Best Weapons in Bannerlord

From your very first sword, axe, or spear in Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, it becomes evident that your weapon is the most important possession. Making direct contact with an armored foe only to have your blow take one-fifteenth of their health is a disheartening wake-up call.

To make sure you’re ready to do real damage with those strikes, we’ve put together the best weapons in Bannerlord for each category. This is about more than just finding the highest damage, but also weighing that against important stats like speed and handling, since the ability to strike quickly and precisely can often overcome pure power.

Best Polearms in Bannerlord

The best polearm weapon in Bannerlord in terms of pure power is called the Rhomphalia. It is typically wielded by Battanian Veteran Falxmen. With a base swing damage of 141 and a length of 203, this weapon can take out opponents with a single strike before they even get close. The downside is the low swing speed (76) which means each blow must count, but it only takes one. 

If you need a more versatile polearm weapon, meaning one that can cause thrust and swing damage, your best option is the menavlion used by the infamous Imperial Menavliatons. This weapon has good swing damage (123), decent length (159), and thrust damage that would rival any spear (49). Moreover, the menavlion can be used with one or two hands, and it is both an excellent anti-cavalry weapon, an anti-siege weapon, and a good option for horseback attacks.

Best One-Handed Weapons in Bannerlord

One-handed weapons are broken down into several categories, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Swords are balanced for thrusting and swinging damage, as well as speed and handling. Daggers are the fastest weapons in the game, and are ideal for striking opponents before they can raise their defenses, but deal much less damage.

Axes have the highest swing threshold, but are generally slow, and have no thrust damage. Blunt weapons aren’t particularly good at anything, but they are an effective way to knock out foes without killing them, so you can take many more prisoners for ransom or recruitment. The best of each weapon type are as follows:

• The best one-handed sword in Bannerlord is the Themaskene Steel Kaskara found in Aserai lands. It is the most balanced of the elite one-handed swords with the devastating length for a one-handed sword (110), high damage (81), and very good thrust damage compared to weapons of its type (42). Honorable mention is in order for the Falx and its incredibly high damage for a one-handed weapon (133), though it comes at the cost of swing speed (75) and handling (70). 
• As was the case in the real-life variant of the fictional time period, daggers are little more than backup weapons in Bannerlord. As such, the Falx Knife is as good as any; its length is as good as you can expect from a knife (54), and its incomparable swing speed (118) and thrust speed (98), almost make up for its poor swing damage (35) and mediocre thrust damage (38).
• In terms of axes, you want to look for the highest swing speed and swing damage; handling matters, but not as much as a sword. The most effective one-handed axe we’ve discovered is the Northern Rectangular Bitted Axe found in Sturgian shops. It has good stats in each category, ranking in the mid to high 80s in each.
• The best blunt one-handed weapon in Bannerlord is the Imperial Cataphract Mace. It has moderately weak stats compared to the weapons listed above, but again, it’s meant to knock out opponents rather than kill them.

Best Two-Handed Weapons in Bannerlord

With their lack of shields, two-handed weapons must rely on offense, so you’re looking for weapons that are much faster than one-handers and do much more damage. There are three types of two-handed weapons in Bannerlord: axes, swords, and blunt weapons.

• The Heavy Executioner’s Axe of Sturgian makes it the best two-handed axe in Bannerlord. Its 133 swing damage and 138 length, put it on par with the game’s best polearms. It also has cleave damage, meaning each swing can hit multiple enemies, making this weapon perfect for flanking shield walls and taking out enemies.
• The Ridged Great Saber of Battania is the best two-handed sword you can buy in Bannerlord. It’s expensive (63k+), but it comes with very high marks in swing damage (115), thrust damage (44), and length (116), with decent swing speed (97) and handling (88). You can find two-handed swords that do each of these things better, but none with as much balance between all four.
• The pickings for two-handed blunt weapons are slim to none here. The Sledgehammer found in a few different shops is pretty much as good as you’ll get with its 89 blunt swing damage and its 102 length. 

Best Throwing Weapons in Bannerlord

The best throwing weapon in Bannerlord is the Jareed, a type of javelin used by Aserai skirmishers. It has the highest damage by far (120 piercing), the second-highest accuracy (92), and the best length (113) of any thrown weapon. Jareeds also have a stack count of 5, which is the highest amount you can take in a single slot, making it more valuable than thrown weapons that come in stacks of 3.

Best Bows in Bannerlord

The two best bows in Bannerlord are essentially different versions of the same weapon: the Noble Bow and the Noble Long Bow, found primarily in Battania early on, and throughout the world as the game progresses. The Noble Bow is the short bow version, which can be fired from the ground or from horseback. It has the highest speed (94), accuracy (100), and missile speed (90) of any standard bow in the game, and the second-highest damage (80). The Noble Long Bow falls second in these three categories (91, 98, 85, respectively), but makes up for this and its lack of horseback compatibility with by far the highest damage of any bow in the game (95).

As far as crossbows, the Bound Crossbow stands apart among the few versions of this weapon found in Vlandia. It has high damage (100), accuracy (100), and missile speed (97) that place it on par with the Noble Bows mentioned above. The drawback–no pun intended–is the inherently slow reload speed (63) inherent to all crossbows.