Crimson Moon Weapons and Weapon Arts

Official beginner coverage puts the number at more than thirty unique weapon types across one-handed and two-handed families. You equip either a one-hander plus shield or a two-handed weapon. Dual wielding is not planned. That constraint is the whole melee fantasy: a clear silhouette, a Weapon Art, and a stamina bill. This page tells you how to choose, not a fake DPS sheet. After you pick a tool, lock the rest of the build to it and practice the timing on combat.

One-hand and shield

A one-hander plus shield is the learning kit. You can sit in elite faces, hunt perfect parries, and still poke with an art if the weapon has a projectile. Preview players who struggled with greedy two-handers in the first district would have lived longer here. The shield is not decorative. Crimson Moon’s parry achievement exists because the designers want you to use it. If your co-op partner is swinging a slab, you should probably be this kit.

One-handers will include swords and similar knight tools; trailers show straight blades, axes in Deluxe cosmetics, and polearms in hub footage. Until the launched menu publishes the full thirty-name list, do not memorize fan nicknames. Memorize the art. The art is the identity.

Crimson Moon official builds gameplay overview

Two-handed weapons

Two-handers hit harder and recover slower. They are the execution kit. You commit. Hellgrowth packs that punish panic rolls will also punish a missed heavy. Take a two-hander when you already know the enemy’s grab and when you have lives to spend on homework. In co-op, a two-hander behind a shield is a formation. Two two-handers is a coin flip.

Polearms and great weapons show up in official shots of the cathedral hall and burning wards. Reach is a real stat in streets full of Hellgrowth tendrils. If a trailer crush is a tiny fast blade, test whether that blade’s art still covers the range you need in Forsaken Streets.

Weapon Arts are the ranged class

Design AMAs: the game is melee, but many arts are projectiles or radius attacks. That is the answer to “are there spells?” You are not a wizard. You are a knight whose sword coughs holy iron. Arts cost stamina or a dedicated resource shown in overviews; either way they are not free. Emptying the bar in a missed art is a combat death as surely as a missed parry.

Pick the art you will press in every room, not the art that looked best in a four-minute IGN segment. Then choose Nexus Boons that feed it. Purification should prioritize the weapon whose art you used, even if a prettier drop has a higher rarity. Gajov can raise rarity. He cannot make you love an art you never fire.

Rarity, upgrades, and when to swap

Rarity on the equipped weapon feeds Angel Mode. A common with a perfect art can still be the right hunt-one pick. A rare with an art you do not understand is a trap. Upgrade at Gajov after purification. The “Gajov Make Strong” achievement is the tutorial: take a weapon or shield to rare or higher. Do that to your main before you start collecting museums.

Swap between hunts at the loadout station in Sanctus Clypeus. Mid-hunt you live with the tool. If a ward boss is a flyer or a wide slam, that is a next-hunt problem unless your current art already answers it.

Cosmetics versus tools

The Deluxe Axe of the Gods is a weapon cosmetic. First Look sets are armor. Neither is a hidden legendary stat stick unless ProbablyMonsters later says so. Build around drop weapons you can purify. Wear the axe if you paid for Deluxe and you like how it looks on the War Table. See editions.

A weapon checklist

1. Count the types in your closet after hunt one. If you only have the starter, purify whatever art you pressed.
2. Label the art in one word: projectile, slam, buff, gap-close.
3. Match armor and Boons to that word.
4. In co-op, do not take the same word as your partner unless you are doing a bit.
5. Raise rarity on the winner at Gajov.
6. Only then browse for a second identity on the builds page.

Thirty types sounds like a collection game. It is a menu. The hunt only lets you bring one argument at a time. Make the argument on purpose.