Nerf Machine Guns: Every Full-Auto Blaster Worth Owning

A Nerf machine gun is a motorized blaster that keeps firing while you hold the trigger, and there are fewer of them than the category name suggests. Hasbro built fewer than a dozen that genuinely qualify, 6 of them are worth owning, and 2 blasters recommended as machine guns on almost every other list are not automatic at all.

Here are the 6 worth owning, split by the ammunition each one fires, with the stated numbers labelled as stated and the battery bill nobody puts on the box.

Who this page is for: anyone choosing a full-auto blaster, and anyone who wants to know why the Rival ones play like a different sport.

The quick picks

• Best Nerf machine gun overall: the Rival Prometheus MXVIII-20K, for the 200-round hopper and the rechargeable pack in the box.
• Best dart-firing one: the N-Strike Elite HyperFire, on a 25-dart drum and a stated 5 darts per second.
• Best for a group game: the Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K, which loads faster than anything with a magazine.
• Best if you want the biggest: the Mega Mastodon, firing 24 whistling Mega darts.

One thing to settle first: rounds or darts. The Rival blasters fire high-impact rounds and the rest fire foam darts, and the 2 do not mix in any direction.

Every Nerf machine gun on this page, compared

Blaster	Ammo	Capacity	Stated rate of fire	Power	Status
Rival Prometheus MXVIII-20K	High-Impact rounds	200-round hopper	8 rounds per second	Rechargeable pack	Discontinued
Rival Perses MXIX-5000	High-Impact rounds	50-round hopper	8 rounds per second	Motorised	Discontinued
Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K	High-Impact rounds	100-round hopper	Not stated	6 D batteries	Discontinued
Rival Khaos MXVI-4000	High-Impact rounds	40-round hopper	Not stated	6 D batteries	Discontinued
Hyper Mach-100	Hyper rounds	100-round hopper	Not stated	6 D batteries	Available
N-Strike Elite HyperFire	Elite darts	25-dart drum	5 darts per second	4 D batteries	Discontinued
Modulus Regulator	Elite darts	12-dart clip	5 to 7 darts per second	4 C batteries	Discontinued
N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18	Elite darts	18-dart clip	Not stated	4 C batteries	Discontinued
N-Strike Mega Mastodon	Mega darts	24-dart drum	Not stated	6 D batteries	Discontinued
N-Strike Rapid Fire AS-20	Micro darts	20 darts	5 to 6 darts per second	Air bladder, no batteries	Discontinued
N-Strike Magstrike AS-10	Whistler darts	10-dart air magazine	Not established	Air bladder, no batteries	Discontinued
N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25	Micro darts	25-dart belt	Not stated	6 D batteries	Discontinued

Every rate of fire above is Hasbro’s stated figure, not a number we measured. “Not stated” means Hasbro published no rate for that blaster, and we would rather leave a cell empty than invent one.

What counts as a Nerf machine gun

This matters because half the blasters recommended as a Nerf machine gun elsewhere are not one.

A real Nerf machine gun is motorized and continuous. Flywheels spin up, you hold the trigger, and darts leave until the magazine is empty. Your hand does nothing except hold.

Slam fire is not full auto. On a slam-fire blaster you hold the trigger and work the pump, so the rate of fire is exactly as fast as your arm. It looks similar in a video and it feels nothing like it after 3 minutes.

Belt fed is a feed system, not a fire mode. The Vulcan EBF-25 is belt fed and genuinely automatic, and it is also long discontinued, which is why it sits on our Vulcan review rather than in the picks below.

The practical test is simple: if you have to move something with your hand for each shot, it is not a machine gun.

There is one more consequence worth naming up front. Every genuine Nerf machine gun runs on batteries, which means every one of them has a running cost and a way to fail mid game that a spring blaster does not.

Belt-fed, and the “light machine gun” question

People searching for a Nerf light machine gun or a Nerf LMG are usually picturing one specific thing: a belt, not a magazine. Only one Nerf blaster genuinely does that.

The Vulcan EBF-25 feeds from a 25-dart belt, fires automatically, and comes with a tripod, which is as close to an LMG as Nerf has ever built. It is covered further down under the blasters that are not quite machine guns, and there is a full write-up at our Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 review.

Everything else marketed as a Nerf machine gun is hopper fed, drum fed or clip fed. That is not a criticism, it is just a different feed system, and belt feeding is the rarest of them.

Rival Nerf machine guns, which fire rounds

The Rival Nerf machine guns use a separate ammunition system: round high-impact balls rather than foam darts. Hasbro states 100 feet per second for the line, which is a muzzle velocity rather than a distance, and that difference is worth understanding before you compare it to a dart blaster.

Rival games require eye protection, and every organised club treats that as non-negotiable. Our Rival blaster guide covers the whole line and what to buy first.

Nerf Rival Prometheus MXVIII-20K

The biggest capacity of any Nerf machine gun by a wide margin. A hopper that holds 200 rounds, a stated 8 rounds per second, and a rechargeable lithium battery pack that comes with it rather than being sold separately.

That last detail is the reason it tops this page. Every other motorized blaster here is a recurring battery cost, and this one is not.

It is heavy, it is expensive, and it goes through a hopper faster than you can refill it. It also comes with a shoulder strap, a trigger lock, a tactical rail and team flags, which tells you it was designed for organised games rather than for a garden.

Nerf Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K

A 100-round hopper that loads through a sliding door, which is genuinely the fastest reload of any blaster on this page. No magazine to seat, no drum to index, just pour rounds in.

That is why it is the pick for a group game. When 6 people are sharing an ammunition bucket, the blaster that refills in seconds wins the afternoon.

The charger is sold separately, which is the catch. It also carries a trigger lock and a tactical rail.

Nerf Rival Khaos MXVI-4000

The magazine-fed Rival rather than the hopper-fed one. It holds 40 rounds in a high-capacity magazine and has an acceleration button rather than a trigger.

The magazine is the trade. It is slower to fill than the Nemesis hopper and much easier to carry spares of, which makes the Khaos the better choice if you are moving rather than holding a position.

It is also the most manageable size in the Rival trio, which matters more than the round count in a fast game.

Nerf Rival Perses MXIX-5000

The Perses matches the Prometheus for speed at a stated 8 rounds per second, carries 50 rounds in a hopper instead of 200, and costs about a third less. It arrived in autumn 2019 at 99.99 USD and it is the one to look at if the Prometheus is more blaster than you need.

It is motorised, hopper fed, and it was sold in team colours rather than the Prometheus’s single scheme. Like every Rival blaster on this page it is now discontinued, so the used market is the market. That rate of fire is Hasbro’s stated figure, not one we measured.

Search the Nerf Rival Perses MXIX-5000 on Amazon

Dart-firing Nerf machine guns

These Nerf machine guns run standard Elite or Mega foam, which means they share ammunition with the rest of a normal collection. That is a bigger practical advantage than any spec on this page.

Nerf N-Strike Elite HyperFire

The fastest dart-firing Nerf machine gun Hasbro built, at a stated 5 darts per second from a 25-dart drum, with a stated range of up to 90 feet.

Not to be confused with the older Dart Tag HyperFire, which is a different blaster on a different ammunition system.

The drum is the design decision that matters. A drum means no magazine to seat under pressure and no spare clips to carry, which suits a blaster you are firing continuously.

Both numbers above are Hasbro’s claims rather than figures we measured, and a stated range is always a ceiling reached under favourable conditions.

Nerf N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18

The lightest genuine Nerf machine gun here, and the most carryable of them. An 18-dart clip, an acceleration trigger to spin the flywheels, and a stated 3.2 darts per second at a stated 75 feet.

Being clip fed rather than drum fed is the reason to pick it. Clips are cheap, you can carry 3 of them, and it shares them with every other N-Strike clip blaster you own.

It is also the loudest thing you will bring to a game, which our stealth blaster guide covers at length.

Nerf N-Strike Mega Mastodon

The only Mega Nerf machine gun, and Hasbro’s first fully motorized Mega blaster, firing 24 Mega whistler darts from a rotating drum, with a stated 100 feet.

Mega darts are the oversized whistling ones, which means 2 things: it is unmistakable in the air, and you are stocking a second ammunition type. Our dart guide covers why that matters.

It is enormous. The shoulder strap and carry handle are in the box because you need them, and that tells you what kind of blaster this is: one you set up with rather than one you run with.

Nerf N-Strike Modulus Regulator

The Regulator is the only blaster here with 3 fire modes: single, burst of 3, and fully automatic, selected on a switch. Hasbro states 5 to 7 darts per second on full auto from a 12-dart clip, running on 4 C batteries. It launched in August 2017 at 59.99 USD.

It belongs to the Modulus line rather than N-Strike Elite, so it is built to be pulled apart and rebuilt with stocks, barrels and sights. If you want a full-auto blaster that is also a modding platform, this is the one on this page. Discontinued, so buy used.

The Nerf Modulus Regulator on Amazon

The air-powered full-autos nobody makes anymore

Every blaster above this point is either a flywheel or a spring. Before Nerf settled on flywheels, it built genuinely automatic blasters a completely different way: a hand pump charged an air bladder, and pulling the trigger dumped that air through the whole magazine at once.

No batteries. No spin-up. You pump it, and then it empties itself faster than anything Nerf has made since. Both are long discontinued and both are used-market only.

Nerf N-Strike Magstrike AS-10

The Magstrike is the blaster old players bring up whenever somebody claims a modern blaster is fast. Released in 2007 at 19.99 USD, it holds 10 Whistler darts in an air-bladder magazine, and it empties them in roughly the time it takes to say so.

An honest note on its rate of fire. The Magstrike is widely described as the fastest-firing Nerf blaster ever sold, and the figure most often quoted online is 12 to 14 darts per second. We have not found a Hasbro source for that number, and the Nerf Wiki entry carrying it is flagged as needing a citation. Treat it as folklore with a real blaster underneath it: it is genuinely, obviously faster than anything on this page, and the precise number is not established.

The catch is the pump. You get one burst, then 20-odd pumps before the next one. Buy it for the party trick. Do not buy it as a primary.

Search the Nerf Magstrike AS-10 on Amazon

Nerf N-Strike Rapid Fire AS-20

The Rapid Fire AS-20 is the Magstrike’s bigger, more sensible sibling. 2010, 29.99 USD, 20 Micro darts, the same air-bladder system, and a switch that lets you fire semi-automatically instead of dumping the lot.

Hasbro stated 5 to 6 darts per second and a range of 30 to 35 feet. That range is the honest weakness: it is well short of the 75 to 90 feet the Elite line advertised a couple of years later, so it wins on volume and loses on reach. The semi-auto switch is what makes it more usable than the Magstrike, because you are not committed to spending everything at once.

We have a full write-up of this one: the Nerf Rapid Fire 20 review.

Search the Nerf Rapid Fire AS-20 on Amazon

The Hyper line, and the one you can still buy

Nearly every blaster on this page is discontinued. The Hyper line is the exception, and if you want a new Nerf machine gun in a box rather than somebody’s used one, this is where to look.

Nerf Hyper Mach-100

The Mach-100 is a motorised, hopper-fed, fully automatic blaster holding 100 Hyper rounds, announced in February 2021 at 69.99 USD and still listed as available. Hyper rounds are smaller and harder than Rival rounds, which is how it fits 100 of them into a blaster you can carry.

It runs on 6 D batteries, which puts it in the same battery bracket as the Mastodon and the Nemesis. See the battery bill above before you budget for it.

The trade is ammunition. Hyper rounds are their own format, so nothing else on this page shares them, and a hopper that holds 100 is a hopper you have to refill 100 at a time. Buy it if you want current-shelf full auto.

Search the Nerf Hyper Mach-100 on Amazon

The full-autos you can actually buy in 2026

Most of this page is history. This part is not, so if you want a Nerf machine gun you can buy today, start here.

Hasbro still makes motorized blasters, they are just spread across three different shelves now, and which one you want depends entirely on who is holding it.

The best Nerf machine gun for families: Loadout Galactic Commander

Motorized, with 3 firing modes and 3 swappable attachments. Amazon’s listing puts it at ages 8 and up and says it ships with 48 N1 darts and two 18-dart clips.

One thing to know before you buy: it fires N1 darts, and Amazon’s listings say those work only with N Series blasters. Your existing Elite darts will not feed it.

Nerf Loadout Galactic Commander on Amazon

The competitive answer: Gelfire

The Nerf Pro Gelfire Mythic and the Nerf Pro Gelfire Uproar are both listed as full auto, and they fire gel beads that burst rather than foam you pick up again.

Both carry a manufacturer rating of 14 and up on their listings. That is the shelf Amazon calls Competitive Class, and full face protection belongs with it.

The Rival option, and an honest gap

The Rival Challenger MXXIV-1200 is motorized and current.

Its listing carries no manufacturer age rating, so this page will not print one for it. That is not a green light. Hasbro places this whole class above the ordinary foam shelf because the rounds travel faster and hit harder than darts. Check the packaging yourself, and treat a missing number as a reason to look, not as permission.

The ones that are not Nerf machine guns

Two blasters appear on almost every Nerf machine gun list, including the old version of this one, and neither is a Nerf machine gun.

The N-Strike Elite Rampage. A 25-dart drum and a stated 75 feet, and it is slam fire: you hold the trigger and work the pump. That is a fast blaster and it is not an automatic one, and it needs no batteries at all, which is a genuine advantage rather than a criticism.

The Rhino-Fire. Motorized, twin barrelled, 50 darts on 2 drums, and it belongs in this category on the mechanism. What disqualifies it in practice is that it is a mounted blaster you place rather than carry, so it answers a different question. Our Rhino-Fire review covers it properly.

Naming this is not pedantry. Somebody buying their first Nerf machine gun and getting a slam-fire blaster instead is going to be disappointed for a reason they cannot articulate, and it will be this.

One current example, so this section is not all history. The Nerf Fortnite SMG-Zesty is named after a submachine gun. Its listing describes it as pump-action, which means you work the grip for every shot. It is a fine blaster and it is not a machine gun, which is exactly the trap this section exists to catch.

The battery bill

This is the section the box does not have, and it changes which blaster is actually the cheapest.

Every genuine Nerf machine gun on this page runs on batteries. That is the definition, not a coincidence, because a flywheel needs a motor and a motor needs power.

Performance falls off as the cells drain, gradually enough that people blame the blaster instead of the power. A motor that sounds like it is winding down mid game is telling you about the batteries.

Rechargeables are worth the up-front cost the moment you plan to use a blaster more than a couple of times. The Prometheus is the only one here that ships with its own pack.

Take the batteries out before storage. Corroded terminals are the single most common way a working motorized blaster becomes a dead one, and it is entirely preventable.

How to choose a Nerf machine gun

Five decisions pick your Nerf machine gun, in this order.

Decide on rounds or darts first. Everything else follows from it. Rival rounds hit harder and scatter across a floor in a way darts do not, which is a real consideration indoors and the reason eye protection is required.

Then decide hopper or magazine. A hopper refills fastest and cannot be carried loaded. A magazine is slower to fill and you can carry spares. That is the whole trade.

Then be honest about size. Capacity photographs beautifully and costs you mobility. The biggest blaster on this page is the one most likely to be put down by the second round.

Then add the battery cost to the price. A cheaper blaster that eats D cells is not cheaper.

Finally, check ammunition supply. Elite darts are everywhere, Mega darts are a second line to stock, and Rival rounds are their own economy entirely.

What is still on shelves

Honest framing, because it decides whether any of this is actionable.

Rival is retired at retail. Hasbro pulled the line, so the Prometheus, Nemesis and Khaos are remaining stock rather than new shelf product.

N-Strike and N-Strike Elite are out of production, which covers the HyperFire, the RapidStrike and the Rampage. Mega is out of production too, which covers the Mastodon.

So every blaster on this page is the used or remaining-stock market. That is not a reason to avoid them, it is a reason to check completeness before you pay and to test anything motorized on fresh batteries.

If you want a list of what is genuinely current instead, our new Nerf guns guide is the one to read.

Mistakes buyers make

Buying a slam-fire blaster expecting a Nerf machine gun. The single most common one, and the reason this page has a section naming which is which.

Reading a velocity as a range. The old version of this page said the Rival blasters “reach distances of 100 ft. per second”, which is 2 different measurements welded together. 100 feet per second is how fast a round leaves, not how far it goes.

Ignoring what the ammunition costs to keep stocked. A 200-round hopper needs 200 rounds. That is a real purchase and it is not in the box in the quantity you will want.

Buying the biggest one first. A Mastodon is a wonderful third blaster and a poor first one.

Skipping eye protection on Rival. Not a preference. Every organised club requires it and there is a reason.

Who should skip a Nerf machine gun entirely

Worth saying, because a Nerf machine gun is the blaster most often bought and then left in a cupboard.

If you play in a small space, capacity is not your problem and size is. A hallway fight is decided inside 20 feet, where a big motorized blaster is slower to bring up than a pistol.

If you are buying your first blaster, buy a clip-fed spring blaster instead. It costs less, needs nothing, and will teach you what you actually want from a second one.

If darts are scarce where you play, an automatic empties a magazine in seconds and then you are on your knees collecting foam. Capacity only helps when resupply is easy.

If you want to mod, start somewhere else. Every Nerf machine gun hides its interesting parts behind wiring, and our beginner modder guide explains why a spring pistol teaches more.

If you need quiet, nothing in this category will do. A flywheel announces you before the first shot, every time.

Making one faster than it left the factory

Every blaster on this page is deliberately held back. Hasbro caps flywheel speed to keep these things safe for the age on the box, and that cap is the single easiest thing to undo on a motorised blaster.

The route is a voltage increase, usually a LiPo pack in place of the alkaline tray, and on a blaster you actually care about, better motors and thicker wiring so the stock parts are not carrying more current than they were built for. On a flywheel blaster this changes spin-up time and rate of fire more than it changes range.

Two honest warnings before you go looking. Higher voltage through stock wiring and a stock trigger switch is the most common way people cook a blaster, and a LiPo pack is a fire risk if you size or charge it carelessly. Both are solvable, neither is optional.

The full job is written up on our Nerf gun mods guide, and our LiPo battery calculator works out the pack for a given blaster.

Buying a retired full-auto

The famous Nerf machine guns are all out of production, and a motorized blaster that has sat in a cupboard for a decade has predictable problems.

These searches go where they actually change hands: Rhino-Fire on eBay | Vulcan EBF-25 | Rival Prometheus | Rival Nemesis.

• Check the battery bay first. These were put away with batteries in, and corroded contacts are the single most common fault.
• Ask for a video of it spinning up. Flywheels dry out and motors die, and neither shows in a photo.
• Expect no darts and no drum. The drums get separated and sold on their own, which is why they cost what they do.

Where to buy

As an Amazon Associate and eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Product links where a verified listing already existed on this page, and search links everywhere else, because a retired blaster’s individual listing comes and goes.

• Nerf Rival Prometheus MXVIII-20K on Amazon, our top pick.
• Nerf Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K on Amazon.
• Nerf Rival Khaos MXVI-4000 on Amazon.
• Nerf N-Strike HyperFire on Amazon.
• Nerf N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18 on Amazon.
• Nerf N-Strike Mega Mastodon on Amazon.
• Nerf N-Strike Elite Rampage on Amazon, the slam-fire one.
• Rechargeable cells, which pay for themselves on any of these.

We do not publish prices, because they move by retailer and by season and a number written today is wrong by next season. Our deals guide covers when the real discounts land, and our where to buy guide covers which source suits a retired blaster.

More blasters on this site

A Nerf machine gun is rarely the only blaster anybody owns, so here is where the rest of the collection is covered.

• Rival blasters, the whole rounds-firing line.
• N-Strike, the classic era and every blaster we have reviewed in it.
• N-Strike Elite, the blue and white refresh.
• The 10 best Nerf guns, ranked across every line.
• The best Nerf gun to buy, mod and take to war.
• Accessories, for the clips, drums, vests and sights.
• Nerf mods, including why voltage mods on these blasters are the riskiest change you can make.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Nerf machine gun?

The Rival Prometheus MXVIII-20K, for a 200-round hopper, a stated 8 rounds per second and a rechargeable pack included rather than sold separately. If you want darts rather than rounds, the HyperFire.

Are Nerf machine guns fully automatic?

The motorized ones are: hold the trigger and they keep firing. Slam-fire blasters like the Rampage are not, because the rate of fire is set by how fast you work the pump.

What is the fastest firing Nerf machine gun?

On stated figures, the Prometheus at 8 rounds per second among the Rival blasters, and the HyperFire at 5 darts per second among the dart blasters. Both are Hasbro’s claims rather than numbers we measured.

Do all Nerf machine guns need batteries?

Every genuine one does, because a flywheel needs a motor. Only the Prometheus ships with a rechargeable pack. Budget for cells on everything else, and take them out before storage.

Is a Nerf machine gun good for a Nerf war?

For holding a position, yes. For moving, less so, because capacity and weight arrive together. Most people are better served by a clip-fed primary and a sidearm, which our war games guide explains.

Rival rounds or foam darts?

Rounds hit harder, carry further and require eye protection. Darts share ammunition with the rest of a normal collection and are far easier to find. For most households, darts. For an organised club, rounds are a real option.

Is the Rampage a machine gun?

No. It is slam fire, so you hold the trigger and pump for each shot. It is fast and it needs no batteries, which are both good things, but it is not automatic and buying it expecting that is the most common disappointment in this category.

Are any Nerf machine guns still made?

No. Rival is retired at retail and N-Strike, Elite and Mega are all out of production, so everything here is remaining stock or the used market. Check completeness and test the motor on fresh batteries before you pay.

How loud is a Nerf machine gun?

Loud, and louder than video suggests, because microphones compress. A spinning flywheel is the loudest thing most people bring to a game and it announces you before the first dart leaves.

Can you mod one for more speed?

You can, and voltage mods are the likeliest of all Nerf mods to end in a melted shell. If you go there, read the LiPo safety checklist before buying a cell rather than after.