Spiral Knights - Weapon rework suggestion: Normal damage

Weapon rework suggestion: Normal damage

7 replies [Last post]

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 10:15

Megalianae

Normal weapons in Spiral Knights are not what they once were. For the most part, the game has grown around them and has largely left them behind. There are a few gems in the pile of normal weapons - most notably long time champion Iron Slug and now the new Mandolin - however these are two weapons out of 21 (19 if both Cutters have their damage type changed). For reference, there are 71 5* weapons in the game and 19 of them are normal weapons that almost never see play.

I'd like to briefly outline some of the issues and some suggestions I have to balance some of these weapons.

What's the issue with normal damage weapons?

Normal damage weapons are antiquated in design. They once had some place in the early days of the game when most levels did not allow you to change your loadout, and you could only change at clockwork terminals and tier gate depths, however it has been 13 years (my soul aged about that much writing this) since this has been the case, and as a consequence, many of these weapons have been left to rot.

Furthermore, normal damage conceptually is also antithetical to the large pool of items that can be obtained. In an ideal scenario where normal weapons are pretty good, they would have to compete with specialist options quite significantly, and this would cause an issue with value preposition of specialized damaging weapons. Why would I craft a specialized weapon if a generalist weapon is comparable in strength for the most part? We can see this observed particularly with Iron Slug and Callahan. Callahan is a solid weapon but Iron Slug is just as good in general so most players tend to skip over it.

Normal damage weapons have to be really strong to compete - this is why earlier I specified Iron Slug and Mandolin, the next best normal damaging weapon would be Nitronome generally speaking - and Nitronome unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired (but due to the state of bomb weapons ends up being one of the best options anyway).

What do we do about this?

Truthfully, I think the game should look to convert some of the existing normal damage weapons to a specialized damage type instead. 21 normal damage weapons are far too many, and most of these are bloat as they never see play due to not being very good. The Wild Hunting Blade and Dread Venom Striker are a good step in this direction. It's one of the two ways I've come up with that can reduce the bloat and also spice up arsenals with more options. The other method would be giving additional mechanics. Some weapons are in such a compromised predicament that I can't come up with an immediate idea to improve them. That's what feedback to this thread can do for me :)

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 19:13

Megalianae

Solution 1: Converting weapon damage types

Some weapons should just be converted to another damage type. Their usecase isn't very strong right now due to direct competition or being downgrades of similar weapons, and in the case of Pepperbox, its craft line has exactly two other damage types available, which allows for effective damage against 4/6 monster families, and having an option available to do neutral damage for the remaining 2 families, making its neutral damage quite not very valuable.

Triglav -> Elemental

Triglav thankfully will be getting buffed, however it is directly competing with Sudaruska which is just as good as it - the tiebreaker being the status each weapons inflict, and between freeze and stun, I believe stun is better on a sword, making Sudaruska slightly better. Making it elemental might make it very broken in FSC however, and due to how damage of weapons trend, both weapons have to do the same amount of neutral damage.

Volcanic Pepperbox -> Elemental

Because Blitz & Plague Needle, as well as Grim Repeater exist, there is at minimum neutral coverage against all monster families with the autogun line. Consequently, Volcanic Pepperbox doesn't have much of a use case because it loses in damage against Blitz and Grim neutrally due to having a fire status. Elemental would make this weapon more appealing to use in the scenarios where you wouldn't use the aforementioned weapons. It would have more use cases, but I think would primarily see play in Ghosts in the Machine as constructs are usually paired with gremlins, so shadow would be preferable, but at least it gives the weapon more of a strong usecase than it does now.

Irontech Destroyer -> Elemental

Irontech Destroyer is the middle child of Nitronome and Big Angry Bomb. The problem is that bar Nitronome (barely), these weapons are not very good.
Irontech Destroyer could fill in the elemental damage shaped hole in the bomber's arsenal. The only elemental bomb available that is not a utility bomb is the Deadly Crystal Shard bomb, and most people should be aware that shards are not in a good place right now. I would adjust the stats (fuse time, charge time, damage and area) to be identical to current Nitronome, just with elemental damage.

Turbillion -> Shadow

I think in general Turbillion needs variants with specialized damage - but if we're just working with one final weapon in the Spur line, it could have an updated flavour matching a shadow damage theme. I'm not the strongest on this idea but I didn't want to load the game up with a bunch more elemental options while Shadow and Piercing were left behind. At time of writing there are only 3 shadow swords in live. DVS becoming shadow would be 4th, why not a 5th in Turbillion? (Also, shadow was chosen in favour of piercing as piercing-weak enemies frequently dodge projectiles and piercing would be antithetical on a sword that has a projectile).

Supernova -> Piercing (+Stun)

I don't imagine that Supernova would be a great piercing weapon as a gun that shoots slow bullets against fiends and wolvers who will dodge them - but as I've argued VP should be elemental for being in a predicament that the Supernova is also in, if I were to make the same changes with the same rationale as a motivator, I would also give the Supernova stun to help lock down the beasts and fiends that do get hit by the bullets. See the following post for a better Supernova idea.

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 18:37

Megalianae

Solution 2: Mechanics to increase damage

With the recent release of the Mandolin, Grey Havens a found a fun way to bridge the gap between a normal weapon and their specialized damage counterparts - giving the normal damage weapons unique mechanics compared to their specialized counterparts.
Compared to the Overcharged Mixer and Celestial Orbitgun, the Mandolin has the same damage, except on shots returning to the player which do slightly more damage. This idea could be explored more on some weapon families, introduce a way for them to do more damage through mechanics.

Amputator -> Defense Down! on charge attacks

Amputator is weapon that is is competing with the biggest powerhouses in the swords category. Brandishes are among the strongest weapons in the game, just not the Amputator. It's effectively (and I'm being generous with my wording here,) half a shadow weapon with its damage high vs slimes. Applying Defense Down! would be something to explore, and open this weapon up as a supportive option amongst its highly damaging counterparts. It would encourage a player to take a supportive role against grouped targets in a battle

Cold Iron Vanquisher -> Defense Down! on normal attacks, reduce knockback on hits 1 & 2 of charge attack

Exploring Defense Down! on a sword's basic attack would also be interesting, it could serve as a weapon to slot in to help pick a key target, and due to ease of access, making it a valid option to bring to supplement the rest of a loadout. Additionally, the first two hits of the charge attack should do less knockback, so that each spin can chain into each other for full damage.

Sweet Dreams -> Defense Down! on normal attacks, flinching on charge attack, reduce knockback on hits 1 & 2 of charge attack

To match CIV changes above. Furthermore, for some reason, the Sweet Dreams is unable to flinch on its charge attack, if reducing the knockback to allow for more damage, this change should also be made.

Neutralizer -> Tag tweaks

The Neutralizer conceptually is never really going to be the strongest option, but that's okay, it exists to be a fun weapon to use with friends. I think a meaningful change to the weapon line as a whole (Biohazard included!) to improve the usability of these weapons would be to automatically detonate the tags when an enemy dies. Currently they just vanish with the enemy, wasting the player's time if the tags aren't intentionally detonated. It could also set up some skill expression with certain enemies with longer death animations. Additionally, detonated Neutralizer tags should detonate neighboring tags - this is the catalyzer line after all, a chain reaction being built into the gameplay would be fun and flavourful.
As Biohazard is the only specialized counterpart to the Neutralizer, it does not seem appropriate to change its damage type.

Supernova -> Another bullet expansion stage

I believe that instead of a two stage bullet like other pulsars, Supernova should have 3 stages, with its additional stage doing even greater damage. Alternatively, we could make the Supernova start with an expanded shot and have it expand even further doing even more damage than its counterparts. I'm more particular to the second idea.

Big Angry Bomb -> Defense Down!

I'm convinced Big Angry Bomb was designed as a joke primarily, just a huge explosion that covers the whole screen for fun. That's cool, but giving it Defense Down! would give it some use case - currently it doesn't really have any value due to being somewhat anti-synergistic due to the high knockback of the weapon. I can see Defense Down! having some usecase in coordinated parties with some set up against large waves.

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 12:24

Megalianae

Solution 3: ??? What?

Some of these weapons are so bad that I don't think anyone has used them for more than maybe two hours after heating them to max in the modern day, and that's if they've even been crafted.

These following three weapons find themselves being normal weapons for lines that already have access to all three damage types. There isn't really a reason you'd craft them, and to make matters worse, they do equal damage to their specialized counterparts. These weapons at a bare minimum should do 30% more damage than their specialized counterparts. These weapons do need some mechanical changes as well on top of this, but this is just a starting point.

Valiance -> Significant damage buff, tentative 30% over specialized counterparts against neutral targets

Valiance is a victim of having it's reliability directly imposed on by the addition of Arcana, Phantamos and Riftlocker during the gunner update. I think the reliability of the blaster line is its main strength, they're just guns that shoot a simple projectile and the job done. I wouldn't want to impose on this philosophy too much, so at the very least, a 30% damage buff over its counterparts when doing neutral damage should give it some more strength. Likely wouldn't solve the lack of usecases unfortunately, but it's something.

Grand Tortofist -> Significant damage buff, tentative 30% over specialized counterparts against neutral targets
Tortofist line -> Fair chance of Moderate Shock

I don't think there's anything I can add specifically about the Grand Tortofist beyond the above damage buff, however I'd like to take a moment to talk about Tortofists as a whole.
Tortofists are very clunky mechanically making them very unwieldly, while also crippled with an arbitrary hit cap on the charge attack that tanks this weapon line's usability. The basic attacks send you forward unlike any other gun which is unique but it makes you very vulnerable, and the risk versus reward is disproportionate, as you end up taking damage for little in return. I think the staggering of this weapon should be looked at, perhaps every component of the basic attacks (both hits and both projectiles) should be able to flinch, along with general damage increases to make reaching the damage thresholds for staggering easier to do.
As for the charge attack, it makes me very sad. For some reason this weapon is damage capped and in a really unflavourful way - once you hit an enemy enough times they stop taking damage from the shards and instead enemies begin to tink link a shankle. There's two ways to design this in a better way: Either reduce the duration of the shards once they reach the ground, or more preferably, once a shard has hit an enemy enough times (tentatively: 5 times), the shard explodes for slightly increased damage.
Additionally, every tortofist should be able to shock, matching the Tortodrone's shard attack. This also locks enemies in the shards to take some damage as they will otherwise navigate around them.

Deadly Shard Bomb -> Significant damage buff, tentative 30% over specialized counterparts against neutral targets
Shard Bombs -> Damage increases, shard explosion radius increases, shard split radius reduced, additional shard in the middle of the radius after initial explosion

Hoo boy, again, like the Grand Tortofist, nothing to say for Deadly Shard Bomb specifically but I will discuss shard bombs as a whole.

Shard bombs are really close to being pretty alright, but the issue lies in some of the numbers not being good, and this goes beyond damage. The radius of the shards puts them so far away from eachother meaning that at most two shards can hit one enemy at a time. There is also no shard in the middle of the bomb once it splits, leaving a literal gap in your damage output. To solve this, adding an additional shard in the middle after the bomb splits as well as reducing the radius of the outer shards should allow for multiple shards to hit an enemy at once. To play it safe, also increasing the radius of each shardlet's damage area to make it more reliable and less precise. Mechanically this should resolve most of the issues with the bombs, and to top of it off, give the bombs as a whole some more damage to ensure they're in a good spot. Mechancially these would be a different flavour of blast bomb that require some precision in order for greater damage output against specific enemies on the field by positioning your bomb near the enemies to allow for multiple shards (minimum 2, ideally 3-4) to damage them.

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 18:54

Megalianae

Solution 3: ??? What? (cont.)

Nitronome -> General damage increases

Nitronome can remain as a jack of all trades, fairly reliable in most situations. Nitronome ends up being one of the better damaging bombs purely due to the lack of options available to bombs. I think most would agree just a touch more damage to improve the weapon. Would much rather see more options be made available to bomb users.

Leviathan Blade -> General damage increases, reduce knockback on hits 1 & 2 of charge attack.

Leviathan Blade is in a position where it can never really be amazing, but like Nitronome, general damage increases can help it bridge the gap and further slot into a jack of all trades option. More consistency from charge attack by allowing first two spins to combo into each other.

Celestial Saber -> Stagger on finisher, general damage increases, reduce knockback on hits 1 & 2 of charge attack.

For some reason, the Celestial Saber is unable to stagger enemies on the final hit of the combo. This should be given to the weapon to reduce how risky it is to use. Not being able to flinch on the slowest attack is a death sentence for this weapon. Also, increase the damage proportionally and parallel with leviathan blade. Reduced knockback changes matching Leviathan Blade (note: Celestial Saber can stun so it does less damage than Leviathan Blade)

Fri, 09/11/2026 - 19:08

Megalianae

Other notes

I've intentionally withheld talking about the following weapons:

- Iron Slug
- Mandolin

These weapons are in a good spot. I would not change them. They may be on the stronger side but for normal weapons to be viable they have to be.

- Sudaruska

If the changes proposed in the test server make it to live, Sudaruska will be in a great spot - it can remain as a strong normal damaging heavy sword option.

- Wild Hunting Blade

If the changes proposed in test server make it to live, Wild Hunting Blade will be an amazing addition to the swords arsenal, finally adding another combat style for piercing swords.

- Dread Venom Striker

Shadow damage will also save Dread Venom Striker and make it far more viable, much like with piercing swords, swords will get a 3rd combat style to shadow options.

All in all, the changes proposed in the test server have been amazing and I hope they all make it to live - I won't talk too much about them here as a result.

Sun, 09/13/2026 - 13:59

Pdtopgun

Y'know I'd never really thought about how normal weapons lost most of their utility when arsenal stations were added to nearly every level. Some good ideas in here. My trusty Leviathan Blade was my very first 5* craft, so it'd be nice to have a reason to actually use it again.

Tue, 09/15/2026 - 10:20

Tondres

Re-typed weapons

I am particularly intrigued by the idea of adding Shadow damage to the Turbillion. I have been using the Spur line because I enjoy the attack speed and combat style it provides, but in recent runs I have abandoned it in favour of swords with more useful damage, particularly those from the Brandish line. I think that the addition of Shadow damage would give it a much-needed boost when facing many enemies and would fit its jagged purple appearance well. Also, I wonder about maintaining its storm flavour and adding the chance of applying Shock to the charged attack.

As for others, I agree that the addition of Piercing damage to the Wild Hunting Blade would finally add an alternative to the Flourish line (and similar Barb line); the slashing may be more viable than the thrusts in some situations, also. I'd also appreciate having another Shadow sword (Vile Striker or otherwise) that isn't the Acheron (or its cousin, the Obsidian Edge) or the Gran Faust (which is too "heavy" for Striker-style approaches).

I think that, for weapons where changing the damage type doesn't make sense, an overall increase in damage (like your suggestion for the Nitronome) or other changes for combat viability (like your suggestion for the Celestial Saber) would bring Normal weapons in line with the split-damage or specialised alternatives, making them useful once again.

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Weapon rework suggestion: Normal damage