Weapon

A weapon is the item equipped in a character's right-hand slot that determines the character's primary attack: its animation, range, damage formula, and the skills that can be used. Every class can wield at least one weapon type, and most class-specific damage skills are gated on the wielded weapon. Equipping the wrong weapon for a skill at best produces a generic basic attack and at worst prevents the skill from being used at all.

MapleStory's eleven weapon types divide cleanly along the four classic job branches. Warrior wields five (sword, axe, blunt weapon, spear, polearm); Magician two (wand and staff); Bowman two (bow and crossbow); Thief two (dagger and claw). The Beginner class can equip any weapon at the basic tier without job restriction, but lacks the per-class damage skills that make any of them effective.

Weapon types

Branch	1-handed	2-handed
Warrior	Sword · Axe · Blunt weapon	Sword · Axe · Blunt weapon · Spear · Polearm
Magician	Wand	Staff
Bowman	(none)	Bow · Crossbow
Thief	Dagger · Claw	(none)

Sword, axe, and blunt weapon each come in both 1-handed and 2-handed variants. The 1-handed variant is faster and leaves the off-hand slot free for a shield; the 2-handed variant has a higher base attack but occupies both hands. The remaining types are exclusively one or the other: spear and polearm are always 2-handed; wand, dagger, and claw are always 1-handed; bow, crossbow, and staff are always 2-handed.

One-handed vs two-handed

For weapon types that offer both variants (sword, axe, blunt weapon) the trade-off is straightforward:

Two-handed has a meaningfully higher base weapon attack and a slightly slower attack speed than the 1-handed equivalent at the same level. Damage per swing is higher; damage per second is similar.
One-handed leaves the off-hand slot free for a shield, which adds defense and (depending on the shield) sometimes a small stat bonus. Damage per swing is lower; damage per second is similar.

The choice is mostly a matter of playstyle and gear availability rather than mathematical optimum. Beginners tend to start with 1-handed weapons (because shields are cheap to find) and graduate to 2-handed as they accumulate equipment.

Attack speed

Every weapon has an attack speed rating on a 1-9 scale, where 1 is the fastest and 9 is the slowest. The rating affects how often the basic attack and most active skills can be fired. Same-type weapons usually share the same speed (all bows are similar, all daggers are similar), but specific high-end weapons can carry a faster speed rating as a notable feature.

As a rough ordering from fastest to slowest: claw and dagger are the fastest; bow and wand sit in the middle; sword, axe, blunt weapon, and crossbow are in the slow-middle band; staff, spear, and polearm are the slowest.

Mastery

Most weapon types have a corresponding mastery skill learned at second job, which raises the minimum damage of the wielded weapon (narrowing the damage-range floor toward the maximum). Mastery is per-weapon-type: a Sword Mastery skill only applies when a sword is wielded. Each warrior sub-job (Fighter, Page, Spearman) specialises in two adjacent mastery types; bowman sub-jobs (Hunter, Crossbowman) and thief sub-jobs (Assassin, Bandit) specialise in their respective weapon's mastery.

Magicians have no analogous mastery system. Magic damage is calculated from a fixed formula based on INT and the spell, with no "minimum to maximum range" mechanic to tighten. Wand and staff therefore have no associated mastery skill.

Equip requirements

Most weapons require a minimum value of one or more stats to wield, scaling with the weapon's level. A level-35 sword may require ~80 STR; a level-50 bow may require ~110 DEX. Falling below the requirement (by unequipping a stat-granting item, for example) removes the weapon's bonuses but does not unequip it.

Additionally, every named weapon is restricted to a specific job branch. A Magician character cannot equip a sword regardless of stats; a Warrior cannot equip a wand. Cross-branch usage is reserved for Beginner-tier "basic" weapons (white-name swords, basic wands) that have no job restriction but also confer no meaningful damage.

Ammunition and off-hands

Three weapon types require ammunition equipped in the off-hand slot to function fully:

Bow: requires Arrows (consumed per shot).
Crossbow: requires Bolts (consumed per shot).
Claw: requires Throwing stars (consumed per attack).

Without ammunition equipped, attacks deal greatly reduced damage and most weapon-specific skills are unusable. Each ammo type comes in tiers that match weapon tiers, with higher-tier ammo granting bonus attack.

One-handed weapons (sword, axe, blunt weapon, wand, dagger, claw) can equip a shield in the off-hand slot. Claws are the exception: the off-hand is reserved for throwing-star ammo, so claw users do not benefit from shields.

Scrolling weapons

Every weapon has a number of upgrade slots (typically 5-7) that can be enchanted with scrolls to add weapon attack, stats, or other bonuses. Scrolling is the primary way endgame players push damage beyond what raw stat allocation can provide. Failed scrolls consume the slot without granting the bonus, so high-end weapons are often hand-scrolled with cautious choices rather than throwing every available scroll. The Scrolling page covers the mechanics in detail.

List of weapons

Each of the eleven types has its own page carrying the full sortable table for that type, linked from the table at the top of this page. For a single table spanning every weapon in the game, grouped by job branch, see Items/Equipment/Weapon.

Weapon

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