Remnant 2: Best Hand Guns, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Hand Guns in Remnant 2 are not just a secondary option; they fill various roles depending on the player’s build and can be more useful than Long Guns.
• The most used and highest-ranked Hand Guns in Remnant 2 include the new Corrupted Guns, the Anguish, Meridian, Rupture Cannon, Bolt Driver, Sureshot, Tech 22, MP60-R, Cube Gun, Sorrow, Double Barrel, and Enigma.
• Each Hand Gun has its own unique characteristics and advantages, such as crowd control, long-range shots, burst fire, charge time, high-risk high-reward damage potential, infinite ammo, and multi-target damage.

Remnant 2 has a lot of different weapons to choose from, especially since there are three different categories for weapons; Melee Weapons, Long Guns, and Hand Guns. Hand Guns, in particular, may seem like they’re just a ‘secondary’ option for when the Long Gun is out of ammo, but that’s not at all the case.

Hand Guns, like Long Guns, fill all sorts of roles depending on the player’s build, and in some cases can actually be more useful than any Long Gun. But, it all depends on the player’s build and how they tailor it around their Hand Gun of choice. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the most used and highest-ranked Hand Guns among Remnant 2 players, and talk about why they’re so useful.

Updated November 24th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Remnant 2’s final DLC, The Dark Horizon is out now and it adds quite a bit to the game, just like the previous two DLCs did. There’s a new Archetype, new Weapon Mods, new areas, new bosses, tons of new Rings, new Amulets, and more. However, when it comes to Hand Guns, in particular, it actually only adds two. Thankfully, unlike previous DLCs, the two new options are both pretty incredible in entirely different ways. With that in mind, let’s take another look at all the Hand Guns in the game, talk about some of the new ones, and get into all the detailed info.

18 Meridian

A Co-Op Knockdown Nightmare

First up (at the bottom) of the rankings is the Meridian, one of the weapons with the most tedious unlocks (before the Anguish, that is). To obtain this, players have to find the Flooded Sewer event in one of Losomn’s sewer maps, such as the Great Sewer or Tiller’s Rest, destroy the ooze enemy blocking the large pipe, and then wait around an hour and a half in real time for the room to fill with water so that the Traveler can get across a series of platforms to another pipe where the Meridian is sitting next to a corpse.

Once players actually manage to obtain this thing, it’s a whole lot of fun to use and can be especially useful with crowd control when there are a lot of enemies at once. However, this thing is nothing but a menace in multiplayer, as every explosion will likely stagger nearby teammates or, at worst, knock them off a ledge. So, use it with caution with friends online, or don’t use it with caution and become the reason the friendly co-op session suddenly becomes aggressive.

17 Corrupted Cube Gun

Fun Idea, Weak Execution

First up is one of the newer weapons added to Remnant 2 alongside their second Aberration Domination event, the Corrupted Cube Gun. This is a Corrupted variant of the standard Cube Gun Hand Gun that takes the original concept of the weapon and twists it quite a bit. For example, instead of shooting those little cube crystals that return to the gun as the primary ammo like the Cube Gun, the Corrupted Cube Gun shoots these large energy cubes forward similar to the Cube Gun’s innate Cube Shield Weapon Mod (but a bit smaller).

Sadly, however, the Corrupted Cube Gun is just pretty weak. The damage of these energy cubes is mediocre, the gun overheats incredibly quickly (in like 3 shots without any overheat reduction), and its Cube Room Weapon Mod is very restrictive for not much benefit. With a couple of adjustments from Gunfire, this gun could easily become a lot better, but at the current moment, it doesn’t feel worth the Corrupted Shard investment.

16 Corrupted Meridian

The Dream Gun For The Detonation Trigger Amulet

The Corrupted Meridian is basically better than the standard Meridian in every single way. Not all of the Corrupted Guns that Gunfire Games added in around the time of the 2023 Halloween Update are better than their original variant, but the Corrupted Meridian absolutely is. Not only are the timed explosives with an arc no longer a concern, but players can also charge up to three shots at once that all stick to the enemy they’re shot at. On top of that, the Deadpoint Weapon Mod on this gun is fantastic both visually and in terms of damage.

There was a time when this weapon’s primary fire was scaling with Mod Power, oddly enough, leading to some pretty creative builds, but that’s been fixed in the update that came with the Awakened King DLC. The only recommendation for this weapon, keep a fair distance from the explosion, as this thing is every bit as dangerous to the weapons user as the Star Shot’s Big Bang is.

15 Rupture Cannon

The Sci-Fi Shotgun Pistol

The next Hand Gun, the Rupture Cannon, is one of the most fitting ‘sci-fi aesthetic’ weapons on here. Granted, the only other challengers in this thematic category are the other N’Erudian weapons like the Pulse Rifle or the Plasma Cutter, but that still counts for something.

Instead of firing normal rounds, the Rupture Cannon fires a ‘shotgun spread’ of what seems to be energy-based projectiles per trigger pull. And, even though it’s labeled as a shotgun pistol in its description, these shots actually travel a fair bit farther than most players expect. All-in-all, just a dependable Hand Gun option with an empty Weapon Mod slot making it easy to fit into any build.

14 Bolt Driver

When Bullets Aren’t Enough, Shoot Crystals Instead

While deceptively looking like an Earth-made SMG or something similar, the Bolt Driver is actually found in Yaesha and uses a burst of Pan crystals as projectiles rather than bullets. To obtain this, players will need to play the alternate or ‘secret’ song on the Water Harp in The Forbidden Grove of Yaesha, just outside the Ravager’s Lair. There’s an in-game method to figuring out this secret song (listen to the Flautist’s second song after activating the bridge to the Ravager), but most players just end up looking online for the answer.

Bringing things back to the Hand Gun, this weapon is another one that takes a bit of getting used to, as it has both a charge time before firing and a burst fire that separates it from the rest of the Hand Guns. But, once players get used to firing the Bolt Driver, they’ll quickly discover that its Weakspot damage potential and overall reliable DPS are worth the short adjustment period.

13 Sureshot

All You’ll Need Is One Shot

Now here’s a Hand Gun that’s almost the exact opposite of the Rupture Cannon, the Sureshot. Instead of having a high magazine capacity with consistent damage and a slow reload (AKA the Rupture Cannon), the Sureshot is a single-shot Hand Gun with high-risk high-reward damage potential and a relatively speedy reload.

It’s very easy to tailor a build into making the Sureshot (or Crossbow, if it’s been found) absurdly strong using Reload-based Amulets, Rings, Mutators, or any other gear that triggers some effect when a portion of the magazine has been used. To give just a few examples, both the Shiny Hog Lure and Tightly Wound Coil instantly turn the Sureshot into a ‘must-use’ kind of weapon.

12 Anguish

The Most Work For A Secret, & The Gun Is Just ‘Decent’

The steps required to obtain this next gun are honestly a point of contention for the Remnant 2 community. On one hand, the fact that a dedicated Discord full of fans spent days figuring out how to get this gun by data mining and working together is so incredibly interesting. On the other hand, some players find this whole process involving the Ethereal Manor to be tedious and not at all in line with the ‘spirit’ of this ‘Soulslike with guns’ type of game. Regardless of where any player falls on this discussion, the Anguish is a very creative Hand Gun.

The fact that it can work in close range, long-range, as an automatic weapon, and as an explosive weapon is very useful, but as a whole the gun used to be mediocre at best. Thankfully, with the new Crossplay Update for Remnant 2 that added in a whole host of new Corrupted Guns and adjustments, the Anguish has been buffed. Previously the Anguish had a weapon scaling cap of 2x, and it’s been upped to 3x. Does this instantly make it the best Hand Gun in the game? Absolutely not. But, it does make it a lot better and makes it a viable Hand Gun to use in a lot of builds it previously wouldn’t have been viable in.

11 Corrupted Rune Pistol

The Offense To The Normal Rune Pistol’s Defense

Out of all the Corrupted Weapons Gunfire Games added to Remnant 2, the Corrupted Rune Pistol is probably the one that nailed the assignment the most. Whereas the default Rune Pistol is a sidearm meant for players going for more of a support (AKA Medic) role due to the Soul Brand Weapon Mod, the Corrupted Rune Pistol is much more offense-focused. For one, the damage of this Pistol is pretty respectable and the option between fully automatic or burst fire is nice. But, the primary reason people love this Hand Gun is because of the Death Brand Weapon Mod.

This Weapon Mod not only increases the damage any player does to any enemy with the Death Brand on it by 10 Percent but the Weakpot Damage buff they’ll get from the Echoes is also pretty absurd. And, the best part is, these buffs aren’t restricted to the Rune Pistol, so a player could activate Death Brand and then immediately switch to their main Long Gun to put out some gigantic damage numbers.

10 Cube Gun

Infinite Ammo Hand Guns Are Pretty Useful

On the higher difficulty modes such as Nightmare or Apocalypse especially (not even mentioning Hardcore), a lot of the difficulty comes from making sure players have enough ammo to get to the next checkpoint or get through the boss fight. For example, in multiplayer especially, players who do run out of ammo seem to do so right in the middle of a boss fight due to the boss’s HP scaling per player. So, a Hand Gun with infinite ammo is going to be highly sought after for that reason alone, which makes all the other reasons the Cube Gun is a great Hand Gun just icing on the cake.

To be a bit more specific on ‘why’ this gun is so great, the Cube Gun’s auto-equipped (not crafted, sadly) Weapon Mod has a wide variety of uses, the Cube Gun itself has good damage, and it is just so convenient to use. Plus, apparently, it has some pretty unique interactions with any gear that mentions the word ‘Reload’ as the game considers every single crystal returning to the gun to be a reload, which means a Ring like the Shiny Hog Lure can make for a game-breakingly strong combo.

9 Tech 22

The Most Satisfying Sound Effects For Any Gun In The Game

Of all the guns in Remnant 2, the Tech 22 probably has the best overall ‘feel’ to it when firing. That’s not an insult to all the other guns, the developers at Gunfire Games really did a great job making sure all their guns felt both impactful and satisfying for players to use.

However, the visuals of the Tech 22 just absolutely unleashing a torrent of bullets combined with the sound of this process and the slight yet noticeable recoil all combine to make this Hand Gun a total blast to use. It has great damage, a very small spread when firing, and a pretty fast reload, which is just about everything a player could be looking for in a Hand Gun.

8 MP60-R

An Old Classic From The First Game

Anyone familiar with Gunfire Games’ last title, Remnant: From the Ashes, is likely already familiar with this next Hand Gun, the MP60-R. In that game, it was just called the Submachine Gun, but in both titles, this gun is found by curious players exploring the Ward 13 hub area.

And, the minor amount of work and puzzle-solving to get this Hand Gun is more than worth it, as the MP60-R is a fantastic option. It’s basically the alternative to the Tech 22 for players who somehow don’t enjoy that gun, trading more spread and a slightly slower fire rate for more damage per shot and a larger magazine. Regardless of how players feel about this gun compared to the other Hand Guns, everyone can admit that the MP60-R is a gun worth using, especially in the early game when Scrap is even more of a precious resource.

7 Redeemer

Makes For Some Incredibly Interesting Builds

The Redeemer is one of the two new Hand Guns added to Remnant 2 with The Dark Horizon final DLC, and it’s an incredibly unique weapon. In terms of lore, this thing is literally firing shards of Worldstones at enemies, using those shards to quite literally ‘rip’ parts of the enemy and teleport said parts somewhere else. Mechanically, it’s a pretty strong pistol with a very unique effect ingrained into the Weapon Mod. With Aftermath, players can apply a Relic Use effect to themselves, store it in the Mod, and then fire this effect at their allies or in the path of their allies to give the effect to them, which is just so inventive. It works in a similar way to the Healing Shot Weapon Mod where, if it doesn’t hit an ally, the Aftermath projectile will stay dormant on the ground until an ally walks within the range of it.

There are some truly absurd combinations to be found with this Hand Gun and specific Relic effects, with something being able to consistently apply the effect of something like Bloodless Heart being a great example. Out of all the options in Remnant 2, the Redeemer has maybe the most build diversity potential.

Its Utility is Unmatched

The Repair Tool is the other new Hand Gun of The Dark Horizon DLC and it’s another incredibly inventive, unique, and fun-to-use option provided to us by Gunfire Games. Essentially, the Repair Tool works as a jack-of-all-trades of sorts, being able to deal damage to enemies, heal allies, and even give energy back to summons (specifically N’Erudian summons like the Drone and Turret). It’s an incredibly fun weapon to have on hand as the new Warden Archetype, which is exactly why it’s the default Hand Gun for those who start a new character as the Warden.

Because of how this weapon works and what it affects, it also has a lot of interesting synergies with different Weapon Mods, Mutators, and Rings, which makes it one of the most reliable and versatile Hand Gun options in the game.

5 Corrupted Nebula

Overpowered Due To Bugs, Subject To Change

Originally, the Corrupted Nebula was first on this list, but at the time that was due to a bug that allowed its Weapon Mod to stack damage infinitely in a small span of time. Thankfully, this bug has since been fixed, but the weapon itself is still incredibly good.

The Corrupted Nebula is another Hand Gun added in the Crossplay Update/Aberration Domination Event for Remnant 2, and it’s a great twist on a Hand Gun that many people liked but didn’t feel was very good. However, the Corrupted Nebula’s innate Weapon Mod Nano Phase, even after the bug fix, is still incredibly powerful in the right build and gives Acid/Corrosion builds another much-needed option.

4 Corrupted Sorrow

A More Versatile & More Unique Sorrow

The Corrupted Sorrow is one of the newer weapons added alongside the Crossplay Update for Remnant 2. It’s part of their second Aberration Domination Event in which players must find and defeat these unique Aberrations for their Corrupted Shards to get new Corrupted Variants of weapons. And, the Corrupted Sorrow is one of the weapons that’s now obtainable. This variant, instead of being entirely designed around the concept of survivability both in ammo and health like the original Sorrow, is more about raw damage and healing others with its Will of the Wisp Mod.

With the right Archetype combination and setup (Alchemist, for example) the Wisps that home in on enemies with the Corrupted Sorrow’s bolts in them do some pretty absurd damage. Not only that, but these same Wisps can heal allies hit by the bolts too. The only real downside of this weapon is its long downtime between volleys of arrows and using its Weapon Mod, as players do actually need to reload this weapon instead of just using the Weapon Mod to reload for them.

3 Sorrow

The Most Reliable Option For Survivability

Finally, it’s time to talk about the top three Hand Guns in Remnant 2 overall. Honestly, at this point in the rankings, what makes each Hand Gun ‘the best’ really depends on personal preference more than anything else, as all three of these guns can easily break the game’s balance if used with the right combination and build.

So, in third place, it’s the Sorrow Hand Gun, an aptly named gun that players get from one of Yaesha’s trickster gods, Meidra, in exchange for her dead siblings’ ring (the Tear of Kaeula). This crossbow pistol is by far one of the best guns in the game overall, but especially in regard to keeping its wielder if they’re using the Eulogy Weapon Mod. It’s also one of the other 10/10 recommendations for something to use in a Hardcore Mode playthrough since it helps so much with survivability.

2 Double Barrel

When One Shotgun Isn’t Enough

The next two weapons have defined the Hand Gun ‘meta’ of Remnant 2, ever since the game came out and will likely do so for the foreseeable future. That’s right, the Double Barrel is in second place and the Enigma is in first. The Double Barrel shotgun, in particular, is the king of high-impact single-target damage…as long as players stay incredibly close to their target, something that won’t matter much for Challenger players or players using the Stasis Beam Weapon Mod.

Not only that but at max Upgrades and with the right Mutators slapped on it (such as Bandit or Extender), this thing’s DPS output can double or even triple with the extra times the player gets to pull the trigger before reloading.

1 Enigma

The Gun Everyone’s Already Seen A Thousand Times

It feels a bit lackluster for the Enigma to be first up on here, considering how overused this gun feels when playing Remnant 2 online, but the facts are the facts. The Enigma is not only easy to obtain, has a great innate Weapon Mod (Chaos Driver), and is the best option for multi-target weapon damage in the game, but it’s also just fun to use.

Gunfire Games has already nerfed this weapon multiple times throughout all the updates they’ve put out for Remnant 2, but the Enigma still stands strong. The only area it really falls short is the magazine capacity, but with the right Mutator, even that is pretty much nullified. And to add insult to injury, it’s only become even more useful again with the introduction of the Ritualist Archetype, given that it applies the Overloaded Status Effect so easily.