Defiance Free to Play

To max out a particular weapon skill, you must continue to use weapons of that type, doing damage with them, until you reach level 20 in that weapon type. This sounds simple, but a weapon will 'max out' its own individual exp, at which point it will stop giving you credit toward that weapon type's skill.

For example, my assault rifle I'm currently using will max out its own individual 'experience' bar once I have done 802,500 total damage with it. Once that happens, it will no longer give me credit toward the Assault Rifles skill. You can see this exp bar easiest if you hit Start and select the weapon to change what weapon is in that slot. Look on the right of the screen and just below the spot for the weapon's mods, you will see its progress bar. Once it maxes out (802,500/802,500 in this instance), change to a different weapon of that type to keep working on your skill.

IMPORTANT: Damage done at Arkfalls usually DOES NOT USUALLY COUNT. This may be a glitch and maybe it's just happening to me. More confirmation from others would be appreciated. I have checked my weapon's exp bar both before and after major and minor arkfalls and it has not moved at all in either. Some people have recorded it counts for certain mobs at certain arkfalls but not across the board.

A great place to level weapons is San Quentin. Just rush through and disable all generators and head to the final area. Use the power weapon rockets to clear all the enemies and spawn the Hulker. Hide behind boxes from him and damage him with the weapon of your choice until Ego says "He's not going to stop!". At that point let him kill you and hold A to extract. It will respawn you right at the Hulker and his health will be full. Rinse and repeat to max out a weapon.

What i found as the fastest way for me to get this achievement, was to play the co-op mission Scrapworks Salvage,it seemed to be the fastest as i was getting a average of 500,000 to 700,000 exp on my weapon per full run through of the mission.

When you start running out of guns to use, the best thing i can say to do (if you were doing this with assault rifles like me) would be to go to Top-Notch Toolworks, they sell a EMC Service Rifle it's not the best but it will help if you're out of guns and you can buy more then one at a time, around the end levels 17-19 it will take about 3 guns maxed out to gain a level on your weapon skill.

For those who are in a hurry and don't mind a slow grind, I've found a method on another website (can't remember which, probably on the Defiance Forums). A number of different users suggested this so I gave it a shot and it works for now (a patch may change this).

Look to the right side of the map and notice the piece of land that looks like a L. This is San Quentin prison. Go hear and work your way across the area, killing raiders and disabling the turrets along the way (4 turrets in total). When you get to the end of the area EGO will tell you that she notices advanced weaponry in the area. Approaching the rocket launcher will trigger a fight with numerous raiders. The good news: more rocket launchers appear and they respawn, making clearing out the enemies very easy.

Here's the good part. After clearing out the raiders, a Hulker will appear. Drop your launcher and don't touch it again. Pull out whatever weapon you are trying to level up and unload on the Hulker. He has a lot of health and can take a lot of damage. Weapons gain exp based on the damage they deal, making the Hulker great for leveling weapon skill. You can jump over the crates to help keep from getting cornered. When the Hulker is nearly dead, he will take his bomb and slam it into his chest. EGO should say "He's not gonna stop" or something along these lines (didn't always happen, so watch for him using the bomb on himself). It's at this point you'll want to suicide or let the Hulker finish you. When you respawn (in the same area, no running back here) the Hulker will be at full health again. He may still be stuck in a running animation or appear damaged, but once you shoot him a bit, his appearance resets and he acts normal again. Do this over and over until you get you weapon skill to the desired level (I'm using this to complete pursuits for weapons I don't plan to use often like Infectors or BMG's).

A quick note: The Hulker has a simple pattern. He attacks normally until you damage him a certain amount. Once this threshold has been met, he will start charging all over the place. When this happens, he will charge 3 times. After the 3rd time he slams into a wall, he will slump over and his metal skull cap falls off (easy criticals, more damage, faster leveling). When he is almost dead, he will just continue charging, hence EGO saying "He's not gonna stop." If you miss the animation and EGO's audio doesn't play, use this to tell you when to die. If he charges a 4th time, it's time to die.

Lastly, make sure to bring plenty of weapons for your journey. Once you cap out the exp for a particular gun, it no longer contributes to your weapon skill. Depending on your dedication to this grind, pack accordingly.

As I mentioned at the top, this is not my guide. I found it on a website's forums, posted by many people as the best way to level weapons quickly. I'm just passing it along so others can use it if they wish. If not, there's the old-fashioned way-use the weapon you wish to cap skill with to kill EVERYTHING, because this will take a while legit (I got lvl 17 assault rifles and got impatient).

UNCONFIRMED: Epsilon Theta mentioned something in the comments:
"Epsilon Theta You can earn this by gaining the last level from a store bonus such as the one gained by entering the codes."

I have not confirmed Epsilon Theta's info (honestly, I deleted the game from my hard drive after completion due to frustration and cannot confirm this). If anyone else confirms this, please let me know and I can further update this solution.

***Easiest Place to Rank Weapons Up FAST!!! (DLC-5 UPDATE)***

As of DLC-5 the best way to boost your weapon skill has got a whole hell of a lot easier. Get into a Major Dark Matter Arkfall with whatever weapon you want to max out.

I recommend you use a SMG, LMG, or AR. They go pretty damn fast.

When you get to the end with the boss fight with the Monolith, activate one of the glowing green pillars, then attack the Monolith. The green pillars make your attack do something like 10X more damage and you'll rack up points super quick.



DLC-5 made this easier because you accrue points towards mastery regardless if the weapon is mastered or not. So no more switching out guns. Just use the same one.

You can rank up one weapon multiple times in one fight using this technique. If you get bored fighting the Monolith you can rack up some fast points fighting the Volge Warmaster as well, but it in nowhere near as fast as the Monolith.

With patch 1.020, you can reset the mastery of any of your weapons in the Salvage Matrix at the cost of some Ark Salvage (one gun I did only cost 510). It takes 20 minutes, but it resets the XP of that weapon back to 0, so you can keep using it and keep gaining levels. If you're looking to follow one of the farming strategies, either take a 20 minute break or take another gun of the same type with you and level that one while you wait for the other to finish being reset.

Now with being able to level weapons through Arkfalls, it is much easier to obtain this achievement. I would suggest using your personal favorite weapon to do this task. My favorites for reference were the assault rifle and LMG. Go and have fun obliterating the smaller fodder and then take out the larger enemies that show up and you will have a quicker and funner way to level up your weapons quicker that way. Good luck!

there is now a very easy way to level up several different weapon types. now that incursions have been introduced to the game, you will see a radiation icon on the map, this indicates there is an incursion. they will also be surrounded by a big yellow ring each one contains small encounters which must be completed in order to activate the final main event.

there are 2 different types of incursions volge and infected and its the infected that u want to boost your weapon skill with. in an infected incursion u will go against raiders and infected, when u encounter the infected there will be 2 different mission types a small one which is all ways located on the road and the 2nd which is the one u will be able to boost your weapons the most.

once you are in the big infected encounter you will see at least 4-5 big block/containers grouped together. this is where the infected will keep spawning from once the green mist appears, just keep shooting them with explosive weapons. you will end up getting multiply hit counts and your skill level will start to shoot up b4 you know it. depending on what level your current skill is on you can gain at least 4-5 skill levels for each incursion event.

this is a list of explosive weapons to use for some of your individual weapon types

COMBAT SHOTGUN--- CLUSTER SHOT
PISTOL--VOLGE THUNDERER--DLC REQUIRED
SAWN OFF SHOTGUN--COURIER
ROCKET LAUNCHER--ANY WILL DO
BOLT ACTION SNIPER--VOLGE LIGHTING RIFLE--DLC REQUIRED
DETONATOR-- ANY WILL DO BUT A BIG BOOMER IS BEST

u can also use this for automatic weapons as there will be multiply targets to hit at the same time and they will be grouped close together.

hope this helps with some of the more time consuming weapon types like the bolt action sniper and sawn off shotgun.

DEFIANCE