Weapon

This page contains 1) links to the heroes and their weapon stats; 2) farming strategies for weapons, chaos rings, other Equipment, and pretty much anything else you are looking for; and 3) optimal weapon selection strategy, which may be upgraded at the Blacksmith in the camp.

## Weapon Stats

Click on a hero below to see the weapon stats associated with that hero:

Warrior swords, Archer bows, Wizard staffs, Hunter daggers, Berserker axes, and Necromancer wands.

Unlike offhands that are unique to each hero class and may ONLY be used by that class, weapons may be shared among specific classes without penalty: warrior, hunter, and berserker share their melee weapons; necromancer and wizard share their wands and staffs; and the archer is….lonely, because he’s the only one who can use a bow properly! Weapons may used by the wrong class, but typically with mana and effect penalties - however this may still be useful in certain situations (a warrior using a staff or wand at times, for example)

## Farming Strategies for all Equipment, Weapons, Armor, Helms, Ingots, Enchantment Gemstones, Passives and Artifacts

The Obsidian Tower reveals a popular farming location using the Monster Champion, Mini-Boss and Boss to obtain all kinds of gear, long before the Endgame, including legendary and chaos Rings; as well as other high-level equipment since even level 1 bosses drop legendary gear. It should be able to be applied somewhat early in the game - perhaps when all 4 stats are around 25 and skills around 20, with the fortress significantly upgraded and carrying multiple crosses of life while hitting the 450 armor cap (I.e. the beginning of the idle game). You may not be able to use it in the first couple weeks – but as your hero starts to get a bit stronger, you should find it very fast and easy to kill level-1 bosses – when you reach that point, hold on, because your progress is about to SKYROCKET. Note that there is no one specific “location” that certain gear drops, although bosses drop high level gear more commonly.

Consider just using “diplomatic visit” and “we are surrounded” (which gives experience but doesn’t increase difficulty because you won’t get ambushed if there is a boss on each floor!), as well as possibly "while you were sleeping, the enemy was training" to get easy crystals while you farm. Start on level 1 of Obsidian Tower with only the borderlands option (or, Catacombs, when you can survive 20 plus floors with no camp), area size 1 floor, and boss between floor, then sprint for the exit ignoring everything. If you happen to come across a gate boss, fight, unless you are an endgame player with thousands of unused skill points - these mini bosses have terrific drops too and reset to level 1 each obsidian tower run! Use 3 rabbit's feet (or 2 rabbits feet and 1 old map to quickly find gates and the stairs, depending on your mood), and your two strongest shining rings. Sprint for the stairs, kill the boss, sprint out (ignoring even the chest typically), repeat again and again until you bump into a camp; exit to the fortress. The bosses reset back to level 1; repeat at your leisure!

A Short Video Showing Some Basic Boss Farming, By an Endgame Archer Using Shining Rings.

For endgame players, the above may be used but starting on level 50 and using a shining+chaos ring, with an old map artifact to rapidly find the stairs - this allows for collection of blue chests after defeating the bosses - however it is debatable whether this method is superior to starting on level 1. WARNING: the mini-bosses in the gates scale with hero level and floor depth; AND UNUSED SKILL POINTS ARE COUNTED IN THE HERO LEVEL CALCULATION - so an endgame hero with thousands of unused skill points may face a level 200 miniboss on level 1 of the dungeon! This is not true of the between-level bosses of the obsidian tower however, which scale only with floor depth.

Should you find chaos-II rings (or stronger) while farming, SAVE YOUR 4 STRONGEST ONES – they are among the rarest and most powerful items in the endgame.  Save the 2 strongest steel-chaos rings you find. Save your 4 strongest shining rings (one main pair to use, and one backup pair); and your 2 strongest shining-chaos rings. Consider placing these rings on your unused backup heroes, assuming you can reach the camp safely with them, so they don’t clog your storage.

Other strategies for getting good equipment involve farming the grim paladin directly from the fortress, killing the Monster Champions (purple-named big monsters that appear on-floor in the dungeons), breaking blue chests (which commonly start to appear around dungeon floor 50 in multiple locations: camp in merchants chest, tomb gates, boss chests and treasury) and killing the bone knights in the tomb gates leading to the Lost Tomb, that spawn in Catacombs and Crypts - which have strong drops around floor 50 and beyond. Use 3 rabbits feet, and 2 shining rings when delivering the killing blow to monsters with known big drops, such as the above, and breaking high level chests.

The obsidian tower mods may be used to manipulate the Lost Tomb for even more drops: The “endless expanse” mod will stack with the “while you were sleeping the enemy was training” and “horde” to increase the number of monsters per floor, to create gigantic farmable tomb gates after floor 50 that may spawn in the crypt and catacombs - these special tombs may contain upwards of 250 monsters, with vast numbers of drop-rich bone knights. Be sure to cloudsave at the fortress and turn off automatic cloudsave before trying this - these mods will massively increase game demands and can cause crashes with loss of equipment…!

## STRATEGY: Optimal Weapons for Each Class

In the early and middle game prior to using chaos rings, the weapon selection is relatively simple, with the available weapon with the highest average damage used. That will typically by executioner or knight sword (nearly equivalent) for warrior/hunter/berserker. The murderer sword is arguably stronger, IF the bonus murderer enchantment effect does not pose a problem - this will typically be in the middle game with vampirism, as monsters return large amounts of HP upon death, and the hero has a large HP pool. The rune axe’s “battering ram” is also very powerful if facing enemies that frequently block, as is the Halberd “range” - finding either a rune axe with range or halberd with battering ram can be a useful combination. For wizard and necromancer, clerics staff is typically best with its very high attack speed; close alternatives include the cursed branch (vampirism bonus enchant) or staff of cold (frost bonus enchant) if one of these enchants is desired in ADDITION to 4 others. The emerald bow is the strongest early and middle game bow for the archer, combining good attack speed with extreme damage.

Below are the best primary weapons for each class AT THE VERY Endgame, for a maxed hero using chaos rings and thousands of unused skill points, at least floor 50 (obsidian) or 100 (endless). At that point, +7 dmg from a "higher tier" weapon provides very small benefits compared to the 100-1000+ base damage. This is why 1) higher atk speed to use more of your OP base attacks; 2) crit chance to double (\*225%) your OP base attacks and 3) innate enchantments to give you extra utility are much more important than meager raw damage.

The best weapons for each class would therefore be: - Hunter: Assassin's Dagger (15% crit, +30% spd) > Katar of Eater (15% crit, -20% spd) (Assassin's Dagger's +50% atk speed is always better than the raw dmg boost from Katar of Eater when maxed out. There is an argument for ALL melee classes using the assassins dagger, due to its speed and crit rate, particularly with the “reaping” drop-only enchantment, or pogrom, based on pure stats….- however note that that as of September 2023 in the endgame with maxed stats, the attack rate advantage over weapons like the Rune Axe is not noticeable with the attack rate mechanics in play - decreasing the argument for the assassins dagger somewhat (which appears clearly the best based on stats alone), and elevating the argument for weapons with inherent powerful enchants like the Murderer, Rune Axe and Halberd - all of which can be viable when using chaos as the primary damage source because they still allow for 4 more enchantments beyond their inherent enchant.

Archer: Pogrom inherent drop enchantment is generally best for your chosen endgame weapon, or crushing if aiming to do maximum damage against high level monster champions with the “mighty” effect (hunting for captains mod adds this), and the grim paladin. Emerald Bow (5% crit, +20% spd) becomes slightly weaker than the Wood Bow (6% crit, +30% spd) with chaos. Margins are very small between the two items in the endgame however. Wood Bow is not viable without chaos rings and a high dungeon floor, but is the strongest archer weapon in this endgame situation due to its high crit rate and fire rate. The emerald bow will still be nice for farming the grim paladin, and when at low dungeon level (equipment farming). Note that as of late September 2023, the attack rate differences of weapons at maxed stats is not particularly noticeable however, arguably making the dark bow with its battering ram extra enchant the strongest, or the ice bow for the same reason - if the extra enchantment is not needed however the horned bow has the highest critical damage rate.

Warrior: If using swords: Murderer's Sword (5% crit, 0% spd, Murderer) > Knight's Sword (0% crit, -10% spd) (Murderer is always the better option if you can handle the murderer enchant. If you can't, using the assassins dagger, or enchant-inherent Halberd or Rune Axe as per discussion of various options above)

Berserker: Assassins dagger as above for MAIN HAND, or one of the enchant-inherent - the offhand has no impact on crit rate or speed so the executioner sword (or murderer/rune axe/halberd) has an argument for the best offhand, however the contribution will be minimal compared to the chaos damage, so aiming for the best enchantments may be advisable (reaping, pogrom, murderer, range and battering ram all being viable). The Halberd with its range inherent, plus other enchants (reaping and battering ram, for example) has a strong If using other weapons for the main hand: 1) Sword Build: Murderer's Sword (5% crit, 0% spd, Murderer) >= Knight's Sword (0% crit, -10% spd) 2) Axe Build: Rune Axe (0% crit, 10% speed, Battle Ram) (Same story with warrior for sword builds: go murderer's sword but if you can't handle it, go knight's sword. For axe builds, just go rune axe. The off-hand weapon's damage is averaged then divided by two. Murderer's sword is therefore the best off-hand weapon that provides the highest dmg boost)

Wizard: Cleric's Stick (+2% crit, +40% spd) = Candy Cane (4% crit, +30% spd, Frost) = Cursed Branch (0% crit, +30% spd, vampirism) (All 3 weapons are very good; decide for yourself if you want atk spd/frost+crit/innate vampirism) - Necromancer: Cursed Branch (0% crit, +30% spd, vampirism) = Cleric's Stick (+2% crit, +40% spd) = Candy Cane (4% crit, +30% spd, Frost) (Necromancer's breath skill can be effective with murderer so an extra slot from cursed branch is very worth it - however pogrom may be easier to use for some. You can choose cleric's stick or candy cane as well). HOWEVER note that as of late September 2023, the attack rate difference with maxed stats is not noticeable, possibly making either the cursed branch or staff of cold more powerful, due to their extra inherent enchant - particularly if dropped with the pogrom enchant - permitting vampirism/searing/furious onslaught as well.

This is why going a dagger build for ALL melee classes may be OPTIMAL - the 15% critical damage rate and 30% attack speed of Assassin's Dagger which is fairly OP. If you can handle murderer, go murderer's sword for ber/warrior. However, consider Assassin's Dagger over Knight's Sword/Execut's Sword

credit to @Himynameissomeone for many of these recommendations. ~sb413197