Queen's Domain Best Weapons by Stage and Enemy Type

• Opening beach: the Rusted Spear evolved into Jigeki's Serpent Thrust, a fast weapon whose charged strike poisons and briefly stuns, paired with the Wooden Club for skeletons.
• Every area after that: the Holy Sword Endu never leaves the loadout, because its Wind Dash is how you cross gaps and reach new areas.
• Groups of enemies: the Splash Hammer from the Obmuer Temple chest, whose damage fills a meter for an area attack that also clears the fish Dagoom summons.
• Long stretches with no save point: the Vampiric Scimitar, 42 Ancient Coins from the Golden Duck stock at Umbada, whose normal hits drain health and carry you through the Tower of Knowledge and Mausoleum.
• Bosses that hit hard: the Spiked Buckler, 33 Ancient Coins from Umbada, whose secondary parries, cuts incoming damage and opens a counter.
• Late game: the True Holy Sword Akunra for single targets and Wodaso's Holy Lightning for rooms full of enemies, the latter being an area blast that is still slow.

Two weapons look tempting and are not worth the detour. The Diamond Blade has the highest Power in the shop at 16, but it is slow and has no special attack. The Shock Rifle is a puzzle key for the three pyramid power towers, not a damage weapon.

The early weapons guide has the opening-hour pickup order.

Every enemy in the game is rated Weak, Normal or Resist against Slash, Pierce and Impact, and that table decides far more fights than Power does.

• Skeletons, including the Shrine Guardian, are weak to Impact and resist swords. The Wooden Club beats the Rusted Short Sword against them.
• Golems and Wheel Dancers take Impact, Giant Bats take Pierce, and Impalers take Slash.
• Plant and bug enemies are weak to Slash, which is why the wooden early weapons keep working once the spear evolves.

The in-game bestiary is where you read those ratings, and it also tells you how far you have got. The full 188-entry list, with the entries that only appear when you trigger them, is in the bestiary guide.

• The Splash Hammer sits in a chest inside Obmuer Temple.
• The Vampiric Scimitar and the Spiked Buckler are both bought from Umbada with Ancient Coins, and both need the Golden Duck Figurine stock to appear.
• The True Holy Sword Akunra is the reforged Holy Sword Endu, and the altar that forges it opens only after all eight Sipeha seals are cleared.
• Wodaso's Holy Lightning is the evolved Rusted Greatsword, so it comes from the Blood vault in the Tower of Knowledge basement once you have the Blood Key Stone.

Every weapon, its damage type and its exact location are listed in the complete weapon list.

Weapons level on their own, separately from your character, and each level adds 3% damage up to a 30% bonus. A weapon at level 10 usually changes into something better with a new secondary attack, so a weapon you keep through the whole island is worth pushing to that cap. The Rusted Short Sword becomes Sipeha's Twisted Heart, the Rusted Spear becomes Jigeki's Serpent Thrust, and there are six more pairings, each with its own special. How weapon experience works and every evolution has the full chart, plus the four weapons that never evolve.