With a selection of items to match its stock of guns, there is a wide variety of items in Enter the Gungeon that range from bullet upgrades to health upgrades, and everything in between. 

10. Shock Rounds

Simple yet effective, shock bullets are easy to come by and easy to kill with. Causing chain lightning to connect all of your bullets from all of your guns, this passive item has the potential to cheese your way through almost all enemies.

With 8 synergies, there is a lot to unpack with Shock Rounds and what makes them great. The first and foremost reason comes from the above picture, showing the insanity you can create with a high-magazine and high-fire-rate gun. As long as you’re able to dodge your way around your enemies, you have guaranteed damage against everyone without having to aim your gun.

Of the aforementioned synergies, most are only relevant if you play the game for a while and unlock guns from shops and missions, but there are some that are quicker to find; such as Battery Powered, which creates ammo for the Shock Rifle if you have Shock Rounds.

Another factor in choosing your items for this game is whether they would be powerful regardless of synergy. According to the Gungeon wiki, Shock Rounds are especially powerful with Bouncing Bullets, so your chain lightning can bounce around the room ad infinitum. For these reasons, Shock Rounds makes the list at number 10.

9. Partially-Eaten Cheese

One would think an active item that turns you invisible would be higher on a list of best items. Nevertheless, when you can turn into PacMan for 10 seconds in this game, it deserves at least a spot on the list.

Only available in the Resourceful Rat’s Lair in the Black Powder Mines, this item has 3 main features that make it a powerful find; first and foremost being invincibility. Bullets bounce off of you like the cheese you are, which is particularly good against tougher enemies.

The second is flight, allowing you to pass over pitfalls and over tables with ease. There isn’t too much practical use to this unless you want to get some of the tougher-to-get enemies, but it’s still very useful. 

The third, and best feature, is instant-death to any enemies you come in contact with, with the exception of bosses. For ten seconds you are essentially PacMan in his prime, killing enemies and sending them back to where they came. You can also shoot in this mode too, which makes it even more of a powerful find. 

For being an overpowered find that’s only useful for a selective 10 seconds, it gets the 9th spot.

8. Owl

Available after winning 10 of the Gunsling King’s wagers, the Owl is easily the best companion to have in the game. Like the Partially-Eaten Cheese, this passive item has 3 main features that make it useful to have.

Arguably the best feature to the Owl is that it fires short-range blanks, but only “occasionally” while bullets are near you. While it’s not an often occurrence, it’s a welcome one as blanks are a limited resource, and with the owl it allows you to spare them for absolutely necessary times.

Something else the owl occasionally does is shoot random enemies. While it doesn’t deal much damage, it’s nice to have an extra boost to make you even more deadly than before.

The third feature of the Owl is it occasionally blocks enemy bullets. To specify, the difference between blocking enemy bullets and using a blank is the former negates one bullet at a time, while the latter negates all bullets in a radius around you. It’s less useful than the former abilities but still welcome nonetheless.

7. Super Hot Watch

Unlockable after getting 5 Master Rounds in one run (defeating each floor boss without taking damage), the Super Hot Watch is, like most overpowered items, powerful with a caveat.

This item has one sole ability: time slows down to 1/60th while you are standing still, similar to the game this item is based on. While dodging and moving restart time like normal, there is a lot of use you can get out of this if you play it correctly.

One of the main problems you may run into with this item is that your actions will likewise be slowed down. The best course of action would be continuous stopping and starting, ducking behind walls as time restarts while your enemies are too slow to dodge your bullets. Or if you’re really lucky, let the AI run into them.

You can also lay traps, putting mines where you think enemies will go or shoot where you think they’ll hide. It’s an item that requires you to think, and for the usefulness you can get from this watch, it gets 7th place.

6. Platinum Bullets

A late-game item you can get from Ox and Cadence for 200 Hegemony Credit, platinum bullets are easily one of the best bullet upgrades in the game. While expensive, the buffs they give your guns are frankly insane, especially for the guns with pre-designated insanity. 

The summary of what this passive item does is fairly simple: it increases damage and fire rate for every bullet that hits an enemy. For every 375 seconds of shooting, your fire rate can increase to a maximum of triple the normal rate, and for every 750 seconds of shooting, your damage also increases to a max of triple the normal damage. It should be noted that the changes do not apply until you change weapons or drop an item/gun.

While simplistic, the buffs can increase your chances of beating the game by a substantial amount if all of your weapons are upgraded, especially those with high damage like the Makeshift Cannon or Gunther. You could defeat the High Dragun before it has a chance to fire a shot at you.

For those reasons, this item gets 6th place.

5. Riddle of Lead

Unlike the previous entries, the Riddle of Lead makes this list not for 1-3 powerful buffs, but for 6 considerable buffs.

Unlocked after defeating the Lich, this item grants a heart container, fully heals you, increases damage by 30%, increases speed by 10%, increases dodge speed by 15%, and gives you a 50% chance to negate damage when at 1 heart or less.

While all of these buffs can be found in other passive items, except for the 50% damage negation chance, the fact that they are all condensed into one item is what makes it so good. It doesn’t help you greatly in one particular way, but because of how widespread the buffs are it makes any run through the gungeon just a bit more bearable. 

You can get through everything quicker and with the ability to take more damage than before you picked up the Riddle of Lead. Because of that, it gets 5th place. 

4. Relodestone

The Relodestone is one of the most useful active items in the game. For those wanting a guaranteed ammo drop and pseudo-blank to use, this item’s for you.

What the Relodestone does is it attracts bullets to you while active and absorbs them as ammo. It also halves reload times when held. While it’s simple to describe and use, it’s an extremely effective item to use against bosses and higher-level Gundead, especially when you’ve used all your blanks and are low on ammo. 

Another interesting use for it can be found on the Enter the Gungeon Wiki, that says that this item can be used right after firing a Makeshift Cannon, making it possible to fire one of the most destructive weapons in the game multiple times in rapid succession; although the item only lasts for 6 seconds.

For being there in a pinch, the Relodestone gets 4th place.

3. Gundromeda Strain

Available from Professor Goopton for 25 Hegemony Credits, the Gundromeda Strain is a passive item that affects all Gundead you will encounter in one of the most helpful ways possible. With this passive item, all enemy health is reduced by 25%.

Roughly equal to increasing your damage by 33%, this item makes any fight far easier than before. Plus, the best part of this item is that it can stack; meaning if you’re lucky enough to find a 2nd or even a 3rd Gundromeda Strain, you can decrease all enemy health by 50% or 75%, and theoretically, 100%.

For allowing you to be a walking plague upon the Gungeon, this item gets 3rd place. 

2. Lich’s Eye Bullets

Lich’s Eye bullets are another item that’s simple but incredibly effective. Their effect is they make every weapon/item act as if all of their synergies are active; meaning items like the aforementioned Shock Rounds would act as if all 8 synergies are active on it.

While there are some things this item doesn’t apply to, such as synergies that “affect the gun itself” or synergies that involve dual wielding, this item is a guarantee that your items will be as powerful as they possibly can be. 

Every Gungeon player knows that certain synergies are helpful against bosses, against regular Gundead, or both or neither, and this item grants your guns and items the ability to be helpful in every conceivable situation; which is why I’m putting it at 2nd place.

1. Clone

The clone is easily the best passive item in this game and its sequel Exit the Gungeon. Unlockable if you transport Ox’s replacement arm up to the Breach, this item may not be practical on the first run but it will exceed expectations on the second.

What the Clone does is it grants you a second life, where you teleport back to the starting room upon death. What makes this item great is that when you die, you still retain all of your guns and items, with the exception of the clone itself.

If you were having problems getting through the first 4 levels or so, having all of the items you picked up along the way to fight the Bullet King or Ammoconda would make your success near-guaranteed, especially if you manage to find some of the more powerful weapons on the lower floors.

Of course, all of these items including the Clone are harder to get than what’s available immediately as a player, but once you play enough to access these items your runs through the Gungeon will be more fun and exciting as you kill with a renewed vengeance, in your original or clone body. For those reasons, the Clone gets 1st place.

Also Be Sure To Read:

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• [Top 5] Enter The Gungeon Best Guns
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• [Top 10] Enter The Gungeon Best Items
• [Top 5] Enter The Gungeon Best Synergies
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