Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 How to Unlock Weapons
Hidden Caches, Intense mission rewards, and how to stop rolling duplicates.
There are no redeemable promo codes for guns in Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2. The arsenal expands through mission completion rewards, SSgt Park’s Armory purchases, class rank unlocks, edition packs, and glowing orange Hidden Caches inside missions. This page is the search answer for “how to unlock weapons” and “Hidden Cache” — pair it with the Weapons hub, Weapons Tier List, and Augments.
Three unlock pipes
- Armory / requisition — Spend credits at Park’s Armory for baseline rifles, CQW, and heavies. Buying staples is not wasted money: it knocks those guns out of some reward pools so later RNG leans toward pieces you still lack.
- Mission completion rewards — Finish a mission on a given difficulty. Some weapons only appear as clear rewards on Intense or higher. The mission name matters less than the difficulty tier.
- Hidden Caches — Each mission instance can spawn a glowing orange supply crate. Contents include consumables, cosmetics, Challenge Cards, attachments, and — with luck weighted by difficulty — exclusive weapons.
Edition packs (40th Anniversary Premium, Rain’s Jackson’s Star) add cosmetic and signature loadout pieces. They are purchases, not cache RNG. See Editions.
Hidden Cache rules that matter
- Look off the main path: side rooms, dead ends, and hazard edges on higher difficulties.
- Open the cache when you find it. Cache loot is granted on open; mission failure still risks losing mission clear rewards, so do not treat a cache as a full extract.
- Higher difficulty improves the chance the crate yields a weapon instead of junk consumables. Casual and Standard are poor firearm farms.
- Challenge Cards that grant bonus weapons or attachments on successful completion can override unlucky cache tables — use them on Intense clears you can actually finish. Card guide: Challenge Cards.
Community and launch guides converge on the same practical rule: if you want new guns, stop living on Casual. Move to Intense once your kit and squad can clear without wipes.
Difficulty and loot pressure
| Difficulty | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Casual / Standard | Caches lean consumable; weapon drops rare |
| Intense | Real firearm farm band for most squads |
| Extreme | Higher weapon pressure; harder clears |
| Insane | Best drop pressure; unlocks after campaign clear on another tier |
Exact percentages shift with patches — treat the table as priority guidance, not a spreadsheet law. As of 29 August 2026 only Patch 1 has shipped; no loot-table rewrite was listed in those notes.
Knockout tip: buy the armory
If caches keep handing you guns you already own, clear Park’s stock of affordable weapons first. Removing owned staples from the active pool raises the odds that Intense caches and clear rewards roll something new. Then run short Intense missions you know — the same routes you use in How to Farm XP.
Class-gated tools still exist: Marauder heavies and Machinist plasma lines stay class identity even when the rest of the arsenal is shared. Loadout pairings: Class Loadouts.
What is not a unlock path
- Typing codes into Steam or an in-game redeem box — this game does not run a promo-code ladder for weapons.
- Mid-joining for free loot — Patch 1 closed the integer duplication bug that handed out billions of consumables.
- Watching pre-Patch 1 skip videos for Colony fights — those exploits are closed; you still need honest clears for mission rewards.
Recommended farm loop
- Buy missing armory staples.
- Equip your strongest clear kit (or Machinist if you are still learning — Best Beginner Class).
- Run Intense campaign missions you can finish in under twenty minutes.
- Divert a few seconds for every Hidden Cache.
- Spend credits on ammo and the next missing gun, not cosmetics.
- After Horde unlocks, use deep but disciplined Horde extracts for both XP and gear pressure — How to Beat Horde.
Related pages
- Ammo & Melee — elemental magazines that make new guns feel online.
- Progression — weapon stars and Combat Rating.
- Tips and Tricks — habits that keep Intense clears alive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions about Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2.
Are there weapon codes?
No. Weapons come from the armory, mission rewards, Hidden Caches, class ranks, and paid edition packs — not redeemable promo codes.
What difficulty unlocks the best guns?
Intense is the practical farm floor. Extreme and Insane roll harder but only help if you finish the mission.
Do I keep cache loot if we wipe?
Cache contents are granted when opened. Mission completion rewards require a successful clear. Do not confuse the two.
Why do I only get duplicates?
Buy remaining armory staples to knock them out of the pool, then run Intense. Casual farms recycle low-tier junk.
Where is the full ranked list?
Practical rankings live on the Weapons Tier List. This page covers how unlocks work, not DPS tiers.