One of the key aspects separating Bloodborne from the rest of Soulsborne is how intricate the left-handed tools are in this game, specifically the secondary weapons referred to as “Firearms”. These are mostly guns but, as you’ll soon see, there is a little more than boomsticks to discuss on today’s list. That said, because of its clear and almost deliberately futility, I have opted to ban the basic Torch from this list, as it would be too easy to just label it the worst.

Fifth Best – Rosmarinus

This is by no means the easiest firearm to effectively wield, and it does generally require the user build around it to some extent. But, in return for a nominal investment, you get an on demand Arcane flamethrower that can actually output some respectable damage. Notably, its Arcane scaling is quite strong. Strong scaling might make it seem ideal for a dedicated Arcane build, but it actually finds more of a home on a utility Arcane build, on a character who keeps their Arcane in the teens mainly to make use of tools such as Empty Phantasm Shell and Augur of Ebrietas. On such a build, the Rosmarinus offers the most consistent ranged Arcane damage accessible.

Fifth Worst- Hunter’s Torch

If you haven’t played Bloodborne yet, you might be thinking “but wait, I thought we banned the torch from the list?” and you’d be correct. I banned the basic Torch from the list, but the Hunter’s Torch is actually a completely different, far more usable tool. Unlike the regular Torch, the Hunter’s Torch has significant Arcane scaling and can be upgraded. It is a solid enough early game tool for dedicated Arcane builds, who tend to have a tough early game given that all of their best tools are stashed away in the late game.

It may sound like I’m hyping this thing up. Actually, I’m just describing why it ends up here, and not as our choice for the single worst non-(regular)Torch Firearm. If you aren’t running a dedicated Arcane build, there is no reason to give this thing a second look. Sadly, it cannot make use of the game’s Rally mechanic, rendering it a genuinely low tier option for one’s primary means of melee offense.

Fourth Best – Flamesprayer

As previously stated, Arcane builds have it tough in the early stages of the game. The Flamesprayer arrives at the perfect time, accessible very early in the game and offering handy Fire damage to deal with the many beasts the player will encounter. It has reduced albeit existent application for non-Arcane builds too, as it boasts solid crowd control capabilities to help the player out when they’re outnumbered.

Fourth Worst – Hunter’s Blunderbuss

On paper, the Hunter’s Blunderbuss is not the absolute biggest piece of garbage out there. In a nutshell, this Firearm can be kind of okay for newer players who may not be the most well-adjusted to the parry mechanic of this game. For anybody with any significant game time, however, choosing this will be blatantly handicapping yourself. The Hunter’s Pistol, which will be discussed later, is objectively superior in every single meaningful way compared to this one. That is relevant, because the Hunter’s Pistol and Blunderbuss are the two choices players have for a starting Firearm. The Pistol is faster, has greater range and the bullet velocity is practically night and day compared to the Blunderbuss. The Pistol is indeed slightly tougher to use because it is faster and has a stumpier hitbox, but not to a particularly significant degree.

If you were wondering if whether or not a big bad Blunderbuss could be used to deal any sort of damage, this thing comes up woefully short in that regard too. It has hopelessly poor base damage that its scaling can’t save, making it clear it was strictly intended as a parrying tool.

Third Best – Evelyn

The ye olde reliable sidearm, both for Bloodtinge builds and for general use. It deals less damage per shot than the Repeating Pistol, but makes up for it in being more efficient on ammunition used. With pretty low stat requirements, and being available at a reasonable enough state to actually do something important with, it’s difficult to find any particular shortcomings within the Evelyn.

Third Worst – Loch Shield

This shield has one singular important use that it has a niche for, and that is blocking A Call Beyond from one of the handful of enemies that can use it. A Call Beyond in the hands of the enemy can immediately wipe out even players with high Vitality scores, so this seems really useful at first glance. Bad news, it’s only available in the DLC, meaning the player will most likely have already dealt with anything that can use A Call Beyond by this point. In terms of blocking anything physical, it is strictly outclassed by the Wooden Shield, which in turn is embarrassed by the simple act of pressing that good ol’ circle button. I’m someone who loves shields in video games, but this game is neither the time or place for such things.

Second Best – Repeating Pistol

While the Evelyn is better on the Quicksilver Bullet economy, the Repeating Pistol is better for any situation in which the player wants to just kill something as quickly as they can. This pistol fires two bullets at a time. It is intended strictly for Bloodtinge builds, as the second bullet is basically wasted if this pistol is used by anyone else. In tandem with Bone Marrow Ash, it can twirl some pretty ridiculous numbers when the player gets their Bloodtinge score up a fair bit. Hilariously, this pistol is unlocked very early in the game, but players should refrain from using it until the later stages of the game, when they’ll both have the stats to use it devastatingly, and the Quicksilver Bullet supply to support it confidently.

Second Worst – Wooden Shield

At least the Loch Shield has application in more than one single scenario. After searching far and wide across the entire game, this hunk of junk is worth using in exactly one situation, funny as it may be: fighting Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, the strongest enemy NPC Hunter in the game. If not fighting Bloody Crow, this shield is plainly and simply useless. It is meant to block physical hits, the counterpart to the Loch Shield blocking non-physical. The Wooden Shield can’t even do that without being an embarrassment, with pitiful Stability and absorption stats. The game itself even makes fun of this shield and subtely warns players against using it. I would honestly probably have banned shields from this list, if it wasn’t for the fact that an actual gun is somehow more disgraceful than they are…

Best- Hunter’s Pistol

If not using a Bloodtinge build, taking an “if it ain’t broke” mentality makes perfect sense, as the Hunter’s Pistol is solid, reliable and not dependent on any stats to be as useful as it can be. It is available at the very beginning of the entire game, the counterpart to the previously discussed Blunderbuss.

This is, hands down, the best parry tool in this whole entire game. It is fast, responsive, air tight and speedy bullet velocity, and ultimately has zero flaws serving in this capacity. Parrying and landing subsequent visceral attacks is generally how players will do their burst damage, and the Hunter’s Pistol will be right there helping them to administer it.

Unlike the Blunderbuss, the Hunter’s Pistol actually can go on the offensive, sporting roughly the same scaling but more than three times the base damage compared to the former. While realistically worse than the Evelyn at doing this, it supplies a useful early game presence to Bloodtinge builds that does not consume ammunition as fast as the Repeating Pistol. Even at its least useful, the Hunter’s Pistol is still an excellent stopgap to hold the player over until they can get their hands on something a little more explosive. And if you’re not specifically a Bloodtinge build, none of this matters, and you should just use the Hunter’s Pistol from start to finish.

Worst – Gatling Gun

It genuinely breaks my heart to put this devastating looking contraption on this end of the list. At the very least, the Gatling Gun is pretty fun to use. The list of good things to say about it ends here. The scaling properties on this gun are so hilariously bad, I actually had to do a double take when seeing them for the first time, as surely there was no way any gaming company could make anything in a combat scenario so statistically deficient, especially something looking as awe inspiring as the Gatling Gun.

This thing eats bullets faster than anything other than maybe one of the cannons, it has embarrassingly bad scaling that ties into awkward stat requirements. The payoff for using this weapon, the damage output it is supposed to contribute when it achieves an ideal scenario for use, is relatively underwhelming and outclassed by even the Hunter’s Pistol, much less the Evelyn or Repeating Pistol. As well, when exactly is this thing supposed to achieve an ideal scenario? The answer is pretty much only when fighting really huge enemies that basically never move, and when does that take place? I guess if you’ve got 30 Strength, are some whale with an endless amount of Quicksilver Bullets, yet you somehow are struggling with the One Reborn boss, the Gatling Gun could be of mild, inefficient use. Otherwise, this thing sucks. How dare you require 30 Strength, give absolutely zero scaling for it, then give pitiful Bloodtinge scaling? From Software honestly should have just made this a pure Strength weapon with Strength scaling. Even that wouldn’t have saved it from mediocrity, but at least some build out there somewhere would be able to optimally use it.