In Kenshi, each weapon class has its own benefits, attack animations, different damage outputs, and other factors. Each fighting style equals to what sort of weapon class you are using and in total, there are 6 weapon types - polearms, sabres, hackers, heavy weapons, blunt weapons, katanas.
So yeah, I’ll discuss the pros of these weapons, how effective their fighting styles are, and which one is the best - let’s start with…
5. Hackers
Are Hackers effective? Well, they deal a balanced amount of damage and they are kinda slow but pretty devastating if you manage to land a hit. They use the same combat animations as heavy weapons and sabres but they weigh a lot less than heavy weapons and have an even ratio of blunt/cut damage.
Why hackers are awesome:
- Perfect for dismembering cannibals
- Perfect against heavily armored personnel
- Devastating against robots+skeletons
4. Sabres
Why are sabres good? They are light and deal a fair amount of cutting damage, accompanied by a slight splash of blunt damage. It’s useful against light and medium armored hostiles and still kinda good against heavily armored fellers. Each sabre is unique and has different buffs, for example - the Desert Sabre is useful against wildlife, such as Skimmers and Bonedogs, while the Foreign Sabre is perfect for improving your defense stat and staying in the fight for longer periods of time. In terms of combat animations, they’re the same as hackers and heavy weapons - just faster, cuz they don’t weigh as much!
Why Sabres are awesome:
- Kinda like katanas
- 20% blunt damage
- Faster than heavy weapons/hackers
3. Heavy Weapons
Big OOF incoming.
Heavy weapons are for those who are masochistic. In the early game, using these weapons is a painful experience - you’re weak, fragile and with barely any clothes on your back, you go to a bar and find yourself a barely intact Plank. It’s heavy as hell and deals barely any damage but what the hell, you approach a group of starving bandits and you get absolutely obliterated by them - it takes you good 3 seconds to swing your Plank and before you manage to hit one of the bandits, you’re gonna get hit at least 7 times. You’re laying there, in a pool of blood in a recovery coma. You better have a secondary character or you’re done for…
Long story short: heavy weapons = slow but powerful attacks, they force you to improve your stats by constantly getting beat up by others, eventually you become OP and unstoppable. ‘Nuff said!
Why heavy weapons are awesome:
- OP if you have decent enough stats
- Hits multiple targets
- Only indoor debuffs
2. Polearms
Lovely!
Polearms are my favorite - they’re perfect for hunting animals and even better for bullying starving bandits&other weaklings. So what they’re good for? They are extremely fast, almost as fast as a katana and it also allows you to hit multiple targets at once. If you have enough dexterity, you can chain stun your opponent and not give him a chance to counterattack. Some polearm types are designed to work specifically better against animals - sometimes they can deal even up to 50% more damage against Skimmers, Bonedogs, and other creatures. Naginata Katanas are dealing better damage against humans and animals. Lovely weapons, my favorite.
Why polearms are cool:
- Fast attack animations
- Can sometimes chain stun your opponent
- Lovely against animals&humans
1. Katanas
Blunt damage is overrated.
Katanas are not huge fans of blunt damage, maybe Toppers are the only exception. But you know what they’re good at? Being flexible, weightless, and devastating towards those who don’t have any armor on them. Katanas are designed to KILL your opponents, not knock them out after defeating them.
And the best part is the double-attack: sometimes during combat, your character might trigger a double-attack and deal large sums of damage in a short amount of time. Just don’t use these things against robots+heavily armored people…
Why these weapons are awesome:
- Cutting damage is off the charts!
- Double-attack animation
- Incredibly reliable against light/medium armor personnel
