ICON

All Spread Values are multiplied by 10 for readability.

Speed Modifier : How much is your speed while holding the weapon
DMG : Damage for body and headshot
RPM : Rounds Per Minute -Higher RPM means better aimpunch, lower RPM means worse.
Reload Time : How long it take to reload your weapond (in seconds)
Mags : Total Amunition available by default.
DPS : Damage Per Second - Sustained damage output.
Effective Range : Distance at which damage start falling off.
DPM : Damage Per Magazine - The total amount of damage you can put out before reloading
Starting Spread : The base level of spread of a weapon before firing it.
Moving Starting Spread : The base level of spread of a weapon before firing it while moving.
Jumping Starting Spread : The base level of spread of a weapon before firing it when jumping.
SPB : Spread Per Bullet - Spread added when shooting
ADS-SPB : Spread Per Bullet While Aiming Down Sights- Spread added when shooting

TERMS

TTK : Time To Kill - The time it takes for a weapon to kill (in seconds), Accuracy is 50%, Headshot 50%, Range 10m. Weighted with number of mercs per health amount..
Spread - How far your bullets can stray from the center of your crosshair. (lower is better)
Recoil - How much your crosshair/aim will move when firing.
Falloff: How much damage is lost at max range. (lower is better)
ADS - Aim Down Sights - Starting Spread is 0 when on the ground.(makes your bullets fire in a straight line). Effects of aiming down sights:

• reduces fov : much more accurate and faster kills
  
• reduces moving speed.
  
• removes spread (while jumping as well), more accurate than hipfiring.
  
• increases recoil (not to be confused with spread, simply means you need to look down as your firing faster than you would have to when using hipfire)

Spares Increases the maximum number of magazines that can be carried by 1 ( increases the ammo you spawn with by 1 magazine as well).

Drilled 20% reduction to reload time See this for the exact times.[docs.google.com]

Chopper increases damage by 15%. It is implemented a 1.15 modifier to the damage value, which then gets rounded down to an integer value.

Quick Slash decreases the attack duration by 15% and is a 0.82 modifier to the attack duration. This results in 30% higher DPS.

Courtesy of Arsonist Cow
This is a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of all weapons in the game.
They're based on the stats of each weapon (which can be found in Arsonist Cow weapon stat spreadsheet[docs.google.com]) and testing for the things that cannot be mined through the game.

+ Means positive characteristic
± Means neutral characteristic (something that is both good and bad)
- Means negative characteristic
I try to keep the number of signs consistent with how much that characteristic matters compared to the rest in that weapon category. These characteristics are only compared to other weapons in the same category; for example saying "+ Long range" on Ahnuhld doesn't mean that it has long range compared to SMGs or Sniper Rifles, only compared to other Shotguns.

Common Speed Modifier: 87.5%

                            
☛ Used By:            ☛ Damage Falloff: 35.71%           ☛ TTK: 1.17 s

+ Low, consistent recoil
+ Low starting spread
+ Low bloom
-- Very high TTK

Easy to use and one of the most accurate weapons in the game. Strong weapon despite high TTK.

                                
☛ Used By:           ☛ Damage Falloff: 31.25%          ☛ TTK: 1.25 s

+ High damage per burst
+ Low starting spread
- High bloom
-- Very high TTK

Dealing a lot of damage per mouse-click allows for higher accuracy than automatic weapons if good trigger dicipline is practiced, which in turn generally results in lower TTK with that higher accuracy. But with pathetic overall damage output the TTK is unlikely to reach higher than that of other assault rifles.

                                 ☛ Used By:             ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%            ☛ TTK: 1.1 s

+ Low TTK
+ Low starting spread
-- Very high bloom

Strong, but also very hard to use, requiring good timing and trigger dicipline to use effectively.

                                
☛ Used By:            ☛ Damage Falloff: 35.71%           ☛ TTK: 1.14 s

+ Low starting spread
+ Low bloom
- High recoil
- High TTK
- Poor sight (covers aiming-area)

Very similar to and slightly outperformed by M4A1.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 1.15s

+ Low bloom
+ High RPM
- Low average recoil, but very high recoil variance
- High TTK

Strong weapon, competes with M4A1 for best automatic assault rifle.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 31.25%             ☛ TTK: 1.17s

++ Very low starting spread
- High recoil (pretty much only vertical tho)
-- Very high TTK

Easy to use, but performs unremarkably.

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Damage Falloff: 35.29%            ☛ TTK: 1.25 s

+ High damage per burst
+ Low TTK
+ Low starting spread
- High bloom

Higher spread and lower DPM than BR-16, but higher damage per burst. They perform roughly identical.

Common Speed Modifier: 82.5%

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 36.36%             ☛ TTK: 1.11 s

+ High RPM
± Very high damage per magazine, but very long reload
- Slow movement speed
- Low average recoil, but very high recoil variance
-- Very high starting spread

A lot of downsides with few upsides. A pretty bad weapon.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 35.29%             ☛ TTK: 1.07 s

+ Low starting spread
+ Low TTK
± Very high damage per magazine, but very long reload
- High recoil
- High bloom
- Slow movement speed

Can be quite strong in the right hands, but hard to use effectively.

Common Speed Modifier: 90%

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%           ☛ TTK: 1.19 s

+ Low starting spread
+ Low average recoil
- High TTK

Lackluster compared to the other SMGs.

                                
☛ Used By:            ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%            ☛ TTK: 1.18 s

++ Very low bloom
+ High RPM
± Low average recoil, but high recoil variance
- High TTK

One of the most accurate weapons in the game; Great weapon.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 36.36%            ☛ TTK: 1.16 s

++ Low TTK
+ High RPM
- High starting spread

Average in a lot of respects, but high damage output (low TTK) makes it a very strong weapon even with just decent spread control.

                                
☛ Used By:            ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%           ☛ TTK: 1.13 s

++++ Very low TTK
- High average recoil
- High bloom
- High starting spread

Powerful, but hard to control, both in terms of recoil and spread.

                                
☛ Used By:            ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%          ☛ TTK: 1.19 s

+ High damage per magazine
+ Low starting spread
± High average recoil, but low recoil variance
- Low RPM
-- Very high TTK

Easy to control, but performs poorly compared to other SMGs.

Common Speed Modifier: 85%

• Re-fire - Time between shots. Mainly relevant for weapons with high damage per shot.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 2.86 s

++ Can one-shot most mercs
- Very low DPS
- Slow re-fire
*Instagibs Mercs with 69 health or less

Being able to one-shot headshot enemies is a huge deal. It literally means instant TTK; doesn't get any better than that. The downside is pathetic sustained damage, making missed shots highly punishing.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 32.5%             ☛ TTK: 1.27 s

± Fast re-fire, but low damage per shot
- High recoil

More damage per shot than Grandeur, but also longer re-fire time. Has fallen out of favor after repeated nerfs.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 2.22 s

+++ Can one-shot all but one merc
- Very low DPS
- Awkward cocking and reload animations
-- Very slow re-fire
*Instagibs Mercs with 80 health or less

Being able to one-shot headshot enemies is a huge deal. It literally means instant TTK; doesn't get any better than that. The downside is pathetic sustained damage, making missed shots highly punishing.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 34.38%             ☛ TTK: 1.29 s

++ Can be used in hip-fire
+ High DPM
± Very fast re-fire, but very low damage per shot
- Poor sights (no scope)
- Extremely high bloom (only accurate for 2-3 shots in hip-fire)

I recommend enabling the "Crosshair Dot When Aiming" option to help with aiming down the sights.

Common Speed Modifier: 93%
Common Headshot Multiplier:1.0x
       Common Legshot Multiplier:0.9x
Worth noting about shotgun spread is that unlike for normal weapons it's not exclusively bad for shotguns. The added spread can help in close quarters.

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Damage Falloff: 87.5%            ☛ TTK: 1.9 s

+ High DPM
+ High DPS
+ Low recoil
± Medium spread

I'm not a much of a shotgun user, but seemingly the strongest of the 3 due to having the high damage output of Remburg, with slightly better range and one extra shell (has almost as high DPM as Ahnuhld, even with one shell less).

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 87.5%             ☛ TTK: 1.91 s

+ High damage per shell
+ High DPS
± High spread
- Short range

Very strong in point-blank, but falls off hard.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 85.71%             ☛ TTK: 1.8 s

+ Long range
+ High DPM
± Low spread
- Low DPS
- High recoil
- Long reload
- Low damage per shell

While the range is substantially longer than the other two shotguns that's generally not why you use shotguns. And with the disadvantages to the core usage scenarios of shotguns I'm having trouble seeing how this can compete with the other two.

Common Speed Modifier: 97.5%

                                
☛ Used By:
☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 1.27 s

++ Very high DPM
+ Low recoil

Strong and reliable. Other pistols have trouble competing.

                                
☛ Used By:
☛ Damage Falloff: 34.62%             ☛ TTK: 1.28 s

+ Low starting spread
- High bloom

Main difference compared to Caulden is higher damage per shot, but with slightly higher spread.

                                
☛ Used By:       ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%    ☛ TTK: 1.49 s

++ High damage per shot
++ Low starting spread
- Low DPM
- High recoil
- Long reload time
-- Very low DPS
--- Extremely high bloom

The amount of burst damage the revolvers can put out is pretty scary, but with the extremely high bloom and low DPS their performance is a bit inconsistent. The main usage scenario is peeking in and out of cover.

                                
☛ Used By:
☛ Damage Falloff: 35.0%             ☛ TTK: 1.28 s

++ Low starting spread
- High recoil variance
-- High bloom

Caulden and DE perform very similarly.

                                
☛ Used By:
☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 1.28 s

+ High DPM

Kind of like M9, but slightly worse.

                                
☛ Used By:    ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%    ☛ TTK: 1.53 s

++ High damage per shot
++ Low starting spread
- Low DPM
- High recoil
- Long reload time
-- Very high recoil
-- Very low DPS
--- Extremely high bloom

Simeon reaches the 30 damage threshold. S&W's extra 4 damage doesn't do a lot, which when combined with the higher fire delay, higher spread per bullet and higher recoil makes it overall slightly worse.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 1.34 s

+++ Extremely high DPM
- High bloom
- High starting spread
-- High TTK

Pretty lackluster.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: 1.34 s

HHH

Common Speed Modifier: 95%
Machine pistols are generally better than pistols because they are automatic (meaning top DPS can be achieved by just holding down the button), have much higher damage per clip and much lower spread. This is mainly relevant for mercs that have both options for secondary weapons (i.e: you'll always want a machine pistol instead of a pistol if you have the choice).

                                
☛ Used By: (P)(S)           ☛ Damage Falloff: 45.45%           ☛ TTK: 1.3 s

+ Low starting spread

Stands out as the strongest since it doesn't have any real downsides compared to the other machine pistols, while offering better starting spread.

                                
☛ Used By: (P) (S)         ☛ Damage Falloff: 44.44%          ☛ TTK: 1.31 s

+ Low(er) damage falloff (small difference compared to MP400)
- High(er) TTK (very small difference compared to the other two)
- No ADS zoom

Lacking zoom on ADS (Aim Down Sights, zoom = lowering of FoV) is a very minor issue since all machine pistols are bad at long range anyway.

                                
☛ Used By: (P)(S)             ☛ Damage Falloff: 50.0%             ☛ TTK: 1.29 s

+ High RPM
- High starting spread
- Very high recoil variance
- High damage falloff

Used to be the strongest of the 3, but after a lot of nerfs it's arguably the weakest Machine Pistol.

                                
☛ Used By:              ☛ Damage Falloff: 33.33%             ☛ TTK: HHHs

HHH

Snare Effect for all is -32% (reduce a merc movement speed)
Hit-boxes/hit-arcs roughly means how easy a weapon is to hit something with.
It's generally not worth picking a loadout based on the melee weapon, but sometimes, when all other aspects of two loadouts seem of equal value the melee weapon can be a tie-breaker.

                                
☛ Used By:                 ☛ LTTK: 3.53 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.36 s

- High TTK light attack

A bit weak, but at least it doesn't reduce movement speed.

                                
☛ Used By:                    ☛ LTTK: 2.84 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.29 s

+ Low TTK

Kills fast AND doesn't reduce movement speed. Easily one of the best melee weapons in the game.

                                
☛ Used By:
☛ LTTK: 3.08 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.27 s

+ Good hit-boxes
+ Long range
- Reduces movement speed

Arguably the second-strongest after the Katana, but also reduces movement speed.

                                
☛ Used By:               ☛ LTTK: 2.57 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.58 s

+ Can one-shot 90HP mercs
+ Very low TTK light attack
+ Long range
- Reduces movement speed

The strongest melee weapon, at the cost of movement speed.

                                
☛ Used By:               ☛ LTTK: 2.97 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.41 s

± Low TTK light attack, but high TTK heavy attack
- Weird hit-boxes
- Reduces movement speed

                                
☛ Used By:                  ☛ TTK: 3.2 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.29 s

+ Low TTK heavy attacks
± Low TTK light attacks vs 90&100HP enemies, but high TTK vs 110HP
- Weird hit-boxes
- Reduces movement speed

Hitboxes got ♥♥♥♥ed in a patch.

                                
☛ Used By:               ☛ LTTK: 4.09 s              ☛ HTTK: 2.94 s

+ Can one-shot 90HP mercs
- Reduces movement speed
- Doesn't snare enemy on hit
-- Very high TTK

Hot garbage. Kills the slowest of all melee weapons in the game, on average.
Only melee weapon in the game that doesn't snare (slow) enemy movement speed when it hits. This has got to be a developer oversight.

                                
☛ Used By:               ☛ LTTK: HHH s              ☛ HTTK: HHH s

HHH

                                
☛ Used By: ALL             ☛ SPEED: 100%             ☛ TTK: 2.4 s
☛ DAMAGE: 90              ☛ DAMAGE W/ CHOPPER: 104
☛ NOTE 1: RMB will Drop the item                        ☛ NOTE 2: Delivering it take 4.0 s

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Falloff: N / A            ☛ TTK: 1.46s

Nader Martyrdom does 200 Damage.

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Falloff: 30.00%            ☛ TTK: 0.73s

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Falloff: 33.33%            ☛ TTK: 2.3s

The Revive gun Damage output depend on the charge (longer charge = more damage)

                                
☛ Used By:             ☛ Falloff: N / A            ☛ TTK: ~1.0s

C4 planting / C4 defusing: Default time / With Mechanic Augment / With Obj Specialist
Mechanic: You repair / disarm 20% faster

Repair: Default time / With Mechanic Augment / With Obj Specialist
Mechanic: You repair / disarm 20% faster

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Arsonist Cow stats sheet:[docs.google.com]
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=497702613

Other valuable Guides and stats:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1104115339
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1121982768
Trickyni stats spreadsheet[docs.google.com]

http://DB Best Weapons Survey