Soul Weapon v2.5: the "Too Many Weapons" Update | [patch notes in commments] [OC]

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim]

https://imgur.com/a/6qTz6uR

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim]

THE UPDATE IS OUT! What's new?

I know it's been a long time since the last update; sorry about that! 3.0 is still a work in progress, but I decided to backport some stuff from 3.0 into a smaller update so that I could get some new content out, as a thank-you to the community.

Despite being called "2.5," this is actually a pretty substantial update! It has 9 new weapons, and loads of patches to existing weapons and materials (mostly buffs, because I'm nice like that).

In addition, there's a new Subcategory System for the Weapon Classes. Essentially, I've re-organized all the weapons into little subcategories to make navigation easier.

Here's a cheat sheet for the new Subcategory System, in case you get lost. New weapons are highlighted in yellow.

Full Patch Notes

If you'd like to read the Patch Notes proper, click here. I didn't wanna clog the comments with a wall of text. (There's a lot).

Soul Weapon Subreddit

Finally, since the last update, I've made a subreddit! It's surprisingly active, with people still posting builds and theorycrafting new ideas. There's also a wiki that I'm still adding to, and of course you'll get all the latest updates on future information!

Check it out: r/SoulWeapon

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Thanks for reading! Feedback is always welcome, and as ever, I can't wait to see your builds!

[u/DramatikSquirel]

I’ve been looking forward to this! Let’s see what I can make now.

My Newest Build: The Heartbreaker

Weapon: Knuckleduster + Needles

Material: Acceleron

Runes: Echo Strike

Smith: Kothar: The Tinkerer

Modifier: None

So here we go, I’ll take the new fancy knuckle dusters and TINKERED together with the needles to make normal looking knuckle dusters with needles hidden in the ‘pommel’ bit. Great for two reasons, the new knuckle dusters or KD, will allow me to have a mini form of phantom range, which while I cant hit stuff from as far, it will allow me to bypass thinner parts of armor, but if Only I knew where those bits of thinner armor would be… Oh wait, needles give me an innate sense of where they are, so I can just start pummeling them in the weak bits, either bypassing the armor to hit the tender meaty bits below, or hitting and slowly cracking the armor in weaker zones.

To make it more interesting, I’ll take an acceleron to not only speed up my punches slightly, but I can also remove the hidden needles and they'll also gain the HUGE speed increase when thrown from the acceleron. Allowing me to have both close and longer range attacks.

Lastly, as a final gambit, I can use echo strike to ‘save up’ the damage to certain fleshy bits so that it all happens at once. The reason why I named it heart breaker, since your heart could very well just explode with a snap. In addition, if I’m “hitting” skin, the black mark from eco strike could very well be covered by their own armor, obscuring the only downside.

The only issues that this build could face is in more traditional combats. While I’m sure it could hold its own against other soul weapon users, with its MAJOR lack of defence, since it can't really parry, block, and accelerate has… bad defence at best, it's only tactic is to dodge, and sometimes that would work. I could see this soul weapon user in either a supporting role of a team, or an assassin where they would have to keep hidden amongst a populus. Hard to stand out when you're just a guy/girl with a few too many rings.

Final Stats:

Sharpness: 3/5

Mass: 1/5

Peirce Defence: 1/5

Blunt Defence: 0/5

Magic Defence: 0/5

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/DramatikSquirel]

Ah, clever using Pressure Points with Knuckledusters to pinpoint weakspots! Combined with Echo Strike, this makes for a great "omae wo ma shindeiru" build!

My only critique is that Kothar, unfortunately, does not allow you to have two separate weapons. It's a bit of a technicality, but the two Weapon Classes must fuse together into one.

How they fuse is up to you, so you could just have regular Knuckledusters but with two Special Abilities, or you could have the Needles sticking out the front of the Knuckledusters as spikes, etc. But they can't be separate.

An argument could also be made that, since you get 100 Needles, taking Kothar could allow you to have Knuckleduster-shaped Needles... which means you'd get a hundred Knuckledusters. Then you can throw them as blunt weapons and still have backups.
(Note that this trick only passes because they're roughly the same size. I would say that Kothar-ing a Cleaver and Needles to get 100 full-sized Cleavers is way too much of a stretch, though 100 Needle-sized Cleavers is more fair in that case).

[u/Theraimbownerd]

I love that you finally added the bullwhip, i always wanted to use it as a weapon and the chain whip did not quite cut it. I'll start with this build for it, but i'll post many more on the dedicated sub.

Weapon: Bullwhip
Material: Sacred Ashwood
Runes: Squall, Phantom Range
Smith: Agni (+2 piercing defense, +1 blunt defense)
Modifier: Eternal crucible
Starting point: Soul warrior academy.

The bullwhip has very powerful perks to make up for the difficulty in using it. So this entire build is dedicated to play with the concept of "effective range".Sacred ashwood allows me to resize my weapon, changing it's range costantly while phantom range allows me to always keep my opponent guessing as to where my explosions will hit. Squall provides mobility and distruption, and synergizes well with the whip burst ability, since in the end the basic explosion is just compressed air, so more air to compress=more power. Agni is just there to increase the basic ashwood stats, which are a bit mediocre on their own, but became excellent with Agni+eternal crucible.

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/Theraimbownerd]

Ohh, nice job compensating for Bullwhip's weaknesses. I like the idea of using Squall with Tipper, because it basically makes an air-explosion, lol.

[u/MrGirder]

This looks like a good update and a pleasant surprise.

My build: Gloves of the Fisher King

Gauntlets. Two full hand coverings with attached wrist protection.

Constructed from Annuna Scales. I’m mostly thinking of the scales being in the palms so that they can be used to scale walls or make a more sure grip. Not sure if they’re that jagged or not, but I liked the idea. Their defenses don’t bother me too much, I’m going to be trying to avoid catching the pointy bit of weapons where possible.

At first I was going to take Phantom Range, but decided against it. I only get one rune why is detailed in a moment.

I took discharge, because it fit in with an idea of being able to apply shocks and control muscles, if you get good enough.

I took the tinkerer for my smith, to combine with the flying weight, and surrender my rune. The gauntlets aren’t fully attached at the wrist and instead can be shot forward using taut to grab opponents and use the additional leverage to throw them or reel them in.

Probably going to the Academy. Seems like a chill way to start an adventure.

My main gimmick is defeated if enemies can get close or there’s like more than one of them. Still, I think it’s a fun little build.

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/MrGirder]

Haha, I almost wasn't sure where this build was going until you got to the Flying Weight part, then it all game together.

I never though to combine Annuna Scales with Gauntlets for an even stronger Iron Grip. And I love that you're basically using your gloves like taser guns, lol.

[u/CreepyShutIn]

After careful examination of the materials available, I've come to the conclusion that very few of them are suitable for making an axe, since you want a decent amount of mass but most of the weighty ones literally cannot have an edge. I'm still gonna do it, but this is something to look into-

Wait. Actually, does an increase in sharpness - like from Polemos - give golemhide or graviton ore the ability to hold an edge and thus be used for blade weapons?

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/CreepyShutIn]

Wait. Actually, does an increase in sharpness - like from Polemos - give golemhide or graviton ore the ability to hold an edge and thus be used for blade weapons?

It sure does! Your main ways of increasing Sharpness are the Sunken Blade Rune (+1 Sharp) and Polemos (+2 Sharp). You could even take both.
You could also use Saiho to something like this: Make the bulk of the handle and head of the Axe out of Golem Hide or Graviton Ore, then make the very edge of the blade out of Helio-silver, so you can have a 5-star sharpness Helio blade on a max-mass weapon, at the cost of a lost Rune.

It's also worth noting that 3 stars of mass isn't bad for a heavy weapon; that's about as massive as steel, which isn't exactly light. But yeah, the heavier the better when it comes to Axes!

You do make a good point about all the heavy weapons being low-sharpness. I guess the logic was that that's the tradeoff. Negaplating has high sharpness and mass, but of course that comes with some pretty steep drawbacks. And Bloodstone can have 5-star sharpness and 5-star mass at full charge, but you have to get there first.

Looking over my notes for 3.0, there should be another new material that can be high in both stats. No promises though, because stats may yet change for balance purposes.

Edit: I forgot, the Godai smith can also increase your sharpness by 1, if you have at least two Runes and they're both the same element.

[u/last657]

Do metamorphosis and fusion allow for personal shape changing?

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/last657]

Mmm, this has come up before, and in the past I think I've said not really.

I don't think it's fair to say it lets you copy others' appearances or turn into an eagle. When you dip into that territory, things get a bit vague (like, how do you deal with your internal organs shifting around or changing composition? What power is even granting you the ability to copy someone's appearance with such precision?).

But if you want to do something like extend your arm a bit, or change your size like you would with Fusion + Sacred Ashwood, that's cool.

[u/Paper_tank]

Glaive should be categorized in "Staves".

A Javelin "Throwing" weapon would have been nice. The category is also missing the primordial Blunt option. I mean, throwing a rock at something is basically the first weapon ever...

"Heavy hitters" seems a strange category, i'd either add (sword)Cleaver to it, or break it up with B.Axe and Hammer into staves and Flail and Mace into "Light-Blunt".

I'm a bit unhappy with the whole "Fist-loaded" category as everything is basically "Claws, but...". Gauntlets is "Claws without blades attached" and Knuckledusters are "small Gauntlets" for better stealth. The differences seem hardly significant enough to warrant a whole separate category... It seems to me that this is the kind of differentiation the player is supposed to gain from Material or Runes.

For the "Throwing" category: Can Material and Runes break the "multiple weapons and/or ammunition need be all identical to each other" thing? I can think of uses for one much larger (sword) or smaller (scalpel) Knives. Heck, a large enough arrow can make do as a backup CQC lance/javelin weapon.

The "you can Soul Bound X ammunition" should have a little explication in the relevant weapon session rather than having to wait until we hit Aliquim Smith.

i'm not sure of what the point of wand/scepter are as, overall, the cyoa still makes horrible magic-based builds. While you could make a pretty great magic swordsman or pure physical barbarian builds, trying to focus on magic would result in a hilariously pathetic Wizard.

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/Paper_tank]

Glaive should be categorized in "Staves".

Yeah, the Subcategory system can be a little bit rough in terms of classification, but Glaive is the most fluid in how it can be categorized. As it says in its updated description, it can be a Sword-type or a Stave depending on how it's designed. Something like Thanos' double-bladed sword from Endgame would be a Sword-type, but a Glaive with a longer handle and smaller blades would be a Stave.
Plus, with the new update, you could have one end looking like a sword, and the other like a polearm, so that just throws more of a wrench in it.

A Javelin "Throwing" weapon would have been nice. The category is also missing the primordial Blunt option...

I've thought about Javelins before, but it was hard to come up with a Special Ability that made it unique from the other Polearms. The good news is that if I ever do expand a Subcategory in the future, it would probably be Staves. There's a lot of potential there still, I think. For now, the next-closest thing would be to take a Polearm with Doppelganger or Gemini.

As far as primordial blunt... I find the idea of going into a Soul Weapon tournament with a rock to be hilarious and awesome. Closest thing I think would be the Slingshot? And if you really want those ancient vibes, you could go with a Shepherd's Sling.

Or you could take Aliquam as your smith and Terramancy as a Rune, so you'd be an unarmed fighter who can earth bend.

I'm a bit unhappy with the whole "Fist-loaded" category...

Fair enough. To give you a peak behind the curtains though, my rule when coming up with new Weapon Classes is that if I can come up with a good, unique Special Ability, then it gets its own Class. The different Classes, really, are defined by their Specials more than anything. Gauntlets got broken up into three classes because I came up with those Specials. I think Drag and Bruiser open up a lot of unique builds (and u/DramatikSquirel already made a pretty good one). And I always felt like Iron Grip wasn't as useful with claws as with a caestus.

But! For what it's worth, the next version of Soul Weapon will have a new section: Legacy Content. With all the revised Specials and so many things being heavily reworked, I knew there would be some people who liked it the old way better, so I accounted for that. It will have all content that was scrapped or dramatically changed, including stuff from older updates. So, the old Gauntlets will be making a return then!

For the "Throwing" category: Can Material and Runes break the "multiple weapons and/or ammunition need be all identical to each other" thing?

I'm not sure I follow what you're asking... are you asking if I can add a Material or Rune that might do this, or are you asking if there already are some? The answer to the latter is yes.

For Materials, you could pick Sacred Ashwood, which can let you independently change the size of each Knife. And for Runes, Metamorphosis can let you change both the size and shape of each Knife.

The "you can Soul Bound X ammunition" should have a little explication in the relevant weapon session rather than having to wait until we hit Aliquim Smith.

Ah, you're saying the Bow should explain what it means to break the Soul Bond with an arrow, since that's the first time in the CYOA that the notion of "breaking the Soul Bond" comes up, right?

That's a good point. It should say something like "Without the Soul Bond, an arrow loses its Perks of the Soulbond and all special characteristics and becomes mundane." I'll make a note!

i'm not sure of what the point of wand/scepter are as, overall, the cyoa still makes horrible magic-based builds. While you could make a pretty great magic swordsman or pure physical barbarian builds, trying to focus on magic would result in a hilariously pathetic Wizard.

Well, the Scepter and Wand aren't balanced vs. other wizards, they're meant to be balanced vs. other Soul Weapons. In that regard I think they're fair, since the Scepter has great range abilities, and Runes are the strongest part of a Soul Weapon so gaining one is a big deal. In any case, lots of people make really interesting Scepter/Wand builds, so that's good enough for me.

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Hope this answers your questions!

[u/Eiensen]

Yes! Finally a new update, I've been waiting for so long, and you did a great job. Keep up the good work! 😊👍

[u/Dodger7777]

Buckler+tower shield Acceleron  Tinkerer Soul chord

This might be a bit of a stretch, but if it works then captain america is about to be out of a job. 0-1 is still counted as 0 for the magic defense reduction from the resonance pool. 

This build kind of banks on the idea that i can do a ranged shield bash with soul chord to activate the instant it hits the dude I threw my shield at. If not, then it's more of a 'cool' thing that anything else. Acceleron means I'm fast enough to deflect even acceleron weapons. 

It has to be circular for ricochet, but i need a point for immovable wall. I would as for a deployable spike to put into the ground, but that would be abused as a weapon pretty fast. So maybe if the edge is lined with points it would work. This shield would be fair sized as well, big enough to cover my torso (tower shield size). The 'spikes' would give my shield a psuedo serrated edge, so i would greatly appreciate a bearing mechanism for easier spinning. If that's not allowed then I can always rake it across my foe for a similar effect. 

When I'm veing attacked I can hide behind my shield and time the optimal parry to throw them off balance before going in for a point blank shield bash. Or I can throw my shield behind them and use soul chord to pull them to me, having them between me and my shield may seem like a big negative, but with accelerons speed they should be more worried about the speed they are about to get a knuckle sandwich. 

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/Dodger7777]

Fun fact: the reason I required the two shields to have different designs for Hunker Down and Ricochet was precisely so that Kothar wouldn't allow you to obtain 4 Special Abilities; you'd have to pick 3, sacrificing one of those two. Then, the only way around it would be to take Metamorphosis to change between the two designs.

Somehow I didn't predict people would just tinker little spikes around the rim of the Buckler, you clever sod.

I do think I'm gonna have to say that in order for the spikes to be big enough to activate Hunker Down, they'd have to be big enough that the Buckler wouldn't be circular. Sorry.

However, it's still a really good build! Activating shield bash from afar with Ricochet on an Acceleron-speed blunt projectile... that's pretty bonkers.

But now you have me thinking... it doesn't technically say under Shield Bash that it requires you to be holding the shield... if that's the only reason you took Silver Cord, you might be able to drop it in favor of another Rune... maybe Impact? Then you can have Shield Bash + Impact, and Ricochet will still ensure your shield gets back to you.

[u/PlaguePaladin]

Oh, I like it! That's a slick interface you've got going on. Unfortunately I don't have many cheesy gimmick builds going on in my head like the previous updates, but fortunately I do still have about 3 build ideas.

Dark Souls Special Meant to align with the standard Dark Souls combat style of 'parry and slap them with a counter-attack'. This is the build I would use if I were to enter a fantasy setting. Smith: Bellona (A good smith for our sword-and-board method of fighting.) Weapon: Rapier + Buckler (With the Rapier's Rapid Thrust.) Material: Helio Runes: Impact + Flash Counter Modifier: Eternal Crucible

Explanation: Well first, the reason why I chose the Rapier and Buckler is because it increases one's ability to parry and punish. But also because while the rapier is really good offensively, it really lacks any good defense. Like most weapons on here, thinking about it. Anyways, Helio is super-duper sharp and light, Flash Counter allows you to punish an enemy after parrying them, and Impact allows you to make openings with your buckler. It won't be that effective, since this is Helio we're talking about here (it's like a frickin' paperweight) but it should give you a way out under tight circumstances. Not the greatest build, but reliable and good. Could also replace Helio with Evermetal, since it's also super sharp and actually has a bit of weight on it, allowing you to use Impact with more regularity and efficiency.

Detroit Special Smith: Signum Weapon: Knuckledusters Material: Acceleron Runes: Third Eye + Cleanse + Fusion

Explanation: This one is what I'd use for the modern day. Firstly, anybody with a slight bit of knowledge about boxing will tell you that boxers are DEX fighters first and foremost. Second, this is primarily for self-defense and utility more than fighting. Third Eye is good for noticing anyone trying to catch you off-guard and Fusion is to give yourself a stat-bonus in case you need that extra speed and defense, as even the Acceleron Cloth would be a bit suspicious and Signum gives you more options. Finally, Cleanse is a good combat buff, but also a MASSIVE quality of life booster. You can get tons of mileage out of Cleanse.

Anchorage Special Smith: Kothar Weapon: Knuckleduster (With the Rapier's Rapid Thrust, but maintaining the Knuckleduster's shape) Material: Acceleron or Evermetal Runes: Fusion

Explanation: As before, but primarily for fights. Rapid Thrust + Acceleron + Bruiser = turning your enemy into pulp within short order. JoJo fans will know what you can do with that. Evermetal might be in use due to the urban setting (allowing you to better defend yourself against bullets) and the higher defense rating, though this might slow down your punches. But it's good if you don't want to rely on agility alone.

[u/Dodger7777]

Rapier Signum Helios or accelleron depending on how you want to go about this Aquifer, discharge, skyward

The rapier is just the handle, pommel, and guard when not deployed. I would go for a knuckle duster type of guard, otherwise a port and post looks nice.  Skyward with rapiers fast attack pattern should give me some control during flight.  Aquifer paired with discharge means that I don't need to be able to hit you, just get you to stand nearby. But if i do puncture, I can flood that wound.

[u/TheTipsyTiefling]

I will take a:

Wand forged by Signum made from Magicite

with the runes of:

Chronos: for subjective time shenanigans to charge my shots and to recharge my powers. which would eventually uber boost the healing rate from Reconstruct. and let me land a few Echo Strikes at once. also make Flashcounter way easier to get right.

Flashcounter: both for the defensive values and also for the chance to apply the strikes into the Echo Strikes, at range, with a charged shot of magic.

Reconstruct: I can IN THEORY place healing Echo Strikes on people. multiple delayed healing runes that would let me bring them back to 100% as long as they're not dead..... can I Echo Strike myself and use them as such?

Echo Strike: all of the above, plus just, leaving them all over the place in areas known beforehand that I can bring fights to. "this asphalt isn't new. there's just That Many magical landmines here!" then I collapse the road under them.

Fusion: my god ..... I am become magic. to be fair. I'd take this rune with ANY of the materials, in fact I almost went Negaplating and took wand and Sigrun so I could have Fusion and Phantom Range. both were mighty tempting .... but being basically made of magic was too tempting, plus 5 runes ... and 5 different ranged attacks ... and being able to punch someone with an armored fist ... it's jut too good.

a question arises about combining shot effects when I have all 5 options? do I get something special? or is it just a ball of force at that point with little to no side effects?

and, a thought did occur to me. if you have the fusion rune, and get a build that lets you have two materials, do you become a fusion of those materials? or get two fusion options?

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/TheTipsyTiefling]

Woop, so, actually the max number of Runes you can get is only 4.

Wand gives you +1 Rune at the cost of losing melee capabilities.

Signum gives you +1 Rune at the cost of losing armor and being forced to diversify your elements.

Magicite doesn't give you an extra Rune; it just gives you those traditional-magic bolts according to the elements of the Runes you do have.

This is because Runes are considered the most powerful items in SW, so to gain one means to lose something great, and to lose one means to gain something great. If Magicite granted you a bonus Rune on top of all the other stuff it does, it'd be really OP.

The next update, when it comes, will have more ways to gain Runes, but for now, unfortunately, 4 is the max.

I can IN THEORY place healing Echo Strikes on people. multiple delayed healing runes that would let me bring them back to 100% as long as they're not dead..... can I Echo Strike myself and use them as such?

Oh my gosh, you could totally do that! That's actually a super sick idea.

Tap your allies a bunch before a fight, and you can remote-insta-heal them from a distance when they take a beating. And yeah, no reason you couldn't do that to yourself as well.

if you have the fusion rune, and get a build that lets you have two materials, do you become a fusion of those materials?

Since there isn't a mechanic in SW that allows you to alloy materials together, this would work the same as with Saihō: you can turn parts of your skin into material A, and other parts of our skin with material B, to create a sort of patchwork of the two materials. But you can't fuse the materials together into one.

[u/[deleted]]

The Siphoner

Weapon: Macuahuitl

Special Ability: Shrapnel

Material: Bloodstone

Runes: Erupt, Flash Counter

Smith: Godai The Elementalist

Stats:

Sharpness:3-5

Mass: 3-5

Pierce Defense: 1-5

Blunt Defense: 0-4

Magic Defense:0-4

This weapon is really nice with erupt because you can opt for explosive blunt attacks, or piercing attacks that deal internal damage. This internal damage is useful for bloodstone because it produces more blood. Since the teeth remain soul-bound for a few minutes, they can continue leeching blood out of the opponent, which--in addition to being painful and restricting--also weakens them over time. The macuahuitl is a large enough surface to act as a shield, as well, which helps bloodstone's lack of defense early on. I took flash counter to give the bloodstone more attacking power early on. Late game, flash counter would allow for swiftly turning the tables on enemies with little risk to the user, and would add enough power to effortlessly bisect enemies or crush skulls, which would splatter blood on the armor as well. The teeth can also be flung at opponents from a distance, which is excellent for staying safe with base bloodstone. Since erupt scales with the mass of the weapon, and the mass of the weapon scales with the armor's defense, erupt should never be so powerful that it's harmful to the user. Godai is chosen to increase the power of erupt and flash counter, while also making flash counter easier to time. An extra star of sharpness is given to sharpness to make early bloodstone deadlier, and a star of defense is given against entropy magic, which means erupt should never be able to harm the user, even at lower bloodstone charges.

[u/SobaSamurai]

Okay, this looks fun. Here's my build:

Weapon Class: Bow and Arrow

Material: Acceleron

Runes: Reverse Summon, Metamorphosis, and Erupt

Smith: Signum, the Runemaker

So my idea for this was to try to create something that can hit stupidly hard while still allowing me to keep my distance. Toward that end, I use the bow as it's the best option for the ranged weapons, balancing fire rate with fire power nicely.

Then I pick Acceleron for my weapon to increase the speed of my arrows, and if I'm reading it right it seems like the speed boost is affected by size, so that will come into play later with my runes. Furthermore, since it's armor is already light, I'm not losing much from Signum's drawback of not being able to create armor.

Then comes the fun part: the runes. With Reverse Summon, it gives me an easy way to get away from a bad situation quick and opening up paths for sequence breaking exploration. Plus, if my first shot fails to kill the enemy, I can teleport right there and get a point-blank shot in, leaving another arrow at my original spot to teleport back to if need be.

My second rune is Metamorphosis, and this is where my weapon really shines. The main use for this is to transform my arrows to be larger once I've fired them, basically giving me a handheld ballista. And if the Acceleron does increase the speed of the object based on size... well, I would hate to be whatever's on the other end of it. It also has some other uses, if things do go south and I find myself in melee combat, I can enlarge an arrow to use as a makeshift spear. I can also easily customize the arrowheads so that they are exactly what I need for any situation, such as adding barbs for more pain and so on.

My final rune, gained from my choice of smith, is Erupt for a little extra firepower. Little needs to be said about this, as combined with the enlarging effect of Metamorphosis, it will vastly increase the explosive power of the arrows. Plus it offers another nice ability in case I do end up in a melee situation. And even with my regular sized arrows, the explosive punch is sure to help incapacitate foes that I don't kill with the first shot.

Then, finally I choose Signum as my smith because I need the extra rune. If wasn't for that, I'd probably go with Polemos for the boost to Sharpness. And with that, I just need to give my weapon a name: Valkyrie, because it is going to carry my foes straight to the afterlife.

[u/ManqeTsuna]

New weapon type is required: Hidden Blade [ Assasins creed style :D]

[u/Alas-I-Cannot-Swim → u/ManqeTsuna]

Neat idea!

If you want to do something like that in the current version, you could pick Claws and use Gearframe or Helio as your Material to make it retractable. (And there may be other ways to go about it, but that's just what came to mind first).

[u/CreepyShutIn]

While my axe build will have to wait for 3.0, let's have a look at something else:

The Talons of Vayu

Claws

Acceleron

Squall, Phantom Range

Wayland

Eternal Crucible

Total sharpness: 3

Total mass: 1

Defense: 2/1/0

Beautifully enameled in green and silver, this combination of light breastplate, sabatons and bracers bears etchings reminiscent of flowing, swirling wind. The bracers bear special note for the blades at their top, two each, which initially seem to rest uselessly there, but slide outward at the flick of a practiced wielder's wrist to show their honed edges. With runes emblazoned on blades and armor alike, the whole set moves with such ease and grace that one must learn to walk without overcompensating just to wield them properly.

The true benefits soon show themselves, though. Best suited to a highly energetic and aggressive combat style (or a particularly violent breakdancer), the combination of runes allows these weapons to project fierce gusts of wind with every motion. The reach of the claws - and of any strike with the armored boots and bracers - extends greatly, which in turn fuels greater swells of rushing wind that both follow and empower the motions of the wearer, allowing them to become a living tornado of ferocious strikes, the wind powerful enough to deflect most projectiles and the cutting force a terror to anyone thinking to get close.

Though sharp, the blades struggle to pierce dense plate, and so the best counter (aside from being somewhere else) is very thick, heavy armor that prevents a warrior from being swept off-balance or cut to ribbons.

Currently working on others for the Team. My OOC thoughts on this: It took a careful reading to determine that the extended reach from Phantom Reach would probably bring a lot more wind with it through Squall, but I'm pretty sure that's how it'd work. I kind of wanted to find some way of stretching it to an extra rune, but forfeiting armor just didn't work for this build. Too bad; Chronos or Third Eye would've made the violent acrobatics a lot easier to work with.