PSA The "pre-order" weapons are pretty overpowered and will literally carry you through the intro and act 1

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

You will literally not find a better weapon until the game hands one to you through a main quest and it's just barely better, being 165/165 vs the 160/160 of pre-order weapons.

After that there's maybe 1-2 weapons which are better before you get almost handed a much better weapon in what I assume is act 2.

My point is if you use the pre-order items you're going to absolutely BREEZE early game content even without the cheater rings. If you want difficulty don't use them except for transmog when you unlock that.

[Scarlet Crusade]

I dunno why you’d transmog them, except mayyybe the Brave Blade, but even that one I think is too brightly colored. Curtana and Onion Sword are both very ugly to look at, and Buster Sword is just an immersion killer, to say the least. The weapons you get normally are just far more appropriate, aesthetically speaking.

[SaferMurderweapon]

This is why I wait until I am close to or in the endgame before redeeming extra dlc goodies like in the Neptunia or FFF series. They always give you OP s***