This page details everything you need to know about the best weapons available in Grounded. There isn’t necessarily a best weapon for everyone, since it will depend on your personal playstyle and also on the types of enemies that you’re facing. There are some weapons which will inflict more damage on specific creatures than others, so it’s worth considering different weapons for different scenarios. We’ll cover all that and more in detail below!

Best Melee and Ranged Weapons in Grounded¶

To keep things fairly simple, we’ll be covering the best melee and ranged weapons in Grounded to give you a good idea of what you should be aiming for to make your combat experiences in the game much easier. We won’t list them in any particular order because each one of them can be more useful than another in a specific situation, depending both on your playstyle and the type of creature that you’re fighting.

You’ll notice that we include two or more weapons for each category. This is because there are often at least two weapons which are so similar in performance that it becomes difficult to discern which one is better. In these cases, the better weapon is entirely dependant on the use case scenario, which we’ll cover in each category.

Upgrading Weapons¶

Most of the weapons listed below can be upgraded to at least level, 6 and even level 9. At level 6 you will have the option to apply a specific damage type to your weapon if it doesn’t already have one by default, out of the following options:

• Fresh
• Spicy
• Salty
• Sour

If you want to learn more about how to upgrade weapons and the benefits that this can bring, see our page on How to Upgrade Weapons in Grounded.

Fastest One-Handed Melee Weapons¶

Toenail Scimitar / Widow Dagger / Rusty Spear¶

These are three of our favorite weapons because they all combine speed and damage in a deadly way, while also providing good stamina management. The Widow Dagger is particularly underrated, perhaps due to its modest visual appearance, but don’t let that fool you. This little dagger can inflict massive amounts of damage in a short space of time, and it will also apply poison damage over time. If nothing else, this dagger feels the fastest out of all the other weapons to us, but its real value comes from the way it manages stamina consumption while doing this. If you compare it with other weapons, you can inflict similar amounts of damage to one or more enemies while retaining a lot of stamina. There is also no pause in the combo animations, allowing you to spam attacks without interruption until your foe is dead. The same is true of the Rusty Spear, but you won’t be able to execute as many attacks before you stamina is depleted.

To provide a clear comparison, the Toenail Scimitar allows you to execute just 13 regular strikes before your stamina is entirely depleted. The Rusty Spear allows you to execute a more impressive 20, but the Widow Dagger allows for 26. If you consider each weapon only in these terms, you might assume that the Widow Dagger is the best out of all three in any scenario. That would be true if you just want to slash through multiple enemies or one large enemy with as many hits as possible, but you should also consider the fact that both the Rusty Spear and Toenail Scimitar inflict slightly greater damage per hit than the Widow Dagger, which can be useful if you’re only fighting enemies which will die before you run out of stamina anyway. For longer duration fights, the Widow Dagger may be more useful, but this gets more complicated when you factor in the possibility of consuming stamina by sprinting to avoid incoming attacks from enemies.

Another thing that should be taken into consideration when choosing which of these weapons might be more useful for you is the damage types. The Rusty Spear and Toenail Scimitar both inflict infection (also known as rust) damage, while the Widow Dagger inflicts poison. You’ll need to look at the weaknesses of each enemy type that you encounter to decide which is more useful. In addition, the Rusty Spear deals stabbing damage, while the Widow Dagger and Toenail Scimitar deal slashing damage, each of which can be more effective against specific enemies.

Ultimately our preference here is the Widow Dagger, simply because it allows you to slash at enemies for a longer period than nearly any other weapon. You may feel like a bit of a glass cannon as you do this, but it’s worth it as you see enemy health bars ripped to shreds in seconds.

Most Powerful Ranged Weapons¶

Insect Bow / Black Ox Crossbow / Sour Staff¶

Now for a completely different playstyle. If you prefer to play as someone who focuses on inflicting ranged damage rather than getting up close and personal with all those nasty bugs, there are three main options available to you: Bows, Crossbows, and Staffs. Of all three weapon types, our picks are the Insect Bow, Black Ox Crossbow, and Sour Staff. Although each of these are ranged weapons, they are quite different in terms of their handling and potential damage output.

The Insect Bow is likely to be the first decent ranged weapon that you can craft, so you’ll have plenty of time to play with this and get used to its capabilities. It inflicts decent damage with reasonable speed, and it provides you with versatility in terms of damage output type since you can craft different types of arrows for it such as Gas Arrows, Venom Arrows, Spicy Arrows, Mint Arrows, Salt Arrows, Sour Arrows, Bomb Arrows, and even Lure Arrows. Each of these will be useful depending on the type of enemy that you’re fighting, so be sure to check their weaknesses if you’re going into a fight where you know what the type of enemy that you’ll be encountering most is.

The Bomb Arrows and Gas Arrows can be particularly deadly, requiring only a few to take down even the most dangerous creatures. However, you’ll need to be careful to avoid getting too close when using these arrow types, since you could sustain damage from the gas cloud that comes from Gas Arrows, or from the explosion from a Bomb Arrow. The Lure Arrows provide a useful tool which you can use to goad creatures into a specific place, ready to trap or ambush.

The Black Ox Crossbow functions in a similar way to the Insect Bow. It uses the same arrows as you use for the bow, even though they should technically be bolts. This does however provide you with a degree of versatility if you want to use both at different times, while keeping the same arrows for use with each. The main difference between the bow and the crossbow is that the latter consumes slightly more stamina than the bow, and it takes much longer to load and fire the next arrow than the bow does. To make up for this, the crossbow generally inflicts much more damage than the bow, but this doesn’t always matter if you’re using explosive or toxic arrows, as the effect will be the same.

The final ranged weapon we’ll cover is the Sour Staff. This is one of three staffs that can be crafted, the other two being the Mint Staff and the Spicy Staff. The reason we’ve chosen to highlight the Sour Staff is that it inflicts vastly more stun damage, giving you more opportunities to render your enemies immobile for a few seconds. However, if you’re fighting creatures which are more vulnerable to Spicy or Fresh damage, you may want to use one of the other staffs instead.

The reasons for using the Sour Staff are fairly simple: it’s an incredibly powerful ranged weapon which allows you to cast AoE (Area of Effect) magical damage while kiting enemies, allowing you to remain at a safe distance from danger as you fight. There are some enemies which will charge you constantly, such as Wolf Spiders, but each hit from the magic damage of the staff will push them back slightly, and since the chance to stun them is high, you can effectively keep them away from you for an entire fight if you’re lucky.

The Sour Staff is potentially most useful against multiple powerful creatures that you need to keep a safe distance from. The main downside to the weapon is that it consumes a lot of stamina per cast, and it takes a while longer to kill some enemies since you have to wait for the magic damage to reach them. You will also inflict more damage in a shorter amount of time with faster weapons such as the Widow Dagger, but using this will leave you more vulnerable to attack.

With that said, if you’re into ranged weapons and you like to keep a safe distance, any one of the Insect Bow, Black Ox Crossbow, or Sour Staff will serve you well. The latter also has the added bonus of looking spectacular, especially at night, as shown in the gif below.

Best Tank Build Weapons¶

Tiger Mosquito Rapier / Tick Macuahuitl¶

As we return to melee weapons, we’ll cover what we consider to be two of the best weapons for anyone who wants to create a good tank build. These are the Tiger Mosquito Rapier and the Tick Macuahuitl, and the reason why we think they’re among the best tank weapons is mostly due to their special gear bonus, which is a +Life Steal, defined simply as “Heal when dealing damage”. This does exactly what it implies: it allows you to heal slightly each time you hit an enemy with the weapon, and the amount that you heal can be significant, since both of these weapons are among the fastest in the game.

The Tick Macuahuitl inflicts more base damage than the Tiger Mosquito Rapier, while the rapier inflict slightly more stun. They have the same speed, but the Tick Macuahuitl allows for 13 hits before your stamina is depleted, while the Tiger Mosquito Rapier allows for 16. In addition, much like the Toenail Scimitar, the Tick Macuahuitl has a three hit combo before being interrupted by a brief pause in attacking, while the Tiger Mosquito Rapier allows you to continually stab without any interruption until your stamina is depleted.

This means that the rapier is potentially better for restoring health without interruption with the life steal, and you will also have a slightly greater chance of stunning the enemy, which can give you a window to breathe and recover stamina or execute those last few attacks before the enemy can retaliate. On the other hand, you will need to consider the fact that the Tick Macuahuitl inflicts slashing damage, while the Tiger Mosquito Rapier inflicts stabbing damage. If the creature you’re fighting is weak to one of these and not the other, the choice is clear.

Both of these weapons are excellent choices as a tank, but to make the most of them you’ll want to pair them with a decent shield. The Weevil Shield is almost certain to be the first that you’re capable of crafting, but there’s also the tier II Black Ant Shield, the tier III Ladybird Shield, and the tier III Fire Ant Shield. The main focus here is having one of the above weapons as a quick way to restore health mid-fight, but a good shield will increase your defences substantially. If you’re looking for a lower tier weapon that functions in a similar way to the rapier or the macuahuitl, the Mosquito Needle is a good option that can be crafted in the early game.

Best Blunt Two-Handed Weapons¶

Mint Mace / Club of the Mother Demon / Fire Ant Club¶

Next we’ll cover the big hitters: two-handed blunt weapons which inflict massive amounts of damage at the cost of increased stamina consumption and much slower attack speed. These weapons will be suited to players who prefer a slower pace of melee combat, but who still want to inflict a lot of damage per hit. Each of the above weapons have a high chance of stun, with Club of the Mother Demon and Fire Ant Club slightly edging out the Mint Mace in this area.

All of these blunt weapons are the same speed, which is to say: very slow. They will feel a lot more cumbersome than pretty much any other melee weapon, but they can make up for it in massive amounts of damage per hit, especially if you score a critical hit with one of them. You can execute 6 regular hits before your stamina is completely depleted for each of the weapons, and each weapon has a 3 hit combo which will result in a brief pause after 3 hits before you can strike again.

In many ways these three weapons perform so similarly that there’s hardly any detectable difference. However, the main differences are that the Club of the Mother Demon inflicts significantly more base damage than the other two, and the Mint Mace inflicts slightly less stun. With that said, there is still a viable use for each depending on your situation. The Mint Mace also inflicts Fresh damage, making it ideal for fights in which you’re facing any creature weak to that damage type. It that scenario, it becomes the most damaging weapon of the three above.

The Fire Ant Club may seem like nothing more than a nerfed version of the Club of the Mother Demon initially, but its special gear effect provides it with a potential advantage in some situations: the +Crit Daze allows critical hits to cause enemies to attack much slower for a short duration. So, if you combine the Fire Ant Club with a high crit chance build, it becomes much more useful if you’re lucky, not to mention that it’s generally much easier to craft based on available materials than the Club of the Mother Demon.

Best Balanced Two-Handed Weapons¶

Antlion Greatsword / Scythe of Blossoms / Spicy Coaltana / Sour Battle Axe¶

Finally, we’ll cover four additional two-handed weapons which have significantly more speed than the blunt weapons, but less damage in most cases. These are still big hitters, but if you prefer a faster melee combat experience you will find them more enticing than the blunt weapons. In addition, there are more options among these four weapons in terms of damage types, so you might want to switch between one or two of them for specific situations.

We’ll start with the Scythe of Blossoms, which has the same speed as the Widow Dagger, more damage output and slightly more stun. You may be wondering why you’d ever choose the Widow Dagger over the Scythe of Blossoms, and the truth is that you probably wouldn’t most of the time. However, it suffers from the same issue that the other two-handed weapons do: you can only strike three times in a row before you’re interrupted for a brief period before you can begin the next combo, and you can only strike 7 times before your stamina is completely depleted. If you’re fighting an enemy which is weak to chop damage this isn’t such an issue, since you may defeat them before you stamina runs out, but otherwise you’ll need to carefully consider the potential for other weapons to be better suited for specific scenarios.

The Scythe of Blossoms has another feature which none of the others in this group of four can offer: a special gear effect which increases the damage multiplier of critical hits. This can be useful for builds with high crit chance, since each of your crits will inflict more damage than normal.

The Antlion Greatsword feels quite different from the Scythe of Blossoms. It has much slower attack speed and therefore feels potentially cumbersome in combat, but it also inflicts more damage. You’ll have the same number of hits (7) before your stamina is depleted, but the other main difference here is that it inflicts slashing damage. You should therefore consider this against any enemy weak to that damage type, in which case you may be able to kill it before your stamina runs out due to the increased damage it offers.

The Spicy Coaltana is probably one of the most visually appealing weapons in the game. It looks great in the dark as embers and smoke seem to emit from it with each strike, and the same effect is visible during the day, although to a lesser extent. But what about its stats? Well, it’s one of the few melee weapons which offers spicy damage by default, making it a great choice against the many creatures who are weak to this damage type. However, other than this it has exactly the same stats as the Antlion Greatsword, so you will need to consider its use based on the specific types of enemies that you expect to be using it against.

And now the last weapon in this category: the Sour Battle Axe. This one is a real underrated gem that often seems to be overlooked. It has the same level of attack speed as the Antlion Greatsword and Spicy Coaltana, but it comes with much greater stunning capabilities. Add to this the fact that it inflicts sour damage by default, and you’ve got yourself a deadly two-handed swinger. It may not look as cool as the Spicy Coaltana, but this axe will make short work of most enemies, especially those weak to sour damage, and it’s ultimately our preferred choice between the four in this category.