The best weapons in Apex this season are the ones you can feed and control under pressure: the R-301 and R-99 on Light, the Flatline on Heavy, the Volt and Nemesis on Energy, and whatever the care package is handing out this rotation. That’s the short answer to “apex best weapons.” The longer answer: the right gun in ranked isn’t the one with the highest damage number. It’s the one whose ammo you can actually find, that you can control when your hands are shaking in the final ring, and that pairs with your legend and your teammates. This season is Overclocked (verify the live patch before you quote it), and the loadout that climbs is built around ammo economy and the care-package rotation as much as raw stats.
Below is the full S-to-D tier list, then the two things trackers skip: how each ammo type actually flows in a match, and the loadout pairings our boosters reach for when the job is “get this account to Diamond fast.” If you want the legend side of that equation, our Apex legend tier list covers which characters bank RP – this post is purely about what you’re holding.
Apex weapons tier list this season
S-tier is reserved for guns that win fights at the range you actually fight them in ranked, with ammo you can find and recoil you can control solo. Everything below is a hedged read of the current patch against community usage on community weapon trackers and the latest balance notes – Respawn reshuffles the care package and hop-up pool every season, so re-check the live patch before you tattoo any of this on. Care-package weapons are marked (CP); they out-perform their tier but you can’t reliably find one.
| Tier | Weapons | Why they land here |
|---|---|---|
| S | R-301, R-99, care-package sniper (Kraber, CP) | Point-and-click reliable, ammo everywhere, win at their range with no downside. The Kraber one-shots but only from the package. |
| A | Flatline, Volt, Nemesis, C.A.R., EVA-8, Wingman | Top-end damage or flex utility, slightly higher skill floor (Flatline recoil, Wingman aim, Nemesis ramp-up). |
| B | Hemlok, Prowler, Alternator, Havoc, Devotion, Peacekeeper, Mastiff | Strong in the right hands or the right range, but held back by ammo burn, charge-up, or a needed hop-up. |
| C | Spitfire, Rampage, L-STAR, 30-30 Repeater, Longbow, Triple Take | Situational. Great when the fight suits them, dead weight when it doesn’t. Snipers are third-party punishers, not primaries. |
| D | Mozambique, P2020, RE-45, Sentinel (early game) | Floor fillers. Fine for the first 60 seconds, a liability if you’re still holding one past the first ring. (The Mozambique is a personality test, not a weapon.) |
Two honest caveats before anyone screenshots this. First, the care-package slot is the biggest single swing every season – the gun Respawn pulls off the floor into the package instantly becomes the best weapon in the game when you find it, and the floor loses a top pick. Second, the Wingman lives in a weird spot: in pure damage-per-shot it’s S-tier, but its skill floor is high enough that for most players it plays like a B. If you can hit it, move it up a tier for yourself. If you can’t, stop kidding yourself and grab an SMG.
Best guns per ammo type this season
The thing most tier lists leave out is what actually wins loadout decisions: you can only shoot the ammo you can find. A gun’s tier means nothing if you’re dry in the third fight. Light ammo is the most abundant type in the game, which is half the reason the R-301 and R-99 are so dependable – you will almost always have bullets. Energy and Sniper ammo are scarcer, and some guns burn through a stack fast enough that “great gun” becomes “great gun with an empty magazine” by the final ring.
| Ammo type | Best pick | Availability | Burn-rate watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | R-301 / R-99 | Most abundant | R-99 empties fast – carry a full stack, don’t spray from range. |
| Heavy | Flatline | Common | Controlled bursts; the recoil pattern eats mags if you full-auto at distance. |
| Energy | Volt / Nemesis | Scarcer | Devotion and L-STAR are ammo-hungry; keep a Light or Heavy secondary so you’re not double-dipping a rare type. |
| Shotgun | EVA-8 | Common in POIs | Low per-slot count; you rarely need much, but don’t count on refills mid-rotation. |
| Sniper | Longbow / Sentinel | Rare and heavy | Every shot is precious; snipers are for punishing third parties, not sustained fights. |
The C.A.R. deserves its own line because it’s the flex-ammo cheat code: it takes both Light and Heavy, so you’re never dry as long as you’re finding either type. That’s why it stays A-tier through almost every rotation – the gun solves its own ammo problem. If you’re the kind of player who keeps looting into the third ring and still ends up short on bullets, the C.A.R. is your fix.
Best loadout pairings for the climb
Your loadout is two guns that cover every range you’ll fight, not two guns you personally think are cool. The whole job is one weapon for the poke-and-rotation fights in the mid-game, one for the point-blank brawl in the final ring. Doubling up on two long-range guns leaves you helpless when a squad closes the gap, and doubling up on two SMGs means you can’t contest a ridge. Cover both ends.
| Situation | Primary | Secondary | Why it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo queue, all-rounder | R-301 | EVA-8 | Forgiving recoil plus a self-sufficient close-range answer when a random leaves you 1v1. |
| Aggressive push comp | Flatline | R-99 | Heavy damage to open, SMG to finish – the classic pub-stomper that carries into ranked. |
| Ammo-anxious looters | C.A.R. | Volt | Flex ammo on the primary means you’re never dry; Volt covers the mid-range. |
| Long-range holds | Nemesis | Peacekeeper | Energy AR to poke across a ring, shotgun to punish anyone who pushes your position. |
If you’d rather have real top-tier players run this for you instead of grinding the loadout math yourself, our Apex ranked boost team climbs splits on your account the same way we’d run our own – placement-first, comfort loadouts, no coin-flip fights. It’s the shortcut when the season’s eating more time than you’ve got.
For solo players specifically, weight the pairing toward self-sufficiency. You can’t count on a teammate to peel for you or trade a fight, so both your guns need to win an isolated 1v1 – which is exactly the logic in our solo-queue climbing guide. That usually means an easy AR you can beam without thinking plus a shotgun for the surprise close-range moment, not two skill-check guns you’ll fumble under pressure.
The counter-argument: meta guns don’t matter as much as your aim
The part most tier lists bury: below Diamond, the specific gun matters far less than whether you can hold your reticle on a moving target. We audit boost accounts constantly, and the single most common reason a good player is hardstuck isn’t a “wrong” loadout – it’s spraying an SMG from 40 meters where a controlled AR burst would’ve won, or missing three-quarters of an EVA-8 pellet spread. The cleanest Platinum-to-Diamond carry we ran last split lived on a boring R-301 and EVA-8 the entire way, never touched a care-package gun, and never lost a fight it should’ve won – because the fundamentals were clean, not because the loadout was spicy. Pick a gun you can control, then blame the gun less. The recurring r/apexlegends best-gun thread circles the same conclusion every season – the “best” gun is usually just the one that suits your aim.
That’s the counter-weight to a tier list: use it to avoid the genuinely weak picks (don’t ride a Mozambique into the third ring), but don’t chase the S-tier flavor of the season if it fights against your muscle memory. A B-tier gun you beam beats an S-tier gun you spray.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best gun in Apex right now?
The R-301 is the safest S-tier answer for most players – low recoil, Light ammo everywhere, and effective across every range you actually fight in ranked. The care-package weapon of the season usually out-damages it, but you can’t reliably find one, so a floor gun you can always pick up wins on consistency.
What is the best gun for solo queue in Apex?
An easy-to-control primary you can win an isolated fight with: R-301 or Flatline for the AR slot, R-99 or C.A.R. for close range. Solo players can’t afford a whiffed fight, so skip high-skill picks like the Wingman unless you’re genuinely confident with it.
What is the best loadout in Apex?
An assault rifle plus a close-range secondary that together cover every range – R-301 with an EVA-8, or Flatline with an R-99. One gun handles the poke and rotation fights, the other wins the final-ring brawl. Never double up on two long-range or two short-range guns.
Which weapons are in the care package this season?
The Kraber holds the permanent sniper slot in the care package, and the assault-rifle or SMG slot rotates every season, so check Respawn’s patch notes for the current rotation before you commit it to memory. Whatever’s in the package that season is effectively the strongest gun in the game when you find one.
Is the R-99 still good?
Yes – it’s still one of the best close-range SMGs in the game. Just respect the burn rate: its fast fire rate empties a Light stack quickly, so carry plenty of ammo and don’t spray it from mid-range where an AR would serve you better.
What ammo type is most common in Apex?
Light ammo is the most abundant, which is a big reason Light guns like the R-301 and R-99 are so reliable to climb on – you’ll almost always have bullets. Energy and Sniper ammo are scarcer, so build your secondary around what you can actually feed through a full match.
Pick the gun you can control, cover both ranges with your two slots, and let ammo economy decide your secondary rather than the tier list alone. That’s the loadout that climbs. If the grind to Diamond is taking more of the split than you want to give it, our boosters can carry the split to Diamond or Predator on your account – real top-tier players, placement-first, the same loadouts we run ourselves. And for the current care-package rotation and every balance change straight from the source, Respawn’s patch notes are the canonical word.