What are the best weapons?

If you had a favorite gun in Fortnite, the island-flipping launch of Chapter 3 Season 1 means you’re likely on the hunt for a new one. Happily, we’ve spent some time with both new and unvaulted weapons so that we can provide an overview of what’s worth keeping and what’s simply taking up inventory space. With full acknowledgement that this Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 1 weapons tier list can and will change over time, here’s how we’re ranking the guns available to start this latest chapter.

Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 1 Tier List

MK-Seven Assault Rifle

Hands down our favorite new weapon, the MK-Seven sports a Reflex sight — a first for a Fortnite assault rifle — which shows a red dot where you’re aiming instead of simply zooming in. This takes a bit to get used to, but once you grow accustomed to it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. You can also find it in a Mythic version with a faster rate of fire if you head to Sanctuary and take out The Foundation.

Stinger SMG

A weapon you might recognize from other games, the Stinger is the way to go if you like to fire fast and need something to get through structures. Its one drawback is a lengthy reload time. It’s still faster in that regard than the MK-Seven, and is ideal for players who prefer to do their fighting at medium ranges.

Hunter Bolt-Action Sniper

It wouldn’t feel right if there wasn’t a Sniper Rifle of some sort in the mix this season, and the Hunter is a pretty good one. If you loved the Dragon’s Breath Sniper Rifle last season, this doesn’t pack quite as much punch per shot — 86 to 99 depending on rarity — but it does hold three shots in the clip.

Auto Shotgun

There are multiple shotguns this season, but the Auto Shotgun is our pick among them thanks to its fast fire rate (which you’d expect, given its name). Let’s face it: when things get up close and personal, sometimes being able to shoot quickly can help even a skill gap just a bit. So for a firefight at short range, we like this shotgun the most. It’s similar to the Tactical Shotgun, but we feel it’s even better.

Striker Pump Shotgun

Now we’re getting into “OK in a pinch, but not preferred” territory. The Striker does 10+ more points of damage than the Auto Shotgun of equivalent rarity and also reloads faster, but its smaller magazine size and much slower fire rate mean its DPS is lower across the board. Again, not horrendous, but not our favorite.

Ranger Assault Rifle

It’s not a bad thing to have two different ARs to choose from, but the Ranger just doesn’t offer enough benefits over the awesome MK-Seven to make us, well, just stop wishing we had an MK-Seven! With one shot, sure, it hits harder. But it fires slower and holds less ammo, which is our least favorite combination of attributes.

Sidearm Pistol

Though not super creative, the Sidearm Pistol isn’t all that bad; it just isn’t exciting. The in-game description says it all: moderate damage, good rate of fire, and a large magazine. But since we’d like to be using the Auto Shotgun at close range and the MK-Seven a little further out, that makes this pistol a jack of several trades but master of none.