Best Early Game Weapons in No Rest for the Wicked

No Rest for the Wicked has just been released in early access and it’s a mix of multiple RPG genres. Put simply, the game smartly mixes soulslike and action RPG mechanics, giving its systems a unique identity. The same can be said with its weapons, so here are the best weapons for leveling early on in No Rest for the Wicked.

Best Weapons to Get Early in No Rest for the Wicked

A Singular Purpose – One-Handed Knife

This is one of the one-handed knives you can find early on as you explore, kill enemies, and open chests. What makes this particular knife so useful is its combo animations. You wouldn’t think such a weapon would have a lot of range, but the very first attack in the combo has you spinning and slashing with a surprising amount of distance.

The additional follow-up combo attacks also have some decent reach. The weapon’s ‘Fierce Dash’ ability is a running stab with a surprising amount of range too. This allows you to easily dash in, do damage, and dodge out. Rinse, repeat, win—even if you’re on the Steam Deck.

Climber’s Pick – One-Handed Hammer

The climber’s pick is what I consider a better version of the hunter’s axe. They’re both slow and heavy one-handed weapons with similar weapon-throwing abilities. Where the climber’s pick succeeds in being a better weapon is in its combo animations. The hunter’s axe has a remarkably long wind up to the first attack, making it more difficult to use than the climber’s pick’s much faster jabs and slashes. Even better is that the climber’s pick only needs 11 Strength and 11 Faith to use.

But yes, the climber’s pick can be thrown like a boomerang that also does fire damage and hits enemies multiple times. It’s certainly one of the strongest weapon runes early on and is on par with the hunter’s axe’s similar throwing rune.

Claymore – Two-Handed Greatsword

What’s not to love about swinging around a huge sword like Guts from Berserk? The Claymore has huge sweeping attacks that do massive damage and have even more reach, which makes up for its attack combo taking some time to complete—especially charge attacks. Thankfully, you will quickly notice that while you’re attacking with it, you aren’t so easily stunned out of your combos.

Even better is that you can parry attacks using the claymore, especially if you’re like me and you roll a rare with three perks that buff parrying. Finally, the Juggle Strike rune this weapon comes with is a very powerful attack that can deal a lot of damage and build up an enemy’s stagger meter by quite a bit more than normal.

Gnarled Staff – Two-Handed Staff

And finally, the gnarled staff two-handed staff, the first spell-casting weapon you’re very likely to get your hands on. The gnarled staff’s rune is ‘Fireball’ and it can be charged to become quite the potent spell that does over 15 damage at base level fully charged. This spellcasting staff also comes with another rune called ‘Channel’ that sacrifices some HP to give you focus.

Once you unlock multiple weapon slots, you can switch to the gnarled staff, and use ‘Channel’ before switching back to your weapon of choice and using some food to heal the hp you just converted to focus.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with these weapons when starting out. They perform even better once you socket some more weapon runes, find some rare rolls, or socket elemental jewels in them.

For more on No Rest for the Wicked, check out our best settings guide.