The arsenal is the part of Guns of Eschaton the studio talks about most: more than twenty firearms built around the feel, limitations and brutality of 19th-century guns. The phrase they keep using is that every weapon has a character of its own — and that if you fail to master one, it may kill you faster than your enemies do.
That is not marketing flavour. Weapons in this game have active abilities on a dedicated key, they behave differently under sustained fire, and some of them are actively hostile to the person holding them.
The weapons confirmed by name
Only a handful of the twenty-odd guns have been shown or named. These are the ones with published detail:
| Weapon | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Smith & Wesson revolver | Starting sidearm | Carried in memory of a dead friend; the reference point for everything else |
| Lever-action rifle | Mid-to-long range | The rifle shown in the announcement and gameplay footage |
| Scoped rifle | Reconnaissance and reach | Found early, near the first campfire |
| Shotgun | Close quarters | The anchor of the shotgun-and-whip melee build the studio describes |
Beyond those, the game's own material refers to the rest as a wide arsenal without naming them. The demo lets you buy additional guns at Hounds' Camp, and those purchases are the honest way to find out what a given weapon does.
Bullet families decide the fight
Ammunition is the real weapon system. Each gun accepts a set of bullet types, and the type matters more than the calibre because enemies have anatomies that respond to specific rounds.
- Standard rounds for the bulk of a fight, when a Sequence Point is open and the enemy is unarmoured in that spot.
- Specialised rounds for the enemies whose weak points only respond to one damage type.
- Scanning rounds to mark weak points you have not yet learned, which is how the Codex fills in faster than by dying.
- Custom loads arranged in the cylinder as a plan: three of one, two of another, one finisher.
Treating the cylinder as a timeline rather than a magazine is the single largest adjustment coming from other shooters. You are pre-committing to a sequence before the fight starts.
Weapon abilities
Every gun has one, mapped to Z, including the starting revolver. The abilities are what justify carrying an awkward weapon: a gun that fires badly but hands you a repositioning tool is still a slot worth spending.
Abilities can be modified. Each archetype has passives that change how its active ability behaves rather than simply adding a percentage — the Deadeye's second passive is explicitly a modifier on her active, and the Sheriff's changes how Quick and the Dead resolves.
The eight cursed weapons
The Pay to Lose Edition ships a full set of deliberately terrible gear. These are not reskins. Each one adds a failure mode:
- Tough Customer — a hammer that must be forcefully cocked before every shot.
- Rabid Animal — a firearm that may discharge when you did not ask it to.
- Lacking Conviction — a revolver prone to repeated misfires.
- Blind Faith — sparks and smoke that obscure your vision on aimed shots.
- Unwelcome Suitor — a cracked barrel that pulls recoil to the right.
- Grumpy Auntie — damp ammunition that delays the shot.
- The Last Ember — a cursed talisman that punishes mistakes with fire.
- Braggart's Hat — a hat that makes everything harder.
They exist as a difficulty modifier for players who have already finished the game once. In a system where a single wasted shot can lose an encounter, a gun that fires on its own is a genuine handicap rather than a joke.
Load weight
Carrying everything is not free. The game tracks what you haul, and there is a point where the load becomes a problem rather than an option — the state players describe as being over encumbered.
The practical answer is the camp. Hounds' Camp is where weapons, abilities and gloves are bought, and it is also the natural place to leave gear you are not using. Travel between fights with two or three guns you can actually feed, not with a full collection you cannot.
Choosing a loadout that can be fed
The most common mistake in the arsenal is carrying guns you cannot supply. Ammunition is finite and typed, so a loadout is really a decision about which two or three bullet families you are committing to.
A workable default:
- One generalist that accepts standard rounds, so you are never completely dry.
- One specialist for the enemy type you struggle with most, accepting a narrower supply.
- One tool whose ability solves a problem rather than whose damage solves a fight — a repositioning dash, a stagger, a reveal.
Three guns is a full loadout in practice. A fourth is weight you are paying for and ammunition you cannot split.
Weapon abilities change the tier list
Because every gun carries an active ability, the ranking of weapons is not a damage ranking. A gun with a mediocre firing feel and a strong control ability earns its slot in a way that a high-damage weapon with a redundant ability does not.
That also means the useful question is not "which is best" but "which ability do I not currently have". Read the ability first, the damage second, and the handling third.
Where the cursed weapons fit
The eight Pay to Lose items are best understood as a separate difficulty setting rather than as equipment. They exist to make a second run harder for someone who has already solved the base game, and they are hostile in ways that are funny once and punishing thereafter.
Nothing about them improves a build. If you are still learning the sequence system, leave them in the box.
Mastery is per weapon
A gun you cannot control is worse than a gun you can. The studio's own warning applies: fail to master a weapon and it will kill you faster than the enemy will. Two familiar guns beat five strange ones.