Best weapons and traps in R.E.P.O., ranked

Violence is justified when these R.E.P.O. monsters keeping coming at you. So get yourself some weapons and ready up—it’s time to fight back.

While the Shotgun is the obvious choice as the best R.E.P.O. weapon, we’re excluding it from the list due to its ridiculously high asking price ($63K to 92K). It’s highly likely you won’t get this prior to level six, especially if you’re buying Health Packs and upgrades. All weapons are purchasable from the Service Station (their spawn is randomly generated every time you visit). Unfortunately, there’s no option to take the Huntsman’s shotgun after killing him.

This list is taking into account how much money you’ll likely have spare for weapons after purchasing upgrades and health. It’s best to use a combination of throwables, drones, and weapons to complete your inventory. Stunning and staggering the enemy is an effective way to clear the level of monsters (albeit temporarily), giving you time to transfer heavier objects and fill your C.A.R.T. without the worry of being attacked.

Here are the best weapons, traps, and throwables you can use in R.E.P.O.

R.E.P.O. weapons tier list

Before we go our list, we strongly advise you try to use monsters to fight each other whenever you can. Bangers can explode against other enemies, the Huntsman will shoot anything that makes a sound, and the Clown’s laser can annihilate anything in its path. Getting something like the Spewer to latch onto your face deals greater damage than most melee weapons and throwables. While you can’t guarantee this monster will spawn in when you need it, it gives you options to fight back when you don’t have the funds to get weapons.

Finally, weapons aren’t a necessity in R.E.P.O. You can get far if you upgrade your strength or simply work with teammates to grab and slam monsters to the ground. A single hit against the floor deals the same damage as melee weapons, meaning you don’t have to spend money on them if you don’t want to.

Let’s get into our top 10 R.E.P.O. weapons, ranked.

10) Rubber Duck

• Cost: $16K

The Rubber Duck is a strong bet against deadlier monsters that can one-shot you if you haven’t upgraded your health. It requires patience and precise aim as you need a direct hit to deal the most damage. If you leave it to ricochet off surfaces, it’s likely it won’t hit your target. The Rubber Duck is incredibly hard to use which is why we’ve placed it at number 10. It’s not a good pick against levitating monsters such as the Headman and Mentalist.

9) Shockwave Grenade

• Cost: $3K

The Shockwave Grenade is a safer bet over the standard grenade, as it has a large impact radius. It doesn’t deal as much damage, but the grenade isn’t good enough to kill most monsters (however, you can use it to take out the Shadow Child and Animal). Instead, we recommend this version for its ability to stagger and temporarily take enemies out of a fight. It can reset them, making them forget about your existence if you hide straight after using it. But it can also give you an opening to attack with firearms. Its effects don’t last as long as a dart from the Tranq Gun, so melee weapons won’t do much in a follow-up attack against high health pool monsters (Headman, Robe, and Trudge).

8) Explosive Mine

• Cost: $3K

The Explosive Mine is more reliable than its grenade version since you can strategically place it without the risk of accidently blowing yourself up. You can’t accurately throw grenades, so it’s easier to use mines because they drop straight to the floor. Yes, they take longer to activate than a grenade, but you can time this by alerting a slow enemy to your position or learning their patrol path to both hurt and stun them when they wander into it. Its effects hardly last as enemies with large health pools leave the room with hardly a scratch, but you’ve dealt a good chunk of damage and given yourself time to escape the room to place more traps.

7) Shockwave Mine

• Cost: $3K

The Shockwave Mine is a safer bet compared to its grenade variation. This mine is a good pick when you’re trying to get back to the truck at the end of the round. Since monsters know to patrol the path back to the truck, you should place this down before hiding away from deadly entities like the Headman, Trudge, Bowtie, and Robe. If you can’t afford firearms, the Shockwave Mine is fantastic at protecting you when a threat is coming your way. It can disrupt attacks such as the Mentalist’s or you can lure monsters like the Clown, Trudge, or Reaper into it (although this kind of blast cannot kill them). You can get a similar effect from the Explosive Mine, but the Shockwave has a larger impact radius.

6) Duct Taped Grenades

• Cost: $2K

The Duct-Taped Grenades are exclusive to the secret shop inside the Service Station. Being the cheapest weapon you can get, these explosives are incredibly useful against smaller enemies that like to cause chaos. Drop this in a room where the Animal, Shadow Child, Rugrat, Bangers, and Gnomes lurk to take them out. You can’t guarantee where the remaining Human Grenades will roll off to but with multiple explosives going off, it’s highly likely you’ll take out the small fry. This weapon can easily hurt you so make sure you, your friends, and your C.A.R.T. aren’t in the same room when you decide to pull the pin.

These grenades deal less damage than the standard variation, meaning they aren’t effective against higher health pool enemies.

5) Stun Mine

• Cost: $3K

The Stun Mine is particularly effective at keeping persistent, annoying monsters at bay. These include the Upscream, Reaper, Chef, and Animal. But it also stuns larger, stronger enemies that you probably want to take out of the action for 10 seconds. Unlike the Tranq Gun that requires good accuracy and reflexes, the Stun Mine can be strategically placed in a spot where you know the monster is patrolling. You can place these anywhere as they activate if someone or something walks over them. It’s a great pick when you’re retreating to the truck at the end of the level as you can place this down if an enemy has you cornered because they won’t leave the room you’re hiding in.

4) Baseball Bat

• Cost: $25K

The Baseball Bat is incredibly easy to use in close-range fights. Move your mouse side to side in quick succession to continuously attack an enemy ahead of you, staggering them. The issue is it doesn’t deal sufficient damage quickly enough, unless you are in an isolated fight against an enemy with a small health pool (e.g., Rugrat, Chef, or Upscream). It is, however, highly effective against a Reaper and Huntsman (so long as you get the jump on them). It can stagger and knockdown monsters, but it’s not powerful enough to take on the Headman, Robe, or Clown alone.

This weapon is a good shout if you haven’t reached levels where environmental hazards can kill monsters. The Bat can stagger most monsters, where you can throw them into death pits immediately after (so long as you have either a Feather Drone or high strength).

3) Frying Pan

• Cost: $26K

This is the best melee weapon in the game for its high durability and excellent handling. We highly recommend pairing this weapon with the Tranq Gun as you can stun most monsters (for 10 to 15 seconds), to then follow up with the Frying Pan in hand. It can easily kill the Apex Predator, Spewer, Rugrat, and Chef as it staggers and stuns, letting you follow up with repeated blows to the head until their eventual demise. Yes, it takes a lot of hits to kill most enemies, but the Frying Pan is as durable as the Inflatable Hammer, and is a far stronger option.

2) Gun

• Cost: $46K

The Gun is the most consistent weapon and is a viable option against most monsters in R.E.P.O. Don’t waste unnecessary bullets against enemies like Spewer (who is hard to hit) or the all-powerful Headman, Clown, and Trudge. This firearm kills many monsters with a single bullet, including the Reaper and Bowtie. It can take on the Headman and Robe, but be ready for an intense battle and pray accuracy is on your side.

The Gun is a powerhouse in R.E.P.O., but it’s difficult to use, where shots will inevitably get wasted. If you want to clear the level of monsters (they do spawn back in with every activated extraction point), the Gun is your best bet over any throwable or melee weapon.

1) Tranq Gun

• Cost: $17K

The Tranq Gun is an absolute necessity when it comes to surviving monster encounters. We can’t recommend it enough in the early game as you can use this on entities that would typically one-shot you (Robe, Bowtie, Trudge, Mentalist, Huntsman, and Headman). While it doesn’t kill monsters, it gives you up to 15 seconds to flee the area, letting you safely reposition without being followed, and forcing the threat to reset because it lost track of you. You can pair this with other weapons like the Grenade, Frying Pan, or Shotgun to kill a stunned enemy too.

The Tranq Gun and Feather Drone are life-savers in double-digit levels. As the map grows more complex, you can stun monsters and carry them over death holes, dropping to kill them instantly. Those playing with three or more members can skip weapons altogether and rely on the Tranq Gun to stun and then pick up enemies to either continuously slam them to the ground, or to throw them off the map.