Kenshi - Best Weapons to use and why

[@TeepoTheGecko]

Best Weapon In Kenshi = These Fucking Hands.

[@rcrhinehart66]

The most common enemy type is human, the most dangerous types are robots and heavily armored humans. For those reasons I've never regretted using long cleavers with a jitte or short cleaver for sidearm. Cleavers also train STR and DEX evenly so work well for all races.

[@Julian-cn1ey]

Piggybacking on this because I'm a huge Long Cleaver supporter. Long Cleavers are very accessible in the earlygame at places like Squin, and are part of the Hacker class, which will allow your units to train the stat needed to use Paladin's Crosses in the lategame. Short Cleaver is also the only one-handed Hacker. The armor penetration makes the Hacker class supremely good against Kenshi's most dangerous enemies like robots, Holy Nation, and Samurai. You want to get that Hacker training started ASAP, and you don't want to wait until mid-lategame when you can get quality Paladin's Crosses. A solid 2h weapon with good reach and attack aoe is going to rip through unarmored and lightly armored opponents, even if it isn't specifically optimized for the task. Frag Axe+Jitte in Unholy Plate+Chainmail for STR builds, Long Cleaver/Paladin's Cross/Short Cleaver in Samurai Armor+Leather Turtleneck for STR/DEX hybrid builds, and Eagle's Cross/Longsword in Dustcoat and Iron Hat for archer builds ends up composing the majority of my mid to lategame combatants. Falling Suns are really nice, but hard to train for.

[@Endgunner]

I would say the Plank is the best all round weapon in the game. You can do all content with it easy, never needing to swap. Good damage, ok bleed, 2nd most range in the game, and good blunt to sharp damage ratio. It is also less heavy then the fragment axe while doing great damage that also scales off of dexterity not just strength. Its only downside is -6 defense and attack indoors. [Model # Refitted Blade] Is also the best weapon overall for training to use other heavy weapons. All the perks of the plank, but lower damage and only 12KG while still having enough damage to actually kill things.

[@hideshisface1886]

Let's see these... Gardless katana - I would say it is a toss up between various sidearm katanas - regular and gardless have only two differences - bonuses to damage and penalties to defence are both bigger on gardless katana. I would argue that defence is more important than attack. There is also Wakizashi - easy to overlook - slightly less damage and shorter range, BUT it gets indoors fighting defence bonus, making it the only katana that can receive a positive defence rating. Jitte - good defensive sidearm, BUT it is heavy due to it being blunt weapon. It may be a decent sidearm for your ranged combatants, if they are not trained in actually dealing damage in melee - set them on defensive, with jitte and they should hold long enough until reinforcements arrive. Low quality (and therefore lighter) jitte is also a good choice for non-combatant characters - set them up in defensive stance, so with this weapon they get 28+ defense, 32 indoors. Spiked club - I would honestly not put it anywhere near top - it is ludicrously heavy, doesn't do that much damage and does not offer you anything other weapons can do better. This is sadly true for most blunt weapons, except jitte, which is the only sidearm with potent defensive bonus. But even that get surpassed by sabres as a defensive weapon. As for heavy armour - it is probably better to use a plank at this stage - plank of equivalent weight deals about the same blunt damage and much more cutting damage on to of that. You also get a massive increase in range. Another thing to note - pure heavy armour for a tank is not exactly the best idea all the time. Yeah, sure, crab armour offers fantastic damage reduction, but it lowers your combat speed and cuts your dexterity in half. This means slower animations - including blocking. And blunt weapons of high quality tend to be pretty heavy while not offering that much damage in return, so they may slow you down even further. So, if your characters are not too skilled in defense yet, sure, this is going to do a fantastic job. But for characters with a very high defense skill... not so much. Short cleaver - a good sidearm, but a bit on a heavier side. Desert sabre - good weapon, very good against fairly common animals and spiders. Arguably the best choice if you go against the bugmaster. Foreign sabre - the best defensive weapon out there - light, good damage, very good defensive bonus - good weapon for tanks, and very good choice for your non-combatants - workers in your post that you simply set on defensive stance. Paladin's Cross - arguably THE best weapon against robots - but it is not too shabby against other targets. Versatile, but on a heavier side. It is not only good against robots - it is BEST against robots, but gets the job done against just about any other target out there. If you can't get this weapon for some reason - get the Long Cleaver - you get lower bonus against robots, no penalty against humans, better range and the same damage output. Falling Sun - overall the best weapon out there - still good range, monster of a damage output and bonuses against some of the deadliest animals. It is a bit overkill though. Now... Fragment Axe - this is a weapon I love due to sheer awesomeness of it... But practically speaking, it kind of sucks. It is just too heavy to be practical. Extra range is nice, majority of blunt damage is also very nice. But to wield higher grades effectively, you need both very high strength and high quality lifter arms, and you will not have much wiggle room. This leaves us with a Plank - in my opinion, the best overall weapon out there - very good range, very good balance of damage and very good damage output in general. It is not subtle, but it gets the job done. You don't quite need the highest quality of those either to perform very well. Usually Catun 3 or Skeleton Smiths quality is the most you need for majority of foes.

[@slavemonkey5063]

Putting Paladin's Cross into a box labeled "only good against Robots" is selling it quite short in my opinion - It's a great weapon for fighting armor and anyone tough who doesn't use armor is almost certainly a robot. Unless you're hunting mega-crabs, mega-raptors, etc. in which case, take polearms I guess. UC Samurai, Holy Nation + most of the major SE bandits are coming equipped with some heavy duty armor, and that 30% penetration is far outweighing the -10% to humans! It's also very light despite its huge size and swing radius, and deals a good mix of damage types, as well as being very easy to acquire + start using from early game onwards, so I really think it's just the best all-round weapon until you reach the levels necessary for high level falling suns or train up some master martial artists. Blunt weapons are definitely very underrated though as you say! For low levels, staffs can be surprisingly good with that big defense bonus.

[@trumplostlol3007]

A Paladin is like a much weaker version of a beathing. My 5 archers shot down 5 silly paladins by using the hit and run strategy. None of these heavily armored guys can even touch anyone of us. LOL

[@STG113]

A good thing to know is that some debuffs helps out with training. A -4 def debuff on armor means a slight bonus for training against enemies.

[@carlh2379]

IMO best weapon in the game is meitou polearm. It is very fast long range has 50% bonus vs animals and 30% armour pen bonus. Why I say it is better than the meitou falling sun is because a Shek in light armour with 80 STR & DEX can beat Cat Lon with 100 stats solo 3/5 times . I never touch sabres because they are too short and cleavers are too slow. BTW an way to train dex is put an elder beak thing in a bed am practice martial arts on it while wearing the heaviest armour and backpack while carrying someone on your shoulder.

[@HongaMeyo]

Yea polearms is generally have best stats in game but for blunt damage im stuck between polearms and fragment axe

[@bulkvanderhuge9006]

I use the Spiked club ti inflict bleed damage, and once the enemy is unconscious I loot them and take their bandages so they have no way to heal if they get up and run away.

[@FxTR22]

Hi, thank you i watched the armor guide. But i miss a playlist of all kenshi general guides you made. Could you add this specific playlist for people who look only for a general guide? Much appreciated 😁

[@FastDuDeJiunn]

a lot of great info. its nice we are not forced to do any 1 class that is purely op broken

[@sargothi]

Just get Falling Sun for all toons. It's the best weapon out of them all. Best pure damage. Nothing else comes close.

[@ANukeWithLegs]

This is a big secret nobody told anyone but Kenshi lets you choose the best weapon.

[@darksatan877]

It’s wild that Reddit is being used as a primary source. I love it

[@nunya_bizniz]

7:32 ⏸ paladins cross

[@dimasdwiki6146]

Falling Sun, simply the best.

[@jackransom.]

I like having skeletons with heavy weapons(Falling Suns mostly), But those Holy Nation guys can really dish it out with their Holy Cross' against my robot bros. Desert Sabers are my next go to ; ).

[@spagooter1807]

Been using nodachis and they are really good

[@corereject5796]

no martial arts or polearms on this list is very wild

[@AlmarWinfield]

I only listed the best weapons that I found online through research, not the best weapon of each type. If people do math and find some weps are better than the ones I listed, I don't mind posting a correction. Research is an evolving thing, I am sure as more is done older info will become outdated

[@corereject5796]

I don't do a lot of 1v1 testing but some people in the official kenshi discord probably have a lot of info on this. There is also the thing of specialist vs generalist argument that will never make an objective best. I prefer a lot of practicality myself. A meitou fragment axe requires well over 100 strength to be swung at full speed. A Polearm swings fast with long range makes it easy to keep the aggression in a fight with very strong bonuses. Martial arts will always outperform all other weapons. First 15-30 levels its worse than other weapons. Also the difference between the best weapons and the middle is not actually that huge that it matters a ton if you train your characters they will make it through the tough content

[@bhartley1024]

Sabre is the English spelling, Saber is the American spelling. Lo-Fi is an English company.

[@thedankdahl2183]

For the algorithm

[@sang7873]

Do you have any recommendations for character with light-medium armor? In my playthrough I want to play majority melee. So most damage come from melee weapons.

[@AlmarWinfield]

In light and medium armor I would probably go more defensive weapons than offensive. I'd prob do Foreign Sabres or Jittes. As I say often though, I typically don't do glass cannon characters so I am a bit biased

[@findus3d]

Katana all the way

[@vaultdweller8623]

With medium armor you get very minor penalty to dex so katanas are very viable

[@JAMew2008]

Strength and dexterity not give u a good DMG bonus. For example if u have meuto cut weapon u make 100 DMG with 100 dex. And u damage 95 with 0 dex.

[@stevo271]

Crossbows?

[@LiliumCruorem]

Meitou Foreign Sabre all day

[@user-tb7ml8kz7h]

??? As a fan of "not dying" the obvious choice is crossbows, or crossbows + a couple of tanks if you want to trade some of the running for some injuries... Why even use melee weapons? Yes, it feels badass to have 2-3 powerful characters obliterate the large crowd of starving bandits in the skinners roam, but fighting head-on any decently armed and armored squad, why? Isn't it way easier, safer, and more satisfying to have a firing squad of at least 10 characters with eagles cross do over 100 damage per hit to enemies? At least with crossbows you can focus on clothing that improves dexterity, speed and stealth, so you can choose if a fight takes place, as opposed to melee characters who must sacrifice stealth and speed for better armor, but then must engage every enemy they encounter, since they are too slow to run away...

[@AlmarWinfield]

The trade off is more survivability for needless tedium. Replacing crossbow bolts constantly isn't enjoyable (for me) and crossbows also require you to take a more active playstyle in combat as well. You have to try to avoid hits etc and micro manage your team to a much higher degree both inside and outside of combat. This all costs time IRL which is the most valuable resource of all to me. Also it's harder to raise crossbow etc while AFK since they require ammo. I love leaving my chars on all night AFK protecting a base (with Turbospeed on) so that they're all leveled up in the morning. Some end up dead too but that's fine for me

[@user-tb7ml8kz7h]

@@AlmarWinfield Thank you for again pointing out my mistake of assuming that everyone have the same playstyle and priorities. I play exclusively with GENmod, so I can make the long-bolts myself from scratch, as well as train perception and avoid friendly fire up to 40 with only training equipment. I also train with toothpicks first, and replace all the limbs of my characters with masterwork prosthetics, thus avoiding most of the "fun" of being constantly defeated in the early game only to come back and avenge my characters in the lategame...

[@LiliumCruorem]

Dude no matter what I try my crossbow men always just end up clumping together and shooting through eachother. Seems like I get more friendly fire than actually hitting the enemy. Will that get better with training?

[@user-tb7ml8kz7h]

@@LiliumCruorem Yes. There is a specifically dedicated attribute to avoiding friendly fire, that you can train with toothpicks. But it just takes a bit of micromanagement to arrange the crossbowmen into a firing squad (as in "execution by a firing squad"), a.k.a. a line parallel to the enemy, so no friendly fire can occur.

[@JohnSmith-bs9ym]

@@AlmarWinfield Agree with the first paragraph, but training crossbow is surprisingly easy. Just put people on turrets to gain some range proficiency first, and then have them start shooting with toothpicks.

[@jasonwhite8441]

I feel odachi should have had a place here

[@jasonwhite8441]

Sure it’s dex based but it has great reach and dmg and is incredibly fast paired with assassins rags and other offensive gear it can used to cleave through enemies before they can even react

[@jasonwhite8441]

But I understand why a lot wouldn’t see it as the top tier cause it’s dex and falling sun and industrial arms seem to be the most broken combo

[@Khedaar]

Best weapon is naginata katana

[@electronpositron6921]

nagamaki?

[@Khedaar]

@@electronpositron6921 ehhh, dont know, its called naginata katana in game :D

[@trumplostlol3007]

The best weapon is oldworld mk2. And you can make masterpiece yourself. No other weapons beat the xbow. I don't even need to wear any armor cause I can hit and run. Catch me if you can. LOL

[@vincentray5226]

WTF is strenth?😆

[@matthewhoward7757]

Some grade A anecdotal bullshit.

[@AlmarWinfield]

Agreed! Although I tried to make it as empirical as possible and I provide the evidence I used to make these decisions. However, Kenshi is not popular enough of a game for there to be stringent empirical testing outside of the reddit posts I found. So, this is the best you're going to get until someone does better