Jagged Alliance 3 Weapons Tier List: Best Guns in the Game

Choosing the best weapons for your mercs in Jagged Alliance 3 is essential for your success. But with so many options available, it might be a bit difficult to decide what are the best strategic options you should use.

Today, I am here to write an in-depth JA3 weapons tier list, to help you better understand how weapons work and which ones are better options than others.

However, unlike other tier lists for weapons, Jagged Alliance 3 doesn’t make things easy for us. We don’t have a weapon that can be considered best overall, as the skills of the mercs, their perks and preferences influence the performance of a weapon.

This is why it wouldn’t hurt to also check out the JA3 mercs tier list to make sure you only recruit the best mercenaries for your team… and then equip them with some of the best weapons listed below.

Because this is what I will do: I will consider the weapons that could do extremely well for specific mercenary types (snipers, explosives experts etc) and build my list based on that.

This way, you can easily select the best type of weapon for your particular play style and for the attributes a mercenary has. Easiest method I can think of.

With all these in mind, let’s not waste a single second and instead let’s check out below my Jagged Alliance 3 weapons tier list!

JA 3 weapons: Tier List & Best in the Game

I will split the weapons in three tiers, with the top one being the best and the bottom one “meh.” You can still put lower-tier weapons to good use, but aim to get as many as the top tier ones ASAP.

I will list the weapons first, then talk a bit about the best ones and why they made it to the top.

S-Tier Weapons in Jagged Alliance 3

• G36 – Best overall rifle in the game
• HK21 – Best Machine Gun in the game
• Winchester – Best Sniper in the game (with mods)
• Minimi – Great alternative
• M14
• Famas
• M1014 – Best Shotgun in the Game
• Beretta 92F – Best Pistol in the game

A-Tier Weapons in Jagged Alliance 3

• Mortar
• RPG
• Dragunov
• Glock 18
• M82
• AA12
• PSG-1
• AK-74
• AR-15
• FN-FAL
• MP-5
• MG42
• Milkor MGL
• AK-SU

B-Tier Weapons in Jagged Alliance 3

Basically, all the other weapons that you can find in the game (excluding the exclusive ones like The Thing & others) can be considered B Tier. I might miss a few, but these include:

• AK-47
• AUG
• Galil
• M16A2
• Peacemaker
• HI-Power
• Anaconda
• Desert Eagle
• Double Barrel
• Auto-5
• UZI
• RPK-74
• Commando
• M24
• Flare Gun
• 1911
• Gewher

Related Reading: Jagged Alliance 3 affinities guide

Best weapons in JA3 Explained

Now, let’s get a bit in depth and check out why I have selected the weapons above as my top choices.

Remember: I tried to select at least one weapon from each category, but I am listing them below in what I consider a best-to-last type of ranking system.

G36

This is my favorite rifle in JA3 and even though it’s not easy to get it early on, it’s worth the wait.

With amazing Aim bonuses and decent damage overall (but basically no critical change), it has a good range, low AP cost and therefore is very, very useful throughout the missions.

HK21

Probably the best machine gun in the game. It has massive capacity and deals tons of damage, with the only downside being that it eats ammo like crazy.

But is extremely effective and useful, especially when paired with some solid mods and great mercs. Just try, for example, the HK21 with Opportunistic killer, Recoil Booster and Reflex sight and you’re all set!

Winchester

This is my favorite sniper rifle in the game – one that you can get early on too. With some solid mods, it becomes OP really fast and is the only sniper that you will use.

The only thing about it is that I think it’s a unique weapon, so you won’t be able to equip all your mercs with one. Hopefully I am wrong.

Minimi

Machine guns are generally great and the Minimi makes no exception. What makes it an even better choice is the fact that it uses atypical ammo that is not shared with other top choices.

It doesn’t offer a lot in terms of armor penetration, it’s true… but everything else is top notch about this weapon.

M14

Solid damage, great aiming bonus… and the option to shoot grenades. Now this is what I call a beast of a gun!

The M14 is also better at critical hits, and can be modded nicely, although it does use more AP to fire. But if it hits the target, you don’t need many shots!

Famas

Many people love this for its armor penetration, but I have to admit that it’s not my favorite rifle. But I agree that you can get a lot done with it.

It comes with plenty of bonuses for increased aiming and accuracy, it deals decent damage and is less noisy, which always matters. But it is costly to fire and even worse to reload, so it does have some Cons.

M1014

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of shotguns, but this one is the best of them all. It has higher range and high damage, with a decent aim ration. No armor penetration and not really useful later on, but if you want a great shotgun in JA3, this is it!

Beretta 92F

Handguns are again something that you won’t use a lot – especially not after the early stages of the game, but if you have to pick one to stick around, that would be the Beretta.

It’s very decent, it’s silent and has an increasing crit chance. Really, nothing to complain about as far as handguns are involved.

Final words

Weapons progression comes naturally in the game, and it will only be in the mid to late stages that you will really be able to equip the best weapons in Jagged Alliance 3.

Hopefully this list made it easier for you to plan ahead and understand which weapons are generally better than others. Pair them with the right mercs and you will have no trouble completing all the missions!

Speaking of “right mercs,” make sure to read the previous guide on how to recruit Pierre in JA3.

If you prefer a different weapon (or more), don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments sections below!