PUBG Weapon Tier List: Every Gun Ranked After Update 43.1

Update 43.1 landed on PC on September 10 and reshuffled PUBG's weapon meta in one specific place: light machine guns. KRAFTON's own patch notes admit the class had "a greater impact on the overall gameplay environment than intended," and the fix touches aim speed, recoil, vehicle damage and even how often you find one on the ground. Everything else in your loot pool is untouched, which means this ranking is really about where LMGs land now that they've dropped out of the conversation at the very top.

This is an opinion ranking, built from that patch data plus how each weapon class is actually played across Erangel, Miramar, Taego, Deston and Rondo. Where a claim is about a specific number, it's pulled straight from KRAFTON's own notes; everything else below is a read on the current meta, not a lab-tested statistic, and it's labelled that way throughout.

01What Update 43.1 Actually Changed

The headline number is ADS transition time on every LMG, up from 0.30 seconds to 0.37 seconds — a small figure that matters a lot in a game where the first shot on target usually decides a duel. KRAFTON explained the reasoning directly: "LMGs are designed to sustain fire for extended periods thanks to their large magazine capacities, we've increased ADS transition times for all LMGs to further emphasize this characteristic." In other words, the class is meant to win a fight it's already in, not the opening exchange.

Recoil control took a parallel hit. Firing-position bonuses while crouched or prone were reduced across the board — the RPD loses 10% recoil control standing, 17% crouching and 27% prone; the M249 loses 17% crouching and 27% prone; the MG3 loses 15% standing and 17% crouching. KRAFTON's stated reason was that "firing while crouched or prone was overly stable" compared with player feedback and observed play patterns, which tracks with how often LMGs turned static holds into free kills.

Vehicle damage came down too. The RPD and M249's damage multiplier against vehicles drops from 1.1x to 1.0x, and the MG3's from 1.25x to 1.1x — KRAFTON's logic being that "large magazine capacities and sustained firepower alone provide sufficient means to pressure vehicles" without a bonus multiplier stacked on top. Finally, world spawn rates for the RPD and M249 are down 30%, so you'll simply cross paths with fewer of them this patch; KRAFTON wants finding one to "feel more meaningful" now that it isn't the automatic best-in-slot pickup.

What didn't change matters just as much: magazine size, base damage and fire rate are all untouched. An LMG that's already locked onto you and holding an angle is exactly as dangerous as it was in Update 43. The nerfs hit the seconds before that — the raise, the first burst, the initial trade — and that's where most PUBG engagements are actually won or lost.

02S-Tier: The Guns to Land Near

Assault rifles keep the top spot this patch, and the LMG changes only widen the gap. The M416 and Beryl M762 remain the default pick for a reason: full-auto ARs cover every range you realistically fight at in a normal PUBG circle, from spraying through a doorway to tapping someone across a field, and neither weapon lost anything in 43.1. Land near one with a halfway-decent attachment set — a compensator, a 4x or holo, an extended mag — and you're equipped for the rest of the match without needing to go looking for a second primary.

DMRs sit in S-tier for a related but distinct reason. A Mini 14 or SKS built for single-fire, mid-range trading punishes exactly the kind of stand-and-hold fight that LMGs used to win almost automatically. With LMG follow-up shots now coming out slower off the raise, a well-placed opening DMR round has meaningfully more time to land first than it did before this patch. If you're comfortable tapping instead of spraying, a DMR is arguably the single biggest net winner of Update 43.1 without KRAFTON touching a single one of its stats directly.

03A-Tier: Reliable Picks

SMGs and bolt-action sniper rifles make up the next tier down, and both are situational rather than universal. SMGs like the Vector or UMP45 are still the correct call in buildings, compounds and close third-party fights, where the LMG's now-slower ADS matters even more than it does in the open — close range is a race to aim-in, and SMGs already win that race by design. Their weakness hasn't moved: past 50 meters they fall off fast, so they're a complement to an AR, not a replacement for one.

Bolt-action rifles — the Kar98k and M24 — haven't changed at all in 43.1, and they remain the single best answer to a long, open sightline on maps like Miramar or Rondo. The tradeoff is the same as it's always been: enormous reward for a landed headshot, a long recovery if you miss, and close to useless if a fight closes distance on you. Their tier placement here reflects consistency, not a patch-driven buff.

04B-Tier: Solid But Situational

This is where LMGs land now, and it's worth being precise about what that means. The RPD, M249 and MG3 are still genuinely strong weapons once a fight is already underway at medium range and you're holding an angle rather than pushing one — the sustained-fire identity KRAFTON says it wants to protect is fully intact, and a squad that gets pinned by MG3 fire from a treeline is still in real trouble. What they've lost is the ability to win the opening exchange as cleanly as an AR or DMR can, and the opening exchange is what most PUBG fights actually come down to before either side gets to "sustained."

Practically, that pushes LMGs from a first-pick weapon to an opportunistic one. Grab an RPD or M249 if it's directly in your path — especially now that they're 30% rarer on the ground, so passing one up means you probably won't see another for a while — but it's no longer worth detouring across a compound for one the way it may have made sense to before 43.1. Use it to anchor a position your squad already holds, not to open a fight from a cold start.

05C-Tier: Skip Unless You Have To

Shotguns and pistols round out the list, and neither was touched in 43.1 because neither needed to be — they were already this specialized before the patch. Shotguns like the S12K or S1897 are still a legitimate ambush tool inside a building or through a doorway, capable of dropping a full-health player in one or two hits at point-blank range, but they're a liability the moment a fight opens up past a room's width. Pistols — the P92, R45, Deagle and the rest — remain exactly what they've always been: a last resort you carry for the first thirty seconds of a match and drop the instant you find literally anything else on the ground.

06How to Adjust Your Loadout After 43.1

You don't need to relearn PUBG over one balance pass, but a few habits from before the patch are worth re-testing before you assume they still hold up exactly the same way. Update 43.1 also shipped a water-combat rework — sidearms and throwables now work while swimming, and swim and dive speed are both up 25% — plus new kick actions and a Jujutsu Kaisen collaboration on Erangel, none of which change weapon rankings directly but do change how fights start and where you'll rotate through this loot pool.

How to Adjust Your Loadout After 43.1

1. 1If you were running the RPD, M249 or MG3 as your one true primary, swap in an AR or DMR for a few matches — the class still works as a second weapon, just not as your only gun anymore.2 minutes
2. 2Spend a warm-up match or a range session testing how an LMG's raise-and-fire feels at 0.37 seconds instead of 0.30 — the gap is small on paper but noticeable the first few times you duel with one.5 minutes
3. 3The recoil-control bonus for those stances took the biggest cut, so a static LMG hold isn't the free win it used to be — pair it with cover rotation instead of camping one spot.3 minutes
4. 4With world spawns down 30%, grab one if it's directly on your path, but don't cross a compound for it the way you might have before 43.1.2 minutes
5. 5If your squad used LMG fire to soften vehicles at range, hand that job to whichever AR or DMR you're already carrying — the damage-multiplier gap has closed.3 minutes

If your squad was leaning on LMG suppression to soften vehicles from a distance, that plan takes the clearest hit from this patch — with the multiplier down to 1.0x and 1.1x, an AR or DMR is now a comparably efficient way to spend ammo on a vehicle target, without giving up anything in a person-to-person fight. Everything else in the current meta is stable enough that your end-game strategy shouldn't need a rework here, just a slightly different first pick the moment you land.