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When all is said and done, ranged weapons are great tools of trade…until you’re all out of ammunitions. In which case, any wise assassin will know himself to be handy with whatever melee weapon he’s got tacked onto his person at the time. With all the many close-quarters arms of Assassin’s Creed 3, though, it helps to know which is best for you in a given situation.

The Stats:

A few things to note going into the guide are the different stats assigned to each weapon: Damage, Speed, & Combo. Damage is straightforward enough: it is the strength of every successful attack you make using your weapon, however it is surprisingly unimportant, as most of your kills are obtained through Streaks and Counter-attacks anyway. Speed, of course, determines the frequency of your attacks, and how easy or hard they are to dodge. Combo. What the heck is a Combo stat? Well the magnitude of the combo stat is how many successive hits you have to land with a weapon before using its finisher, so the lower the better. Also, before getting into the weapons themselves, it is best to note that you can carry up to two of these: one has to be either a Tomahawk or a small blade, while the other can be a ‘heavy’, ‘normal’, or ‘blunt’ weapon.

Small Weapons:

These are the aforementioned Tomahawks and small blades. The have very low combo stats, which is good for quick kills, however they have a very short range, making them difficult to use when trying to chain together a kill streak.

Hidden Blade: Damage (1), Speed (3), Combo (6), Price (nil), Available (Always)

Stone Tomahawk: Damage (1), Speed (2), Combo (5), Price (nil), Available (Complete Sequence 5)

Assassin Tomahawk: Damage (3), Speed (3), Combo (3), Price (nil), Available (Sequence 6)

Iron Tomahawk: Damage (2), Speed (3), Combo (3), Price (2,475), Available (Sequence 6)

Iron Dagger: Damage (3), Speed (4), Combo (4), Price (2,450), Available (Sequence 6)

Stone Dagger: Damage (1), Speed (3), Combo (5), Price (450), Available (Sequence 6)

Dirk: Damage (2), Speed (5), Combo (3), Price (3,750), Available (Sequence 6)

War Tomahawk: Damage (5), Speed (5), Combo (3), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

“Broken Sword” Knife: Damage (5), Speed (5), Combo (4), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

Heavy Weapons:

The easiest way to get a heavy weapon is to pick it up off the corpse of a Grenadier–the guys are lousy with them. While being extremely slow and cumbersome, heavy weapons have great reach and sometimes have very short combos. The biggest disadvantage to heavy weapons is their requirement of using two hands, negating the use of ranged weaponry, and while they can fell stronger enemies in just a few hits, one must be well adept in using heavies to do so. However, heavies come with the added Hail Mary of AC 3 combat: The Slam Attack. Hold down ‘Triangle’ or ‘Y’ to begin charging at an enemy, and release when you’re close–your axe will be slammed into them, killing them instantly, however you lose that weapon until combat has concluded and you can go retrieve it.

Hessian Axe: Damage (2), Speed (1), Combo (4), Price (3,650), Available (Sequence 6)

French Naval Axe: Damage (2), Speed (3), Combo (3), Price (5,450), Available (Sequence 6)

Boarding Axe: Damage (3), Speed (4), Combo (3), Price (7,000), Available (Sequence 9)

Pirate Boarding Axe: Damage (5), Speed (4), Combo (2), Price (nil), Available (In Collector’s Edition/Pre-Order Bonus)

Naval Axe: Damage (4), Speed (4), Combo (2), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

Normal Weapons:

Normal weapons have a rather normal reach, and equally normal speed. They’re good for any normal combat situation…they’re just…normal.

Normal Sword: Damage (1), Speed (2), Combo (3), Price (700), Available (Sequence 6)

French Rapier: Damage (2), Speed (1), Combo (4), Price (3,955), Available (Sequence 6)

Light Calvary Sabre: Damage (4), Speed (3), Combo (5), Price (3,500), Available (Sequence 6)

Hanger Sword: Damage (3), Speed (3), Combo (5), Price (1,250), Available (Sequence 6)

French Cutlass: Damage (3), Speed (4), Combo (5), Price (1,575), Available (Sequence 6)

Cuttoe Sword: Damage (2), Speed (2), Combo (4), Price (4,100), Available (Sequence 6)

Officer’s Sword: Damage (4), Speed (1), Combo (4), Price (5,000), Available (Sequence 6)

Captain Kidd’s Sawtooth Cutlass: Damage (5), Speed (4), Combo (4), Price (nil), Available (Collector’s Edition or Pre-Order)

Washington’s Battle Sword: Damage (4), Speed (4), Combo (4), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

Lincoln’s Sword: Damage (5), Speed (5), Combo (5), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

Blunt Weapons:

Blunt weapons have just about the same drawbacks and advantages as heavies do, just maybe without the satisfaction of cleaving through your foes. They do have shorter combos and are easier to counter-attack with, though you can’t use tools or special counters with ranged weapons. Plus, instead of the Slam Attack, they use the Blunt Attack, activated by the same buttons, but you instead throw your weapon in the direction your facing, instantly incapacitating your foe (which qualifies it as a non-lethal attack).

Wooden War Club: Damage (2), Speed (3), Combo (3), Price (2,650), Available (Sequence 6)

Gunstock War Club: Damage (3), Speed (4), Combo (2), Price (6,500), Available (Sequence 6)

Stonehead War Club: Damage (3), Speed (1), Combo (2), Price (3,850), Available (Sequence 9)

Obwandiyag’s War Club: Damage (5), Speed (5), Combo (1), Price (nil), Available (Collector’s Edition or Pre-Order)

Iron Blade War Club: Damage (4), Speed (5), Combo (1), Price (nil), Available (Through Crafting)

 

So that does it for melee weapons. Somehow Obwandyag hasn’t conquered all of America with his War Club, but I suppose we can be thankful for that!

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