Best weapon to start with for a new player?

[BattleBard]

^^^^^^

[Andremdk]

Spear and odachi.

[Reborn]

Originally posted by andremdk:

Spear

no, its the sword. The spear has a tendency to bounce off walls in tight spaces. its a very good weapon when you get morning moon aswell. Just high stance attack once with weak attack then strong attack to do morning moon.

[BattleBard]

What about dual swords? I've heard they're OP early on.

[Deostades]

They can be.

In any case, the sword is a solid weapon from start to finish. There is no boss or enemy that it is disadvantaged against, and it has a gentle learning curve that nonetheless reaches VERY high heights at its best.

Axe is pretty good early game for the sheer DPS it puts out. Nodachi is a little more skill based, but is still a good learner's weapon.

Dual Swords, contrary to expectations, actually aren't DPS. They can do it - and do it well, but they are actually better as skill weapons that offer a good mix between offense and defence. You are able to be extremely agile and dance around enemy attacks while dealing your own.

Kusari-Gama is a skill weapon. No question. You can get by from the very beginning with it, but it's best uses take a pretty steep learning curve to master that will add to your stress early game, where the learning curve is already near vertical.

And then we come to my favorite, the Spear. I love Spears in this game. They have great reach (meaning you're able to maintain that crucial half-second wind up to dodge enemy attacks), great skills (The Finishers in High Stance rate among the best in the game, IMO), and great variety of choices (Looking at you, Taro Tachi) second only to the Katana itself.

As others said, though, Spears are not so good in tight corridors (of which there are more than a few). There is a skill you can unlock to help with that, but it will be a long time before it becomes available.

I recommend not sticking to only one weapon, however. Pick two that you find yourself liking, and swap between them to find where they best fit your playstyle.

[Yorien]

Originally posted by BigUglyBoi:

^^^^^^

Anything that fits your playstyle. Once you learn movesets and timing, each weapon is equally powerful.

Must say, you'll find that katanas and spears are pretty common on revenants, so you'll probably get faster upgrades for them than other weapons. Axes are probably the rarest weapon to get upgrades for

[RexEviL]

Spear high stance for bosses. Sword 1/2h low stance for minions. Once you get used to swords back atk bosses with low stance, mid and high is fine too but I prefer hit count and low ki usage over it. Oh and if boss is small use mid stance sword like hino enma/yuki onna.

[Bankai9212]

Spear and sword combo are solid starters.

[Gralzeim]

Spear mid-stance strong attack is extremely useful for cautious play, as it's a fairly fast single thrust forward with good range. Also works in corridors.

Good for carefully poking something down if you don't feel comfortable getting up close and personal with it. Might take longer to kill something, but it can be safer, as you have a bit more time to avoid attacks. Exceptions apply, of course.

[Yal]

Odachi, no doubt about it. Great range, the three movesets are good for different situations, and most importantly, the high stamina cost attacks give you few, large ki pulses that are easy to time sorta decently.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Deostades:

Spears are not so good in tight corridors (of which there are more than a few). There is a skill you can unlock to help with that

Bzzt.. wrong. ;-)

The spear skill that you're thinking of; the one that prevents rebounds on walls? It only works for thrust attacks. It does nothing for the swing attacks that form the spear's major weakness in tight quarters.

Only get that particular mystic art if you want it for the additional reach. That reach increase is as far as I've been able to tell also only on thrust attacks. But, that little bit of extra poking reach can help a lot to keep aggressive foes at bay (and some particularly aggressive human bosses become hilariously easy with it).

Otherwise, you're better off with the other of the two mystic arts.

[Amix]

When it comes to damage & evasion a single sword is preferable weapon. All others are good but after a certain stage but not even close to single sword. You will learn that later with skills like Iai quickdraw,increase damage dealt from behind.

[Deostades]

Huh, RiO, you're right. It's been quite a while since I read the description for that Mystic Art. Thanks for the correction!

[DooG Is Eternal]

I hate katana

[Killergoonie]

So far in my gameplay i have literally only used tonfas and dual swords and i haven't had many issues with this loadout.

[BattleBard]

Okay, after mucking about with different weps, I eventually went with sword and kusarigama, since the sword doesn't really fall short in any situation and is a good all rounder, and I like the kusarigama's aoe and ability to deal massive damage.