Reload with the Best Weapons in PUBG

Ever since the very beginnings of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, one question seemed to be in the center of attention of many player discussions; what is the best weapon in PUBG?

The answer to that is simple – there is none! This is because the question itself is wrong, like asking “what should I wear?” The counter question is, obviously, to what occasion? You will dress differently to go to work, step out for a beer with friends or go out on a date. By the same token in PUBG you need to pick the right kind of weapon for the corresponding circumstances.

Rather than asking what are the Best Weapons in PUBG, let me instead answer this question in three parts:

1. Choice of best weapon depends on the circumstances
2. Even then, there are no best weapons, only player’s preferences!
3. We should be talking about best loadouts, not best weapons

Weapon of Choice

It is important to adapt to the terrain and circumstances you find yourself in. As you land at the very beginning of the game, chances are that there will be a race through the houses in panic search for weapons. There will be fistfights, pans will be swung at heads, and often only luck will decide who will survive. In such close quarters, you need to use a weapon that is well suited for this task, which would primarily be shotguns and SMG’s, and pray that you find one of them before your opponents do.

Sidearms: Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

Pistols and revolvers in PUBG started off miserably and are still subpar with other weapons. They are imprecise, they lack stopping power and you will be lucky to hit anything that moves and is farther than ten meters away from you. P1911 and P92 are basic pistols with varying grades of ammo in the magazine and damage they do, but are definitely worst firearms in the game – right after R1895, a 7-shot revolver that takes forever to load and a lot of luck to hit something with it.

Of all the sidearms in the game, I find only two of them worth picking up, and those are P18C aka the Glock and the Sawed-off shotgun. P18C, even though it has less punch than all other handguns, can do miracles in close quarter combat with the extended magazine (25 bullets) when setting on auto-fire. The Sawed-off melts faces up close and personal, and I love using it when clearing houses. That, plus the fact that it frees up one of the two main weapon slots for an additional AR or sniper rifle makes me stick with the sawed-off whenever I find it in Miramar.

Shotguns and SMG’s: Spray and Pray

These are usually transition weapons on your way to the endgame.UZI with its fast firing rate is one of my favorite weapons for spraying random, disrespectful intruders in the face as they climb up the stairs. Tommy gun was once hilarious with its “over the top” 100 bullet magazine, but since its nerf and expulsion from loot crates, it can only fit 30 bullets per mag, so most players pass it by these days. While Vector with extended mag and all assorted attachments was my favorite SMG for a long time, I would say that a UMP9 is the best overall SMG, good for clearing houses and capable to hold its own in close proximity outside battles.

Assault Rifles are “serious weapons” that will get you out of most situations, from indoor fights to open ground engagements of the endgame, provided you have decent optics on them. During the beta and early access of PUBG, most of these weapons have undergone some kind of tweaks and balancing, so that the player’s preferences shifted as well.

The most common assault weapon is the AKM, the famous Russian assault rifle which is arguably the best, most reliable AR in the world. No other weapon has been produced in such numbers and has found its place in many armies of the world, probably since it can be thrown into mud, water or dust, even be run over by a tank (!) and still fire when picked up. Unfortunately, I could never make peace with this weapon in PUBG; for me, the experience of trying to hit someone with AK was the attempt to shoot them with a jackhammer. The irony is that the best AR in the world is probably the last one I would pick up in PUBG.

Using SCAR-L always felt good and I was able to hit distant targets if equipped with x8, but using it without any optics was a nightmare since its iron sight is very ungrateful. M16, while also a good weapon, has always had a sort of a “plastic” feel to it, and I felt good using it only if I had a suppressor mounted.

Personally, I am a great fan of M4 and will drop everything, anytime to get my hands on this beauty. Is it the best PUBG weapon? No. But it is best for me, and the most versatile one in my opinion.

Best PUBG Loadouts

In the end, though, it is not about the best weapon, but the best possible loadout – combination of weapons that enable you to take over offensive and defensive tasks. Yes, AWM is an incredible sniper rifle, but would you rush an enemy into the house with it? SCAR-L has a very light recoil, but it will prove itself insufficient when going against a Kar98 in wide, open space.

Personally, I find the following setup optimal:

1. Sawed-off as sidearm for close combat situations, mostly in urban area
2. M4 with vertical grip extended mag, tactical stock, and a suppressor, plus x4 for a majority of situations, especially mid-range fights.
3. Kar98k suppressed with x8, fully kitted, for long range engagements.

If I have the opportunity and luck to exchange them for crate weapons, I would take Groza and AUG instead of M4 and AWM in place of Kar98k, but in general, this is pretty much my dream setup. Finally, as funny as it may sound, whenever the servers would be unstable, I’d drop the Kar for the Mini14 so I wouldn’t need to worry about the lag as much as I would when using kar98!

Oh, and by all means, always take the pan with you!