Every Halo Infinite Weapon Ranked

Microsoft and 343 Industries caught everyone by surprise by releasing the "Halo Infinite" multiplayer beta a few weeks before the full launch of the game. Since then, players have been going wild over the game's varied maps and over the top action. "Halo Infinite" didn't include fan-favorite modes like campaign co-op and Forge mode at launch, but the multiplayer has already been hailed by fans as one of the best in the series' history — and more mods are set to be added further down the line. "Halo Infinite" multiplayer already includes a massive suite of weapons, ranging from the classic Assault Rifle and Stinger to newer guns like the Shock Rifle.

Unlike other modern shooters powerhouses like "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield," "Halo Infinite" does not allow for custom classes, instead placing weapons throughout each map. This means being familiar with every weapon in the game is important — and you might want to know which weapons are the best. With that in mind, here is a ranking of every weapon in "Halo Infinite."

The absolute bottom tier of weapons in "Halo Infinite" belongs to the Ravager, a grenade launcher-style weapon used by the Brutes in "Halo" lore. This weapon, unfortunately, does not work as effectively as you might hope. The default shot sends a three-round burst of plasma energy that deals damage in a small area, but the fire rate is slow, so most one-on-one fights result in a loss. The Ravager also has a charged shot that fires one large blast that leaves a burning area behind, which deals damage over time.

Unfortunately, the charged shot does not deal very much damage and causes the Ravager to overheat, so you'll need to switch to another weapon to seal the deal. The charged shot works well for zoning enemies in objective modes, but isn't very efficient for getting kills. The Ravager's only saving grace is the blade on the front, which allows players to deal extra melee damage.

The Hydra launcher is an explosive weapon that fires small missiles. The weapon contains six missiles, which it rotates through as it fires, much like a revolver. In "Halo Infinite," the Hydra users can toggle between two firing modes. One features a lock-on function that will track enemy spartans and vehicles. The other is a free fire mode that will shoot missiles in a straight line. The Hydra shares a similar problem to the Ravager, in that it doesn't deal damage quickly enough to be a viable weapon against enemy Spartans.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that Hydra's free fire mode deals more damage than the lock-on mode. The Hydra also only creates a limited area of splash damage, so unless you are a total savant with the free fire mode, it will take way too long to kill an enemy — especially if they are jumping around.

An old favorite, the Plasma Pistol has been around since the original "Halo: Combat Evolved" and it functions relatively the same. It can be fired rapidly for a very small amount of damage or charged up for an attack that can break an enemy player's shield. 

The problem is that the tracking for the charged shot has been toned down from previous entries. Historically, a charged Plasma Pistol shot would track and hit an enemy as long as you were close enough for the reticle to run red. In "Halo Infinite," the weapon requires much more precision to hit the enemy, equaling far too much work just to break a shield. Plus, you will need to swap weapons to finish an enemy off, making the exercise even less rewarding.

The other reason the Plasma Pistol is so low on the list is because it no longer disables vehicles — that ability has been given to the electric weapons in "Halo Infinite." 

Another underpowered plasma weapon, the Pulse Rifle is an okay opener and a bad closer. Plasma weapons in "Halo Infinite" deal more shield damage, whereas standard bullet weapons deal more unshielded damage. The Pulse Carbine fires a three-round burst that will track an enemy, if you are at the right distance. Get too close, and it doesn't have time to change trajectory; too far, and your fire just slowly goes in a straight line. At the perfect distance, the Pulse Carbine can melt shields very quickly, but as with the Plasma Pistol, you're better off swapping weapons to finish your opponent off.

Unfortunately, there are too many weapons in "Halo Infinite" that are capable of killing an enemy quickly enough to not need to switch to another weapon, putting the Pulse Carbine pretty low in the ranking. That said, combining the Pulse Carbine with a headshot-capable weapon like a Battle Rifle or Pistol makes for a fairly deadly combo, even if it's more cumbersome than other weapons.

The Disruptor is one of the game's new electric-type weapons. It pistol fires bolts of electricity at enemies, which will cause some damage over time and can spread to nearby enemies. This weapon can be very useful for dealing a bunch of damage to a group of enemies, since the electricity can spread and deal damage over time, but players will have a difficult time trying to win a one-on-one fight with it. It can take eight shots to kill an enemy using the Disruptor — not great, since the gun can only fire 10 shots before needing to be reloaded.

The Disruptor is fully automatic, but its fire rate is still much slower than standard weapons like the Sidearm Pistol and the Assault Rifle, making it difficult to take an enemy out unless you catch them off guard. The Disruptor can be used to disable vehicles, which is its biggest saving grace.

The Sentinel Beam is a weapon typically obtained by destroying Sentinels, a Forerunner machine designed to destroy the Flood. The weapon fires a single beam of energy continuously for a period of time, before it needs to reload. At this point in the ranking, every weapon from here on out is viable in a 1v1 fight, it's more a matter of ease of use and speed. The Sentinel Beam ends up lower on the list because it is slightly unwieldy to aim while the beam is firing.

If you can track a player accurately, the Sentinel Beam can kill an enemy in roughly two seconds of continuous fire before needing to cooldown. The problem is that the recoil will pull the weapon up sharply, which can be hard to deal with while an enemy is moving. The Sentinel Beam also goes through enemies, so it can deal damage to opponents behind your target. Of course, lining that up is easier said than done. 

In the campaign, however, the Sentinel Beam is easily one of the most powerful and worthwhile weapons in the game.

The MA40 AR, or simply the Assault Rifle, is the standard weapon in "Halo Infinite." In unranked playlists, players spawn in with this and the Sidekick Pistol, so you likely will be using it a ton. 

The Assault Rifle is in a great place in "Halo Infinite," because a well-aimed clip can kill an enemy before needing to reload. The downside to the Assault Rifle is that it is not a precision weapon, so you can't just drop an enemy with a headshot after their shield breaks. While that isn't necessary to win a fight, of course, it means your opponent immediately has an advantage if they have a precision weapon.

On the other hand, the AR is perfect for performing a standard shoot-and-melee combo. Just shoot an enemy while running towards them and then physically attack them right after. If you have done enough damage with the AR, you can score a well-earned and satisfying kill.

The other new electric weapon in "Halo Infinite," the Shock Rifle, is the pinnacle of "high risk, high reward." Similar to the Sniper Rifle, the Shock Rifle is a one-shot kill at full health if you hit the opponent in the head. However, while the Sniper Rifle can also kill an enemy in two body shots and has a high fire rate, the Shock Rifle takes three body shots to kill an enemy and has a slower fire rate. It can also be difficult to aim up close, so if an opponent gets in your face, there's going to be a problem.

The Shock Rifle does have a few other things going for it, though. The electric shock can jump from one enemy to another nearby, dealing some damage to them as well. It can also be used to disable vehicles in a single shot, proving very useful in Big Team Battle matches. The Shock Rifle is a powerful weapon, but one that requires precision.

The VK78 Commando, or Commando for short, is a strong automatic precision rifle that is a strong weapon that is unfortunately held back by unwieldy recoil. The Commando holds 20 bullets, which is more than enough to kill an enemy with great aim. It takes a minimum of eight perfect shots to take out a target — seven to break the shield and a headshot to kill — or 11 shots, if you can't manage to hit the head. The Commando has a reasonably fast fire rate, but the recoil kills it.

Shooting automatically means the Commando veers straight up as you shoot, which can cause you to miss quite a few shots. You can feather the trigger to improve aim, but this also increases how long it takes to drop someone. Considering other precision weapons take fewer shots to kill with less recoil, the Commando is a tricky weapon. The best method is to aim for the body and occasionally get lucky with headshots.

A staple since the original "Halo: Combat Evolved," the Needler functions as an SMG. It has a high rate of fire, but a low damage output. However, enemies will explode when you put enough Needler rounds into them. The Needler shoots faster in "Halo Infinite" multiplayer than in other entries in the series, making it a menace in combat — assuming you're in range.

The downside to the Needler is that it quickly loses its value if there is more than one enemy in front of you. There are enough Needlers in a single magazine to explode two people, but this requires you to know how many needles it takes to kill opponents. If you keep shooting until they explode, you'll actually use more needles than necessary. If there are two enemies in front of you, there is a risk you will split your shots between them, resulting in neither of them dying. 

The Needler is excellent in a 1v1 scenario, but a bit trickier to use if the enemy brings a friend.

The Heatwave is an odd weapon. It is a hard light projectile weapon that functions sort of like a shotgun, blasting buckshot of hardlight projectiles, which go through enemies and bounce off surfaces to deal damage. The Heatwave also appears to be a worse weapon than it actually is, thanks to its two fire modes (the lesser of which is the default).

The Heatwave can be fired with a horizontal or vertical spread, killing in three shots while horizontal and two shots while vertical, assuming you are getting as much of the enemy as possible in your crosshairs. Horizontal can hit multiple enemies near one another, but the vertical kills faster, making it more viable. Thanks to the ricochet damage, the Heatwave also has an advantage in tight spaces since the blasts can ricochet and do extra damage — but that effect is more based in luck than skill.

The CQS48 Bulldog, essentially the standard shotgun, is still a different take on the typical "Halo" shotgun. In previous "Halo" games, the shotgun had a slow fire rate, but could kill someone in one shot from a pretty good distance. The shotgun in "Halo Infinite," however, is not capable of killing someone at full health in a single shot, even if you are physically touching the other person. It can kill in two shots at close range and three shots at medium range. To make up for no longer being a one-shot kill at close range, the "Halo Infinite" shotgun received two buffs.

First of all, the shotgun is fully automatic. Old school players might not realize this, because the old one wasn't automatic and the Bulldog has a pump animation. However, the Bulldog will continue firing if you hold down the trigger. Second, instead of being reloaded one shell at a time, the Bulldog gets reloaded in a single magazine, which speeds up the process. While it isn't the powerhouse the old shotgun used to be, it is still a fast and powerful weapon, not to mention a menace at close range.

The Cindershot is one of the new power weapons in "Halo Infinite," which fire explosive rounds of hard light. It sports high damage with a small splash area, meaning it requires better aim than some other power weapons. 

The benefit to the Cindershot is that it can kill two shots and it typically spawns with 16 rounds, so you can rack up a number of kills with it. The downside is the way that the weapon's blasts function. If you can directly hit someone, the round will explode and deal the maximum amount of damage. If you don't directly hit someone, the blast will need to bounce once before it explodes. 

Although it isn't too hard to bounce a blast into an enemy, you need to choose whether you are going for direct hits or bounce shots before firing. If you miss someone and hit the ground near them, the blast will just ricochet right past them. 

The Stalker Rifle feels like the spiritual successor to the Carbine Rifle from previous "Halo" games. The Stalker Rifle is a precision plasma weapon with an incredibly low time-to-kill — if you can land that headshot. It takes three shots to break an enemy's shields and a fourth body shot to kill them, but the Stalker Rifle is one of the few weapons with which headshot damage bleeds through shields. 

If the third shot is a headshot, it will kill the enemy, even if their shield isn't broken yet. The only other weapons that can headshot through shields in "Halo Infinite" are the Shock Rifle and the Sniper Rifle, making the Stalker Rifle part of an elite trio.

Because the Stalker Rifle is a plasma weapon, players can fire roughly 6 shots before it needs to be vented, but the Stalker Rifle can be vented earlier at any point for a quicker cooldown. 

The Mangler is another Banished weapon, a high-powered pistol packing extra melee damage. The Mangler is this high on the list for its very quick and easy-to-pull-off melee combo. An enemy at full-health can be killed by a single Mangler shot and a melee attack from the Mangler, making for one of the fastest and most effective melee combos in the game. The Mangler isn't the most precise weapon around, but blasting someone on the body before finishing with a melee blow is easy to pull off.

If your enemy is leaving some distance between you, the Mangler can also kill in three shots. This can be done with or without hitting a headshot for the final blast, but with its high recoil and lack of precision, it will probably take more than three due to some missed shots. Still, with that high rate of fire and nasty melee combo, it's hard to argue that the Mangler isn't worth picking up at every opportunity.

The MK50 Sidekick functions extremely similarly to the M6H magnum in "Halo 5: Guardians,"  as it's a precision weapon that has a high fire rate and deals solid damage. The recoil can be a bit much if you are firing it as fast as you can, but it's not as inaccurate as other weapons with high recoil, like the Mangler or the Commando. 

A skilled player can win most one-on-one situations with this weapon. The pistol is one of the weapons you spawn with in most playlists, — outside of Ranked, Tactical Slayer, and Fiesta — so it's an important weapon to master, since you will probably spend a ton of time using it.

The pistol magazine holds 12 shots, taking seven shots to kill if you end with a headshot, and 9 shots if you don't. Combine that with one of the fastest reloads in the game and the Sidekick is a deadly weapon. A player skilled at hitting headshots can beat someone with an Assault Rifle easily.

Another new weapon to "Halo Infinite," the Skewer sits somewhere between a rocket launcher and a sniper rifle at first glance. Make no mistake, it is a precision weapon at its core. The Skewer fires a single large, well, skewer that will kill an enemy player in one shot, regardless of where it hits them. It has a reticle size similar to the Sniper Rifle and Shock Rifle, meaning it requires some skill to get the one-hit kills. Since it's a Banished weapon, it also deals extra melee damage — but since shooting an enemy kills them instantly, the melee is only useful in certain close-quarters situations.

The other aspect of the Skewer is that it deals a ton of damage to vehicles, decimating them in one or two shots, depending on the vehicle. This makes the Skewer one of the most useful power weapons on maps with vehicles. Plus, it's much easier to hit a Warthog than an enemy player.

An iconic staple of "Halo" multiplayer since it became a usable weapon in "Halo 3," the Gravity Hammer has a few new quirks in "Halo Infinite" that put it lower on the list. However, the Gravity Hammer is still a force to be reckoned with. 

The two downsides to the Gravity Hammer are its slow swing time and what happens if you interact with an opponent with a sword. The swing time is longer than in previous games, which might make the weapon more balanced — but that's not what people like about power weapons.

The other issue is that if you hit someone with an Energy Sword at the same time they hit you, it results in both players bouncing off each other. Due to the long swing time, the sword user has the advantage. Still, the Gravity Hammer can be combined with the Grapple Shot to give you the ability to close any gap between you and the enemy.

The S7 Sniper, in the right hands, is a superior version of the Skewer. It is also a precision weapon, killing enemies in a single headshot or two body shots. Its magazine holds four rounds, so getting kills is relatively easy, even if you can't hit headshots all the time. While it does slightly less damage than the Skewer, it has a higher rate of fire, faster reload, and more shots before reloading. While the Skewer might always give a one-shot kill, the Sniper Rifle is more than capable of racking up kills.

The other plus is that the Sniper Rifle carves vehicles up. It will take more shots than the Skewer, but not so many that it isn't competitive. Being able to take down enemy players or destroy their vehicles from a distance makes the Sniper Rifle an excellent weapon, especially in Big Team Battle matches.

The Energy Sword takes the number three spot on this list, primarily for reasons outside of the weapon itself. The Energy Sword is largely unchanged from previous games, although it does appear to run out of energy quicker than in previous games. It can still lunge pretty far and kill enemies in a single slice. The Energy Sword gains a serious edge for two reasons: The first is the previously mentioned advantage over the Gravity Hammer. The second (and more important) reason is how it can be combined with the new equipment in "Halo Infinite."

Movement-based equipment, like the Grapple Shot and Thrusters, make it easier than ever to get up close and personal with the enemy. Now, instead of camping corners or trying to flank the enemy, you can fling yourself across the map to get in close. Even without the equipment, other players will frequently panic when they see someone running at them with a sword, resulting in missed shots. Picking up the Energy Sword is a one-way ticket to a killing spree for any well-practiced player.

The M41 SPNKr (pronounced "spanker") is the "Halo Infinite" version of the classic Rocket Launcher. It brings forward the classic two-barrel design of the "Halo" Rocket Launcher, allowing players two shots before having to reload. While it might seem easy to put the explosive Rocket Launcher as the second best weapon in "Halo Infinite," it's not an undeserved spot. It's simple: The M41 SPNKr has the best features of all other power weapons. It can kill in one-shot, both on direct impact and via splash damage. It can also decimate vehicles with ease.

The Rocket Launcher doesn't require nearly as much precision as other weapons while still offering very high damage. With two shots before reloading, most mistakes can be corrected without dying. It offers high power, range, and ease of use, all of which combine to make this the best power weapon in "Halo Infinite" and the second best weapon in the game. Of course, you won't always have access to a power weapon in "Halo Infinite," which leads into the number one spot.

The BR75, also known simply as the Battle Rifle, is the best weapon in "Halo Infinite." While it certainly lacks the raw firepower of a power weapon like the Rocket Launcher, you will find it in your hands more often than not. It's found on most maps in standard arena and Big Team Battle modes. It is also the default weapon in Ranked mode (and the only one you spawn with), meaning you will need to be proficient with the Battle Rifle if you want to climb through Ranked.

The biggest reason for it being the best weapon is its versatility. It takes four bursts to kill someone with a headshot and six to kill someone without the headshot. The Battle Rifle's magazine holds 36 shots, which translates to 12 bursts, so you could theoretically kill three enemies without reloading. It has low recoil and the zoom function makes it viable both at close range and at a distance. It might not be as flashy or exciting as other weapons, but you can never go wrong with the old reliable Battle Rifle.