The best weapons in Marathon

You can shoot 29 different weapons Marathon. This is without counting the various equipment, such as grenades, and your best friend: your knife, which sometimes gets a little too powerful. With so many weapons it's easy to not know where to start and which ones are really good.

Don't worry, we've done all the testing and photography for you. In our Marathon weapons list, you'll find the best and most useful weapons you can use throughout the game. The hard part for you is filling your vault with them.

Marathon is a live service game that receives balance corrections frequently. Weapons can be nerfed and buffed, so use this as a general guide.

How do levels work?

The customization menu with all the weapons that appear in Marathon.

Whether you're playing ranked or going solo, you need to know which are the best guns in Marathon. You'll find all weapons listed on our tier list, which is divided into the following categories:

Level S: Crème de la crème. These weapons will give you everything you want and more. Prioritize them above the rest.
Level A: Awesome weapons that either have one or two disadvantages compared to the tier above.
Level B: These are decent weapons. You won't love them, and you may need skill to use them. But they can get the job done.
Level C: We would avoid these like the plague.

Keep in mind that we will be talking about the weapons in their “vanilla” version – without attachments. For specific lists on PvE and PvP, you can also check this guide and the other one.

A close-up of Oni, the main AI program in Marathon.

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Level S

Arms	Type	Reason
Biotoxic Disinjector	Hybrid	Added to Cryo Archive, this is the most broken weapon in the entire game. The only downside is that you have to fight a compiler in said map and win the fight. This is made for the really good players.
Long shot	Sniper rifle	A sniper so powerful, we're surprised it hasn't been brought down yet. Three quick shots with little recoil and huge amounts of damage.
M77 assault rifle	Assault Rifle	Whether you like M77 or BR33 the most, it's up to you. These spots are interchangeable, and we like the damage you can deal with this gun, especially against UESC.
BR33 volley rifle	Precision rifle	Our favorite precision rifle because it has the most stability and accuracy of its kind. Blasted weapons can be tough, but try this first.
WSTR Combat Shotgun	Shotgun	If you get good and land the two shots you have before having to reload, this weapon will take down almost any enemy in front of you. Your enemies must be far away or wear blue shields to be safe.
Misria 2442	Shotgun	Do you prefer more pictures per mag than two? Then Missriah is something for you. Extremely strong shotgun.
Bully SMG	Machine gun	Not only this is the most available gun in this tierbut it's also incredibly powerful, and you can start using it from your first hours.

Level A

Arms	Type	Reason
Outland	Sniper rifle	Our dear Outland, you deserve the world. But your slower rate of fire makes us place you in A, even if you're really strong.
Stryder M1T	Precision rifle	Really solid gun that does more than decent damage with each burst. If you aim well with this, you're good.
BRRT SMG	Machine gun	If you can handle the low stability, you have it a strong machine gun for close combat.
V99 channel	Sniper rifle	The good part about V99 Channel is that it is a charge sniper rifle that charges when you aim. The slightly bad part is… well, you still have to have time to load your images (or at least the first one). But if you get the hang of it, you can post it above the list.
Demolition HMG	Machine gun	If you like heavy weapons, you can't go wrong with this one. Better damage and fire rate than the rest of its kind.
Twin Tap HBR	Precision rifle	You have to sacrifice range as it's not good at medium to long range, but the Twin Tap offers really good damage and has a sweet time-to-kill.
Magnum MC	Gun	If you are not good at handling headshots with the Magnum MC, you can move it to level B. But if you do, you have a strong weapon for PvP.
V11 Punch	Gun	Perfect for PvP. Yyou can upload your photos to make them worth it.

Level B

Arms	Type	Reason
Hardline PR	Precision rifle	An okay precision rifle, then good for PvE if you are good at taking headshots with it.
V85 circuit breaker	Shotgun	It's still a more than decent shotgun, though you need to upload your images to make them really goodwhich is not the case with those in the S Tier.
Twin Tap HBR	Precision rifle	It can kill enemies quickly, but it has an important recoil, combined with not the best distanceso it might feel a little too short.
Impact H-AR	Assault Rifle	If it had a slightly better rate of fire, this weapon would easily land at Tier A at least. But as it is, it leaves you at a disadvantage in close combat.
V75 Scar	Assault Rifle	It uses volts as ammunition and will give you quite a few shots before reloadingbut it's not that powerful when your enemy is a bit far away.
V66 Lookout	Precision rifle	Perfect for longer distancesbut it lacks some damage to place it in higher tiers.
V00 Zeus RG	Railgun	Railguns aren't that popular in Marathon, and that has to do with it their charging function and how uncomfortable they are compared to pretty much everything else. Still, if you load your shots and you have the battle under control, you can do good damage with Zeus.
Conquer the LMG	Machine gun	You need shoot ammo for a few seconds to speed up the rate of fire and do it decently. Very situational gun.
V22 volt thrower	Gun	Not really recommended for PvP unless you're fighting a poorly equipped crew, but it's a fun weapon to use, and it is useful against UESC units.

Level C

Arms	Type	Reason
Exceeding AR	Assault Rifle	Not terrible by any means, though it has nothing distinct compared to all other assault rifles. Pointless to use it.
Retaliator LMG	Machine gun	Why is this gun so heavy and has a mess of fire rate? We don't know.
Ares RG	Railgun	Demands a lot from the player to make it good because of its stats and charge. It's not worth it.
Repeater HPR	Precision rifle	While it does some decent damage when headshotted, it has really bad stats overall.
Copperhead RF	Machine gun	It will fail you in battles that don't happen right in front of the enemyand even then its high rate of fire won't work if the damage it deals is low. Terrible machine gun and super expensive.
CE Tactical Sidearm	Gun	Simply, worst weapon in the entire game.

Marathon: Complete Guide to Consumables

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