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Starfield

Best Weapons in Starfield For All Weapon Types

By
Craig Robinson

Starfield may have a random item generator akin to Fallout 4, but, there are some potent, unique weapons you can get your hands on throughout the entire game. If you’re looking to find some of the best weapons in Starfield for any weapon type, then this page will show you some of the most standout weapons in the game for your quest.

Best Weapons in Starfield

Below, you’ll find a mix of the best weapons in Starfield, given their unique legendary status and a solid range of perks and starting mod. We are also throwing in some special mentions for some of the best weapons in Starfield for certain playstyles, regardless if you can get them in the early game or not. These include:

  1. The Revenant
  2. Momento Mori
  3. "Eternity's Gate" iconEternity’s Gate
  4. "Unmitigated Violence" iconUnmitigated Violence
  5. "Despondent Assassin" iconDespondent Assassin

To kick things off, the first set of weapons you find are the best weapons in Starfield that are legendary uniques. Note that if you’re a high-level and god-roll a random weapon, they may be better than the suggested list. However, that relies on a lot of luck, whereas these weapons you can get guaranteed all the time no matter the save or playthrough.

The Revenant

The Revenant is perhaps the best weapon in Starfield for its high damage, mod list and general flexibility in all situations.

The "Revenant" iconRevenant is a very powerful weapon, perhaps the best in Starfield, period. The weapon comes with:

  • Extended Magazine: Doubles the base mag capacity
  • Lacerate: Randomly applies bleed effects to the target
  • Titanium Build: Extremely lightweight weapon

As for the mods, you get: Short Barrel, Muzzle Brake, and High Velocity. These make the weapon much faster fire rate, better recoil and stronger against closer-range targets. Also, it’s not very often you find a unique legendary weapon with three modifiers built onto the gun, which makes the Revenant an easy contender for the best gun in Starfield. Remember, you still have two spare mod slots available and can change the mods around to spec it however you want to use it.

  • Revenant Location in Starfield: Progress through the Crimson Fleet storyline, then steal this weapon from the large, high-value ship. Trying to avoid spoilers here, but you’ll know which large ship we are referring to. The weapon is also slightly tucked away by a desk, so, you may need to rummage before disembarking from the ship and progressing the mission objectives. Also, you don’t need to make a choice to get it either.

Momento Mori

and she’ll reward you with the Momento Mori gun.

The Momento Mori is arguably the best sidearm weapon in Starfield with this unique legendary weapon coming with yet another three perks on it. These perks are:

  • "Crippling" iconCrippling: Deals 30% more damage on your next attack after hitting a target’s limb.
  • Cornered: Damage increases as your health decreases - This is essentially the "Wanted" iconWanted Trait on a weapon instead.
  • Demoralizing: Small chance to demoralize a target, causing them to become less combat effective.

It also comes with a laser sight, tactical grip, explosive rounds and high-powered. This makes the weapon much more accurate, alongside offering damage bonuses to the weapon. It means you’ll be launching very strong rounds if you follow the weapons mini-game, and the mods make it easier to complete too. Overall, it’s a nice sidearm, and probably the best weapon in Starfield for any pistol builds out there.

  • Momento Mori Location in Starfield: Complete the quest, "Burden of Proof" iconBurden of Proof, which is a mission related to the UC and Crimson Fleet cross-over storyline. You’ll need to complete the find all evidence list, and report back to complete it. When you do, you’ll get Momento Mori, the best pistol in Starfield.

Main Story Misson Weapon Choices

When progressing through the Main storyline in Starfield, players will make some end-game choices relating to the "Starborn" iconStarborn and the artifacts they find. You will get the choice to essentially side with one of the two individual Starborns, the Hunter, or the Emissary. We’ll make it as vague as we can for spoiler reasons.

If you decide to ally with The Hunter then you can get the Eternity’s Gate weapon. This is another legendary unique weapon, with three perks and some more built-in mods. This is a particle beam weapon, which means it is a very strong type of laser weapon using special ammo. It also comes with the following perks and mods:

  • Skip Shot: Every fourth shot fires two projectiles at once.
  • Handholding: Volatile rounds designed to pack a bigger punch, but aren’t as stable and can fail occasionally.
  • Anti-Personnel: 10% Damage against Humans.

As you can see, this very strong weapon will allow you to do a lot of damage, fire multiple rounds some very big burst windows, and it also is a very good gun for nuking Human targets. Considering most enemies you fight in the game are humans via the side quests and faction content, this weapon is a really good option. It is also one of the best weapons to hand over to "Andreja" iconAndreja, as she is an expert in Particle beam weapons.

Meanwhile, if you take the Emissary option, then you can encounter the Unmitigated Violence Laser Rifle. The weapon comes with seven mods, so you don’t need to do any speccing to make it a better laser rifle to use while aiming, controlling its recoil and fighting at a distance. Meanwhile, you also get another three weapon perks, including:

  • Frenzy: A small chance to frenzy a target.
  • Radioactive: Randomly deals radioactive damage and demoralizes a target.
  • Instigating: Deals double damage to targets with full health.

This weapon is a fairly decent weapon to get your hands on, especially if you’re running a sniper-esque build. The reason for it is that the double damage will be a damage modifier on top of any sneak attacks you do. Not to mention this weapon scales with combat skills like Laser, rifle, and scoped sniper-like skills, meaning the potential for this weapon to do lots of damage is there. It has to be considered one of the best weapons in Starfield if your build can take full advantage of its Instigating and other combat and physical skills.

Despondent Assassin

If you are looking for the best sniper rifle in Starfield, then the Dispondent Assassin is the best weapon for that playstyle.

The Despondent Assassin is likely the best Starfield sniper. The weapon comes with:

  • Demoralizing: A small chance to demoralize a target.
  • Hitman: 15% damage bonus while aiming.
  • Anti-Personnel: 10% damage bonus against Humans.

It also comes with Small Magazine and High Powered, making it a fairly strong sniper rifle from the get-go. All you need to do is mod one extra facet to it and you have a completed sniper rifle, since the weapon comes with a sniper scope by default.

  • Despondent Assassin Location in Starfield: To get the weapon, you will need to start the quest chain in "Akila City" iconAkila City. Speak to an NPC called David Wilson, and a lady called Keoni, which start the Defensive Measures, then False Positives. Follow the quest chain, and you get the weapon as a reward.

Keelhauler

A mighty reward for a job well done!

The "Keelhauler" iconKeelhauler is a legendary pistol, which others may want to consider if they don’t want to deal with the limb mini-game of the Momento Mori. This weapon grants:

  • Staggering: Small chance to stagger enemies
  • Berserker: Does more damage the less armor one has.
  • Frenzy: Small chance to frenzy a target.

The mods it comes with include long barrel, recon laser sight, compensator, and fully automatic. This is a decent legendary unique weapon for pistol builds, or for a solid sidearm to switch to when you need to rapid fire and burst an enemy. Due to the perks and mods, this weapon makes for a solid break glass in case of emergency type thing with its rapid-fire staggering, accuracy and damage modifiers if you’re low armor when in a big fight.

  • Keelhauler location in Starfield: Awarded by completing the Echoes of the Past side mission.

Best Melee Weapon in Starfield

While The Last Priest is not a legendary with three perks like the other weapons on this list, it is a notable drop for melee players since they have few options available to them. Many players running a melee build have very limited options and are hoping to roll a good random melee weapon from their loot as they level up. However, this one weapon is always guaranteed from the main storyline. If you side with The Hunter, you get a side quest called The Infinity’s End. Simply complete the quest by lying to him or doing as he asks.

Once you do that, you get The Last Priest, a melee weapon with a higher base damage for a Va’Ruun Painblade, and you get the Elemental perk on it. This grants random damage from corrosive, poison, radiation and incendiary damage with the weapon. The mixed damage helps you deal more damage when armor snaps, or penetrates the character’s weaker resistances on their armor for health HP damage.

The Best Shotguns in Starfield

The Rapid Shot’s attack speed allows you to make work and deserves a spot on Starfield’s best Shotgun weapons list.

  • The "Big Bang" iconBig Bang: For an early-game common weapon, The Big Bang can do an incredible amount of damage. The reason for it is that it uses particle beam damage, and it’s an automatic shotgun. So, the amount of damage you can deal with the weapon is incredible for a store pick-up or random drop item. We figured we’d throw this weapon on the list for its pure damage capabilities, never mind its ability to be modded even better, or turned into a slug sniper and still carry a similar high-profile damage weight with it.

  • Experiment A-7: For players using shotguns in their build, the Experiment A-7 is a solid option. This weapon comes with Exterminator, and eight mods to make it accurate and fully automatic. The Exterminator perk also grants 30% damage against aliens. So, if you’re using it to fight Starborn or general bugs on alien worlds, then this weapon is effective. Its full list of mods and its decent damage and accuracy stats also make it very nice too. Players can get the "Entangled" iconEntangled main storyline mission, and speak to a guard partway through. This guard will give you the weapon as part of the quest’s narrative.

  • Brute Force: A shotgun you can get for completing The Red Mile. It is a solid pump action, with double damage when gun bashing and solid accuracy, magazine and high-powered rounds for a fairly good source of damage. The benefit is that it uses standard ammo shells, so you can use this for a shotgun without the shenanigans of rarer particle ammo or when you’re not fighting aliens with the Experiment.

  • "Rapidshot" iconRapidshot: This is a another early game shotgun unique that you can use all the way to the end game if you so desire. This weapon is a very fast attack speed weapon equipped with mods to make it accurate. If you find yourself close range, and need to nuke an enemy with a fast burst, then the Rapidshot is a solid purchase. You can purchase this at the "UC Distribution" iconUC Distribution Center in "New Atlantis" iconNew Atlantis, located in the "Commercial District" iconCommercial District.

Best Heavy Weapons in Starfield

There are limited heavy unique weapons, meaning this smartgun remains one of the best heavy Starfield weapons from the get go.

  • Ashta Tamer: The Ashta Tamer is a rare blue-quality unique weapon that players can get from the Nest main storyline quest. This thing is one of the only grenade launchers you can find in the game. Simply follow the main quest to the point you meet "Sam Coe" iconSam Coe. From there, check for the boxes in the cave where you find the artifact in The Nest, and clear out the Shaw Ganf. You can find the weapon in a box. It has a tactical stock and incendiary, making it a solid physical and elemental grenade launcher for heavy weapon users.

  • "N67 Smartgun" iconN67 Smartgun: For players looking to use miniguns, you are guaranteed a quality minigun early game, thanks to the UC Distribution store on New Atlantis you can find close to the "Commerce" iconCommerce District. This weapon has lots for armor shred on its perk and mod list, making it a solid weapon to shred through spacesuit armor and robots.

This concludes the best weapons in Starfield. If we find any more legendary unique weapon to mention, we will add them to the list. Also, if we are aware of other strong blue unique weapons worth adding to the weapon type lists, then we shall do so there too.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action Adventure, Action RPG, Shooter
  • Guide Release
    30 August 2023
  • Last Updated
    18 October 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Starfield is an action role-playing game from Bethesda Game Studios set in a futuristic interpretation of space exploration and colonization. Earth has long been abandoned, but there are plenty of other planets in different star systems where humans have ventured and settled. You have the freedom to create your own character with a unique background, but the main story will take you through a series of adventures as you uncover more information about mysterious artifacts which create gravitational anomalies. Along the way, you can build and customize your own space ship, establish your own outpost, befriend and romance new companions, and more. As a Bethesda game, you can also expect to see a lot of creative mods which have the potential to change your experience of the base game, or take it in an entirely new direction.

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