Leon clearly wasn’t prepared for what he would encounter in the Resident Evil 4 remake or he would have come with more than a middling handgun and a knife. While those basic tools can get you through the opening stages of the game, it won’t be long before you will need to call upon some much stronger firepower in order to survive the tougher — and more grotesque — monsters that stand in your way. The Resident Evil 4 remake offers a ton of weapons you can collect, such as pistols, SMGs, rifles, and more. However, most will cost a lot of cash — and even more if you want to invest in their upgrades. You will have to make some tough choices about what weapons you want to stick with, and picking a dud can make your playthrough much more difficult. Instead of investing all your cash in a pea-shooter, check out the best weapons you can get in the Resident Evil 4 remake to blast your way through Ganados and Las Plagas alike.

Where else could we start but with the Red9? Almost certainly the most popular handgun — or gun in general — from the original Resident Evil 4 has returned in the remake and is just as potent as ever. Not only can you grab this gun as early as Chapter 3, making it a great choice for investing your upgrades in, but it can be altered and has essentially no drawbacks. By default, the Red9’s recoil is the primary point of criticism you could levy at it, but if you spend a few Spinels to give it the stock, you’ll be able to basically snipe with this pistol. By the time you unlock the Exclusive upgrade, which multiplies the gun’s power by 1.5x, you’ll hardly ever find a situation where this handgun can’t do the job.

The Bolt Thrower isn’t on this list for its high power, accuracy, or anything that you would traditionally look for in a gun. The reason it has to be here is due to the simple fact that you can recover the bolts it shoots into enemies after they’re dead to massively cut down on your ammo expenditure. Ammo for it is also crafted using knives, but it even has a secondary firing method where it launches mines, giving it a lot more utility. The Exclusive upgrade isn’t game-changing — it doubles the ammo capacity — but the less you have to reload, the less often you’ll be caught in a sticky situation.

In the rifle category, the Stingray is never going to let you down. This is a semiautomatic rifle, so the firing rate is mostly up to you, plus it has a great clip size by default. If you’re hitting those weak points, this baby will also deal 3x damage, and can be outfitted with almost any scope. The Exclusive upgrade boosts your final firing rate by an additional 2x, which shouldn’t be too necessary if you’re trying to be precise, though can help in a pinch.

The LE 5 is a weapon you can easily miss that is kind of like a good version of the Punisher in that it has amazing penetration power. Being an SMG, it also boasts a far greater firing rate and clip size, as well as more power. This is the perfect weapon to rip through any shield-wielding enemies. Again like the Punisher, the Exclusive upgrade allows the LE 5 to pierce up to five targets at once.

Another returning favorite, the Broken Butterfly magnum is not just the best-looking hand cannon in the game, but also the most deadly. If you don’t count a special weapon like the Rocket Launcher, the Broken Butterfly (after upgrades) deals the most damage of any gun in the Resident Evil 4 remake. The Exclusive upgrade plays a major part in this by boosting its final damage by 1.5x, again just like the Red9, but magnum upgrades are among the most expensive in the game, so this power won’t come easy.

What’s the worst part of a shotgun? The firing rate. Well, that is if you’re not using the Striker. This semiautomatic shotgun spits out damage like nobody’s business. It has power on par with any other shotgun, but way better firing speed, plus a massive clip size so you don’t have to worry about running dry out an enemy in your face. If you get the Exclusive upgrade, you can even double the already huge clip size.

This is a big investment both in terms of cash and space, but the Rocket Launcher is too iconic to the series not to be amazing. Yes, this has a one-hit kill on just about everything and will cost more or less depending on what difficulty level you’re playing on. It has no upgrades because, well, what is there to make better? Unless you’re playing with the infinite ammo for it enabled, you do only get one shot, so make it count.

While technically not a gun, the knife is so good in the Resident Evil 4 remake that it has to be mentioned. This tool will save your skin more often than you think thanks to the new ability to parry and finish downed enemies, but the obvious drawback is durability. The Primal Knife has to be unlocked by finding and destroying all 16 of the Clockwork Castellans in the game. What makes it the clear frontrunner of all knives is the Exclusive upgrade that makes it completely unbreakable, no matter how much you use it.