There's a wide array of Starfield weapons revealed with ballistic, energy and mag categories currently the main gun groupings. What's best remains to be seen but there's a selection of damage types and weapons styles to chose from that range from the basic physical damage of good old bullets, to more exactic laser and particle beam hurt.
I'm going to run through all the different Starfield gun we currently know about and explain the different classes, damage types and more, so you can prepare.
Starfield weapon types and damage
There are two core damage types so far: physical and energy, from a few different weapon classes:
- Physical
- Ballistic and Mag
- Energy
- Laser and Particle Beam
Physical weapons involve a projectile hitting a target. These include what is recognisable as a modern day gun, but also Mag weapons. These use magnetic fields from an array of barrels each capable of firing a single projectile at high speed. These options might look more futuristic, thanks to the banks of targeting lasers from each barrel, but the basic idea of hitting things with bullets is still the same.
Energy weapons use lasers or particle beams to damage targets. Apart from obviously looking way cooler and more sci-fi, the also have the advantage of not displacing the player in zero G. That's because of Newton's third law that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So if a bullet comes out of a gun in one direction it pushes the player back in the opposite direction. In gravity it's not really enough to do anything but, in the frictionless gravity free environments of space, ballistic weapons will push you back gently each time you fire them.
Starfield Weapon Mods
Weapons have damage, accuracy and other stats that can Starfield skills can improve (we know of individual weapon class skills that increase damage for example). While the mods Starfield crafting and research can unlock include upgrades for things like mags, silencers and other add ons.
Modding appears to use a similar classification system as Fallout 4 and 76, with mods adding a 'Modified' prefix to a weapon, followed by terms that indicate what changes have been made. For example, there are 'Calibrated' weapons in Starfield which, in Fallout 4 and 76, indicated increased critical shot damage.
Let's work though all the Starfield weapon mod categories and what we can change:
- Receiver
- Internal
- Optic
- Magazine and battery
- Muzzle
The Receiver mod option covers things like the ability to change between full auto and other fire modes. In games like Fallout 4 and 76 it also used things like 'Hardened' to increase damage.
The Internal mod weapon mod is currently the only one we have no info on.
The Optic mod governs things like sights and scopes, letting you add anything from basic iron sights to a variety of different range appropriate options from close combat to sniper.
Magazine and battery mods lets you change up your ammo capacity. we've seen a range of clip sizes and ammo types right up to Drums. You can also change the ammo type here. That includes options like armor piercing and explosive.
The Muzzle mod let's you add things like compensators to control recoil or use suppressors for a stealthy weapon. In Fallout 4 and 76 it also lets you add things like beam splitters or focusers, and lenses to change energy weapon functions.
Starfield Ballistic weapons
Ballistic weapons in Starfield fire bullets. Whether that's via gunpowder or magnetic fields the process is the same: a projectile is ejected from a barrel at high speed. Using one of these in zero G will push the user back. There's an a range of ammo with 7.77mm ammo looking like one of the most popular and versatile options. But there's also 11mm, caseless, shell and flechette options so far.
Ballistic Pistols
Refined Eon
- Ammo - 7.77mm caseless
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Refined Eon appears to be your starter handgun in Starfield. It's a pistol that fires 7.77mm caseless ammo to inflict 49 physical damage unmodded - a useful baseline for all the other weapons we're about to see.
Razorback
- Ammo - 7.5mm
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Razorback is a high damage revolver firing 7.5mm rounds. The example we've seen so far is a Modified Calibrated Razorback thanks to the addition of two mods - a recon scope and a compensator. In previous Bethesda games the 'Calibrated' term indicated a weapon did additional critical shot damage.
Ballistic Rifles
Advanced Grendel
- Ammo - 7.77mm caseless
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Advanced Grendel is classed as a rifle despite using the same 7.77mm handgun ammo and functioning very much like an SMG. This is one of the weapons we've seen in action a lot, with a massively high fire rate. Interestingly while it fires over twice as fast as the Eon pistol, the accuracy is almost identical.
Tombstone
- Ammo - 11mm
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Grendel appears to be an assault rifle, appearing in the same Rifle designation as the more SMG-like Grendel, but with a much lower fire rate of 90 compared to the smaller gun's 170. The version we've seen is a modified Calibrated version thanks to a Long Barrel, Iron Sights and Large magazine. In previous Bethesda games the Long Barrel mod increased range.
Beowulf
- Ammo - 7.77mm
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Beowulf looks like a classic assault rifle with with one of the higher damages but slightly less range. Interestingly it also uses the same 7.77mm ammo used by the Eon pistol and Grendel SMG so it's possible that ballistic ammo has been simplified in Starfield.
Drum Beat
- Ammo - 11mm
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Drum Beat Rifle is a high capacity, hire fire rate gun that looks like it fills an LMG role. It's got a very low damage output per round but with a 60 capacity mag and a one of the higher unmodded fire rates I've seen, it's clearly built to lay down a lot of fire, fast.
Ballistic Shotguns
Modified Calibrated Pacifier
- Ammo - 15x25 CLL Shell
- Damage - Phy (physical)
I've only seen the Pacifier briefly in a gameplay clip but it appears to play the role of a classic pump action shotgun. Based on the model shown I'm going to guess that the Modified component, Calibrated, refers to a shorter barrel.
Coachman
- Ammo - Caseless shell
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Coachman looks like your standard double barrelled shotgun delivering high damage from a slow firing, low capacity platform. You'll have to make your shots count but this could be useful in close quarters.
Experiment A-7 (Rare)
- Ammo - 15x25 CLL Shell
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The key thing to note here is the Experiment A-7's 30% extra damage against aliens, presumably part of what this a 'Rare' weapon. Otherwise it looks like a pump action shotgun under all the fancy stylings. Another interesting mod is the flechette rounds, which are basically darts instead of bullets or shot. They are a notoriously evil, flesh-shredding, organ liquidising ammo option that, in the real world, has a lot of campaigning to ban.
Starfield energy weapons
Energy weapons in Starfield largely use laser or particle beams to damage enemies at range. One of the main advantages here is zero recoil in space. Ammo seems to be battery based with 1.5KV and 3KV variants seen between pistols and rifles, while Heavy Fuse seems to be an option for Particle rifles.
Cutter
- Ammo - Cutter
- Damage - Engy (energy)
Technically the cutter appears to be you main harvesting tool, firing a constant laser beam to mine resources like iron out of the rocks. However, it has an energy damage rating and presumably can be used offensively, it just might not be that practical.
Energy Weapon Pistols
Ember
- Ammo - 1.5KV LZR
- Damage - Engy (energy)
The version of this laser pistol features an 'ignition beams' mod that, with the name, suggests it sets people on fire. Whether this is it's raw form or it's been modded and renamed is unclear. It also features a standard barrel with laser sight mod and a focal lens mod.
Energy Weapon Rifles
Brawler's Equinox (Rare)
- Ammo - 3KV LZR
- Damage - EM (electromagnetic)
Equinox is another 'Rare' level weapon. It's a laser rifle that does EM, or electromagnetic damage and uses LZR ammo, specifically '3KV' which I assume stands for 3 kilo volt. The Brawler designation likely refers to the double damage gun bash attack.
Eternity's Gate (Rare)
- Ammo - Heavy Fuse
- Damage - Phys (physical) and ENGY (Energy)
Because it's a particle beam rifle I've put Eternity's Gate in the energy weapon section despite the fact this does both energy and physical damage. The dual damage types could be a result of it being a rare weapon. The mention of volatile rounds that 'pack a bigger punch' but that 'can fail on occasion' is also interesting.
Starfield Mag Weapons
Mag Rifles
Magshear
- Ammo - .50 MI
- Damage - Phy (physical)
The Magshear is one of the new magnetic induction weapons which uses magnetic fields to fire tiny physical projectiles from an array of barrels. These are fast firing weapons that use their multiple barrels to unload ammo incredibly rapidly, making up for the low damage per hit with an incredible number of shots. This thing has a fire rate of 300, almost double that of the Grendel SMG.
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