The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu - Best Ranged Weapons for Expeditions

Ranged weapons can keep a bad encounter from getting worse in The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, but they’re not an excuse to shoot your way across the jungle willy-nilly. Ammunition in this game is limited, gunfire makes a lot of noise, and every loud fight disturbs the jungle and its cursed inhabitants.

Although it doesn’t affect all ranged weapons equally, rain is another major aspect you’ll need to keep in mind during expeditions. Matchlock weapons depend on a lit fuse and are a poor choice once the weather turns. Flintlocks hold up better in damp conditions, but they’re still not as reliable as non-gunpowder weapons like bows and crossbows.

With all that in mind, this tier list ranks the nine distinct standard ranged weapons currently available in The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu. We’re not including Aged and Decayed weapons since those are just weaker variants of their standard counterparts. Similarly, we’re skipping the Cthulhu-themed weapons because they’re essentially just cosmetic skins on top of regular weapons.

Best Ranged Weapons Tier List

S Tier

Longbow

Best overall ranged weapon

The Longbow is the best all-purpose ranged weapon for most expeditions. It deals 60 damage, works in the rain, has no fuse to babysit, and costs only 15 Tokens at the shop. It’s also issued on a large number of contracts, so you can use it on a lot of expeditions.

The Longbow doesn’t have the immediate stopping power of a good firearm, but it rarely leaves you with an expensive stick in your hands either. Use it to thin out isolated enemies, support a teammate being chased, or finish targets from a safer distance without committing the entire crew to a loud gunfight. If the contract gives your group several bows and the forecast look miserable, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better weapon than this.

Recurve Bow

Best bow for quick follow-up shots

The Recurve Bow loses a little raw damage to the Longbow, dealing 57 damage instead of 60. However, this ranged weapons faster draw speed makes it the better choice for situations when you need to react quickly

The Recurve Bow is particularly handy when the team is moving through dense terrain, where enemies can appear out of nowhere and you don’t have time to settle into a long draw. It still works in rain and uses the same arrows as the Longbow, so the decision mostly comes down to whether you value a little more damage or a faster shot.

A Tier

Swivel-Breech Flintlock

Best firearm for emergencies

The Swivel-Breech Flintlock is built around its twin-barrel design. This allows players to shoot twice before having to reload. That feature is extremely helpful, especially if you’re in a clutch situation when you don’t have time to reload or switch weapons.

Since the Swivel-Breech Flintlock is a firearm, you shouldn’t use it to clear every ordinary enemy you run into. We recommend saving it for bosses or other major threats like that. And do try to make both shots counts since reloading this thing takes quite a while.

Flintlock Musket

Best raw-damage firearm

The Flintlock Musket has the highest base damage of the standard ranged weapons at 66. It’s also a more dependable bad-weather firearm than the matchlock options because it doesn’t rely on the same exposed fuse design. This is the weapon you’ll want to bring along if you’re going for a one shot, one kill type of playstyle.

Buit while the muskets advantages are pretty impressive, it's worth noting that the weapon also comes with some obvious drawbacks. The Flintlock Musket is loud, expensive, and requires Rank 3 to buy. This weapon is ideal when it’s used by a single party member who acts as a sort of hard-hitting sniper, albeit a very loud one.

Latchet Crossbow

Best crossbow

The Latchet Crossbow deals the same 40 damage as the standard Crossbow, but its lever-loaded mechanism makes it quicker to ready between shots. That’s a massive advantage that instantly gives it an edge over the regular version.

The Latchet Crossbow won’t match the damage of a Longbow or a musket, but it’s reliable in the rain and gives the crew a measured, accurate ranged option without relying on gunpowder. Take it with you when you’re okay with missing out on some damage in exchange for shooting more often.

B Tier

Crossbow

Good for deliberate shots

The standard Crossbow is pretty useful, especially early on, but its slow reload speed keeps it out of the upper tiers. Still, the 40 damage is respectable and its bolts can penetrate armor at close range. All in all, a solid option against a lot of the weaker enemies you’ll run into in the early game.

The main issue with the Crossbow is that it asks for patience in a game that regularly punishes anyone caught reloading at the wrong moment. The best way to use the Crossbow is as an opener before switching to a different weapon, or as a tool for pulling a single enemy from a group without alerting their friends.

Flintlock Pistol

A strong sidearm, not a primary weapon

The Flintlock Pistol has impressive damage for its size, but its short effective range makes it more of a panic button than anything else. This is the type of weapon you draw when an enemy catch you by surprise and you need to land a quick shot to save your skin. You don’t really want to open a fight across a clearing with this.

The Flintlock Pistol comes with the usual firearm drawbacks like having limited charges, causing a lot of noise, and being unreliable in the rain. The pistol is worth keeping on the weapon wheel if the contract provides one, but it shouldn’t replace a bow, crossbow, or proper musket as the crew’s main ranged option.

C Tier

Matchlock Arquebus

Powerful, but too conditional

The Matchlock Arquebus deals 63 damage, which puts it close to the Flintlock Musket on paper. In practice, though, it's slow reload, loud shot, and rain vulnerability make it much harder to trust over the course of a full expedition.

Use the Arquebus for a prepared opening shot in clear weather or when the crew needs to stop a priority target quickly. Once the fuse has been soaked, it becomes dead weight until you can find shelter. It’s not useless by any means, but it demands conditions that the jungle rarely provides.

Matchlock Pistol

The weakest main ranged choice

The Matchlock Pistol has the same problem as the Arquebus with none of the range to compensate for it. It can still hit hard at close range, but the short reach, slow reload, fuse issue, and firearm noise all work against it.

If this is the only ranged weapon your contract provides, you might as well grab it in case of emergency. Otherwise, you’re better off with pretty much any other ranged weapon the game offers right now.