Toxic Commando Weapon Guide: Best Guns and Upgrade Tips
Vladyslav Shamshurov
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a first-person team shooter where you complete missions on large maps while fighting off endless zombie hordes. To succeed, players can pick from 4 classes and a huge variety of weapons. In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about weapons, which guns to start with and which ones are considered the best in the game right now.
Which Weapons to Choose at the Start in Toxic Commando (Best Starter Guns)
Right now, the arsenal includes 23 different weapons, from SMGs to sniper rifles. As you play through a level, you can only swap your weapon for a random one, so it's important to decide ahead of time. If you're playing with a full team of 4, it's best to pick a variety of guns to be ready for anything. Otherwise, you'll want something versatile and reliable. As you progress, your weapon will get new attachments, so making the wrong choice early will make things even harder with each mission.
Best weapons in Toxic Commando:
- Taiga-12 – best shotgun for close combat
- HW416 – best assault rifle
- ACW-20 – best for crowd damage
- Casull 6 – best pistol
The Taiga-12 is a great all-rounder. It's an automatic shotgun that deals massive damage at close and mid-range right from the start, and with upgrades you can almost triple the magazine size and noticeably boost its power. Since nearly all zombie types (except two) rush straight at you, sooner or later they'll end up right in your kill zone.
Best Assault Rifle in Toxic Commando
The HW416 carbine is the top pick in Toxic Commando. It deals heavy damage at any range, and its large magazine lets you mow down hordes or pick off elite monsters by targeting their weak spots. The downside is the basic sight, which really limits your view.
The ACW-20 is the best weapon for crowd damage. It's a grenade launcher with strong area damage, and once upgraded, it can wipe out huge groups of regular enemies and hit elite monsters' weak spots without needing precise aim. The main drawback is its long reload time.
Best Pistol in Toxic Commando
Pistols in the game are a backup weapon, perfect when you run out of ammo or don't have time to reload. The Casull 6 is considered the best pistol in Toxic Commando. It's a pistol-revolver hybrid with huge headshot damage. Once upgraded, it can take out regular zombies with a single shot.
Best SMG in Toxic Commando
Submachine guns in Toxic Commando are one of the weakest weapon types on higher difficulties. They feel good and are fun to use, but there are just too many drawbacks to make them reliable. The Keris V10 is the only SMG that remains effective after upgrades. It deals decent damage at mid-range and has an incredibly high rate of fire.
Best Shotgun in Toxic Commando
The Taiga-12 is the best all-purpose weapon in Toxic Commando. It offers great range, tight spread, a huge magazine, and fast reload speed, everything you need to handle any horde. Just keep in mind that shotguns are not effective at long distances, especially against ranged elites and special sludge monsters.
Best Special Weapon in Toxic Commando
Special weapons are rare gear you can find for free during a level or unlock from a yellow chest for 1 gear. On the map, you can spot them by their purple glow. This type of equipment comes with one magazine, or two if it's legendary, and you can't pick up extra ammo. The only way to refill ammo is to die and respawn, though this might just be a bug.
Best special weapons in Toxic Commando:
- MAG 5 — a machine gun with a 100-round magazine. Perfect for holding off hordes in the final stages and dealing with elite monsters.
- Thumper GL — a single-shot grenade launcher. It deals massive damage with a huge blast radius. On the hardest difficulty, it easily takes out elites and clears crowds. You can also shoot it at objects you’re defending, since doors, structures, and story items only take damage from zombies.
Best Items in Toxic Commando
At first, your options are limited, but after a few stages you'll unlock all types of throwables. In combat, you only get a few, so picking the right one is key to survival. The decoy grenade is the best choice. It distracts hordes and elites, then explodes after a short delay. This gives you extra time to reload, heal, or retreat.
The turret sounds great in theory, but in practice it's too unbalanced. You can only have one at a time, so you can't just fill the area with them for defense. Plus, the ammo runs out too quickly to hold back a horde for even 20 seconds. Using it out in the open is just a waste of a rare resource.
Which Weapons to Avoid in Toxic Commando (Weak Guns)
You can experiment and pick weapons that fit your playstyle. We completed every level on high difficulty using only level one weapons and didn’t face any major problems. Weapon level affects damage, so your DPS will go up no matter what. But there are a few exceptions:
- Weapons that deal fire damage. Imagine a huge enemy charging at you and you have to choose between shooting it or stacking burn effects. Sure, fire might be better in the long run, but Toxic Commando is so fast-paced that you need instant results. Molotovs, flamethrowers, and similar weapons just don’t work well, they’re basically useless.
- Railgun. This is supposed to be a special weapon for killing elites. In practice, everything about it is underwhelming, from fire rate to damage. Plus, you only get 10 shots, which is nowhere near enough.
- Mines. The idea is solid, but it’s impossible to use them effectively. You set them up for an elite, but any random zombie can trigger them. You have to plant a mine, run far enough away, shoot all the extra zombies, and do all this before the elite reaches you and kills you.
- Dunali SXS. This shotgun only has two shots. The damage is huge, but the reload time is way too long. Two shots just aren’t enough to stop a big wave rushing at you.
How to Upgrade Weapons in Toxic Commando
The best way to upgrade your weapon is to use one gun until level 5, which unlocks attachments and increases its rarity. Right now, consumables and melee weapons can’t be upgraded. You can find random level 3 special weapons for free during a mission, and improved versions in gear chests. All other gear can be upgraded in two ways:
- With attachments. As you level up a weapon (by using it), you unlock new attachments, which you can buy with Sludgeite (the yellow stone).
- Increasing rarity. Once you reach level 5, you can raise the weapon’s rarity by spending Sludgeite. This noticeably boosts damage without changing other stats.
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