Best Weapons and Nocturnal Arms Tier List

Nocturnal Arms are the weapons used by Melinoe in Hades 2. Read on to see a list of all Nocturnal Arms, the best weapons to equip, and how to unlock them.

Best Weapon

Argent Skull Is the Best Nocturnal Arm

The Argent Skull is currently the best and top-performing weapon as of the early access version of the game.

It has the highest damage among all Nocturnal Arms on top of being a ranged weapon. The caveat is that it uses skulls as ammo, and you'll need to pick them up to reload. You can work around this by using the Omega Special to dash forward with invincibility frames.

Argent Skull Guide

Weapons Tier List

Nocturnal Arms Tier List

Weapons Tier List
	Argent Skull
	Sister Blades
	Witch's Staff	Moonstone Axe
	Umbral Flames

Weapons Are Rated by Base Form

The Nocturnal Arms listed are ranked according to their performance in combat regardless of Boons, Keepsakes, Arcana, Aspect, and Daedalus Hammer upgrade selection.

All Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

Best Weapons Tier List Explanation

S Tier

Jump to a Weapon Tier

Argent Skull

Argent Skull		Blast foes with explosive Attacks, and retreive the Shells with lunging Specials.

The Argent Skull boasts the highest damage of all Nocturnal Arms, on top of being a ranged weapon. It also has an Omega Special with two properties making it particularly strong.

First, it's a long forward dash with invincibility frames, making it a powerful repositioning tool to pick up skulls safely and avoid attacks. This circumvents its need to manually walking over to your skulls and “reload”.

Second, it releases multiple shockwaves over a wide area that damage enemies in your wake. Combine this with a Boon that improves your Omega Special and you'll be clearing rooms in no time.

A Tier

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Sister Blades

Sister Blades		Slash with furious Attacks, or strike afar with a flurry of Specials.

The Sister Blades is a versatile melee weapon with quick attacks, a repositioning tool in its Omega Attack, and some ranged attack options.

It is the typical jack of all trades weapon that can be adapted to a variety of builds.

B Tier

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Witch's Staff

Witch's Staff		Strike with a quick close-range Attack, or long-range Specials and Omega Moves.

The Witch's Staff is the starter weapon that focuses on ranged combat.

It has a long reach with its medium to long range attacks, but it comes at the cost of having low damage output. You'll need to remedy this by carefully selecting Boons that increase your damage.

Moonstone Axe

Moonstone Axe		Deliver slow but devastating Attacks, or defend and retaliate with your Specials.

The Moonstone Axe is a hard-hitting melee weapon but is held back by its slow attacks.

It's able to block enemy attacks but you remain stationary, which is basically a death sentence in the later regions. Immaculate usage of Cast is required as the long wind-up times could get you run over by armored enemies.

C Tier

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Umbral Flames

Umbral Flames		Launch damaging ranged Attacks as you move, or Specials that orbit around you.

The Umbral Flames is a long range weapon that fire projectiles rapidly but have paltry damage. Most of its damage come from Omega Specials, forcing you to increase max Magick or get sources of Magick regen.

All Weapons List

Weapon	Description	Crafting Materials
Witch's Staff	Strike with a quick close-range Attack, or long-range Specials and Omega Moves.	・N/A
Sister Blades	Slash with furious Attacks, or strike afar with a flurry of Specials.	・Silver x 1
Umbral Flames	Launch damaging ranged Attacks as you move, or Specials that orbit around you.	・Silver x 3 ・Cinder x 3
Moonstone Axe	Deliver slow but devastating Attacks, or defend and retaliate with your Specials.	・Silver x 15
Argent Skull	Blast foes with explosive Attacks, and retreive the Shells with lunging Specials.	・Bronze x 1 ・G.Rock x 2

These are the base forms of each of the Nocturnal Arms. Each weapon may also embody aspects of others wielders. These manifest in the form of Weapon Aspects and provide additional bonuses while also requiring you to change your playstyle.

Weapon Aspects Guide: Best Aspects and Upgrades

How to Unlock All Weapons

Unlock Craftable Weapons by Playing

While Melinoe starts out with the Witch's Staff, you can unlock the other weapons by crafting them in the Crossroads.

While some weapons can be crafted at the start, Weapons like the Argent Skull are unlocked after progressing the story some more.

Boons Affect Weapons Differently

Since Boons from Gods affect your Attack, Special, and Cast, it would also mean that the same Boon will affect each Nocturnal Arm differently. Aphrodite's close-range buffs are strong for weapons like Sister Blades and Moonstone Axe, but may be less efficient for long ranged weapons like Umbral Flames.

Boons will also change your weapon's visual effects once you obtain them, displaying elements referencing the God you obtained the Boon from.

List of All Boons

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