How to Choose Among Eight Base-Game Weapons
How to choose among eight base-game weapons
The most useful weapon is the one that fixes the way a run is failing. A weapon that targets the nearest enemy, one that circles the character, and one that fires in the facing direction can demand different movement during the same run.
This guide covers eight base-game weapon lines in normal solo play. It compares verified attack behavior and evolution pairs instead of declaring one universal damage tier list.
Eight base weapons compared
Weapon | Verified attack behavior | Passive item | Evolution | Consider it when you want to... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Magic Wand | Targets the nearest enemy | Empty Tome | Holy Wand | Reduce manual aiming and answer nearby threats |
King Bible | Orbits the character | Spellbinder | Unholy Vespers | Form an attacking ring around the character |
Lightning Ring | Strikes random enemies | Duplicator | Thunder Loop | Reach enemies without matching the attack to movement |
Santa Water | Creates a damaging area where the bottle lands | Attractorb | La Borra | Move around the damage areas it creates |
Runetracer | Pierces enemies and bounces off terrain | Armor | NO FUTURE | Use walls and corridors for reflected projectiles |
Axe | Travels in an arc | Candelabrador | Death Spiral | Work with an arcing attack path above the character |
Knife | Fires in the direction the character faces | Bracer | Thousand Edge | Concentrate attacks along the direction of travel |
Whip | Attacks horizontally | Hollow Heart | Bloody Tear | Reach enemies to the left and right |
The final column is editorial guidance inferred from the verified attack behavior. It is not a universal damage ranking. Character bonuses, stage layout, other weapons, and player movement can change the result.
When you want less aiming
Magic Wand targets the nearest enemy, King Bible circles the character, and Lightning Ring strikes random enemies. These weapons do not require the player to point every attack manually.
Automatic attacks do not guarantee control over one chosen target. If the goal is to cut a path in a specific direction, Knife can express that intention more directly.
When you want to shape where damage happens
Santa Water creates a damaging area at its landing point. Watch those areas and move around them instead of treating every part of the screen as equally protected.
Runetracer pierces enemies and reflects from terrain. Compare it in open space and in a wall-heavy corridor. Axe follows an arc, so its reach differs from a horizontal attack.
When you want to attack along the route
Knife fires in the direction the character faces. Align movement and facing to place more attacks along the route you want to open.
Whip attacks horizontally. It is not a verified all-direction attack, so account for enemies approaching from above or below.
Shared evolution check for these eight pairs
For the eight pairs in this table, raise the base weapon to level 8, hold the matching passive item at level 1 or higher, and open a chest that can produce an evolution.
Not every chest is guaranteed to evolve a weapon. On many early normal stages, a chest from a boss that appears at or after 10 minutes is the practical starting point, but stage-specific exceptions exist.
A practical selection order
- Try Magic Wand or King Bible when nearby enemies overwhelm the character.
- Try Knife when the run needs a path opened in the direction of travel.
- Try Santa Water when you want damage areas at its landing points.
- Try Runetracer when walls and corridors can support reflected shots.
- Reserve the matching passive slot before committing to an evolution.
Keep the character and stage the same, then change one weapon at a time. That comparison is more useful than treating a fixed online tier list as a rule for every run.