Finding Cronos: The New Dawn too hard? The best weapons make things simpler

Cronos: The New Dawn attempts to enter the ‘Dead Space’ over the shoulder survival horror genre with its gritty aesthetic and grotesque enemies that are hard to put down for good.

When Dead Space first launched, since it formed a new kind of limb destroying combat many found it difficult to navigate, Isaac Clarke’s efforts to escape were likely stopped in their tracks.

Even though Cronos: The New Dawn has launched over fifteen years later, it offers a pretty significant challenge, especially if you haven’t dipped your toe into similar titles.

There are somewhat limited resources, the movement and gunplay is tough to master, and probably most importantly, if you’re not using the best weapons, you’re going to be coming up short against the differing enemy types.

What are the best weapons in Cronos: The New Dawn?

If you’re finding yourself a little lacking in firepower, there are some specific weapons that can aid you in the heat of battle.

Akin to that of the aforementioned Dead Space where the starting pistol was probably the most effective weapon throughout, Cronos: The New Dawn shares this with the Sword MK-1615, if you learn how to use it, while also upgrading when possible.

It’s not the most hard-hitting right out of the gate, but when you get it fully upgraded, it offers enough output to get through most of the game, in conjunction with a ten-round mag that should suffice for your run-of-the-mill battles.

Where it comes into its own, though, is with the charged shot, which essentially doubles the damage while also penetrating foes, potentially resulting in two or even three kills in one fell swoop, if the conditions are right.

If you need more out of the barrel oomph, Cronos: The New Dawn has a couple of shotguns that might be up your alley, and a perfect pairing for the Sword.

The better of the two in our opinion is the Hammer PROV-2030 which, when fully upgraded, boasts a modest five-shot magazine, coupled with that same charged shot functionality the Sword has.

The charged shot, again, deals more damage, but since the Hammer is a shotgun, it also widens the pellet spread, allowing for more enemies to be hit.

The Mace JER-5120, the other shotgun available, is harder hitting but is sadly a double-barrel archetype, so the Hammer is much more versatile and frees up inventory space, since it holds more before the reload.

Honorable mentions go out to the Lance REV-1411 carbine and the Arbalest MT-1020, which are both pretty stellar weapons in their own right.

The reason why we’d rather opt for the Sword and Hammer combo, though, is because the Lance is a very late-game weapon that doesn’t have the same amount of accuracy or familiarity, and the Arbalest, while having insane damage output, is a more NG+ gun due to how scarce the ammo is in the base game.

That’s not to say don’t use these two — very much do utilize their strengths when possible — it’s just that the Sword and Hammer are ol’ reliables that can be so effective in this more precision shooter.