Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 Best Weapons Tier List

Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 Best Weapons Quick Summary:

• Weapon strength in AFE2 depends on versatility, class synergy, enemy type, and how well a gun scales with augments and traits.
• Some weapons excel at deleting elites, while others are much stronger for sustained Horde clearing.
• High-RPM weapons benefit heavily from Magazine Capacity, Crit stats, Stopping Power, and on-hit augments.
• Class compatibility matters, especially for precision-focused Hunter builds and sustained-fire Duelist setups.
• A specialized weapon can outperform a more versatile option when the mission or build plays directly into its strengths.

Want to play the best you can but don’t know how to create a proper build for your class? Check out our Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 Builds and get the one you need!

 

 

 

Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 Weapons Tier List

Since AFE2 isn’t a competitive shooter, there isn’t really one weapon that completely floors all other options. Some weapons might wipe out a corridor full of Runners, but will struggle against a Crusher. The same is true vice versa. The weapon that takes half of an elite’s health with one shot can be useless when tons of smaller xenos are on you. Ranking the weapons in this game basically comes down to how often you can fit a certain gun in your loadouts. Damage is obviously a huge part of this ranking, but other features also come into consideration. If you can deal with multiple types of enemies without switching to another weapon, it’s gonna go higher. This is slightly unfair to weapons that do one job perfectly, but a better half of the weapons in Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 are quite usable, and there are barely any guns that aren’t ever worth using. With my reasoning explained, here’s an Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 weapons tier list:

Tier	Weapons
S-Tier	BD-48 Daittyo Heavy Rifle, L33 Pike, M41A Classic Pulse Rifle, L56A3 Smartgun, F44A Pulse Rifle
A-Tier	LEM MP11 Stormsurge, HNT-1 E1 Alamein Revolver Rifle, M12A1 Rocket Launcher, OCAP-91 Volcan, BD-55 Jokkh Burst Shotgun, BD-03 Djinn Personal Railgun
B-Tier	SMB-94 Zephyr Plasma Emitter, EDS-93 Zadak Plasma Discharger Mk. II, X1 Fireball, Type 21 Tactical Shotgun Mk.II, M10 Auto Pistol, M4 Service Pistol

The S-Tier weapons are an absolute must-have, and you want to build your loadout around them. A-Tier weapons are good options as secondaries, or great weapons for specific goals. B-Tier weapons are outclassed by others, but by no means wack or weak. Now I’m not gonna focus on B-Tier weapons, mainly dedicating this article to S-Tiers, but I’ll briefly talk about A-Tier weapons just so you know what they do. It’s just that I don’t think anyone wants to pick B-Tier weapons when you can easily take most of the S-Tier weapons.

S-Tier Weapons in Aliens Fireteam Elite 2

Best of the bunch, top of the food chain, meta beasts, whatever you’d like to call them, there’s no tiptoeing around it - they’re simply the best weapons in Aliens Fireteam Elite 2. I advise leveling them up first and only ever paying attention to lower-tier weapons if they work like specific tools of the trade.

BD-48 Daittyo Heavy Rifle - Best Overall Weapon

The BD-48 Daittyo Heavy Rifle is the best weapon in Aliens Fireteam Elite 2, no doubt about it. It works against all types of enemies, even bigger ones, and the most important thing it has going for it is that it’s probably the only weapon that suits any type of goal. You don’t need to build your loadout around it. Just equip it and watch acidic blood splatter the walls. Here are the BD-48 Daittyo stats:

• Fire Rate: 400 / 800 / 1200 RPM
• Base Magazine: 200 rounds
• Best Fire Rate: 800 RPM, imo
• Main Strengths: Stopping Power, sustained DPS, Bullet Penetration
• Best Augment: Grey-Market Rounds
• Best Targets: Hordes and elites
• Main Downside: Recoil gets much harder to control at 1200 RPM

Most of the time, 800 RPM is optimal. It’s a perfect balance between lead barrage and controlled recoil. Of course, you can build your weapon for 1200 RPM, but in that case you’ll have to fit it with anti-recoil attachments. BD-48’s 200-round magazine is what makes it perfect for on-hit effects. Nagpur Shroud gives +40% Stopping Power every third hit for seven seconds. Combat Actuator can stack damage and add Bullet Penetration. Grey-Market Rounds then get hundreds of chances to roll one of their stronger shots. Great against hordes, great against elites, huge mag. It’s such a strong weapon that it’ll ruin other weapons for you. Why even pick anything else, truly? Despite being nerfed, or rather fixed in Patch 1, it’s still a Jack of All Trades and master of all.

L33 Pike - Best Elite Killer

If Daittyo is my multi-purpose tool, L33 Pike is the highest-damage gun in AFE2 that I use when something huge needs to die asap. This thing is crazy. One bullet to the dome and even the biggest Xenomorph will feel it. Below are L33 Pike’s stats:

• Base Damage: 315
• Fire Style: Heavy single-shot damage
• Best Role: Elite and boss killing
• Best Class Pairing: Hunter
• Best Stats: Weak Point Damage, Stopping Power, Crit Damage
• Main Downside: Not good for crowd clearing

The damage ceiling here is a little crazy. Of all classes, properly built Hunter shots produce procs around the 9000-10000 range, and even if you’re not playing Hunter, you’re still looking at one of the hardest-hitting guns in the game. If you want a gun that blows xenos dome smoove off, that’s your choice. Get Weak Point Damage and Stopping Power, aim at the tallest thing in the room, and let somebody else deal with the trash.

M41A Classic Pulse Rifle - Best All-Round Rifle

The M41A Classic Pulse Rifle is the best weapon to take if you don’t know what the mission is going to throw at you. It unlocks fairly early and can be your safe weapon while you’re still learning the game. M41A Classic Pulse Rifle stats:

• Weapon Type: Automatic rifle
• Alternate Fire: Underbarrel grenade launcher
• Grenade Capacity: 4 shots
• Main Strengths: Horde clear, tougher enemies, Synths
• Best Stats: Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Weak Point Damage
• Best Augment: Grey-Market Rounds
• Best Role: General-purpose primary
• Main Downside: Doesn’t specialize as hard as Pike or F44A

It has higher per-bullet damage than the F44A, which I’ll discuss later in the article, and does a better job against tougher enemies and Synths, while still being very good against regular hordes. The thing that elevates it from pretty good to goated status is a four-shot grenade launcher underneath it. It’s your panic button, basically. Plus, how can an iconic rifle from the Alien franchise be any lower than S? Even if it was crap, I’d still put it in S-Tier. I’m just kidding, of course, but the cool factor is one of the many reasons to take this weapon and feel like a real Marine. In short, there’s barely a mission where I equip the M41A and later curse myself thinking this was a bad idea.

L56A3 Smartgun - Best Weapon for Horde Clearing

The L56A3 Smartgun is the easiest S-Tier weapon to handle. Xenos move like crackheads sometimes, and this gun removes a lot of the tracking from the equation. If you really like the Alien franchise but aren’t an avid gamer, I highly recommend this gun for you. Its stats are:

• Fire Style: Fully automatic
• Targeting: Automatic tracking of moving targets
• Main Strength: Horde clearing
• Best Augment: Grey-Market Rounds
• Best Use: Corridors, chokepoints, large groups
• Ease of Use: Extremely high
• Main Downside: Worse against elites than precision or explosive weapons

The Smartgun focuses moving targets for you, which is pretty much exactly what you want when Xenomorphs are running across walls and ceilings. You can spend more time thinking about where you stand and less time dragging your crosshair. Some people call it the best gun in the game, and while I think it’s really good, I wouldn’t call it that. It’s not that good against elite enemies, even compared to lighter choices like M41A. For concentrated elite damage, Pike or a Rocket Launcher will do a better job. But I gotta give credit where credit’s due. If you want to turn an entire corridor into a Xeno mush, the Smartgun is hard to beat.

F44A Pulse Rifle - Best Bullet Hose

Had a hard time calling it anything else. You don’t need high stopping power when your solution to the problem is turning your enemy into Swiss cheese. The F44A Pulse Rifle is brute force incarnate. The F44A Pulse Rifle stats:

• Magazine: Up to 450 rounds in the showcased build
• Reserve Ammo: Around 900 rounds
• Targeting: Onboard smart targeting
• Main Strength: Sustained horde DPS
• Best Class Pairing: Duelist
• Best Stats: Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Magazine Capacity
• Best Augment: Grey-Market Rounds
• Main Downside: Worse against tougher enemies and Synths than the Classic M41A

I loved Alien Romulus, and when I saw that this gun is gonna be in the game, I just knew I was gonna be rocking it. This gun works extremely well on Duelist. Stay on Target can stack extra damage, Particle Emitter adds another on-hit damage increase, and Combat Actuator gives yet another damage stack. Then Grey-Market Rounds are rolling damage modifiers across hundreds of bullets. If we compare both S-Tier pulse rifles, the “Classic” Pulse Rifle is better when you want more punch per shot, but F44A doesn’t need per-shot damage. If you can stay on target while shooting, they just melt. This weapon would’ve been banned by the Geneva Conventions.

 

 

Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 A-Tier Weapons

While S-Tier weapons are undisputed champions of turning xenomorphs into necromorphs, the A-Tier weapons aren’t that far off. They’re pretty decent and often are just short of getting into the S-Tier category. They either have better alternatives or are too narrow. Below you’ll find short descriptions of them:

• LEM MP11 Stormsurge: The closest weapon to S-Tier. It has innate Electric damage, so you can use another augment instead of wasting a slot just to get elemental damage. Its Tactical Magazine build is pretty fun, cause reloading gives you a fire-rate buff that lasts through most of the next mag.
• HNT-1 E1 Alamein Revolver Rifle: A one-tap stop. Great accuracy, Weak Point Damage, and plenty of Stopping Power. Good against Synths and slower elites, when you have time to aim accurately. The downside of this rifle is the reload, cause every bullet goes in separately. It’s the main reason I’m putting it in A-Tier. When you’re stuck in the space where the difference between your head being in place and it lying on the floor is a matter of milliseconds, I don’t want to take my chances.
• M12A1 Rocket Launcher: Could easily be S-Tier if this list were only about burst damage. It’s amazing against heavy enemies and Horde Praetorian waves. The problem is ammo. It’s so limited that you’re forced to use only one gun, as rockets are precious, so if you run out of bullets on it earlier than you should, tough luck.
• OCAP-91 Volcan: Kinda the same story, only at close range. Tight hallway full of Xenos? Best gun ever. Giant open area? Eh, it has potential, but you generally don’t want Xenomorphs to be close to you in open spaces. I can see it going to S-Tier thanks to its Stopping Power and high damage, but there are better alternatives without major downsides.
• BD-55 Jokkh Burst Shotgun: Can deal huge burst damage with Grey-Market Rounds and Stopping Power, but it’s much more build-dependent than the S-Tier guns.
• BD-03 Djinn Personal Railgun: Another weapon that can go up a tier, depending on who's holding it. Hunter obviously gets more out of a precision weapon like this, so if you main Hunter, consider using it.

The B-Tier guns aren’t worth your attention, at least for now. Given time and patches, perhaps a few weapons from there can climb up, but that’s the situation for now.

 

 

Best Weapon Mods, Traits, and Augments

You can make a lot of weapons work if you take their downsides into account properly, but I keep coming back to the same stats:

• Crit Chance
• Crit Damage
• Weak Point Damage
• Stopping Power
• Magazine Capacity
• Bullet Penetration

Mag Capacity goes crazy on fast-firing weapons, and no high-RPM weapon should go without it. Bullet Penetration is perfect when you fight against hordes or enemies with armor. Stopping Power is particularly good in this game. More damage is great and all, but keeping an elite all over you is even better. For augments, these are the ones you’ll see the most:

Augment	Why It’s Good
Grey-Market Rounds	Huge random damage spikes and great synergy with high fire rates
Handman Rounds	Similar to above, but with less damage variation
Cryogenic Ammunition	Freezes enemies and makes fights much easier
High Explosive Rounds	Explosives are good both against hordes and elites

Grey-Market Rounds are my favorite augments on most bullet-spewing guns like F44A or BD-48. Each shot can roll between 50% and 250% damage. On a sniper rifle, that’s trash, but when you fire 200 or 400 shots, who cares? You’re getting enough rolls to see those fat hits all the time. Cryogenic Ammunition is another great augment. You sacrifice damage, but if you equip Cryo Ammo, you’re not the main DPS of the team anyway. High Explosive Rounds are also better now than they were in earlier builds. A recent hotfix removed the 25% damage and Stopping Power reduction from earlier versions.

Best Weapon for Each Class AFE2

Disclaimer: you don’t have to follow this table religiously, especially once you start unlocking weapons across multiple classes, but it’s a good starting point. If you don’t know what weapon goes well with your class, take a look at this best weapon for each class list:

Class	Weapons
Duelist	BD-48 Daittyo/F44A Pulse Rifle
Marauder	M12A1 Rocket Launcher/OCAP-91 Volcan
Machinist	L56A3 Smartgun/SMB-94 Zephyr
Hunter	L33 Pike/BD-03 Djinn/HNT-1 E1 Alamein
Medic	M41A Classic Pulse Rifle/X1 Fireball
Specialist	L56A3 Smartgun/M12A1 Rocket Launcher

Duelist + Daittyo is the default bread-and-butter combo if you’re still learning to play. Stay on Target perk keeps you shooting and stacking damage, and Daittyo has a huge mag of 200 bullets to do exactly that. F44A works on the same principle but pushes it even harder toward horde clearing. Marauder gets the dumb fun guns, though you have to balance out your ammo consumption, remember? Hunter is the opposite of the Marauder. Pike, Djinn, and Alamein all reward accuracy and Weak Point hits much more heavily, so just pick based on whether you want huge single shots or something slightly more forgiving.

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