other questions..

[fade2black001]

Is it possible to combine weapons abilities like weapon fusion in the DW games?

Is it possible to farm equipment?

What is the best equipment? Is there any special equipment like the Weapons in the DW series?

[VertVentus]

I really wish you could transfer effects from other weapons, but as is you need to replace it by using materials. However, it's RNG and you need to savescum it because replacing to begin with uses up one of your 9 upgrade slots. If you keep replacing up to the upgrade cap, then you can't improve your stats to the maximums:

• +400 ATK on your scabbard
  
• +200 DEF on your guard
  
• +200 TEC on your handle wrapping
  
• +100 MAT on your handle decoration
  
• 4 mountings x three different +100 effects = 6 different effects stacked up to +200

I think you can farm mountings from random encounters with Loot Up, better stuff in later chapters, but the best gear will be from Battle Reollections, blue sparkles on the ground in Ch. 5 and Final Ch., and savescum purchasing RNG mountings from the general store vendors in those chapters.

• 1* (bronze) and 2* (silver) stuff can never be optimal.
  
• 3* (gold) is good for the campaign but also can't stat cap.
  
• 4* (blue) mountings are what you're looking for with desired skills and high stat total so you can upgrade it into 5* (orange).

There's no unique optimal gear, so you just need to chance upon something good and craft it into godhood. To determine the best equipment, you need to plan what skills you want, but they're tied to 2 of the 4 mounting categories. S = Scabbard, G = Guard, W = Handle Wrapping, D = Handle Decoration. On my spreadsheet linked in Jedo's guide, I have a better visual for this under the Mountings tab and provide a few build examples.

• S_W_ = Normal Attack Up - Increases the power of normal attacks.
  
• SG__ = Heavy Attack Up - Increases the power of heavy attacks.
  
• __WD = Valor Strike Up - Increases the power of Valor Strikes.
  
• SG__ = Valor Gauge Up - Increases Valor Gauge fill rate.
  
• SG__ = Affinity Gauge Up - Increases Affinity Gauge fill rate.
  
• __WD = Critical Valor - Critical hits will fill the Valor Gauge more easily.
  
• __WD = Critical Affinity - Critical hits will fill the Affinity Gauge more easily.
  
• _G_W = HP Restoration (Damage Dealt) - HP will be restored relative to damage dealt.
  
• _G_W = HP Restoration (Enemy Defeated) - HP will be restored with each enemy defeated.
  
• _GW_ = Blinding Reflexes - Grants a chance to automatically evade incoming attacks.
  
• _G_D = Damage Dampening - Reduces damage taken below a certain amount to 0.
  
• SG__ = One with the Earth - Increases the attack power while in Earth Stance.
  
• __WD = One with the Water - Increases the attack power while in Water Stance.
  
• S_W_ = One with the Fire - Increases the attack power while in Fire Stance.
  
• _G_D = One with the Wind - Increases attack power while in Wind Stance.
  
• __WD = One with the Void - Increases attack power while in Void Stance.
  
• __WD = Loot Up - Grants a chance to increase the number of enemy drops.
  
• SG__ = Damage Up vs Humans - Increases damage dealt to humans.
  
• _G_D = Damage Up vs Monsters - Increases damage dealt to monsters.
  
• S_W_ = Damage Up vs Servants - Increases damage dealt to Servants.

1. Affinity Gauge Up and Critical Affinity will help you stunlock with Affinity Techniques or build up Noble Phantasms to kill things safely or faster.
2. Heavy Attack up, Damage Up vs Monsters, and Damage up vs Servants will be applicable damage increases to the things you'll be using/fighting most.
3. Your 6th and final skill can be Loot Up/One with the Void. One with the Wind and One with the Fire are also good, but you'll need to compromise Affinity slots for Valor instead. You can also do a build with both Valor & Affinity so you can prep 3 Valor Strikes for a boss easily. One with the Earth can also be great with the parry damage.
The skills not mentioned aren't really helpful.

To forge a good weapon, you'll need a good 4* base mounting (Eagle Eyes II), to prioritize Mahitotsu Mallets > replacing skills > Steel Mallets (Craftsmanship II), and do a bit of mental math.

• Mahitotsu Mallets will give +56 ATK / 400, +28 DEF / 200, +28 TEC / 200, +14 MAT / 100, and +14 skill effect / 100. You want to do these first so you spend less of these Mallets as they're pretty rare (Ch. 5 human drops with Loot Up, buy 4 from Boss each chapter starting from Ch. 4 onward).
  
• Replacing skills cost less valuable materials the earlier you do them, more valuable ones the later you do them, so halfway is preferred.
  
• Steel Mallets will give +40 ATK, +20 DEF, +20 TEC, +10 MAT, and +10 skill effect. They're plentiful at Nihonbashi, Tamanawa, and Koishikawa each chapter and human drops with Loot Up, so use these as the finishing touches.

I'm going to showcase an example of that mental math with a suboptimal 4* base weapon: +247 ATK Glowing Cloud Scabbards, Damage Up vs Servants +62, Normal Attack Up +78, Affinity Gauge Up +83.

• I can use 3 Mahitotsu Mallets to get from 247 ATK to 400 (+56 x 2 = +112 = 359, can't use a Steel Mallet to finish it off or I'd get +40 = 399/400.
  
• I can use 2 Mahitotsu Mallets & 1 Steel Mallet to get from Damage Up vs Servants +62 to +100 (+14 x 2 = +28 = 90, +10 = 100/100).
  
• I can use 1 Mahitotsu Mallet & 1 Steel Mallet to get from Normal Attack Up +78 to +100 (+14 = 92 +10).
  
• I can use 2 Steel Mallets to get from Affinity Gauge Up +83 to +100. (+10 x 2).

In total, I would need 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 10 upgrades to max out this weapon, but because of the 9 upgrade cap, this weapon is useless despite being a 4*. As is it's impossible to stat cap, but if it had more stats, I could spend less upgrades improving them to make room for replacing Normal Attack Up for Heavy Attack Up.
To save yourself time calculating this, you can make a copy of that aforementioned Mounting tab and just insert the values of your weapon into the blue outlined squares at the bottom for the # of upgrades needed to max it; if it's 8/9, 7/9, or 6/9 total upgrades, that means you have room to replace skills while still maintaining maximum stats.

Good luck with your perfect weapon endeavors, it's a tedious RNG exercise to savescum the right base weapons or replaced skill effect, but I managed to do it somehow on the Switch version with 20+ second load times for my builds.

[fade2black001]

thanks for the info