot more than this thing. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just powercrept.
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KS-23M: Used to be okay, but then all the new enemies were introduced and its 1SK ability is essentially over. Better than the Handcannon, but let’s be honest, everything’s better than the Handcannon.
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Peacemaker: Bad, but I often take the Lone Wolf trait that allows me to fanfire it. It makes this thing a little more fun despite being weak.
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M60-E6: Given that there’s not a whole lot of full auto Heavy ammo guns in the game, I dont mind using this despite its terrible damage, reload time, and the fact that theres almost never ammo in it when I find it lying around.
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Ingram MAC-10: You can use this to magdump bosses much better than the PPSh-41, as long as you can control the recoil. Which is never.
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Atchisson AA-12: Sure, it’s automatic. Doesn’t matter if the spread is so wide that you barely deal any damage outside of close range, though.
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IZHMASh SV-98M: I feel like it’s just a modded Rifle with a suppressor. Not enough to save my opinion of it, though.
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FN P90 TR: Pisses away your ammo reserve. Ultra fast firerate makes it hard to control. Those 50 rounds’ll be gone before you know it
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Model 6 Unica: Same as KS-23M
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HK MP5A3: A classic you see in every shooter. Too bad it has shit damage, takes 3 headshots to kill a regular Scav while other Light ammo guns only need 2.
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CZ Skorpion vz. 61: Same as MP5A3
Average
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AS VAL: I actually like this gun a lot. Only reason it’s average is because of how rare Short ammo is.
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Karabiner 98k: Finally a Long ammo gun without a scope so I can actually comfortably aim instead of zooming in on a Scav’s balls.
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KRISS Vector: Amazing recoil control and high rate of fire. You can’t go wrong with it, except the RoF will make ammo conservation a problem.
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R11 RSASS: Good firerate and high mag capacity puts this above other DMRs. Shame on you, M14.
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SPAS 12: Reliable close-range shotgun, semi-auto too, for you to spam those shells out fast. Too bad later wave enemies are too dangerous for you to get close to.
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Modded Pistol: I hate this thing for one reason and it’s because I cant fucking aim with that bottle blocking the sight.
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MP5/10: Same as AS VAL
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Winchester 940-1: It’s fun to fan the lever, but it’s actually pretty mediocre everywhere else.
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SIG MPX: Probably the only reliable full auto Light ammo gun out there. It’s a shame most enemies now are outside of its 2SK capability. Wouldve been godlike before the update
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SCAR-L: Wannabe AK, I don’t really care for it. It’s got everything an AKM has yet it’s hard to find while you can just craft an AKM.
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Benelli M4: Basically another SPAS-12 but with a suppressor. Pellet spread too broad for me to use effectively outside of dangerously close-quarters combat.
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MR308: RSASS that trades the scope for a suppressor. I suppose that’s a plus, but its damage is still too low for me to consider it a reliable Heavy ammo gun.
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SCAR-H: A reliable Heavy ammo gun. Only problem is the recoil and probably the reload. It’s full auto, so you don’t really need to worry about 1SKs like the others.
Pretty good
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Caldwell 940: Beast of a shotgun: super tight pellet spread and extreme damage. Keep it if you find it. Only major drawback is the bad ammo capacity, though.
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CBJ-MS PDW: Solid Small ammo machine gun, a good find if you see it.
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STI DVC Limited Custom: Little recoil, high mag capacity, the highest damage out of any Light ammo gun for some goddamn reason, cheap to craft, and extremely fast firerate. An amazing pistol, but pistols can only get you so far.
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Kel-Tec KSG: Very tight spread allows you to nail 1SKs from safe distances. 14-shell capacity makes it very economic to craft. Only issue is that it’s pump-action so you can’t spam it when you’re overrun.
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Glock 17: Glock, perfection.
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Winchester 1901: I love it. You can fan its lever. But just like almost every other shotgun its range is terrible. Arguably my favorite shotgun in the game.
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MCX Virtus: It’s like a beefier SCAR-L, but I just prefer AKs better. Personal bias.
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Peacemaker Chain: Very nice high capacity revolver with good damage. You can fanfire it, but the reload aint pretty…nothing else wrong about it tbh.
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ASh-12: An alternative to the SCAR-H, sacrifices mag capacity for damage. It’s able to 1SK more Scavs, and you can go full auto when things go south.
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Peacemaker Uppercut: Reliably 1SK most Scavs and you can fanfire it. Reload speed is a drawback, though.
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Remington 700: I actually enjoy the firerate on this thing, plus an above-average ammo capacity compared to other Long ammo guns.
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CheyTac M200: Just a sniper rifle that’s good at sniping, all there really is to it.
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AI-AWSM: Same as M200
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M1911: Identical to the Modded 1911, but I can actually see what Im aiming at so this gets a big thumbs up from me.
Shredder
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AK-74: You’ll say that AKM is superior to this in every way, and Ive shitted on guns previously because of the same reason, but two words for you: personal bias. Kalashnikov, my beloved.
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AKM: The gold standard for every gun. It’s got every bell and whistle combined with good stats. You can craft it, it’s suppressed, it does good damage, it doesn’t take an Ice Age to reload, the good things about this gun go on for quite a while.
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Redeemer: What if you picked up a PGM FR-12.7, and removed everything bad about it? You can fanfire this bad boy, it does some absurdly high damage, and you even get an extra round in the capacity compared to the PGM. Figure out how to control the recoil, and you can liquidate boss enemies easily.
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UMP45: Think of the AKM. This is the Small ammo version of the AKM. Good damage, suppressor, sturdy recoil control, and it doesn’t fire too fast so you can control it. A textbook good gun.
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Deagle Mark VII: My favorite Short ammo gun. Very high damage, swift reload, and it wasn’t affected by the addition of stronger enemies because of its insane headshot damage. Recoil will throw you off a little, but cmon its semi-auto you can control it.
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Dragunov SVD-63: My number one problem with all the sniper rifles in this game is that their bolt-actions cripple their firerate. This gun does away with all that. You get the damage of a high-power rifle and the firerate of any other semi-auto weapon. What more can you ask for?
Now I have to say, I’ll use pretty much anything if I’m desperate. But if I was given a choice, I definitely have my preferences.