In every game, there is a whole assortment of “trash” weapons that belong, well, in the trash bin. But as the old adage goes, looks can be deceiving, and among those oft-discarded toys of combat are some of the most overpowered, broken tools for destruction.
Seriously, these specific armaments that are commonly mocked by your gaming peers can bring you an almost godlike experience, depending on how you use it — some of them require specific fine tuning, others need to be paired up with something else — but all of them are just bonkers when applied in situations where most of your colleagues would laugh at you for even considering the possibility.
So, as usual, we’ve ranked ’em. 10 entries on a list that goes by notoriety, current relevance, but no hype, just cold, heart facts…and damage. Lots and lots of damage.
The Underrated Arsenal Countdown: 10 trash weapons that elevate your power to god-tier levels
Suicide Pistol – Duck Game
Why it sucks
What the hell is wrong with a gun that fires backwards? Well, for starters, your face is there. We would say “secondly”, but there is nothing after the “for starters” part: to use this gun is to inflict a self-knockout that will make you a laughing stock worse than Black Ops 7.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
It doesn’t always shoot backwards — and when it does shoot at your intended target, boy oh boy does it shoot. If you jump-slide towards foes or, even more creatively, if you tape it to an enemy mid-grapple, it’ll go for 100 damage on them instead of you — a real wrecking ball of a weapon for any party shooter title.
Model Gun – Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Why it sucks
In a game with so many weapons to choose from, Dirge of Cerberus’ Model Gun, a measly-looking pea shooter that does as little as 10 hit points of damage, is arguably undeserving the be fired by the dextrous fingers of Final Fantasy VII’s main marksman, Vincent Valentine. That number is lower than your starting pistol even against unarmored foes.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
“A bullet fired from this weapon is said to reach the moon” should be enough to describe as to why the Model Gun is actually awesome. Capable of one-shotting pretty much every regular enemy and mid-boss — and taking out major bosses like Azul, Rosso, Weiss and Omega Weapon itself, the Model Gun, when properly developed, becomes the franchise’s eponymous Ultima Weapon — a name that most Final Fantasy fans will recognize as the oh, shit” moment in every game of the franchise.
Seriously: it can go well above the 200 hit point mark and it has a stupidly broken range to boot, taking out enemies that are not even within the vicinity and have not even started their aggro animations towards you.
In order to unlock it, though, you’ll need gil — lots of it: 200,000 of Final Fantasy’s common currency will evolve the Model Gun to Ultima Weapon (a secret most people miss since you can sell unused weapons in the in-game store). But before all of that, make sure to scour the city of Edge to find the lesser version of it first.
Broken Straight Sword – Dark Souls
Why it sucks
In a game like Dark Souls, any veteran of the genre will tell you that, if given the chance to stack up on serious damage, take it. Such is not the case with the Broken Straight Sword, a measly little blade that does 20 physical damage and has barely any scaling. “Paltry” doesn’t even begin to describe it — I mean, can you imagine using that against Artorias in his boss fight?
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
If you’ve been following us for some time, then you know we didn’t mention Artorias’ name for nothing: the Broken Straight Sword? Well, it can become the legendary Greatsword of Artorias with some heavy investments, attaining stats like 200 phys + 200 magic. Plus, it looks hella cool: here it is, planted on this Astoria figurine we found at Amazon.
Getting to it may be a chore, though, as you’ll need to level it up to +10, then infused with the Soul of Sif — both of which are time-consuming and difficult endeavors. Still, all that effort pays of as the greatsword is probably one of the top 3 best armaments in the game. Oh, and it became such a famous item within the series, it made a comeback in Dark Souls 2 and 3 — not bad for a “trash weapons” entry, eh?
M1911 – CoD: Black Ops 2 Zombies
Why it sucks
Now, I’m no pro gamer, but basic, starting weaponry should be able to handle at least one mob of enemies, maybe a full initial wave, yes? As initial weapons go, the idea is to acclimate the player with the gameplay mechanics and slowly turn up the ante. Well, Black Ops 2’s starting pistol M1911 can’t handle even that. As soon as the session starts, you are probably better off trading it for another weapon — any weapon.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
Much like the Greatsword of Artorias or Vincent’s Ultima Weapon, the M1911 can be exponentially reworked and upgraded. In this case, not only it can be dual-wielded and reload at twice the normal speed, but it can also become a double-whammy of exploding bullets with severe splash damage — what started as troublesome at the beginning can end the match with the ability to clear out rooms with over 10 zombies in less than 3 shots.
Just farm 5k points and hit the nearest PaP machine once to get it.
Torgue Shotgun – Borderlands 4 (2025)
Why it sucks
Despite being a shotgun, this, at least, for the beginning, makes up for the entire stereotype of “trash weapons”: it’s clunky to use, its damage is subpar even in point blank hits and its ability to clear out mobs in enclosed spaces — something every shotgun in existence has been able to do — is, well, wildly inefficient to put it mildly.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
IT. LITERALLY. MELTS. BOSSES. Look at the video below: one shot from this baby and down goes the target’s health bar…all the way to oblivion. And it’s not even that though to get — all you have to do is stick to a Harlowe build and use multi-pellet stickies to trigger “existence failure” (300k+ dmg ticks) on bosses/raids.
CQC-19 Stun Lance – Helldivers 2
Why it sucks
You brought a knife to a gunfight? Heh…I lol’d.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
Ok, I’m no longer lol-ing. Despite being a melee-based weapon in a game known for its bullet-hell moments, the Stun Lance cease to be one of the trash weapons in this list as soon as you pair it up with the Ballistic Shield and the Peak Physique passive ability, and you have a long reach bladed weapon with 100% upgraded physical damage and a major defense system to boot. This will allow to you get up close and personal against even firearm based enemies and clear hordes and Tanks, even with Shield builds.
Farsight XR-20 – Perfect Dark (2000)
Why it sucks
As primary trash weapons go, there’s no trashier than Perfect Dark’s XR-20 laser pistol. With its slow rate of fire and weak damage capabilities (a 20 hitpoint max), this is one firearm you’ll likely be trading off for another before even realizing it.
Why it’s pure, sheer awesomeness
Which would be a mistake, since this gun hides a secondary capacity that allows you to not only see through walls, but lock in on enemies behind them and, with each shot on x-ray vision, comes together a 999 damaging homing plasma. Yes, we said “homing”. It is one of the many weapons that are banned in multiplayer games simply because it is too broken to use in any match.
