Mount And Blade 2: Bannerlord gives you an incredible amount of creativity for both your character and the army they lead. In both the campaign and sandbox mode, the primary goal of dominating the land will always be something you're working towards.
While your single character will never be as strong as an entire army, it's essential to try and be the strongest fighter in the land. There are multiple weapon types to choose from, with some being much stronger than others.
10 Spears
Spears are a very common weapon mainly found on horseback units. Spears excel when used on horseback or against cavalry, While charging on a horse, your spear's damage will increase based on your speed, and the longer range will allow you to do an incredible amount of damage when moving full speed.
The issue with using a spear is how terribly inefficient they are in any other situation. Spears have a long wind-up before each attack and only do minimal damage without one unit charging into another. Spears are easily beaten in melee combat by any other melee weapon, as they all can interrupt the attacks of a spear user mid-animation.
9 Throwing Weapons
Throwing weapons are great in bulk for many infantry units using them. While most melee combat will begin with two units charging at one another, a throwing weapon will let you begin the fight a bit sooner, dealing damage at the nearest enemy before you're within their melee range.
While throwing weapons have a limited capacity, they are incredibly efficient at a close range. They do quickly fall off as your distance increases and will often miss your target by a surprising margin if they're too far away and are moving diagonally to you.
8 Polearms
Polearms are a much more efficient version of spears. Instead of only the thrust attack of a spear, polearms are given a blade along the top of the weapon, allowing you to use sweeping attacks as well as thrusting attacks. These weapons are incredibly efficient against cavalry, as their pole attack will deal a lot of damage to a charging mounted enemy.
Despite their size, many polearms have a surprisingly quick attack animation and have a bit more range than most melee weapons. While the polearm isn't incredible at any one thing, it can help give you more options with only a single weapon.
7 Axes
Axes are basic melee weapons, ideal for close range and hitting your enemy hard. Axes have a bit of a slower attack animation but make up for the difference by delivering more damage with each successful hit. They are also one-handed, giving you another hand to equip either another weapon or a shield.
The greater damage per swing for an axe makes them incredibly efficient at destroying structures, such as the front gate of a fort. Axes prioritize their swinging damage, providing some of the best one-handed output against a wooden door you can get.
6 Swords
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Swords are the other type of basic one-handed melee weapon in the game. While one-handed swords aren't the best, they are excellent all-around weapons to fit just about any play style. Swords have decently equal pierce and slash damage, making them do moderate damage for whatever situation you're in.
Using a sword with a shield may be the generic medieval look, but it's so often used for a reason. The added ability to piece with a sword makes them much more versatile than axes, with only a small damage negation depending on the type of sword you use.
5 Crossbows
Crossbows are incredibly powerful ranged weapons with a very long range. Crossbows may have a slower fire rate but are very accurate over almost any range and will pack a hard hit, usually one-shotting lower-tier enemies, making it a worthwhile weapon to stop and load up.
While crossbows are great at a range in a safe situation, their long loading animation does leave you sitting still and defenseless for a short time. Should you not finish your reload, you'll have to start the process over again unless you hit the first marker, beginning the second phase of reloading, which can be done while moving.
4 Two-Handed Axes
Two-Handed weapons sacrifice the possibility of wielding a shield for increased damage with your hits. Being an axe, the priority of a two-handed axe is still to focus on slashing damage, this time swinging much harder. These larger weapons do have more of a wind-up but deal tremendous amounts of damage when they hit an enemy.
Two-handed axes can instantly kill most enemies they hit but are evened out with their swing speed and lack of options when attacking. Often, this weapon will be so efficient you'll be cutting down enemies faster than they can reach you.
3 Shields
You should always bring a shield if you're using a one-handed weapon. A backup shield is always a worthwhile option, even if you're using a two-handed weapon. A shield is able to block almost all incoming damage from the direction you're facing as long as they have durability.
With how powerful ranged units are in this game, a shield is a necessity to handle incoming volleys of arrows or bolts. Shields are even able to significantly limit the damage taken from a cavalry charge, making them incredibly worthwhile even if you have it as a backup for a bad situation.
2 Bows
Bows, much like crossbows, are very powerful at a range. While bows are not able to fire as far and deal a bit less damage than a crossbow, bows are often much more efficient in the hands of a skilled archer. Bows have a much faster reload and fire rate than crossbows, allowing you to take out much more enemies than using a crossbow.
After leveling up your bow skill and getting a strong bow, you'll be able to take out most enemies with a single headshot. Pairing many headshots with a quick fire rate can make you deadly with a bow, all while fighting from a safe distance away from your enemies.
1 Two-Handed Swords
Two-handed swords take the best from every melee weapon and bundle it up into one for the perfect weapon type. These two-handed swords have the same level of versatility in battle as a one-handed sword, making you deadly in any matchup or environment.
Two-handed swords do almost as much damage as a two-handed axe but are able to swing much faster. These swords will usually kill an enemy in one swing, and the quick attack speed will make you unstoppable on the battlefield and are truly the weapons of a king.