Top Weapons in Sand: Raiders of Sophie—Best Gear for Raids and PvP Loot
Sand: Raiders of Sophie lets you take a variety of weapons on expeditions, and the gear you choose directly shapes how you handle the dangers you’ll meet in the cities—as well as other players who are hunting for your loot. While you can’t always pick exactly what you want, some weapons are worth the extra effort to track down. Here are the strongest options you can use in the game.
Best Weapons to Use in Sand: Raiders of Sophie
- 1874e Petros Rifle
- AV1 Rocket Launcher
- Blitz 10R Pistol
- EB “Vita” Police Revolver
- M82 “Aperture” Rifle
- Pepper Mill Shotgun
1874e Petros Rifle
The 1874e Petros Rifle is an uncommon rifle, but it’s one of the more achievable finds. You can often pick it up from a weapons crate when you loot a city or a fort. It’s a single-action bolt rifle with surprisingly strong accuracy, making it a solid pick for long-distance picks. Because it reloads slowly, you’ll want a reliable close-range backup—such as a pistol or shotgun—so you’re not stuck waiting if your first shot doesn’t connect.
Even with the reload delay, the Petros Rifle shines when you need to delete targets before they get close enough to threaten you. Use it to clear enemy NPCs that are guarding city areas aggressively, or to punish a player manning a trampler’s turrets—giving you a chance to take them out at a safe distance.
AV1 Rocket Launcher
The AV1 Rocket Launcher is a rare heavy weapon built for high-impact, area-of-effect damage. It’s especially useful when enemies bunch up—whether that’s a crowd of NPCs or multiple enemy players grouped tightly together. It can also help you strike a specific point on a walker without relying on a turret.
Since the AV1 is rare and not easy to acquire, treat it like a situational tool rather than a constant loadout staple. Its rocket ammunition doesn’t appear as frequently as ammo for many other weapons, so save it for moments where splash damage or a precise walker hit will matter most.
Blitz 15R Pistol
The Blitz 15R Pistol is the biggest magazine option among the Blitz pistols you can find in Sand. It works well as a secondary weapon alongside your main gun, and the 15R model lets you carry up to 15 rounds before reloading. The next best alternative is the Blitz 10R, which holds 10 rounds.
All Blitz pistols share the same core performance stats: they deal 15 damage and use 8x21mm ammunition. If you have to choose one, the 15R is usually the better call because it forces you to reload less often. That said, even the standard PPS-5 variant—where the magazine holds only five bullets—still makes a capable secondary, especially when you’re trying to keep pressure during reload downtime.
EB “Vita” Police Revolver
The EB Revolver comes in multiple versions, and the “Vita” Police model is the one most players should prioritize. The key advantage is that it includes a speed loader. Instead of reloading the six rounds individually, you can reload them all at once, which makes the weapon much smoother to use under pressure.
Its main drawback is that without that speed loader you’d have to manually reload each bullet in the six-round drum, but the kit removes the pain point in practice. The EB “Vita” Police Revolver is also a strong fallback if you don’t have a Blitz Pistol. It can put out solid damage; just remember that the Police version brings the quickest reload, while other EB Revolver variants can’t match the Blitz Pistol’s overall advantage.
M82 “Aperture” Rifle
The M82 “Aperture” Rifle is a single-shot rifle with a six-round magazine, meaning you can fire it six times before needing a reload. Like the Breechloader, it offers strong damage and a good effective range, but unlike setups that keep ammo ready, you must reload each time you exhaust those six shots. The upside is that you’re guaranteed those six shots before the reload hits, so it’s easier to endure long engagements—but once you do reload, the pause can feel noticeably slow. When that moment comes, swapping to your secondary can help keep you in the fight.
If you anticipate multiple long-range fights before boarding an enemy trampler, or you want to remove NPC threats from a safe distance, the M82 Rifle is an excellent choice. Soften targets up at range first, then switch to a close-range weapon when it’s time to board.
There’s also a standard M82 rifle variant, and the “Aperture” version is the one you can loot. What sets the Aperture model apart is that it can be modified—letting you add a scope or a suppressor.
Pepper Mill Shotgun
The Pepper Mill Shotgun is one of the better primary close-range weapons in Sand: Raiders of Sophie. It’s a three-round shotgun that deals strong damage up close, with three shells in the chamber ready to fire. Reloading these shells doesn’t take too long, and it’s faster than other shotgun models. Still, there’s a brief window where an enemy can react, so it’s smart to have a reliable secondary weapon you can switch to if you burn through all three shots and your target remains.
Bring the Pepper Mill when you expect to push through a city room by room, or when you’re fighting other players on their trampler—or yours. Don’t try to force it as your entire kit, though: it lacks reach. Instead, use it to win the close-quarters moments and then rely on a rifle as you work to shorten the distance between yourself and your opponent.
Up Next: Dreadnought: How to Open Black Door (All Key Locations)
Top Guide Sections
- Best Loot Locations
- Best Weapons
- Dreadnought: How to Open Black Door (All Key Locations)
- How to Extract
