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Best Atomic Heart weapons and attachment upgrades

Atomic Heart weapons are your first line of defence against Sechenov’s robots, but you’ll need to pair them with the best attachment upgrades to stay alive.

Atomic Heart best weapons: Major P-3, the protagonist of Atomic Heart, wielding one of the many melee weapons that can be crafted via NORA in Facility 3826.
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Atomic Heart 

If you’re looking for the best Atomic Heart weapons, you’ve come to the right place. Aside from a talkative experimental power glove and a bad attitude, there’s not much standing between Major P-3 and Atomic Heart’s neural network of synthetic creations gone rogue. Thankfully, Facility 3826 has got some serious firepower lying around, and a weapon to suit every playstyle.

That being said, you won’t see the full potential of Atomic Heart weapons without investing in attachment upgrades. Not only can they give your stats a boost, they’re also essential for shaping your loadout to your liking. In short, if you’re looking to rip and tear your way through robots to Mick Gordon’s synth soundtrack, here’s the lowdown on Atomic Heart weapons and attachment upgrades.

Atomic Heart best weapons: The crafting menu in Mundfish's FPS game, displaying Padhtest, Fox, and Swede, three melee weapons that can be equipped and upgraded.

While the Major will initially pick up Atomic Heart weapons on his way through the various complexes of Facility 3826, you can also craft additional weapons using various resources found in the Atomic Heart map. The volume and rarity of the resources necessary can vary wildly from weapon to weapon, and you’ll need to track down the recipe before you can create them. Check out our Atomic Heart tips guide if you’re having trouble expanding your loadout.

Here are all 12 Atomic Heart weapons:

  • Dominator
  • Electro
  • Fat Boy
  • Fox
  • Kalash
  • KS-23
  • MP
  • Pashtet
  • Railgun
  • Snowball
  • Swede
  • Zvezdochka

Atomic Heart weapons can be split into two categories: melee and ranged. Melee weapons accumulate ammunition for your energy-based ranged weapons, so if you’re looking to conserve ammo or resources, alternating between the two is a must. Traditional firepower is also plentiful, but requires you to source ammunition by looting or crafting. If you’d prefer to go with a modified shotgun or assault rifle over one of Sechenov’s inventions, you still have that option – just be sure to take your shots wisely.

Of course, you can’t expect to lug a complete arsenal around Facility 3826, but you can store extraneous firepower with NORA until you’re ready to equip them. You can even disassemble Atomic Heart weapons that never see the light of day, and repurpose their materials to craft something more to your taste.

These are our picks for the best Atomic Heart weapons:

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The Zvezdochka, a long stick with a circular buzz saw mounted on its tip.

Zvezdochka

The Zvezdochka featured prominently in Atomic Heart’s marketing, and for good reason. It’s a devastating melee weapon capable of knocking smaller enemies off their feet with one basic upgrade to the Uppercut attachment, but even a few basic swings will do the job just fine. Its one drawback is its slow charge speed, but given the amount of damage it can dish out with just a brief swing, it’s a small price to pay – and the pay-off for investing in a charged attack on a stunned enemy is well worth it.

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The Fox, a hatchet wrapped in barbed wire.

Fox

If you just can’t beat the satisfaction of a charged melee attack, then the Fox will be more to your liking. On paper, it’s not much to sniff at, but its low damage can immediately be remedied via upgrades that demand low-value crafting resources. There’s also a range of versatile buffs on offer depending on your upgrade preferences, including a speed boost and area-of-effect stun. The Fox is a great accompaniment to energy weapons once its Steel Blade attachment is fully upgraded, allowing you to accumulate twice as much energy at reduced health.

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The Electro, an intricate energy pistol with electrical wires protruding from its barrel.

Electro

If you’re partial to energy weapons, you might be tempted to opt for the Dominator over the Electro given their respective base stats. However, the Electro offers far greater potential if you have the resources to invest in it. Its EMP Generator special attack stuns all robots in the immediate vicinity, and later upgrades to other attachments allow its damage to ramp with considerable speed. It’s not terribly flashy, but the Electro’s pinpoint accuracy can knock Pchelas out of the air with a single blast, which also comes at a low energy cost. Unlike its heftier counterparts, the Electro is cheap, cheerful, and reliable.

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The KS-23, a standard shotgun with a cryo cartridge module attached to its barrel.

KS-23

Where would we be in an FPS game without a shotgun? The KS-23 is a mainstay weapon from early to late-game due to its impressive damage output and overall versatility. Unsurprisingly, it’s great for crowd control since you can pick off stragglers with a single blast, or force some breathing room between yourself and sturdier enemies. Its slow rate of fire also makes it the ideal candidate for cartridge modules since you’ll be looking to make every shot count.

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The Kalash, a standard assault rifle.

Kalash

The Kalash serves as a core weapon in the majority of loadouts, sitting comfortably between your pistol and shotgun. Freshly crafted, the Kalash suffers from the standard pitfalls of any assault rifle (namely, recoil control and accuracy) but there are plenty of upgrades available to its attachments that can help close those gaps and turn it into a great all-rounder. Its incredibly high fire rate means it goes through Atomic Heart cartridges faster than the KS-23, but you can expect it to tear through enemies susceptible to firearms in record time.

Best Atomic Heart weapons: The Fat Boy, a standard rocket launcher.

Fat Boy

As you might expect from a missile launcher, the Fat Boy excels at inflicting a generous amount of damage on single targets, making it the ideal weapon against Atomic Heart bosses. The Fat Boy is excellent at clearing large crowds of robots and mutants in open areas, especially after applying upgrades to its damage radius – just be sure not to get caught in its blast.

Atomic Heart weapon upgrades

Atomic Heart weapon upgrades are necessary for adjusting the base stats of each weapon to your liking. You might like to maximise the damage output of traditional weapons to make the most out of their limited ammo, or improve your chances of survival against certain enemy types. Either way, weapon attachments are essential for upgrading your loadout, and there’s plenty of room for experimentation in the RPG game.

Atomic Heart best weapons: The weapon upgrades menu within NORA, displaying the various attachments for the Kalash, including an Elektrokinetic Stock.

There are five Atomic Heart weapon attachment types:

  • Barrel case
  • Barrel module
  • Cartridge gun
  • Magazine
  • Aiming devices

Aside from stat bonuses, certain attachments include special attacks to your Atomic Heart weapons that can change how they perform in combat. You might opt for a spinning roundhouse manoeuvre for your axe for some crowd control when groups of enemies threaten to overwhelm you, or a finishing move capable of tearing through larger foes.

The best weapon attachment recipes can be found in Atomic Heart Testing Grounds, and you can track their locations by selecting them in NORA’s upgrade menu. Each weapon attachment can be upgraded a maximum of four times, unlocking additional buffs per level, though you’ll have to spend resources in order to install and upgrade them.

There you have it, the best Atomic Heart weapons your resources can buy. Weapons make up half of your loadout, so check out our Atomic Heart skills primer if you’re planning on dispatching foes with your polymer glove. Finally, if you’re itching to dive into the retrofuturist story game, be sure to brush up on the Atomic Heart system requirements, as well as our guide to exactly how long is Atomic Heart for both casuals and completionists. We also have the best PC games if you fancy tackling something else.

Developer Mundfish has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks after it was alleged that the Russian government stands to gain financially from the release of Atomic Heart. This is due to the fact that investors involved in financing Mundfish include GEM Capital, an investment fund whose founder has ties to Gazprom and VTB Bank, both of which are majority-owned by the Russian state.

Further, Mundfish is partnering with VK (formerly Mail.RU) for the Russian release of Atomic Heart, evading sanctions on Steam. VK is also majority-owned by the Russian state through Gazprombank, and Mundfish’s CEO is a former Creative Director at Mail.RU.

With Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, many players are choosing to boycott the game in protest and donate money to organisations like The Ukraine Crisis Appeal, International Rescue Committee, and the British Red Cross.

Nat is a Guides Writer at PCGamesN. Come rain or shine, she’s here to help you through the toughest soulslikes, RPGs, and horror games. When she’s not wishing on banners in Honkai Star Rail, she’s probably starting yet another playthrough of Elden Ring. Outside of guides, she’s known for her reviews and features, from her Starfield review to her critical exploration of Amnesia The Bunker and WWI poetry. She’s also a champion of indie games, and has attended WASD on a number of occasions for PCGamesN. Don't ask her to choose her favorite Baldur's Gate 3 companion - you'll never get a straight answer.