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Discover everything you need to know about the Best Secondary Weapon Tier List in Helldivers 2 and help you choose the best pick.
A secondary weapon in Helldivers 2 is essentially a sidearm gun that won’t be used as often as your primary weapon. This weapon can make a critical difference on the battlefield and ultimately can make the difference between democracy and tyranny. These are the guns that can either serve as a backup when you run out of your primary. These are some guns that can fill some niche use cases in your loadout and sometimes these guns can be so useful that they can outshine your primary weapon. But which secondary weapons are the best and which are the worst? In this guide, we’ll discuss the updated secondary weapon tier list in Helldivers and what unique characteristics make them an ideal choice as a backup.
Helldivers 2 Secondary Weapons Overview
A secondary weapon in Helldivers 2 is essentially a sidearm gun that won’t be used as often as your primary weapon. This weapon can make a critical difference on the battlefield and ultimately can make the difference between democracy and tyranny. These are the guns that can either serve as a backup when you run out of your primary. These are some guns that can fill some niche use cases in your loadout and sometimes these guns can be so useful that they can outshine your primary weapon.
Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
P-4 Senator, Plas Loyalist, and GP-31 Grenade Pistol are the best secondary weapons to use due to their gameplay mechanics, overall stats, and traits in Helldivers 2. These deadly weapons are more effective in close-range combat only when your primary weapon runs out of ammo. Secondary weapons can make a huge difference in fights if used properly as you need to be more precise with them. Some weapons are effective against bots and some are useful against bugs but these secondary weapons dominate against all types of enemies in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 Best Secondary Weapons Tier List
Here is our Secondary weapon tier list for all the Helldivers 2 players out there. Keep in mind that if your favorite sidearm is not available in our tier list, then that specific weapon has some major drawbacks that you must be aware of. This tier list will help you to equip the best secondary weapon while fighting in combat while your primary weapon is not bringing any miracles.
| Tier | Weapons |
|---|---|
| S-Tier | P-4 Senator, Plas-15 Loyalist |
| A-Tier | GP-31 Grenade Pistol, P-11 Stim Pistol, P-113 Verdict |
| B-Tier | P-72 Crisper, SG-22 Bushwhacker |
| C-Tier | LAS-7 Dagger, P-19 Redeemer |
| D-Tier | P-2 Peacemaker |
S-Tier Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Top-tier performance.
P-4 Senator
- Standard Damage: 200
- Capacity: 6
- Recoil: 43
- Fire Rate: 200
- Traits: Heavy armor penetrating + One handed + Round reload
A high-damage revolver, which can be reloaded with single rounds. A heavy-hitting and reliable sidearm. This is a very cool revolver-type gun where you can do the cool spin move and live out your space cowboy fantasies. This has round reloads plus a speed loader when you have emptied out, this will load it up pretty well. It has risen in the ranks, especially now that this deals damage against heavy armor targets. It has the ability to take out a bile titan from the face as well as a charger from the face but it will take a lot of bullets to do so.
You’re probably better off stripping the leg armor off and finishing off against the Chargers. This also does well against the medium bugs as it takes only 1~2 shots. However, this is less useful against the bugs in the game but you can like it as being dedicated towards the bigger enemies. Having this very special heavy armor ability that most guns in the primary category don’t have you have something special here. This is even better against the bots. Given the higher levels of armor over on that front, this ends up getting used quite a bit. It can take hulks out of the face in a little over one mag.
This can also take devastators out in one shot to the face. Having this available to you also makes it more viable in our eyes to take out the more strictly anti-tank support weapons because you can have that anti-tank ammo for the bigger things. You may even find that your primary is getting underutilized when have this deadly weapon.
Plas-15 Loyalist
- Standard Damage: 125
- Capacity: 7
- Recoil: 8
- Fire Rate: 1000
- Traits: Medium armor penetrating + One Handed + Explosive + Chargeup
A plasma pistol that charges each shot until the trigger is released. Plasma projectiles explode on impact. This sidearm has lower damage and a much smaller ammo capacity. This weapon can be charged up to expel highly damaging wide plasma explosions to provide lower-damage bolts. Loyalist’s explosions bypass medium-level armor, whilst the direct plasma projectile only penetrates Light armor. This is a poor self-defense weapon due to its innate splash damage even on uncharged shots.
This weapon is effective for bombarding enemies at medium range. It’s risky to use it on fully charged blasts against aggressive foes that can catch a Helldiver off-guard, such as Hunters and Pouncers. It can stagger and greatly push back enemies as large as Brood Commanders and Scout Striders with a fully charged shot. Both the charged bolts deal high amounts of damage. While keeping full walking speed, this one-handed weapon’s shots can be charged from the hip.
A-Tier Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Above average and has a glaring issue.
GP-31 Grenade Pistol
- Standard Damage: 250/400
- Capacity: 1
- Recoil: 43
- Fire Rate: 900
- Traits: One Handed + Explosive
A pistol that fires grenades. Must be reloaded between shots. This weapon dishes put grenades and is pretty efficient versus the bugs. It dishes out a lot of splash damage to the horde which can wipe out a lot of enemies at once but the damage can also be useful for bigger enemies. In particular, the charger takes about two shots to the butt. The kicker here is the utility which allows you to close bulges and can be useful for other objectives as well like the spore towers and nests.
It allows you to use things like the stun grenade as a throwable instead of an explosive and allows you to still contribute towards the objectives. This weapon is also effective against the bots as you can close the fabricators. It allows you to take stun bombs and still go for objectives and stun bombs come much more handy versus the bots. You also deal splash and stagger to enemies as a bit of an offensive weapon. It does a little bit worse here than the bugs because the enemies don’t clump up.
P-11 Stim Pistol
- Standard Damage: 0
- Capacity: 6
- Recoil: 23
- Fire Rate: 70
- Traits: One handed + Rounds reload + Stimulative
Fires a ballistic dart near-supersonic speeds, allowing the user to stim allies from a distance. Might sting. This weapon is super interesting especially because the benefits of this are basically the same regardless of which faction you choose to go against. This is the gun where friendly fire is definitely encouraged because shooting teammates with this essentially gives them a stem to heal up, making it useful for team play. However, if you do play solo, this is pretty useless but as a team, this can be very helpful.
It allows you to pump some health into your teammates at range, allowing them to save up on stems and ultimately stay alive longer. If you have this equipped you just need to pay attention to the UI and your teammates and see their health bars to see who’s weak. One downside here is that it’s not yet very much understood by your teammates what this gun is doing. Make sure you have the right gun equipped because you can almost kill the team member rather than heal him.
It will also give your teammate stamina even at full health, so if you’re on the run and you see a teammate slowing down probably running out of stamina, you can just pump a shot in them. There can be some improvements to this weapon as you do have to be more precise with this weapon but this is the kind of addition that allows for more of a medical support role.
P-113 Verdict
- Standard Damage: 125
- Capacity: 10
- Recoil: 40
- Fire Rate: 450
- Traits: Medium armor penetrating + One handed
The gas-operated, semiautomatic P113 chambers the 14mm “Rapid Deliberation,” the largest centerfire cartridge of any magazine-fed pistol. This is a medium armor semiautomatic firing gun which is otherwise similar to Peacemaker but this time with much more use and a good bit more damage. Now, versus the bugs, this can one-shot the little guys which feels nice. You may often be utilizing a light armor penetrating primary. You might not have something as readily available for the medium armor that you might run into such as the occasional hive guard and this can be your backup.
It allows you to do medium armor penetration when you need to. This feels pretty solid and this is useful against the bots now, especially now that it’s received some buffs. Being medium armor penetrating means it can now deal damage to nearly every bot without having to go for the weak spots. The damage level is relatively high per shot meaning it does do pretty well. This can one-shot head devastators in the heads and it can even deal with those pesky striders for their legs. It’s not recommended for the heavier enemies but at least it can damage a lot of them as well.
B-Tier Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Plain jane weapon.
P-72 Crisper
- Standard Damage: 375
- Capacity: 30
- Recoil: 3
- Fire Rate:
- Traits: Medium Armor Penetrating + Incendiary + One Handed
A compact handgun-style flamethrower, able to project a jet of fire over short distances. This pocket flamethrower is amazing against the bugs. Bugs are weaker against the flame and this weapon can surely dominate the enemies in combat. It does have a little bit less duration in its canister which can make you run out of flame quickly. This can be a great thing to deal with the horde especially if you don’t have any other types of flamethrower. You can use this while running which gives you a very nice advantage for staying mobile and lighting everything up.
It has the ability to take out a charger from a front but it’s not as efficient as the support weapon flamethrower but it still does the trick. This weapon is not effective against the bots but it still has some strengths. It will take out enemies quickly, applying the damage over effect to them. It can take a hulk out from the front although it takes a little while. The limited range means it’s not going to come in handy when facing the bots at range. Now, this weapon can take out a lot of enemies from the front without needing to actually go for weak spots, this definitely gets some points. This weapon doesn’t really have that pressure that a primary would to be all-encompassing instead it fills its niche fairly well.
SG-22 Bushwhacker
- Standard Damage: 405
- Capacity: 3
- Recoil: 170
- Fire Rate: 650
A triple-barreled, break-action, sawed-off shotgun. Switch firing modes to fire all three barrels at once. This is a sidearm shotgun with three bullets and the ability to mod it so that you can either fire them off separately or all at once. This one is solid against the bugs as it can pack a punch no matter how you decide to mod it. You can find the single fire mod more useful because you can use three shots to make quick works of the bigger enemies.
Switch to the individual shots to take out more enemies. The other good thing about this weapon is the amount of stagger that you have which can help keep the bugs off you for a bit. It feels like a pretty solid backup and while the three-bullet limit to the mag can make reloading this weapon kind of annoying.
This weapon is not as impactful against the bots because this packs a punch and the stagger on this gun is the best part, allowing you to have something to serve up and stun versus berserkers. This is useful in close range as a backup especially if your primary is more long-range.
C-Tier Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Below average and need buffs.
Las-7 Dagger
- Standard Damage: 250 DPS
- Capacity: Infinite
- Recoil: 0
- Traits: Light armor penetrating + One Handed + Beam + Heat
A laser pistol that fires a continuous beam. Does not require ammo but can overheat and need to change batteries. This shoots a laser beam which deals damage to anyone in its path and that damage is also fire damage, so they will get a little bit damage over time. This performs well against the bugs and it does decently against bile spewers. However, it does kind of feel like it takes a while for a good number of the medium enemies. LAS-7 Dagger offers unlimited ammo and one thing that most players like is that you can be running with this weapon and just constantly putting chip and fire damage.
It also does pretty well against the shrinkers, so having unlimited and being able to take them out quickly is pretty great. It also has the ability to sniper spore towers and Shrieker towers but this will take a while. This weapon is less effective against the bots but it does provide some benefits. You can drag your reticle over the enemies and they will instantly do down. It also does well against the berserkers and it will take out the devastators heavily very quickly. Being a decent option for sniping them, the major drawback here is it’s only light armor penetrating which makes it less effective versus many of the bots. This dedicated little guy killer helps you conserve medium and heavy weapons in your arsenal.
P-19 Redeemer
- Standard Damage: 60
- Capacity: 31
- Recoil: 15
- Fire Rate: 1100
- Traits: Light armor penetrating + One handed
A fully automatic pistol with an extra high fire rate allows for efficient crowd control. It’s a solid gun for bugs as it shreds heads the bugs super-fast. This gun is really the epitome of a backup gun and if you are in a pinch this will have your back. It’s also amazing when on the run being able just really quickly to take out bugs as they end up getting closer. The main drawback is the lower ammo capacity. Although the high recoil will hurt you at range it does have some solid benefits when the enemies get close.
It will quickly shred the little bits and even berserker in one mag. On level 7 or lower, this will get the standard walkers fast by hip-firing them. The other thing that’s kind of interesting here is like the Peacemaker, it will also two-tap the devastator heads which is especially useful if you switch to semi-auto firing.
D-Tier Best Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2
Dookie weapon and needs rework.
P-2 Peacemaker
- Standard Damage: 75
- Capacity: 15
- Recoil: 23
- Fire Rate: 900
- Traits: Light armor penetrating + One handed
This weapon is essentially your basic starting pistol which shoots these semi-auto bullets at a bit of lower damage. You won’t be using these all the time as it’s not going to provide anything outside of the most basic support versus mostly the weaker bugs. In many cases, you might just be better off running away and getting some ammo for your primary. A lot of time it’s just a waste of time to use this versus the bugs as stopping to try to will more likely get you surrounded. You can see it being good when there might be a stray bug around and you just want to take that out without wasting your main weapons ammo.
The magazine size feels pretty small, so even if you do end up using it in a pinch it will only provide you only a little bit of extra help. This weapon only has light armor penetration which means it can mostly help with the little bots and the berserkers. You can use this to two tap devastators in the head, so if you have good aim and accuracy then this could become some sort of a dedicated devastator sniper.
FAQs about Helldivers 2: Best Secondary Weapons Tier List
How do I unlock new secondary weapons?
You can unlock new secondary weapons in Helldivers 2 via the Warbonds on the Acquisitions menu. Spend War Medals on it that you can earn by completing missions.
Can Secondary weapons be upgraded?
Yes, in Helldivers 2, secondary weapons can be upgraded just like primary weapons. This allows you to customize their sidearms with various attachments and stat improvements to better suit their playstyle.
What are the different types of Secondary Weapons?
Secondary weapons include smaller, more maneuverable firearms like the SMG-37 Defender and PLAS-1 Scorcher, which are often used for close-range engagements or to quickly take down smaller enemies.
What is the best secondary weapon?
P-4 Senator and Plas-15 Loyalists are the two best secondary weapons due to their stats, traits, and mechanics. Some weapons are effective against bots and some are useful against bugs but these secondary weapons are dominant against all types of enemies in Helldivers 2.
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