There are 12 Primary Weapons to unlock through progression in Helldivers 2. Each of these Primary Weapons offers unique stats along with weapon traits that you can benefit from during your fights. However, choosing the best Primary Weapon for your loadout can be a hard choice, especially if you are going for that top-tier build to compete in Helldive difficulty missions.
For that matter, I will be assessing each of these primary weapons in Helldivers 2 and classifying them into a tier list of the best weapons so that you can make the best choice and dominate your fights.
| Tier | Primary Weapons |
|---|---|
| S-Tier | SG-225 Breaker Shotgun |
| A-Tier | AR-23P Liberator Penetrator, R-63 Diligence, MP-98 Knight, SG-225IR Breaker Incendiary |
| B-Tier | AR-23 Liberator, AR-23E Liberator Explosive, SG-8 Punisher, JAR-5 Dominator |
| C-Tier | R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper, LAS-5 Scythe |
S-Tier
If you are looking for the best Primary Weapon in Helldivers 2, then look no further, as the SG-225 Breaker Shotgun competes solely in the S-Tier category. This weapon’s total effective damage per magazine is double that of the majority of weapons in the game.
Moreover, the SG-225 Breaker Shotgun is capable of one-shotting every light-armored target with well-placed shots and is enough to take out medium enemies with relative ease.
Apart from that, the SG-225 breaker shotgun offers amazing burst damage and has a pretty decent range for a shotgun. You will be able to unlock it during the Warbond progression by using 20 Medals in Helldivers 2.
Moving onto the stats for this particular weapon, you will get Damage (330), Capacity (16), Recoil (30), and a Fire Rate of (300). Lastly, the weapons traits for this King of Shotguns include that it is quite effective against enemies with Light Armor and should be your top priority if you are going for that OP build.
A-Tier primary weapons in Helldivers 2
Our A-Tier primary weapons list in Helldivers 2 consists of 4 weapons, each just as good as the other so the choice will depend on your playstyle. These primary weapons offer a decent fire rate and are pretty much suited for eliminating enemies with light and medium armor. You can check the following options:
| Weapon Name | Type | Stats | Weapon Traits |
| AR-23P Liberator Penetrator | Assault Rifle | Damage (55), Capacity (30), Recoil (28), Fire Rate (320). | Medium Armor Penetrating |
| R-63 Diligence | Marksman Rifle | Damage (112), Capacity (20), Recoil (35), Fire Rate (350). | Light Armor Penetrating |
| MP-98 Knight | Submachine Gun | Damage (50), Capacity (50), Recoil (20), Fire Rate (1380) | Light Armor Penetrating |
| SG-225IR Breaker Incendiary | Shotgun | Damage (180), Capacity (25), Recoil (28), Fire Rate (300) | Light Armor Penetrating, Incendiary |
B-Tier primary weapons in Helldivers 2
You can easily consider some Assault rifles and Shotguns as B-Tier Primary Weapons in Helldivers 2. These weapons offer decent damage stats and some are even available from the start of your progression such as AR-23 Liberator, etc.
You can use them during your missions to earn medals and unlock better weapon options to use at higher difficulty levels. That being said, you can check the stats on each of the following B-Tier Primary Weapons.
| Weapon Name | Type | Stats | Weapon Trait |
| AR-23 Liberator | Assault Rifle | Damage (56), Capacity (45), Recoil (15), Fire Rate (640) | Light Armor Penetrating |
| AR-23E Liberator Explosive | Assault Rifle | Damage (55), Capacity (30), Recoil (29), Fire Rate (320) | Light Armor Penetrating, Explosive |
| SG-8 Punisher | Shotgun | Damage (360), Capacity (16), Recoil (110), Fire Rate (80) | Light Armor Penetrating, Rounds Reload |
| SG-2251R Breaker Incendiary | Shotgun | Damage (180), Capacity (25), Recoil (29), Fire Rate (300) | Light Armor Penetrating, Incendiary |
| JAR-5 Dominator | Explosive | Damage (200), Capacity (15), Recoil (75), Fire Rate (250) | Medium Armor Penetrating |
Even though the AR-23 Liberator is the default starting Assault Rifle in Helldivers 2, it more than holds its own even in the later stages of the game. The AR-23 is well-balanced, providing decent stats to deal with all kinds of enemies.
While it may not excel at anything, it isn’t too shabby either so while you are still learning the ropes, this should be your go-to weapon. Its AR-23E variant does pretty much the same job but comes with a scope as well as explosive ammo type.
SG-8 Punisher is your average run-of-the-mill shotgun that is useful to take out enemies at close range. Doesn’t do anything special but if you don’t have any other Shotguns available, you can’t go wrong with SG-8.
The JAR-5 Dominator actually could have been on our A-tier list of primary weapons for Helldivers 2 had it not been behind the Premium Warbond, requiring 80 Medals to purchase, and didn’t have such a high recoil. However, the JAR-5 Dominator is still a formidable weapon for your arsenal. It has medium penetration so should be useful against most enemies.
C-Tier primary weapons
| Weapon Name | Type | Stats | Weapon Trait |
| R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper | Marksman Rifle | Damage (128), Capacity (15), Recoil (53), Fire Rate (350) | Light Armor Penetrating |
| LAS-5 SCYTHE | Energy Based | Damage (300), Capacity (8), Recoil (1) | Light Armor Penetrating, Beam, Heat |
The R-63CS Diligence is not a good sniper weapon compared to the rest of the Marksman Rifles. The handling on this specific weapon is pretty clunky and it doesn’t shoot cool impactful bullets.
Apart from that, the R-63CS Diligence has terrible accuracy with a limited amount of ammo and is not a good primary weapon choice for targeting enemies above the 100m range in Helldivers 2.
Similarly, the LAS-5 Scythe, an energy weapon is equally terrible and I would definitely not recommend it. It takes a lot of time to kill one enemy with this specific laser weapon and the worst part is that you are unable to stagger enemies. Due to it its beam nature, LAS-5 Scythe can be slightly useful to melt off enemy armor but overall it is not worth wasting your precious primary weapon slot on.
