Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart: 8 Best Weapons to Buy and Upgrade

There are a total of 20 weapons in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but not all of them can be classed among the very best to add to the eight slots on the first of your weapon wheel tabs.

So, these are the eight best weapons to buy and upgrade in Rift Apart:

1. RYNO ∞ (RYNO 8)
2. Apocalypse Glove (Glove of Doom)
3. Lightning Strike (Lightning Rod)
4. Toxiary Sprinkler (Topiary Sprinkler)
5. The Migraine (Headhunter)
6. Peacemaker (Warmonger)
7. Ms. Fungal (Mr. Fungal)
8. Blackhole Vortex (Blackhole Storm)

Here’s why we rank these weapons so highly and how you can make the most of them in the game. If you’re short on bolts early on, be sure to use our bolt farming hack for Rift Apart.

1. RYNO ∞ (RYNO 8)

The RYNO ∞ is the best weapon in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, dealing tremendous amounts of damage to a wide area of enemies with one pull of the trigger.

As you upgrade the RYNO ∞ or its earlier form, the RYNO 8, you’ll increase the number of portals that it opens, its area of effect, and the damage that it does to the enemies that it hits directly. What will entice many players is the fact that this is the weapon that pulls in Horizon Zero Dawn’s Thunderjaw.

The RYNO 8 is unlocked by collecting all ten Spybots and is free to buy as a result. However, as the last Spybot isn’t available until you get into the Gold Cup on the Scarst Debris Cloud, the RYNO 8 is a very late-game weapon.

2. Apocalypse Glove (Glove of Doom)

In second place among the best weapons in Rift Apart is the classic Glove of Doom, which becomes the Apocalypse Glove at Level 5. The Glove of Doom costs 22,500 bolts from the Vendor.

Easily the best support weapon in the game, the Apocalypse Glove throws out a batch of Agents of Doom, which target your enemies, chomp away at them, and then go out in a blaze of glory by exploding to cause more damage.

The gold upgrades for the Apocalypse Glove greatly enhance it as a weapon, adding even more Agents to each DoomEgg throw. When combined with a weapon that stuns foes, you can essentially throw out a couple of DoomEggs, sit back, and relax, perhaps while aiming for distant enemies with a long-range weapon.

3. Lightning Strike (Lightning Rod)

The ability of the Lightning Strike to stun foes, deal a lot of damage, and spread the electricity around helps it to land third in these rankings of the best weapons in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The Lightning Rod costs 8,000 bolts.

Even though it’s unlocked quite early in the game – in the fifth wave of weapons to come to the Vendor – the Lightning Rod is incredibly potent: you just need to be sure to spread the shocks between clusters of enemies.

After it has transformed into the Lightning Strike at Level 5, and you’ve applied all of its 34 blue upgrades, the weapon is very easy to use. The bolts find their way to targets, its range is greatly increased, and more enemies can be chained together by the electricity, with them all taking more damage while remaining stunned.

4. Toxiary Sprinkler (Topiary Sprinkler)

Despite not dealing damage before becoming the Toxiary Sprinkler, the Topiary Sprinkler (which only costs 4,000 bolts) lands as one of the top-rated weapons in Rift Apart because of its effectiveness at stunning enemies.

Once you throw down a Topiary Sprinkler, preferably directly in front of a boss or a clutch of approaching enemies, the sprinkler will quickly hit them all and turn them into topiaries, leaving all of them vulnerable to a wave of attacks. Due to how the sprinkle moves, it can swiftly stop a large area of foes.

The Toxiary Sprinkler stuns enemies for a very long time, keeps the sprinkler out for long enough that it can hit more enemies multiple times, and sprays acid, which deals damage to enshrubbed foes. It’s the perfect complementary weapon to the best support weapons.

5. The Migraine (Headhunter)

Becoming available rather late in Ratchet & Clank, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game’s default sniper manages to clock in as one of the best weapons in Rift Apart – especially as it costs 40,000 bolts.

The Headhunter offers a slow time feature to allow for easy sniping. Still, more importantly, it’s powerful and accurate enough to allow you to get easy one-shot kills on the orange-headed Nefarious minions.

Playing on the most challenging game modes, you’ll want to level-up to The Migraine and apply its upgrades as soon as you can as they enhance its maximum ammo capacity and weak point damage. Getting the gold upgrade Shredder Bullets offers even more improvement as it creates weak points with each shot that doesn’t hit a vulnerable area.

6. Peacemaker (Warmonger)

Ranked sixth on our list of the best weapons in Rift Apart is the game’s powerful rocket launcher, the Peacemaker. You can get the Peacemaker in its initial form, the Warmonger, for 30,000 bolts as a part of the tenth wave of weapons to become available.

Dealing a tremendous amount of damage and having a decent ammo capacity, a fully-upgraded Peacemaker is a force to be reckoned with, dealing damage on impact and then further damage via a release of micro-rockets.

It has power, range, a large area of effect, and an unusually fast rate of fire. So, not only can you accurately shoot a high-damage rocket from a distance, but you can also quickly fire the second and third over, too.

7. Ms. Fungal (Mr. Fungal)

Given that you can get it in the second wave of weapons for a mere 3,000 bolts, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Mr. Fungi couldn’t be among the top Ratchet & Clank weapons, but it certainly becomes one of the best.

Initially, and if left without upgrades, the Mr. Fungi doesn’t deal much damage, nor does it distract enemies for very long. However, as it levels up and transforms into Ms. Fungal, the support weapon becomes very effective – both for dealing damage and drawing enemy fire.

The Ms. Fungal really comes into its own after you get the Max Fungis gold upgrade, which allows you to deploy two Fungis at once. Throw in a weapon that stuns foes, and perhaps another support weapon as well, and you’ve got a deadly combination that could oust a whole area of enemies very quickly.

8. Blackhole Vortex (Blackhole Storm)

The final weapon to make it onto our list of Rift Apart’s best weapons is the Blackhole Vortex. As a late-game addition to the Vendor’s store, it’ll set you back 35,000 bolts.

When creating this wheel of the best weapons, only the Lightning Strike from the weapons above allows you to fire shots at your enemies rapidly. In that regard, the Blackhole Storm – or Blackhole Vortex at Level 5 – is an improvement thanks to its colossal ammo capacity of 450 bullets.

The only restricting factor is its need to spin-up and then cool down if you hold the trigger for too long. So, with the Blackhole Storm, it’s best to fire in long bursts, but when you get the gold upgrades of the Level 5 weapon, you’re granted perks that encourage you to push the heat gauge towards its limit.

All of the weapons in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart offer a unique way to approach combat situations, and each will appeal to different players. So, these are just the eight best weapons that we found to be the most potent and useful in the game.

Which Rift Apart weapons are your go-to tools for defeating your enemies? Let us know in the comments below.  

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