Ratchet & Clank is one of PlayStation's most iconic brands, thanks to its beloved animated characters, high production values, precision-platforming action, and of course, its arsenal of iconic weapons. The Ratchet & Clank series might be best known for its combat, with a huge array of creative weaponry. From turning your victims to sheep to making them dance uncontrollably, Insomniac has found some truly creative ways to dispatch your foes.
The Ratchet & Clank series is 20 years old today, November 4. To celebrate two decades worth of exploding, sheepinating, pixelizing, and groovitroning your enemies, we've compiled a list of our favorite weapons from the series' history. In no particular order (except for our last pick, which is the best) here are the absolute best weapons in Ratchet & Clank.
Doom Blades
The Buzz Blades and their upgraded form, the Doom Blades, are a remarkably efficient way to clear any room. Combat in Ratchet games tends to take place in relatively contained and closed arenas, which makes it extra helpful to have a projectile that ricochets off walls. When the Doom Blades upgrade, your enemies keep taking damage after they've been hit, letting you fling a bunch of bouncing blades into a room and watch the carnage.
Bee Mine Glove
A great concept made even greater thanks to a spectacular pun, the Bee Mine Glove does exactly what it sounds like it should: releases swarms of angry bees at your enemies. While it also has defensive capabilities and can open chests for you, the main utility is taking down enemies with the power of nature's acupuncturists. With the Bee Mine Glove, you too can reenact the traumatic ending of My Girl on hapless aliens.
Glove of Doom
The Glove of Doom is another set-it-and-forget-it weapon, the kind that Ratchet does so well. This one shoots out DoomEggs, little pods that hatch metallic monsters that then chase down your enemy and explode when they get into proximity. It's a great weapon for pairing with others that deal more direct damage, because you can toss out a few eggs and then proceed to manage the battlefield more directly with your other weapons. Plus, deploying a bunch of mad bomber robots is just always fun.
Warmonger
The Warmonger is one of the absolute best weapons when you just need to blow something up real good. The massive multi-rocket launcher has a low rate of fire, but who needs loads of shots when you have such a massive explosion? It can be upgraded to the aptly-named Peacemaker for even more rocket power, making it the perfect choice for dispatching big, slow-moving bosses or clearing a crowded area.
Nano-Swarmer
Nano Swarmer is a lot like the Bee Mine Glove, with the added benefit of letting you directly control its swarm of angry robots by targeting them with a laser pointer. It's like the attack raptors in the Jurassic World movies, except not stupid. It deploys as a turret, so you'll want to stick it into the middle of the action and then let it go to work.
Laser Tracer
There's nothing quite like a classic laser cannon. While not the most creative weapon in Ratchet's arsenal, the simple destructive power of this one makes it worthwhile. The device is so big that it stays stationary on the ground, so you can only fire it while standing still and protected by a shield. But it packs a wallop on enemies in a very small concentrated area, making it an excellent choice for taking down some big boys or elite enemies that might get in your way.
Suck Cannon
Essentially a superpowered vacuum cleaner, the Suck Cannon is unique mostly for how it acquires and uses ammunition. Rather than simply find ammo laying around like many other weapons, this one sucks up potential ammo--including some smaller enemy types--and then spits them out at other enemies. On some appearances it's even been upgraded to the Vortex Cannon, which creates a swirling mass of vacuum-based death.
Pixelizer
The Pixelizer is mostly notable for its visual effect rather than its gameplay functionality, but that effect is so fun that it earns a spot on our favorites. It's essentially a shotgun blast, with a wide, short-ranged area of effect. But rather than simply spread a big dose of buckshot at your foes, you slap them with a blast of pixels that in effect pixelizes them, too. It's a fun way to play with video game history in a series that has always been 3D.
Sheepinator
A weapon that turns your enemies into harmless sheep. What's not to love? The Sheepinator fires a continuous beam at your enemies to turn them into sheep, and it doesn't consume traditional ammo in doing so. That means you can take care of a smaller enemy swarm without taking up your precious ammunition, or even just humiliate more elite enemies by holding the beam on them long enough to turn them into fluffy little critters. It gets even better once you upgrade to the Black Sheepinator, which makes some of your enemy sheep explode on the others.
RYNO
The ultimate reward weapon at the end of every Ratchet game, the RYNO (which purportedly stands for "Rip Ya A New One") is often the strongest weapon in each game. This rocket launcher fires a barrage of extremely powerful rockets. Each individual shell does as much damage alone as some of the games' most powerful weapons, and it can auto-target several different enemies at once. It's the ultimate weapon with unmatched destructive power.
Groovitron
On the other end of the spectrum, the Groovitron does no direct damage to enemies, but it incapacitates them long enough that you can dispatch them with ease. The floating disco ball can be deployed from a glove or a mine, and once it's on the battlefield your enemies will be overcome with the compulsion to dance the night away. Aside from just being helpful utility on the battlefield, it's obviously super fun to watch Ratchet's wide array of alien weirdos bust a move.
The Zurkon Family
Nothing shows the playful spirit of Ratchet & Clank quite like Mr. Zurkon and his associated family. The tiny murderous robot first appeared in Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, and he was so beloved he's gone on to appear in just about every Ratchet game since. Functionally, he's a little autonomous robot that roams around the battlefield wreaking absolute havoc on enemies. He can be upgraded to do ever-increasing damage, but the absolute best iteration is in Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. In that game, you can upgrade him to bring along the entire family: Mr. Zurkon, Zurkon Jr. and Mrs. Zurkon, all of whom pack their own punch. The Zurkons became so popular that they even became vendor NPCs in the latest game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. By that point they've settled down a bit, but we can always hope the Zurkons will be back to their old ways soon enough.
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