It’s your first week of the game. You’ve managed to gather plenty of stuff. You have enough food for the next week. Bandages and medicine are well-stocked. You even got some alcohol and jewelry to trade.

But one morning, you discover all of them gone. The raiders have taken everything valuable in your shelter. You had to let this happen because you don’t have anything to guard yourself with.

Unless you want this kind of thing to happen every night, you need something to scare the bandits away. That’s one of the reasons you should always have a weapon. The second reason is so that you can kill bandits in dangerous scavenging areas to loot valuable supplies.

In this game, there are a total of 8 things you can utilize as weapons. They’re categorized into two: tools and weapons. The difference lies in their main purposes.

Not all tools can be used as weapons. Although some of them can inflict damage, they’re generally used to help you scavenge. Most of them are less effective than genuine weapons. 

Meanwhile, real weapons do one main job, which is to kill. Obviously, they’re more effective than tools in defending yourself. That’s why they’re preferred for guarding and fighting.

In this article, we’ll rank everything that works as a weapon based on how powerful and effective they are.

 

8. Shovel

In an emergency situation during scavenging, you can improvise to utilize this as a weapon. It sounds like a joke, but seriously, you can. 

Mind you, though, that this is the worst thing you can ever use to defend yourself. Don’t even try to fight an armed NPC with a shovel, you’ll lose in no time. It’s better to just run. A shovel’s main purpose is to clear up rubble, so it shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the first place.

What shovel excels in:

• Clearing rubbles
• Attacking weak NPCs

Shovel full details: A small shovel for picking through rubbles.

How To Get Shovel:

Obtaining shovels is so easy. In fact, it’s one of the first things players usually craft in the game. You just need a basic metal workshop, 4 woods, and 7 components. 

 

7. Crowbar

A crowbar does a little bit more damage than a shovel. But it’s still a bad idea to rely on this tool to defend yourself. It’s supposed to unlock doors, not to kill people.

What crowbar excels in:

• Opening locked doors
• Attacking unarmed and weak NPCs

Crowbar full details: Homemade tool you can use to pry open a few doors before it breaks. It does the job slowly and loudly.

How To Get Crowbar:

Just like a shovel, you can craft this with a basic metal workshop. It only requires 10 components to make.

 

6. Knife

Knives are the least powerful weapons in the weapon category. But if you use it the right way, it can be the most effective.

This War of Mine’s combat mechanism allows you to ambush kill by silently stabbing an unaware enemy. Knives are great to use for this.

With this method, you can almost instantly kill them without causing any commotion. It’s less risky than face-to-face combat, especially if you only have weaker characters who are bad at melee combat.

What knife excels in:

• Stealth kill
• Melee combat
• Guarding your shelter

Knife full details: It used to be a kitchen utensil, but now it's a dangerous melee weapon.

How To Get Knife:

To craft a knife, you need a basic metal workshop, 2 woods, 5 components, and 3 weapon parts.

 

5. Hatchet

You wouldn’t expect a tool to be more powerful than a weapon, right? But hatchet is! One strike of a hatchet does more damage than a knife does.

This awesome ability only serves as a bonus, though. Hatchets are mainly used to chop off wooden furniture to get wood and fuel. 

After all, this is still not a real weapon. It’s an excellent defense during scavenging. But as a guarding weapon, this doesn’t work really well.

What hatchet excels in:

• Chopping furniture to loot wood and fuel
• Stealth kill
• Melee combat

Hatchet full details: We can use it to chop furniture... or people.

How To Get Hatchet:

To craft a hatchet, first, you have to upgrade your basic metal workshop to an improved metal workshop. Only after you have an improved metal workshop then you can make it using 5 woods and 5 weapon parts.

 

4. Pistol

Pistols are the simplest firearms this game has. They do the least damage compared to any other firearm. But it’s still a lot better to have this than any melee weapon to guard your shelter. 

Not for combat, though. It’s kind of tough to use especially if your enemies are fully armed.

Oh, If you have any firearm, make sure to always have ammunition. Otherwise, it’s gonna beuseless.

What pistol excels in:

• Guarding your shelter
• Close-range combat
• Attacking unarmed NPCs

Pistol full details: Point at a person you want to hurt.

How To Get Pistol:

The first way to get a pistol is by crafting it with the improved metal workshop. You need 5 weapon parts and a broken pistol. Now this broken pistol is quite tricky to find.

Usually, any broken firearms can be found as a hidden stash behind a grated or locked door. There’s also a small chance you can get it from trading.

The second way is to kill someone who’s armed with a pistol. You can get it after you loot their dead body.

 

3. Shotgun

Shotguns work in a similar way to pistols, only more powerful, especially if it’s used for close-range combat. Just always make sure you have ammo with you.

What shotgun excels in:

• Close-range combat
• Guarding your shelter

Shotgun full details: A powerful weapon for short distances.

How To Get Shotgun:

Just like pistols, you can either obtain this by crafting or looting dead enemies’ bodies who have this when they’re dead. Crafting will cost you 7 weapons parts and 1 broken shotgun. 

 

2. Scoped Assault Rifle

This one-of-a-kind firearm is impossible to craft or trade. You can only obtain this from a specific scenario that you might not get in every gameplay. That’s why it’s so special.

If you open the construction site on the map, you might have a chance to gain this. All you have to do is kill the snipers in the location and loot it from their bodies.

This is a tough mission, though. Those snipers are well-armed. So be really careful.

Is it worth it to go through all of that just for this weapon? It depends.

As guarding weapon, a scoped assault rifle is amazing, as long as you have ammunition of course. But as a combat weapon, I’m not sure. It’s quite tricky to control because it fires in semiautomatic. The fire rate is also slow. But the damage it does is surely excellent.

What scoped assault rifle excels in:

• Guarding you shelter
• Attacking from the distance
• Clearing Military Outpost

Scoped assault rifle full details: Military Assault Rifle fitted with a Scope.

How To Get Scoped Assault Rifle:

Kill the snipers in the Construction Site and loot their bodies.

 

1. Assault Rifle

This might not be as sophisticated as a scoped assault rifle, but it’s the most effective and versatile firearm of all. You don’t even need to ask for its effectiveness in guarding. It’s just perfect!

For combat, it’s suitable for almost every situation. It has a good fire rate and does excellent damage. The only drawback is that it takes a lot of ammo.

Once you pull the trigger, it will deplete 2-3 ammo. But if you’ve got to the point where you’ve obtained an assault rifle, usually, you won’t have to worry about running out of bullets anymore.

What assault rifle excels in:

• Close-range combat
• Attacking from the distance
• Guarding your shelter

Assault rifle full details: Military Assault Rifle. With a good rate of fire.

How To Get Scoped Assault Rifle:

To craft an assault rifle, you need the highest tier of metal workshop; the advanced metal workshop. This means you have to upgrade your metal workshop twice. Then you can craft it with 9 weapons parts and 1 broken assault rifle.

The other way to gain this is by looting it from dead bodies or trading it from the military outpost.

 

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