In EDF 5, unless you cheat, you'll need to play all or almost missions in the campaign up to the last one, mission 110, in hard to unlock Hardest and Inferno.
Inferno is the most fun and interesting difficulty to play and that's where you can earn and improve weapons over level 76, which almost overwhelmingly is where the juicy and interesting stuff is. To be crystal clear, yes there are many weapons under level 76 that are awesome and very viable in inferno.