First things first! We must talk about the food for your mutant/bandit killing tools as ammunition is just as important as the weapon itself.

In the metro, you will stumble upon different types of ammunition and all of them are only compatible with their respective type of weapon. You will also find exchange kiosks within the stations that allow you to buy and sell ammo. These kiosks have an economy, meaning some ammunition are more expensive or cheap than others.


.44 Magnum Bullets are fired by Revolvers and are at the middle in value and rarity.


Dirty Ammo is used by Primary Weapons and is the second cheapest ammunition and weakest damage wise, but plentiful on the field.


Shotgun Shells are fairly common, but also the second most expensive type of ammunition.


Metal Balls are used as projectiles by the Tihar and Volt Driver. Despite being the rarest type of ammo on the field, it is the cheapest in the exchange kiosks.





Spears can only be used by the Helsing, but shares attributes in common with Throwing Knives because they can be used again if you loot the spear off your brutalized target.

It is the most expensive type of ammunition, but you will never have to buy a single one if you take your time to search and loot.

Just remember that despite having a pointed head in the icon, the projectiles themselves look more like giant needles instead.


Military Grade Rounds are a powerful alternative to Dirty Ammo and is used as currency to buy weapons and equipment from vendors and exchanged for other types of ammo.

There are two kinds of knives to satisfy your melee needs and lust for placing sharp things into hostiles within hugging distance.

The Trench Knife is your trusty buddy and one of the most helpful weapons and is always available. It has a fairly long melee range and is useful for conserving ammo if needed.

Here are some hard-cutting tips and advice with the knife:

• If you hold left click you can attack faster.
  
• Right clicking with the knife does blunt damage with the handle of the weapon and is useful for smashing broken doors that will not open.
  
• As long as your movements are swift you can evade animals and kill them if you aim for their head.
  
• Do not bring a knife to a gunfight. Trying the knife on alerted humans is bad news as their attacks are ranged.
  
• The knife is surprisingly very loud and terrible for stealth when many enemies are in the vicinity of each other.

The Throwing Knife functions differently from the Trench Knife since as it's name says, you well... throw it. Very useful for stealth and increases your cool factor.

Some flying tips and advice for the Throwing Knives:

• First available for purchase in Riga and three freebies can be found in the Lost Tunnels on the left side on a wooden post right before turning to enter the area with alarm cans, a table in the room right before the first tripwire and on the body of the guard that Bourbon kills.
  
• Equipped by equipping the Trench Knife first then pressing the knife equipping button again.
  
• Throwing Knives have excellent penetration if you hold left click before releasing and you can never run out of these if you take the time to loot your victims.
  
• You can carry only five of these at a time and they are completely silent if they land and kill the victim.
  
• You can press right click to stab with them which can be unreliable if there are other enemies nearby as it may not kill in one hit.
  
• The weakness of these knives is that they lack range compared to silenced guns, so sadly it is impossible to get any across the map kills with these.

In the metro, being stocked on your side tools will be a boon. So here are your pocket weapons and bags of tricks you can use to turn a fight to your advantage.


The classic ol' reliable Revolver. An aged weapon, but still a superb secondary weapon when your primary weapons are empty.

Some quickdraw tips and advice to keep in mind:

• It has excellent power and range, making it a good backup.
  
• Later on with some upgrades, it transforms into a mini sniper rifle.
  
• It is only limited by being able to hold six bullets at a time, managable downside unless you love to reload during a battle.
  
• Very customizable, so upgrade to your personal preference or situation.

Here are the revolvers and their seven different variations and flavours. Plus, where you can find them:

• Regular: First available in Hunter and carried by many human enemies.
  
• Silenced: Found on a body in Dead City 2. Can also be found from the corpse of the fascist soldier who was about to execute you in the start Trolley Combat.
  
• Extended Barrel: Found on a body in Lost Catacombs in a circular area with metal platforms after "The Great Door".
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Stock and Extended Barrel: Found on a body along with a positive Moral Point in Anomaly in the tunnel where Khan holds off an entire Nosalis horde.
  
• Stock and Silencer: Found in a train car with a lot of tripwires nearby at the end of Depot after your railcar crashes.
  
• Extended Barrel with Stock and Scope: Found in Defense near a dead body with a music player nearby.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Silenced with Stock and Scope: Found on Outpost in the upper level of the first area inside a box near the ladder you can climb.

Sometimes you will need some more firepower quickly when dealing with tougher enemies or multiple of them. This piece of Russian ingenuity from babushka's homemade recipe will give an explosive taste, as these Grenades will do the job when some boom is needed.

Here are some thrown out explosive tips and advice:

• Grenades can be first bought in Riga and are first found in Lost Tunnels and in ample quantities afterwards.
  
• Left or right click will light the grenade.
  
• The left click will throw the grenade overhanded and gives you a very long range. Go long.
  
• The right click will throw the grenade underhanded which does not give you much range, but gives you more control on where it lands.
  
• When lit these will explode in five seconds so timing the throw properly can take out multiple enemies before they can escape the blast.
  
• Some bad things will happen to you if you do not throw past five seconds so make sure you pay attention after the grenade is lit.
  
• You can also bounce this off surfaces to hit enemies behind cover. Kobe!

There are also Sticky Grenades which can save you the trouble of trying to predict where an enemy will go and allow you to simply throw the grenade onto said enemy as it will stick to them until detonation.

Tips and advice to get you out of sticky situations:

• Sticky Grenades are rarely found, but can be bought from multiple vendors.
  
• Sticky Grenades always stick to where they land and as a result you cannot bounce them off surfaces.
  
• High probability to instantly kill Demons.
  
• Fortunately, they will never get stuck on your hand. Whew.

Here are a list of locations where you can find them for free:

• One is found in Bridge in a box you can open on the first train car you can climb into along with another box with three dolls that gives a Moral Point when squeezed and can also be bought from multiple vendors.
  
• Two are found inside the truck hanging near the water in Dead City 1.
  
• Two are found in a red box on the wall in Frontline near the fascist generator.
  
• Two are found in Outpost on a platform, over on the iron bars/pipes above the starting area. They should be somewhat nearby a house with two Nazi soldiers inside.
  
• Two more are found in Outpost near the radio beacon on the roof of the building.
  
• Three are found in Driving to Sparta hanging vertically on the table the Volt Driver is on.

Primary Weapons are the most versatile guns and are all machine gun type weapons that use Dirty Ammo and can switch to use Military Grade Rounds by holding the reload button. They have low damage per bullet, but this is compensated by high magazines, fire rate and relatively bountiful ammo.

Military Grade Rounds can give the extra punch needed in an encounter or a last resort option when empty of Dirty Ammo, beware of switching to them accidentally though as you will quite literally burn your money.
Ka-ching!


The B*stard Gun. (really Steam you are going to censor that?) It is a metro baby's first machine gun, cheap and relatively managable in the early game. It soon gets outclassed by later Primary Weapons, but upgrades can help keep it viable.

Dastardly tips and advice for wielders of the B*stard:

• This one is on the house. It is given for free and cannot be missed.
  
• It holds thirty rounds, but has a long reloading time.
  
• Generally has excellent handling and range, but accuracy will suffer horribly when fired without restraint due to horrible recoil combined with extreme firing speed.
  
• There is a silenced version that can be picked up in Dead City 1, after leaving the Market on the right in a telephone booth with some ammo.
  
• Another silenced one is free to pick up in Dry Station on a table near a chair.

The Kalash is often confused for the popular AK-47, but is actually the AK-74 which fires weaker 5.45×39mm ammunition. Nevertheless, it is still a reliable weapon for comrades in the motherland with its solid performance.

Radical tips and advice for this reliable Russian:

• A freebie can be acquired from Bourbon's backpack at the back of the vents in Dry Station.
  
• It holds thirty rounds along with a moderate reload speed.
  
• It has a reliable firing rate and low recoil which helps maintain accuracy when rapidly firing.
  
• It is the only Primary Weapon without a silenced version which makes it useless when sneaking.

Contrast to the Kalash which only comes in loud flavour, the VSV comes only in silent flavour. It has good handling and the right out of the box silencer makes the VSV a welcome fit to any stealth players' arsenal.

Silent and precise tips and advice for to go:

• It can be bought in Armory along with a scoped version and a regular version is given to you by Ulman for free in Black Station.
  
• You get a freebie laser sight with it.
  
• It has the firing speed and a lower recoil than that of the Kalash which allows for even more accuracy while rapid firing.
  
• Despite being capable of only holding twenty rounds, this gun has a quick reload to remedy that.

The Kalash 2012 is the crème de la crème of all the Primary Weapons. It is arguably the best assault rifle and can be bought in Polis or picked up in Driving to Sparta. It has many benefits as a late game weapon and is very reliable like it's predecessor.

Next generation tips and advice:

• It holds the most rounds of the primary weapons with forty rounds.
  
• It has the extremely high firing speed of the B*stard Gun which actually can be a disadvantage if you go full on guns blazing.
  
• It has the Laser Sight and quick reload of the VSV with the option of a Silenced and Scoped version that you can buy in Polis.
  
• The only real disadvantage of this gun is that you can only acquire it after all human enemies have been dealt with in the entire game.

Shotgun Rain! Unload into some mutant's brains! Shotgun Rain! Another bandit takes the pain train!

Shotguns deal excellent damage at point blank range and are great if you need to get up close and personal. They all lack sights and cannot be aimed down with, but as a result right click will be replaced with a different action.


The Duplet. Nothing like hunting down some gosh darn mutants with a double o' barrel shottie. The boomstick is simple and easy to use and deals a good amount of damage.




Tips and advice for some double trouble:

• This is a freebie gift and cannot be missed. Happy Birthday.
  
• With only two shells that can be loaded, it has a short reload time.
  
• Left clicking fires the left barrel and right clicking fires the right barrel.
  
• Both barrels can be fired at once for impressive damage.

The "Uboinik" or more colloquially known as the Automatic Shotgun. It does what the Duplet don't with its rapid fire capability and ability to load more shells.

Shell-shocking tips and advice for this shottie:

• Features rapid fire capability that the Duplet lacks, but is hindered by long reload times.
  
• It normally holds five shells at a time, but can be made to carry six by holding the reload key after emptying the weapon instead of simply tapping it.
  
• This weapon has two variations and right click can be used to melee and a more powerful version of the melee can be done by holding right click before release.
  
• Regular version: Bourbon leaves this weapon with you along with his backpack in Dry Station in the vents.
  
• Bayonet version: Found with a guard in the same station in a crate maze next to a hookah you can smoke. Another can be found in Frontline by a dead soldier when following down a passage past the beds full of wounded communist soldiers.

The Heavy Automatic Shotgun... This monster is easily the best Shotgun... Mutants fall to it's might and get torn quickly... It is a true beast of beasts...

Tips and advice for this... monster..?:

• This weapon cannot be bought.
  
• It holds a whopping twenty shells, but has a very long reload and weapon switch time.
  
• The left click fires this weapon in fully automatic. Hell mode.
  
• The right click fires this weapon in semi automatic. Slightly less hellish and more ammo conservative mode.
  
• Not even a Librarian can take a full magazine to the face and live to tell the tale.
  
• Unfortunately only two exists and are found in Armory and Driving to Sparta.

With the metro being transformed into an more odd place than it used to be, there are some odd weapons to go along with it. Unconventional Weapons are unique guns that use metal balls or spears as ammunition and rely on a pneumatic gimmick mechanic for damage.


The Tihar could be called the "sniper rifle" of this game. It can deal with pesky bandits from afar very quickly and silently.

Here are some high pressure tips and advice to pump in:

• It is very powerful when pumped up and has a long range.
  
• Even though it is silent, it is possible nearby enemies to be alerted. So try to take a good sniper's angle and wait for the perfect moment.
  
• It uses metal balls exclusively and holds fifteen at a time.
  
• First found in Lost Tunnels when travelling with Bourbon in a tunnel to the left with two Lurkers.
  
• Hold the reload key and left click to pump for more damage and range.
  
• It is outclassed by the Volt Driver in damage and by the Helsing in stealth capability but can fire faster than both.

The Volt Driver is a wicked homemade Railgun that is easily the most powerful and the most valuable weapon, effectively earning unicorn status within the metro. It can arguably be considered the most unconventional weapon of all.

Some tips and advice that will shock you:

• This weapon cannot be bought and can only be found.
  
• It uses electromagnetism powered by a battery to fire the projectile at extreme velocities for some electrifying powerful damage.
  
• Trading this weapon in for a Duplet at Armory can easily give you all the money you will need for the rest of the game. Which can be done twice if you carry the first Volt Driver to Armory.
  
• It uses metal balls exclusively and holds fifteen at a time.
  
• Holding the reload key and left clicking will charge the battery.
  
• Right clicking with this weapon can be used to shock enemies with melee without using ammo, but at the cost of draining the battery faster.
  
• Unlike the other two Unconventional Weapons, this one is not silent.

These are three Volt Drivers you can find in the game.

• One in Lost Tunnels near the fireplace where human enemies are fought for the first time.
  
• One in Armory on the bed with the Heavy Automatic Shotgun.
  
• One in Driving to Sparta on a table with the Heavy Automatic Shotgun.

It ain't a post apocalyptic game without some sort of weapon similar to a crossbow. The Helsing fills this niche by being a spear launcher with ammo that can be looted again. Gotta keep the irradiated land eco friendly.

Tips and advice to help with getting that bullseye:

• It is naturally silent and very excellent for stealth, but can be useful for picking off enemies if it goes loud.
  
• The excellent penetration makes it deadly to humans and mutants especially if they are unaware.
  
• It is even able to bring a Librarian down in two headshots on Ranger Hardcore.
  
• Lacks rapid fire, but hardly an issue when this weapon does so much damage.
  
• It combines the range of the Tihar and the silent kill ability of Throwing Knives into one sweet package.
  
• This weapon is pneumatic and can be pumped for more damage by holding the reload key and left clicking.
  
• It holds eight spears at a time and the reload time is decent.
  
• Ammo efficient as long as you don't get a spear sent off into an abyss.

Here are a list of locations where this gun can be found for free:

• Dead City 1 in a highly radioactive room after the area with stairs where you scare off a demon feeding on a human corpse near the entrance to Dead City 2.
  
• Frontline on the fascist side of the map in the area with a generator you can turn off.
  
• Defense in a room with two safes and a positive Moral Point you can climb to with a staircase with gates near it in an area where you cannot breathe.
  
• Black Station in a train car with one guard patrolling near the area with the generator you can turn off.

This section is for additional items that are helpful, but can be missed:


Heavy Armor

• Cannot be found for free.
  
• Can be bought in Armory or Polis for one hundred Military Grade Rounds.
  
• Reduces the damage taken from enemies in comparison to default suit.
  
• Useful if you plan on not using stealth at all.
  
• Increases the sound you make, which in turn causes stealth to be more difficult.

Great if you like to run in guns blazing, but keep in mind; buying it will give you a more difficult time in stealth if you decide to try it with this on.


Stealth Armor

• Cannot be found for free
  
• Can only be bought in Armory for one hundred Military Grade Rounds.
  
• Not really essential, but worth buying if you are doing the Invisible Man and Merciful achievements or doing a lot of stealth with money to spare.
  
• Your footsteps will be silent to the point where you can sneak right past guards.
  
• Your watch will frequently display absolutely no light in dark areas, which means that you are completely invisible and only sound can give you away.
  
• Hiding from someone is completely useless if they have already seen you. Obviously.
  
• Comes with a freebie bundled bonus set of Night Vision Goggles.
  
• Provides less armor and increases damage taken in comparison to default suit.

Good if you are stealthing a lot and want to be an absolute silent assassin. The reduced armor will be a pain when it goes loud or against mutants, so play wisely. If you no longer wish to have the Stealth Armor, you can buy the Heavy Armor to replace it at Polis.

Ideally, I would recommend to stick to the default suit you have as it gives you the best of both worlds. Being able to stealth and take hits when it goes loud is very useful and allows you to be versatile when needed. Plus the hundred saved Military Grade Rounds will keep you from being as poor as a college student in debt after you buy a set of armor and weapons.

Night Vision Goggles

• Hold N to wear them or take them off.
  
• When they are on tap N to switch between normal and night vision.
  
• Comes as a freebie with the Stealth Armor or can be acquired in Frontline.

You can acquire them in Frontline by simply turning around where there will be two guards. Use Throwing Knives to kill them and find a red box on the wall on the right. Open it and loot it to get a pair of goggles and some bullets that give a positive Moral Point.

Credits due to the Metro Wiki[metrovideogame.fandom.com], as I have compiled lots of images and info from there for this guide. Plus, credits to you all who have given your own tips and advice for the weaponry of Metro, I'd love to add all the tips and credit you all one by one, but that would make this guide far too long.

Edit: 2017/09/04

Wow, it's the fourth anniversary of when I made this guide on the fourth day of September and I've just made the fourth major revision of this guide, pretty amusing huh?

I see 10k+ of all you folks on Steam have read this guide since it's birth and I would just love to say that I love you all. The fact that you all like this game as do I and have read this guide really warms my heart. Thanks everyone!