When it comes to finding the best weapons in Metro Exodus, you’ll quickly find that you don’t have all that many weapons at your disposal, or even enough ammunition to kill every enemy you come across. So, you’ll have to get a little creative. Understanding the basics of the game’s arsenal is extremely important as it can make fighting enemies easier and less frustrating.
The best weapons in Metro Exodus
Bulldog “2012”
You’ll start Metro Exodus with the Kalash rifle, which is great for spraying bullets down hallways and quickly taking out mutants or humans at close-range, but you’ll find the weapon struggles to stay relevant when you start facing enemies using sniper rifles or crossbows.
The Bulldog is capable of hitting targets accurately from a much longer distance, enabling you to save ammunition you’d be wasting on the Kalash. If you prefer, you can also equip a larger magazine as well as a reflex sight, turning it into an all-purpose weapon.
Ashot “Duplet”
As soon as you have the opportunity to swap out your pistol for a shotgun in Metro Exodus, you should take it – the class is crucial to your survival when you’re being swarmed by mutants or need to take down a larger target.
The Ashot’s “Duplet” configuration gives you two high-damage shotgun shells before you have to reload, and it strikes a good balance between power and maneuverability. Because conserving ammunition is so important, it’s a better option than the four-barrel variant, which will encourage you to waste your shots as targets move closer.
Valve
There are few places in Metro Exodus where long-range sniping makes sense from a resource perspective, but a particular forest region late in the game all but demands you do. The Valve is a bolt-action and extremely powerful sniper rifle that you can use to land shots to the head or chest of enemies from long distance, and with an increased magazine attached to it, it can turn you into a one-man army. The weapon is fairly loud, so you won’t want it for stealth scenarios, but it can serve as a great backup plan in case you’re spotted sneaking around.
Helsing
The same forest segment where the Valve is useful is also a great opportunity to try out the Helsing crossbow. An excellent stealth tool, the Helsing is capable of killing targets at a medium distance with high accuracy, particularly if you’re making use of a sight or night-vision scope.
The weapon is more than a stealth tool, however, as it can be equipped with special explosive bolts. If fired in the right locations, these bolts can kill several human targets at once, and they’re also extremely useful for taking on some of the larger threats roaming the area.
Tikhar
The Tikhar pneumatic air rifle is the most iconic weapon in the Metro series, as its compressed air pumping system and steel ball projectiles mean you don’t ever need to locate ammunition for it. Instead, you can make your own from metal scraps you find, and as long as you keep it fully pumped, it should be your go-to choice for taking out both mutants and humans quietly.
The Tikhar naturally loses some of its pressure if you fully pump it, but this drawback can be eliminated by fitting it with an airtight device found early in the game. If you’re running low on ammunition for other guns, it can also be your last resort.
Metro Exodus weapon tips and tricks
1. Clean all of your weapons
When you stop by a workbench to craft supplies and get your inventory in order, you have the option to clean your weapons for a small number of resources. What Metro Exodus doesn’t do a great job of telling you is that you don’t just do this once in order to clean them. Instead, you have to make sure every weapon is cleaned individually. This seems like a small responsibility, but guns jam almost immediately when they’re dirty, and you need to un-jam them before they’ll fire again. In combat, those few seconds can and will get you killed.
2. Swap attachments regularly
The sight, magazine, or barrel you have on your rifle might be good for your current environment, but there’s a good chance they won’t be when you enter a new area. Don’t be afraid to swap out the components of your weapons to suit new environments, especially if you’re going from a sneaking section to one with full-on gunfights. Slightly increased magazine size might not seem like a huge deal, but you’ll need every bullet for some of the later scenarios in the game.
Metro Exodus even lets you radically transform weapons and move them to a different class, so if you are looking for a shotgun, you might already have the means to make one. Likewise, when you see a weapon that you don’t want on the ground but it has components highlighted in orange, those can be salvaged. You’ll get them in your inventory and you’ll get some resources to go toward crafting.
3. Always craft more ammunition
It can be tempting to throw all of your resources into creating medical kits or air filters when you get the chance, but make sure you throw at least a small portion of it into creating more ammunition.
Always craft at least a few magazines’ worth for your rifle and at least 30 for your shotgun, as well as 40 or 50 for the Tikhar. This will ensure that, with proper aiming, you won’t run out before you reach the next safe area, which will also help you avoid having to use too many medical kits in the first place. If you still run out, search dead bodies on the ground. Even those that were there before you arrived will often have supplies.
4. Use Molotov cocktails
It can be easy to forget that you have hand-thrown items in Metro Exodus altogether, but the most useful of them by far are the Molotov cocktails. They work like you’d expect, with a small fiery explosion that sets any nearby enemies ablaze, and they can kill all but the toughest enemies in just one hit. Not only can they make pseudo-boss fights significantly easier, but they also allow you to save your ammunition for emergencies.
Against hordes of mutants, the Molotov Cocktails stop them dead in their tracks, so it’s important to craft a few whenever you get the chance. Against larger enemies, they give just enough time to fire off a few headshots before they can react.
