Conan Exiles Weapons Guide

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Emily, or Zoe if you’re on her discord, is a Conan Exiles guide contributor and long-term fan. She’s been raiding bases since its release, mixing in some Rust, Archeage, Apex Legends, Hearthstone, Don’t Starve, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Video games have been a core aspect of her life since she was a child with an N64. When she needs a break, she’ll switch genres and start a new kind of adventure, though survival games have always been a favorite.

TL:DR: Slice and Dice

Weapons, even more so than your attribute tree, determine combat style in Conan Exiles. Each type of weapon comes with its own set of light attacks and heavy attacks. You can complete these attacks to do a light attack chain or heavy attack chain or interrupt anywhere in between to mix and match. Different moves in these chains, or sometimes all of them, can apply specific status effects to your enemy.

While damage and armor penetration varies between type and quality of weapon, status effects stay mostly the same for that weapon type. They can also be just as important, if not more so, than the weapon’s base damage. These status effects and special moves can cause damage over time, slow your enemy down, lower their armor, or interrupt their attack.

Some weapons can be used on horseback, and others are best at range. Smart players have a few choices on their action wheel for whatever predicament they might end up in.

My Experience With Weapons in Conan Exiles

I’m a fan of the big bonkers, no matter the game I play. In Conan Exiles, the two-handed mace is my go-to weapon, though I’ll rotate some two-handed swords and two-handed axes for enemies that don’t respond well to bonking attacks. I’m not very competitive when it comes to PvP, but I am happy. Additionally, while I may struggle with a skilled spear or dagger user, the PVP environment in this game is so variable (and skill is rewarded) that I don’t ever feel like I’m at that much of a disadvantage.

I also like my bonker because of its sunder. Sunder chips away at my enemy’s armor, making them more susceptible to big mace damage, and that makes me even happier. I love the kill animations when you literally smash someone in half, and I like the way I look, running around with a ridiculously massive hammer. My thralls are generally outfitted with something that compliments a big maul well, such as daggers or axes. I also like to run with big cats, and their knockdown, when it hits, is a joy to combo with two-handed maces.

Weapons: The Basics

Most of the equipment you’ll use in Conan Exiles you’ll end up crafting yourself, and weapons are no exception. The damage, durability, and armor-piercing ability (or quality) of your weapons will be determined by the recipes and materials you have access to. However, most types of weapons will be available for you to craft from almost the very beginning. Once you’ve managed to bring home some iron, you’ll be able to try out all sorts of new weapons.

This is because the type of weapon determines your combat style. Each weapon type comes with its own move-set and debuff, and the way you play with each is very different. The game wants you to try out different weapons from an early level to determine what works well for you. There are ranged weapons, shields, and one-handed and two-handed weapons and weapons that fall into another category. Within these broader categories, there are 18 different types of weapons.

Weapons can attack in a chain of light attacks or a chain of heavy attacks. It depends on your console, but there is a button for either light or heavy attacks. Depending on when you need to block or dodge, you may switch back and forth through these combinations. Some effects are only applied by specific moves in the chain of attack, whether light or heavy.

Each of these types has its own tree in the feats menu, but you can always reset these points later if you’d like to craft something else. Different types of weapons are boosted by specific attribute points, and you’ll want to find out if your weapon of choice is modified by strength or agility. These points are also available to be reset later, so there’s no need to panic if you’ve chosen the wrong attribute for your new favorite weapon. Simply craft a yellow lotus potion and reset your feats and attribute points.

Once you’ve progressed past stone and your in-hand menu, weapons are usually made at either the blacksmith’s bench or the carpenter’s bench. You need to process materials for them at the furnace and tannery. I would suggest you always upgrade your tools before your weapons. Enemies in Conan Exiles can be slowly beaten with a terrible weapon or avoided altogether, but a good tool will allow you to collect resources much faster. This is usually the more time-efficient route.

Weapon Configuration

Equipping a weapon is as simple as putting it on your action wheel. Choose your weapon, and then choose your shield or projectile (arrows) if applicable. One-handed weapons can be equipped with a shield or throwing weapon in your off-hand. A bow and two-handed weapons take up both of your hands to use.

While you cannot “duel-wield” standard one-handed weapons in Conan Exiles, thrown weapons can be used in your off-hand when wielding a one-handed weapon. Some weapons appear to be duel-wielded, like daggers and some legendary axes, but they are one item in your inventory and considered “two-handed” weapons.

Using Ranged Weapons

I’m sorry to say that it is very difficult to use a bow as your main weapon in Conan Exiles, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need one. A bow is helpful for adding a little damage before a fight, base defense, healing (healing arrows!), and kiting enemies.

For beginner bow users, it can be hard to figure out how to equip arrows and shoot your bow for the first time. Place your bow on your action wheel or bar and then drag your projectile of choice onto it. Once you’ve successfully applied arrows to your bow, the bow icon will change to show the arrows. The arrows can remain in your inventory.

Crafting different arrows is the best way to use your bow effectively. There are explosive arrows for damaging buildings and players, poison arrows for a quick debuff before a fight really starts or bosses with high armor, healing arrows for healing your followers and friends, and concussive arrows for taking thralls.

Weapon Types and Their Benefits

The first step to understanding combat in Conan Exiles and eventually taking on other players is understanding how different weapons work on the field. One-handed weapons have the huge benefit of combining them with a shield. Two-handed weapons deal massive damage, and ranged weapons are great for players who want to deal damage from afar. Most weapons also apply a debuff that may slow an opponent or stack on more damage.

Some of these effects are only applied to specific attacks in your attack chain. Try running through a full set of light attacks and then a full set of heavy until you understand when each status effect is applied. Additionally, the status effects that I’ve listed are what typically come standard with that type of weapon. There can be more effects, different ones or missing completely, depending on what specific weapon you’ve gotten your mitts on.

One-Handed Axes

One-handed axes are a great all-around weapon. They have decent damage and apply bleed and cripple. While nothing is as effective as daggers for bleed stacking, axes are a close second, and when you combine that with their ability to cripple, they are a great all-around weapon.

One-handed axes are boosted by your strength attribute.

One-Handed Maces

One-handed maces have the highest damage of any one-handed weapon and also apply cripple, shield smash, and sunder. They’ll really slow your opponent down and do massive damage at the same time. These weapons are jack-of-all-trades with high damage to boot.

One-handed maces are top-tier PvP weapons.

One-handed maces are boosted by your strength attribute.

One-Handed Spears

The javelin is a combination between a one-handed weapon and a thrown weapon. You can choose to throw the javelin as your final heavy attack and then pick it right back off from where it landed. This weapon requires some practice to master, as you could be left empty-handed for small portions of the fight. Of course, if you know how to use the javelin, you’ve only thrown it when you intended to.

Throwing is their “debuff,” and they have the best range of a one-handed weapon. One-handed spears can be used in your off-hand!

One-handed spears are boosted by your agility attribute.

One-Handed Swords

Swords tend to be the middle ground for most games with multiple weapon types, but this isn’t the case in Conan Exiles. They are fast attack weapons that apply cripple often. They also have a relatively long range compared to the rest of the one-handed range category.

One-handed swords are boosted by your strength attribute.

One-Handed Shield

While the shield isn’t a weapon, it is equipped and used like one. A shield provides you the ability to shield smash and block. Blocking uses your stamina and can quickly leave you exhausted and defenseless if overused. Currently, shield stats are broken and irrelevant, so just pick a shield you like the look of and go with it.

Shields are boosted by investing in stamina so that you don’t become exhausted too quickly when using them.

Two-Handed Daggers

Daggers are not just the fastest two-handed weapon but the fasted weapon overall. Their range and damage suffer, but they apply the bleed effect more often than any weapon. They also apply a cripple on their 4th heavy attack. While they may appear to be two weapons, especially those with unique skins, they are one item and equipped as a two-handed weapon.

Daggers are a very viable PvP build.

Daggers are boosted by your agility attribute.

Two-Handed Great Axes

Great axes are a nice compromise. While they used to have a long spin-to-win stamina move at the end of their move set, they now come with a built-in block that functions like a shield. If you like the looks and damage of a two-hander but miss blocking, a two-handed axe might be the weapon for you. They do not typically apply any status effects.

Two-handed axes are boosted by your strength attribute.

Two-Handed Maces

We’re finally to my personal favorite: the big bonker. Armor penetration is the name of the game with two-handed maces. They come with the highest base armor penetration and apply sunder, which also lowers your opponents’ armor. They are slow to attack but do decent damage if you can hit your target.

Two-handed maces are boosted by your strength attribute. Makes sense, huh?

Two-Handed Swords

Two-handed swords follow their smaller cousins as speedy weapons. Their larger build has the added benefit of a longer reach. They also apply cripple often, making it difficult for your opponents to escape. They do mediocre damage, mostly due to their low armor penetration.

Two-handed swords are boosted by your strength attribute.

Two-Handed Spears

Two-handed spears in Conan Exiles have decent damage with great reach. While a pike generally applies bleed and cripple on their 4th attack, their real benefit is how far away you can be while still dealing out relatively high damage. Two-handed spears are some of the most difficult weapons to master, and then you must master them on horseback.

The two-handed spear category also includes lances, which can only be used on horseback. Their couched position causes massive damage when released at the correct moment.

Two-handed spears are an extremely viable PvP build due to their efficiency on horseback and range on the ground.

Two-handed spears are boosted by your strength attribute.

Bows

Bows and crossbows are the most accurate and longest-range weapons in Conan Exiles. To understand how much damage your set-up will do, you’ll need to add the damage of your bow with the damage and effect of the arrows you plan on using with it. Arrows can apply a wide variety of effects. Some dungeons require a bow to unlock doors and move elevators, so make sure you bring one along with plenty of ammo on your next adventure.

Bows, or another ranged solution, should be on every player’s action wheel. No need to leave damage on the table.

Bows are boosted by your agility attribute.

Projectiles

Projectiles are just what you’ll make to load into your bow. Most of these are arrows or bolts, but their names can be confusing. Projectiles can apply all manner of effects, including poison and bleeding. They can also just catch things on fire or cover them in acid. Best of all, healing arrows can be used to heal other players, thralls, and animal followers.

Bows and their projectiles are boosted by your agility attribute.

Thrown Axes

Thrown axes and daggers can be held in your off-hand when using a one-handed weapon which makes them a great addition to a one-handed build. Beam your enemy right in the kisser when they step slightly out of range without having to switch to your bow. Additionally, because they are strength-based weapons, they will be more suited to a melee character’s build than a bow (though you may still have one on you to use in long-distance situations).

Thrown axes are boosted by your strength attribute.

Orbs

Orbs can be utility items, or they can apply damage in a fight. Gas orbs are especially useful in tight rooms or when raiding bases, and using oil orbs to spread fire can catch a trapped player if you time it right. Their damage is determined by their proximity to the player.

Throw an orb with the light attack button for a bounce and stick effect or throw it with the heavy button for an explode-on impact effect.

Truncheons

Truncheons are used to knock out enemies and apply stun damage instead of traditional damage. This is helpful for taking thralls or taking prisoners. You’ll notice a separate stun bar when using a truncheon; when it is depleted, your enemy is knocked out.

Don’t forget that truncheons are one-handed weapons, and shields can be equipped with them.

Truncheon stun damage is boosted by your strength attribute.

Hallowed Weapons

These weapons aren’t for battle but for religious purposes. For instance, those of us that follow Derketo would craft the dagger Derketo’s Kiss to harvest religious components from dead bodies.

This category is a bit confusing but only refers to harmless ceremonial tools. There are late-game religious weapons, but they fall into their type above. A hallowed buff also protects from corruption, which these end-game religious weapons could apply.

Explosives

You would be a clever barbarian to use explosives as a weapon, but as they do damage, the game considers them as such. Panels can be trapped to do explosive or poison damage.

The explosive jar does damage based on proximity and is for raiding bases. You will likely do more damage to yourself on accident with explosive jars than you will do to other players.

Siege Weapons

You must either be a great trebuchet operator or already have your distances tested to hit anyone with this massive weapon. It is used instead for raiding and bringing down enemy structures.

You can make either standard rock ammo for your trebuchet or very fun exploding ammo for it.

Status Effects

Let’s dig a little deeper into status effects, so you know exactly what you’re dealing with when it comes to picking a weapon. It will also help when you’re deciding how to defend against one. We’ve gone through what status effect is typically found on each type of weapon, but bear in mind that this is just what is typical, not guaranteed.

There are also dozens more status effects that are rare to find on weapons but can exist on them. These are the most common ones.

Bleed

Bleed is a nasty effect to defend against and a deadly one to utilize. Each stack of bleed causes 1.35 damage every second for 8 seconds. It can be stacked a total of 20 times. All of this damage ignores your opponents’ armor. If you manage to get a full stack of bleed (20 times) on someone, they will take 27 damage a second.

If you like bleed, try using daggers. If you are faced with someone wielding daggers, ensure you have plenty of bandages. They are the easiest way to stop bleeding.

Cripple

Crippled is a significant status effect for PvP. When your opponent is smart enough to keep out of your reach, slowing them down is essential. Cripple slows your enemies’ movement by 30% and can stack up to 5 times. If you get all five stacks on them, they’ll barely be able to move.

Swords are great options if you love to use cripple or want your thrall to apply it consistently while your weapon focuses elsewhere.

Sunder

Sunder is great for heavily armored foes, such as world bosses or dungeon monsters. Sunder reduces armor by 10% and can stack up to five times. This means you can remove 50% of your opponent’s armor if you land all five stacks.

If you like sunder or just need it for a boss fight, try making yourself a two-handed mace.

Shield Smash

While not a status effect, shield smash is an important addition to your one-handed weapon. By adding a shield in your off-hand, you’ll essentially change the move set of your light and heavy attacks. Some of these attacks will now be shield smash. Slamming an enemy with your shield will cause damage and perform a knockback. This interrupts attacks and allows you to deal significant damage while they are on the ground.

A shield’s shield smash damage is determined by your weapon damage, not the shield.

Modifying Weapons

Not every weapon is created or maintained equally. Not only can you create more powerful weapons as you progress through Conan Exiles, but you can also modify other aspects of them to suit your needs.

Weapon Kits

Master Reinforcement Kit — Image from Wiki Fandom

There are many types of equipment upgrade kits. Some can be used on multiple types of equipment, and others can only be used on specific types of equipment. You can craft these modifications at the tinker’s bench, and they affect the durability, damage, armor penetration, concussive damage, stamina reduction, and weight reduction of your weapon.

There are reinforcement kits that can be applied to any equipment and increase that items durability and then there are weapon-specific damage kits and fittings. You can craft any of the reinforcement kits to upgrade your weapon’s durability but be warned, any of the damage kits or weapon fittings decrease your weapon’s durability. Check out the chart here for a complete comparison of the kits and fittings.

These bonuses are pretty self-explanatory, except for concussive damage. Why would you want more concussive damage on a weapon? The answer is to either boost its ability or give it the ability to knock out an NPC you’d like to turn into a thrall. Be aware that if you apply this to weapons that are not truncheons, there is always the chance the weapon’s base damage will kill the thrall before its concussive damage knocks it out.

Thralls

Beastmaster Teimos — Image from Wiki Fandom

The other way to upgrade your weapon is just to make it better from the very beginning. For that, you’ll need a little help. When you station a thrall at a crafting station that produces weapons, their benefit is often to improve the stats of items produced there. The better the thrall is, or the higher tier it is, the higher quality the weapons you make there will be.

For instance, a tier one blacksmith thrall will give a sword produced at that bench a 3.2% weapon damage bonus, a 3% armor penetration bonus, a 3% durability bonus, and a -4% weight reduction. These percentages don’t seem like much, but a tier one blacksmith thrall is relatively easy to capture and break on the wheel. As you move up in tier, these bonuses become significantly larger.

Tier four crafting thralls that affect weapons branch out in their utility even further. They are split into three specializations: one type that gives the highest durability bonus, another that crafts the highest weapon damage bonus, and a third that will apply the highest weapon damage bonus. If we take our blacksmith thrall as an example, we’ll be looking at the edgesmith, bladesmith, and tempersmith.

These are all tier-four blacksmithing thralls, but each has its own specialty. The edgesmith will apply a 6% bonus to weapon damage, a 23% bonus to armor penetration, and a 31% bonus to durability. The bladesmith will apply a 23% weapon damage bonus, a 5.5% armor penetration bonus, and a 31% bonus to durability. The tempersmith will apply a 10.7% bonus to weapon damage, a 10.3% bonus to armor penetration, and a 44% bonus to durability. They all make weapons that are 12.6% lighter.

You can see how each of these specializations can be utilized to customize advanced weapons. However, while these can be important distinctions to make in your late-game adventures, all of these bonuses are higher than a tier 3 thrall. It’s always good to have a tier four crafting thrall at your station; there will just be a couple of decisions to make if you have two or more.

Combat Swapping: Trading Out Weapons

Now that you’ve tried out all the weapon types and picked your absolute favorite, I hate to break it to you that you’ll have to choose at least one more to run on your action wheel. It’s easy to guess that you would want a decent ranged weapon. In fact, some areas of the map can only be accessed by shooting hard-to-reach buttons and panels, and on top of that, you would be at a severe disadvantage in a PvP fight if you don’t have a bow on your wheel.

What’s harder to pin down is what other melee weapon you may want to run with. The easiest way to make this decision is to figure out what would complement your main weapon well while still using your attribute focus to its advantage. The first thing to consider is your main weapon’s range, and the second is debuff application and moves. There are no wrong answers here, but some weapon types do complement others very well.

Best Weapons in Conan Exiles

There are many viable weapons in Conan Exiles, and honestly, the couple of extra points of damage are not going to matter that much with how variable the game is. Skill and circumstance usually determine the winner in a fight, provided their gear and levels are comparable. You’ll also want to consider how much the weapon is to repair. Some of the best weapons take unreasonable ingredients to keep in use.

You can hunt the recipes of the Grey Ones if you have the Siptah expansion, try for the Predatory Blade if you don’t mind the grind of killing the Brute multiple times in the unnamed city, or hunt the Kinscourge to make Telith’s Sorrow. Each of these tasks is an adventure of its own. I suggest looking up your preferred weapon type and deciding which legendary weapon you want to commit to.

Draw Your Weapons

Conan Exiles has decent combat for a survival game, and your success will depend heavily on your chosen weapon and how skilled you’ve become with it. It is difficult to become skilled with a new weapon, especially when all you have are NPCs to practice with, but learning more about weapon types, their moves, and their debuffs should be a priority if you want to master combat with other players. If you only learn the type that you play with, it will be difficult to defend against a player with a weapon type that you don’t know anything about.

Quality is important when it comes to your weapon, but knowledge and practice are even more so. An unskilled player can easily have that new sword taken away from them by someone with lower-quality gear. Knowing a little more about how weapons work will undoubtedly give you a boost, but don’t feel too bad if you lose several fights in the process. It’s Conan Exiles; we’ve all had our favorite things taken away time and time again.

FAQ – Conan Exiles Weapons

Question: What are the best weapons in Conan Exiles?

Answer: The weapons of the Grey Ones are considered the best in Conan Exiles if you have the Isle of Siptah expansion. If you are on standard Conan Exiles, try the Predatory Blade. You can find it by farming the Brute in the middle of the Unnamed city. It is not necessarily imperative that you get the best-in-game weapon if you are a PvP, but if you prefer to play PvE, then consider looking up the legendaries of your favorite weapon type for a comprehensive list of viable weapons.

Question: What kind of weapons are in Conan Exiles?

Answer: Conan Exiles is set in a world with primitive technology. There are 18 different weapon types in the game and 100s of specific weapons within these types. You can wield daggers, swords, axes, maces, bows, and more while fighting off your opponents in the Exiled Lands. Choose to run with a shield or throwing item in your off-hand or to use both hands to wield a colossal weapon that inflicts massive damage. There are weapons that only apply concussive damage for knocking out NPCs, those that apply debuffs like bleed and poison, and those that can hit from long distances. You can even build siege equipment and explosives for taking down other players’ structures.

Question: Can you dual-wield in Conan Exiles?

Answer: Technically you can not dual-wield in Conan Exiles. However, some weapons give the appearance of dual wielding. Daggers and some end-game axes, while considered two-handed weapons, are wielded in both hands of your character. You can also use thrown weapons, like javelins and throwing axes in your off-hand. You can not, however, use one-handed weapons in your off-hand. There have been talks of adding this feature down the road, but the game was not initially built to incorporate dual-wielding.

Question: How many legendary weapons are there in Conan Exiles?

Answer: There are forty total legendary weapons in Conan Exiles. These weapons can only be found in chests in difficult areas of the map or dungeons. Every weapon type has a legendary weapon to find.

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