Out of 24 possible weapons in XDefiant, a few stand out above the rest. While this brand-new, free-to-play shooter just dropped, a meta emerging already makes a few weapons stand out above the rest. The game tends to favor fast movement in close quarters, so players will want to keep that in mind when picking a weapon.

XDefiant has high expectations to live up to. The early development of XDefiant was somewhat troubled, and people feared it would not be able to stand out among other FPS games like Call of Duty. However, with the initial release, there is a fairly strong following already, with many people citing that the game feels fun and a little different. One thing to note is that there is no skill-based matching for casual lobbies, so players of any level can face each other, which leads to wildly varied matches.

For this list, we've picked the best weapon out of every category and a final weapon that tends to outshine the rest.

8 Best Assault Rifle

ACR 6.8

In XDefiant, the Assault Rifles tend to be doing the best out of the weapons available for players to use. While mileage may vary, XDefiant’s maps favor short-range combat, which these Assault Rifles excel at. The only potential downside is the fast ammo depletion, forcing you to need to collect more than with other weapons. The meta is quite strong with this weapon, as more and more players tend to favor it.

To unlock this weapon, you will need to get 10 Longshot Kills with assault rifles. This should not be too difficult, and you should find yourself with a new assault rifle quite quickly. Alternately, the AK-47 is a potentially even better assault rifle, but the recoil might be a bit harder to get the hang of.

A Longshot Kill is one that is done more than 30 meters away from the target.

7 Best Sidearm or Handgun

93R

Players who favor mobility and speed will appreciate the 93R the most. The weapon has a lot of speed and fires in a 3-round Burst, so you do not necessarily have to be as accurate as you would with other options. It is unlocked for sprinting with a Secondary Weapon for a total of 240 seconds, making it relatively easy to unlock. You can even add attachments to make it feel similar to an SMG.

Its competition, the Desert Eagle or D50, is the best in its class in of damage output. If you want something a little slower but with more damage, pick this option instead. It has a semi-automatic firing mode but only holds seven rounds and will need to be reloaded more often.

6 Best Light Machine Gun (LMG)

M249

This is the starting LMG in XDefiant, and as with most FPS shooter games, it is not a very popular weapon of choice. However, if you give the M249 a chance, it can be a primary weapon with the potential for much damage in combat. To get it there, however, you may have to spend a fair amount of time grinding.

This is because it is a weapon that you must fully level up and kit out to reach its full potential. It does have a much faster fire rate than the other LMGs and is best at mid-range combat. Acez Gaming on YouTube played it during Beta and said that while the recoil is a bit heavier, it feels very good and has a faster reload time than the other LMGs.

5 Best Shotgun

Double Barrel

This was M3RKMus1C’s secret pick for his best weapon in the game, as the Double Barrel can do a lot of damage very quickly. During the video, the other team figured out his strategy and adapted by staying away from him, but his team still won due to his damage output. It is a strong weapon, particularly in small, short-range maps.

To unlock this weapon, you will have to get 10 Hipfire Kills with Shotguns, but once you do, you will have a deadly short-range weapon that works well for capturing and getting the Point Blank kills. It has less mobility than other weapons, but successful Hipfire shots can damage multiple enemies and it is worth mastering the skill.

A Hipfire shot is when you fire without aiming down your sights. It can make it much less accurate, but it can also let you keep sprinting faster, and once you're used to it, you can take advantage of it.

4 Best Sniper Rifle

TAC-50

This one is a bit tricky, even though there are only two total sniper rifles in the game. The M44 is the starting sniper rifle, and it can be a very successful sniper rifle. Snipers in PVP games have a varied history, and in this game, they can be a bit less successful due to having a lot of close-range combat. However, when it pops, the TAC-50 hits hard and is most often a one-shot kill, as seen in YouTuber GoldGloveTV’s video.

The TAC-50 is a bolt-action rifle with 90 damage. It is unlocked by getting 10 one-shot kills with the M44 and can hold five magazine rounds. This can make it faster than many other snipers without many downsides, except that the maps are often close together, and it is harder to find a high point from which to shoot.

3 Best SMG

MP7

The MP7 is another one of the big meta weapons of choice in XDefiant at launch. It is a hard-hitting weapon and can easily mow down other players in front of you. It is also a perfect objective weapon for Capture, allowing you to run at the other team firing. With all this weapon's movement benefits, it is no wonder players gravitate toward it.

This SMG has a massive rate of fire of about 870 RPM, and although the damage is low, it hits as hard as the 93R. You need to get 20 Point-Blank kills with submachine guns to unlock this weapon, which you can do with the default SMG, the MP5A2, fairly easily. The MP5A2 is nothing to scoff at either and can make a strong alternative if you wish to level up a starting weapon.

2 Best Marksman Rifle

SVD

The SVD might not be the best Marksman Rifle in actuality, but more on that in the next entry. However, it is still a solid weapon, allowing you to wield a much more mobile version of a sniper rifle with a semi-automatic firing mode. You have to get 15 Longshot Kills with a different Marksman Rifle to unlock it, which should be easy with the only other one in the game.

The damage is about half that of the TAC-50, at 45-49, but with the greater mobility and semi-automatic firing, you will not notice much difference, and often, the other players will not have much time to respond. It also holds double the magazine, at 10 rounds, making it an optimal alternative to a sniper rifle in a faster-moving game.

1 Best Overall Weapon

MK 20 SSR

The default Marksman Rifle, the previously mentioned YouTuber, M3RKMus1C, sees this as the current best weapon in the game, although not his final pick. It is also semi-automatic with a similar damage range to the SVD, and M3RKMusiC says there is not much difference between the two. However, there are two main differences that players may notice.

The reload time is nearly an entire M/S shorter on the MK 20. Secondly, the rate of fire on the MK 20 is 200 to the SVD’s 185. This makes the starting weapon faster overall, with very similar damage outputs. While M3RKMus1C thinks the MK 20 may get nerfed, for the time being, it remains one of the most powerful weapons in XDefiant.

Video Credit: Acez Gaming/YouTube; GoldGloveTV/YouTube; M3RKMUS1C/YouTube