-Knives. Just a waste of a slot.

I'm now gonna cry in a corner. You meanie! *caresses his abyssal dagger* Has the meanie been mean to you? Awww, my poor dagger...

Edit: Ok, fun and games aside, the dagger is a nice quick and rush weapon. Doesn't need too much stamina, is very quick, which is actually very useful against wolves and regular fulings. I know, other weapons might do the same thing, but they are kinda unwieldy.

Especially my beloved atgeir, and that is waaaay faster than those stupid sledges... ;)

Originally posted by electricdawn:

-Knives. Just a waste of a slot.

I'm now gonna cry in a corner. You meanie! *caresses his abyssal dagger* Has the meanie been mean to you? Awww, my poor dagger...

Edit: Ok, fun and games aside, the dagger is a nice quick and rush weapon. Doesn't need too much stamina, is very quick, which is actually very useful against wolves and regular fulings. I know, other weapons might do the same thing, but they are kinda unwieldy.

Especially my beloved atgeir, and that is waaaay faster than those stupid sledges... ;)

I recently started a new playthrough to try the knives and so far I've got my full level 3 troll armor and I'm ready for the Elder. I'm loving it. It's definitely my favorite weapon for the meadows and black forest. I haven't gone sailing yet, so no chitin for the abyssal blade, but the copper blade is doing great. It quickly staggers all of those pesky tree monsters and works just fine for trolls too (after staggering with the shield).

I've done playthroughs with the clubs, swords and atgeir, but the knife has been the most fun so far. I'm a little worried about how it'll work out in the swamp though. I just love how fast it is.

Alright I'll take a stab. Obviously opinions are subject to change as the rest of the game gets made and neither category within the same grade are in any particular order. Rating based on combat usefulness, not on style or non-combat benefits (though some do get mentioned).
Also I'm not factoring in every special trait for every weapon of every category because those can come and go from one progression tier to the next.

S:
-Bow. Did you know that mobs can still hit you while using one of these? Neither did I. Arrows also give it the unique benefit of harnessing multiple elements. If it is ever a bad choice it is because it delivers slow damage for the current enemy in question and nothing else. You could play nearly the whole game safely and comfortably. Just needs another slot or two for ammo.

A:
-Sword. A good all rounder. Slash damage is reliable. The long reaching secondary lunge compliments the standard one handed combo very well. Good for both sweeping in groups and for stabbing from safety.
-One hand clubs. Happens to always have the most effective damage type when the demand for DPS is at its most crucial. The secondary attack is both powerful and practical as you can wind up the golf swing while still closing the gap if you initiate it mid jump, making it much safer to use than it first appears.
-Two hand clubs. Good damage and unmatched crowd control potential. Lacks a shield like the other A-tiers have but who cares if you can open with an area of effect stun?

B:
-Throwing spears. Primary attack is very fast and spammable compared to other one-handers, however pierce damage isn't very hard to come by elsewhere. Throwing your weapon is a nice-to-have utility but unless you save it as a finishing move you're probably just slowing yourself down.
-Polearms. Great range for the rate of attacks but you lose the protection that a shield offers. More pierce damage again. Secondary attack is the coolest attack in the game by far, potentially very effective but also dangerous for the commitment it requires (made a bit safer if started with a running jump). Nice harvesting tool.

C:
-Axes. You may as well look at it the same as a sword but without the secondary. It is capable enough to save you an inventory slot that would have otherwise been reserved for a dedicated melee weapon, but that does nothing for the combat side of things. Although I never leave home without one, I know I could just as easily cover my expedition needs by picking twigs off the ground instead.

D:
-Pickaxes. Slow. Weak. Has pierce damage. Only goes up to iron currently. Has such a niche combat purpose that it is widely considered to be a gimmick. But I think of it as the ultimate slot-savers weapon of choice. For cool, confident but also tedium-loving vikings.

D minus:
-Knives. Just a waste of a slot. Melee stealth attacks are okay for the microscopic fraction of time spent in enclosed spaces or for the occasional fast troll kill but that is it. For most enemies the other weapons already do plenty enough stealth damage. If other weapons can't one-shot from stealth, you usually have time for the second and third hit and if that doesn't kill them it will surely stagger them so big deal. You sacrifice a lot for only a couple of units of carry weight saved. Your general damage is roughly halved and your range sucks. Knives don't have a movement speed penalty but nothing is stopping anyone else from putting away or pulling out any of their larger weapons as needed.

As you can see by all these answers, it really cones down to personal preference. I personally thing the black metal sword is best. Uses way less stamina than Frostner or the axe. It also swings faster.

Well weapons tier list here are for the progress of each biome , because monsters have their own weakness and not all weapons are good for that

Meadows and black forest : slash or pierce damage because graydwarf are weak to slash and trolls to pierce
Axes , bronze sword and bows works very fine for both ( and maybe spear for cheap weapon )
Swamp and mountains : maces are top tier in both , and undeads and blobs are weak to blunt , and all mountains monster get good damage from it too , only monster that resist blunt are the abomination ( that its very weak to slash but every other mob are resistant specially blobs ) from swamp but you can cheese it with arrows
So blunts and bows in both
In Plains everything works really , but in that part of the game you can craft weapons that do 2 or 3 damage type at same time
So top tier combo for all the game when you are in end/late game is : porcupine ( pierce/blunt damage ) or frostner ( blun/frost/spirit ) + blackmetal sword , oh and draugr fang bow
You dont need anything else

this is how i run, is the perfect build for anything u do
https://im.ge/i/rRuW8Y

Weapon tiers:

Wood/Stone
Flint
Copper/Bronze
Iron/Chitin
Silver
Black Metal

But what I am thinking you want is a rating of the various types of weapons within each tier against each other. Here is my general order.

Mace,Dagger,Axe,Bow,Spear ... and that is about it. I don't ever use swords or two handed weapons. Spear could possibly swap with dagger just because it has low material cost. But then again, dagger is no speed penalty so rates higher. Ok, dagger over spear.

Another part of the "best weapon for you" equation is use. As you use a weapon your skill goes up in it.

So the best advice to conserve materials is to not build a weapon or gear you won't use.
That said though you do want a variety of damage types at your disposal for different situations so you just don't want to stick to one thing.

Mix things up and have fun, the game isn't difficult enough to need to min/max builds or anything.

Really all weapons have their use cases. That said, you need an axe and you need a mace. You also need a bow. Everything else is technically not needed, but some people swear on the atgeir (I'm... one of them). Very good pierce damage, which is good against trolls. Very good crowd control (secondary spin attack), which will stagger everything (but bosses?) in this game.

So... a good axe, a good mace, a good bow, an atgeir to rule them all.

But that's like, you know, just my opinion, man. ;)

Daggers are really good as well... Ok, ok, I stop.

I carry a bunch of weapons but spear is always my go-to. I know it has some drawbacks, but I love it's speed and DPS. Hits with the spear come out slightly faster than with swords or clubs so you get hit priority to interrupt monsters. Definitely rewards a high amount of skill. But I also keep a mace (sometimes that gets left on the wall later on unless I'm going to the swamp), a sledge for oozes and crowds, and a bow with a couple different types of ammo. I definitely prefer to be well prepared for any encounter. Admittedly that means leaving my base with only 4-5 empty inventory slots though a lot of the time.

I like the porcupine a lot. But of the current set, porcupine, frostner & silver sword all have merits & any black metal weapon is perfectly fine and effective. The new claws are better than I thought they would be but they aren't quite cutting it at endgame unless you can get in a backstab.

The axe idea is OK but it has 2 or 3 issues.
- its slow. I get into trouble with wolves against an axe when wolves were still a challenge (early mountain, iron axe)
- if you were cutting down trees, and its getting on towards broken, it can fail if you get jumped / raided/ whatever. Not normally a large problem, but it can happen. More of an early game issue, as late game axes can cut wood far, far longer than you can hold the weight produced.
- it has no special attack, and those are very powerful on the other weapons.

I am probably missing out but I don't do the 2h weapons. The aoe effects only seem useful when exploiting, and too slow when playing more normally.

You might as well make everything in the bronze tier because there's lots of Black Forest
with copper and tin much easier to get than iron.
Then you can experiment and see which weapons you 'like best'.
You NEED a bronze axe and an iron pickaxe. Everything else is playstyle.
You don't NEED an iron axe,sword or atgeir; you can make blackmetal versions
later.
I like bows so I make all the bows; didn't like spears all that much compared to
the atgeir which I highly recommend.
You'll find lots of silver (believe it or not) so make wolf armor and absolutely
Frostner which is fun to use but frost arrows have the same effect.

You need lots of iron for various upgrades/buildin so that's where you want to save
resources.
Blackmetal is not a problem; every goblin has 1 or 2 pieces and goblins respawn.

The new forge idea is dope af... weapons will probs come with Mistlands. the Black metal is still the best overall imo... silver for the undeads. and as my buddy and I have named it, "Kevin" (Frostner) is always a fun weapon.

my curiosity doth lay with the enigma of the artisan table... seems like that would be a suitable station to mesh the workbench and forge for repairs, new hides, tar-pit, upgrades to the silver, serpent (or both mash up) black metal / porcupine (etc.) or make the old forge with the new look... yadda yadda...

still 9/10 game in my book...

Early game mace is great in the black forest.

There really is only one weapon type per tier .. meaning there is only one sword for bronze etc so there isn't really anything to figure out there.

The other side of that is knowing the resistances of the enemies.
Blunt damage is probably the most common damage type at this time, or in early game.
Slash damage has some disadvantages for some key enemies early on.
Pierce can be handy as well, while all of they damage types can work, it's just some work better against some enemies.

Axe, the axe is the best, u can cut trees and also do high dmg and splash dmg. Black Metal Axe is the best and you can also use a Black Metal Shield as a real viking.

Number 1 is Frostner for sure. Good damage and the slowness effect is a game changer against big fuling groups.
I'd carry around 2 weapons, so the second should have either slash or pierce damage. Black metal sword and silver sword are what I would chose, but I've heard some people really like the atgeirs.

For early game, you don't really need anything aside from the axe for meadows and black forest. For swamps go with a mace, for mountains with pierce damage against golems and wolves. The Iron sledge can also be useful against big wolf groups.

Oh and obviously you should always carry a bow, but as there is little choice regarding what bow to use you can just use whatever is the best you can craft.

I agree that an axe is likely the most versatile since it can serve as both weapon and tool but don't neglect ranged pierce with the bow. Each epoch (stone, bronze, iron, silver, black metal) have some variations on these two weapons and it looks like the crossbow will be a game changer.