Iron Soul Dungeon Weapon Types: Light vs Heavy vs Staff

The six categories

Counts come from the weapon database; forge costs from the forge table; crit targets from the sub-stat guidance.

Unlocking a second weapon

Talk to Gray immediately after the tutorial. That conversation unlocks your ability to wield a second weapon and gates future quests — plenty of players spend hours without realising the slot exists.

The standard build

Light main, heavy secondary. Light weapons are the cheapest craft in the game, which means they are the cheapest way to reroll for good sub-stats — and sub-stats, not base attack, are what separates a good weapon from a bad one. The heavy secondary comes online around Penitent difficulty: its default ultimate grants damage immunity, and at level 35 the heavy ultimate can decimate bosses.

Swap weapons after every skill cycle. That single habit is in the official bestiary’s general advice and does more for clear speed than most gear upgrades.

Where each category actually wins

• Heavy owns the top of the base attack chart — the highest base attack weapon in the game is a heavy. But at 16 ore per craft you will not be rerolling it for sub-stats.
• Light owns flexibility. At 3 ore per roll it is both your early weapon and your permanent sub-stat lottery.
• Staff trades the 100% craft rate for an 80% one and leans on Skill Damage rolls — see the staff guide.
• Sickles/scythes are a small category; the Scythe itself was distributed through the SCYTHEWEAPON code rather than crafted.
• Gauntlets and bows are relic-gated at 18 ore and 5% without one — the bow and gauntlet guide covers whether the attempt is worth it.

What base attack does and does not tell you

Base attack is the number the forge rolls before sub-stats, blessing and runes touch it. A blessed +5 light weapon can beat an unblessed heavy on paper, which is why the blessing calculator reverses a blessed stat back to base — that base number is the only fair comparison between two weapons.