Island 2: Forest · step 2 of 4

Which weapon to buy, and which one to skip

The shop lists a price and nothing else. Once you put the damage ladders side by side, the cheapest firearm in the game turns out to be the strongest one.

Every firearm in the shop, in the order the islands sell them.

Checked against Patch 1.0.11Updated 2 September 2026Written by Desh Okafor

Firearms appear in the shop on island 2 and the prices run from $50 to $20,000. The price tells you almost nothing about what the weapon does, because every one of them has a damage ladder behind it that costs more than the weapon did.

Every weapon at base and maxed

Firearms and melee weapons, cheapest first
Weapon	Price	Damage at base	Damage maxed	Damage per second	Cost to max	Cost per point gained
Brass Knuckles	$24	5	60	—	$64,278	$1,169
Knife	$45	16	120	—	$76,732	$738
Pistol	$50	25	160	1,067	$26,855	$199
Shotgun	$150	75	700	3,182	$26,540	$42
SMG	$650	24	70	1,400	$21,469	$467
Sniper Rifle	$3,800	200	500	500	$35,749	$119
Assault Rifle	$20,000	40	100	1,429	$30,550	$509

Two numbers in that table decide most purchases. Damage maxed is what the weapon reaches with every upgrade bought, and damage per second folds in how fast it can fire.

The shotgun is the answer

The Shotgun fires 25 pellets per shot. Each pellet is upgraded individually, so a single point of pellet damage is worth 25 points of damage on target. Fully upgraded that is 700 damage a shot, more than the Sniper Rifle and roughly seven times the Assault Rifle.

It costs $150 and appears on island 2, the first island that sells guns at all.

The catch That 700 assumes every pellet connects. The shotgun’s pellets spread and travel slowly, so at range you land a fraction of them. The number is honest at close quarters and optimistic anywhere else.

The assault rifle is a trap

Assault Rifle costs $20,000, which is more than every other weapon in the game put together, and it only appears in the shop on island 5. Maxed out it deals 100 damage a shot at 0.07 seconds between shots.

The SMG costs $650, fires faster, and lands within 2% of the same damage per second. The Shotgun costs $150 and beats both by more than double.

Buy the assault rifle because you want it, not because you need it.

What to buy at each stage

Which island are you on?

Island 1

Nothing fires yet. Buy the Brass Knuckles if money is short or the Knife if you can, and spend on the sharpness station here rather than saving: the first steps are cheap and the Spider Crab has a timer.

Island 2

Buy the Shotgun. The Pistol is cheaper but its ladder is worse value; every dollar after the shotgun goes into shotgun ammunition steps at the bullet station.

Island 3

Keep climbing the shotgun ladder. The SMG arrives here and is a fine second gun for players who miss with the shotgun at range, but it never matches the shotgun’s damage per dollar.

Island 4 or 5

Add the Sniper Rifle for anything that flies or keeps its distance, and take it to 300 damage. The Assault Rifle on island 5 costs more than everything else combined for a seventh of the shotgun’s damage per shot and under half of its damage per second.

Every ladder step and what it costs

Island 1 sells no firearms. The Brass Knuckles at $24 is the cheapest way to start killing things, and the Knife at $45 hits more than three times harder for the same effort.

Island 2 is where the run really starts. Buy the Shotgun and put everything after that into its ladder rather than into another weapon.

Island 4 adds the Sniper Rifle at $3,800. It is the only weapon that hits hard at range, which matters for the flying boss, and its 500 damage a shot when maxed is the highest single-projectile hit in the game.

The four purchases worth making, in the order they become available
Weapon	Price	Damage at base	Damage maxed	Damage per second	Cost to max	Cost per point gained
Brass Knuckles	$24	5	60	—	$64,278	$1,169
Knife	$45	16	120	—	$76,732	$738
Shotgun	$150	75	700	3,182	$26,540	$42
Sniper Rifle	$3,800	200	500	500	$35,749	$119

Melee is not a joke

The Knife reaches 120 damage a swing fully sharpened, which is more than the maxed Assault Rifle does per bullet. It has no ammunition cost and its upgrade path starts at $14 a step.

The catch is reach: 1.5 metres, which means standing next to whatever you are hitting. Against a boss with a time limit that is a real risk rather than a stylistic choice.

Next Every weapon costs more to upgrade than to buy. Which upgrades are worth the money? works out which ladders pay off.