The Division 2 best weapons guide: what should you choose?

The Division 2 is all about the tasty loot, and there’s nothing better than finding a shiny new weapon with stats through the roof. Here are some of the best guns we’ve found in The Division 2 so far.

Since the game’s only just out, we’re going to leave naming specific powerful weapons until a Dark Zone meta has taken some shape, and stick to archetypes that seem strong at this early stage.

As you make your way through The Division 2’s story on your way to the max level of 30, you’ll see a ton of different weapons along the way.

Don’t get too attached to one particular gun however, since it’ll soon be outclassed in a few levels time. Focus on working out which family of weapons you like using, then equip the best one you’ve got to hand.

The Division 2 Best Weapons guide

High Stability weapons

In a cover-based, tactical shooter like The Division 2, most of your engagements are going to be at medium to long range. This means it’s going to get pretty tough to whittle down an enemy’s health if your gun’s bouncing around like a dog on a trampoline.

Fast-firing, low recoil guns with a high stability stat – like a submachine guns and some assault rifles – are very powerful since they allow you to sustain a higher DPS because you’re missing fewer shots. This lets you scythe down targets that’re out of cover, as well as get at lot of hits in on enemies you catch off guard.

Sniper and Marksman Rifles with the scope striped off

The sniper rifles in The Division 2 – with the exception of the Sharpshooter signature weapon – feel a little weak.

Because enemies take multiple shots, even if you hit them in the head, the laboriously slow target acquisition, poor rate-of-fire, and high recoil of scoped weapons can make them tough to recommend.

However, if you go into the mod menu of a weapon and strip all of its mod slots, you can take off the scope, leaving you with something a bit like the old Kar98k from Call of Duty World at War.

It can take some getting used to because of the reticle bloom, but unscoped snipers still have the sky-high damage of their zoomed counterparts, only without any of the difficulties with target acquisition.

If you need a second primary to deal high damage to enemies that intermittently pop out of cover, but without compromising your view of the battlefield, test this out. Our favourites are the Classic M1A, Model 700 and Classic M44 Carbine.

Specialized and Superior Light Machineguns

To start with, the LMGs in The Division 2 seem a bit weird. They’re not that accurate, their magazine isn’t that much bigger than an assault rifle’s, and their firing reticle is a strange box.

As you start to figure out how they’re best used though, they start to make a lot more sense. If you stick in cover that box gets a heck of a lot smaller, and is incredible at lining up medium range headshots – which can earn you a ton of extra XP when combined with the Headshot Accolade perk. Over the course of multiple story missions this can net you an absolute ton of XP, so it’s worth trying out.