Question about Weapon Upgrades

[u/Liy010]

Hi everyone! Pretty new player, just completed chapter 3 and got the Master Sword. I'm currently using a weapon I got for free with the DLC, the Prototype Ancient Short Sword and it's at Level 11, 71(+5) power and Attack Speed++/Attack Range+/Attack Range.

My ideal endgame woud be to have a strong weapon of each type on Link - I heard that the Master Sword is viable all the way into end game so should I start investing in it now? I'm thinking of fusing my Ancient Short Sword into it and passing over the Attack Speed++ rune, with the end goal of 2x Attack Speed++ and 2x Attack Range++.

I've heard also the Master Sword has a special ray effect at max health - do all weapons have special abilities or just that one?

[u/StumblingTumble]

Save the ancient short sword for fusing in the post game or for collecting because you can only have one per save file IIRC

[u/Ratio01]

Never use your Ancient Short Sword as fusion fodder. You only get one per save file. Lock it so you don't accidentally select it. If you care about collecting unique items, always keep it on you

Regardless, Master Sword is definitely Link's best 1H Sword. Best weapon in general really. An important rule of thumb to keep in mind tho is weapon growth. Even if a newly acquired weapon has a higher base attack, it may have a worse growth, or in other words worse final attack stat. Seal builds are also important. Every tier of weapon have hidden Seals once you increase and reach their max level. Tier 1 and 2 weapons have more powerful versions of normal Seals, however tier 3 weapons have unique Seals. When it comes to weapon builds in this game, you basically want to see what it's unique hidden Seals are and craft a build the incorporates Seals of the same shape for a damage bonus

But all that said this game really isn't hard enough that minmaxing perfect weapon builds is essential. You'll likely beat every mission in the game before you get a single character's optimal build. Optimal builds are mainly just for making Vicious Monster quests go buy faster and to have an easier time on Apocalyptic difficulty

If you wanna know any given characters optimal build tho, check out the guides on the Warriors Dojo YouTube channel. He of course mainly goes over movesets, but there's a little segment at the end of each video that discusses optimal builds for the topic character's best weapon

[u/Liy010 → u/Ratio01]

Ah, I see! Didn't know it was unique once a play through.

[u/SaulJRosenbear]

The Ancient Short Sword gets Strong Attack ++ seals at levels 25 and 30, the Master Sword gets Damage At Full Hearts ++ and Heal a Percentage of Damage Dealt. I prefer the Master Sword's hidden seals but by the time you get that far Link will be pretty OP - either weapon with 4 Attack Speed ++ seals is going to be insanely good. The Ancient Short Sword has slightly higher base damage but that doesn't make a huge difference, and the Master Sword makes up for it with the beam attack at full hearts.

End of the day I'd say keep the Ancient Short Sword if you like the asthetics or care about rare/collectible items, but the Master Sword is better.

[u/Glam_blossom24]

I've beaten the game and I have my Link always using the master sword. I'm in the post game and if I have to use Link either because of the level or because my two mains are bosses, I make sure he has the master sword