When the Nerf Rival line of Nerf guns came out back in 2015, it blew my mind. Nerf was turning a new leaf and making a line of Nerf blasters for older kids. You had to be at least 14 to use the Nerf Rival guns. Fourteen! That's a teenager, man! The Rival Nerf guns were bigger and meaner looking. They had a really aggressive style to their design. They were also ergonomically more proportionate and more comfortable for adult hands. And they hit HARD. Boy, did they hit hard. They were all promising to fire their foam projectiles at 90+ feet per second. Nerf Rival guns hovered right around 100 FPS, right out of the box. No mods required. And speaking of projectiles, they used a new kind of Nerf ammo: the Nerf Rival High-Impact Round. It was a round little foam ball with a dimpled pattern across them to make them aerodynamically superior. The accuracy and power behind them was undeniable. And they bounced around like nobody's business. What a time to be alive! So without further ado, here are the Top 10 Nerf Rival Guns!
Let's start with one of my favorite Nerf Rival guns, the Nerf Rival Hera. The Nerf Rival Hera was like a beautiful Godly Nerf Rival Stryfe. Semi-auto High-Impact Rounds came flying out of the Hera as fast as you could pull the trigger. Also, with a few well placed cuts, you could turn the Hera into a Nerf Rival pistol.
The Nerf Rival Kronos is the perfect Nerf Rival sidearm, period. Top prime pistol slide with a 5 shot internal magazine? Check. All in a slim and sleek form that's perfectly holster-able and looks like the KAP 40 from Call of Duty? Check. And the custom Deadpool dual pack is just next level cool!
The Nerf Rival Khaos is probably considered obsolete these days, but it will forever be the OG Nerf Rival Assault Rifle. It's big and it's mean and it's aggressive as hell. The Nerf Rival Khaos also had full-auto firing coming from the biggest magazine you've ever seen. The Khaos also boasted the highest capacity of any Nerf Rival blaster at the time at 40 rounds.
The Artemis is not my favorite Nerf Rival gun, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. It's a pump-action blaster with three integrated 10 round magazines that it cycles through with a rotating front turret system. This was a totally unique loading system at the time and the Artemis held it all together in a tight little stocky package.
The Nerf Rival Nemesis is the monster of the Nerf Rival gun lineup. It is an untamable beast with a huge 100-round hopper and rapid fire full-auto ball blasting capabilities. And much like the goddess it was named after, the Nemesis WILL punish you if you show any signs of arrogance in the face of its mighty hopper endowed form.
The Nerf Rival Helios is a Nerf gun that upon its release, almost completely invalidated another Nerf gun. The Helios is better than the Nerf Rival Apollo in almost every conceivable way. There, I said it. It's basically a Nerf Rival Apollo with a better, more ergonomic form factor, a side bolt prime with a return spring, and a stock that's actually usable.
The Hypnos is a spring powered, pump-action, magazine fed Nerf Rival gun with a super tacti-cool folding stock and a spring loaded ejecting magazine release. The magazine loads like the Nerf Rival Atlas shotgun blaster, but in a much smoother and more intuitive way. Besides the Atlas' ability to fire 2 rounds at once, the Hypnos seems like a solid replacement.
If the Nerf Nemesis is the hopper-fed assault rifle of the Nerf Rival series, the Nerf Rival Perses would no doubt be its submachine gun little brother. It's smaller, with a faster rate of fire potentially due to its included proprietary rechargeable battery pack. If the Nemesis was meant to replace the Khaos, this was meant to replace the Zeus.
If Chuck Norris were a Nerf gun, what would he be named? The Nerf Rival Roundhouse of course! The aesthetic of this blaster is highly reminiscent of a Nerf Rival Strongarm, but the magazine system is similar to the Nerf Artemis and so we'll call this pistol the baby brother to the Artemis. It's a Rival sidearm with the capacity of 3 Nerf Kronos guns.
The Nerf Rival Takedown is a spring powered pump-action Nerf gun with an 8 round internal magazine. It strongly resembles a sawed off shotgun, but it does not fire multiple rounds at a time. This is almost like a Nerf Rival version of the old Nerf Elite Rough Cut. It's not the best Nerf Rival blaster, but if you love shotguns... you already know what to do.
The Nerf Rival Hades is the big brother to the Artemis. Imagine if someone took a Nerf Rival Artemis and stretched her out to twice her original size. That's exactly what the Hades is. And also, that sounds like something they'd do to you in Hades, doesn't it? Anyway, the Rival Hades is a pump-action springer with 3 internal 20 round magazines built in.
If the Nemesis is the monster, the Prometheus is the mad titan. And, just like Thanos, this Nerf Rival gun will make you disappear with one snap of the (trigger) finger. If the Nemesis is an assault rifle, the Prometheus is a bad ass LMG. It's a freakin' mini-gun with a 200+ round hopper and a sustained high rate of full-auto fire.
The Nerf Rival Saturn strayed so deeply from the typical design aesthetic of Nerf guns that I almost lost my mind. It is so beautifully designed and so reminiscent of an actual shotgun. I love it, no matter what. It's not the most war practical blaster, but it can work. It's a pump-action springer shotgun with an internal 10-round magazine.
As soon as the first Nerf Rival blasters came out with their higher power and improved accuracy, everyone anticipated one thing: a Nerf Rival Sniper. Finally, we have our official Nerf Rival sniper, the Nerf Rival Jupiter. And it's a bolt-action beast with an internal 10 round magazine, a sturdy bipod, and integrated shoulder stock with monopod.
In 2022, Nerf took the Rival series of Nerf guns in a totally different direction. Their new Accu-Rival sub-series of blasters included Nerf Rival guns in a light blue and yellow color scheme and new Accu-Rounds that were meant to be even more accurate. Whatever you think of the color scheme, the Pathfinder is the Nerf Rival Alphatrooper and that's really all I need to say about that. Get it.
The Nerf Rival Fate is a new top tier pistol offering for the Rival series. It's basically a Nerf Rival Nite Finder and that's a huge win for me. Super comfortable pistol grip, t-style priming rod and breech loading balls makes this the premiere pistol to own in the Rival series. Adjustable ABS sights round off the Fate's features.
Not to be confused with the Toyota vehicle with the same name, the Nerf Rival Forerunner is the first Nerf Rival offering of 2023. I haven't even tested mine yet, but it's a pump-action shotgun styled Nerf gun with a pistol grip and a 12 round capacity. It's similar in form and function to other shotgun styled blasters like the Nerf Rival Takedown.
And now for some bonus entries. The Nerf Rival Overwatch Reaper blasters are based upon the guns from the game Overwatch and specifically for the character Reaper, who's about as badass as one can get. Much like in the game, he's dual wielding these seeming unwieldy Nerf guns, that are both basically custom Nerf Rival Takedowns.
The Nerf Overwatch D.Va Rival blaster is based on the titular character from the video game series Overwatch. Her gun functions like the Kronos, but with a smaller 3-round capacity and a whole new aesthetic which I actually really enjoy. It kind of reminds me of a Nerf Rival Firestrike, too. Also available in a yellow "B.Va" Special Edition.
This is hands down the best and most epic Star Wars Nerf gun they've released thus far. At its base, it's pretty much a Nerf Rival Helios, it's spring powered and magazine fed and even has a return spring on the prime like the Helios -- but the aesthetic is everything. It looks like a 1:1 scale replica of an actual E-11 blaster they'd use in Star Wars. It's what the old Elite First Order blaster should have been and I love that.
Now like I said before, I'm more of an Optic fan (#GreenWall), but these little Nerf Rival compatible blasters from Zuru are pretty cool. They have the Faze Clan branding and they've actually been painted clear so you can see the inner workings of the blaster as the internals do their thing. Again, a Kronos is better, but this clear paint is really cool.
This is the second Nerf gun on this list with the Jupiter moniker, but Luke's Rival Jupiter from OutofDarts was actually first. This dart hose of a creation was actually inspired by the Nerf Rival Zeus and he modded it so much there was nothing left of the Zeus -- just the front part of the receiver with the flywheels and mini-barrel. Now you have this little monster of a Rival blaster that is mag-fed and fires high-impact rounds at up to 10 per second. Even worse, you can buy a Proton Pack which has a 400+ ammo capacity and actually doubles the rate of fire.
So there you have it, the list of the top 10 best Nerf Rival blasters available on the market today! I went back and sifted through all their hits and misses to produce this list of the greatest most amazing ball blasters in existence. Some old, some new, all are solid, top tier Nerf Rival guns.
As always, make sure you stock up on the necessary consumables. Namely, that includes batteries (including the Nerf Rival Rechargeable battery pack for the Hera/Khaos/Nemesis), a crap ton of high-impact rounds (avoid Headshot Ammo), and maybe even some accessories.
Who shot first? It will ALWAYS be you with the Meowser DL-44. This 3D printed replica of Han Solo's Star Wars blaster is built upon OFD's FlyCore tech, shooting half-length darts in full auto fire modes at speeds of up to 50DPS+200 FPS.
Sometimes it's not about being the most tacti-cool, sometimes it's just about pure silliness. And fun. The Nerf x Fortnite MicroShots Rainbow Smash is a tiny Nerf gun inspired by the pickaxe used in the popular battle royale game. Epic!
Let them know you are NOT the target with this funny Nerf themed birthday shirt for parents. Pick your style and select your size, then add your personalization -- which can be anything from "Mom" to "Dad" to "Big Sis" or whatever you want.
This novelty Nerf grenade is modeled after the real life MK3 Concussion Grenade and works similarly. Sorta. Load it up with up to 6 Rival HIR's or about a dozen cut down Nerf darts, then pull the pin and toss it over your shoulder. BOOM!
It's the Nerf Mod that every Hammershot enthusiast always wanted to do and now it has been streamlined into one compact little pre-made 3D printed package. Comes with up to 10 extra 6-dart cylinders for tacti-cool reloads on the fly. Yup!
Before the Nailbiter, the Nerf Alien Menace Voidcaster was here and it was pretty great. Like the Nailbiter, the Voidcaster is a double-action semi-auto blaster with a fast fire rate and the ability to dual wield! And it looks awesome!
The Gryphon is a high quality 3D printed, semi-auto, mag-fed, competition ready, customizable dart blaster. This version is more compact and features an iridescent paintjob and a top-load slot that allows you to top off the mag mid-battle.
Burst into battle with these Nerf Pro Gelfire blasters! Literally, the Gelfire rounds burst on impact. No dart sweep, no clean up. The mess takes care of itself! This Dual Wield Pack comes with 2 Gel blasters and 5,000 Gelfire rounds.
These are akin to a "forbidden jutsu" in the Nerf world. These are not foam, these are hard plastic pointed tips for Nerf Darts. Ouch. I put these here to satisfy your curiosity, but never shoot these at people, people. Balloons, though..
