The Metal Gear franchise, mostly popularized thanks to the games helmed by Hideo Kojima collectively known as Metal Gear Solid, has frequently been touted as the absolute standard for stealth games, and for good reason. The story is dense and layered, although sometimes it doesn't exactly make sense, and the gameplay has always been incredible and quirky.

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The game has featured various strange mechanics, like the fact that a boss is able to read from the player's memory card. Still, other weird mechanics include "girly magazines" that the player can deploy to distract soldiers. Here, we'll be including the most useful weapons, not necessarily the zaniest.

10 Water Pistol

The water pistol might not seem like much, but that's only to someone who isn't super familiar with the franchise and thinks they need a lot of stopping power to get through the game. The water pistol comes in handy very often since it has unlimited ammo, can be used to distract guards, and then neutralize them with CQC once you've snuck into the enemy's vicinity. Not only that, but it obviously doesn't need a suppressor, which is a major plus since they break frequently in the game.

9 CQC Knife

The CQC Knife is perhaps one of the most important weapons that either Big Boss or Solid Snake has at his disposal depending on which game you're playing. There are various permutations of the knives available to the player in different games, including the Stun Knife, which has a built-in stun feature. The knife has become something of a challenge among fans who do their best sometimes to complete entire games with just knives. It can be done, and a very high rank can be obtained, but it's pretty difficult.

8 Single-Action Army

The Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army Revolver is the weapon that Ocelot uses when we meet him in the series. It's pretty much your classic cowboy revolver, although Ocelot wields a custom-engraved version.

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In Metal Gear Solid 3, if the player starts a new game after letting Ocelot win the fight near the end of the game, Ocelot will be kind enough to let Naked Snake keep the weapon, which is then used in the next playthrough. The gun is great not because of its fire rate or capacity, but because it has ricocheting bullets.

7 EZ Gun

The EZ Gun is one of the most useful weapons in the series, despite the fact that it's a non-lethal weapon. That being said, this weapon is better in general than pretty much any of the lethal handguns in the game, not just for the fact that it elicits the player a higher score, but mostly because it makes the game much easier to get through, hence the name. The weapon eliminates footstep noise, is silent, has a laser sight, and causes quicker stamina regeneration.

6 The Patriot

The Patriot was the favored weapon of The Boss, herself a patriot despite the way the world remembers her. The weapon honestly gives the player tons of trouble during the boss fight at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3. That being said, later on, when in a struggle with Solid Snake, Big Boss wields the weapon of his former mentor (and so much more than that) near the very grave she's buried in. The weapon has a ridiculous fire-rate and damage and exists in most of the games to come after the third in the series.

5 URAGAN-5 Air S

The URAGAN-5 Air S is a weapon that the player can be obtained in Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pains. The gun was a top-secret weapon that was developed by the United States military which was stolen by Big Boss in transit.

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The weapon is essentially a concussive shotgun that functions using air that's extremely effective at close range and can knock out pretty much any living creature.

4 High-Frequency Blade

The High-Frequency Blade isn't so much a specific weapon as much as it is an entire weapon class that exists in the alternate universe the series takes place in. The weapon we're referring to here is one that's used by Raiden as he picks it up towards the end of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. It's the only weapon available to you when you get to the final battle with Solidus Snake, and we frankly wish we got more time with it, although we did with the release of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. 

3 Tanegashima

Tanegashima is kind of a terrible weapon if we're being honest here. It's an old Japanese musket that's definitely showing the years of duress it's been under. The issue isn't even necessarily the condition of the weapon either, it's the fact that it's a musket.

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It takes forever to load a single round into, it has low damage and only holds a round at a time, but aside from all of these issues, it has a 1/3 chance to kill every enemy in the area if an enemy is hit, in addition to stirring up tons of items which can be sold.

2 Rail Gun

The Rail Gun featured in Metal Gear Solid 4 is pretty much what you'd expect from a stealth game with shooter elements. It's a giant weapon with a pretty slow charge time, but that being said, it has 3 different charge levels. The first of the levels packs about as much punch as a high-powered handgun, the second does as much damage as explosives, and the third is incredibly strong, enough to take out Gekkos. The issue is that it's incredibly difficult to actually use.

1 Solar Gun

The Solar Gun might not seem incredibly exciting at first if you're unfamiliar with the weapon, but once you realize exactly how to use it, it becomes immediately apparent that it's one of the best weapons of the game. The weapon can either fire small bursts of solar energy or can be charged for basically a one-hit knockout on most enemies. The only issue with the weapon is that it is indeed a solar-powered weapon, meaning it can only really be used in the first two-thirds of MGS4.

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