All weapons.
Mina's arsenal: 5 main weapons (3 starter, 2 unlock) and 11 confirmed sidearms. The main weapon is the swap-able primary; sidearms are the consumable / cooldown-gated secondary. Mechanics below are paraphrased from wiki.gg manual entries plus mechanically-confirmed Steam achievement texts.
Main weapons vs sidearms
Wikipedia's mechanical summary draws the cleanest line: the campaign equips one main weapon(the “whip” slot, named after Mina's starter Nightstar) and rotates sidearms as the secondary attack. Trinkets give permanent buffs; sidearms give temporary tactical options that burn ammo or cooldown after firing.
The Steam features list calls them out together: “gear up with an arsenal of sidearms and trinkets.” Mechanically the distinction is dwell-time: trinkets always-on, sidearms on-demand. The main weapon is somewhere between — you equip it for the whole region (no mid-fight swap confirmed) but you can change it between encounters.
The 5 main weapons
Three starters (Nightstar, Whisper and Vesper, Blaststrike Maul) and two unlocks (Battery Buster, Hollower's Shield) per wiki.gg's availability flags. Specific unlock triggers for the two unlock weapons are pending verification — wiki.gg states only that they're available after the game starts.
Quick comparison
| Weapon | Slot | Range | Speed | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nightstar | Starter | Mid (chain reach) | Medium | Kiting bosses with short-range tells |
| Whisper and Vesper | Starter | Short (with thrown mode) | Fast (mash combo) | Tight DPS punish windows; ranged kill via throw |
| Blaststrike Maul | Starter | Short (charge AOE) | Slow (charged); medium (tap) | Single-target burst on charged release |
| Battery Buster | Unlock | Long (projectile) | Medium (mode-dependent) | Ranged kiting; ricochet bank shots |
| Hollower's Shield | Unlock | Short (bash) | Medium (tap); blocked (hold) | Parry-heavy fights, dangerous wind-downs |
Range / speed columns are descriptive estimates from mechanics text, not numerical stats. Wiki.gg does not publish damage / speed values; the game's own stat screen is the canonical source — pending screenshot.
Main weapon tier — with justification
Tier rankings below reflect general-purpose usefulness across the main story, not specific challenge runs. A weapon outside S-tier can still be the only choice for a specific challenge (the Hammerama achievement requires Blaststrike Maul; Sniper Dagger requires Whisper and Vesper; etc.).
| Tier | Weapon | Why |
|---|---|---|
| S | Nightstar | The campaign's starter and the weapon Wikipedia's plot summary names directly. Chain-mounted reach makes it the most-forgiving option against new boss tells — the punish window doesn't demand getting close. Achievement Tip Tapper confirms the tip-only deep-DPS upgrade path. |
| S | Hollower's Shield | Tap-bash + hold-block combination is the only confirmed weapon with built-in defence. Achievement Perfect Guard (15 consecutive parries) implies a tight parry mechanic; the Shield is the dedicated defensive build keystone. |
| A | Blaststrike Maul | Charge-only kills are tournament-grade (Hammerama achievement) but the slow tempo is a learning curve. Best weapon for boss DPS races where the punish window is wide enough to land a charged release. |
| A | Whisper and Vesper | Mash combo + ranged-throw hybrid. Sniper Dagger achievement (boss kill from across the screen) confirms ranged kill viability. Penalised in tier only because the main combo is short-range and the throw is single-shot. |
| B | Battery Buster | Buster Bounce achievement (3 enemies with double bank shots) implies a ricochet mode designed for tight rooms. The mode-swap mechanic (jump + attack) is a skill ceiling that takes a region or two to internalise; B-tier on ergonomics, not raw power. |
Which weapon shines against which boss
Recommendations below come from cross-referencing the verified main weapons against the 17 main-line boss tier rankings (see batch-3 boss data). Where the cross-ref doesn't fire, we leave open.
| Boss | Recommended main | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The Duchess (B) | Nightstar | Phase 2 inverted geometry rewards range-over-damage. Chain reach lets you punish the sweep retract without committing to a trade. |
| Thorne (S — composite) | Hollower's Shield | Phase 1 fencing-duel rewards parry timing; phase 3 corrupted-form has wind-up tells designed to bait wild trades. Shield bash + block converts both into safe punish windows. |
| Carving Man (A) | Blaststrike Maul | The conductor-reset window is a wide-tempo opening — long enough for a fully-charged hammer hit. Hammerama achievement candidate. |
| Mined Mind (A) | Battery Buster | Brain-form has telegraphed pulse-reset windows. Ranged mode keeps Mina out of tentacle-whip range while still landing hits during the pulse. |
| Locomotress Agnes (A) | Whisper and Vesper | Skull-toss windows are very brief but at fixed range. Mash combo lands faster damage in narrow openings than a charge-up weapon. |
| Lionel (S — final) | Hollower's Shield | Phase 2 (conveyor floor) wants parry control; phase 3 (giant form) wants survivability. Shield is the safest main on a single life pool against a 3-phase fight. |
The sidearm roster
Sidearms are the consumable / cooldown-gated secondary. The 11 confirmed today come from wiki.gg's sidearm page (4) plus Steam achievement text mentions (7). Scout addendum implies a 15-ish total — 4 more are open.
Sidearm tier — by versatility
Tier judgments based on the breadth of situations a sidearm covers, not raw damage.
- S-tier — Iron Steed. Only confirmed mount- type sidearm. Drag Race + Steed Hopper achievements both require it, and it doubles as traversal in big rooms.
- S-tier — Recall Disc. Throw-and-warp delivers an offensive hit on arrival (Wormhole achievement). Only confirmed teleport sidearm in the roster.
- A-tier — Bounding Bombs. Ricochet damage scales with room geometry; corridor encounters become free kills.
- A-tier — Volt Hatchet. 4-target spark distribution (Four-Point Hatchet) makes it the best AOE crowd-control sidearm for over-wall throws.
- A-tier — Gnawing Ghosts. 25-tile reach (Haunting Reach achievement) makes it the longest-range confirmed sidearm.
- B-tier — Gyro Dagger. Boomerang + bat-back chain is high-skill / high-ceiling but timing-sensitive.
- B-tier — Drill Driver. 3-target charged hit (Bashful) is solid in clustered rooms but the charge time is punishing in boss fights.
- B-tier — Fog Thrower. Continuous-spray AOE for 6+ enemies (Fogburst) — great when packs cluster, less useful in single-target.
- B-tier — Hollower's Rocks.Cheap, spammable, water-skip kills for the Skippin' Stone achievement.
- C-tier — Deflector Parasol. Knockback into pits (Pitfall Parasol) is highly situational.
- C-tier — Dynamo Lantern.Utility / hazard- avoidance (Light 'em Up) rather than DPS. Genre-specific.
Weapon + trinket combos
Three signature build pairings the verified data supports:
- Nightstar + Chain Capacitor + Shock Flint. The combo-spike main-weapon build. Chain reach keeps the counter alive between commits; Capacitor scales damage; Flint adds passive ranged spark damage between swings. Best for boss DPS races and the Tip Tapper Nightstar challenge.
- Hollower's Shield + Proto Spark + Dodging Pendulum. The survival-stack main-weapon build. Shield + Pendulum stacks parry timing; Proto Spark insures the one survival window. Best for blind first runs and any S-tier boss attempt.
- Whisper and Vesper + Joule Syringe + Beastium ×3. The glass-cannon ranged-burst build. Beastium ×3 maxes damage scaling at survivability cost; Syringe boosts the thrown-mode finisher; Whisper and Vesper provides the range. Sniper Dagger challenge candidate.
Weapon questions
What's the best starting weapon?
Nightstar. Wikipedia's plot summary names it specifically as Mina's wielded whip — the game treats it as the canonical starter, and its chain reach is the most forgiving option for learning boss tells. The other starters (Whisper and Vesper, Blaststrike Maul) are excellent but ask for more execution discipline.
Which weapon should I unlock first?
Pending verification of the actual unlock triggers — wiki.gg confirms both Battery Buster and Hollower's Shield are mid-campaign unlocks but doesn't pin the gate. Anecdotally the Shield's defensive value (parry + block) makes it the better midgame pick once the boss tier escalates past Queensbury / Septemburg.
Is “Guardian Casket” a weapon?
No — that's a correction to pre-launch material. Wiki.gg's actual 5 main weapons are Battery Buster / Blaststrike Maul / Hollower's Shield / Nightstar / Whisper and Vesper. Guardian Casket appears in the Perfect Guard achievement (“Parry 15 consecutive attacks with the Guardian Casket”). The “with the [X]” phrasing matches the pattern Steam uses for confirmed sidearms in this achievement set (e.g. Recall Disc, Volt Hatchet, Fog Thrower), so we treat Guardian Casket as a likely sidearm pending wiki.gg verification — wiki.gg currently has no entry for it.
Are there hidden weapons?
Steam features mentions “weapons with different movesets” in addition to Nightstar — confirming at least the 5-weapon roster. Beyond those five, nothing in wiki.gg or the achievement texts confirms a hidden weapon. The Fully Equipped achievement requires unlocking “all Weapons” (plural) which is consistent with the 5-weapon floor.
Sidearm vs main weapon — what's the actual difference?
Main weapon is the always-equipped primary attack. Sidearms are on-demand cooldown / consumable secondary attacks. The Nightstar (main) is on every input by default; the Bounding Bombs (sidearm) require a dedicated input + cooldown. Trinkets are a third category — always-on passive buffs.
Can I swap weapons mid-boss fight?
Pending verification. The achievement Hammerama (boss kill using onlyfully-charged Maul attacks) implies the game tracks the weapon used per attack, which would be required to enforce the “only” clause — but doesn't confirm mid-fight swap availability.
What's “Dread Mace”?
Per the Tip Tapper achievement text, “Dread Mace” is an upgrade to the Nightstar — likely a damage / range improvement unlocked through the upgrade system. The achievement requires 10 enemies killed in a row with the tip of the chain, confirming the Dread Mace upgrade keeps the chain mechanic but rewards precision contact.
How many sidearms are there total?
11 confirmed today (4 wiki.gg + 7 achievement-text). Scout addendum implies a 15-ish total based on the “sidearm (15)” achievement count — but per our actual categorisation (above), the sidearm-tagged feats are 11 of 50, which matches the confirmed sidearm count exactly. The “15 sidearm achievements” framing in earlier docs may have miscounted.