The beauty of video games allows us to transport ourselves to various worlds and realities far different than our own. We’ve fought aliens, rescued allies in distress, and defeated legendary evils that have plagued the lands. Throughout the history of video games, we’ve experienced true power as we’ve wielded weapons that not only exceed our realistic comprehension but were still remarkably destructive tools to be reckoned with in their own virtual worlds.
In nearly every game imaginable, there’s some sort of ultimate weapon. Sure, the word "weapon" might have you immediately thinking of big, blazing guns, but weapons don't necessarily need to deal damage to be considered all-powerful. And while there are weapons that can turn the tides in their own respective games, they may not hold a candle compared to the standards of other universes. Let’s take a look at the most powerful weapons ever seen in the history of video games.
Updated January 5, 2022 by Avery Lawrence Feyrer: There are numerous iconic, powerful weapons in video games. This post only contains a select few and we've updated it to add more entries highlighting other weapons of mass destruction.
13 Gunblade - Final Fantasy 8
The Final Fantasy series has introduced a plethora of unique (and sometimes wacky) types of weapons. We've seen guns attached to human arms, giant stuffed puppet creatures, hell, one character even used a ball as a weapon. But one of the most interesting and powerful weapons in the series is the Gunblade used by Squall Leonhart in Final Fantasy 8.
In a logical sense, this weapon makes absolutely no sense. A sword and gun combo? It sounds like a weapon design a seven-year-old child would invent, but video games make anything possible. Squall's Gunblade has both short and long-range capabilities, allowing him to attack any sort of enemy. Squall and his weapon received so much praise that he appeared again in other Square Enix projects like Kingdom Hearts.
12 Operator - Valorant
Compared to the other games featured in this post, Valorant is among the freshest on the scene. Launched in 2020, Riot’s competitive FPS takes the precision shooting of Counter-Strike with the added abilities of Overwatch for an exciting experience. But that experience might not be so fun if you find yourself on the receiving end of an Operator.
Often referred to as the Op, the Operator is a heavy-duty sniper that kills agents in one shot. And the worst (or best) part of it all? It doesn’t matter where the Operator hits, it’s always a one-shot kill dealing 150 damage. As it's essentially the most powerful gun in Valorant, it’s also the most expensive, costing a whopping 4,500 credits.
11 Golden Gun - GoldenEye 007
If you owned a Nintendo 64 and were a fan of first-person shooters, then odds are you also owned GoldenEye 007. Based on the 1995 movie of the same name, GoldenEye 007 was a pillar in the early FPS genre and the multiplayer sphere. On top of being an iconic game, it features an iconic weapon that’s still regarded as one of the best in history: the Golden Gun.
In the game, there are actually two different golden guns: the standard Golden Gun and the Gold PP7. Both the standard Golden Gun and its PP7 version cause 100 damage, meaning they’re both one-shot kills — but the PP7 is superior because of its magazine size. Instead of only having one bullet in the magazine, the PP7 carries seven rounds. The PP7 can only be obtained through cheat codes, while the standard Golden Gun makes an appearance in the Egyptian mission (but is also available in cheats). The Golden Gun is also useable in multiplayer.
10 Portal Gun - Portal
The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or simply known as the Portal Gun, is Chell’s main weapon in Portal. As previously mentioned, not every all-powerful weapon has to directly cause damage to be considered as such, and we have the Portal Gun as our prime piece of evidence. The Portal Gun can create (you guessed it) portals that allow Chell to traverse through the facility. The two portals are differentiated by two colors: blue is the entrance and orange is the exit.
Aside from creating portals, the Portal Gun also can pick up objects with a gravity-manipulation component. Similar to the Gravity Gun in Half-Life, Chell can move heavy objects, mainly to continue on her mission to escape the facility. Although the Portal Gun doesn’t inflict pain, its capabilities are enormous and deserving of being considered one of the most powerful pieces of technology in existence.
9 Lancer - Gears Of War
When Gears of War launched in 2006, it breathed fresh air into the third-person shooter genre — it's an action game filled with horror elements as humanity desperately staves off extinction at the hands of the Locust. After years of unknowingly dwelling underground, the Locust arose and started laying waste to the surface world. To combat the oncoming horde, Marcus Fenix and the rest of his Coalition soldiers primarily use the destructive and efficient Lancer.
We’ve seen all sorts of hybrid weapons, but the Lancer might take the cake. Designed primarily as an assault gun, the Lancer also has a built-in chainsaw attachment when things get up close and personal. Seeing the animation of Marcus sawing through a Locust enemy remains one of the most gruesome scenes in video games at large, leaving little doubt concerning the Lancer being an extremely dangerous and powerful weapon.
8 Poke Ball - Pokemon
Not all weapons are meant to cause pain, death, and destruction, which brings us to the all-powerful Poke Ball. This standard trainer's tool is the ultimate weapon battling against wild Pokemon. This simple device can contain any type of pocket monster, anything from a flopping Magikarp to a lumbering, slumbering Snorlax.
When the series began in 1996, there were only four types: regular Poke Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, and Master Ball. Now, there are 27 different types of Poke Balls, each with its own buffs for capturing wild Pokemon. As the series continues to grow, expect more variations of the Poke Ball to be introduced.
7 Blades Of Chaos - God Of War
Anything related to Greek mythology is going to surely intrigue a large number of players, but the idea of killing the Greek gods blew people away. On a path of vengeance, Kratos of Sparta sets out to kill Ares, the God of War, for killing his family and forcing him to become his servant. Ares designed the Blades of Chaos himself, so it’s a poetic irony that Kratos used those same blades to put a permanent end to the God of War.
Ares fashioned the blades with a magical fire that sets enemies ablaze upon contact. Unfortunately for Kratos, Ares burned the blades onto his forearms with unbreakable chains. The Blades of Chaos are extremely effective in short-range but can also deal decent damage from afar. Regardless, these are god-killing blades and certainly qualify as a highly powerful weapon.
6 Keyblade - Kingdom Hearts
When the idea of mixing the colorful, delightful, heartfelt characters of Disney with the rugged, overly emotional heroes of Final Fantasy came up, some thought Square Enix had completely lost it. But when Kingdom Hearts launched in 2002, it quickly became one of the best PlayStation 2 games and spun into an immensely popular series. As the Heartless consumed world after world, the legendary Keyblade found its new wielder in Sora, a young boy from the Destiny Islands to be the chosen fighter for light.
While the Keyblade isn’t necessarily powerful at the beginning of the game, Sora upgrades its offensive potential until it’s truly a devastating weapon. Along with Donald Duck and Goofy, Sora travels to various worlds to prevent the Heartless from absorbing it and uses the Keyblade to lock the world in light. The Keyblade has many forms which alter the weapon’s attributes, giving Sora incredible flexibility in combat. Without the Keyblade, everything as we know it would be consumed by darkness.
5 BFG 9000 - Doom
While the BFG 9000 stands for "Bio Force Gun," Doom enthusiasts know what the weapon is truly called. This weapon of pure destruction is one of the most powerful weapons in any first-person shooter. The BFG 9000 has been featured in the Doom series since the original game in 1993 and has appeared in each game in the series.
The BFG 9000 uses plasma energy to one-shot kill any non-boss-type enemies with a direct hit. In Doom 2016, the weapon uses Argent Energy, which is a form of renewable energy found by the Union Aerospace Corporation. Due to its incredible power, the BFG 9000 only has a max ammo capacity of three shots, so be sure you make them count.
4 Energy Sword - Halo 2
Halo 2 was novel for switching perspectives between controlling the Master Chief and the Arbiter (a special title for a Covenant Elite during perilous times). As such, the arsenal of Covenant weapons featured in the game was expanded significantly — with the deadly Energy Sword being the obvious gem of the collection.
Although the sword has a limited amount of uses, it can slice through practically any form of matter and dispose of foes instantly. The Energy Sword was also made available in Halo multiplayer, where it continued to build upon its legacy of being a truly terrifying weapon not just within the franchise, but in games as a whole.
3 Hidden Blade - Assassin’s Creed
Unbeknownst to Ubisoft, the launch of Assassin’s Creed in 2007 kicked off one of the most recognized series in video game history. Assassin’s Creed follows a long-running conflict between the Assassins and the Knights Templar, two secret organizations that endlessly clash in the shadows. The Assassins value freedom, while the Templar value order. Their dispute has run through countless years, and now in the present time, the Templars have built a company called Abstergo Industries to develop a device called the Animus to relive memories.
In every Assassin’s Creed game, you control an assassin that’s an ancestor of certain people in the present. While assassins can wield all sorts of weapons, the most recognizable and deadly is the Hidden Blade. Designed for a quick death, the Hidden Blade is slotted up the assassin’s sleeve and shoots out when activated. Typically, the Hidden Blade will instantly kill enemies, though some are strong enough to withstand the blade. The redeeming quality of the Hidden Blade is being inconspicuous, but its ability to dispose of enemies quickly and efficiently handily wins it a spot here.
2 Blue Shell - Mario Kart
The majority of powerful weapons can usually be avoided if you’re unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of one. While it’s usually not likely, it’s certainly not impossible, and that’s what separates the Blue Shell in Mario Kart from other weapons. The Blue Shell is the ultimate item to receive in practically any Mario Kart title — especially for racers bringing up the caboose.
When activated, the Blue Shell embarks on a path of destruction that will obliterate anything and anyone in its path to hitting the racer in first place. Even if the racer has a green or red shell attempting to block the Blue Shell from hitting, it will still get blasted into the air upon contact. Although the Blue Shell will bulldoze through anyone in its path, you can hear what’s essentially a warning sound of it approaching so you can try and get out of the way. The only possible ways to completely block the Blue Shell is if you have the Star activated to become invincible or use Boo to become invisible.
1 Master Sword - The Legend Of Zelda
Arguably the most iconic weapon in video game history, and the most powerful, is the Master Sword. The legendary weapon has been used by Link for decades to constantly repel the evil forces of Ganon from conquering Hyrule. In most Zelda games, the Master Sword is a weapon that's imbued with unimaginable power and rarely falters. But that changed slightly in Breath of the Wild, as the Master Sword will lose its charge and becomes unusable for a period of time.
Despite the added wrinkle to the weapon’s design, the Master Sword remains one of the most powerful weapons in gaming history. Crafted by the goddess Hylia, the Master Sword is said to be the only sword in existence that’s powerful enough to defeat Ganon. Besides the power to vanquish evil, the sword does contain other abilities depending on the Zelda game it's featured in. In Ocarina of Time, for instance, Link uses the Master Sword to travel to and from the future to protect Hyrule from Ganon. It’s said that only a true hero with a pure heart and strong body can wield the Master Sword, and luckily for Hyrule, Link meets those qualifications in fine fashion.