Jagged Alliance 3 best weapons and how to get them

Owning the Jagged Alliance 3 best weapons can make or break your mercenary engagements against enemies. In THQ Nordic’s and Haemimont Games’ newest entry into the series, there’s a vast arsenal waiting for discovery. From shotguns and pistols to snipers and machine guns, you’re spoilt for choice. But not all guns and weapons are made equal.

In this guide, we’ll go over the Jagged Alliance 3 best weapons, why they’re so good, and how you can get your hands on them. Whether you’re running with some of the best starting mercs or you’ve learnt how to make money in Jagged Alliance 3 and hired a squad of legendary hitmen, you’ll be able to take on The Major and the Legion with the kit on this list.

Here are the best weapons in Jagged Alliance 3.

The Thing

The Thing is considered the best melee weapon in the game. It’s a machete, with unrivalled strength scaling, making it a lethal choice in the hands of high-strength mercs. With great durability too, it can do more damage than any comparable knife.

It doesn’t have much in the way of range of course, but melee combat isn’t severely taxing on AP, so equipped to a suitable merc, it can easily clear out enemies with devastating efficiency.

How to get The Thing

To get your hands on The Thing, you just need to complete Boss Blaubert’s quest. On reaching the end of it, assuming you side with the Boss, you can loot The Thing from the body of Luigi’s bodyguard.

RPG 7

The RPG 7 is a heavy weapon with an even heavier punch. This weapon is a rocket launcher, and it takes RPG rounds. It’s got a solid range of 45, and extreme super-heavy armour penetration. Any opponent caught in its blast will be savaged by this launcher’s high damage. Because it’s rockets are AOE damage though, it can also hit multiple targets at once, making it a great tool for evening the numbers in asymmetrical engagements.

How to get the RPG 7

You can find the RPG 7 as a rare drop around the world map, with the weapon most commonly spawning in challenging areas during the mid and late game. We found one up at Hill Station in sector A8 on the satellite map. Though be warned, this is a long, multi-wave engagement, and probably not the easiest place to find it.

MGL

The MGL is a grenade launcher, with many of the benefits of a weapon like the RPG 7, but greater versatility. It’s got slightly less armour penetration, classed as heavy rather than super heavy. It also does a bit less damage. However, the MGL is lighter, easier to use, and comes with a much wider range of ammunition.

You can utilise High Explosive (HE) grenades to maximise the collateral and bodily damage when firing it at groups of opponents. But you also have Smoke grenades and Flashbang grenades, allowing you to blind and stun enemies. This means that with as much destructive potential as the MGL might possess, it’s just as capable at reducing the enemy’s combat effectiveness. For this flexibility, the MGL earns a spot on this list.

How to get the MGL

Again, the MGL can be found as a rare drop, but it does consistently spawn in some places. You’ll be able to find one in a locked crate in Landsbach Mine in B12. This sector also has a few locations storing different types of ammunition for the weapon.

Ma Baxter’s Argument Invalidator

There are a lot of shotguns in Jagged Alliance 3, and all of them are particularly powerful. But the Argument Invalidator is one of the most unique. It’s a heavily modified Auto-5 shotgun owned by the late and legendary Ma Baxter.

What makes this weapon unique is that unlike the regular Auto-5, this variant can hold up to 14 shells at once, resulting in a burst fire whenever it’s used. Given the detrimental effects different shotgun ammo can inflict, and the high damage they can deal, the Argument Invalidator can easily kill wounded enemies outright, or even strong opponents on a critical hit.

How to get Ma Baxter’s Argument Invalidator

To pick this shotgun up, you need to complete Headshot Hue’s quest in Port Cacao. Hue has a friend who suffered brain damage during combat, and he wants to take away a shotgun left to him by his mother, Ma Baxter, for fear he could hurt himself or someone else. To do this, he plans to dress up as his friend’s late mother and convince him to hand over the gun.

You can help him pull this off by obtaining a red wig for him. The easiest way to get one is to head to The Dump, just near Port Cacao, and eliminate the Baroness of The Dump by siding against her in the standoff you’ll find in progress when you arrive. From here just loot it off her body and return to Hue.

Once Hue succeeds, he’ll sell the weapon to you for $2000, not too bad a price for a weapon this deadly.

M82

The M82 is a 50. Cal sniper rifle. Need we even say more? Though the ammo is rare, it’s expensive to repair and it costs a lot of AP, it’s all worth it for the staggering damage potential of this gun. With a solid range, heavy penetration and a high crit chance, the M82 can and will obliterate lightly-armoured targets, and savage even the most well protected ones.

In the hands of a merc with a good marksmanship attribute and strong dexterity and agility, the M82 can effectively turn the tide of a battle on its own.

How to get the M82

The M82 is another rare drop that you can pick up in late game sectors and engagements around the world. You’ll be able to pick one up from the underground bunker beneath Fort L’eau Bleu by heading left of the main corridor and into the sleeping quarters. This is just one place though, and if it’s too far into the late game for your comfort, you’ve a decent chance of coming across one if you poke around up north as well.

MG42

The MG42 isn’t as late-game a weapon as some of the others on this list, nor is it as rare. However, the weapon’s potential and flexibility within its class earn it a spot here. The MG42 is a machine gun which takes NATO 7.62mm rounds, one of the most common ammo types in the game.

Machine guns are particularly powerful for their ability to be set up, creating a large zone of passive Overwatch – meaning any enemies that take an action within the zone will be fired upon. The MG42 in particular is great for it’s solid range and damage output, as well as its ease of use. High marksmanship is not required in order to wield it effectively, as it’s accuracy bonus when prone is massive. That said, it also doesn’t have a debilitating AP cost despite its weapon type. Combine all of this with a 100 round capacity magazine, and it quickly becomes clear why the MG42 is such a good choice of weapon.

How to get the MG42

The MG42 can be found as an uncommon drop all across the map. You’ll start encountering it once you reach the mid-game and have liberated your first few diamond mines. They’ll sometimes drop off of enemies, but can spawn inside lootable crates as well, so be sure to scour sectors thoroughly after battle.

That covers all our picks for the Jagged Alliance 3 best weapons, and how to get them. We have no doubt that this list might need a counterpart for addons soon with all the best Jagged Alliance 3 mods coming out. Until then, good luck hunting down these deadly tools and liberating Gran Chein.

What is the best melee weapon in Jagged Alliance 3?

The best melee weapon in Jagged Alliance 3 is The Thing, a strength-scaling machete.

What is the best sniper rifle in Jagged Alliance 3?

The best sniper rifle in Jagged Alliance 3 is the M82, a 50. cal sniper. 

What is the best explosive weapon in Jagged Alliance 3?

The best explosive weapon in Jagged Alliance 3 is the RPG 7  rocket launcher, for its high damage and range.