If you are impatient like me, you will find yourself surrounded by Sentinel forces within a few minutes of landing. Pull out your weapons and start blasting!
We have all been there. You are peacefully mining some materials, just trying to make some extra units or recharge equipment, and suddenly, you are being blasted apart by sentinels. Especially after the recent Sentinel update, combat and weapons have become much more important. So exactly what are the best weapons you can get in No Man’s Sky?
There are several weapons you can unlock, along with a few other attachments for your multitool. It comes down to if you are using your weapon to kill sentinels, protecting yourself against aggressive fauna, or simply using it to mine! Overall, however, there are some clear best weapons for a balanced playthrough.
11. Solar Ray
The Solar Ray is great for mining. Doesn't help at all with sentinels, so don't expect much help from it!
The Solar Ray is one of the newest additions to the No Man’s Sky arsenal. Released during the Outlaws update, this “weapon” has a unique function. It performs similarly to the mining beam, except it doesn’t do damage. That is why it is put as #11 on our list. It made the list because this weapon does help create Liquid Sun, which can be used for crafting a few parts that are used during various quests.
The liquid sun can also be sold at 16 units per one, making it a fairly valuable material to mine.
While it can help the aspiring trader, it is not helpful for combat, thus making it the least valuable weapon around. It is highly advised that you attempt to shoot sentinels with it, as they don’t take damage, and you will likely die.
Perks of Solar Ray
- Helps produce Liquid Sun, a trading and crafting commodity.
- Fairly cheap to produce as a weapon, requiring only 50 Magnetised Ferrite and 50 Cobalt.
- Can be paired with another primary weapon as this is a secondary weapon.
How do you get the Solar Ray?
It is a reward from the Starbirth quest, which coincidentally is where this weapon is the most useful.
10. Animus Beam
Need to cull some wildlife? The Animus Beam is for you!
This Animus Beam was an addition from the Living Ship update. As the in-game description says, it is an overload to the multitool’s mining laser. It empowers it and adds a unique bonus to hunting planetary fauna, and gives us access to a new material, fragmented qualia. It has a lot of bonuses that help it hold its place on the list:
- It deals ~100% more damage than the regular mining beam.
- It deals 4 times the damage to weak spots on normal creatures on planets.
- Instead of getting fauna drops, like foodstuff and mordite, it gives you fragmented qualia. This helps if you are someone who just wants to condense the number of items in your inventory but needs to exterminate some beasts.
- It is inexpensive to add onto your multitool, only costing 100 condensed carbon and 50 sodium nitrate. This means it is worth adding to your multitool for when you have become the prey and those pesky predators are looking to make you into a snack.
Overall, these things make it a helpful weapon, but the big flaw is that you cannot add upgrades to it. This means not only are you unable to use the mining beam upgrades, but you also cannot mine mineral deposits and higher-tiered materials that need the advanced laser.
It can be used to fight sentinels, but it doesn’t reach the top-tiered weapons in the galaxies of No Man’s Sky. This weapon can be found through the Starbirth quest line, and it also plays a role in getting your living ship.
9. Mining Beam
Why stop mining when you can just mine sentinel corpses?
The old reliable mining beam. It is a solid backup weapon throughout the game, but it is not worth putting all your effort into using it as a primary weapon, it is better to focus on making it your best friend for collecting minerals and resources. It can deal some decent damage when it gets fired up, but the downside is that it can overheat.
If you do choose to use this as a weapon, make sure to keep an eye on that temperature gauge in the upper right corner, if it overheats, your multitool is out of use for a few seconds, which means you had better be able to run very fast. The sentinels haven’t been known for being forgiving.
The best features of the mining weapon:
- It is essentially free and requires little effort to charge it up. You have to repair it in the early game, but it doesn’t require anything crazy to fix it up. It is only 30 ferrite dust to fix it, and few things in NMS are that cheap or easy to find.
- Lots of upgrades mean you can change it to match your needs.
- Easy to charge, uses carbon-based materials to charge, meaning you should never be short on ammunition or energy!
- As you use it, it deals more damage. The higher the temperature reading (the bar at the top right of your screen) the more damage it deals to minerals, fauna, flora, and sentinels.
How To Get Weapon Name:
It is built in! You may have to repair it, but as mentioned above, it only costs 30 ferrite dust, which you can harvest quickly from using your melee ability on the first planet you land on. Upgrades can be purchased pretty much anywhere they are sold.
8. Paralysis Mortar
Have your enemies paralyzed with fear! Install your Paralysis Mortar today!
The paralysis mortar does precisely what you would anticipate it doing. It paralyzes both living and robotic enemies, meaning it can be useful whether you are fleeing sentinels or dangerous creatures that want to eat you. This weapon is extraordinarily useful as a secondary weapon, which is why it is number 8 on our list.
The downside of this is that you need another weapon to deal heavy damage to those pesky sentinels or creatures as well unless you are going to flee from them and escape to the stars simply. It adds a whole other layer to combat in NMS however, as it lets you fight by using strategy and technique as opposed to just blasting everything to pieces. Or at least adds another way of blasting things to pieces.
There is one major tip to using this, and that is to have a very strong primary weapon equipped as well. The paralysis mortar can hold up to 20 charges, which allows you to paralyze your robotic and biological enemies, allowing you the time to kill them off. This comes in much handier with recent updates to sentinels who are getting bigger and more aggressive.
Things to note about the paralysis mortar:
- Great utility. It allows you to shoot the sentinel walkers and sentinel battle mechs from closer range and doesn’t let them melt you to the surface of the planet every time you have to fight them.
- 20 charges mean even if your primary weapon isn’t great, you should have ample time to kill the enemies you have chosen to engage with.
- It is charged with unstable plasma, which is fairly common to either purchase or builds on your journey through space.
- It is a really helpful weapon when it comes to engaging. Use it at the start of combat to make the most of it.
- It costs 2 hermetic seals, 2 di-hydrogen jelly, and 1 wiring loom to install on your multitool.
Where to find the paralysis mortar?
You also find this on the space anomaly, where most upgrades and blueprints for weapons are found. Here it requires nanites. You can also unlock it in the Hardframe questline, where the player gets their exosuit, which eventually gifts them a paralysis mortar blueprint.
7. Terrain Manipulator
Who needs to fight when you can flee?
Some of you may be surprised to see a non-damaging weapon so high on the list, but I cannot even begin to tell you how many times this has saved me when I have royally pissed off every sentinel walker. Sometimes, the better choice is flight, versus fight.
Now how does this weapon allow you to escape and win the battles with sentinels? You just need to dig down. You will switch the terrain manipulator to mine, and dig down at an angle. Usually, after digging for a few seconds, the sentinels stop following you or give up the chase.
Best Qualities and Stats of the Terrain Manipulator:
- It is the cheapest weapon to charge, as you can use silicate powder, which you conveniently get from digging in the non-mineralized ground.
- You get it early game, and it is cheap to install.
- You can use this weapon and if you haven’t engaged sentinels, they won’t attack you for mining with it (unless you are on a hostile planet).
How to Get the Terrain Manipulator
This is another reason this is an effective weapon to help you avoid conflict. That being that you can get this blueprint right away during the game. As you leave your first planet, you will get a mysterious broadcast that will lead you to the blueprint for both a base computer and the terrain manipulator.
6. Pulse Spitter
Anyone who uses a light SMG in FPS games will love this.
The pulse spitter is a weapon that never quite dealt the damage it needed to. It always seemed to do much less damage than anticipated. But it is an okay weapon with lots of potential to deal damage.
It is a good burst weapon, allowing its user to deal high amounts of damage from mid to close range. This is why it is six on my list today. It also is very effective at shooting targets that move faster, as it can launch bullets in quick succession at a close range.
It helps shoot fauna, as they generally have lower health, and you can hit them in a short period and deal a decent amount of damage. This weapon comes with lots of upgrades, allowing you to change its damage abilities accordingly.
A few more perks of this weapon:
- It can hold 80 rounds at a time, making it convenient and you won’t need to reload all the time.
- It uses projectile ammunition, which is crafted with 50 ferrite dust.
- Easy to find a blueprint, purchasable on the space anomaly and you can also find it in shipwrecks.
- You can build it for 200 deuterium and one wiring loom. It is fairly easy to build and charge, which makes it much easier to use for a blanched playthrough.
5. Blaze Javelin
Headshots are just as satisfying in No Man's Sky as in any game.
The blaze javelin comes into the game as a way to make those of us who love playing the long distance game. It is effectively a sniper, which can be charged up to shoot at higher damages. This is why it has reached this high on our countdown. The challenge of this would be that it is not super effective at short distances.
It is very effective against enemies at longer distances, and it can deal huge amounts of damage at a full charge. Anytime you find yourself at a higher altitude than your enemies, or at a place where the sentinels cannot fly to or climb to is the best way to use it.
Blaze Javelin Info and Stats:
- High damage means that you won’t need to worry about sentinels lasting long, as long as you can fully charge the rounds, you will blow them to smithereens!
- Base damage at full charge is 1200, which is before upgrades. This is very high base damage and can be improved by using upgrades from space stations.
- Can be charged using carbon (50) or condensed carbon (18 or 19) to full charge. So the ammunition is easy to encounter and recharge.
- Easy to encounter, you can buy it and the upgrades on the space anomaly.
- Once you have purchased the blueprint for the space anomaly, you can install it with 200 chromatic materials, 150 condensed carbon, and 1 wiring loom. This isn’t super cheap, but it is worth it!
4. Neutron Canon
Who doesn't like using giant cannon to blow things up?
The neutron cannon comes in at four on our list today for several reasons. It has little to do with its ability to deliver some intense damage, as it can pack a punch in an area shot. This weapon doesn’t show up later on the countdown for one simple reason: it takes some amount of skill to pull this weapon off.
Charing this weapon up and hitting your target isn’t always the easiest, and for those who are not looking to be the next Vykeen legend, you might not be used to shooting with it. It has two fire modes, one where you charge it up and launch a concentrated area blast. The other is a rapid-fire, which can do some serious damage, but it takes more time.
There are a few perks to this weapon, however:
- Helpful when you get attacked by higher-ranking sentinels (walkers and the ever-feared battle mech) because you can hit with a powerful punch, so long as your shots hit.
- Can have upgrades that make it more functional, allowing you to do some decent damage, even with the rapid-fire mode.
- It only requires carbon or condensed carbon to charge, making it inexpensive to use.
- Who doesn’t like launching plasma balls at intergalactic robotic overlords?
If you are going to use this weapon, I highly suggest practicing with it on fauna first. Don’t go diving headfirst into a sentinel war (unless you have other guns to use) or expect some amount of blowback and death. It is highly suggested to fire down upon the larger sentinel forces and let them group up to take advantage of the area damage.
This weapon blueprint can be picked up from the space anomaly, from the multitool upgrade computer, for 250 nanites, a very simple way to acquire a new blueprint!
3. Plasma Launcher
Caution: Improper use of a plasma launcher can result in user death.
An old reliable, one of the very earliest weapons we travelers found in our quest to defeat the sentinel threat. Step up to the sentinels, charge with unstable plasma, and KABOOM!
The plasma launcher is essentially a space-age grenade launcher, sending forth plasma balls that explode on contact or after several bounces. As you can see in the image, however, it is also very capable of damaging the user. Operator error is something you learn quickly with this. I have buried many generations because I stepped just a little too close to my target, resulting in death.
It packs a punch, and is fairly easy to use and charge. Simply aim toward your enemies and launch a volley of explosive plasma. It also can speed up mining minerals, although it is a bit violent, and will attract a lot of attention from our beloved overlords the sentinels. The best advice is that you should primarily use it when you have already engaged sentinels. It is very helpful when you arrive at the third level of alerts when you start getting the sentinel quads.
To cover the major perks:
- Easy to use, fairly operator friendly. As mentioned before, simply point and watch your enemies explode!
- Unstable plasma is fairly easy to craft or purchase, only requiring oxygen and metal plating (ferrite dust).
- High damage, and helps take down the larger sentinels with relative ease, allowing you to blow up giant robots in space.
- Also can be used for rapid mining, excavation, and general mayhem (always a plus).
How To Get the Plasma Launcher:
- The plasma launcher is something that you encounter in weapons dealer's inventories in space stations. . You can also encounter multitools spread throughout space that can also have these built in, but that is up to the RNG gods that we all know and love.
2. Bolt Caster
Lots of damage potential, easy to find, perfect weapon for you!
The bolt caster. It has been in the game since the first release, and it is the earliest weapon you can get in the game, and is one that you will be able to use throughout the entire game. It is the easiest to get ammunition for, and one of the easiest ways to shoot your way through sentinels.
It functions best at mid to long ranges. It is effective at hitting more precise points on sentinels where they are more easily damaged. It also is quite easy to use and functions essentially like an assault rifle in any other FPS game.
One major trick to being accurate: don’t hold down the trigger to shoot. The spread leads to missed shots, whereas if you treat it like a semi-automatic weapon, you can deal the most amount of damage and use fewer bullets per kill. It makes for an effective headshot machine, so long as you can hit it.
Top Selling Points and Stats
- Starts with a 60-round magazine that can be increased by the upgrades.
- Upgrades are extremely common and fairly inexpensive. Buy them at all multitool weapon stands in space stations!
- Fairly quick reload time, and easy-to-craft ammunition means you do not need to spend a ton of time finding ammunition.
- Easy to install, low material cost! It only requires 100 chromatic material and three carbon nanotubes.
- Your weapon starts with it installed and will be damaged. Easily fixed however by 50 chromatic material and 2 nanotubes. This will be the first weapon that you will start with and it will help you survive your first few hours on whatever planet you were spawned on.
1. Scatter Blaster
Space rednecks unite! Get your buckshot out and blow up sentinels.
Finally, the top weapon for any play-through. The scatter blaster. It is easily the best weapon in the game and has the best ability to make sentinels very dead. Especially for a balanced game playthrough. You can run up on sentinels and deal massive amounts of damage to them up close and personal.
The upgrades that are possible make the weapon even more effective and allow you to kill them very fast. It also makes you feel sort of like a redneck running through space with a 12 gauge. Finished builds on scatter blasters can allow users to kill first responder sentinels and the armored ones in one or two shots at most. Usually around 6 or 7 for the sentinel quads, and depends on how close you can get to the walkers and the battle mech.
If you could find a downside to it, it would be that you need to be fairly close to your enemies. In my experience though, especially since sentinels chase you down and approach you up and close ( especially since they added the shield bearers, who you can blast in one shot) it is the weapon that makes the most sense.
- High damage and critical damage to sentinel's weak spots, leave lots of dead robots in your wake.
- It helps protect you against the fauna on planets, predators, and prey. Speeds you up on killing those pesky critters that want to hunt you down.
- It can hold 24 projectiles at a time (base level), with each shot taking 8 of them up.
- Damage potential is 1070, with each bullet doing up to 150 DPS (base level)
- Basic bullets are used as ammunition, which means that you don’t have to worry about running out mid-battle.
How To Get Scatter Blaster:
You can purchase it on the space anomaly, like most blueprints now. Upgrades are easily acquired through the weapons terminals in space stations as well as through contraband. All the contraband packages can increase damage output by so much. You can install it in your multi-tool with 200 pungeum and 1 wiring loom.
Pick up your space shotgun and start making those Vykeen jealous and proud!
All these weapons make it much more likely to survive the vastness of space. Sentinels make space much more difficult to survive in and make mining for materials a real pain. With an effective weapon, you can make it that much easier to survive. So go on, grab a weapon, and take up arms against the great sentinel force and remember, everyone loves a rebel.
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