Helldivers 2 Weapon Tier List (Patch 7.1.1): 13 Weapons Ranked

On live patch 7.1.1 (24 September 2026), a crash-only hotfix per Arrowhead’s patch notes, our editorial picks for strongest Helldivers 2 primaries are the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary and the AR-23P Liberator Penetrator, and our pick for strongest secondary is the P-4 Senator (see how we rank below). 7.1.1 only fixes crashes. The last weapon balance pass was 7.1.0 on 22 September 2026, and 7.0.0 came before it on 12 August 2026. This is a shortlist, not a ranking of the whole Armory: it ranks 13 weapons whose stats we could source (10 primaries and 3 secondaries). It explains how we compare them, gives one table for primaries and one for secondaries, shows what each really costs in Medals, covers the patch changes that moved weapons, and places the three new Ironclad Democracy weapons.

Our tiers are the Neonsect editors’ judgement based on four inputs. They are not an Arrowhead ranking and they are not a community poll.

• Armor penetration: the Light / Medium / Heavy class. You can read it in-game from hitmarkers: red means full penetration, white means reduced damage, and a deflect means no penetration.
• Damage and damage per magazine: taken from helldivers.wiki.gg, a community-maintained game-data wiki whose Primary Weapons page was edited on 23 September 2026.
• Ammo economy: starting and spare magazines as they stand after the 7.0.0 short-magazine pass.
• Special function: stagger, fire, explosive rounds or an underbarrel attachment.

What we compare for: one general-purpose loadout for a squad member, fighting at close to mid range, used against all three factions, without a supply backpack. We did not run timed in-game tests. Every rank is reasoned from the numbers in the tables, and the close calls are explained under each table.

Coverage: 13 weapons, 10 primaries and 3 secondaries. Everything else in the Armory is left out because we couldn’t source its stats, so treat this as a ranked shortlist, not a verdict on every gun. Arrowhead’s 6.3.0 “Machinery of Oppression” patch (16 June 2026) came before these changes. Arrowhead’s 6.3.0 summary mentions weapon, stratagem and enemy balancing, including lower enemy durable damage.

Stats come from helldivers.wiki.gg (community-maintained game data). Magazine changes come from Arrowhead’s 7.0.0 and 7.1.0 notes. Tiers are our editorial call.

Here’s our reasoning. The Breaker Incendiary’s fire keeps doing damage after the trigger pull, and the Penetrator is the only Liberator variant on this list that reaches Medium armor. The Trident is effective against large groups of lightly armored enemies at close range, but it is weak at hitting small weak points at range. That keeps it at A even after the recoil fix. The Carbine fires fast but burns ammo quickly and only penetrates Light armor. The AR/GL-21 One-Two sits at B: its rifle is Light-pen only, and the 7.1.0 grenade buff gives it more Medium-pen shots, not a new role. The R-2124 Constitution is also a primary and got a 7.0.0 reload change, but we don’t have its base stats, so it isn’t ranked.

The close calls, criterion by criterion:

• Liberator Penetrator S, AR-11 Arbitrator B. Every Penetrator bullet is Medium pen. The Arbitrator’s rifle is Light pen. It reaches Medium armor only through its underslung shotgun, which holds 4 shells, reloads one shell at a time and carries 20 spare (helldivers.wiki.gg). On armor pen and ammo economy the Penetrator wins for a whole mission. The Arbitrator’s faster rifle (1,200 vs 640 RPM) doesn’t change that.
• Breaker Incendiary S, Breaker A. The plain Breaker hits harder per shot (330 vs 240), and both are Light pen. We rank the Incendiary higher on special function: its fire keeps damaging groups after you stop shooting. That is a judgement call. If you mostly fight single tough targets, the plain Breaker is the better pick.
• GL-15 Evictor B despite Medium pen. 50 + 440 explosive damage per shot is strong. But it fires at 60 RPM from a 4-round tube, so it can’t hold a general-purpose slot the way the Penetrator does.
• LAS-13 Trident A, not S. 360 damage per shot, but Light pen and heat-limited, and it’s weak at small weak points at range.

Same method and same sources. The P-113 Verdict and M6C/SOCOM got 7.0.0 changes, but we don’t have their base stats, so they appear in the changes section instead of here. The Senator beats the Breacher for S on ammo economy: Heavy pen with 6 + 40 rounds against one Anti-Tank III shot plus two spare.

El Devoid of Liberty 7.1.0 patch notes touched two primaries. The AR/GL-21 One-Two’s underbarrel grenade launcher now starts with 3 grenades instead of 2, holds up to 5 spares instead of 3, and refills 5 instead of 3. Arrowhead said the old grenade ammo “did not make it useful enough”. The LAS-13 Trident’s vertical climb recoil went from 12 to 2. That reverses an unintended increase introduced when Arrowhead coded the Meltagun’s beam into the shared beam system. 7.1.1 changed no weapons.

7.0.0 primaries: Constitution reload and the short-magazine pass

• R-2124 Constitution (listed under Primaries): reloads a full stripper clip when the magazine is empty.
• Liberator, Liberator Penetrator, Liberator Concussive, Liberator Carbine and AR-59 Suppressor: spare 12→16, starting 7→9.
• SMG-37 Defender and SMG-72 Pummeler: spare 9→12, starting 6→8.
• SMG/FLAM-34 Stoker: spare 10→13, starting 6→7, reload 2.8→2.3 s.
• SG-225 Breaker and Breaker Incendiary: spare 9→11, starting 6→7. Breaker Spray&Pray: spare 16→20, starting 11→12.

7.0.0 secondaries

• P-113 Verdict: spare 8→10, starting 4→6. M6C/SOCOM: spare 8→10, starting 5→6. P-19 Redeemer: spare 4→6.

Our editorial reading: the extra starting and spare magazines improve reserve-ammo economy for the Penetrator and both Breakers. These changes do not establish a larger magazine capacity or resolve every weapon tradeoff. You can find more on how 7.1.0 split-squad spawn pressure works if your squad spreads out and ammo runs low.

We found no official per-faction weapon table and ran no per-faction tests, so this is not a faction ranking. The last column only reads armor penetration against the armored enemies our sources name.

The Ironclad Democracy Warbond was announced on 15 September 2026 and launched on 22 September, the same day as 7.1.0. Our full Ironclad Democracy Warbond item list covers the armor and cosmetics. Here we only rank the three weapons.

Most primaries and secondaries unlock on Warbond pages, which you pay for with Medals. You earn Medals by playing missions and operations. The Standard Helldivers Mobilize Warbond costs Medals only. Premium Warbonds such as Steeled Veterans, Viper Commandos and Ironclad Democracy cost 1,000 Super Credits each before you can spend Medals on them. The base AR-23 Liberator is free once you finish training. For farming routes, see our Samples and Medals farming guide.

Medal prices and page numbers come from helldivers.wiki.gg, so check the live Warbond page before you save up. Pages open in order: each one unlocks only after you have spent a set number of Medals on earlier pages of the same Warbond. So a weapon’s price is not what it costs a new player. From a fresh Warbond the Liberator Penetrator (page 6 of Helldivers Mobilize, which opens after 260 Medals spent) takes at least 300 Medals, and the Evictor (page 3 of Ironclad Democracy, opens after 225) at least 290. Both are above the 250-Medal cap, so you’ll spend in more than one round. The Medal gain per mission isn’t in our data, so we can’t turn these numbers into hours.

Sources and Confidence

Patch changes come from Arrowhead’s notes on Steam, the Ironclad line-up from the PlayStation Blog, and weapon stats, Warbond page unlocks and Medal prices from helldivers.wiki.gg. The tiers and the derived numbers are ours.