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The best weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows give you the proper tools to smack all the nasty ronin and unfriendly bandits you’ll come across.

As each legendary weapon has a unique gameplay perk — not to mention the usually higher stats — they’re typically more useful than lower-quality weapons. Together with the best armor in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you can mix and match these perks to achieve the perfect loadout for your playstyle, whether you prefer to be a stealthy shinobi or sturdy samurai.

Below, we’ll show to the best weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, broken down by the best weapons for Naoe and the best weapons for Yasuke.

Update (April 2): We’ve added additional legendary weapons to round out the list of best weapons.

Some of the best shinobi weapons focus on Naoe’s specialty, stealth attacks, but it’s also important to improve her combat prowess when she’s not hiding in the shadows. You might want to combine a stealthy weapon with a kusarigama to clear the field, or perhaps a katana that’ll inflict damage over time. Here are the best weapons for Naoe.

With an 18% default bleed buildup, the Bloodshade Katana bleeds your enemies in just six hits. Whereas any other weapon would require quick, consecutive slashes to avoid affliction loss, the Bloodshade Katana allows for complete freedom, as the bleed buildup is never lost. Besides being one of the best weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, this katana is also one of the easiest to obtain in early game, but beware that it’s ridiculously easy to miss as it’s hidden in an unmarked spot on a ship west of Osaka.

This legendary katana comes with a massive damage boost that works well with almost any other weapon, perk, or armor set as long as it’s not too focused on assassinations and tools. Of course, this weapon truly shines if you’re good at deflecting damage (Naoe’s version of parrying), but you can grab it fairly early in the game, so there’s plenty of time to practice.

Another legendary katana with a deflect-based effect, but this one applies poison whenever you deflect an attack. Whereas the previous katana has a higher direct damage potential, Violet Night works better for affliction builds. It’s absolutely perfect in combination with the Bloodshade’s perk (no affliction loss) and the Noh Masterstroke Mask, which grants extra adrenaline upon affliction buildup — or, in this case, on every deflection with the Violet Night.

Yukimitsu’s Revenge Tanto

This legendary tanto is a must-have for players who use Naoe’s affliction damage. While it doesn’t do anything for affliction buildup or affliction damage directly, it makes afflicted enemies vulnerable, which you can normally only do by parrying, dodging, and deflecting incoming attacks. Vulnerable enemies can’t defend themselves, allowing you to land devastating blows before the vulnerable state ends. Just focus on fast affliction application, and this tanto will constantly trigger the vulnerable state.

If you want a straightforward, reliable damage boost, this legendary tanto is perfect. All you need to do is tag an opponent, and you will an extra 30% damage with any attack type. It’s a simple but powerful effect that combines well with almost any other perk. If there’s a downside to the Call of the Void tanto, it’s probably the hiding skills of its previous owner’s: You must ride north through the temple (do not go left to the mountain peak) and you’ll eventually see the cave entrance with the legendary chest inside.

Close-quarters combat is usually more Yasuke’s thing, but whenever Naoe is forced into a face-to-face fight, the Featherstorm Kusarigama is her savior. This heavy-hitting weapon comes with a high-range posture attack that smashes all nearby enemies, making it perfect for fighting multiple opponents. What’s more, its perk instantly charges Naoe’s posture attack — which may not seem that spectacular, but in the heat of battle, that one second can make all the difference between an unfortunate interruption and a devastating blow.

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, samurai weapons range from massive clubs to sleek naginatas. While you could combine a heavy melee weapon with a lighter one, consider using one of Yasuke’s ranged weapons too; a well-aimed shot will certainly start the battle in your favor. Here’s a list of the best weapons for Yasuke.

Flowing Peace Long Katana

Dealing extra damage is always nice, and instantly depleting a full health segment upon armor break is certainly helpful against tougher enemies. However, what makes the Flowing Peace long katana particularly useful is its field-clearing potential. Weaker enemies only have a few health segments (if not just one), so as long as you build Yasuke with high armor damage stats and decent armor-breaking abilities, he’ll take them out in a second.

If you’re looking for quick bleed application, the Vengeful Foe is your friend. This legendary naginata makes it ridiculously easy to bleed enemies as you simply need to parry incoming attacks. Of course, 35% isn’t enough to trigger instant bleed, but with a default bleed buildup of 18%, you’re already halfway there. It’s helpful to pair this weapon with the Crescent Strike active ability (and its first passive node), which applies another 35% bleed upon hit.

Active combat abilities offer a massive advantage in battle, but you may not use them all that often, as they require lots of adrenaline. If you’re wielding the Shade of Blight Naginata, though, that calculus becomes a thing of the past. Granting a full adrenaline chunk whenever you trigger an affliction, you just need to boost your affliction buildup to reap the benefits of extra damage and more ability usage. What’s more, the Shade of Blight already has 18% poison buildup by default.

Another excellent weapon to regain adrenaline is the Rage of Red Mist. All you need to do is break the opponent’s armor by depleting the yellow bar above their HP — no problem when you’re handling a heavy kanabo. Yasuke has plenty of armor-destroying abilities too, which basically means you can use adrenaline to destroy the armor before instantly gaining it back. To top that off, this kanabo is relatively easy to obtain as it lies unguarded in one of the first regions.

Does this really need any explanation beyond “your attacks cannot be interrupted?” More than just an extremely destructive heavy weapon, the Boulder Fall is an unstoppable heavy weapon. The risk of interruptions used to be the sluggish kanabo’s main weakness, but this overpowered Yasuke weapon just eliminates that problem. If you aim to smack everyone and everything in your way, the Boulder Fall is for you.

Regardless of perks, the kanabo is one of the most powerful weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. True, it can be a bit slow, but its blows have an incredibly high damage potential. If you wield the magnificent Venom Pillar Kanabo, you can trigger a light attack followed by a heavy attack (or vice versa), to perform an instantly-charged posture attack. This combo will quickly overpower even the toughest enemies, without allowing them to recover and interrupt your charged strike. Granted, Venom Pillar isn’t as strong as the Boulder Fall, but you can grab it very early on (just find the chest — it isn’t guarded).

Teppo rifles deal fantastic damage, but they have a few drawbacks: They’re slow, they lack range, and, most importantly, they’re loud enough to alert an entire castle to your presence. Any teppo with a perk to negate those downsides is a welcome addition to your armory, but especially the Dynasty Ender, as it hardly makes any noise when fired. Instead of just an opening move, the teppo becomes Yasuke’s best stealth weapon, allowing you to fire it multiple times without detection.

There are several perks you can use to boost Yasuke’s archery damage, but only one that improves the draw speed. The Dragon’s Wrath bow is extremely handy when you’re playing a stealthy archer as you can kill all nearby enemies before they realize what’s going on – and quickly finish the job if one arrow per enemy isn’t enough. Dragon’s Wrath is particularly unmissable, however, if you want to shoot enemies in open combat — you simply won’t have enough time to charge your shots without it.

For more Assassin’s Creed Shadows guides, see our running lists of Lost Pages, Kuji-kiri, and armor locations. Or see our full Assassin’s Creed Shadows walkthrough, and our guides on how to get all companions and romance options.