UNDAWN: Best Main Weapon for PVE (DPS Tier List)

When choosing a weapon for PVE in Undawn, the most important parameter is DPS (damage per second). It does matter because when talking about DPS, we usually mean the World Boss (Tuesday and Friday), camp events with bosses (District 13, Giant Aberration, etc.), weekly special ops (e.g., Assault on the Refinery), Astral Tower, and bosses from other game modes.

The only tool to compare the weapon performance in Undawn is the Shooting Range (Esc → Job → Shooting Range). It allows you to test any legendary weapon at the maximum level available, but it works with nuances. Nevertheless, I conducted a series of tests under as fair as possible conditions, and I hope this will help you decide which weapon is the best for PVE.

Main Weapon Tier List (by DPS)

To find out the DPM (damage per minute) of each weapon, I recorded 1 minute of shooting (including reloading) in the Shooting Range. After dividing DPM by 60, we get the test DPS of the weapon. Both numbers do make sense in comparison to each other and show which weapon in Undawn is better to use to deal damage to bosses. Reloading time for empty and non-empty magazines was also obtained by recording a video and watching the reloading phase frame-by-frame.

To provide fair results, all weapons were tested with the Heavy Machine Gun as a heavy weapon, and with the same additional stats and with the “Fullness” buff, which gives a 3% damage increase. I didn’t use skill chips, and I didn’t use sigils either, because some of them work incorrectly in the Shooting Range or don’t work at all.

During the tests, I tried to create “perfect” conditions for the Firearms Talents of the weapons, but this is not always possible since some weapons (like the Scorpion EVO or ALFA) require teammates or additional enemies nearby. Also, pay attention to the fact that the performance of the MPX directly depends on the Critical Damage stat of your character, so in your case, this SMG can perform better or worse.

Parameters Explanation

Base DMG – base damage of the weapon, as shown in its description.
Shots/min – fire rate, maximum number of shots the weapon can perform in a minute, as shown in its description.
Magazine – magazine size of the weapon.
Reload (empty, s) – reloading time in seconds when the magazine is empty.
Reload (not empty, s) – reloading time in seconds when the magazine is not empty (number of bullets left doesn’t matter).
Release (s) – the time it takes for the weapon to empty a full magazine (magazine size / (fire rate / 60)).
Release + reload (s) – the time it takes for the weapon to fully empty its magazine plus its longest reloading time.

Pay attention to the difference between reloading speed for empty and non-empty magazines. For some weapons, this difference is significant. By leaving a few bullets in the magazine before reloading the gun, you can get an additional advantage in terms of DPS. In the test, however, all the weapons were only reloaded with empty magazines.

Icon	Weapon Info	Parameters	TEST DAMAGE
	Origin-12 (Auto Shotgun) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Melee Damage Lv.5: Increases damage dealt by 16 % when hitting targets within 7 meters.	Base DMG: 285×9 Shots/min: 125 Magazine: 20 Reload (empty, s): 3.0 Reload (not empty, s): 2.4 Release (s): 9.6 Release + reload (s): 12.6	DPM: 6,104,494 DPS: 101,742
	M249 (LMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Muscle Memory Lv.5: Increases your damage by 3% for 6s each time you hit a target. Can be activated once every 0.5s, and stacks up to 5 times.	Base DMG: 455 Shots/min: 800 Magazine: 80 Reload (empty, s): 4.0 Reload (not empty, s): 3.7 Release (s): 6.0 Release + reload (s): 10.0	DPM: 5,624,252 DPS: 93,738
	RPK-16 (LMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Enhanced Firepower Lv.5: If magazine capacity falls below 50% when this weapon is equipped, its damage is increased by 20%.	Base DMG: 477 Shots/min: 600 Magazine: 72 Reload (empty, s): 2.6 Reload (not empty, s): 2.3 Release (s): 7.2 Release + reload (s): 9.8	DPM: 5,039,555 DPS: 83,993
	AK-47 (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Vulnerability Lv.5: Hitting an enemy’s weak point causes bleeding with 90% base damage per second and also slows them by 35%. Lasts 3s. Cooldown: 5s.	Base DMG: 554 Shots/min: 600 Magazine: 37 Reload (empty, s): 2.1 Reload (not empty, s): 1.6 Release (s): 3.7 Release + reload (s): 5.8	DPM: 4,782,119 DPS: 79,702
	PP-19 Bizon (SMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Range Advantage Lv.5: Increases damage by 20% for 3.5s when hitting targets within 25 meters. Cooldown: 5s.	Base DMG: 345 Shots/min: 834 Magazine: 66 Reload (empty, s): 2.0 Reload (not empty, s): 1.9 Release (s): 4.7 Release + reload (s): 6.7	DPM: 4,748,688 DPS: 79,145
	MPX (SMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Concentrated Firepower Lv.5: Increases your critical hit rate by 20% for 5s each time you hit a target. Cooldown: 12s.	Base DMG: 362 Shots/min: 790 Magazine: 58 Reload (empty, s): 1.6 Reload (not empty, s): 1.5 Release (s): 4.8 Release + reload (s): 6.4	DPM: 4,746,808 DPS: 79,113
	ALFA (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Cooperation Lv.5: Increases damage by 5.5% when this weapon is equipped.	Base DMG: 499 Shots/min: 653 Magazine: 40 Reload (empty, s): 2.1 Reload (not empty, s): 1.6 Release (s): 3.7 Release + reload (s): 5.8	DPM: 4,712,022 DPS: 78,534
	HK416 (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Increased Combat Readiness Lv.5: Any valid hit on an enemy increases damage dealt by 11% and damage reduction by 11% for 8s. Cooldown: 12s.	Base DMG: 444 Shots/min: 667 Magazine: 39 Reload (empty, s): 1.6 Reload (not empty, s): 1.4 Release (s): 3.5 Release + reload (s): 5.1	DPM: 4,675,426 DPS: 77,924
	Scorpion EVO (SMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Threat Detection Lv.5: When you hit a target, your damage increases by 4% and damage reduction increases by 4% for every enemy within 20m. Stacks up to 4 times and lasts 3s.	Base DMG: 378 Shots/min: 750 Magazine: 60 Reload (empty, s): 1.6 Reload (not empty, s): 1.5 Release (s): 3.5 Release + reload (s): 5.1	DPM: 4,670,791 DPS: 77,847
	SCAR (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Focused Return Lv.5: Using this skill reduces skill cooldown time by 36%. Cooldown: 15s.	Base DMG: 461 Shots/min: 653 Magazine: 46 Reload (empty, s): 1.7 Reload (not empty, s): 1.4 Release (s): 3.3 Release + reload (s): 5.3	DPM: 4,628,209 DPS: 77,137
	G36 (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Quick Positioning Lv.5: Rolling or sliding when holding this weapon increases its damage dealt by 24% for 6s. Cooldown: 15s.	Base DMG: 483 Shots/min: 667 Magazine: 41 Reload (empty, s): 2.0 Reload (not empty, s): 1.8 Release (s): 3.7 Release + reload (s): 5.7	DPM: 4,511,447 DPS: 75,191
	Vector (SMG) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Kinetic Overload Lv.5: When this weapon is equipped, skill strength and skill damage increase by 15%.	Base DMG: 389 Shots/min: 870 Magazine: 48 Reload (empty, s): 2.0 Reload (not empty, s): 1.9 Release (s): 4.2 Release + reload (s): 5.9	DPM: 4,508,156 DPS: 75,136
	SVD (Sniper Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Fatal Hit Lv.5: Hitting a target deals an additional 100% base damage. Cooldown: 3.5s.	Base DMG: 1553 Shots/min: 200 Magazine: 16 Reload (empty, s): 2.3 Reload (not empty, s): 2.1 Release (s): 4.8 Release + reload (s): 7.1	DPM: 4,403,889 DPS: 73,398
	AK-15 (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Armor Piercing Amplification Lv.5: Additional 37% damage caused by armor penetration to armored enemies.	Base DMG: 538 Shots/min: 619 Magazine: 35 Reload (empty, s): 2.1 Reload (not empty, s): 1.6 Release (s): 3.4 Release + reload (s): 5.5	DPM: 4,387,209 DPS: 73,120
	CZ762 (Assault Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Fast Reload Lv.5: Upon dealing a critical hit, heavy weapon damage is increased by 16% and reload speed is boosted by 50% for 15s. Cooldown: 30s.	Base DMG: 516 Shots/min: 632 Magazine: 35 Reload (empty, s): 2.1 Reload (not empty, s): 1.6 Release (s): 3.3 Release + reload (s): 5.4	DPM: 4,200,850 DPS: 70,014
	M3 (Shotgun) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Sustained Fire Lv.5: When at least 5 pieces of shrapnel hit, your armor increases by 30% and you recover 2.5% skill strength + 1.3% max HP per second for 3s. Cooldown: 20s.	Base DMG: 428×9 Shots/min: 67 Magazine: 7 Reload (empty, s): 4.3 Release (s): 6.3 Release + reload (s): 10.6	DPM: 3,361,454 DPS: 56,024
	M24 (Sniper Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Lethal Strike Lv.5: Hitting a weak point causes bleeding for 3s, dealing 10% of base damage every second. Cooldown: 10s.	Base DMG: 3244 Shots/min: 43 Magazine: 6 Reload (empty, s): 3.4 Reload (not empty, s): 2.4 Release (s): 8.4 Release + reload (s): 11.8	DPM: 2,271,558 DPS: 37,859
	TRG (Sniper Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Confirm Kill Lv.5: Within 30s after hitting a target, next bullet deals 16% extra damage. Cooldown: 10s.	Base DMG: 3327 Shots/min: 38 Magazine: 5 Reload (empty, s): 3.8 Reload (not empty, s): 2.8 Release (s): 7.9 Release + reload (s): 11.7	DPM: 1,804,784 DPS: 30,080
	R700 (Sniper Rifle) Legendary LVL 170 Firearm Talent: Precise Aim Lv.5: Next headshot damage increases by 20% every 10s.	Base DMG: 3167 Shots/min: 50 Magazine: 7 Reload (empty, s): 3.0 Reload (not empty, s): 2.0 Release (s): 8.4 Release + reload (s): 11.4	DPM: 1,650,153 DPS: 27,503