Sword, Dagger or Club?

[Mystical Junimo]

Which one should I choose?
Swords swing in an arc and do medium damage. Sword's secondary attack puts you into a blocking stance, negating damage and dealing damage to the enemy that attacked you.
Daggers do a small amount of damage but they go really fast and have a high critical strike chance. Daggers have a short range and they focus on only one enemy. Dagger's secondary attack causes you to stab multiple times in quick succession.
Clubs do a lot of damage but they are pretty slow. Club's secondary attack causes you to slam the ground in front of you, causing an area-of-effect attack in a radius around you that has strong knockback.

 

[Uzzlegorf]

I only use swords.
I don't like the short range of the dagger, and the club/hammer is too slow for me.

 

[One More Day]

Club AINEC

Once you buy the galaxy hammer, you can use the secondary move to stomp literally any monster in a single attack, even iridium bats. It knocks the galaxy sword into a cocked hat.

Swords are probably the best for beginners, but once you progress past them, they can't touch clubs.



Also, you forgot the slingshots, which are also pretty handy once you get the hang of them

 

[rippytrippy]

swords are always my fav

 

[Mystical Junimo]

Also, you forgot the slingshots, which are also pretty handy once you get the hang of them

Oh

 

[Magically Clueless]

I only use swords, but I wish I had some powerful daggers because I think they're so fun to use

 

[Elenna101]

Once you buy the galaxy hammer, you can use the secondary move to stomp literally any monster in a single attack, even iridium bats. It knocks the galaxy sword into a cocked hat.

Clarifying: to one-shot the high HP monsters, you need to mash left click (or the regular attack button, if you're not on PC) immediately after doing the special attack. This will give you a bunch of extra hits, making clubs OP.

With the nerf to the cooldown time in 1.5, I've started bringing a sword with me to Skull Caverns along with the galaxy hammer, because I'm not good enough at mashing to consistently kill enemies in one hit especially before I can forge it in the volcano. Once I get a few rubies and the Artful enchant on the galaxy hammer, the sword gets put away because Artful enchant + Acrobat perk lets me basically spam the special attack constantly.

 

[Quillmagic]

I use swords because I constantly misclick, so I can't deal with one-direction stabbing with the dagger and the long pauses with the clubs/hammers

 

[ISSsloth]

Until I have the late game weapons mentioned here I'll continue to pick my blade/club on the basis of damage alone. Sometimes this means swords, sometimes it means clubs, and I have a grudge against daggers ever since I made the mistake of throwing out my rusty blade for a lame dagger in my first save.

 

[LRangerR]

There's a few daggers that are decent early-mid game, but I wouldn't recommend them to people who religiously dive into the SC.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I lack the necessary brainpower to efectively use something so subtle as the Dagger or to be able to time the use of the Club to it's maximal effect. I tried both when their stats beat the other weapons I had and It Was Not Good.

Gimmee fast sword and I poke holes in things.

 

[LRangerR]

I lack the necessary brainpower to efectively use something so subtle as the Dagger or to be able to time the use of the Club to it's maximal effect. I tried both when their stats beat the other weapons I had and It Was Not Good.

Gimmee fast sword and I poke holes in things.

I mean...if you want to poke things use the dagger, the sword is more of a slashy-slash type weapon.

 

[Lew Zealand]

True true. Hmmm, I guess that's why going slashy-slash with the Dagger wasn't doing much more than buttering the occasional slice of toast.

 

[LRangerR]

Um...why do you have toast in a dungeon?

 

[Lew Zealand]

Um...why do you have toast in a dungeon?

Abby looked hungry and I was fresh out of Quartz.

 

[iridium quality]

Daggers are cool, but you can’t fight off multiple monsters at once with them, so I would not recommend that. Clubs are too slow, swords are best, especially the Galaxy Sword.

 

[Ereo]

I like swords because I hate the break you have to take with the clubs. It feels like with a sword you can slash and run, while with the club you have to wait.

That said, clubs forged for speed are ok. I've found a couple of powerful ones in the volcano, and I use them in addition to the galaxy sword. I always take the sword for when I get annoyed by the club though.

 

[imnvs]

Just about everyone that likes the club or dagger best... almost always says that they also carry around the sword for when their favorite weapon just isn't a good choice. The best example is when dealing with ghosts and you have a desperado with a fancy dagger weapon... and they switch to the sword for killing the ghost. I also have heard people talk about switching from a club/hammer weapon to the sword when the haunted skulls and magma sprites show up. Using a sword I never have to worry about when it may not be a good weapon. It's always a good weapon.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I never bother with a sword once I get a club. The Mallet, for example, is probably one of the best mid-tier weapons as you descend in the Mines. And once you get a Galaxy Hammer, it's GG for swords, period.

Between knockback and how monsters tend to move, there's zero point in the faster (sometimes) swing speed of a sword, barring dealing with metalheads or the shadow brutes that pretty much ignore knockback. Everything else gets knocked back enough that you won't have to worry about the marginally slower swing rate.

Honestly, I have no clue why anyone would ever want to touch a dagger, mechanically they simply cannot compete.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

I play on iPad so combat is quite a bit different than other platforms, especially since I keep auto attack enabled. But it's swords for me all the way.
In my first playthrough, my second sword was the forest sword. I was playing the forest map and felt a special connection, with the wizard's potion, my forest sword and I were both full of ancient forest magic. I kept using it long after I could have got a better one.
I'm trying to learn the slingshot but I just can't get the hang of it. I use wood for practice but it just flings everywhere, every time I take a step. I want to sling bombs or explosive ammo but I'm afraid I'll just blow myself up!