EDF MOST BASIC WEAPON INFORMATION
If you want a specific weapon you need to find out the mission range where you can get it and play those missions. For EDF 5 use the weapons wiki:
http://weapon.edf.jpn.com/5_eng/a.html
and then cross-reference with the Japanese wiki weapons drop level by mission (use Chrome's or
Edge's built-in translator if needed, just to see the chart it's not)
https://w.atwiki.jp/edf5/pages/373.html
or use leafierlemon's site:
http://leafierlemon.com/edf5/calc.shtml?lang=en
This is the answer to "where can I get x weapon". Yes, you'll have to dig it for yourself and yes it takes time and effort to find out all you'll want. EDF is like this, get used to it.
Again weapon drops are totally dependent on RNG, you can play the same mission 100 times and never get the one you want even if it's within its range of drops.
Moving on...
In the plethora of weapons for each class, there are only a few that are really useful and problem solvers. Some weapons, although mighty fun to use are not reliable or useful enough to help with the final goal, which is finishing the missions. I'll try to detail the ones that are good for practical purposes, and just mostly ignore the ones that aren't. Do realize that many weapons are not really helpful in inferno, due to enemies' speed, aggressiveness, and armor. Inferno is a completely different beast from even hardest.
No weapon is perfect, they all have pluses and minuses. There's no essential weapon, but a few are the most useful to solve the vast majority of missions.
In 4.1 the AR had the Epsilon Railgun, which was so good that he could be called the Epsilon Railgun class. Although the Ranger inherited it was a poisoned gift, as now it's mostly a toy.
Most of the Air Raider weapons require planning, brains, and knowledge of the mission. He's the most overpowered class by Inferno end in EDF 5 due to the sheer power of his air attacks and vehicles.
Artillery Units
These are almost useless now. They have not changed much and that's the problem, the others have and they're much better. They require you to send a grenade-like flare. The first problem, this is imprecise. Second, it takes really quite some time for the attack to occur, so unless it's a static enemy forget it. Third, they require points, so if you make a blunder you're stuck with your other weapons until you get more. Chances that you really hit the enemies you want and/or miss your NPCs are slim, so they're now, as they almost always were, in the toys department.
Pity as Cannon Gun DZ (almost 1.2 million damage) could be good for hives for instance, but I tried and it's too unreliable. Can be awesome if it does the job, dreadful if it doesn't which is the usual result. There are better choices with bigger success stories. Update. Cannon DZ can be useful especially against silver spiders on online inferno, as its big damage will help kill them faster (DLC 2-8...)
Gunships
The gunships were largely improved from 4.1 and are very useful. There are 2 groups, and they're easy to use with a gun-type marker, long-range, a zoom function to help precision shots and reload over time and not points.
A few important notes:
- the attacks are done with an angle that is varied since the gunships are supposedly circling the map (yep somewhat ridiculous), so they sometimes don't work, if there are buildings or shields in their path; sometimes the effect is opposite and can be dreadful by hitting other enemies you don't want, so you can't use them on some places (DLC 2-1
- attacks can miss the target or not do the damage you need, so take always that into account
- they can fail on high speed enemies even if they have the beacon, like big tadpoles and red drones
The Minigun / Vulcan are strong machine-gun attacks that will penetrate enemies but will not destroy the environment. If there's a chance of NPCs and you being under the enemies they're the better choice
The others are cannons variants. They vary from single shots in a small area with several rounds before reloading, to 1 shot with a lot of shells over a wider area. The most useful I found are:
- the 150mm Cannon ν Lapis (and similar ones) are good to selectively destroy environments and enemies, even big ones although these will require multiple shots, but it does help.
- the 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z (and similar ones) are better to handle colonists, cosmos, and bigger enemies, but they will also probably shred NPCs if they're in the area near the enemies due to their large attack radius so be extremely careful choosing and using this one. They also penetrate and destroy everything in the blast area, so are useful for destroying the environment
120 cannons and Rocket cannons will not pierce through enemies so they won't hit ones under transports or motherships.
Bombers
This was the most improved group of AR weapons. They now put a marker on the ground that will give an idea of where the attack will hit and the area with the corresponding pattern of the plane's path. These are the bread and butter in many missions and they usually produce very good results if well used. Some are useful, others are not thought.
Do realize that each bomber attack is done at a different height, so some will not be useful on a few occasions. Unfortunately except for trying to see if it works as you need or not, there's no other way to know. Z4 and FX dor instance can hit the outpost core when the hatch is open.
- Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4 (and the hard level counterpart). Phobos is a bombers attack that covers a wide area with considerable destruction, even hitting low flying enemies and deroys, with only cosmonauts and bigger enemies usually surviving its power. Considering the damage to the small stuff and the overall wreck that it causes, the Phobos is now likely the most useful weapon in AR's arsenal in any mission that has a reasonable number of enemies, especially ground ones. And it's the most awesome and fun weapon to use anyway, absolutely no other weapon in the game beats leveling down the city and enemies with a Phobos. 😍😋
The level 43 Heavy Bomber Phobos Plan 4 ages pretty well too and it's still very useable in inferno. Fully upgraded will kill small stuff in inferno (even deroy legs) and its huge and practical hit area is always a plus.
- Combat Bomber KM6 Plan Z4 (and the hard level counterpart). KM6 is a machine gun attack similar to Phobos but without explosive damage. It works surprisingly well against flying enemies. The high-level version has a narrow path, but it does have 4 bombers in a row so the damage is considerable. Their biggest downside is the usually very narrow area they cover. Although it can be used over yourself and NPCs don't expect it to be foolproof, several times you'll end up dead or a lot of your companions will be gone. Is it sometimes necessary? Yes, but don't believe the optimists that it causes no issues, because I've had plenty of proof otherwise. Due to their larger hit area, they're particularly dangerous to use over vehicle or exoskeleton either yours or NPC ones. As an example, a KM6 attack will likely destroy your Naegling if thrown over yourself.
- Vestas are visually fun but except on mission 101 (Crumbling city) where all enemies are very weak and the terrain is mostly flat, so it will work nicely, for the remainder of the missions I struggled to find any use for them. They take too much time to come, which means there will be a large time gap without them doing anything. And the attack will follow any terrain blocks like buildings, environment parts, and enemy ships flying by, so many problems can happen. Red ants are only slightly slowed by them and not stunned, and big stuff too.
There are some variants with napalm bombs, cluster bombs, and one bomber Phobos but they're not practical, do enough damage or solve issues like these 2. Some are fun to use but won't ultimately help solve missions.
Missiles
The missiles are mostly the same as they were in 4.1. Like there the most useful are the Tempests, but due to the time they require to arrive and guide, its use is mostly against inactive enemies or far ones crushing NPCs. They do deliver huge damage to a large area usually wiping out near NPCs too. They're problem solvers in a few missions, making solving them considerably easier.
The Lionics and Cruise Missiles are not problem solvers in inferno especially. They require constant aiming which is difficult at inferno speeds and you'll either waste most of it or hit the wrong enemies or usually structures/terrain. Lionics for instance can have up to 45 shots, so aiming them all takes too much time, and as a bonus it takes forever to reload. Although fun they should be ignored.
Satellites
These have been very improved and they come with a freebie, a hysterical and laughable female operator.
Spritefall is much more effective in EDF 5, although its usefulness diminishes a lot by Inferno time as their damage and spread are not useful to handle anchors for instance. I tested all 3 best Spritefalls (Power Mode, Maximum, and Destroy all fully upgraded in power except the last which was at 9 but even at 10 would be useless) in mission 95 Drop Location which has a lot of large anchors from start and neither of the 3 destroyed the any, but by comparison, the 3 best Bulge Laser (Beam Mode D, Beam Mode F, and Beam Mode Z which I had the first of these at level 8 and the others at 9 in damage) did the job. Spritefalls can be useful in a really few situations like destroying cannons in the outpost base (stellar for that), enemies in a group in standby, or while attacking NPCs (the NPCs will probably be toast) but it's not a good general use weapon in inferno. My biggest gripe with them overall is their ability to destroy NPC units besides enemies, and to me NPCs are an amazing and fun help.
UPDATE. It does have some uses in Inferno and I thank Vlady for pointing out that, and can even make some missions a piece of cake when cleverly used with other weapons (85 Incoming Larvae and DLC 1-4 Reclaim Base 236 for instance).
Spritefall Shooting Mode is a single shot sniper-like weapon. It's quite useful sometimes, but only if you don't miss it, as its low points requirements mean you always have another to use again.
Bulge Laser Beam has been improved over 4.1 too. Its huge damage over time is great to handle anchors especially the huge ones which nothing else can (except Tempests but they're not practical on most occasions), heavy cosmonauts, deroys, and even big enemies like giant bees (doesn't work very well on king spiders as depends on what phase of their movement you get them and not even Z I think can kill a silver king, bulges work even worse with queen ants as they don't stun them (well very few things stun queen ants except WD rapiers) but will be able to kill or damage seriously any of them). In many cases, it's also a "use and forget" weapon that will do its job which is always an awesome trait. I rarely used them in 4.1 but use them a lot on 5. Bulges penetrate the mothership and they're quite useful for the mission where she shows up on and needs to be destroyed.
Limpet Guns
Limpet guns are usually the worst choice to make in AR weapons. If you want to use rifles and shoot things, play the Ranger. For personal defense, you should and must aim to rely on turrets, NPCs, and vehicles, which to make things even simpler are all much improved in EDF 5. Except for the extreme and very few situations where it actually is required they should not be used at all. They're slow, impractical, mostly inefficient, and above all disable efficient use of the AR weapons that will really solve missions because you're wasting your time using this junk.
The Limpet Splendor and its ME variant were rather nice to use in tunnels against weak enemies. However, the new turrets render them useless in 5.
The Sniper is useful only in the cases where the target is too far or unreachable for other weapons, or in the case, you need to piss just one enemy in a mob, in the ground, or flying (although there are other better choices for this effect). Fully upgraded the Limpett Sniper ZD does considerable damage at 5k per shot, and you have 3. It's also interesting that you can activate the bullets when you want which is nice to install in a convenient place and use later. However, stupidly it's the only sniper in the whole game that has no zoom, which is even more stupid when most gunships, satellites, and missiles have one. Yes, sadly there are missions in that it needs to be used (update, wrong, all missions in the main campaign and DLC can be done without them).
In multiplayer it's an insult and a sign you don't know how to play the game because all other classes will be a gazillion better at defending you than you doing it yourself.
Do yourself the biggest favor possible while playing the AR, play without them it will improve your class success and fun tremendously.
Stationary Weapons
There are 2 groups in these, the robot bombs and the turrets.
The robot bombs are really fun to use, but again won't, unfortunately, solve any of your missions in inferno (wrong, surprinsingly they do help a lot on a DLC one, 2-10
The turrets are one of the essential weapons of the AR. People who say they suck, simply don't have the slightest idea how to play the AR. The wonderful feature of the turrets is that they enable you to use efficiently the other weapons and vehicles you have, as they do their work alone and are usually reasonably efficient in that.
The only issue with them in EDF 5 is that you can't equip 2 or 3 of the same equipment. That is a PITA. However, they now can be installed in vehicles without the certainty that they will wreck it faster than the enemies would, which would happen in 4.1. Even better unlike in 4.1 they will reload even when you're not holding them. There are 4 major groups of turrets:
- ZE Blaster, a new laser turret in DLC 2, it's very powerful and quite efficient for several ground and flying small enemies and great to take down transports if you can use them for that effect. For big ones, it's a mixed bag. Just snail slow to turn around and sometimes doesn't work due to angles. Reasonable search and hit range, better than ZEXRs. They last a long time.
- FZ-GUN's, a wonderful new turret very efficient on tunnels where you can bottleneck enemies and reasonably efficient against mobs of silver spiders and gold ants in some ground missions, as they stun enemies and last a loooonnnng time. However friendly fire in NPCs can be problematic. Surprisingly they're very effective applied on top of Depth Crawlers in tunnel missions, as they don't damage the vehicle, but still damage NPCs and you if you're out of it. Very short range though
- Launchers, turrets with explosives that have a long search and hit range, are nice to help level down city areas, but will spread enemies that don't die easily. Even the last one the level 72 ZEX Launcher won't one-shot kill any enemy in Inferno, which many times will be a problem. They're a really bad option with tadpoles (as they were with dragons) as they home on you and NPCs, and the explosions will not only kill the tadpoles... They're reasonable against bees and drones. Also, work reliably against Colonists and Cosmonauts. And they can also make Erginus and Archelus stop and jump back, although is not guaranteed, nothing is guaranteed with either of these two. On tunnels exclusively if you can bottleneck all enemies on someplace where they can't reach you. The problem is how volatile things are with them on the map, things can go awesome or self-destroying in a snap.
- ZEXR and siblings, the essential turret for ground missions, and even good in cave ones. The only issue with them is that you can only have one in EDF 5.
The next available one, the ZE-GUN10, is sadly deplorably bad in everything, making the ZERA-GUN the only other option for Inferno. But it's a bad one, as it only has 2 turrets and it doesn't do much damage. Still, exoskeletons are much improved in 5, and combining the use of both will be crucial.
To take advantage of them, level down the whole area in city missions, unless you can funnel the enemies reliably through a narrow section. In city missions put turrets in areas where there's no rubble, buildings, or other objects that will get the bullets instead of the enemies. Put them on intersections, one for each path. Try to put them on upper areas that can overlook where the enemies will be coming from.
Remember now you can throw turrets further away, by looking up. When there are just a few enemies and you have NPCs or a good vehicle, rebuild them to make them available for the next onslaught, as turret management with knowledge of what's going to happen next is essential to easy success. And wonderfully you can now install them easily and without issues in Depth Crawlers, Blackers, Grapes, and even the helicopters. If you master the techniques of using them efficiently you'll see why they're wonderful helpers and the limpets (and the suppress gun toys) are mostly wasting time trash.
Support Equipment
These are divided into 2 sections. Guiding kits and enhancement posts and guns.
Guiding kits are only useful in multiplayer if there's a Fencer equipped with Leviathan, Phoenix, and other missiles that require them. There's an extreme situational use in a single player with a Naegling to concentrate all missiles on a single big enemy. Can also be used as a Tempest simplifier but on most occasions, it will be a waste of a valuable slot.
Enhancement posts and guns are useful. There are 3 groups, one for providing health-related items, another to enhance the power of the attacks, and another to reduce the damage of enemies. Power enhancement does not work for turrets and airstrikes. You can use them on exoskeletons or Bargas but should put them at their feet. Guns are usually more practical for vehicles when you need to use them quickly, as they're easier to target and apply, have much better reload times but have much less range, so not that helpful for NPCs. Life-related items have no reloads, when you used the initially provided number that's it. Life enhancements were more interesting in 4.1 since only the Ranger could heal NPCs in that game.
You can't stack power and guard effects, only one will be applied. You can stack life-related items, but you'll spend them faster.
3 enhancements can cover a huge area. These are the level 58 Offensive Territory, the level 31 Zone Protector, and the level 75 Zone Protector. Don't be too happy though as the enhancement ratio is small.
Special
There are 2 groups here too, with one containing 2 subdivisions.
If I already ranted at the limpets the Suppress Guns are true toys and/or jokes. Can't even understand why Sandlot wasted their resources on this, probably listening to the whining people who don't have the slightest idea how to use the AR. The AR is no Ranger if you're wasting your time with pea shooters you're not doing your job.
The other group contains the Decoys and Shields. Decoys were vaguely useful in 4.1 as their health was ridiculous. They're much better on 5, but still, its use is mostly in city missions where you're able to hide them from enemies that can't destroy buildings or find them easily like ants. On open field missions, it's more difficult so seldom useful but can still be used (103 Tornado is an example). However decoys can be installed inside shields, so they're an option in multiplayer with 2 or more ARs present as it's lesser problematic to use 2 weapon slots. Avoid using explosives or missiles (even Phobos) near them. Other big issues are the long reload times and the fact that they can only be installed on the spot you're. Decoy [Yellow] has a longer duration than Decoy [Silver] but a much weaker armor.
The shields are a great use of a weapon slot in many situations. The good ones are the Absolute Bunker and Electromagnetic bunkers, and the Electromagnetic Wall. The latter is useful by being much taller and will be a better option when you have a static group of NPCs relatively close together, and especially if they include exoskeletons, as the Absolute and Electromagnetic Bunkers don't protect them, but they're not useful if there are airborne enemies. Still, shields require some training to use well and you're advised to watch videos to see what's the best way to install them. They have long reload times. Bunkers are excellent to install on vehicles.
If you're using Supress Guns you don't even deserve to use this class...
Dumbest Sandlot idea on EDF 5.
Tanks
Tanks were the area of the Special One in 4.1, the Epsilon Railgun. Unfortunately, it was given to Ranger in 5 as a poisoned gift as it was nerfed so much that is almost in the toy's territory.
The Blackers are much faster and more useable now, but shooting angles are still bad and it still has a ton of recoil. The weapon is reasonable but hits a big area so it's very dangerous to use for close enemies as there's always a chance of some enemy or NPC going by, so self-defense sometimes is a self-attack too. It's also easy to hit your NPCs that are further away due to the imprecision. But you can install shields on them and you have a zippy mobile armored powerhouse. In city maps where there's usually a road covering all perimeter, these are pretty good if you need a zippy transport to drive around, although there's a better but a lot more difficult to handle option in the next group.
The Titan is mostly a multiplayer weapon. It needs 3 people to take full advantage of. It's absolutely crawling slow. In everything...
Ground Vehicles
These include 3 classes of vehicles: Naegling Self-Propelled Missile Launcher, Caliban Support Vehicle, and the Armored Vehicle Grape.
The Naegling Self-Propelled Missile Launcher will automatically track enemies and send guided missiles toward them. It's a useful weapon in many situations but marred by a few issues. Ridiculous armor and bad camera angle on most occasions you're moving and shooting or trying to. You'll likely need to drive back to use it so it doesn't help. Sadly can be toppled much easier than it was on EDF 4.1, in that game you could rest assured that it would be always in the correct position or would really quickly revert to it. Still learning to use it well can help a lot on a few missions, as the AR doesn't have anything else similar, so don't underestimate it. It will one-shot most smaller enemies, and it's especially effective against flying ones. It will knockout Blue tadpoles and silver spiders.
The Caliban Support Vehicle is fast and provides armor recovery but it's mostly a waste as there are better options and you're using your only mobility possibility in a vehicle that won't kill anything. In single-player is even worse, it will have its uses in multiplayer mostly if multiple ARs are present.
The Armored Vehicle Grape is a weird vehicle. It has difficult controls and it's hard to master but has blistering speed, and some come with a good auto-tracking cannon. If you learn to use it well it can be awesome, but it's a really hard road. Like the Naegling the road is harder than it was on EDF 4.1, you can topple it way more easily and be in an awkward situation quite easily
Powered Exoskeletons
This class of vehicles has been extremely improved in EDF 5 over 4. In EDF 2025 they were absolute snails. They got better on 4.1 but not much and had miserable armor. In 5 some have huge armor, some have huge mobility, and some even both.
Of the plethora of exoskeletons available 2 clearly stand out.
The level 87 Powered Exoskeleton Nix ZC, for its versatility and raw power. Yes, it's slow but it has tremendous attack and defense weaponry and a varied one for all occasions. A powerful machine gun with good range, good for ground and aerial enemies; a good cannon good for big enemies on ground and air, even colonists and cosmonauts, just marred by very few shells; a good burner with plenty of fuel, great to handle near enemies big or small; and a few missiles to handle anything, but very useful for flying enemies. It's a fierce war machine and can handle huge battles single-handedly.
It's only difficult to make headshots in cosmos and frogs as the machine gun ammo will curve down slightly at the end and has a reasonable variation in hit area. Can still be done but it's somewhat luck-dependent. The aim for the shoulder howitzer requires training too.
The level 80 Nix Red Guard, has fantastic mobility, but much inferior weaponry compared to Nix ZC. You're stuck with a good burner or a canister with a few shots, which is still respectable, but it can't fight a full-fledged war like the Nix ZC, not even close. Canisters are not explosive, which sometimes is good as you won't hurt your mech with the blast, sometimes is bad because you really want or need to blow up things. Still has a reasonable armor.
If you time it correctly you can jump almost continuously and cover big distances in a snap.
Unfortunately, you can't apply shields effectively to exoskeletons unlike Blackers and Depth Crawlers. But you can apply power or guard guns bullets to them. Or apply turrets to its legs or body...
The improvements of the exoskeletons are absolutely dramatic in EDF 5 from 4.1. The beyond arthritic BM03 Vegalta AX which is basically the Nix ZC had 20k armor, in EDF 5 Nix ZC has 104.4k armor, more than 5x times as much. It does have slightly less revolver ammo and missiles, but the walking speed and rotational movements make it night and day to use the EDF 5 version.
The Nix Grenadier EZ is mildly interesting but it has too many chances of damaging itself and even worse sometimes wiping out the NPCs, so either of the 2 previous ones is always a better choice. The Nix Destroy Cannon has similar issues.
Special Weapons
Another 3 groups of vehicles here are BMX10 Proteus, Barga, and Depth Crawlers.
The BMX10 Proteus is a cross between a barga, an exoskeleton, and a titan tank. It's supposed to be used by 3, one controlling the movements, and another 2 on each gun turret. Even on the single-player has its uses, but it's seldom. The gun turrets are slow to activate and use, and have very limited angles, a pity as it could be a request available shelling powerhouse like the HU04 Brute SA9 (which is now a Ranger weapon 😑). Movement is slow and clunky almost like the Titan. It has reasonable armor, but exoskeletons evolved a lot in that area too.
The Barga well is the Barga. It's similar to the Fencer in many things, you'll either love it or hate it. The controls are dreadful in everything, movement is horrendous and it can be eaten alive by ants, spiders, and bees in a snap. It's fun to use in small doses. I don't rely on him to solve anything, too unreliable (perhaps on 100 with the DLC one...). Crates picking with him is an absolute nightmare.
You can't avoid the Depth Crawler on EDF 5. Some cave missions are not solvable without a reasonable use of them. The controls have been improved but it's still weird to use, and they're still inverted when you're on the ceiling. Also due to clipping issues in caves, it's quite easy to be in an awkward position or outside the map. At least you can apply turrets that won't destroy it and shields to them now.
