RimWorld Ranged Weapon Tier List
All 45 ranged weapons, scored from the game's own files and sorted S–F — guns, grenades and launchers, and the mech weapons you'll be shot with — plus the short list of what to actually equip.
Every ranged weapon in RimWorld, scored by one transparent formula and dropped into tiers — guns first, then grenades and launchers, then the mechanoid weapons you'll be shot with. Official content only: base game plus all DLC (Royalty, Biotech, Anomaly, Odyssey), no mods. Tap any weapon for the numbers behind its rank and the catch.
There are two ways to read this. All weapons ranks the whole arsenal by the numbers, so you can see exactly where any gun lands and why. Best picks is the editor's cut — the few worth actually equipping at each stage of a run. Use the first to settle an argument; the second to decide what to hand your shooters.
Patch 1.6 + all DLC Ranged only No mods
How the ranking works
Guns are scored on effective DPS: burst damage divided by the full firing cycle (warm-up, shots, cooldown), multiplied by the weapon's accuracy at the range it actually fights — a sniper is judged at long range, a shotgun up close, so no flat "DPS" number flatters a gun that can't hit. That's then weighted for armour penetration and reach. Single-use launchers are docked for being one-and-done.
Grenades, launchers and flame weapons sit in their own grid because area and utility don't compare to sustained fire — they're ranked by blast damage, radius and battlefield role, with the pure-utility ones (EMP, smoke, tox) placed by what they do rather than damage they don't deal. Mechanoid and drone weapons get a third grid: scored the same way, but flagged because your colonists can't equip them.
Numbers are pulled straight from the 1.6 / DLC game files (weapon and projectile defs, damage defs). The formula is deliberately simple and a little opinionated about range and armour — a strong starting read, not gospel. The guns grid also folds in shooter skill: hit chance compounds with distance, so the worse the aim the harder a long-range gun is punished — pick the wielder (poor, average, sharpshooter) above the grid and watch it re-tier. Tap a chip for the exact stats behind its rank.
Guns — ranked for your shooter
The direct-fire weapons your colonists carry, ranked by effective output — raw damage folded together with how often it actually lands. Hit chance falls off with distance the worse your aim, so the same gun re-tiers with the wielder: a poor shot wants forgiving, short-range and high-volume guns; a sharpshooter makes long-range and precision pay. Pick the shooter — the default is an average colonist (Shooting 8).
chain shotgun S
What's good
- Forgiving: short reach holds ~28% hits even with weak aim
- Heavy volume of fire (~18.7 raw DPS)
What's not
- Short range (12.9) — you eat fire closing in
- Bounces off armour (14% AP)
// poor shot — tap any gun for its hit chance and the catch
chain shotgun S
What's good
- Forgiving: short reach holds ~37% hits even with weak aim
- Heavy volume of fire (~18.7 raw DPS)
What's not
- Short range (12.9) — you eat fire closing in
- Bounces off armour (14% AP)
// average — tap any gun for its hit chance and the catch
chain shotgun S
What's good
- Forgiving: short reach holds ~50% hits even with weak aim
- Heavy volume of fire (~18.7 raw DPS)
What's not
- Short range (12.9) — you eat fire closing in
- Bounces off armour (14% AP)
// sharpshooter — tap any gun for its hit chance and the catch
Grenades, launchers & flame
Area and utility weapons, ranked among themselves — blast and reach for the destructive ones, role for the rest. Shooter skill barely moves these: splash forgives a near-miss, so they aren't split by aim. They win fights guns can't: clumped raiders, mechanoids, a doorway you need blinded or burned.
frag grenades A
What's good
- Area blast (50 dmg, 1.9 radius) — clears clumped raiders
What's not
- Friendly-fire risk — careful where it lands
// tap any weapon for the numbers behind its rank, and the catch
Mechanoid & drone weapons
Scored on the same formula for reference, but kept separate: these are built into mechs and turrets, and your colonists can't pick them up and use them. Handy for knowing what's pointed at you.
heavy charge blaster S
What's good
- Heavy volume of fire (~34.1 raw DPS)
What's not
- Mechanoid weapon — colonists can't equip it
- Sprays — only 25% accurate at range
- Spacer-tech — late-game or trader-only
// tap any weapon for the numbers behind its rank, and the catch
The short list — what to hand your shooters, and to whom. Which gun is "best" now depends on who's holding it, so match the weapon to the pawn's aim. The full, shooter-by-shooter ranking is in the other tab.
Chain & pump shotgun any shooter · close-quarters
The forgiving pick, and the one gun that's S-tier in anyone's hands. Short range means hit chance barely decays, so even a fresh skill-3 colonist lands most shots — inside 13 tiles nothing in the base game out-damages a chain shotgun, and the pump's stopping power staggers chargers. Hand these to your worst shots and hold the choke points; just don't expect them to reach across the map.
Assault rifle all-round · the workhorse
The gun most colonists should hold. Three-round bursts, 30-tile reach, no bad band — it doesn't top any column, which is exactly why it wins: arm a whole squad and never feel under-gunned. It rewards aim like any rifle, so it climbs as the pawn's Shooting does, but it's never a wasted pick.
LMG & minigun volume · the kill-zone
A wall of bullets for melee rushes and unarmoured swarms. The catch the "spray and pray" myth misses: per-shot accuracy still compounds with range, so volume rewards a decent shooter — a poor shot at 30 tiles wastes most of the burst. Best on a competent gunner with an open field of fire.
Bolt-action rifle early · the starter
Cheap, craftable the moment you have a machining table, and it hits hard per shot. The long reach is wasted on a weak shooter, but as a stop-gap before better guns — or in the hands of a budding marksman — it carries the early game. Pair it with your highest-Shooting pawn for the most out of it.
Charge rifle & sniper rifle sharpshooter · armour & range
The reward for a real gunner. The charge rifle is the end-game default once you can craft or loot it — high damage, real armour penetration, no weakness. The sniper trades DPS for reach and first-strike: dropping a target at 45 tiles before the fight starts. Both are wasted on a poor shot — the sniper barely lands at range — and shine in skilled hands; flip the selector to Sharpshooter to watch them climb.
EMP, frag & the doomsday support · the answers
Keep an EMP source for mechanoids — stunning a centipede is worth more than shooting it. Frag grenades clear clustered raiders a rifle line would take too long on. And a doomsday rocket is a single panic button: one shot, gone, but it deletes a breach or a cluster when nothing else will. Shooter skill barely matters for these — splash forgives. Situational by design.
FAQ
How are the tiers decided?
By one formula, from the game's own numbers. Guns: burst damage ÷ firing cycle × accuracy at their fighting range, weighted for armour penetration and reach. The guns grid then folds in the shooter — hit chance compounds with distance, so it re-ranks for a poor, average or skilled colonist (default: average). Grenades and launchers are ranked by blast and role; mechanoid weapons are scored the same but flagged. Tap any chip for the exact stats behind its rank.
Why does the sniper rifle rank low?
Because the grid ranks effective damage — raw DPS times how often a shot lands — and at 45 tiles an average colonist lands very few. Flip the selector to Sharpshooter and it climbs sharply. Even then its real value is reach and first-strike, not DPS: opening a fight by dropping a target before it's in range. A great gun, just the wrong thing to measure it by.
Why does a gun change tier when I switch the shooter?
Because hit chance in RimWorld is per-tile and compounds with distance: a small change in a pawn's accuracy swings the result wildly over 30-plus tiles. A short-range shotgun barely moves between a poor and a skilled shooter; a long-range rifle or minigun swings hard. So the best gun for a fresh colonist isn't the best gun for a marksman, and the selector shows each — pick the wielder and the grid re-tiers.
What's the single best all-round gun?
The assault rifle, for most colonies. It has no bad range, three-round bursts, solid accuracy and damage, and it's craftable. Specialists beat it in their lane — shotguns up close, snipers at distance, charge weapons on armour — but nothing matches it as the gun you can give everyone.
Which weapons need a DLC?
Anything tagged Royalty, Biotech, Anomaly or Odyssey on its chip — the hellcat rifle and incinerator (Anomaly), flamebow and tox weapons (Biotech), beam repeater and scattergun (Odyssey). Everything tagged "base" works with no DLC. Mechanoid weapons are mostly base-game and Biotech, but you can't equip them either way.
Are grenades and launchers really that low?
On sustained damage, yes — but they're not damage weapons. Frag clears crowds, EMP shuts down mechs, smoke covers a retreat, the doomsday deletes a breach once. They're ranked in their own grid and placed by role, and several are near-essential for the specific fight they answer. Don't read their tier as "useless."
Why list mechanoid weapons if I can't use them?
So you know what's shooting at you. A heavy charge blaster or inferno cannon hits very differently from a slugthrower, and knowing which centipede is the priority target shapes how you fight a mech cluster. They're scored for reference and clearly flagged as not equippable.
