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Check out this list of the most overpowered firearms in video games to date.

Top 10 most overpowered firearms in video games

Check out this list of the most overpowered firearms in video games to date.
This article is over 8 years old and may contain outdated information

First-person shooter developers approach the design of firearms in their games differently – some want them to be as realistic as possible, such as Rainbow Six: Siege, or on the contrary, make them ridiculously overpowered, such as DOOM or Unreal Tournament.

This top 10 list will provide you with a selection of the most overpowered firearms in video games that would never exist in the real world (yet). Some of these weapons are so unbelievably strong that they require just one precise shot in order to finish any of the big bosses.

There are many other ones, of course, that didn’t make the list, so give it a go and share in the comments section the weapons you think deserve to be in this top.

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10. AWP (Arctic Warfare Police)

Game: Counter-Strike series
Type: Sniper Rifle

“High risk and high reward, the infamous AWP is recognizable by its signature report and one-shot, one-kill policy.”

AWP, also known as Magnum Sniper Rifle, is the deadliest weapon in the Counter-Strike series of games. It can instantly kill an opponent with one mere bolt-shot aimed at almost any part of the body. It’s a heavy weapon, and players who decide to go with it loose speed, but that doesn’t prevent it from being one of the most popular firearms in the game.

AWP is so overpowered that it completely ignores any type of armor that your enemy might be wearing and pierces right through it. Of course, you can’t fire that well without setting up a shot using the optics, but if you have just a little bit of time – the reward will be huge.


9. M134 Minigun

Game: Grand Theft Auto series
Type: Heavy Weapon

Minigun is a staple weapon in the GTA series of games. If you want to have fun in GTA, all you have to do is find a high spot, enter a cheat command for infinite ammo and shoot at everything that comes in your sight. Then, it doesn’t matter if it’s a helicopter or an NPC – everything gets smashed to pieces.

M134 changed its size and ammunition capacity several times throughout the existence of the GTA series, but in the latest installment it also increased its shooting speed to 3000 rounds per minute, which made it even deadlier and more overpowered than ever before.


8. GK8 Gauss Rifle

Game: Crysis 3
Type: Long-ranged Weapon

"The much beloved Gauss rifle in its second generation form with more power and less recoil, improved in all the ways that matter. This electro-magnetic rifle will provide Snipers with the sheer power needed to get the job done."

What makes the Gauss weapon so powerful in Crysis 3 is the remarkable speed of the bullets made from the alloy of tungsten carbide and depleted uranium. The speed of these bullets equals Mach 8, which means that they are hypersonic or eight times faster than the speed of sound.

Besides the groundbreaking bullet speed, GK8 is equipped with a whole array of auxiliary navigational attachments, such as sniper scope, reflex sight, laser pointer and flashlight. All this makes Gauss rifle in Crysis 3 not just fast, but also super precise and super deadly.


7. Bozar

Game: Fallout series
Type: Light Machinegun

The strangest thing about Bozar is that by looks it is a typical sniper rifle, but in reality it is a light-weight machine gun with a sniper scope attached to it. The fans of Fallout call Bozar “the ultimate refinement of the sniper's art,” which is absolutely correct.

Imagine a machine gun with a super-high fire rate and the precision of a sniper rifle – there is probably no deadlier firearm in any other game. It easily pierces right through the hardest of the armors and just as quickly deals with heavy vehicles damaging their inner parts.


6. Meltagun

Game: Warhammer 40K series
Type: Fusion Gun

Have you ever seen a version of an energy/beam weapon that melts enemy tanks? Here’s Meltagun from the Warhammer 40K series of games that can melt anything that stands in its way. Every space marine knows that Meltagun, also called the Cooker or Melter, is the strongest handheld weapon you can obtain in the game.

The hissing sound that Meltagun emits when it shoots its high-energy beam is produced due to the boiling of the water molecules in the air. If you direct the beam at any NPC, it will simply vaporize the poor guy into the smallest particles. More than that, this fusion weapon can melt Adamantium – the strongest metal in the entire universe, so beware Wolverine!


5. M-920 Cain

Game: Mass Effect series
Type: Heavy Weapon

Cain, also known as Nuke Launcher, is the best weapon in Mass Effect series of games for quick and effective aerial purges. It can also be used to insta-kill massive bosses. When it shoots and hits the target, the explosion creates a miniature nuclear explosion followed by a familiar mushroom cloud.

This portable nuclear device is very slow and requires a 100% charge before it can spew its massive charge of energy, so you must take into account the behavior of the enemies or the bosses before activating this amazingly overpowered weapon. The statistics show that Cain can be used once every mission, which is not much, but if used correctly, it can help you finish the game very quickly.


4. M42 Fat Man

Game: Fallout series
Type: Tactical Nuclear Catapult Weapon

Portable mini-nukes have always been the favorites of many shooter fans. Fat Man from the Fallout series is probably the most beloved and well-known handheld nuclear weapon. It doesn’t have any fancy features, such as homing missiles, but it does the job and it does it well by simply launching a nuke at an area of your choice.

Fat Man was called after the atomic bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan during the World War 2, so in order to avoid controversy, the famous gaming weapon had to be renamed in the Japanese version of Fallout into Nuka Launcher.


3. BFG 9000

Game: DOOM series
Type: Plasma Cannon

BFG 9000, also known as Big Friggin’ Gun, makes a return in the upcoming DOOM 4 game and will continue to shoot its highly powerful green balls of energy at all sorts of demons.

The energy particles that comprise the BFG’s projectiles are the so-called smart particles. This means that they guide themselves onto the enemies within the range of the projectile’s activity, leaving no enemy untouched.

According to the official history of the DOOM universe, BFG 9000 is the most powerful weapon ever created by humans. Well, this indeed makes it a fun toy to play with.


2. Redeemer

Game: Unreal Tournament series
Type: Thermonuclear Warhead Launcher

Redeemer is undoubtedly the most powerful weapon in the whole Unreal Tournament series of games. This is not your typical rocket launcher but a fully controllable missile launcher. This means that you can manually guide the flight path of the warhead and strike it at an exact spot of your choice.

Even if you can’t see your target, you can launch the missile and travel around in order to find the best hitting area. Also, you should not worry if you don’t happen to strike at the precise location since the blast wave will destroy everything within its radius.

The only drawback of Redeemer is that you can’t see your character while in missile flight mode, which obviously makes you vulnerable to sneaky enemy attacks.


1. Pandora

Game: Devil May Cry 4
Type: Devil Arm

Pandora is not your common weapon – it’s a living weapon, a manifestation of a Demon’s soul. It can transform into seven deadly forms:

  1. Epidemic – a basic rocket launcher that shoots with high-powered projectiles.
  2. Hatred – a more powerful version of Epidemic.
  3. Revenge – an even more powerful version of Hatred, which is a particle cannon with an almost infinite range.
  4. Jealousy – a Gatling gun with a super high fire rate.
  5. Argument – a helicopter-like vehicle that can be used for air transportation that also has 14 rocket launchers attached to it.
  6. Grief – a huge and deadly boomerang with sharpened blades.
  7. Omen – a weapon that blinds all enemies within its range of effect using a massive flash of light.

You can obtain Pandora’s box after defeating Dagon in Mission 15 - Fortuna Castle.

Which of these ten firearms  do you like the best? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.


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Author
Image of Serhii Patskan
Serhii Patskan
Contributing Writer
Serhii is the Writer at GameSkinny. He's been writing for GameSkinny since 2015. Before that, he's been writing for various outlets and playing video games, which eventually turned into a passion. The video games that have contributed the most to his enthusiasm for writing about this industry are Magic: The Gathering, Dark Souls, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.