The Age of War update for Conan Exiles introduced a host of changes to the purge, loot, and combat systems. There have also been changes to different weapons, especially legendary weapons, making them much more powerful than they were previously. There’s a great deal of choice between all the different types of main weapons, so that any new or returning players may feel overwhelmed after all the changes. This page will serve as a guide to the best legendary weapons available, covering swords, axes, katanas, spears, maces, daggers, bows, and shields. We’ll also detail how the perks on each of these weapons work such as Diseased, Bleed, Gouging, Corrupted, and many others that aren’t explained in the tooltips for the weapons in-game. Finally, we’ll discuss whether specific weapons are best for PvP (Player vs Player) or PvE (Player vs Environment) combat.

Best Type of Weapon To Use in Conan Exiles?¶

The first thing to note about legendary weapons in Conan Exiles is that you don’t need to limit yourself to a specific type of weapon to make sure that you have the best of the best. There are many weapons of pretty much all types that are capable of inflicting massive amounts of damage, so it mostly comes down to whether a particular type of weapon suits your style. There are some exceptions to this, and we’ll note these as we go through those we’ve chosen, but for the most part, you should focus on choosing the weapon type that you enjoy using most.

On this page we cover the following main weapon types, and you can click on the links below to jump to the category you’re most interested in.

• Swords
• Axes
• Katanas
• Spears
• Maces
• Daggers
• Bows
• Shields

Best Legendary Swords in Conan Exiles¶

The two main types of sword are one-handed and two-handed swords. The former generally inflict less damage overall, but they allow you to wield off-hand weapons such as shields or throwing axes.

One-Handed Swords¶

There are three main one-handed swords that have a lot to offer in terms of damage output, but also crucially in terms of their perks. These are Alligator Bite, Render, and the Sword of Champions. You can see their stats in the table below, but note that the Sword of Champions has the highest damage output of the three, and slightly more armor penetration.

If you’re already familiar with the perks/status effects of Bleed and Gouge, you’ll know that both can inflict damage over time. However, they do this in different ways. While Bleed can stack up to 20 times and reach a total of 27 damage per second, Gouge can only reach a total of 20 damage per second, and also stacks up to 20 times. However, the Bleed effect will last for only 8 seconds, while Gouge lasts for 20 seconds, so which effect inflicts the most amount of damage will depend on the duration of a fight, and how many times you can hit the foe.

For this reason, you may prefer the Alligator Bite over the Sword of Champions in some circumstances, but ultimately the latter will inflict more damage in most combat scenarios. The Render sword, on the other hand, has neither Gouge or Bleed for its perk, but instead has the Cripple status effect. This will slow the enemy by 30 - 50% of their total movement speed, depending on how many times you land a hit, and can stack up to 5 times. Unfortunately, the cripple effect only lasts for 2 seconds, so you’ll need to keep applying it if you want to make the most of it, but it’s great for slowing people in PvP fights.

In an ideal world, you’d be able to dual-wield two of these swords, but that feature still isn’t present in Conan Exiles, at least for one-handed swords. Instead, you’ll need to choose the sword that applies most to your playstyle, but also in accordance with what you need most for a particular fight.

Two-Handed Swords¶

There are a lot more options to choose from two-handed legendary swords than there are from one-handed variants, but there are still some clear winners. There isn’t much that differentiates many of them, so we’ll stick to a top 3 as we did with the one-handed swords.

For our top 3 picks, we’d recommend Annihilator, Mastodon Killer, and The Papyrus Blade. The Annihilator sword has only the second highest base damage of the three, but it comes with significantly higher armor penetration at 33%, and two great perks in the form of Cripple and Executioner. We’ve already discussed why the Cripple perk is useful, but having this combined with Executioner is even more powerful. This perk will allow you to one-hit any enemy that is at 10% health or lower, making it incredibly useful against foes with a lot of health, which might otherwise take you a lot longer to get through that last 10%.

Annihilator would be our first choice for two-handed swords, but there’s also the Mastodon Killer if you want a bit more base damage per hit. This will depend on the type of enemy that you face, since it has only 22% armor penetration, meaning that you could still be inflicting more damage with Annihilator against enemies with a lot of armor. Still, in general, Mastodon Killer should inflict more damage against creatures without armor, and it still has the Cripple perk.

A third option would be The Papyrus Blade. This one has similar base damage to Annihilator, but less armor penetration at 24%. However, it has a good combination of perks with both Cripple and Paper Cut, the latter being a form of bleed that inflicts 2 damage per second for 8 seconds. Sadly, you can’t stack this bleed like you can with the regular Bleed or Gouge perk, but it’s something to consider if you want at least some capacity for damage over time debuffs on a two-handed sword.

Best Legendary Axes in Conan Exiles¶

There are three types of axe in Conan Exiles: one-handed, two-handed, and dual-wielded. The two-handed axes have more damage overall, but they’re much slower than the others. The one-handed axes are good if you want to wield a shield or throwing weapon alongside them, and the dual-wielding axes are good if you prefer focusing on damage over time and swift strikes.

One-Handed Axes¶

The one-handed axes that we’ll recommend are Yog’s Touch, the Razor-sharp Axe, and the Axe of the Gate Guardian. The first of these is one of the few one-handed axes that provides armor penetration by default at 28%, which is generally higher than most other one-handed weapons. On top of this, you’ve got a decent amount of base damage to work with and the Shieldsmash perk, something that most other one-handed axes have. This perk does what you might expect: it allows you to ignore the defensive capabilities of any enemy wielding a shield, effectively rendering it useless.

The thing that sets Yog’s Touch apart from the other one-handed axes, however, is the presence of the Corrupted perk. This functions in a similar way to the corruption that you can get in The Unnamed City: it will slowly drain the opponent of their health and stamina, but only for a short duration and only after using heavy attacks.

The Razor-sharp Axe does more base damage than Yog’s Touch, but instead of applying corruption it applies the bleed effect instead. This often results in more damage for a greater length of time, so it’s better in most situations. If you’re facing creatures without armor you’ll inflict more damage with this axe than you would be doing with Yog’s Touch, but if you factor in the 28% armor penetration that the latter provides, that makes Yog’s Touch better against any armored opponents.

The Axe of the Gate Guardian has the same amount of base damage as the Razor-sharp Axe, but it comes with the Sunder perk instead of Bleed. This effect will remove 10% of the opponent’s armor protection value for 10 seconds, and this can stack up to 50% if you land 5 hits within a short period of time. If you can do this consistently, you’ll inflict more overall damage than both Yog’s Touch and the Razor-sharp Axe, but only against armored opponents. Other than this perk, which theoretically makes it the most powerful axe against armored foes, the axe functions in exactly the same way as the others.

Two-Handed Axes¶

There are currently only two legendary two-handed axes in the game, and one of these doesn’t even look like an axe! These are called the Morning Sun, and the Scythe of Thag. Although the latter looks more like a… well, scythe - it functions in exactly the same way as the Morning Sun, which is definitely a two-handed axe. Both inflict more base damage than any of the one-handed axes, but they also come with significantly higher stamina costs per swing.

The Scythe of Thag has slightly higher base damage than the Morning Sun, but you may still prefer the latter if you’re fighting armored opponents, since it comes with the previously mentioned Sunder perk that is so powerful against them. You can really eat through the health of tough armored opponents with this axe, but you can do the same (albeit in a slower way) with the bleed effect that comes from the Scythe of Thag.

The weapon you choose will therefore depend entirely on your playstyle; if you prefer to kite enemies as you try to avoid their hits by running, the bleed effect from the Scythe of Thag could be more beneficial. However, if you’re confident in your dodge-roll abilities at close range, it’s difficult to beat the Morning Sun.

Dual-Wielding Axes¶

As with the two-handed axes, there are only two legendary dual-wielding axes that you can currently find in Conan Exiles. And, as with the two-handed variants, one of these functions as dual-wielding axes when they’re actually sickles, officially known as the War Sickles. The other is called Hunger Blades, and the main thing that distinguishes them is the fact that the former is an agility-based weapon, while the latter is strength-based. They both have the same level of base damage, and their armor penetration is similar enough for there to be little perceived difference.

Aside from these points, the perks on these dual-wielding weapons are particularly deadly in the right hands. The Hunger Blades come with both the Bleed and the Diseased perks, both of which can inflict damage over time. The main difference is that the bleed effect negates armor values, while the diseased damage over time effect recognizes them. Still, you have very little to lose with both of these perks on one axe, making for a potent combination, especially when you consider that the diseased effect also removes sated and hydrated status from a foe, while at the same time decreasing their stamina regeneration.

The War Sickles have another potent combination of perks, this time in the form of Bleed and Gouging. You’ll inflict more damage overall with these two, but you’ll sacrifice the ability to deplete the sated and hydrated status from a foe, and decrease their stamina regeneration. The War Sickles are arguably better overall for long-term damage output, but it really depends on what you value most in a fight. As mentioned, the differences here are only between the perks and the attribute that either set of weapons is based on (strength and agility).

Best Legendary Katanas in Conan Exiles¶

There are only a handful of legendary katanas currently in the game, and most of them are good. However, four of these stand out from the rest: the Curved Slayer, Musashi’s Black Blade, Jagged Edge, and the Blade of Seven Winds. This last one is more of an honorable mention, mostly due to the fact that it has much less base damage output than the others. The reason why it’s still worth mentioning is that it has 100% armor penetration, allowing you to completely negate any armor that an opponent is wearing. As a result, if you’re facing a particularly difficult armored foe, this one could be preferable.

The Blade of Seven Winds has a rather specific use case, but the others are good for most combat situations, depending on your preferences. Musashi’s Black Blade has the highest amount of base damage, and it comes with two of the most useful perks in the form of Bleed and Cripple. We’ve discussed what these can do already in the form of inflicting damage over time while slowing an opponent. This blade also comes with 13% armor penetration, which is comparable with the other three (but not the Blade of Seven Winds, of course.)

The next best katana on the list is arguably the Curved Slayer. This one comes with slightly less base damage than Musashi’s Black Blade, but the main difference is the presence of the Executioner perk in place of Cripple. This will allow you to finish off any opponent that is on 10% health or lower in a single hit guaranteeing their death instantly, something which is rather handy when you’re fighting enemies with large amounts of health that would otherwise take considerably more time to eat through.

The final katana to mention here is the Jagged Edge. This has significantly less base damage than the other two, but it comes with two of the most effective damage over time perks in the form of Bleed and Gouging. As mentioned earlier, if this fits your playstyle more in terms of applying stacks of DoTs while sitting back, it may be preferable.

Best Legendary Spears in Conan Exiles¶

There’s only one legendary spear that is one-handed, but it actually inflicts more base damage than the two-handed variants. Things get more interesting when you take into account the superior reach and damage-dealing perks on the two-handed spears, however.

One-Handed Spear¶

There aren’t many legendary spears available in the game, and only one of them is one-handed, but we feel that there are five of them worth mentioning: Riptide, Black Dragon Pike, Gavain’s Rusty Pike, Mordlun, and the Lifeblood Spear. The reason why we have more of these mentioned than most other weapons is for the unique set of perks that they have available, while all being on a similar level in terms of their base damage output.

The only exception to this is the Riptide spear, which is the one-handed variant. This actually inflicts the most amount of base damage between all of these spears, and it also comes with the Water Breathing perk, which does what it says on the tin. A useful spear by any account, but not necessarily the most effective in combat.

Two-Handed Spears¶

The main reason why you might prefer a two-handed spear is for its superior reach. You don’t gain any reach advantage from the one-handed spear mentioned above (you can throw it instead, which is fairly useless if you have other ranged weapons), but with all of the others you’ll be able to stay further away from enemies as you attack them with superior reach. Aside from this, the only thing that differentiates them in a significant way is their perks, as with most other legendary weapons.

The Mordlun spear has the highest base damage if we discount Riptide, but it also comes with the Corrupted perk. As mentioned earlier, this will slowly drain the health and stamina of your opponents, which can be useful in long battles. The Black Dragon Pike is next in line in terms of base damage, but its main perk is Bleed, which will inflict more damage more quickly than corruption, so long as you continue to stack it to its full potential.

The Lifeblood Spear is next in line. It has less base damage than the other spears, but it comes with the Regeneration perk which allows you to passively regen health, both in and out of combat. This won’t be relevant to everyone, but it can be useful in situations where you’re in a lot of trouble and you’re out of healing items, not to mention handy as you’re exploring.

Finally, we come to Gavain’s Rusty Pike. This actually has the lowest base damage between all of the spears previously mentioned, but it comes with the Diseased perk, which can more than make up for it. We’ve touched on this perk above, but it really is one of the best when it comes to inflicting damage over time, especially since it does this by a percentage of health (0,5%) every 10 seconds, and it’s stackable up to 10 times. A truly devastating combination for any enemy with a sufficiently high amount of health for it to be useful.

Best Legendary Maces in Conan Exiles¶

There are a lot of good legendary maces to choose from, but we’ve narrowed it down to just three for each category of one-handed and two-handed maces. These can inflict massive amounts of damage, especially against shielded and armored opponents.

One-Handed Maces¶

The three recommended one-handed maces that we’ve chosen are Momentum, Quake, and Mitra’s Justice. The Momentum mace has the most amount of base damage between these by far, allowing you to inflict much more damage per hit than the others. However, it comes at the cost of having no additional perks, so it’s a killing machine with no frills. Perfect for those who prefer such a weapon.

The Quake one-handed mace has the second-highest base damage, but it also comes with the Sunder perk, which as we’ve discussed can reduce the armor value of an opponent by up to 50% when fully stacked. This makes it the most devastating mace of the three when fighting armored opponents.

The last one-handed mace of note is Mitra’s Justice. This one has the least amount of base damage and not much in the way of offensive perks, but it does come with the rare and useful Plundering perk, which has the ability to remove the buffs of an opponent with each hit, something that can be especially handy in PvP environments, but also against enemies that are buffed in PvE.

Two-Handed Maces¶

In the two-handed mace category, there are two clear winners: Hanuman’s Gada and Ranissan. The former has the most amount of base damage between all of the other two-handed maces by far, and it also has 45% armor penetration. Combine this with the Sunder perk, and you’ve got a mace that can not only inflict massive amounts of damage to any foe, but it will almost completely negate all armor once Sunder is stacked five times. This is a brutal weapon that will inflict more damage to most enemies than almost any other weapon, but it comes at the cost of a whopping 50 weight, making it far heavier than most.

The Ranissan mace has significantly less base damage than Hanuman’s Gada, but it comes with the same armor penetration and also the Corrupted perk. This can be a useful option if you still want a lot of base damage output, but you also want some damage over time while draining a foe’s stamina. Either way, these two are above most of the competition when it comes to two-handed maces, but if you’re looking for a less powerful agility-based alternative, you can try the Bec-de-Corbin mace. It doesn’t come with perks, but it has slightly more armor penetration abilities than the other two.

Best Legendary Daggers in Conan Exiles¶

There are two different types of daggers that you can equip in Conan Exiles: regular dual-wielding daggers and punching daggers. There are more of the former than the latter, and they are similar in many ways with regard to base damage output and perks. However, they do function slightly differently in how they attack, with different animations for each. The preferred version won’t be the same for everyone, so you may want to experiment with both to find out which you like more.

Dual-Wielding Daggers¶

There are more regular dual-wielding daggers than any others in this category, and there are at least five of these which are worth mentioning here. However, two of them (Zhaibar Knives and Diseased Knives) are exactly the same in their stats, so you should consider these as essentially the same weapon. The others are similar, but they have some differences in perks that will appeal to different playstyles. These are the Heartsblood, Set’s Tongue, and The Shank daggers.

It’s worth noting from the start that the Zhaibar Knives and Diseased Knives inflict the most amount of damage thanks to the combination of their shared perks: Bleed and Diseased. We’ve already discussed why the latter perk is so powerful, but when you combine it with bleed you can achieve some truly impressive numbers from your damage over time debuffs. If you prefer daggers with both the Bleed and Gouging perks, Heartsblood may be a better option, the main difference being that Gouging ignores armor value as it eats away at health, while Diseased does not.

If you’d rather focus on slowing your enemies while still inflicting a bleed, The Shank is the only dagger in this category which applies the Cripple debuff. This can be particularly useful for PvP environments, but also during PvE when you need to slow a tough enemy as you let the bleed sink in. Set’s Tongue is another good option for both PvP and PvE, primarily due to the Plundering perk which will actively remove the buffs from your target with each hit. It also comes with a bleed, so you won’t be sacrificing that if you opt for this one.

Punching Daggers¶

Moving on to the Punching Daggers, there are two of these worth considering: Diseased Spike and Nimblefinger. The former is similar to the Zhaibar Knives and Diseased Knives above, having the same perks and roughly the same base damage. However, they have less armor penetration at 9%, so they’re not quite as good against armored opponents. The main difference here comes from the way they actually function in battle: you’ll find that the regular daggers have more reach than the punching daggers, so you also have greater maneuverability with the regular daggers as a result.

The other punching dagger worth mentioning, called Nimblefinger, is a bit more interesting. It comes with much lower base damage than the others, but it compensates for this with 100% armor penetration, making it extremely effective against armored foes. In addition to this you have the Bleed perk to work with, so you can still achieve decent damage over time while completely negating the defenses of a heavily armored opponent.

Chakrams and Claws¶

We’ll now cover the Chakrams and Claws, which again function in a similar way to both regular and punching daggers in that they’re all agility-based weapons, and they have reasonably swift attacks at the expense of overall reach. The main three we’d recommend from these combined categories are Brittle Edge, Rip and Tear (Chakrams), and Black Claws. Brittle Edge comes with that delicious duo of the Bleed and Diseased perks, both of which can inflict significant damage over time on their own, but when combined are particularly potent. The only downside to this one is the base damage, which is substantially lower when compared with the other two.

Rip and Tear has a different specialization. It comes with the Bleed perk, so you’ll get some damage over time, but also the Sunder perk, so you’ll get up to 59% armor penetration with the combined effects of this perk and the base armor penetration of 9% on the weapon, making it much more effective against armored opponents. The final weapon in the form of Black Claws functions in the same way as the others, but it has a different aesthetic appeal if nothing else. In terms of stats, it has higher base damage than the other two, but it also comes with the Acidic perk. This one inflicts less damage over time than Bleed or Diseased, but it also negates armor values at the same time, making it potentially more damaging against armored foes.

Best Legendary Bows in Conan Exiles¶

Now for something completely different in the form of weapons that focus on ranged damage. The main category here is bows, but there are also two legendary items in other categories that you might want to consider: the Throwing Chakram and Fangs of the Red Mother (throwing axes). You can wield both of these throwing weapons in your off-hand alongside any one-handed weapon, such as a sword or axe, but once thrown you’ll have to pick them up if you want to use it again. This can be useful in PvP environments if you need to finish someone off who is running away, but it has limited use in PvE.

The bows we’ve picked are Reach of the Red Mother, Derketo’s Voice, Heartpiercer, and Hunter-In-The-Moonlight. Some of these are more powerful than others, but each has unique perks that may appeal to your particular playstyle. Reach of the Red Mother is the only exception to this, but it has the highest amount of base damage to make up for it, so if you want pure damage from ranged attacks with an agility build, it’s the go-to bow.

However, if you’re primarily focused on a strength build, Derketo’s Voice is the only comparable option here. It comes with the Power Draw perk, which just means that the damage is based on your strength stat, rather than agility. It has slightly less overall damage and 0% armor penetration, so not the absolute best for a ranged build, but still good for anyone who mainly uses strength-based melee weapons.

The other two bows have significantly less base damage, but their perks could make up for it in specific situations. Heartpiecer, for example, allows you to fire demonic arrows for free, meaning that you’ll never need to replenish your ammo. The catch here is that it comes at the cost of a significant debuff in the form of 50% corruption, which will ultimately diminish your health and stamina by 50%. In addition to this, the Heartpiercer bow has no durability, but instead has a duration of 60 minutes before it expires. At this point, it will be removed from your inventory, and you’ll need to find another if you want to use it again.

The last bow that we’ll mention, Hunter-In-The-Moonlight, is more of a gimmick for most players, but it can still be useful if you’re in a dark environment. This is because it comes with the Nightvision perk, which does what you might expect: allows you to see in the dark. It does this by washing out the colors of the world to the extent that everything appears in a bright green hue, as shown in the screenshot above. It’s an ugly effect, but nonetheless useful whenever you find yourself in the darkest depths of a dungeon without an alternative light source.

Best Legendary Shields in Conan Exiles¶

The shield isn’t technically a main weapon, but it can be a great boon to your defenses and it has the capacity to inflict some decent damage alongside a main one-handed weapon. It’s not so useful for PvP environments since most players will have weapons or attribute perks that can smash through any shield, rendering its defenses useless. However, for anything PvE related there’s always a use for at least one of these shields.

Three of the shields shown in the table above are essentially the same: Ymir’s Targe, The Black Phalanx, and the Shield of Kutamun. They each have the same health damage, armor penetration, and perks, with the exception of Ymir’s Targe which has the addition of three bars worth of heat resistance. You could go for any of these three shields and be confident in your defenses in PvE, but the main advantage they have is from the Durable perk, which as the name implies makes them particularly durable, even among shields, at 15,000 durability from the regular 7,500 for other shields.

If you’re looking for a shield with more offensive capabilities, Black Bruargh’s Fury is a better option. This comes with the Reactive Bleed perk, which will inflict the bleed debuff to any enemy that hits you with the shield equipped so long as you hold it in a defensive stance when the attack lands. It comes with similar health damage and armor penetration to the other shields, so you’re not missing out there either.

The two most unique shields here are Solspeil and Mistmourn. Both of these have the exact same base stats, but they come with the unique addition of maximum cold resistance for the former, and maximum heat resistance for the latter. As a result, they’re great for protecting you in environments where extreme cold or heat prevails, making them perfect for exploration even if you don’t plan to use them in your primary combat build.

And with that, we’ve covered all the main weapon types in Conan Exiles with our recommended legendary variants. Any of these weapons can give you an advantage in both PvP and PvE environments, but ultimately the choice is yours as to which you use for your primary build. It’s worth experimenting with each weapon type as you come across them, not least because they function in different ways with regard to their attack patterns and animations. You may find that you gel with one weapon type over another depending on your own playstyle, and given that legendary weapons can’t be repaired, it’s likely that you’ll end up using different weapons regardless.

More Conan Exiles Guides¶

If you’re looking for more Conan Exiles guides, be sure to check the links below.

• How the Purge Works in Chapter 2
• Tips for Surviving the Purge - Best Bases
• Purge Rewards in Conan Exiles
• Religions, Altars and Avatars Guide