The best weapons in Crimson Desert depend on what character you're playing, but what's really important is how you level up what you have - swords, shields, bows and the rest are all a fairly similar until you start upgrading and enhancing them. So, realistically, the most powerful weapons are the ones you sink your time and resources into.
However, there is one single weapon I've found that manages to reign supreme above all others in Crimson Desert. I've got the details on that below, as well an overall weapon tier list for all the best types that Kliff can use, to help you make your choices.
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 in Crimson Desert is the Fated Shadow, a one-handed sword obtained during the main campaign.
Fated Shadow is an incredibly powerful sword, but one that's easily missed as it's in a dead-end room, off the arena where you fight the boss Goyen in Chapter 9. To find it, it head to the back of the arena and up the steps after you've defeated Goyen, where you'll find a small living quarters in a cave. There's a recipe in there as well that's marked on the map to help you get there. Here you'll find the Fated Shadow, on a weapon stand in the corner.
If you already did the fight and missed the sword (which is easily done) you can just use the Crimson Desert fast travel system to get back to the arena at the map location shown below. It's a small island, so finding it shouldn't be hard.
What makes the Fated Shadow the best option in my opinion is that it has the highest starting damage of any sword I've found at 25. It 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.
Crimson Desert weapon tier list
Below is a broad tier list of Crimson Desert weapon types to help show how they compare in terms of power. Because there's so many weapons, and levelling things up is the real decider in what makes thing good, it's better to rank type of weapons as there are some clear options to prioritise:
- 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 focused on Kliff, as the game's main option in the Crimson Desert characters, but it's a good general guide overall. This list was formed after playing the entire thing through, and my experiences of how weapons hold up in both the early and late game.
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