Everspace 2 is a highly detailed space combat sim that sees you setting out to conquer the cosmos through exciting exploration and gripping combat. As such, you’ll frequently find yourself knee-deep in space dogfights against pirates and other enemy factions.
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To ensure you survive every encounter, you’ll want to equip your ship with the most powerful primary and secondary weapons that will tear through enemy vessels and leave them in a cloud of destruction. From guns and cannons to missiles and mines, the best Everspace 2 weapons will give you an edge in battle and help you dominate the galaxy.
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11 Flak Cannon: Burst-Firing Fun
The Flak Cannon is one of the best primary weapons in Everspace 2 that are highly effective at dismantling enemy vessels at medium-range distances. It’s designed to shoot burst-fire projectiles that explode upon impact, causing damage in a radial-shaped pattern that covers a wide area.
It also has an impressively high energy capacity compared to other primary weapons in the game. This allows the Flak Cannon to be repeatedly fired for long intervals, dealing massive amounts of Kinetic damage in the process while consuming very little of its energy reserve.
10 Rail Gun: Precise And Powerful
Switching over to long-range damage, the Rail Gun is a great Everspace 2 primary weapon for hitting targets from afar. While it deals mostly Energy damage, the amount of Kinetic damage it does have is more than enough to rip through an enemy ship’s hull.
For the best results, you will want to unlock this weapon’s ‘Marksman’ upgrade, which can assist with accurately landing shots on targets over 4.5km away. Additionally, the Rail Gun is best paired with the Scout to maximize damage from greater distances.
9 Thermo Gun: Homing Hellfire
When it comes to targeting enemy ships, the Thermo Gun is practically unmatched in Everspace 2. This is because it relies on homing projectiles that will zero in on a target’s location with consistent results to ensure you never miss a shot.
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It excels at destroying opponents’ shields and exposing their most vulnerable parts. Couple this with a relatively high energy capacity that can be increased even further with the ‘Efficient’ upgrade, and it becomes clear why the Thermo Gun is the preferred weapon for many pilots.
8 Gauss Cannon: Devastating Damage
If you want to deal a lot of damage quickly, look no further than the Gauss Cannon, a fantastic short-range primary that deals both Kinetic and Energy damage. This alone makes it one of the most powerful and versatile weapons in the game, but there are other factors to consider.
For one, the Gauss Cannon has a substantially higher maximum fire rate than other primaries, though reaching that threshold will take you some time. To get the most from this weapon, try combining it with the Interceptor’s ‘Power Converter’ ability, which boosts energy after weapon energy is depleted.
7 Scatter Gun: Spray And Pray
While far from being the most powerful weapon regarding raw damage, the Scatter Gun can be quite effective when paired with the right primary, particularly fast-firing weapons such as the Blaster that can easily penetrate enemy shields. This is due to the Scatter Gun’s slow-firing, shotgun-like projectiles that render it practically useless in long-range combat.
However, once you manage to close the distance, it becomes an absolute monster that’s capable of shredding through hull-heavy ships by charging up to fire more projectiles.
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5 Cruise Missiles: Slow And Steady
Undoubtedly one of the best secondary weapons in Everspace 2, Cruise Missiles can deal damage in the hundreds of thousands under certain conditions. This is due to their staggeringly high Kinetic and Energy damage outputs that can be fatal in the right pilot’s hands.
You’ll find they come in handy during boss fights and against heavy ships that would otherwise be impenetrable. The only real cons to Cruise Missiles are the fact that they take a long time to lock on and travel more slowly than other types of secondary weapons.
4 Destabilizer Missiles: Dismantle Defenses
Next up are Destabilizer Missiles, an excellent tool for poking holes in your opponent’s defenses quickly and efficiently. Their lightweight design allows them to travel at relatively fast speeds compared to other missiles, as well as reliably seek out targets.
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Having said that, Destabilizer Missiles are not technically a weapon themselves as they do not deal direct damage, but rather inflict a debuff that makes enemies take more damage from follow-up attacks; this makes them a lot more situational than other secondaries but still quite useful.
3 Homing Missiles: Old Reliable
The standard go-to for Everspace 2 combat, Homing Missiles are fast-moving projectiles that deal high amounts of Kinetic damage compared to other secondary weapons. As such, they’re typically the best option for a wide range of ship builds, especially those lacking in Kinetic damage.
If that weren’t enough, the game provides several avenues for increasing the Homing Missiles’ effectiveness by way of upgrades. This includes the ‘Marksman’ and ‘High-Capacity’ modifiers, which can be leveraged to increase the Homing Missiles’ ammunition reserve and long-range viability.
2 EMP Missiles: Disables Targets
Instead of outright blowing up enemies and turning them into smithereens, what if you could momentarily disable their equipment? This is the exact thinking behind EMP Missiles, a utility-based secondary weapon designed to track down targets and inflict the EMP condition.
Doing so renders the opponents’ weapons and engines inoperable for a brief duration, usually for five or so seconds, which is just enough time to close the distance and follow up with a more powerful attack. Along with disabling ships, EMP Missiles can also be used to deal minor energy damage.
1 Mines: Crowd Control
Mines are another class of Everspace 2 secondary weapons that help round out the game’s combat by exploring other unique strategies. Their primary function is to thin out and weaken groups of enemies using high-yield explosives that can be grappled and thrown.
As such, they have a medium area of effect that’s triggered anytime an enemy ship gets close enough to activate their detonation. If this playstyle sounds appealing to you, consider incorporating alternatives like Corrosion Mines and Web Mines into your next ship build.
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