The Finals: Best Medium Weapons, Ranked

Highlights

• The Medium class in The Finals Season 3 is versatile, offering a middle ground between Light and Heavy build options.
• The list of best Medium weapons has shifted due to new updates, with Dual Blades ranking low and FCAR emerging as a top choice.
• AKM, FCAR, and CL-40 are viable options for Medium builds, each with unique strengths and weaknesses to consider.

The list of the best Medium weapons for The Finals Season 3 has gone through a fair number of changes. The said class is quite versatile in the game, and serves as a decent middle ground between the Light and the Heavy. So it has a little something for everyone, whether players choose to go in as a rocket-launcher-wielding bombardier or a sneaky hitman who makes every shot of their revolver count.

This topic focuses on the Medium class’ arsenal of weapons and ranks their strengths and weaknesses. The current meta is highly influenced by the Light and Heavy classes, especially owing to how adaptable they are to the various maps and modes. Given this point, the Medium class’ best weapons in The Finals Season 3 need to be on point.

Updated June 17, 2024, by Amjad A. Asma: Embark Studios released a fresh update on June 13, which has naturally had an impact on the tier list of The Finals Season 3’s Medium weapons. Season 2 brought along the FAMAS, while the latest has added the Dual Blades. These are quite reminiscent of Genji in Overwatch 2, but nowhere near as impactful. Aside from that, the current meta is also looking more favorably on the Light and Heavy classes.

The Finals Season 3 has a feudal Japan theme, a lot of which is reflected by the new map, Kyoto 1568. Additionally the new Battle Pass, the Light class’ Recurve Bow, the Heavy’s Spear, and such reflect this. Terminal Attack, which launched with Season 2, has also become the ranked mode now. Owing to the many changes, weapon balances, and even health-regeneration tweaks, the list of the best weapons for the Medium class in The Finals Season 3 has naturally undergone a noticeable shift.

7 Dual Blades

Ninja-esque Feel But With Significantly Less Impact

The Dual Blades do make an appearance on the Medium weapons tier list for The Finals Season 3, but more a gimmick than anything actually useful. These blades offer multi-hit strikes and decent damage on paper, but these do not transfer to the actual arena. For starters, players may be embroiled in a close-quarters fight, but they’ll be outgunned much earlier. This is if they reach the enemy in the first place. The melee build works in The Finals Season 3 with the Heavy class’ larger health pool or the Light class’ increased agility and Evasive Dash specialization. For the Medium class, it’s akin to becoming a sitting duck.

Now, Embark Studios has given the Dual Blades a deflect ability if the secondary attack button is held down, but it doesn’t work properly. In theory, the bullets should deflect back to the enemy if pointed properly (unusually tricky), but this is calculated server side; the actual practical working is thus quite unoptimized. Further, even if players are deflecting, they do take a fair bit of damage. Since they’re movement speed is also reduced, they don’t stand a chance. The Dual Blades also don’t deflect throwables, the Flamethrower, or the Spear, which is becoming more and more common in Heavy builds in The Finals Season 3, which is why they’re just barely present on the list of the best Medium weapons in The Finals Season 3. They’ve merited an entry only to represent the melee playstyle. Given this, it can only be understated how quickly players should pass on the Riot Shield.

6 CL-40

Decent Crowd-Control With Splash Damage

The CL-40 is a pump-action grenade launcher for the Medium class in The Finals Season 3, and it’s unlocked by spending 800 VRs. Making up for its abysmal rate of fire, it can obliterate enemies and even bring certain structures down, thanks to its destructive force. The damage output is just below the shotgun, but unlike Model 1887, it has a greater area of effect. This strength makes it ideal for a crowd control approach when the opposition team rushes to steal a cashout. It did receive balance changes with The Finals Season 3, including decreased damage and increased fire rate, along with less self-damage, but the overall situtation is still quite bleak. It won’t do much against specific gadgets, like the Dome Shield that is almost always present when listing the best Heavy gadgets in The Finals Season 3.

Apart from its rate of fire, the slow-moving projectiles of the weapon also don’t do the Medium class any favors, especially against the Light class foes who can easily dash out. With a magazine size of four rounds, every shot must be pre-calculated, and because of the projectile motion of the rounds, the aim should also be sufficiently higher than the target for optimum results. In the end, it’s for players who are willing to distance themselves from combat and yet bring heat to the battlefield.

5 R.357

High Damage Output and Fairly Decent Range

The R.357 is another starting weapon for the Medium class. Its damage profile is relatively high, albeit marginally lower than the Model 1887 and CL-40, but it outperforms both the shotgun and grenade launcher in terms of fire rate and range. It is easier to aim with the R.357 revolver, which comes in handy since it has a one to two-shot kill potential when aiming for the opponent’s head. Although landing headshots can be quite difficult, it’s high damage output and increased mobility makes it one of the best Medium weapons in The Finals Season 3.

The fairly accurate revolver favors the more calm and focused playstyle that is expected of the more expert FPS players, so it’s not recommended to beginners. The recoil is also decently high, making readjustment after each shot a challenge, so using this revolver takes some practice and experience. Those who have mastered the weapon will find a lot of use for it in The Finals Season 3, especially when peeking from cover only to land the killing blow in one-on-one firefights.

4 FAMAS

A Burst Rifle That is Good at All Ranges

The FAMAS is easily among the best weapons for Medium builds in The Finals Season 3. It has a lower rate of fire than the FCAR or the AKM due to being a burst-mode-only rifle, but it has a longer damage fall-off range that makes it a good choice for long-range engagements. It can do a good job in close-range too, provided players don’t miss a lot of shots. It usually takes about a couple of bursts to kill a Light, which can be tricky but not particularly difficult. What makes the FAMAS one of the best Medium weapons in The Finals Season 3 is that it’s quite adept at long range. The recent balance changes have decreased recoil and recoil-countdown recovery, which makes it a menace to deal with.

The recoil here is naturally much less than the AKM’s, which helps with gun control at long and short-range fights. While the FCAR still remains the best overall weapon for the Medium builds in The Finals Season 3, the FAMAS comes in as a close second for long-range combat. It still gets trumped at close range by the AKM’s higher magazine size and full-auto nature, but it can be quite deadly for players who have trigger discipline and a decent number of hours in the game. Since burst-mode rifles can take some getting used ot in a fast-paced shooter like this, players are recommended to play private matches in The Finals Season 3 to get a hang of it; using it right away in competitive lobbies may give poor results.

3 Model 1887

Great Damage At Close Range

The Model 1887 is unlocked right from the beginning, and it is a standard lever-action shotgun that packs a punch at close range but is pretty much unremarkable anywhere else. The damage drop-off, however, is fairly good for a shotgun; it occurs after a distance of 10 meters.

The Model 1887’s low magazine size of six pellets means the player will be frequently reloading between sessions, and the reload speed itself is generally slow compared with other weapons here, taking up to three seconds. However, due to the reload mechanism, players can fire a pellet as soon as it is loaded into the chamber, which is a welcome alternative to waiting for the full reload animation to play out. The shotgun’s damage numbers are also the highest for any weapon in the Medium class in The Finals Season 3. Overall, the Model 1887 is a good option with a two-shot kill potential for Light builds in The Finals Season 3, the same for Medium, and up to three shots for Heavy.

2 AKM

Generous Magazine And High ROF

The AKM is a beginner weapon for the Medium class and is generally quite reliable. The damage, fire rate, and range are all pretty decent for an automatic assault rifle, and its high magazine capacity (36 bullets) means there’s more room for error. This will bode well with both the average gamer and more seasoned FPS players. The reload speed of 2.3 seconds is not the fastest, but also not too slow so as not to leave the user vulnerable between gunfights.

Being fairly balanced in most metrics, the AKM is a great weapon for the Medium class in The Finals Season 3, but there are a couple of shortcomings that hold it back from being the best. For one, the recoil pattern is hard to get familiar with since it has a decent kickback that goes back and forth between continuous firing. Secondly, the iron sights on the AKM are inferior to the scope for FCAR, which will be covered next. These weaknesses deduct a few points from the accuracy metric of AKM, but overall, it’s a well-rounded DPS weapon that can be used in pretty much every situation. The hip-fire accuracy is also nothing to laught at.

1 FCAR

Great Precision And Accuracy At The Cost of Mag Size

The FCAR is the best Medium weapon in The Finals Season 3. This tactical rifle is only slightly behind the AKM in terms of damage output and rate of fire, but bests the latter in the metrics of accuracy and range. These advantages arise partly due to the holographic sights on FCAR, which makes the reticule much more visible, and by extension, aiming with precision much more forgivable.

The recoil pattern for the FCAR is also far more predictable than the AKM, where the aim moves up and then right, so the player can adjust accordingly with a greater degree of ease. It also reloads faster than the AKM, albeit with a slight margin of 0.3 seconds. The only drawback of FCAR is its meager magazine size (20 bullets), which makes reloads more frequent and each shot worth more pre-calculation. However, that does not stop the weapon from being a beast, both for close range and mid- to long-distance poke fights. As such, it’s recommended for all matches, especially those in The Finals Season 3’s ranked mode, Terminal Attack.