How To Choose The Best Nerf Guns Right Now

The Nerf Elite Motoblitz is really the only excellent Nerf gun in the entire Nerf Elite 2.0 series. And it looks like a Nerf gun that's already been modded. IYKYK. The Motoblitz is a bullpup blaster with an integrated scope and a pump-action under barrel "masterkey" shotgun attachment that's powered by pressurized air.

I want to introduce you to a personal friend of mine: This is a Nerf LMTD Aliens M41-A Pulse Rifle. It fires standard Elite Darts with an over and under pump-action Mega Dart launcher. Feel the weight of that. At its base, it's a prop styled blaster. But it's also a motorized, fully automatic, magazine fed Nerf gun with an electric dart counter.

This new Nerf gun may not be your cup of tea, and that's fine. However, I do feel it is worth talking about. For the first time ever, Nerf has stepped into the gel blaster category, where I'm sure they plan to dominate. I guess they couldn't resist with all these gel blasters coming out left and right. The Gelfire Mythic is their flagship model.

The best Nerf Tommy Gun is not made by Nerf. Not even close. The Alpha Auto 72 is modeled after the Thompson Submachine gun and it does a pretty great job. It has a massive 72 dart drum and it's fully automatic, unlike the underwhelming Nerf Fortnite Drum Gun. And the Auto 72 is just so colorful. I love that mix of colors on this thing.

The Dart Zone Max Dictator is a Nerf compatible shotgun blaster modeled after the real steel UTS15. You may also recognize this if you play Call of Duty Ghosts, as it was the Tac-12 Shotgun in that game. Anyway, the Dictator features all of the features and sheer power you're used to in the Dart Zone Pro line of dart guns.

Few Nerf gun pistols come anywhere near as close as this Dart Zone Pro-Series MK-2.1 does to emulating the real steel feel of shooting an actual firearm. Much like a real semi-auto pistol, there's a top pistol slide and the MK 2.1 pistol even loads in ammo through magazines... fed through the pistol grip!

Recommending the Nerf Trailblazer feels like betraying an old friend. You see, the old Nerf Zombie Strike Hammershot is one of my favorite Nerf guns of all time. But there's no denying the Trailblazer. It has the same ol' hammer-action that you love, but now it has a "Wild" new paintjob and an 8 dart cylinder.

Besides Elite 2.0, I think the Nerf Ultra Series of Nerf guns might just be the most hated. But there have been a few good releases and the Nerf Ultra Strike is one of them. With above average Ultra performance due to the new included AccuStrike Ultra Darts, and an uber tacti-cool "assault rifle" look to it, the Ultra Strike is a hit.

The Nerf Rival Pathfinder is the flagship of the new "Most Accurate Rival System" of Nerf Rival guns. It is a mag fed, pump-action blaster that has been called the Alpha Trooper of the Rival line. What makes it more accurate than other Nerf guns in the Rival Series is a set of fully adjustable ABS sights and the new Rival Accu-Rounds that come with the Pathfinder.

I gave you guys a break from Dart Zone blasters earlier so you'd have time to recover from their confusing naming conventions. Now that you've recovered, we can talk about the MK-1.2, a primary class blaster that's so powerful it's not even in competition with regular stock Nerf guns. You need to heavily modify your Nerf gun to keep up with this.

When I look at the Dart Zone Vulcanator, what I really see is the VPR Hades from Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. And that thing was awesome. Using two magazines, angled into a V is awesome. And the Vulcanator does that while firing darts off in a fully automatic flurry of foam.

This technically came out at the end of 2021, but it came out really late in the year so I'm gonna give it a pass. The Nerf Fortnite Flare is just a re-shelled Mega Bigshock, which itself is just a Mega Jolt. Everything's a Jolt! But, this is also a cool prop styled blaster that looks like a Fortnite Flare. Imagine the cosplay possibilities.

If you've ever played Halo (or still do), you're going to want to pay attention to this thing. This is the most accurate replica there has ever been of the Covenant Type-33 Needler. Years ago, there was another Needler replica blaster under Mattel's now defunct BoomCo brand of straw dart blasters. The Nerf Needler blows that thing out of the water.

The Jurassic Pro Ultimate Tranquilizer Blaster comes from Adventure Force's Tactical Strike line of dart blasters. This is a high performance blaster comparable to the Dart Zone Pro line of blasters, but it's also a super screen accurate movie prop slash replica. It looks just like the tranquilizer gun from the Jurassic Park film.

The Nerf Fortnite Legendary Tac is a Nerf gun based off of a shotgun in the ever popular Battle Royale game Fortnite. So if you like Fortnite or know someone who does, they'll probably be interested in this blaster. Now even if you don't play Fortnite, this Nerf shotgun just looks awesome. It's a perfect balance between cartoony and tacti-cool.

The Dart Zone Tomcat is part of the Max series of Dart Zone blasters, like the Dart Zone Dictator we covered earlier. Like Dart Zone Pro, Dart Zone Max products are high-performance, but just not as tacti-cool. Still, the Tomcat is pretty wild. It's a high velocity, half-length dart pump-action Slam-Fire blaster with a 50 dart capacity.

The Nerf Rival Saturn XX-1000 is a Nerf Rival shotgun from the Rival subseries, Edge Series. It is the most epic looking Nerf shotgun I've ever seen. It's a pump action, breech-loaded shotgun with the same Rival accuracy and power that you've come to expect. It holds 10 Rival rounds in its internal magazine, but it won't for long -- this thing's got Slam-Fire.

The Nerf Fortnite Heavy SR is based on the sniper rifle of the same name from the video game Fortnite. So you know it has that cartoony look to it, but it also still manages to look just like a Nerf Barret .50cal anti-materiel sniper rifle. This is the Mega Sniper we should've had years ago, this is what the Nerf Mega Centurion should have been.

Before I pulled a Togashi on the Nerf scene, my main gripe with off-brand blasters was that they looked crappy and felt cheap. Now I come back and everything looks to be close to Nerf brand quality. And now this, the XShot Skins series of dart blasters. These things are the edgiest and coolest looking "tattooed" blasters available today.

Now I'm more of an OpTic Gaming fan myself (#Greenwall), but FaZe is cool too. Also, I'm a sucker for things that have been painted clear. Enter in the ZURU X Faze Clan XShot Chaos Faze ball blasters. These are 2 Rival round compatible XShot blasters from Zuru with the Faze clan branding. Awesome.

The Nerf Ultra Speed is the fastest firing Ultra blaster. They literally had to develop new custom speed mags just to keep up with the Ultra Speed. And that still wasn't enough, so they gave us two of these 12-dart speed mags. You'll still be completely empty of both mags in less than 7 seconds. It would've been 5, but you reload slow.

Ahh, on to the aftermarket high performance Nerf guns. The S200S Viper is a spring-powered, top-prime pistol slide dart gun that loads its half-length dart mags through the handle. This injection molded blaster has an extremely real steel look and feel so caution is suggested when taking this anywhere near the outside world.

This bolt-action Nerf Mega sniper rifle from Spitfire Products is not for the faint of heart. This is the kind of high performance that you'll almost never get from a stock Nerf gun without replacing all of the internals. So if the Nerf Fortnite Heavy SR was too cartoonish or you just really need the power to blast Mega darts at 200+ FPS, this is for you.

First, head over to Walmart.com and buy yourself an Adventure Force Matrixfire. Then, check out this awesome little magazine adapter mod kit for the Matrixfire. It takes the inconsistency of the hopper and lets you use Nerf compatible magazines. Once you use the MF with a mag, you'll realize the hopper was limiting the ROF. A lot.

The Phoenix 2.0 is a flywheel operated, full auto aftermarket Nerf MP7 that shoots half-length darts and it's even got a dial to adjust the rate of fire. And as is becoming normal these days, it loads the magazine through the grip like some real steel SMG's. It's also powerful, hitting up to 170 FPS with the required 3S lipo battery.

Silly's Lever Action Blaster or SLAB is a 3D printed, lever-action aftermarket Nerf gun that shoots half-length darts. And this thing is awesome! The SLAB also comes with a Trivictus Mega XL Silly SCAR for improved accuracy. So this thing is accurate and powerful, shooting darts up to 180+ FPS. Slingfire eat your heart out.

This is the sidearm little brother to the Worker Phoenix. It's a small, flywheel operated, semi-auto, battery powered dart gun that uses a tiny xt30 3S lipo battery. Like its older SMG brother, the Nightingale feeds the mag in through the pistol grip. The Nightingale comes with a 15 half-length dart mag and a super tacti-cool pistol lanyard strap.

Another fully custom, 3D printed, lever-action powerhouse blaster. Levers must be really popular these days. The Wingchester is a little different, though, because it is a shell-ejecting blaster. When you pull down the lever to prime the blaster, it ejects a shell from the ejection port just like a real steel lever action rifle.

The Game Face Trion is a fully adjustable, customizable foam dart gun that was engineered with the power to be called a competition level blaster. With three velocity settings, you can choose to fire at 130, 160, or 200 feet per second. This blaster is perfect for Stock, Super Stock, and Ultra Stock Nerf Wars. Plus it just looks really really cool.

Let's not kid ourselves: This is a Nerf MP40, straight out of Call of Duty. And it's an AEG or an automatic electric gun like the old Nerf Stampede. It's got a plunger tube and a beefy spring, but you don't have to cock it back. It primes itself. It shoots fully automatic like a fly-wheeler but with the power and accuracy of a springer.