Unlike other rogue games like Dead Cells or Vampire Survivors where the items are largely unchanged through each run, the weapons in Atomicrops can be customized with unique upgrades. The player can take a boring weapon like the unimpressive Spud Rifle and make it an unforgiving machine of mass destruction by unlocking features like Zap, which will electrocute enemies, or Rate of Fire, which increases the rate at which the character fires bullets at enemies.
Some upgrades are more universal, like Rate of Fire, Accuracy, or Damage; others are associated with specific weapons, like Horse for the scythe, which summons a horse that is never dismissed and increases character speed. With so many options, it’s hard to know which weapons are worth pursuing, and which will likely cut your run short. This list will help you navigate through your options and decide which weapon will best suit your playstyle, beginning with what is arguably the best gun in the game.
8 Biodegrader
Despite its lack of accuracy, this gun can carry the player through every season of Atomicrops. The real strength of the biodegrader is its ability to turn the field of combat into a high damage-dealing zone. Before you upgrade it, this gun lobs a bomb ahead of the character and explodes, either after a delay or on contact with an enemy.
However, the biodegrader has some of the most powerful upgrades in the game, including Triple Shot (lob three bombs instead of one in a spread) and Fire (bombs set the ground on fire and burn enemies).
7 Leech Gun
One of the new weapons from the Reap What You Crow DLC, the leech gun is not only a good damage dealer; it also simplifies farming. The leech sucks extra fertilizer out of the enemy, allowing the player to accumulate hundreds of units of fertilizer in a single day.
The biggest downside of the leech gun is its limited charge. You’ll have to perform farm tasks in order to recharge it, and this can sometimes leave you stranded in a biome with no ammunition and no way out.
6 Cattling Gun
There are several ways this gun can trip the player up during a run. Firstly, it needs time to rev up - initially, the bullets will fire quite slowly. Secondly, the character will move more slowly while firing, making dodging enemy bullets difficult.
However, once the cattling gun reaches maximum output, it does massive amounts of damage, shredding through trash mobs and bosses with ease. If the player can negotiate its slow ramp-up and character speed reduction, it is definitely worth the cashew investment.
5 Rusty SMG
The item description sums up the cons of the SMG succinctly: spray and pray. Without any of its upgrades, this gun has a wide, inaccurate spread, making it less than ideal as-is. But the rusty SMG has no clip-size, and unlimited ammo is a rarity in Atomicrops. That alone would probably be enough to land this gun on this list.
The rusty SMG is also capable of becoming a very powerful weapon, thanks to its many upgrades that allow the player to increase its accuracy, speed, and damage output with piercing or explosive rounds.
4 Sriracha Soaker
Like the biodegrader, the soaker is capable of attacking multiple enemies at once. Its DOT damage allows the player to spray a camp, run away, and wait for them to drop like flies and swoop in afterward, making the sriracha soaker a viable weapon for later in the game.
You will have to be careful to not set your own crops on fire, though. Without the Water Crops upgrade, the flame will burn your crops over time. You’ll also need to monitor your fuel carefully, as you’ll burn through it quickly.
3 Spud Rifle
A basic but reliable weapon, the spud rifle is a very standard gun. It is a minor step up from the player’s pea shooter, the starting gun for all characters, with the only notable difference being that the spud rifle fires more rapidly.
Unlike the pea shooter, the spud rifle can be upgraded to great effect. Homing can help a player who struggles with accuracy (be careful not to aggro more mobs than you can handle!); Zap will deal damage to multiple enemies - then there are more standard upgrades that will increase damage and rate of fire.
2 Shallotgun
With a paltry clip-size of two bullets, the shallotgun can be a difficult playstyle to master. It does the most damage at close range and shoots pellets in a wide spread at the enemy. But with only two shots to work with at a time, it really matters how much damage it does to a single enemy at a time.
The shallotgun has two unique and powerful upgrades: Toxic Spores and Back Gun. Toxic Spores is fairly self-explanatory; when fired, shallotgun will release a toxic cloud and deals high DoT damage. Back Gun will shoot a second bullet behind the character as well.
1 Scythe
The only melee weapon in Atomicrops, the scythe is unique in a game that focuses on damaging as many enemies as quickly as possible. Getting up close and personal in every encounter opens the player up to take more damage.
Even though you’ll never have to worry about running out of ammo, the scythe does have a recharge time. Like many of the other weapons on this list, it’s the weapon-specific upgrades that make the scythe viable. Its Deflect ability makes it the only weapon in the game that can block enemy bullets. In addition, it is capable of watering and tilling soil if upgraded properly.