Really Illegal Golf Demo Gear Tier List

Gear turns Really Illegal Golf from “sneaky putting” into a toolkit heist. On the free Steam demo’s nine-hole night, smoke, taser, distraction coins, and fragmentation / flag grenades are the headline toys. This Gear Tier List Hub ranks them for common demo scenarios with S / A / B reasoning, then points you at perks, stealth habits, and multiplayer roles so a ranking becomes a loadout instead of a hot take. For spend timing rather than tiers alone, open Gear usage.

Perks get their own deep dive on Physicist, Sprint, and Silhouette. Route craft lives in Stealth tips. Friend roles live on Multiplayer loadouts. Install and wishlist context sits on the Demo Hub.

Ranking criteria for the demo

We score gear against the live demo fantasy, not a hypothetical endgame shop:

• Stealth value — Does it create a clean window without painting the whole fairway?
• Tempo — Can you spend it mid-swing plan without resetting the hole’s pacing?
• Co-op leverage — Does it help a teammate putt while you hold attention?
• Panic floor — When a camera or guard already sees you, does the tool still save the night?
• Opportunity cost — What are you not carrying when this slot is filled?

Tiers here mean S = default first pick for most nights, A = excellent when the hole asks for it, B = situational or high-variance. Nothing is truly useless; loud tools just punish greedy timing.

S tier — Smoke

Smoke is the demo’s most honest stealth multiplier. It buys a temporary fog of war that lets you cross sightlines, reset a botched approach, or mask a teammate’s sprint to the cup. Smoke respects the fantasy: you are still golfing, you just refuse to be observed while you do it.

Why S:

• Works in solo and co-op without requiring perfect aim on a person.
• Converts bad information into a redo window instead of an instant fail fantasy.
• Pairs with almost every perk—Sprint to leave the cloud, Silhouette to stay thin after it clears, Physicist when you need the next shot to behave.

When smoke slips from S to merely good: open fairways where wind-like clear times feel short, or teams that pop it reactively after every guard already radioed. Smoke is a plan, not a panic button with infinite charges in your head.

A tier — Taser and coins

Taser (A)

The taser is the precision interrupt. When a single guard owns a green you must use, a clean disable beats spraying explosives. It shines on holes where patrol loops are readable and you can re-time a putt during the stun window.

Strengths:

• Surgical. One body problem, one answer.
• Teaches observation—you learn routes instead of deleting the map.
• Strong with a designated “security” player in co-op while a “finisher” putts.

Weaknesses:

• Poor against camera-heavy stretches unless you already solved optics.
• Mistimed hits can create noise or leave you standing in the open after the effect ends.
• Less forgiving than smoke if you miss the interaction.

Coins (A)

Distraction coins are information weapons. Flick attention away from the cup, peel a guard off a camera overlap, or create a fake sound budget for a teammate. Coins reward players who watch head turns and cone edges.

Strengths:

• Low commitment compared with grenades.
• Excellent for teaching new players that vision is a resource.
• Scales in co-op when one player becomes the full-time bait.

Weaknesses:

• Weak if you spam without reading patrol logic.
• Does not create a hard wall the way smoke does.
• Easy to undervalue until you fail a hole for lack of one well-placed toss.

B tier — Fragmentation / flag grenades

Grenades — including fragmentation and flag grenade clears called out in coverage — are loud solutions. They clear problems and create new ones: alert cascades, ruined ghost runs, comedy clips. In the demo they earn B because the nine-hole night still wants you to feel clever more often than cinematic. Pre-select them on purpose before the course; do not treat them as free panic inventory.

When grenades jump to A for a session:

• You are playing PvP-flavored chaos or a “loud clear” house rule night.
• A chokepoint packs multiple threats and you accept the heat.
• The squad already failed stealth and is converting to survival golf.

When they stay B:

• You are practicing for clean demo clears.
• Cameras will broadcast the explosion into the next patrol cycle.
• Your perk kit is built around Silhouette and quiet tempo.

Scenario snapshots

Scenario	Lead pick	Support pick	Notes
Solo ghost clear	Smoke	Coins	Soft peel, then fog the crossing
Camera nest	Smoke	Taser	Soften optics, then delete the body problem
Co-op speed night	Coins	Smoke	Bait lane + cover for the putter
Already compromised	Grenades	Taser	Accept noise, stabilize, finish hole
Teaching a friend	Coins	Smoke	Show cones before showing bombs

How perks change the ranking

Gear tiers bend when passives shift your risk budget. Physicist makes ambitious shot lines more tempting, so smoke becomes even more valuable as a setup tool. Sprint (also called Rush in some Japanese press; English store and community talk usually say Sprint) lets you spend shorter smoke windows with post-shot speed. Silhouette reduces how often you needed a tool at all—until it does not, and then coins buy the margin Silhouette almost provided. Read the full rankings on Perks and lock habits in Getting Started.

Loadout discipline for nine holes

Do not rebuild from scratch every tee if the course is teaching a theme. Note which holes punish greed, which greens are camera locked, and which fairways are coin puzzles. Carry a primary plan (usually smoke) and a secondary identity (taser surgeon vs coin conductor). Save grenades for intentional chaos nights or true failsafes.

When friends join, translate this hub into roles on Multiplayer loadouts and the narrative guide at Multiplayer. The best tier list is the one your squad can recite between holes without opening a wiki mid-putt.

Gear will evolve as Pushlab Games and No More Robots march toward the Q1 2027 Steam release. For the live demo, start with smoke as your default S-tier truth, treat taser and coins as A-tier specialists, and keep grenades honest as high-variance B-tier fireworks.