Hell Let Loose: Vietnam splits its firearms between two playable sides, the US Armed Forces and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). Each side carries its own historically grounded loadout, and those guns are handed out across the game’s combat roles. The full pool is small, so learning what each faction fields tells you exactly what you can pull out on the battlefield.
Quick answer: The US Armed Forces have nine weapons and the NVA have eleven, for 20 firearms in total across the two factions.
The 50v50 shooter from Team17 and Expression Games is available now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
US Armed Forces weapons
The American side leans on the M16A1 as its standard assault rifle, backed by grenade launchers, a machine gun, anti-armor rockets and a single sniper option. Two of these guns are locked to specific roles, so you can only draw them when you play the matching class.
| Weapon | Details |
|---|---|
| M16A1 (with or without bayonet) | The standard US assault rifle, chambered in 5.56x45mm with full-auto and semi-auto modes. Best in close- to mid-range fights. |
| M16A1-M203 | An M16A1 fitted with an M203 underbarrel launcher that fires a 40mm grenade with roughly a 10-meter splash radius. |
| Model 77E | A pump-action shotgun firing 12-gauge shells. It holds 5 shells in the magazine plus one in the chamber. |
| M1911A1 | A sidearm firing .45 rounds with a 7-round magazine, strong at close range. |
| M2A1-7 | A backpack flamethrower with a 20-meter reach, using flare-cartridge ignition and pressurized nitrogen to push its fuel. Exclusive to the Specialist. |
| M60 | A general-purpose machine gun in 7.62x51mm, nicknamed “The Pig.” Its high rate of fire suits suppression and clearing foliage. |
| M79 | A single-shot break-action grenade launcher, the “Thumper,” chambering a 40x46mm round. |
| M72 | The M72 “LAW,” a shoulder-fired unguided rocket that counters armored vehicles. The tube is discarded after firing. |
| M40 | The only US sniper rifle, in 7.62x51mm with a 5-round magazine and a 3-9x variable scope. Exclusive to the Recon class. |
North Vietnamese Army weapons
The NVA runs a wider mix, built around the Type 56 rifle and a set of Chinese and Soviet-pattern arms. Several entries are variants of the same base gun fitted with different attachments, and a few are tied to a single role such as the machine gunner or recon units.
| Weapon | Details |
|---|---|
| Type 56 Bayonet | The Chinese-made NVA assault rifle in 7.62x39mm with a 30-round magazine. Full-auto and semi-auto modes, downing enemies in 2-3 body shots, with a fixed bayonet. |
| Type 53 Bayonet | A semi-auto carbine copied from the Soviet Mosin-Nagant M1944, firing 7.62x54mm from a 5-round internal magazine with a folding bayonet. |
| Type 53 W/ N4 Rifle Launcher | A Type 53 with the N4 rifle grenade (a copy of the American M9) mounted at the barrel, launched by a blank round. Its shaped charge cuts about 2 inches of armor. |
| K50M | An NVA reworking of the Type 50 SMG (itself a PPSh-41 copy), firing 7.62x25mm Tokarev from a 31-round magazine at around 700 RPM. Strong for close range. |
| K50M Drum | The K50M with a 71-round drum magazine. Exclusive to the machine gunner class. |
| RPD | A machine gun in 7.62x39mm firing at roughly 650 RPM from a 100-round drum, originally a Soviet design shared with China. |
| RPG-02 | A shoulder-mounted anti-armor weapon using the PG-2 munition, which lacks rocket propulsion and behaves more like a recoilless grenade launcher. |
| IZH 58 | A double-barreled, smoothbore break-action shotgun. A civilian model that was the most common shotgun among NVA forces. |
| Type 54 | The main NVA sidearm, based on the Soviet Tokarev TT-33, with an 8-round magazine in 7.62x25mm Tokarev. |
| LPO-50 | A Soviet flamethrower with three fuel tanks of thickened mixture, using ignition cartridges to reach roughly 50 meters. |
| Type 53 PU | A Type 53 with a 3.5x PU telescopic sight. The scope blocks clip loading, so rounds go in one at a time. Exclusive to NVA recon units. |
Role-locked weapons to know
A handful of guns never show up in a general loadout because they belong to a single class. Picking the wrong role will keep these off your list, so match your pick to the weapon you want.
| Weapon | Faction | Locked to |
|---|---|---|
| M2A1-7 flamethrower | US | Specialist |
| M40 sniper rifle | US | Recon |
| K50M Drum | NVA | Machine gunner |
| Type 53 PU | NVA | Recon |
Between the two sides, the choice comes down to how you want to fight. The US kit favors the accurate, high-rate M16A1 and heavy support from the M60 and M72, while the NVA trades that for the punchy Type 56, the fast-firing K50M and a broader spread of specialist tools.
