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4 Overpowered Weapons That Were Removed From Games for Being Too Broken
Video games, especially competitive ones, thrive on a concept called balance. It is the idea of keeping a level playing field to ensure all players are on the same page. It’s what keeps multiplayer matches fair, single-player adventures challenging, and every victory feeling earned. But sometimes, developers get a little too ambitious with their godly creations. Every once in a while, a weapon slips through the cracks that’s so outrageously powerful it breaks the game entirely, leaving players frustrated, laughing, or both. Balance must be carefully maintained, and when it’s not, the community makes it well known.
Every developer has faced the fallout of releasing an overpowered weapon. Some simply adjust stats or rework damage values, but others have had to go to the extreme, completely removing the weapon from the game. Whether they ruined balance or caused numerous technical issues, these weapons were just too broken to last. And in a few cases, their removal became as legendary as the weapons themselves.
4. Infinity Blade (Fortnite)
Few weapons in Fortnite’s long history caused as much community outrage as the mythical Infinity Blade. Introduced during Season 7, this Mythic melee weapon granted massive health boosts, fast mobility, and devastating damage to anyone who could get their hands on it. Players wielding it could leap across the battlefield and slice through entire squads with little effort, and this is particularly what caused so much of the outcry. It was considered completely broken early in its life span. It even destroyed structures instantly, meaning anyone building defensively was only delaying the inevitable. There existed no true counterplay, and whoever found it first effectively turned into a walking endgame boss.
The backlash was so explosive that Epic Games removed the Infinity Blade just days after release, even issuing a public apology for its lack of balance. Players argued that the weapon’s presence undermined competitive play and didn’t add much, if any, value to the game as a whole. For a brief time, it turned Fortnite into a chaotic playground ruled by whichever player found the sword first, leaving the rest of the lobby scrambling for scraps. Even years later, the Infinity Blade remains one of the most infamous examples of how a single item can warp an entire game’s identity. Fortunately, it didn’t last long enough to do any real integral damage to the game.
3. Telesto Fusion Rifle (Destiny 2)
If there’s one weapon that’s caused more trouble for Bungie than any other, it’s Telesto. The anti-thesis of balance, this Exotic fusion rifle fired explosive projectiles that could stick to surfaces and enemies, but thanks to numerous glitches, players kept finding ways to exploit it in different ways. Bungie would fix one glitch, only for a new (often more broken) one to appear just days later. One infamous bug allowed the weapon’s projectiles to trigger other in-game mechanics like grenade abilities and super regeneration, letting players essentially generate infinite energy. This effectively allowed users to have their Super ability at any time during a match. Supers in Destiny 2 are intentionally overpowering, balanced by the significant energy cost, but the Telesto let anyone bypass this. In the right hands, Telesto turned any activity into a lightshow of unstoppable destruction.
It became such a problem that Bungie had to disable Telesto multiple times throughout Destiny 2’s life cycle. Each reactivation seemed to spawn new exploits, from ammo duplication to infinite damage loops. Entire community memes were built around it being “temporarily disabled again,”. Though it eventually returned each time, Telesto became a running joke among players: a weapon so powerful and unpredictable that it transcended its code and achieved mythic status in Destiny 2’s history.
2. Sawed-Off Shotgun (Gears of War 3)
When Gears of War 3 launched, few weapons caused more division among players than the Sawed-Off Shotgun. This brutal close-range weapon could obliterate enemies with a single blast, even if the target wasn’t directly in front of the barrel. Its enormous spread and lethal power meant that traditional tactics like taking cover or maintaining distance didn’t matter much, if at all. If a player rounded a corner with the Sawed-Off in hand, you were probably dead before you could react. It completely disrupted the series’ trademark cover-based combat, turning intense shootouts into instant point-blank kills. It was completely overpowering and undermined the game’s trademark gameplay.
As a result, the backlash was nearly immediate. Many long-term fans of the series called for its removal, arguing that the Sawed-Off stripped away the skill and strategy the series was known for. While the weapon wasn’t strictly removed from Gears of War 3, Epic Games ended up pulling the weapon from later Gears titles, effectively admitting that its design simply didn’t belong in such a tactical shooter. Though some fans still defend it for its raw, chaotic fun, the Sawed-Off Shotgun remains one of Gears of War’s most infamous weapon choices.
1. Maelstrom Dual Trigger (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)
The Call of Duty series is no stranger to overpowered weapons, especially shotguns, and the Lockwood 300 shotgun from Modern Warfare 3 is just another example of that. This weapon was already powerful right out of the gate, but the unlockable Maelstrom Dual Trigger attachment for it pushed it far past reasonable limits. It allowed the weapon to fire both barrels at once with pinpoint accuracy, often downing fully armored enemies in a single blast. In modes like Warzone, that meant anyone running this loadout had an instant advantage, especially in close quarters. To give perspective, the TTK (Time to Kill) in Warzone was typically much longer than the normal multiplayer experience, and yet, the Maelstrom Dual Trigger bypassed this balancing anyway. It turned firefights into point-and-click annihilations, removing any real need for skill or positioning.
Developers eventually disabled the attachment entirely after widespread complaints and viral clips showcasing its broken power. The community dubbed it the “delete button” because of how efficiently it could end fights with literally no counterplay. While the Lockwood 300 remains a fan-favorite shotgun, the Maelstrom Dual Trigger’s removal serves as a reminder that even small tweaks can have game-breaking consequences. Sometimes, the only way to restore balance is to pull the plug completely, and that’s exactly what happened with this attachment.
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