Modern Warfare 2: Light Machine Guns tier list — Best LMG to use

Choosing the right gun is a must if you want to be competitive in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The beefiest guns and heavy hitters of MWII can be found in the light machine guns category. To help you figure out what LMG you should be using, we’ve put together this tier list to help you discover the best light machine gun for you in Modern Warfare 2.

Note: For more information about the game, check out our Modern Warfare guides and features hub.

Below is the tiering for every light machine gun in Modern Warfare 2. The tiers of this list range from S to C: S Tier means that it is one of the best guns in the game; A Tier guns are strong but lack that extra punch to be S tier; B Tier weapons are usable but nothing extraordinary; and C Tier guns are not worth using outside of grinding for camos.

Light Machine Guns tier list

• S Tier: 556 Icarus, RAAL MG
• A Tier: HCR 56, RPK
• B Tier: Sakin MG3B
• C Tier: RAPP H

Given how fast the time to kill is in Modern Warfare 2, you would think that LMGs would struggle to keep up. They tend to have much slower handling characteristics than other guns and are difficult to move around with. However, because pre-aiming and pre-firing are so powerful, LMGs actually end up being some of the best guns to use as long as you play slow.

The 556 Icarus is probably the best LMG in Modern Warfare 2. This is because it’s effectively just an M4 assault rifle that comes equipped with a 75-round magazine. Its damage and handling are almost identical to the regular M4 when built correctly making this an exceptional all-around weapon.

In contrast to the 556 Icarus, the RAAL MG is exactly what you expect from an LMG. It’s slow and has a noticeable open bolt delay when firing but this is entirely offset by it having the fastest time to kill of any automatic weapon. As long as you can deal with its slow fire rate and clumsy handling, the RAAL absolutely shreds anything that walks in front of it.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Both the HCR 56 and RPK are LMG-assault rifle hybrids much like the 556 Icarus. The HCR 56 is particularly interesting as it performs largely identically to an assault rifle with it even having a smaller magazine. It is a decent gun and is comparable to the STB 556, as the HCR 56 also has practically no recoil. The RPK is just a slightly worse Kastov 762, but given that the Kastov 762 is the best gun in Modern Warfare 2, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Based on the Negev, the Sakin MG38 is not the best LMG in Modern Warfare 2. Even so, it does have some unique characteristics that help it stand out. Most notable is that it has no damage falloff until 60 meters, making it an extremely consistent weapon. Unfortunately, the MG38 is held back by its very slow handling which can be difficult to play with.

There’s no nice way to say this, but the RAPP H is terrible. It comes with all the expected downsides of an LMG but with none of the upsides. It doesn’t kill fast, it takes forever to reload, and you have to use two other weapons to even unlock it in the first place. The RAPP H is the definition of a gun that people dread using when trying to unlock mastery camos.