Hellraiser Revival best weapon upgrades: the one to take for every gun

Every gun in Hellraiser: Revival comes with a pile of attachments, and you don’t need most of them. You need one per gun. Here is mine for each, in the order you pick the guns up.

Four of the five cost nothing. You find them, and two sit behind keypad codes that are listed below. The shotgun pick is the exception at 360 coins, so start saving early. Skip a pickup and it stays skipped, so save by hand before each spot if you aren’t sure you’ll be back.

Pistol: Rifled Barrel

The pistol is the weakest gun you carry and the one you lean on first. Rifled Barrel cuts the sway, so your shots land closer to where you aimed. The Extended Magazine is a fine buy at 180 coins, but all it changes is how often you reload. Sway changes every single shot, and an accurate pistol wastes less of the ammo this game keeps short.

You pick it up during the Escape Charlotte objective. Leave the first dance club, drop into the sewers and climb down the ladder. Clear the two enemies waiting at the bottom, then go through the door into the room with ritual drawings on the walls. Look back toward the door and to your left. There is a locker you have no way of opening. Ignore it and look on top, because the barrel has been left up there.

Shotgun: Dragon Breath Rounds

Every shell sets the target on fire. That is the whole upgrade, and it is why the shotgun stops being a close-range panic button and starts winning boss fights. The burn keeps working while you back off and reload, which is exactly when a shotgun normally leaves you exposed.

Zora sells it for 360 coins at her second shop, the same stop that later sells the revolver, once you have the Statue’s Head. It is the most expensive thing on this list, and I would still buy it before anything else on the shotgun. The Extended Mag Tube is 200 coins for a magazine of eight, which is nice and nothing more. Full Choke raises the damage of each shell, but it doesn’t touch the burn, so it adds less than it sounds like it would.

You already have the shotgun by then, so there is nothing to unlock first. Make sure you arrive at that shop with the coins.

SMG: Laser Pointer

Hip-fire is the whole point of the SMG, and without an attachment a lot of your bullets go wide even at close range. The Laser Pointer tightens the spread and makes hip-fire reliable. The Heavy Foregrip (180 coins from the merchant) tightens it further later on.

Hand the first heart to Sunny and ride the elevator up to the club. The door straight ahead when the elevator opens needs the Snake Key, which you pick up by following the objectives. Inside is a keypad cabinet and the code is 1952. The upgrade is on one of the shelves. SMG ammo is on the shelves too, so free up a slot before you open it.

The Drum Magazine is the other big SMG upgrade, taking you from 31 rounds to 48, but the drum and the Laser Pointer can’t be fitted together. Take the laser. A bigger magazine is worth less than bullets that hit. If the Lord of War trophy doesn’t unlock with every slot full, swap a drum magazine out for the Laser Pointer.

Revolver: Hollowpoint Rounds

You buy the revolver from Zora’s second shop for 300 coins, after the Statue’s Head. It holds six rounds, kicks hard and fires slowly, and it is the gun I reach for when one enemy needs to go down. Hollowpoint Rounds raise its dismemberment power, so the hits that already end fights start taking limbs with them.

The other revolver upgrades cost coins. Internal Frame Weights are 150 and the Fine-Tuned Barrel is 160, and your coins are better spent on .357 ammo, which Zora crafts for 180 at the third shop. Hollowpoint is free, so it wins by default and then keeps winning on merit.

It is on the Get to Marlowe objective. Once you are back in the club, the door that takes four golden cubes is open to you. In the corridor beyond it, take the first door on the right. The locker in that room opens with 1923.

Assault Rifle: Double Drum Magazine

The assault rifle is the last gun you get, from Zora’s third shop for 450 coins. AP Rounds are the runner-up at 180 coins, and they punch through armor, but the Double Drum Magazine is the pick. It takes the magazine up to 61 rounds, which means far fewer reloads in the fights where a reload gets you hurt.

It’s on a side path during the Find and Use the Missing Bell objective. In the narrow alleys there is a locked door that wants a bell. On the way to the bell you pass a shooting range and a door into a long room. Go left as you enter, toward the giant spinning gear traps at the far end. The upgrade is on a table behind two of them. Slide through the gap in the second trap to reach it.

Missable upgrades

There is no chapter select and you can’t walk back to an earlier area, so the four found upgrades have to be taken on your first visit. The same goes for the six bags that give you the room to carry any of it, and those are in the inventory upgrade guide. The rest of our Hellraiser: Revival guides are on the hub.