In case you haven’t heard, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a Western-themed action-adventure game starring Arthur Morgan, a Van der Linde gang member dealing with the decline of the Wild Western way of life and fighting against government forces and other gangs. This game also follows John Marston, the protagonist from the first Red Dead Redemption. From shoot-outs to hunting to riding along the prairie, this game brings the nostalgia of the Wild West into a harsh and gritty real-world perspective. Everything is done in real time and is instilled with a sense of realism; no crazy video game tactics here. If you want to live out your childhood cowboy dream as a grown-up, Rockstar have you covered with this new installment.
If you have clicked on this article, chances are you aren’t sick of Red Dead Redemption 2 yet. There have been what feels like hundreds of articles going around talking about how good it is or rating the weapons you get, which is standard for a new release, but it can be a little draining. But not for you. I’d wager you are a new player wanting to know what weapons to avoid so you don’t waste your time. You want to get in on the good stuff and spend your time wielding powerful weapons that’ll get you through the long haul. Either that or you wanted to see if the weapons you have are up to scratch.
Let’s check out what weapons to avoid (and keep), shall we?
22 Useless: Maxim Gun
Now, this bad boy is crazy fun to use. The Maxim Gun packs a real punch and is basically a cowboy minigun. When you get to use it, you absolutely dominate the fight and it feels amazing. However, the problem is that the Maxim Gun is so rare you barely get to use it.
If you just stick to doing the main story, you’ll only get to use this absolute unit twice.
What is the point of having an awesome weapon you can only use a handful of times?
21 Overpowered: The Arabian Elite Horses
These guys are kind of ridiculous. It has a ton of stamina and health, sometimes the Arabian horse has even more health than you do, which is insane. It seems crazy to me that your freaking horse has more health than you; stamina and speed are to be expected, but health, really? Like, this horse is dubbed an Elite Superior level horse, which just proves that it is overpowered, in my honest opinion.
20 Useless: Varmint Rifle
While this weapon does have some decent accuracy and reload speed, its damage really lets you down. This weapon is mostly used for hunting down medium to large prey and can help you out in a shootout with a large group, but you will most likely have something better on you for fighting. It seems to be a waste to just have a weapon for primarily hunting animals instead of a multi-purpose weapon that can hunt and fight instead.
19 Overpowered: Rolling Block Rifle
Completely free and a well-rounded sniper rifle? Count me in! This rifle is not to be messed with. Not only is its accuracy 3.4/4, but it has the damage to match. It has an almost equal level range as well, which almost makes up for the slow reload and rate of fire. Your enemies had better quake in their boots if they see you rolling up the block with this rifle because you are about to kick some cowboy behind. I haven’t come across another weapon this powerful yet and it blows my mind (I’m sure your enemies will feel the same soon enough).
18 Useless: Cattleman Revolver
This pistol weapon is in a similar boat to the Varmint Rifle. The reload speed and rate of fire are pretty good but the damage is weak. When hunting prey, especially small to moderate animals, surely it is best to get them in one clean shot so the pelt has minimal damage and you don’t have to chase after the animal. Plus, this means the hunt is as easy and quick as possible while hopefully earning you more kills.
17 Overpowered: Miracle Tonic
If you get your hands on this stuff, do not let it go. Not only does it replenish literally everything including your Dead Eye, but it also fortifies them. That is the most overpowered thing ever, like jeez, dude.
You can literally survive off this stuff and it saves your life in a tough spot.
Hoard the heck out of this tonic because getting through this game is hard sometimes but this makes it easier.
16 Useless: Poison Throwing Knives
Throwing knives sound cool and are impressive when used correctly. You imagine launching this sharp weapon for a fair distance and instantly landing your target. While this bad boy does indeed do decent damage and does additional damage over time, its accuracy and range could use some work. This is probably just personal opinion since I prefer guns to knives, but I don’t think they are all that great.
15 Overpowered: Semi-Automatic Pistol
Midnight’s pistol is the fancier of the two, but this pistol is crazy good. It has one of the highest rates of fire out of any weapon in Red Dead Redemption 2. If you need it, the gunsmith has you covered so don’t worry about it. In terms of damage, it can take someone out in two shots even from a fair distance which is super helpful in tight situations so it is definitely worth the investment.
14 Useless: Bow
I know this game is old-school, but this is going too far. Sure, this weapon has power and accuracy, but humanity upgraded to swords and guns for a reason. The range is not great and neither is the rate of fire. If you want to go around feeling like a hunter from another era, go ahead and more power to you; I’ll just be over here with my rifles minding my own business and doing more damage on the way.
13 Overpowered: Litchfield Repeater
This is a great all-rounder and is incredibly damaging in a medium area. If you want to clear some pesky gang members out then this guy is a great pick to have on you.
No, this is not from Orange Is The New Black.
This repeater is also a fantastic pick for hunting but does have a slower reload speed and rate of fire, which is the only thing that stops it from being ridiculously overpowered and is instead just kinda overpowered.
12 Useless: Hunting Knife
As the name suggests, the hunting knife is mainly for skinning prey you hunted in the early stages of the game. The range is terrible and it is not really good for much else besides skinning animals. Sure, you can use it to hurt enemies if you sneak up on them or use it as a melee weapon, but there are far better ones out there that do more damage and have more to them than that.
11 Overpowered: Sawed-Off Shotgun
The sawed-off shotgun is one of those weapons that is pretty scary by itself but is crazy dangerous when doubled up. Get yourself two of these guys and you’ll be set to have a great and destructive time out in the Wild West. It’s another all-rounder for the most part but if you get two of them going at the same time you can totally wreak havoc and do a lot of damage. Do not just pass this weapon up on your next adventure if you have two of them.
10 Useless: Hatchet
Hatchets are like tiny axes but for fighting people and hunting animals. The standard hatchet is okay but doesn’t have much to it and there are better hatchets, so why would you use it for longer than necessary. There are more powerful and frankly cooler looking ones out in the wild for you to go get. You can say that about most of the useless items here, but I figure it still needs to be said.
9 Overpowered: Springfield Rifle
Highly accurate and incredibly powerful, there’s a reason that this rifle is favored by military types in Red Dead Redemption 2. The reload action does let it down a little, but man the damage totally wrecks everyone in your way.
Even large mammals will fall when faced with this absolute beast of a weapon.
If you are looking for a formidable distance weapon then you can’t go wrong with this one.
8 Useless: John’s Knife
Another melee weapon, this has little range as to be expected but also it is pretty similar to the hunting knife in most ways, so I honestly don’t have much to say here, but I got a word count to fill so here we go. I personally prefer guns, but knives make sense in certain situations. Even so, maybe use it until you can get yourself a superior knife and then move on with your life. Maybe use some upgrades, I don’t know.
7 Overpowered: Carcano Rifle
A sniper rifle, the Carcano is one of the few weapons that use various kinds of ammo. If you’re looking for a powerful long-distance weapon with a quick reload speed and 6 bullet capacity then this rifle is perfect for you. It does have a slow rate of fire but is super accurate so it’s all swings and roundabouts in the West. The Carcano rifle does come after a pretty sad mission, ‘Goodbye, Dear Friend’, but it is totally worth the tears.
6 Useless: Fire Bottle
Also known as a Molotov cocktail, this bad boy makes huge explosions that you won’t look at because cool people don’t look at explosions. Its range is not great but you can just make it at camp while you’re chilling. The damage is okay but the accuracy could be better and it mostly just seems that you make a huge explosion, blow your cover, and anger your enemies in one flaming swoop. I’m sure someone out there made a cool looking edit of them using the fire bottle and it exploding everywhere.
5 Useless: Belt Buckles
You can lot these off deceased bodies and some of them are kinda cool, but I also could not care less about them. Like most of the clothing items in most games, it does not really mean much. No-one messages their friends like ‘guys, check out this sick belt buckle I got in Red Dead Redemption 2!’ Like, no that does not happen. Everyone talks about the weapons, story or even the horses over the freaking belt buckles.
4 Useless: Sniper Rifles
The point of sniper rifles is to take someone out in one shot. You should not have to use three shots to take them out, but you do in this game. You mainly use this to cover people on a few missions and just look down the sights the whole time. You have to reload after every single shot which is an immediate negative for me. I don’t want to be scrambling like a fool while reloading then have to panic while searching for where my target has moved to.
3 Useless: Candies
The same applies to fruit here, but there is barely any point in eating candies since they barely replenish your cores. There are drinks and other items that replenish you by half or more so you may as well go for them.
Only perfectionists are going to replenish their cores with items that restore it by a fifth.
It’s like in Breath Of The Wild when you run out of meals and just eat random ingredients that replenish a quarter of a heart.
