When it comes to dispatching bosses – or, indeed, other players – in gaming, you want the most powerful weapon available. Your arsenal needs to be filled with screen-clearing laser rifles and powerful explosives, especially if the game in question is a power fantasy allowing you to live out your wildest demon-slaying dreams.
Gaming is no stranger to overpowered weaponry, and it’s more problematic in some instances than in others; after all, when one player gets their hands on an overpowered weapon in a multiplayer game, it’s going to cause issues for other players. Here are the top 15 most overpowered weapons in video games.
15. RYNO (Ratchet & Clank series)
There’s a good reason that “RYNO” stands for “Rip You a New One”, and if you’ve played the Ratchet & Clank series, you’ll likely know what that reason is.
The RYNO is usually the weapon you unlock near the end of a Ratchet & Clank title, and while the criteria for unlocking the weapon vary from game to game, you can be sure that when Ratchet is wielding the RYNO, no enemy is safe. Often, these weapons even play blasts of classical music as they fire their projectiles, which adds a dose of hilarity to proceedings.
14. BFG (Doom series)
We’ll let your imagination figure out what “BFG” stands for, but this weapon’s profanity-riddled name more than does it justice on the demon-strewn battlefields of the Doom series.
Usually, firing the BFG results in an absurdly comic scene in which enemies simply melt before a rapidly-advancing projectile that obliterates every living thing in a massive radius. The Doom series can be tricky, but when the Doom Slayer is wielding the BFG, nothing in front of him stands a chance of surviving.
13. Blasphemous Blade (Elden Ring)
Elden Ring was created by Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer From Software, so it should come as no surprise that difficulty is a huge part of the game. That doesn’t mean that Elden Ring doesn’t have its fair share of overpowered weapons, though.
One such weapon is the Blasphemous Blade, which you can obtain by swapping Rykard’s soul with Enia at the Roundtable Hold. The Blade requires 22 Strength, 21 Faith, and 15 Dexterity to wield, so it might not fit into your build, but if it does, you’ll devastate your enemies throughout the Lands Between with it.
12. Crissaegrim (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has no shortage of great weapons for dhampir protagonist Alucard to use, but the Crissaegrim is the apex of those weapons. It’s comically overpowered, and it makes even the game’s final boss an absolute breeze.
It’s pretty difficult to obtain this weapon thanks to its low drop rate, but if you do manage to get your hands on it, equip it immediately in order to make the rest of Symphony of the Night completely and utterly trivial. Take that, Dracula!
11. Hidden Blade (Assassin’s Creed series)
Until Assassin’s Creed Origins, the Hidden Blade was almost inarguably the most overpowered weapon in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Why? Well, it can take down pretty much any enemy in a single hit.
Unfortunately, Origins introduced a levelling system, which in turn led to enemies that could no longer be one-shotted with the Hidden Blade. Odyssey took this change into the realms of the absurd, with the Hidden Blade barely even scratching enemies who were just a few levels higher than Kassandra or Alexios.
Farsight XR-20 – Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark’s Farsight XR-20 allows you to shoot through walls, and it’s also capable of killing literally any enemy in a single shot, which should go a long way towards communicating just how overpowered it is.
Thankfully, the XR-20 isn’t available in the game’s multiplayer mode, although you can use cheats to make it available throughout Perfect Dark’s single-player campaign, just in case you wanted to reduce the challenge level to zero. Imagining a multiplayer match with this weapon in play makes us shudder, frankly.
Dawnbreaker – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
At the conclusion of Skyrim’s Daedric Prince Meridia quest chain, you’ll obtain the Dawnbreaker sword, which is a one-handed blade that can be further upgraded using Ebony Ingots. That’s right – not only is this sword massively overpowered, but you can actually upgrade it!
Since Skyrim is a single-player game, the fact that Dawnbreaker is as strong as it is only matters to your enemies, who will crumple into dust before its power. It’s especially effective against the undead (which the land of Skyrim is littered with), but it’ll burn any enemy for extra damage too.
Ray Gun – Call of Duty Zombies
If you’re a fan of Call of Duty’s Zombies mode, then you’ll almost certainly be familiar with this iconic weapon, which is a hugely powerful asset you can use to quickly and easily thin zombie hordes.
The Ray Gun isn’t just a hugely powerful weapon on its own; it also deals splash damage, which means you can take out massive crowds relatively quickly with it. Just be sure to tell your friends to get out of the way first, because the Ray Gun deals splash damage irrespective of who’s standing nearby, which means friendly fire is a very real possibility.
DL-44 – Star Wars Battlefront
Star Wars fans will likely recognise the DL-44 as the iconic blaster used by space rogue Han Solo, although this blaster is a factory model that’s also been wielded by the likes of merc droid AD-W4 and even Luke Skywalker himself.
Given the legendary status of the blaster, it should come as no surprise that the DL-44 is pretty overpowered in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. It’s not quite the most powerful blaster – that honour goes to the T-21 – but it’s a massively deadly weapon that should give you pause for thought if you encounter a player wielding one during a match.
AWP – Counter Strike
The Counter-Strike series is known for players who like to snipe others from a distance rather than get up close and personal, and when they’re doing that, the AWP is very often their weapon of choice.
The sniper rifle is massively powerful, allowing players to deal huge amounts of damage in short spaces of time, although it does take a while to reload and it’s got a slow rate of fire as well. Still, if you’re looking to dispatch a player in a single shot and you’re an accurate sniper, those things aren’t going to matter very much.
DK Hammer – Super Smash Bros
When a Super Smash Bros. player gets ahold of the DK Hammer, every other player in the vicinity needs to run for cover. The hammer is hugely powerful, dealing massive amounts of damage to any player it hits.
Perhaps the only saving grace when you encounter a player with this item is that it can sometimes backfire; the head of the hammer occasionally falls off, leaving the player who picked it up powerless and fully at the mercy of their opponents. When that happens, it’s time to take your sweet, sweet revenge.
Experimental MIRV – Fallout 3
The world of the Fallout games has been decimated by nuclear apocalypse, and so it stands to reason that one of the franchise’s most iconic and overpowered weapons should also involve nukes.
You can find the Experimental MIRV in the National Guard Depot in Fallout 3, and if you want to excel in combat, you’re going to want to pick this weapon up as soon as possible, especially if you’re a Big Guns specialist. It deals absurd damage, but be careful, because the fallout (ahem) from its massive radius can easily kill you as well if you’re not careful.
Energy Sword – Halo
Also known as the Type-1 Energy Weapon, the Halo series’ Energy Sword is closely associated with the franchise as a whole thanks to its distinctive design. It’s also a massively powerful melee weapon that can easily dispatch enemies in just a couple of hits.
Fun fact: within the lore of the Halo universe, the Energy Sword is viewed as a holy blade by the Sangheili, also known as Covenant Elites. If you’re not up on Halo lore, now’s the time to start reading!
Blue Shell – Mario Kart
Woe betide any player who falls foul of the Blue Shell. This weapon can quickly and easily level the playing field, but it’s more often than not used as a tool of spite to dislodge the player in first place from their comfortable throne.
If you’re in first place, you’ll be alerted to the presence of a Blue Shell by a terrifying noise, followed by a bubble visually warning you that it’s getting closer. Before you know it, you’ll be obliterated by an explosion that will also take out any other players nearby. Ouch.
Golden Gun – Goldeneye 64
GoldenEye’s Golden Gun comes from the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. In that movie, it’s used by the iconic Bond villain Scaramanga, but you can use it yourself in the N64 game.
The Golden Gun doesn’t appear in GoldenEye’s single-player campaign, which makes sense; after all, Scaramanga is nowhere to be seen. It does, however, make an appearance in multiplayer, and you can kill any enemy in a single shot with it, so beware any player who’s managed to get their hands on this gun.
- Edited by Joeseph
