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The best weapons in Crimson Desert will depend on your character of choice, as some are locked into certain weapon types, but ultimately what's most important is how you treat the weapon that you have. Swords, shields, bows and more besides in Crimson Desert are generally at a similar level of power until you start upgrading and enhancing them, so the most powerful weapons are those that you're willing to sink time and resources into. That being said, there is a weapon we've found that still manages to reign supreme above all others in Crimson Desert. We've got it laid out below, as well as a full tier list for all the weapon types that Kliff can use, so you know which one is best.
Warning: this guide contains some spoilers, but they have been kept to a minimum.
How to get the best weapon in Crimson Desert
The best weapon for protagonist Kliff in Crimson Desert is the Fated Shadow, a one-handed sword obtained along the main campaign.
However, it's easily missed if you don't know where to look as it's in a dead-end room attached the arena where you fight the boss Goyen in Chapter 9. After that, head to the back of the arena and up the steps, where you'll find a small living quarters in a cave (there's a recipe in there marked on the map to help you narrow it down).
Inside there, you'll find the Fated Shadow, on a weapon stand in the corner. Interact with it to claim it permanently. If you already did this fight and didn't grab the sword, you can use the Crimson Desert fast travel system to get back to this arena at the map location shown below. It's a small island, so finding it shouldn't be hard.
The Fated Shadow has the highest starting damage of any sword we've found so far, at 25, and also comes with one of the best unique Crimson Desert Abyss Gears in the game, the Greysoul Howling, which adds additional strikes to your Turning Slash. Once you have it, I recommend pairing it with the Crow's Pursuit Abyss Core (from the Tauria Curved Sword) to add additional ranged projectiles to your heavy strikes.
Of course, we'll be updating this page if we find any better weapons in Crimson Desert, and we're currently testing the best options for the other Crimson Desert characters, so you can equip them accordingly.
Weapon tier list
Below we'll lay out a tier list of the weapon types more broadly, to lay out the different combat styles in Crimson Desert and how they compare in terms of power.
- S-tier
- Dual-Wielding: Unrivalled offensive power.
- Sword and Shield: Best defensive options.
- A-tier
- Two-Handed weapons: Good for stunning foes, but potentially too slow.
- Unarmed combat: Not hugely powerful, but good versatility.
- B-tier
- Spears: Decent range, but attack patterns are limiting.
This is admittedly just for Kliff, as the game's main protagonist, and it's taken looking at the game as a whole, as somebody who's played the entire thing through and knows how weapons hold up in both the early and late game.
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