Crimson Desert: Best weapon types

Wondering what the best weapon types are in Crimson Desert? There are a lot of weapons to fill the hands of your wandering Greymane warrior in Crimson Desert, ranging from your standard Sword to the explosive Hand Cannon. While all of these weapon types are viable choices, they offer up very different playstyles in the midst of Crimson Desert’s supremely wild fights where you’re surrounded by a horde of guys all trying to claw away at you, Dynasty Warriors style.

In this guide, we’ll offer our take on the best weapon types in Crimson Desert, presenting a tier list as well as general tips on making the most of everything at the disposal of Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka.

Crimson Desert weapon type tier list

The following tier list shows our ranking of all weapon types in Crimson Desert – including both melee and ranged weapons. We’ve also included “Unarmed Combat” and “Dual Wield” as weapon types here, mostly because of the potential that these styles have.

S-Tier

Dual Wielding

Dual wielding is infinitely rewarding for an aggressive playstyle. Once you get it at the end of Chapter 2, try combining the Sword of the Lord – one of the best early weapons – with another blade of your choice to open up a world of hurt with supremely fast combos. Obviously, using two melee weapons at the same time takes some practice, but let it be known that you can still block and parry. Also, you can stack different Abyss Gears on both weapons for double the attack power.

Greatsword

Greatswords are excellent for cleaning the field against mobs and dealing fat damage against single targets, and there’s nothing like swinging one of these big boys against an oncoming horde. As you might expect, chaining together combos requires care, but compared to the other two-handed weapons in Crimson Desert, Greatswords maintain that delicate balance between power and speed. A worthy weapon type for all three characters.

Spear

I like spears, and consider them an excellent choice for both Kliff and Damiane. They don’t deliver the same amounts of damage as other weapons, but the fast flurry of thrusts that accompany a spear barrage makes up for that. Crowd control is also feasible thanks to their knockdown power, and if you can master the Evasive Slash and Counter Stance combo (which makes you enter a defensive stance that retaliates against incoming blows as long as your Stamina holds), you’re nigh untouchable.

Unarmed Combat

Sometimes the best weapons are your own empty hands. Unlike many other games, Crimson Desert offers a fun selection of skills for bare knuckle fighting, including a Clothesline and Dropkick right out of a wrestling game, to the always-useful Force Palm ability, which is handy for both solving puzzles and shoving guys like Kailok the Hornsplitter into the edges of the arena. Just be sure to focus on Stamina if you invest in this unorthodox but satisfying fighting path.

A-Tier

Axe

Great AoE coverage, extremely high damage, and a heck of a lot of potential to break boss poise – these are the Axe’s claims to fame, though all that power comes at a not-unexpected speed decrease. Axes and Hammers are very similar, but I prefer Hammers, as I’ve found more of a chance of enemies interrupting me when I’m in the middle of Axe strikes. These attack animations are lengthy and require commitment to see through – but if you master them, you’ll cut through enemies like butter.

Bow

The Bow is the best ranged weapon for stealth kills, and it’s useful for applying status effects like Poison from a far distance. It’s not as fancy or loud as the firearms, but for a really good Bow that can be found in the early-to-mid game, seek out the Gold-Knotted Ancestral Bow, hidden within a trap-filled cave in the Silver Wolf mountain region of Pailune. This fine weapon comes with the Life Transference Abyss Gear, giving you a little bit of health everytime you hit a foe.

Hand Cannon

The Hand Cannon’s the only ranged weapon that delivers AoE bursts on enemies, so it’s in a class of its own. It also combines pretty well with the Axe or the Hammer for non-stop crowd control – hence its inclusion alongside them in the same tier. My preferred cannon is the Rhinard Cannon, and you can learn its recipe by robbing Glenbright Manor in Hernand and taking the book Two-Handed Weapons of the World, Vol.1. It can then be crafted at a Blacksmith via 3 Copper Ore and 7 Iron Ore.

Hammer

My preferred weapon with Oongka. Hammers are great fun for launching opponents into space, making them probably the most entertaining weapon in Crimson Desert for effective crowd control. Charge ’em up, knock enemies around like bowling pins, rinse and repeat. The charging does make you vulnerable, but I personally find Axes slower. If you really want the best of both worlds, combine an Axe and Hammer into your weapon rotation to feel like a giant among men.

Pistol

I love a good gun in my fantasy games, and Crimson Desert’s Pistol is no exception. For the ranged choice that can be used most easily in mid-combat, the Pistol works well at just about all short and medium distances. The Hand Cannon’s better for AoE and the Bow superior when it comes to stealth kills, but the Pistol shines as an excellent all-around supplement to whatever you’re utilising as a melee weapon.

Sword

Kliff starts the game with a trusty Sword, and you can finish Crimson Desert without every diversifying from this tried and true option. The Sword doesn’t really stand out in any major way, in my eyes, but is a great all-rounder weapon type and certainly the easiest to learn. Considering the number of bosses in this game who require careful lock-on targeting and constant shield use to block – I’m looking at you, Reed Devil – a handy Sword and Shield combo won’t let you down.

B-Tier

Mace

Maces work well for a more defensive playstyle, and if you’re handy with a Sword and Shield but prefer something a little pointier, swap that blade out for a Mace to stun enemies and shatter their defenses. That said, the slower, more methodical nature of the Mace makes them feel less exciting than most other weapons in Crimson Desert, and I feel like the Mace would be better in a true Soulslike instead of the “action adventure but with occasionaly Soulsy bosses” game that Crimson Desert is.

Rapier

Rapiers provide a degree of elegance to your swordplay, and they’ve got a natural riposte ability that can deliver big damage to any enemy who activates it. If you play as Damiane a lot, you may wish to stick with a Rapier + Pistol combo, which is what she was packing in most of the trailers. Personally, I find the light attacks of Rapiers slightly underwhelming, and in order to make the most of these razor-sharp pointers you’ve got to commit to learning long combo strings. I’d rather go with a Spear for something more reliable, but that’s just me.

Rifle

Rifles deliver a very nice punch when they hit, but that long reload time makes them somewhat unwieldy in the midst of the chaotic brawls that Crimson Desert specialises in. For single target boss encounters, a Rifle can be useful for whittling away HP, and it’s worth keeping one in your back pocket for that reason. But in most other situations, the Pistol will offer enough firepower – and much less faff when it comes to reloading.

That finishes our guide to the best weapon types in Crimson Desert. If you’re on the hunt for more info regarding the ins and outs of this huge game, get started with our guide on what to do first, as well as the best skills to get early on. Meanwhile, our list of tips and tricks is a bounty of generalised info sure to keep the Greymanes going well until the endgame.