The 1.0 weapon tier list

The list

Why those four are S

The S tier is not "highest damage". It is "least dependent on the battlefield cooperating".

FR.15833 Plate Launcher — the best overall

It contributes damage without demanding exclusive control of your loadout. Plates pressure a single target and a group with the same trigger pull, returns reward intelligent positioning, and — the part people miss — it supports the ammunition economy of your second weapon. Its value continues even when you are not firing it.

The build core is Clearing Plasma (plates spin with light blades), with Bouncy Plates and Damage Arc as partners. The developers nerfed the plasma blades in 1.9 but said, in their own words, they're still really good.

Gunship Cannon — the best conventional primary

If you want a gun that behaves like a gun, this is the recommendation. No positioning tax, no setup phase. It will not surprise you, and in a game full of surprises that is a feature.

Shocklance — the safest early investment

Much of the Shocklance's strength comes from its huge area sizes, which means it works before your grid is finished. Micro Detonators — kills can set off chain explosions — has been insanely powerful for a long time according to the developers. Half Cocked (damage, size and range grow the longer you charge) is the other core piece, and Ready and Waiting charges it passively while you use something else.

Avoid leaning on Splintered Lance: 1.9 cut its damage by roughly half.

Accelerator — the mobility answer

Strong tracking and sustained pressure let it keep contributing while you reposition through a chaotic fight. That matters in missions where standing still long enough to execute an elaborate setup is unrealistic.

Its weakness is specific: shielded targets. Pair it with something that answers shields and the consistency is hard to argue with.

The A tier is where the interesting guns live

• Globbler has a higher raw damage ceiling than several S-tier weapons. It sits in A because it depends on favourable positioning and grounded targets — a condition, not a stat.
• Diffraction Driver is the most interesting 1.0 addition: a short-range cone for close coverage, and spinning the halo narrows and extends the same fire for distance. Flexible before the grid is finished.
• Lead Flinger is built around two upgrades — Big Fat Doobie loads a single much larger bullet, and Lucky Bastard gives your last shot a chance to refund ammo. With Doobie, every shot is your last shot.
• Au-Si Jackrabbit is for the target in front of you needing to die immediately. Its incendiary interactions give it more depth than the shotgun label suggests.

B tier: strong, narrower

• The Cycler only becomes interesting when you stop treating it as a normal automatic. It gains ammo when you damage with your other weapon, so it wants to be a second gun in an elemental setup.
• Swarm Launcher has genuine bossing strength and real utility, but normal missions expose how much it depends on the right targets existing.
• The Carver is more valuable as a survival tool than its B placement suggests. Melee range is an unavoidable disadvantage in a game full of projectiles, but a developed Carver rewards aggressive play with strong close-range control.

C tier: the idea is fine, the coverage is not

• DMLR has clever build options — mode swapping, ammo-focused setups — but consistent damage remains the problem.
• Trident S2 lands at the bottom because its focused strengths do not compensate for limited crowd coverage.

What 1.0 changed that matters

• Shocklance: base damage up 50%, but damage now falls by an extra 11% for each target its coil pierces. Better against single targets, worse against lines.
• Plate Launcher: 1.9 nerfed the plasma blades; the developers' own verdict is that they remain strong.
• Four weapons buffed outside the list: G6 Streetsweeper (+40%, falloff starting 4 m farther out), A16 Beam Ripper (+40%), The Last Argument (+40%) and the Laser Cannon (+20%, less recoil). They are unranked here, not weak.
• Seven new upgrades for existing weapons, including Confident Queen (Accelerator, Rare), which trades the magazine refill from your other weapon's damage for more ammo capacity.

How to use a tier list in a grid game

A tier list answers "what should I pick up". It does not answer "what should I build", because the grid can rescue a C-tier weapon and ruin an S-tier one if the shapes do not cooperate.

Two rules:

1. Tier decides what you try; the grid decides what you keep. If the patterns you own suit the Cycler and not the Gunship Cannon, the Cycler is your S tier this run.
2. A weapon's weakness is a loadout problem, not a verdict. Accelerator versus shields is solved by your second slot, not by dropping the weapon.