Strange Brigade Tier List - Best Characters & Builds

Executive Summary

In the occult, Egyptian-themed co-op shooter Strange Brigade, your success on the highest difficulties hinges entirely on the tools you bring to the fight. While all four playable characters possess identical base stats and health pools, the true flavor and meta of the game emerge through its diverse arsenal. With hundreds of weapon variations, elemental prefixes, and synergistic amulet combinations, figuring out what to equip can be overwhelming.

This guide cuts through the noise. The consensus among veteran players is clear: Weapons are the ultimate deciding factor in your tier placement. A bad character can be carried by a phenomenal weapon, but even the best character will struggle with an underperforming gun. Below is a quick snapshot of the current meta. The highest tiers are dominated by weapons that offer supreme crowd-control synergy, aggressive mobility, or burst AoE damage that perfectly complements the game's loop of shooting, harvesting souls, and triggering amulet abilities.

Best in Slot

These are the absolute pinnacle of Strange Brigade's arsenal. If you manage to roll these weapons with ideal elemental prefixes (like Shock or Toxic), they will carry you through the grueling "Curse of the Pharaohs" difficulty with ease.

The Mummy's Hand (Pistol)

It might seem counterintuitive to put a pistol in the S-tier, but the Mummy's Hand is arguably the most broken primary weapon in the entire game. This weapon fires slow-moving, glowing projectiles that act as miniature homing missiles. Upon impact, they create a localized explosion that deals massive AoE damage. The true genius of the Mummy's Hand lies in its soul-generation. Because the explosion hits multiple enemies simultaneously, you will be drowning in blue souls, allowing you to spam your amulet abilities almost constantly. When paired with the Shroud of the Wolf amulet (which summons ghost wolves that hunt down enemies), this weapon turns the game into an idle simulator where you barely have to pull the trigger.

The Webley (Revolver)

If the Mummy's Hand is the king of AoE clearing, the Webley is the undisputed king of single-target damage and boss melting. The Webley is a magnum revolver that boasts absurd base damage per shot. Its utility goes beyond raw DPS, however. The Webley features an innate ability to stagger larger enemies, including shielded Ammit monsters and heavily armored bosses. In a game where getting cornered means instant death, the ability to seamlessly interrupt a charging enemy with a well-placed headshot is invaluable. A Shock-infused Webley ensures that even if you don't kill a target instantly, they are briefly stunned out of their attack animation, giving your team crucial breathing room.

The Eastern Star (Rifle)

Rifles in Strange Brigade are generally designed for precision, but the Eastern Star takes it to another level. This weapon has a uniquely generous hitbox for critical hits, meaning you don't need to be a pixel-perfect sharpshooter to consistently land headshots. Landing headshots with the Eastern Star refunds a portion of your ammo, effectively giving it infinite ammo capacity as long as your aim is true. Furthermore, critical kills with this rifle trigger a chain-lightning effect that arcs to nearby enemies. It perfectly bridges the gap between single-target elimination and crowd control, making it the most versatile primary weapon in the game.

The Storm Hammer (Shotgun)

Shotguns are inherently risky in Strange Brigade because their low ammo pools and requirement to get close to enemies can result in quick deaths on higher difficulties. The Storm Hammer mitigates these flaws brilliantly. It fires clusters of explosive pellets that stick to enemies and detonate after a short delay. This means you can fire, take cover, and let the damage tick without exposing yourself to counter-attacks. A Toxic variant of the Storm Hammer will leave clouds of poison gas after detonation, creating deadly no-go zones for the undead hordes. It is the ultimate panic-button weapon when your perimeter is breached.

Solid Choices

A-tier weapons are highly effective, reliable, and will absolutely get the job done. They generally lack the overwhelming synergy or game-breaking quirks of the S-tier picks, requiring slightly more deliberate play to reach their full potential.

The Rigby (Rifle)

The Rigby is a classic, hard-hitting bolt-action rifle. It operates exactly how you expect a high-caliber hunting rifle to function: slow fire rate, high recoil, but devastating damage output. The Rigby excels at safely picking off special enemies from across the map. Its primary drawback is its poor performance in tight corridors where rapid crowd control is necessary. You will need to rely heavily on your secondary weapon and amulet to cover your blind spots when using the Rigby. However, if you have a coordinated team where one player acts as the dedicated sniper, the Rigby is a phenomenal tool.

The Medusa (SMG)

For players who prefer a fast-paced, run-and-gun style, the Medusa is the top choice. It boasts an incredibly high rate of fire and a massive magazine size. The main drawback of the Medusa is its low per-bullet damage, which makes it somewhat ammo-inefficient against tankier enemies. However, because of its blistering fire rate, it applies elemental status effects faster than almost any other weapon in the game. A Fire-typed Medusa will turn a mob of mummies into a blazing bonfire in seconds, stripping away their armor and leaving them vulnerable to finishers. Just be mindful of your ammo reserves.

The Bulldog (Secondary Shotgun)

While not a primary weapon, your secondary slot is vital for survivability, and the Bulldog is the best option there. It has a wide spread and decent damage, making it the perfect "get off me" tool. When a pack of rushers gets past your primary fire line, a quick swap to the Bulldog will clear the immediate threat. It doesn't have the explosive flair of the Storm Hammer, but it reloads fast and occupies a highly necessary tactical niche in any loadout.

The Naptha (Launcher)

Heavy weapons are often skipped by veteran players due to their slow movement speed penalties and shared ammo types, but the Naptha is an exception. It acts as a makeshift flamethrower, spewing a continuous stream of fire. This makes it unparalleled for clearing out the undead that spawn from the ground in massive waves. The lingering fire damage also procs soul drops consistently. It sits in A-tier because while its clearing potential is massive, equipping a heavy weapon inherently limits your mobility, which is a severe liability during boss fights.

Niche Picks

B-tier weapons are not inherently "bad," but they are heavily restricted by specific map layouts, enemy types, or require an unreasonable amount of effort to make viable compared to the higher tiers.

The Adjudicator (Lever-Action Rifle)

The Adjudicator is a high-damage lever-action rifle that requires you to manually cycle the action between every shot. In a game where hordes of enemies are sprinting at you, stopping to pump a lever after every trigger pull feels incredibly clunky. It can be devastating if you can consistently land headshots, as it features a unique bleed effect on critical hits. However, the time-to-kill on multiple targets is simply too slow compared to automatic or explosive alternatives. It shines only in very specific scenarios where enemies approach in a single-file line, which is rare in this game's chaotic AI scripting.

The Vickers (LMG)

Light machine guns always look appealing on paper due to their massive magazine sizes. The Vickers lets you hold down the trigger and suppress an entire hallway. The problem is twofold: the damage per bullet is pitiful, meaning you will often empty a 100-round magazine into a single heavy enemy without killing it, and the reload time is agonizingly long. If you are caught reloading the Vickers when a wave spawns, you are practically guaranteed to go into the bleed-out state. It requires a dedicated pocket-healer teammate to be truly viable, pushing it firmly into niche territory.

The Sirhan (Pistol)

The Sirhan is a burst-fire pistol that shoots three rounds in quick succession. While it has a decent damage output for a sidearm, the burst mechanic works against the game's core rhythm. Strange Brigade rewards precise, singular shots to the head to conserve ammo and trigger critical hit bonuses. Firing three rounds at a time often wastes bullets on overkill, making it highly inefficient. It functions okay as a secondary weapon for finishing off weakened targets, but the standard-issue secondary pistols perform the same role without the risk of wasting ammo.

Underperformers

These are the weapons you should actively avoid using, or immediately replace if you find them in a cache. In a game where inventory management and ammo conservation are critical, these weapons will actively hinder your team's performance.

The Maschinenpistole (SMG)

While the Medusa SMG is viable due to its elemental application, the base Maschinenpistole is a trap. It suffers from severe damage fall-off at range, meaning it struggles to kill anything outside of melee distance. Unlike the Medusa, its fire rate isn't high enough to quickly stack elemental effects, leaving you in the danger zone for too long. Furthermore, it burns through your ammo reserve incredibly fast, forcing you to rely on ammo drops which are inconsistent. You are better off using almost any other primary weapon in the game.

The Luftgewehr (Air Rifle)

The Luftgewehr is a pneumatic rifle that is practically a joke weapon. Its base damage is so low that it feels like you are throwing pebbles at the undead army. The game tries to compensate for this by giving it an incredibly fast fire rate, but this just exacerbates the ammo issues present in other low-damage weapons. The only theoretical use for this weapon is speedrunning specific puzzle elements that require shooting distant targets, but even then, a standard pistol does the job faster and better. Leave it in the armory.

The Webley Mk IV (Base Revolver)

Do not confuse the standard Webley Mk IV with the S-tier Webley magnum. The base variant is the default secondary weapon you start the game with, and it never scales well enough to justify keeping it. As you progress into the later biomes, the base Webley's damage becomes completely inadequate for handling the armored enemies that regularly spawn. Its only saving grace is its unlimited reserve ammo, but relying on a weapon just because it doesn't run out of bullets is a losing strategy when every bullet fired does virtually nothing. Upgrade your secondary slot as soon as possible.

Building Around Your Picks

In Strange Brigade, a weapon is only as good as the amulet and character passive you build around it. Understanding synergies is what separates a team wiping on mission three from a team speedrunning the final boss.

• The Soul-Generation Loop: Weapons like the Mummy's Hand and Eastern Star are designed to generate souls rapidly. To maximize this, equip the Shroud of the Wolf amulet. The wolves act as autonomous damage dealers and decoys, drawing aggro while you safely farm souls to spawn more wolves. Alternatively, the Nubian Sentinel amulet works wonders here, creating an automated turret that benefits from your endless soul economy.
• The Melee-Brawler Synergy: If you prefer close-quarters weapons like the Storm Hammer, you should build around melee damage. Equip the Amulet of the Scarab to gain a massive damage reduction buff whenever you perform a melee execution. Combine this with a character like Frank, who takes reduced damage when swinging his melee weapon, and you become an unstoppable front-line tank that heals by punching enemies and blasts them with a shotgun when they get too close.
• The Critical-Hit Economy: Rifles like the Eastern Star and Rigby reward precision. Pair these with the Eye of the Mummy amulet, which grants unlimited ammo for a short duration after getting a certain number of headshots. This completely removes the ammo-reliance weakness of bolt-action rifles, allowing you to aggressively push forward without scrounging for supply crates. Patricia is the ideal character for this build, as her passive ability increases her movement speed and reload speed whenever she lands a critical hit, ensuring you are always ready for the next shot.
• Elemental Matching: Always pay attention to the elemental prefix of your weapons. If your primary weapon is Toxic, try to find a secondary weapon with a matching prefix. Applying the same element from multiple sources builds up the status effect meter twice as fast, leading to quicker paralysis or poison ticks. Avoid having your entire team run Fire weapons, as burning enemies will panic and scatter, making it harder for your team to land consistent headshots. Diversify your elemental damage across the squad.

Ultimately, the beauty of Strange Brigade is that even B-tier weapons can feel incredibly powerful if you build your character's passive tree and amulet correctly. However, if you want to minimize friction and tackle the hardest content the game has to offer, sticking to the explosive AoE clearing of the Mummy's Hand or the raw, staggering power of the Webley will always be your safest bet.