Best Weapons Across All FE Games (In Your Opinion)

[MegaCowsamMan]

Just as the title says, name the BEST weapon(s)! But first:
Before you start naming any S rank GBA weapons, here’s a few rules:
(Edit: I haven’t played all Fe games though!)

• No Legendary Weapons:
• No Prf Weapons:
• No Unused Weapons:
• No Monster Weapons:
  With that outta the way, here’s my opinions on the matter!

FE5

Brave Sword

What a solid weapon we have here! Outstanding amount of uses, fantastic might, solid hitrate, and tolerable weight! Once more, it’s a great tool for capturing enemy units, in a part of the game where that matters more then ever!(The Manster Acr) Very good indeed!

FE6 (My Fav FE)

Killing Edge

Now this is a solid weapon! Of course, being a killer weapon helps a lot as we all know, but in Binding Blade specifically, you get you’re first one from Rutger in chapter 4, and another one in chapter 7. It’s a great weapon! So much so, IS decided to nerf it in FE7!

FE7

Hand Axe

Honestly, this one is kind of a no-brainer. It’s got solid hitrate for one, fantastic price for what it is, and it’s 1-2 range. and due to the amount of 1-2 ranged enemies their are in FE7, look no further to a better answer to you’re problem then the Hand Axe!

FE8

Fire

Sacred Stones was a bit of a hard one to decide for me, but I landed on the Fire Tome as being the best weapon. You get one early on in the game, it’s the lightest of the tomes, it’s might is solid if you’re using Lute or Saleh, since they have fantastic bases and even growths in Lutes case. And it’s gonna be the only tome Ewan’s going to use for a fair bit! Great weapon!

FE9

Iron Blade

An unexpected one I decided if I’mma be honest! pretty good availability (Chapter 5), solid amount of uses, fairly cheap, and great units to use it! Their’s a lot of Myrmidons and Swordmasters in this game, and they’ll make great use of it!

FE10

Wind Edge

Maybe not the first weapon to come to everyone’s minds, but I like it, so it’s here! A 1-2 range option our sword-locked units have been begging at their knees for a while, and I think IS did it in the best way possible! Good price, good availability, low weight, good all around in my opinion!

FE11

Steel Lance

Finally, a Steel Lance that doesn’t weigh you down into oblivion. On my playthroughs of FE11, I found myself using the Steel weapons the most, especially the Steel Axe and Lance, though I had to choose the Lance Above the Axe just because of how much lance users are given to the player, and that also make good use of it! It’s very well balanced in it’s stats in every area! I like this choice personally!

So, thats pretty much my opinion.
Now, I’m doing this for research purposes. And for general interest! So lemme know what y’all think yourselves! And if I have any good points on my takes! I’m really trying to understand weapon balancing for myself. I’d really like to know!

Cheers!

[Vesly]

Iron Sword 46

[Jack_G]

For some of the games you didn’t do:

Fe4 - brave sword

Insanely high damage output, high hit rate, extremely light and relatively cheap to repair. Once you start stacking some kills on this thing, it’ll just delete anything it touches, even generals due to Jugdral’s unique crit system. It is also by far the best weapon to trade around for units to clear the arena.

The only area in which it could be better is availability. You receive it in chapter 3, compared to the silver sword in the prologue, allowing the silver sword to have a kill count advantage. The brave sword will quickly catch up though, and when it does, it is far superior to the silver sword.

Fe15 - killer bow

1-5 range, high crit and the ridiculous hunter’s volley skill. The killer bow allows you to safely delete any unit from a safe distance with the exception of barons due to their skill that halves bow damage and just generally having high defence. This is true for almost all physical weapons though, so you can’t really deduct points from the killer bow for it.

Fe17 - steel dagger

I have no idea what they were thinking with forge bonuses for daggers in this game. Forging a steel dagger to +4 is really cheap, and these are the stats:

Mt: 15
Hit: 90
Crit: 10
Weight: 4
Range: 1-2

These stats are almost as good as the Ragnell, and you can get one in chapter 7. Note that this doesn’t even include the bonuses you get from engraving, which you almost definitely will want to do, as well as the ability to inflict poison…

[Omnifox999]

In FE8, honestly I think the killer axe is really up there in terms of weapons. Dozla, Garcia, and the absolute beast that is Ross can absolutely nuke with it.

[theghostcreator]

Brave weapons in general

Oh and reginlief is insane like wtf

[UltraxBlade]

I know absolutely nothing about FE1-4.

I’m no Thracia expert, but if you’re nominating the Brave Sword I feel like the Brave Axe should be called out for being available much earlier (chapter 1!), only needing D rank, and being usable by a bunch of powerful early units like Dagdar.

Killing Edge for FE6 sounds reasonable, haha Rutger goes brrrr. Killer Lance gets a shoutout too because of the units who can use it, specifically Melady, and to a lesser extent Perceval (though he can also use Killing Edge), Shanna (who’s not as good but still relevant), and other mounted units who may not have Killing Edge access. Midgame buyable Killers is a pretty big deal in general. Armorslayer may also be worth a mention because in addition to being a fairly relevant effective weapon, it’s also just got really good weapon stats all around and is only D rank.

Agree on Hand Axe for FE7, that’s a no-brainer.

Javelin is the best weapon for FE8 by miles, enemies are so pathetically weak that even people who aren’t Seth can still wipe the floor with them on enemy phase with just an inventory of Javelins (not that you have to use anyone but Seth). Beats out Hand Axe because Paladin lost Hand Axe access and fliers don’t get them either. FE8 is the prime example of “mounted juggernauts run forward with 1-2 range”, even moreso than FE7.

Hand Axe is probably the best weapon again for FE9, another enemy phase-focused game where you can even forge them for higher might and all your paladins can use them, plus Tellius gave axes better stats than lances all around. Javelin does have arguments named Marcia and unpromoted Jill, but Jill gains hand axes on promotion and any unit with the choice will go for axes first.

FE10, since enemies are a bit tougher, probably gives the honor to forged Steel weapons in general, accessible sources of high power that you’ll be spamming on everyone for most of the midgame, and the Tellius weight system means you don’t really lose speed to them at that point since it’s Weight-Strength and even someone like Rolf has 17 at base (Steel Axe, for comparison, is 15 weight). Alternatively, if we want to look more to the earlygame, forged Iron Knife is what allows Sothe to dominate so hard throughout part 1, but past that he falls off a good bit. Honestly, can I just generally say “whatever physical weapon you can forge for max might at a given point in the game”?

I’m no FE11 expert, but everything I hear about that game is “forged cavalry-effective weapons”, so since the Wing Spear is excluded by the no prfs rule, Ridersbane probably takes it.

FE12 I am way too uninformed about to give a proper answer.

FE13 is easily Nosferatu. Anyone remotely familiar with Awakening knows how broken Nos tanking is in that game.

FE14… I’m gonna toss a shoutout to forged Bronze/Brass weapons, especially the Bronze Axe. Bronzes are cheap to forge early on to a point where they match Irons’ might, while having much more reliable accuracy and a little bit of crit avoid for safety on top. And they’re E rank, meaning they’re the only weapons you’ll have access to at first in new types after reclassing, so a forged Bronze allowing you to still have decent damage output makes it easier to acquire skills from other classes temporarily or get started in a new class without being held back by weak weaponry.

FE15 Killer Bow, Hunter’s Volley 1-5 range delete button goes brrrrrrrr. Ridersbane also gets a shoutout for how much work it puts in in the cavalry hell of Alm’s Act 3.

Despite being a massive Three Houses fan, I’m not very well-versed in its optimal metagame, so I can’t really say for sure there. Hard Mode lets you get away with basically anything you want, and Maddening is just so slow-paced and grindy early on that I never managed to get into it. If we were allowed to name legendaries/prfs I’d say Aymr, Raging Storm snaps the game in half unlike anything else, but I’m not sure the meta relevance of the more standard weapons.

Engage… I might go with the Killer Axe. Combined with Wrath and one of the various crit-boosting Engravings, the Killer Axe is able to reach very high crit rates, enabling gamebreaking Vantage+Wrath sweeper builds on high-Strength units like Panette.

[Fringus]

fe1 stonehoist goes pretty hard, who doesn’t love a 1-2 range ballista with a weird number of uses?

[MegaCowsamMan]

Whoa! Got alot here already! Lemme see if I can catch up!

@Vesly

Iron Sword 46

Uh…sure?

@Omnifox999

In FE8, honestly I think the killer axe is really up there in terms of weapons. Dozla, Garcia, and the absolute beast that is Ross can absolutely nuke with it.

Hm, yeah, actually. They aren’t really that hard to find really, but honestly, when you’re the best weapon in a game like FE8, it’s not that much of an acomplishment in my opinion. (I still like FE though I beat it 8 times!)

@Jack_G

Fe4 - brave sword

Checking it’s stats, like, wow! Thats really wild! The Kaga days really made some bold moves…

@Jack_G

Fe15 - killer bow

1-5 range!? I’m sorry, what!? Thats absolutely insane!

@Jack_G

Fe17 - steel dagger

Never thought much of Daggers, but still, pretty cool!

@theghostcreator

Brave weapons in general

Yeah, I can see where you’re getting at! I’m sure it’s quite a challenge to balance 'em! Pretty potent indeed!

@UltraxBlade

I’m no Thracia expert, but if you’re nominating the Brave Sword I feel like the Brave Axe should be called out for being available much earlier (chapter 1!), only needing D rank, and being usable by a bunch of powerful early units like Dagdar.

I would, but in my experience, I found myself using the Brave Sword alot more since sword-locked units generally have a lower strength stat. And well, there are more sword units then any other weapon type by far. Plus, Fargus destroys the game with that bad boy! But, you have very good arguments though! (I guess it’s because I usually give the Brave Axe to Marty, so I guess I never gave it it’s chance to truly shine.)

@UltraxBlade

Javelin is the best weapon for FE8 by miles, enemies are so pathetically weak that even people who aren’t Seth can still wipe the floor with them on enemy phase with just an inventory of Javelins (not that you have to use anyone but Seth). Beats out Hand Axe because Paladin lost Hand Axe access and fliers don’t get them either. FE8 is the prime example of “mounted juggernauts run forward with 1-2 range”, even moreso than FE7.

I thought about that, but in my experience, I found my cavs missing those mid 70’s hitrates quite a bit, same for Ephraim. Plus, fire has alot more uses, does very well against monsters and knights, and it’s cheap and reliable! But, you make a very good argument too! Late game javelins’ll serve very well!

@UltraxBlade

Hand Axe is probably the best weapon again for FE9, another enemy phase-focused game where you can even forge them for higher might and all your paladins can use them, plus Tellius gave axes better stats than lances all around. Javelin does have arguments named Marcia and unpromoted Jill, but Jill gains hand axes on promotion and any unit with the choice will go for axes first.

I found myself missing them ALOT. Seriously, and I guess it’s because I used alot more sword users then axe users. I might need to play again and see what you mean…

@UltraxBlade

I’m no FE11 expert, but everything I hear about that game is “forged cavalry-effective weapons”, so since the Wing Spear is excluded by the no prfs rule, Ridersbane probably takes it.

Their heavy. Very heavy. (And I might have not been getting good luck with my skill growth on my units)

@Fringus

fe1 stonehoist goes pretty hard, who doesn’t love a 1-2 range ballista with a weird number of uses?

Stonehoist for the win! It’s fun to mess around with 'em!

Thank y’all for the responses! It really helps alot!

[UltraxBlade]

@MegaCowsamMan

@UltraxBlade

Javelin is the best weapon for FE8 by miles, enemies are so pathetically weak that even people who aren’t Seth can still wipe the floor with them on enemy phase with just an inventory of Javelins (not that you have to use anyone but Seth). Beats out Hand Axe because Paladin lost Hand Axe access and fliers don’t get them either. FE8 is the prime example of “mounted juggernauts run forward with 1-2 range”, even moreso than FE7.

I thought about that, but in my experience, I found my cavs missing those mid 70’s hitrates quite a bit, same for Ephraim. Plus, fire has alot more uses, does very well against monsters and knights, and it’s cheap and reliable! But, you make a very good argument too! Late game javelins’ll serve very well!

Seth with a Javelin can go in the middle of 10 enemies and, even if the hit rate really is 70% like you say (it’s not really that low, FE8 enemies are weak and slow, Seth has high skill, and you get +5 hit for reaching S rank Lances which he does pretty quickly), that means on average he’ll kill 7 of the 10 in one turn, and he has the bulk and mobility to just do that. Lute tries to tank more than like 2 guys and she dies due to not having the bulk to live. Saleh can do a bit better on enemy phase but he’s 6 mov footlocked compared to someone like Seth/Cormag/Vanessa/Franz/etc. charging ahead 8 tiles, possibly with flying, and living more hits. And Seth+Cormag+Vanessa+Franz+Duessel+[insert other mounted unit here] can all use Javelins, whereas magic has far fewer users, most of whom have worse durability and/or mobility. Javelins are pretty much just as cheap as fire tomes, so that’s not really a factor, especially since FE8 gives you plenty of money to work with.

@MegaCowsamMan

@UltraxBlade

Hand Axe is probably the best weapon again for FE9, another enemy phase-focused game where you can even forge them for higher might and all your paladins can use them, plus Tellius gave axes better stats than lances all around. Javelin does have arguments named Marcia and unpromoted Jill, but Jill gains hand axes on promotion and any unit with the choice will go for axes first.

I found myself missing them ALOT. Seriously, and I guess it’s because I used alot more sword users then axe users. I might need to play again and see what you mean…

Sword users in FE9 kinda suck due to the lack of 1-2 range. FE9 is full of enemies with mixed-ranged weapons you want to be able to counterattack on enemy phase, and just generally places high emphasis on enemy-phase performance due to the combination of high enemy density and low enemy quality. Making sure things that attack you die is especially important in a game with enemy Canto+ and the series’ most aggressive “run away and heal” AI that even runs away to trade vulneraries between enemies. You can also forge extra hit in addition to extra might when forging them.

@MegaCowsamMan

@UltraxBlade

I’m no FE11 expert, but everything I hear about that game is “forged cavalry-effective weapons”, so since the Wing Spear is excluded by the no prfs rule, Ridersbane probably takes it.

They’re heavy. Very heavy. (And I might have not been getting good luck with my skill growth on my units)

Well, sure, they’re heavy, but FE11 is vast majority enemy cavs and you can forge the Ridersbane’s might to just OHKO them, so you don’t need to double.

[MegaCowsamMan]

@UltraxBlade

Seth with a Javelin can go in the middle of 10 enemies and, even if the hit rate really is 70% like you say (it’s not really that low, FE8 enemies are weak and slow, Seth has high skill, and you get +5 hit for reaching S rank Lances which he does pretty quickly), that means on average he’ll kill 7 of the 10 in one turn, and he has the bulk and mobility to just do that. Lute tries to tank more than like 2 guys and she dies due to not having the bulk to live. Saleh can do a bit better on enemy phase but he’s 6 mov footlocked compared to someone like Seth/Cormag/Vanessa/Franz/etc. charging ahead 8 tiles, possibly with flying, and living more hits. And Seth+Cormag+Vanessa+Franz+Duessel+[insert other mounted unit here] can all use Javelins, whereas magic has far fewer users, most of whom have worse durability and/or mobility. Javelins are pretty much just as cheap as fire tomes, so that’s not really a factor, especially since FE8 gives you plenty of money to work with.

Well, I guess my argument is I’m not trying to blast through Sacred Stones with a Seth stuffed with Javelins in his inventory. And most if not 80% of most monsters are 1 range, are lower on the res side, and have crazy amounts of HP. And due to the low skill Monsters boast and how much avoid you can get with supporting units up, you can dodge most of those attacks very well. And I’m not trying to place someone like Lute or Saleh in front of a bunch of Javelin carrying cavs. But even with all that, I do see you’re point. I guess it just boils down to it being my experience with FE8.

@UltraxBlade

Sword users in FE9 kinda suck due to the lack of 1-2 range. FE9 is full of enemies with mixed-ranged weapons you want to be able to counterattack on enemy phase, and just generally places high emphasis on enemy-phase performance due to the combination of high enemy density and low enemy quality. Making sure things that attack you die is especially important in a game with enemy Canto+ and the series’ most aggressive “run away and heal” AI that even runs away to trade vulneraries between enemies. You can also forge extra hit in addition to extra might when forging them.

You actually make a good point here. I guess it’s because I’ve only played through FE9 once, (not that I didn’t enjoy it, just had others things to do) but I see you’re point!

@UltraxBlade

Well, sure, they’re heavy, but FE11 is vast majority enemy cavs and you can forge the Ridersbane’s might to just OHKO them, so you don’t need to double.

Forging is very expensive to do. You’re mostly given large sums of money at cetain points of the game and Ridersbane’s aren’t the most common weapon ever. I just found all of my Lance wielding users excelling with Steel Lances more than anything! But yes, their are ALOT of cavs in FE11. I just found my units being put at more risk when equipped with the Ridersbane due to the weight of it alone.

[RecursiveBow]

For FE3 it’s either the silver lance or, if you count it, the Miracle Sword.

Since cavaliers and fliers are stuck to lances only, and javelins have 20 weight, the silver lance it’s the only weapon they ever need. It’s the boring answer but it’s what half the cast uses.

Now the miracle sword, for the other part, is awesome. It is one of the weapons Gato/Gotoh lists as being “necessary for defeating Gharnef”, so I’m not sure if it counts as a legendary weapon or not. It has 20 might and gives you Double xp, in a game where you ALWAYS get 30-35 xp per kill. So combine it with the Star Orb (+30% growth) and literally any unit will get ridiculous, aprox 70 xp per kill. FE3 is fun lmao

Edit: whoops, not only it counts as a legendary weapon, but Gladius and Parthia has the same effect, so it doesn’t count. Silver Lance supremacy

FE10 is the hand axe, since Haar can use it.

[UltraxBlade]

@MegaCowsamMan

Well, I guess my argument is I’m not trying to blast through Sacred Stones with a Seth stuffed with Javelins in his inventory.

Haha, totally fair lol. FE8 is certainly not very hard or particularly interesting when you’re blasting through it with Seth+a million Javelins. But you asked for the “best weapon”, and when it comes to “best” I generally try to approach it from an efficiency standpoint – what’s going to get you through the game quickly and reliably on highest difficulty, and what’s putting in the most work over the course of the whole game, not just at the end. So from that standpoint, it’s hard for anything other than Javelin to come close to being the “best” in FE8.

[Omnifox999]

@UltraxBlade

And Seth+Cormag+Vanessa+Franz+Duessel+[insert other mounted unit here] can all use Javelins,

Seth is dumb, so yeah. Franz makes sense. Duessel is insane. Amelia technically counts, but general Amelia is usually better. But Vanessa? No. I am absolutely not gonna slow my frail, sad pegasus down by 5 points.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Yeah, I guess I lost my sense there for a second.
I see what you mean by using the “best of the best” approuch with beating the game.
I was basing my choices off of my personal experiences and playthroughs. So yeah.

[UltraxBlade]

Vanessa’s totally fine with Javelins once she’s a Wyvern Knight. 9 con after promo only gets weighed down by 2, and she’s got really high speed by that point, so she doubles basically everything with them once promoted.

I’m… not in the mood to argue over Amelia’s class, but regardless of her class Javelins will probably still be her best weapon in most scenarios, competing only with Hand Axes if she ends up in General or GK. But I was more talking about all the good units, as defined by an efficiency perspective (trying to clear the game quickly (fewer turns) and reliably, on highest difficulty, with no grinding), who use Javelins to dominate the game.

[ScubaLuigi]

Can’t believe you had the opportunity to bring up a steel blade and didn’t go for it… and picking the iron blade instead!

Compare the stats between the FE9 steel sword and steel blade. The price, too. All of it.

Look how epic this steel blade is
steel blade gaming
who’s on team steel blade with me

[Blasteroid]

Fe 6: Brave axe
Fe 7: Hand axe
Fe 8: Killer axe

[Omnifox999]

I’ve not actually tried out Wyvern Knight Vanessa, lol. Probably my fault, but honestly I see what you mean. Me thinking javelins are bad is probably just a hangover for my undying hatred of cavaliers and most mounts. Why does FE8 hate fliers? Vanessa is just ok, Cormag is pretty bad, and Valter doesn’t really count. Makes me sad?

[UltraxBlade]

…Huh? Cormag and Vanessa are usually called the second and third best units in FE8, just make them both Wyvern Knights for the better speed and they’re ridiculous. Ephraim route Cormag especially, since he joins earlier – Ephraim route Cormag is one of the few units in the game who can arguably approach Seth’s power level. Vanessa struggles a bit more early on, but she’s still the first flier you get for flier utility and really good in combat once she gets to WK promotion, and she beats out Cormag on Eirika route due to availability.

[theghostcreator]

Yeah all the fliers are pretty good, Vanessa and Cormag are really really good, Cormag is a bit dependant on the route in efficient settings but playing casually Cormag is the bomb on both routes. Tana is a bit more mid but the utility is still great and if you can train her then she’ll just be a slightly worse Vanessa. Syrene is pretty much purely utility although that utility is helpful especially in the gorgon egg map.