PUBG Mobile Weapon Tier List — Every Gun Ranked

Most tier lists rank weapons by damage, which produces a list where the AKM beats the M416 and the Mk14 beats everything. That list is wrong in practice, because it measures a number rather than an outcome. What decides fights is how much damage you land, not how much the weapon is theoretically capable of.

So this list weighs three things: raw output, how controllable the weapon is under sustained fire, and how often you can realistically expect to find it. An airdrop-only weapon has to be genuinely exceptional to outrank something you will hold in most matches.

How these rankings are decided

• Damage output — damage per shot combined with fire rate, which is the figure that actually decides a close-range trade.
• Controllability — our 0–100 rating of how hard the weapon is to hold on target, where lower is easier. This is a judgement, not a measurement, and it is weighted heavily.
• Availability — a world-spawn weapon you find every match is worth more than an airdrop weapon you find once in ten.
• Attachment support — a weapon that takes a grip, a compensator and a stock improves far more with loot than one that takes only a muzzle.

The tier list at a glance

Assault rifles

The most important class in the game, because an AR is the weapon you will be holding for most of every match. If you take one decision from this guide, make it your primary rifle.

The central trade-off is 5.56 against 7.62. The 7.62 rifles — AKM, Beryl, Groza — hit harder per bullet but kick considerably more. The 5.56 rifles hit softer and stay on target. For the large majority of players, including good ones, the 5.56 option wins, because landing five of six bullets beats landing three of six that each hit 20% harder.

AUG A3 — S tier

More damage than an M416 with less recoil. If you find one, drop whatever you are holding.

M416 — S tier

The default answer. Takes every attachment slot in the game, and with a compensator, vertical grip and tactical stock it becomes the flattest-shooting rifle available.

Groza — S tier

The highest damage-per-second in the game. Only takes a muzzle and sight, but at close range nothing beats it.

G36C — A tier

An M416 without the stock slot. Fast, flat and reliable, but you give up the tactical stock that makes the M416 special.

QBZ95 — A tier

Sanhok’s M416 stand-in. Slightly less recoil than the SCAR-L and a genuinely strong rifle — it is only rated lower because you cannot find it on most maps.

SCAR-L — A tier

Slower than the M416 but slightly steadier out of the box. A perfectly good rifle that most players drop the moment an M416 appears.

ACE32 — A tier

A 7.62 rifle with manageable recoil — the middle ground between the M416’s control and the AKM’s punch.

Beryl M762 — A tier

The hardest-hitting sustained-fire rifle and the hardest to control. In skilled hands it wins any close fight; in average hands it empties into the sky.

Mk47 Mutant — B tier

Two-round burst and single fire with 7.62 damage. A mid-range specialist that punishes anyone caught in the open at 150 m.

AKM — B tier

Highest damage per bullet of any common AR, but no grip slot and a violent first-shot kick. Rewards short taps, punishes spray.

M16A4 — C tier

Burst and single fire only, with no grip slot. Excellent as an early-game marksman rifle at 100–200 m, badly outgunned in a close fight.

Marksman rifles

DMRs occupy the space between an AR and a sniper: semi-automatic, high per-shot damage, effective from roughly 150 to 400 metres. They are the most underrated class in PUBG Mobile, and they are particularly worth considering if you play on high ping, because each shot is a separate deliberate decision rather than a fast pattern you have to correct mid-spray.

Mk14 EBR — S tier

The most damaging DMR, with a full-auto mode that is almost unusable without a bipod. On single fire it is devastating.

Mini 14 — A tier

The fastest bullet in the game and almost no recoil. Low damage per shot, but you can land five before a sniper reloads.

Mk12 — A tier

A big magazine, high velocity and low recoil. Arguably the most forgiving DMR for players learning bullet drop.

SLR — A tier

The hardest-hitting non-airdrop DMR. Two body shots plus one more finishes most Level 2 targets.

QBU — B tier

A Mini 14 with more damage and a permanent bipod. Excellent prone, mediocre standing.

SKS — B tier

Takes a grip and a stock, which the SLR does not — fully kitted it is controllable, unkitted it bucks badly.

VSS — C tier

Silent and comes with its own scope, but the subsonic round drops like a stone past 100 m. A close-range ambush tool, not a sniper.

Sniper rifles

Bolt-action rifles trade everything for a single decisive shot. The critical numbers are these: a Kar98k or M24 kills instantly through a Level 1 or Level 2 helmet, but not a Level 3. Only the AWM does that, and it exists only in airdrops.

That fact should shape how you use them. Against an unknown target early in a match, a headshot ends it. Against a fully-kitted squad in the last three circles, a sniper is a tool for breaking armour and forcing movement, not for securing kills alone.

AWM — S tier

The only rifle that kills through a Level 3 helmet in one shot, and the only one with its own ammunition. Every round counts.

M24 — A tier

A better Kar98k in every measurable way, and rarer. Still cannot one-shot a Level 3 helmet.

Mosin-Nagant — A tier

Statistically an M24 in a different jacket. Appears on maps where the M24 does not.

Kar98k — A tier

One-shot kills through a Level 2 helmet. The standard sniper — faster to chamber than an M24 and far easier to find.

Win94 — C tier

A lever-action with a fixed 2.7× sight and no attachment slots. Charming, occasionally lethal, generally a placeholder.

Submachine guns

SMGs win the first ninety seconds of a match and then become dead weight — with two exceptions. The UMP45 stays genuinely useful into the mid game with a 3× sight, and the Vector has the fastest time-to-kill of any early-game weapon provided you find its extended magazine.

The general rule: carry an SMG if you hot drop, and replace it with a second AR or a DMR once you are past the first circle.

P90 — S tier

Fifty rounds, near-zero recoil and its own ammunition type. A close-quarters win button.

MP5K — S tier

Takes every attachment slot and has almost no recoil. On Livik it beats most assault rifles indoors.

PP-19 Bizon — A tier

53 rounds standard and almost no recoil. The best SMG for players who cannot yet control a spray.

Vector — A tier

The fastest time-to-kill of any early-game gun — provided you find the extended magazine. Without it, 13 rounds disappear instantly.

UMP45 — A tier

The one SMG that stays useful into the mid game. With a 3× it holds its own out to about 100 m.

Tommy Gun — B tier

Highest SMG damage with a 50-round drum, but no sight slot beyond the iron sights on most versions.

Micro UZI — B tier

A shotgun substitute for the first ninety seconds of a match. Terrifying inside a room, useless outside one.

Light machine guns

Enormous magazines, long reloads, poor mobility. LMGs are situational weapons for suppressing a squad pinned in cover rather than for duelling, and the DP-28 in particular is a strong prone-standoff weapon that most players dismiss too quickly.

M249 — A tier

A hundred rounds without reloading. Best used to suppress a squad in cover rather than to duel.

MG3 — A tier

Switchable fire rate up to 990 rpm. Enormous sustained damage, enormous recoil.

DP-28 — B tier

47 rounds of 7.62 with a built-in bipod. Slow to reload and slow to aim, but it wins any prone standoff.

Shotguns

A shotgun is a landing weapon. Inside a building in the first minute, an S1897 or S686 ends fights instantly. Outside that context they are close to useless, and the S12K is the only one that survives a missed first shot — which is why it is the only one rated above B.

Note that the damage figures below are per pellet, with nine pellets per shell. A shell that lands entirely on target does very large damage; one at 20 metres lands two or three pellets and does almost nothing.

DBS — S tier

Fourteen shells in a bullpup double-barrel. Clears a building faster than anything else in the game.

S12K — A tier

Semi-automatic, takes rifle sights and an extended magazine. The only shotgun that survives a missed first shot.

S1897 — B tier

A pump gun with a tighter pellet spread than the S12K, and it takes a choke. The most forgiving early shotgun.

S686 — B tier

Two barrels, both fired fast. If you land both at point-blank range the fight is over; if you miss, you are dead.

What to actually carry

Tier lists are useful for deciding between two guns on the ground. They are less useful for deciding what pair to run, so here are the combinations that hold up.

The one loadout rule that matters more than any other: do not carry two weapons that do the same job. Two ARs, or a sniper plus a DMR, leaves a range band where you have no answer at all. Cover close and far, and accept that you will be slightly worse at one of them than a specialist.

Which attachments to put on all of this is its own subject, and it makes a larger difference than most weapon choices do — see the attachments guide. If you want to check a specific matchup, the comparison tool will run the numbers for any two weapons here.