Son of a Witch: The Unofficial Equipment Guide
This is the third part of the unofficial manual, along with Son of a Witch as a Roguelike (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5370) and the Unofficial Monster Manual (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5372).
CONTENTS
1. Melee Weapons (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116109#msg116109)
2. Staffs (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116172#msg116172)
3. Bows & Arrows (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116173#msg116173)
4. Potions (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116211#msg116211)
5. Other Items (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116219#msg116219)
6. Pets & Mounts (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5385.msg116220#msg116220)
Part 1: Close Combat Weapons
SWORDS
Swords all have a quick attack that hits fast with good reach, and a slow attack that hits slower & harder (usually roughly double damage but varies) with the same strength. They all have the same rage attack, the "sweep attack", which lets the user move fast in a sweep across the room and hit with the higher damage, knocking down enemies and doing extra damage to bosses. The statlines below have the quick attack damage first, then the slow attack, then the sweep attack.
Goblin Sword
Stats: 8/19/21
A pretty useful weapon, dealing a chunky 8 damage at base though not with very good range. Usually dropped by the goblin warriors. I often use this as the early game weapon for an archer or mage - using a sword rather than a club or axe is just an easier fighting job, making it easier to hold enemies off at some distance with lots of quick attacks keeping them stunned.
Long Sword
Stats: 6/16/18 Reach: 74
Good reach, though only 6 damage, making this one of the weaker swords in the game (understandably for a starting weapon). Knights are best advised to avoid using any runestones on this one - wait until level 2 and get a guard captain's sword at the very least. These occasionally are found in rocks, in which case they can be decent early weapons for non-melee classes too.
Guard Captain's Sword
Stats: 8/20/22 Reach: 73
With good reach and a pretty nice 8 damage, these are the best easily available general purpose sword weapon as they're often dropped by guard captains. There are better options and you'll usually find one, but there's no shame in these as a general purpose weapon for a melee character, especially if upgraded. That said, I use these a little less than I used to: my tendency now is where possible to opt for a hammer-type with a special ability where possible, and then maybe switch to a retaliator or Viole(n)t sword for the end of the dungeon onwards if I can find either of them.
Viole(n)t Sword
Stats: 10/22/24 Reach: 104
Big and powerful (a hefty 10 damage), with massive reach, and triggering full rage with every kill, the Viole(n)t sword is well worth it if you really like using your sweep attacks (and are good at aiming them accurately enough to take down enemies fast. It's not terribly special beyond the heightened sweep ability, but it's definitely a cut above the Guard Captain's sword for the extra reach and boosted special.
Firestarter
Stats: 8/18/20 Reach: 77
With good reach and good damage, the firestarter's very obvious selling point is in the name, starting fires with each hit. The firestarter is a decent sword and I do sometimes use it as a main weapon quite happily, though it's worth noting that some enemies (dragon, for example) are fire immune and there may be better options for truly general-purpose weaponry.
Frostblade
Stats: 7/17/19 Reach: 63
The frostblade has middling damage, rather short range for a sword, and the chance of freezing enemies. I very rarely use the frostblade - I find that the freezing thing when doing quick attacks at short range can disrupt my rhythm and too often I get enemies unfreezing at just the wrong time so they get a hit in on me. It may be worth using if you're prepared to pick up icicles and do a frost-heavy character build of some kind, though.
Venomous Blade
Stats: 7/18/20 Reach: 46
Mediocre damage (for something you pick up non-upgraded on fourth level at the earliest) and short range make this blade quite hard to use effectively as a main weapon for any class. It's the favoured weapon of (and often dropped by) the assassins in the dungeon for a good reason though: as the name implies, this blade poisons enemies. As such, it has its uses, but they're not as a main weapon. My most common use for this is to take it into the boss battle with full rage at battle start (regardless of which of the six classes I'm playing) and use the sweep attack as my opening gambit before switching to my actual favoured weapon. The rage attack sorts the issue of reach, and after that there's no need to keep using it: having a decent poison working its way on the boss makes the fight that much easier.
Undead Warrior's Blade
Stats: 8/20/22 Reach: 61
Basically a version of the Venomous Blade but with better damage and reach, and the "tetanus infection" both poisons and gives the hiccup effect to an enemy. Unfortunately, the undead are immune to these effects, and this blade mostly appears on the fifth level which is full of undead. That said - if you're a melee character with a free inventory slot going into the ice mountain level, then do carry one of these - a sweep attack from it at the start of a battle can poison all your enemies quickly, which will make the rest of a battle that much easier. Also, these do appear sometimes in blue chests. They're an excellent early game weapon for archers and mages especially, as so long as you're not terrible at playing melee characters they can make you pretty competitive in melee. Your low actual melee skill is less of an issue, as long as you can get the initial hits in and then dodge until they're weak enough for a killing blow.
Thunderstriker
Stats: 9/20/Lightning Reach: 80
The Thunderstriker ought to be a good sword, though I rarely use it. It has very good basic damage, and if you get a rod or two then those lightning attacks can pack a real punch. I've never been a huge fan of lightning and in general I always advocate boosting base damage rather than relying on elemental effects for most characters, but I really can't complain about the base damage here because it's actually really good - and I suspect if I learned how to use lightning better I'd consider it more. I think it's actually the look of the sword that puts me off - rather than the elegance you get with the knight captain's sword, the huge goofy spikiness of the violent sword, or the firiness of the firestarter, the Thunderstriker looks kind of fat, blocky, and awkward by comparison, with a massive guard, sharp angles rather than curves, and a really fat blade compared to the hilt. This is a terrible reason for not using it, but I may as well be honest about this one.
Stoneheart Sword
Stats: 8/19/- Reach: 64
This short, fat sword is mostly found on the desert level. It's probably one of the deadliest options in the game: it has a deadly black glow that, upon hitting an enemy, causes them to become petrified and turn to stone over the next few seconds. Its rage attack is to "refuel" the stoneheart effect. It's probably not a sword you'll use much, because it's not got very high general damage considering that it comes so late in the game and petrification robs you of any drops from killing enemies, but it's fun to play with sometimes nonetheless.
Vampiric Tooth
Stats: 8/18/20 Reach: 85
Presumably this is the tooth of some kind of vampiric dragon or mammoth, because 85 is a BIG reach. Every kill with this sword heals you magically, making it an especially good weapon for the undead archer if you can find one. It's got good damage, too. I tend not to use it much, because in most games I find that I have enough healing potions etc to stay pretty on top of things health-wise and other options are better if you're usually on good health anyway - but it's a fairly solid choice.
Dual Bloodblade
Stats: 1/8/10 Reach: 74
So in theory the DBB should be a great weapon, the tool of Vampiresses - its stats boost (within the battle) with every hit, so you'll be using the quick attack mostly to boost that up. This can be fairly useful in some boss battles where if you keep plugging away you find yourself doing a lot of damage even on quick hits. Personally, I think for most battles this isn't worth it and for melee characters I'd rather have a weapon that can reliably take out or knock down enemies right from the start, especially when it comes to trying to take down wizards before they start spellcasting seriously. The DBB is, however, useful for big, slow fights, especially for non-melee characters as it's one of the melee weapons where its ability doesn't rely on the character's melee skill. If you're going in to kill the dragon, or are facing Felgin the Ringleader, or other fights that tend to be fairly slow and protracted, the bloodblade is a fairly useful choice. I don't use it often, but there are certainly situations where it's worth a look.
Fake Excalibur
Stats: 8/18/20 Reach: 73
This is a decent weapon, not top end of the range but it can sometimes be found on the first level buried in a rock, at which point it can be worth taking and upgrading it. All its attacks ignore shields, which is very useful for taking on the Goblin Warriors, Guard Captains, and Brigands throughout the game. I generally don't feel that's always enough of a bonus to take it if I have a weapon that will gain me more stuff or pump out better damage, and the bomb needed to get it out the rock on first level may be better used elsewhere, but if you can spare the bomb and want a decent melee weapon with a nice special ability this is certainly a fine one to use..
Cutlass
Stats: 7/17/17 Reach: 73
The cutlass is definitely one of my favoured weapons if I manage to find it (and not just because I like feeling like a pirate!) It gives you +1 melee skill for each kill you do (excluding spawned enemies in boss fights, so you can't "farm" it). This is one of my favourite weapons in the game - I like building my statline over time, and those +1s really do add up if you get the cutlass on an early level. It's not got the highest stats, but if you can get a blacksmith's runestone onto it then it can be serviceable in its own right, as well as steadily pumping up your own damage dealing abilities. Even if you won't use it on later levels in favour of a more beefy option, if you find a cutlass at low levels then as a melee (or perhaps even non-melee) character it can be worth using it for a bit to get those stats in better shape for the mid and late game.
Sword of the Damned
Stats: 40/50/50 Reach: 91
Basically the highest damage weapon in the game (yay!). It's also cursed and leeches your health - 5hp per quick attack, 10 per strong attack (so the maths nerds among you will have realised pretty fast from that that using the strong attack isn't really worth it other than for rage specials or if you're happy having no health ever). It's one of quite a few items (Barebones Amulet being another one) that pushes you hard towards a fast moving, low health playstyle and rewards it with super high damage - there are situations where you can keep your health restored with the SoD (healing staff + BB amulet + mana canteen, say), but in general it's likely that keeping using this sword will mean you having very little health most of the time. Personally, I find this too risky a playstyle, but being able to one-shot a lot of opponents with this thing definitely has something to be said for it.
Batting Sword
Stats: 8/18/20 Reach: 81
A nice high reach sword with decent damage, and a rather odd special - that you can use it to bat back projectile weapons at the enemy. In practice it's really pretty hard to get the timing right for this, and I've never really used this ability in battle, but if you have the skill for it, great stuff. It's usually found in a room in the forest where you can bat back some axes as a challenge to gain reward items. For the most part, though, I'd ignore the special ability - this is a decent sword even without it.
Retaliator
Stats: 7/17/19 Reach: 80
One of the best swords in the game for boss fights. Its regular stats etc are nothing special, 7 damage although with pretty good reach. What is special is that every hit done to the player gives you +10 damage until the end of your next battle. This, if you can stack up the healing potions etc to pay for it, gives you a pretty solid strategy for dealing with bosses: simply walk into traps repeatedly, heal up when possible, and then walk in and kill the boss in a single sweep attack. This takes some prep to ensure the traps don't kill you, of course.
On the first two levels this plan is not really worth it (though I did do it on level 1 using two beer mugs and a rolling ball trap in order to get the Goliath achievement once). On the castle level, a freezing shooter is ideal, or fire or poison shooters if you have a relevant immunity: they do lower damage, so you can get hit more times (and it's the number of hits that matters, not the amount of health lost) before healing up. In the dungeon, use the poison spike traps if you have poison immunity, the non-poison ones if you don't (though be careful with those). I don't think there are such good options for this strategy in the catacombs, unfortunately, though in regular dungeon battles taking some light hits from the skeleton mage's orbs can then let you carve through other enemies easily.
HAMMERS
Hammer-type weapons usually are much slower than sword-type weapons, though with heavier damage, on their main attack. For their other attacks, the usual secondary attack is a particularly slow, boosted-damage hit, and the usual rage attack doubles/triples the size of the weapon and smashes it down, knocking down enemies and doing much higher damage.
Goblin Club
Stats: 18/27/54 Reach: 38
The goblin club does fairly heavy damage, slowly, at very short range; it's often dropped by goblin grunts. Its base damage is a decent 18 for the quick attack, 27 for the slow attack, and 54 for the rage attack. The weapon being so short ranged and slow to use makes it quite a poor choice when facing most enemies, though.
Bandit Mace
Stats: 30/44/90 Reach: 61
The bandit mace is a much larger, more powerful variant on the goblin club, with a base hit of a massive 30 (thus extremely high damage dealt) and good reach. It's a very solid weapon, especially in the rare cases you find one in the forest level (which can happen very rarely as an end of room reward). It's a bit slow, and in general I prefer to use weapons that either boost my character over time (Enchanters' Warbreaker & Gilded Predator) or use a sword for the better damage and reach. This is definitely a pretty good weapon, though, and if you upgrade it a bit you can easily get to the point as a knight where you're taking down almost all enemies in two hits or one rage attack, tops.
Enchanter's Warbreaker
Stats: 18/12/54 Reach: 50
The Enchanter's Warbreaker is an extremely useful weapon. Its special attack, rather than the typical slow/heavy attack, knocks down enemies, so it's a good one to use if you want to use stomp damage. Conversely, if you deal the final killing blow with the Warbreaker itself (but NOT with stomp), you get +1 mana for each kill. This makes the EWB a very powerful weapon indeed if you have good mana-using items. At the time of writing, unlike the Gilded Predator, the Warbreaker also works on spawned enemies in boss battles, meaning that if you had the EWB and magic chest, say, you could "farm" a suitable boss battle for mana and thus gold (I am expecting that this will be changed at some point, and given the lowish reach of the Warbreaker it's not a *great* strategy, but right now it's do-able).
Gilded Predator
Stats: 23/37/69 Reach: 48
The Gilded Predator's special ability is to "seed" an extra coin on an enemy when you hit them. This, especially if you get the GP early in the game, significantly increases your coin intake (and this is especially useful in daily challenges for the extra points). In general I marginally prefer the Warbreaker in most games, as I'm quite good at robbing shops and mana has more versatile uses a lot of the time, but if your aim is to get rich, the Gilded Predator is a great way to go. The Predator and Warbreaker are often my mid-game weapons of choice regardless of the class I'm playing nowadays - which can lead to slow battles if my melee is poor, but in the long run is worth it for building my character up faster as long as I can actually survive the battles. If you do have really bad melee, the Gilded Predator can be the better option, as you only need to hit once (subsequent hits don't repeat the effect) to seed the bonus coin - you can then switch to a more comfortable weapon to actually make the kills.
Celestial Smasher
Stats: 27/43/200 Reach: 47
The celestial smasher's first two attacks are those of a normal hammer: its rage attack, however, is rather different. The deities of the world of Son of a Witch seem to have promised to help its wielder, and so when summoned a large weight comes briefly crashing down from the heavens, dealing a whopping 200 damage. Bear in mind that the weight takes a second or two to appear after being summoned, though, so whilst monstrous in terms of damage (especially early in the game) the CS' attack is a hard one to aim accurately. I rarely use the CS for this reason.
Glacier
Stats: 25/36/* Reach:63
The Glacier is a very powerful hammer mostly for its rage attack, which does no damage but freezes literally everything on the screen that isn't freeze-immune temporarily. It also has a 40% chance of freezing anything it hits. When combined with the ritual icicle this can be particularly powerful. Its high damage and good freezing abilities make this a better weapon for an ice-character build than the frostblade, if the choice is available.
THROWING
Throwing weapons are defined by all having an attack - usually the secondary attack - that throws the weapon, usually with a range reaching right across the room (strangely, throwing weapons generally have better early game range than all the other ranged weapon types). The rage attack is usually a more powerful version of the regular thrown attack with high damage + knockdown. The damage from both the throwing & close ranged attacks scales according to melee skill. The ranged secondary on throwing weapons generally doesn't build range up: you need to use the close melee attack to build rage if you want to use the rage ability (or have the bull pet, which combines well with some of these weapons).
Goblin Axe
Stats: 16/16/20 Reach: 51
The goblin axe, dropped by goblin berserkers, is a very easy weapon to obtain, usually one or two will be dropped even on the first level. It's a decent throwing weapon which builds rage fast with its close combat hits and has a decent ranged rage attack. The relatively low speed of the attack and better power of the throwing knife if you really want a throwing-based character make it the weakest option in the throwing section, though.
Throwing Knife
Stats: 20/30/30 Reach: 34
The throwing knife is dropped by thieves on the dungeon level, though they also appear in boxes/barrels at lower levels sometimes. It has a decent thrown attack and a fairly strong thrown rage attack, like the goblin axe. Its massive +40 bonus to backstab damage is really useful if you're fighting with a team, as well - this is definitely a weapon for a flanker not a solo player. Its close combat attack is a slow knockdown hit, though, which means that for massed close combat it can sometimes have dangerously low reach and speed, and as such I'd almost never use it in single player mode.
Throwing Knife
Stats: 20/30/30 Reach: 34
The throwing knife is dropped by thieves on the dungeon level, though they also appear in boxes/barrels at lower levels sometimes. It has a decent thrown attack and a fairly strong thrown rage attack, like the goblin axe. Its massive +40 bonus to backstab damage is really useful if you're fighting with a team, as well - this is definitely a weapon for a flanker not a solo player. Its close combat attack is a slow knockdown hit, though, which means that for massed close combat it can sometimes have dangerously low reach and speed, and as such I'd almost never use it in single player mode.
Trickster's Axe
Stats: 20/20/50
So far as I know this is only dropped by the Trickster, one of the dungeon level bosses. Its main advantage is that it can be thrown through obstacles with one of its attack options. I generally tend to find that throwing through obstacles isn't *that* useful, but this item may turn out to have its uses.
Mjolnir
Stats: 25/25/37 Reach: 48
The Mjolnir, legendary hammer of Thor, is one of the game's best hand weapons, full stop. Its stats are good (if less so than the Ringleader's Hammer), but more importantly, its ranged attack and rage attack both bounce, meaning you can run away, keep hurling it against the wall, and be hitting enemies behind you - or, if you're in a crowd, throw it forwards, and hit the enemies behind you as well as the ones in front, giving you a far better chance of escape. The rage attack's bounceback and high damage to bosses makes this do an awful lot of direct damage to bosses too, bouncing back to do double what you might initially calculate. It's the only weapon with which I usually actually run a throwing-heavy character build - it's an awesomely powerful piece of kit, and good fun to play with.
AXES & MISC
These weapons all combine or deviate from the above main sections significantly enough that I decided to list them separately.
Battle Axe
Stats: 9/18/23 Reach: 69
The Battle Axe functions mostly like a sword on its quick and slow attacks, with a throwing-type rage attack. With decent reach and good damage, it's actually a fairly worthwhile weapon and one I should probably use more often. With a couple of runestone upgrades this can actually be a really powerful and worthwhile weapon - perhaps understated compared to some things with fancier special effects, and the reach is lower than most swords which can be a disadvantage for massed combat, but the faster killing power may make that worthwhile for some players who really like trying to steamroll into a big bunch of enemies.
War Axe
Stats: 12/24/36 Reach: 68
I'm not a huge fan of the War Axe, but it does have very impressive stats - a quick attack as fast as most swords, decent reach, and a whopping 12 quick attack damage make it a very powerful hand weapon (its rage attack is a double-size with boosted damage, similar to hammers). The downside? -1 speed while you're using it. As you may find from other notes here, I think speed is one of the most valuable attributes in Son of a Witch, and even for this big a hike in killing power I'm loath to sacrifice that generally. If you've found good speed boosts elsewhere, though (or perhaps if you have lots of health + damage reduction thanks to toughness potions), and don't need the movement so much, this would make an excellent weapon, especially if upgraded.
Great Blood Axe
Stats: 20/30/30 Reach: 96
Along with the Sword of the Damned, this is a "kill lots of stuff super easily, but also you have no health ever" playstyle weapon - it knocks a whopping 50 health off you every time you enter a new room. Good luck finding enough beer to deal with that one - in practice, it means you're usually fighting with low to no health. It gains +1 damage per completed battle though, so if you get it early then by late game this thing can be packing more damage than just about any other weapon. Combos well with unicorn horn (you're going to have no health anyway), bare bones amulet (you may as well be using mana items cheap if you're already on 0 health), and dwarven spinner (for super high melee damage, letting you one-shot most stuff).
Rogue Sword
Stats: 7/17/100 Reach: 79
The Rogue Sword is an interesting one. It's a fairly bog-standard sword for the most part with middling damage - its special ability, though, is to temporarily hide the player from enemies (which is why it's not categorised as a "sword" here - it doesn't have the usual sweep attack). The character is revealed when they take certain actions (mostly attacking, though I think using a bomb/equipment item also removes the effect). When the player is revealed, they get a temporary +100 damage bonus, which on a sword's quick attack is pretty powerful. I never find this an ideal "rogue" weapon, though - it's near impossible to actually take down bushidoes with it as their attacks are so fast, and being revealed when you use a bomb or ranged attack stops any kind of real nifty sneak-move stuff going on. Also, be careful when you use it - I've killed my own characters before by taking down a shaman in one hit and then hitting a voodoo doll with +100 damage on the next...