One of the greatest franchises of all time, Halo, remains incredibly popular even to this day. With Halo 3 still hosting some of the most intense gunfights and campaign missions in video game history over on the Master Chief Collection, it remains as prominent as ever. Whether you’re bashing a grunt the head with a pistol or sniping out the back of a Warthog on Valhalla, you always need to carry a weapon.

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We’ve taken a look back through the weapon list on Halo 3 and ranked every gun (based on everything from effectiveness to appearance) in order from most useless, to most iconic.

19 Plasma Rifle

When it was first introduced back in Combat Evolved, the Plasma Rifle was a rather powerful weapon. By the time of Halo 3, it was one of the weakest guns in the game and forced you to recoil in pain after over-shooting.

18 Sub-Machine Gun

There isn’t anything particularly, distinctively wrong with the sub-machine gun, it’s just very rare to get a hold of in comparison to most of the other UNSC weapons. You can duel wield it, which is a nice touch.

17 Brute Spiker

While the Covenant typically shares a selection of weapons that they seem to be able to share amongst themselves, the Brutes have their own unique set-up. The Brute Spiker is probably the least impactful of all of their weapons.

16 Mauler

The Mauler, also known as the Type-52 Pistol, is another weapon we don’t see much of in Halo 3.

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It looks great and comes with a powerful blade beneath making it helpful in melee situations, but as a weapon, it’s a little misleading. Rather than acting like a normal pistol, it’s actually a short-range handheld shotgun.

15 Magnum

Unlike the Mauler, the Magnum is a pistol in both appearance, name, and function. It may be great for headshots, but as it doesn’t come close to being one of the most powerful guns in-game, it has to take a low position.

14 Carbine

The Carbine is the Covenant equivalent of the Battle Rifle and in terms of pure statistics, it’s just as powerful and just as accurate. However, it just isn’t as satisfying to kill things with plasma as it is bullets.

13 Assault Rifle

The most bog-standard weapon in Halo 3 is the one you almost always see Master Chief lugging around. There isn’t a lot to say either way for this weapon as it falls into just about every ‘average’ bracket possible.

12 Plasma Pistol

In terms of sheer firepower, the Plasma Pistol is one of the weakest guns in the game. Grunts are always seen holding these and making very little use of them. However, charging one up and using it to EMP a vehicle or destroy a shield is some seriously overpowered stuff.

11 Battle Rifle

Before Halo Reach introduced us to the DMR and the days of the Battle Rifle were numbered, this was the go-to weapon for multiplayer matches thanks to its helpful scope and powerful headshots abilities.

10 Shotgun

Unlike the Mauler, it was very clear that the shotgun was a powerful, if short-range, weapon. If you’ve got the dexterity to get up in the face of an enemy, then you can use this weapon to absolutely destroy it.

9 Needler

One of the most famous weapons in Halo history is the Needler. An enemy shoots you and you’re unable to evade its lock-on mechanic? Furious.

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You equip one yourself and know that your enemies have very little chance of avoiding your little pink spikes? Perfection.

8 Brute Shot

While the Brutes’ other main weapon, the Spiker, took a low position, their more powerful upgrade takes them towards the top of the list. Not only does this weapon come with a brutal melee blade, but it fires powerful grenades at high speed.

7 Beam Rifle

Technically, the Beam Rifle is as proficient in headshots as the Sniper Rifle. As such, it’s hard not to love. It loses a few places for being one of the covenant weapons that overheats rather than reloads.

6 Rocket Launcher

The Rocket Launcher is huge, intimidating, and powerful, capable of dealing massive damage with just one (locked-on, if you fancy) shot. Long reload times let it down slightly.

5 Gravity Hammer

The reason you’ve never seen a member of the Covenant wielding a Gravity Hammer is because this is another of the weapons specific to the Brutes.

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The powerful blasts from the Hammer send an enemy flying, even if you don’t hit them directly.

4 Fuel Rod Gun

While the plasma bullets of the Fuel Rod Gun can sometimes very annoyingly bounce away from your enemy, it takes a higher position than the Rocket Launcher thanks to a five-shot magazine.

3 Spartan Laser

One of the most destructive weapons in the history of video gaming is the Spartan Laser. It might only have five shots, but each of them is pretty much guaranteed to destroy its target.

2 Energy Sword

The Elite equivalent to the Gravity Hammer is a lot more discrete but just as capable of a one-hit kill. Go for this if you’re looking for sleek and stealthy weaponry.

1 Sniper Rifle

Of course, the crown jewel in the weapons cache of Halo 3 is the Sniper Rifle. Sneaking at a distance and double-zooming straight onto the head of an enemy has to be one of the greatest feelings in gaming.

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