Weapons (LW2)

Primary Weapons

Assault Rifle

Main article: Assault Rifle (LW2)

Assault Rifles are the default primary weapon of most soldiers within modern militaries. Extremely versatile and "middle of the road" in every way.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	3-5	+2
Laser	4-7	+2	+5		20	1	1
Magnetic	5-9	+3			35	2	2
Coil	6-11	+4		1	50	3	5
Plasma	7-13	+5			60	4	10	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11-19	20	21	22	23	24	...
Aim Bonus	20	18	16	14	12	10	8	6	4	2	0	-5	-10	-15	-20	-25	-30

Cannon

Main article: Cannon (LW2)

Cannons can only be fielded by Gunner soldiers; automatic rifleman specialist trained in using light machine gun or squad automatic weapon as part of a fireteam. They have higher damage compared to rifles, and larger clips. They suffer penalties at very short range, but nowhere near the extent that sniper rifles do.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	4-6	+2
Laser	5-8	+3	+5		25	1	1
Magnetic	6-11	+4			45	2	2
Coil	7-14	+5		1	60	3	5
Plasma	10-16	+6			80	4	15	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	...
Aim Bonus	-10	-5	0	5	10	8	6	4	2	0

PDW (SMG)

Main article: PDW (LW2)

Personal Defense Weapons can be used by most classes. It does lower damage than assault rifles, has a smaller clip and has more falloff at range, but increases mobility. It also slightly decreases infiltration time for the soldier carrying it. Because of their light weight and controllability, they are popular with medics, engineers, drivers, artillery crews, signallers, and special forces.

Using an PDW increases the soldier's Mobility by 3, and reduces enemy detection radius for that soldier by 20%.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	2-4	+2
Laser	3-6	+2	+5		20	1	1
Magnetic	4-7	+3			40	2	2
Coil	5-10	+3		1	55	3	5
Plasma	6-11	+4			65	4	10	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8-11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Aim Bonus	20	18	15	12	9	6	3	0	-3	-6	-9	-12	-15	-18	-20	-30	-40	-50	-60	-70	-80	-90	-100

Shotgun

Main article: Shotgun (LW2)

Shotguns can be equipped by most soldiers in Long War. Assault soldiers have several perks specialising in them.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	4-7	+3
Laser	5-10	+3	+5		25	1	1
Magnetic	7-12	+4			45	2	2
Coil	8-15	+5		1	60	3	5
Plasma	9-16	+8			80	4	10	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	...
Aim Bonus	40	32	24	16	8	4	0	0	-4	-8	-16	-32	-40	-48	-60	-70	-80	-90	-100

Sniper Rifle

Main article: Sniper Rifle (LW2)

Sniper Rifles can only be fielded by Sharpshooters.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	4-6	+3
Laser	5-8	+3	+5		25	1	1
Magnetic	6-11	+4			45	2	2
Coil	7-14	+5		1	60	3	5
Plasma	9-15	+6			80	4	15	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11-20	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	...
Aim Bonus	-30	-27	-24	-21	-18	-15	-12	-9	-6	-3	0	-1	-2	-3	-4	-5	-6	-7	-8	-9	-10	-11	-12	-13	14	-15	-16	-17	-18	-19	-20

Auxiliary Weapons

Pistols

Main articles: Pistol (LW2) and Advanced Warfare Center (LW2)#Pistol Perks

The pistol is now a utility slot item and can be equipped on any soldier, Pistol related perks are trainable in the Advanced Warfare Center. Officers also have a few abilities related to pistols, including the ability to give one to a civilian ally.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Pierce	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	1-4	+1
Laser	2-5	+1	+5		5		1
Magnetic	3-6	+2			10	1	1
Coil	4-7	+2		1	15	2	2
Plasma	5-8	+3			20	2	3	1

Special Weapons

Special weapons are available only to Soldier classes. These weapons require specific training and each Soldier class can use only one type of special weapon.

Combat Knife

The Combat Knife is used by the Gunner class. While it is weaker than the Sword, this melee weapon is highly accurate and has a higher innate chance to crit.

Name	Damage	Crit Damage	Sound Range	Special properties	Prerequisites	Cost			Black Market Value
Name	Damage	Crit Damage	Sound Range	Special properties	Prerequisites	Supplies	Alloys	Elerium Crystals	Black Market Value
Combat Knife	2-4	+3	6	+20 Aim +20 Crit Chance	XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
Vibroblade	3-8	+5	6	+20 Aim +20 Crit Chance Ignores 2 Armor	Muton Autopsy	10	1	-	5

Arc Thrower

The Arc Thrower is used by the Assault class. They do no damage, but will stun organic enemies if it hits. Importantly, it has normal range penalties, giving a shotgun equipped Assault an option to use at range.

Perks allow the Arc Thrower to deal armour-ignoring damage to mechanical enemies (MECs, Drones) and reduce their hack defense.

Name	Stun Duration (Organic Only)	EMPulse Damage (Robotic only)	Sound Range	Special properties	Prerequisites	Cost					Black Market Value
Name	Stun Duration (Organic Only)	EMPulse Damage (Robotic only)	Sound Range	Special properties	Prerequisites	Supplies	Alloys	Elerium Crystals	Elerium Cores	Corpses	Black Market Value
Arc Thrower	2 actions / 1 turn	2-5	30	+5 Aim	XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
Advanced Arc Thrower	3 actions / 1 and half turns	4-9	30	+5 Aim	ADVENT Stun Lancer Autopsy	20	1	3	-	-	10
Arc Blaster	4 actions / 2 turns	7-12	30	+5 Aim	Gatekeeper Autopsy	35	1	5	1	1x Gatekeeper Shell	20

GREMLIN

The GREMLIN is used by the Specialist class. These little robots provide electronic warfare and logistical combat support, such as remote hacking and healing, and can deal damage with the right perks, especially against mechanical enemies.

Weapon	Effect	Organic enemy damage	Mechanical enemy damage	Healing	Aid Protocol	Requirements
Gremlin	-	2	3-4	0	+20 defense	-
Gremlin Mk II	+20 Hack	4	7-8	+1	+30 defense	ADVENT Mech Autopsy
Gremlin Mk III	+40 Hack	6	10-11	+2	+40 defense	Sectopod Autopsy

Grenade Launcher

The Grenade Launcher is used by the Grenadier class. They give bonus damage, extended range and improved blast radius on top of that normally given by the launched grenade.

Weapon	Bonus Damage	Bonus Range	Bonus Radius
Stock Grenade Launcher	0	+4	+1
Advanced Grenade Launcher	?	+5	+2
¹ Volatile mix adds +2 damage and +1 radius. There is no tier 3 Grenade Launcher

Holotargeter

The Holotargeter is used by the Sharpshooter class. Holotargeters have squadsight range and apply an aim bonus to any targeted enemies. The Sharpshooter can specialize in various skills to augment the Holotargeter with additional bonuses and allow targeting of multiple enemies in a single turn.

Name	Aim Bonus	HiDef Holo Crit Bonus	VPT Damage Bonus	Multitargeting Radius	Prerequisites	Cost					Black Market Value
Name	Aim Bonus	HiDef Holo Crit Bonus	VPT Damage Bonus	Multitargeting Radius	Prerequisites	Supplies	Alloys	Elerium Crystals	Elerium Cores	Corpses	Black Market Value
Holotargeter	+10	+10	+1	4	XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
Holotargeter Mark II	+15	+15	+1	5	ADVENT MEC Breakdown	30	1	0	1	1x ADVENT MEC Wreck	5
Holotargeter Mark III	+20	+20	+2	6	Andromedon Autopsy	60	3	0	1	1x Andromedon Wreck	10

Psi Amp

The Psi Amp is used by the Psi Operative class. They are used for all psionic attacks.

Weapon	Effect	Soul Fire	Void Rift	Null Lance	Requirements
Psi Amp	-	4-6	?	?	-
Advanced Psi Amp	+20 Psi	5-7	4-5	7-12	Sectoid Autopsy
Alien Psi Amp	+40 Psi	6-8	3-6	9-14	Gatekeeper Autopsy

Sawed-Off Shotgun

The Sawed-Off Shotgun is used by the Ranger class. It deals colossal damage at close range, especially if both barrels are used at once, but has extreme accuracy penalties beyond a few tiles. These shotguns cannot be reloaded.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	5-9	+2
Magnetic	8-16	+5		25	1	1

Weapon Range Bonus
Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Aim Bonus	40	20	0	-20	-40	-80	-100	-100	MAX

Sword

The Sword is used by the Shinobi class.

Weapon Tiers
Tier	Damage	Crit Damage	Aim Bonus	Crit Chance	Supplies	Alloys	Crystals	Cores
Ballistic	3-5	+2	20	10
Magnetic	5-9	+3	25	15	30	2	1
Plasma	7-13	+5	30	20	60	3	3	1

Heavy Weapons

Heavy weapons are carried by the Technical class and other soldiers in EXO suits. Technicals carry the Gauntlet, which has an integrated rocket launcher and flamethrower. Technicals in an EXO suit can't equip different heavy weapons, but can carry extra rockets and flamethrower fuel in its heavy weapon slot. Other soldiers can carry different heavy weapons, but not rocket launchers or flamethrowers.

Name	Effect
Rocket Launcher	Deals high area damage, but can scatter based on aim, range and whether the soldier has moved this turn.
Flamethrower	Fires a short range cone that pierces low cover and can inflict Burning.
Shredder Gun	Fires a large cone that does Shred 2.

Rocket Scatter

Rocket scatter is calculated by making a number of aim rolls against the maximum scatter distance and applying scatter of that number of tiles in a random direction. The maximum scatter is by default 4 tiles, reduced by 2 tiles by the Fire In The Hole ability, and increased by 2 tiles if the soldier has only one action remaining.

The aim rolls are based on the aim of the soldier, reduced by 30 if the soldier has only one action remaining, with a range penalty of 3 per tile further than 9.

So, if your Tech has 70 Aim innately and Fire In The Hole, hasn't moved and is taking a shot at a target 14 tiles away (-15), you want 2 rolls of 55%. Doable. On the other hand if they moved before firing, you want 4 rolls of 25%. Not great odds!

Weapon Upgrades

[...]

Mod	Effect	Basic	Advanced	Superior
Auto Loader	Free reload	+1	+2	+3
Expanded Magazine	Adds ammo capacity	+1	+2	+3
Hair Trigger	Adds bonus aim to reaction fire	+5%	+10%	+15%
Laser Sight	Adds critical chance bonus	+5%	+10%	+15%
Scope	Adds bonus aim to non-reaction fire	+5%	+10%	+15%
Stock	Grants the Steady Weapon ability (+X aim, +X crit on next shot)	+15	+20	+25
Suppressor	Reduces Soldier's impact on infiltration time by (X), Reduces a Weapon's sound range by (Y) meters.¹	15%, 3	20%, 5	25%, 8

¹(Assuming 1 Tile = 1.5 Meters) Basic Suppressor: 2 Tiles, Advanced: 3.33 Tiles, Superior: 5.33 Tiles; in a straight line.