#weapon types

And the results are not surprising, but they are … mildly annoying.

The most common weapon type for specific magic weapons is indeed swords. Unless we’re counting magic staffs as quarterstaves, in which case they win by a large margin. I’m going to put that down to personal preference, if you’re comfortable calling a Staff of Birdcalls a magic weapon? I mean, it is, it’s magic and it’s also a big lump of wood you can clobber someone with, but. That’s not its primary intent? It’s primarily an arcane focus and magic implement.

But. Leaving the question of magic staffs aside. The most common magical weapon type after that is swords. Longswords, specifically, by a large margin (16 total), followed by greatswords (5), then we have two shortswords and a scimitar.

The second most common type are axes, with a 50/50 split between greataxes and battleaxes, and daggers (6 each battleaxes and greataxes, for 12 axes, and 11 daggers). Maces are also pretty common, with 7 of those, as are warhammers, tridents and spears, with 5 each.

After that? You’re looking at one or two examples, maybe three, of all other weapon types, and quite a lot of them get absolutely none.

For example, there are a grand total of three bows, two longbows and a shortbow. Add in two slings, one dart and a boomerang, and there are a grand total of seven ranged weapons total. There are no crossbows. There are zero polearms that aren’t spears, no halberds, pikes or glaives. Very few light weapons that aren’t daggers. There are no magical rapiers either, it’s the one sword type that doesn’t get a look in. There are a couple of oddball items represented, a boomerang, one sickle, a morningstar, but generally? Not a lot of variety.

Which is faintly annoying. What if I don’t want a magic sword? What if I want to find a mystical bow? What if I want a wuxia style adventure where we’re looking for the mystical glaive of a long-dead general who held the city gates by himself for three days until reinforcements from the capital arrived? (Polearms are great for legendary defensive actions). How about a linked pair of handaxes from a legendary hunter where if one axe hits when thrown, the other automatically hits as well, homing in on its fellow? A magical siege-breaker heavy crossbow whose bolts are fired with such magically-augmented force that they’ll hit (and deal full damage to) everything in a 30ft line? A cruel pirate’s boarding pike that deals extra acid damage as salt scours the wounds it deals? A vengeful lady’s shortbow which deals extra damage to opponents who have previously dealt damage to you (the lady it belonged to had been grievously used by a gentleman who then turned up mysteriously dead of an arrow through his throat at the next royal hunt)?

And. Yes. This is what homebrew is for. And there are reasons why a lot of the published items are swords or axes or daggers, both for reasons of real life mythology and folklore and also for reasons of which weapons are most commonly used by players in game. But.

The game could afford to spice up its weapon choices a bit? I’m just saying.

I have done several homebrew magic weapons, including several ranged weapons (my favourite of which is the common-rarity ghost-loaded crossbow, which does not have the loading quality, because two tiny little ghostly hands come out of the stock to load it for you), a boarding pike that lets you teleport, a nuclear warhammer inspired by the fallout game series, and a random collection of weaponry including a mace of shut-the-fuck-up (literally silences people), an evil little acidic dagger, and a fey rapier that whispers of your opponents’ regrets to deal extra psychic damage. Homebrew weapons are fun. Still wouldn’t mind if the official ones got some variety, though.

Definitely, if they do nothing else, add more bows! More ranged weapons in general! Also more polearms.

Usually the twins use swords as those fit them best and it's easier to fight together. Plus their signature weapon us also a sword (the one in the starting cutscene)

However they can use all weapon types! The canon one is sword and bow (as seen in one of the inazuma comissions at the sangonomiya resistance).

Claymores are super fun to use! They have enough strength to carry it with ease (as they are not human and imo gods/deities) Plus its very fun to spin with them. Lumine loves to use them.

Polearms are definetly the easiest to use. For Lumine, when she started learning, she wasn't used to how light it was so if she didn't focus it flew out of her hand (usually at whoever she was sparring with at the time lmao) For Aether he definetly lives polearms! Not as much as a sword ofc but the polearm reaches far and is easy to wield quickly and efficiently

Bows are definetly they use in more special circumstances, when they want to do a comission from afar for example. Lumine definetly has a lot of fun with it and has great aim. Aether also has great aim but he can't shoot them as quickly as he would like to, plus comissions take longer (and he wants to sleep thank you very much)

Catalysts! This weapon isn't exactly eithers favorite, however they do use it when commiting arso- i mean burning a hilichurl camp 😃 Even if it doesn't quite offer a challange they are quite fun to use against airborne or out of reach enemies

Double blades (like Childes skill) a very nice and usable weapon especially in close combat. The twins love to use them when they get into a particularly competitive mood

Definitely weak for Jakobs guns. I know people have mixed love for them, but I like having a lot of power and control in a gun, and Jakobs packs the most punch and gives me the most control over my ammo and shots to fire.

Personally, I love “fire as fast as you can pull the trigger” especially on shotguns and pistols. It helps me to focus my shots and make each bullet count. At that point it’s my own error when I miss and not the gun.

You ever look at someone using weapons like the E-Liter and the Dynamo Roller and they’re rocking out that weapon? Then you go try it yourself and realize you’re slow as molasses and your attacks are being outpaced by everyone else?

Using the Heavy Weight Weapons are  somewhat different from how the rest of the weapons work because of their slower attack patterns and their speed penalty upon equipping. The weapons referred in this post today are the: 

E-Liter 4K, Dynamo Roller, Hydra Splatling, Explosher, and Tenta Brella

I’m excluding the Rainmaker since it’s only available in the Rainmaker mode and in any Single Player mode. Anyways, these weapons can have a different learning curve since they don’t really want to play with the fast pace that a lot of weapons like to play at. Instead they play more reactively with a few proactive elements being watching for foes and predicting their movements. Here are some tips from me if you ever wanted to at least dabble with these weapons but didn't know where to start:

Hi there, great question! (And not confusing at all!)

All of the Shepherds have a preferred weapon, though only have some have a specific named weapon–

Blade, although he’s trained in the use of pretty much all weapons, prefers swords and usually exclusively uses his ancestral sword, Anguriel. If that isn’t around, any Ket-forged weaponry is up for grabs with him.

Trouble has an arsenal of guns and explosives that he uses, though he tends to stick to four: his long rifle for distance sniping, two pistols for close-range combat, and his specialty gun for situations that need really, really big bullets.

Tallys uses a goldenwood bow (an elite and rare type of wood), which she’s had ever since her clan was destroyed. It doesn’t have a name, though! It’s a longbow and, when used from a close distance and with good arrows, can shatter some objects or even bones.

Shery doesn’t use any weapons at all, and Riel has held a gun before, but never had the occasion to shoot it!

Chase uses primarily a pair of twin daggers–jagged and serrated–that do have names. One is black and ornate with a green edge (Ragnarok), and the other is gold damascus and red-tinged with a bone handle (Rhapsody) (this one clearly used to belong to a corsair from the style). He also has an unnecessarily-ornate gold handgun (also named: Trixie) that he has a variety of backstories for: he got it during a heist, he stole it off of an obscenely rich nobleman, he dueled the king of the three seas for it and was granted control of the pirate nation, but opted to just take the gun…

Red generally uses his magic over weapons, but he does carry one just in case he’s in a situation where he can’t use his spells:

THAT’S RIGHT, RED USES A BIG FUCKING WAR HAMMER TO CLOBBER HIS ENEMIES AND THERE’S NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT

It is, of course, enchanted (he unearthed it while exploring some Mage ruins and just decided to, like, take it home). He doesn’t have a name for it, but Trouble and Chase both call it “ol’ Reliable.”

Ayla has a battered and shiny-with-use quarterstaff that she uses both to channel her wind spells and also to beat the shit out of people in battle. She doesn’t have a name for it, but it’s covered with runes: symbols that she’s carved into it to represent every place she’s ever traveled.

Lavinet uses primarily a rapier in battle, though she is also versed in archery and can get scary with a knife. She’s more versed at combat on horseback but improves at her conventional fighting very quickly after joining the Order!