The game’s weapon balance and skill interactions can change with patches. Community testing also reports serious frame-rate drops in very large Necromancer summon builds, especially when Bone Pillar and Icy Veins are heavily stacked.
Fast answer
The answer before the background
For most runs, start with Grimtalon’s Scourge if you want the strongest early clear and frequent skill casts. Use Guardian of Souls for a conventional minion build because Spectral Guardian scales with your active summons and the weapon improves experience and multicast. Pick Noxious Reaper for Poison, Plague Rats, and status-effect scaling. Frozen Wraith is a strong specialist choice for Slow, Bone Pillar, and Icy Veins interactions, but it can create severe performance problems in large summon builds. The new legendary weapon may outperform these choices in a fully developed build, but its complete official details are not available in the patch notes I could verify.
Direct recommendation
Best weapons by build and use case
There is no single best weapon for every run. Each choice changes the starting skill, available weapon skill, stat profile, and the direction of your upgrades. The practical tier list below ranks weapons by job rather than pretending that one option wins every stage.
Grimtalon’s Scourge is the best all-purpose opener. Its large cast-frequency and multicast bonuses make the first several minutes smoother, while Murder of Crows gains damage from your summon count and the Chaotic trait can create extra casts. The trade-off is lower maximum health and a less controlled game plan. It is strongest when you want active skills to carry the run instead of building a slow, permanent army.
Guardian of Souls is the best traditional summon weapon. Spectral Guardian gains additional damage from the number of minions you control, and the experience bonus helps you reach key upgrades earlier. It also gives you a strong route into Death’s Owner at artifact level. Pick it when your build already plans to use skeletal units, hounds, fiends, or other summon skills.
Noxious Reaper is the best poison and status weapon. Plague Rats apply Poison and Weakness, while Putrefy makes your minions release poison explosions. It also supplies damage, area, cast-frequency, and multicast bonuses, although the armor penalty makes early defensive upgrades more valuable.
Frozen Wraith is a specialist high-ceiling option. Ice Fiend provides fast minions with Taunt and Cunning, while Bone Pillar supports Slow and Icy Veins. This pairing is excellent when you deliberately build around ice effects and repeated casts, but it is less straightforward than Guardian of Souls and may be demanding on weaker hardware.
- Best general opener: Grimtalon’s Scourge.
- Best summon army: Guardian of Souls.
- Best Poison build: Noxious Reaper.
- Best Slow and Icy Veins build: Frozen Wraith.
- Best beginner fallback: Guardian of Souls, because its plan is easier to control than a Chaotic build.
| Use case | Recommended weapon | Why it fits | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast early clear | Grimtalon’s Scourge | High cast frequency, multicast, and Chaotic extra casts. | Lower health and more randomness. |
| Permanent summon army | Guardian of Souls | Spectral Guardian scales with active summons and experience gain accelerates upgrades. | Lower armor and weaker direct wave clear than the most aggressive options. |
| Poison and status effects | Noxious Reaper | Plague Rats and Putrefy spread Poison while Weakness improves status damage. | Lower armor and movement speed. |
| Ice, Slow, and Icy Veins | Frozen Wraith | Ice Fiend and Bone Pillar create a strong summon-and-cast loop. | Can produce heavy visual and performance load. |
| Safe farming | Guardian of Souls | Reliable targeting and extra experience are useful on repeated resource runs. | Not the fastest boss-kill option. |
The official Update 1.5 announcement confirms that the Necromancer’s final legendary weapon was released on March 3, 2026. However, the announcement does not provide its full weapon name, statistics, or skill description. Community discussion identifies Bone Pillar and Icy Veins as part of the new interaction and reports performance concerns, but that is not enough evidence to place it above the established weapons for every build.
Build setup
How to match the weapon to your run
For a summon-focused run, begin with Guardian of Souls and prioritize summon count, summon damage, multicast, and cast frequency. Take broad buffs that affect both you and your minions, then add Doom, Fragility, Weakness, or another damage amplifier that your chosen skills can apply consistently. Do not over-invest in direct player attacks unless they also support your summon plan.
For a poison run, choose Noxious Reaper and take Plague Rats early. Add Putrefy if it appears, then select skills that apply Poison or improve damage against affected targets. Weakness is particularly valuable because it raises the damage of status effects rather than merely adding another source of damage.
For a skill-spam run, use Grimtalon’s Scourge and favor cast frequency, multicast, damage, and area. Its Chaotic traits reward a broad active-skill pool, but randomness makes it less reliable when a stage demands precise boss damage. Keep at least one dependable area or defensive skill so the run does not depend entirely on lucky extra casts.
For an ice-control run, use Frozen Wraith only when you intend to exploit Slow and Icy Veins. Bone Pillar is the key support skill, and the build benefits from enough minions to spread effects while you remain mobile. If the screen becomes crowded or frame rate collapses, reduce summon count, effect density, or multicast before abandoning the build entirely.
- Choose the weapon before the run, but let the first few level-ups decide whether the build is working.
- Prioritize survivability when using Noxious Reaper or Grimtalon’s Scourge because both have meaningful defensive penalties.
- Artifact upgrades matter most when the weapon’s Death’s Owner version directly supports your chosen build.
- Use Weapon Expert to borrow a useful secondary skill only when it strengthens the build’s central damage plan.
| Stage or activity | Best practical choice | Upgrade priority |
|---|---|---|
| Early progression | Guardian of Souls | Summon count, experience, multicast, and one reliable area skill. |
| Normal stage clear | Grimtalon’s Scourge | Cast frequency, multicast, area, and general damage. |
| High-curse summon build | Guardian of Souls | Summon damage, status amplification, defenses, and artifact progress. |
| Poison farming | Noxious Reaper | Poison application, Weakness, area, and status-effect damage. |
| Titan or boss focus | Noxious Reaper or Guardian of Souls | Consistent debuffs, boss-safe damage, and enough defense to maintain uptime. |
| Experimental endgame ice build | Frozen Wraith or the new legendary option | Slow, Icy Veins, summon scaling, and performance management. |
The weapon rankings are recommendations based on documented weapon effects and established community testing. They are not official developer rankings. The official sources verify the 1.5 and 1.5d updates, but they do not declare a best weapon.
Practical comparison
What belongs in a weapons tier list?
A useful weapons tier list should judge more than starting damage. Consider how quickly the weapon reaches a stable build, whether its skills scale with the class mechanic, how much defensive pressure it creates, and whether its artifact power remains useful at high levels.
Grimtalon’s Scourge ranks highest for immediate power because its bonuses are active from the start and its crows benefit from a growing summon count. Guardian of Souls ranks highest for consistency because Spectral Guardian directly rewards the Necromancer’s central mechanic. Noxious Reaper ranks highest for specialized status damage because its skills naturally create and exploit Poison. Frozen Wraith can reach excellent results, but its value depends more heavily on assembling the right ice package.
The new legendary weapon should be treated as an unranked or provisional entry until its full data is documented in official material or repeatable testing. It is reasonable to test it, especially for Bone Pillar and Icy Veins builds, but it is not evidence-led to call it universally superior from the release announcement alone.
- Rank by role, not by a single universal score.
- Separate early-game strength from late-game scaling.
- Count defensive penalties as part of the weapon’s real cost.
- Do not confuse a high damage ceiling with a reliable farming choice.
- Re-test after balance patches that change runes, statuses, or weapon skills.
| Tier | Weapon category | Best interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| S for general use | Grimtalon’s Scourge | Fastest route to a powerful run when randomness is acceptable. |
| S for summons | Guardian of Souls | Most dependable choice for a minion-centered plan. |
| S for status builds | Noxious Reaper | Best fit for Poison, Weakness, and area-based status damage. |
| A for specialist builds | Frozen Wraith | Excellent with Slow and Icy Veins, but more demanding. |
| Provisional | Necromancer legendary weapon | Potentially exceptional, but complete official data is not verified here. |
Developer responses and player support discussions acknowledge that large minion builds can perform poorly when many calculations, multicast effects, and Icy Veins interactions overlap. If a run begins stuttering, lower effect visibility and avoid stacking every summon and multicast upgrade at once.
Quick checklist
How to choose before pressing start
First, decide whether the run is about summons, Poison, direct skill spam, or ice control. Second, choose the weapon whose starting skill already supports that goal; do not rely on finding the perfect skill later. Third, reserve level-up choices for the weapon’s weakness. Grimtalon’s Scourge needs health or defense, Noxious Reaper needs protection from its armor penalty, and Frozen Wraith needs a performance plan if the screen becomes crowded.
Finally, upgrade the weapon when its artifact power reinforces the build rather than treating every weapon level as an automatic purchase. Guardian of Souls and Noxious Reaper gain especially clear value when Death’s Owner supports summon count, Fragility, Weakness, or status damage.
- Summons first: Guardian of Souls.
- Poison first: Noxious Reaper.
- Fastest clear first: Grimtalon’s Scourge.
- Ice experimentation first: Frozen Wraith or the provisional legendary option.
- When uncertain, choose Guardian of Souls and build around reliable summons.
FAQ
Common questions
What is the best weapon for a new Necromancer player?
Guardian of Souls is the safest starting recommendation once it is unlocked. Its summon-focused plan is easy to understand, Spectral Guardian scales with your minion count, and the experience bonus helps you reach important upgrades sooner. Grimtalon’s Scourge is stronger for aggressive players who are comfortable with randomness and lower health.
Is Grimtalon’s Scourge better than Guardian of Souls?
It is better for early damage, fast clearing, and skill-spam builds. Guardian of Souls is better for a controlled summon army and usually produces a more predictable run. The choice depends on whether your damage comes mainly from active skills or from persistent minions.
Should I use Noxious Reaper for every Poison build?
It is the most natural choice because Plague Rats and Putrefy directly support Poison and Weakness. It is not mandatory, however. A general summon weapon can still run Poison effectively if the level-up pool supplies enough Poison application and status scaling.
Is Frozen Wraith currently the strongest weapon?
It can be one of the strongest specialist choices when Slow, Bone Pillar, Icy Veins, and a large summon count are all working together. There is not enough current official evidence to call it the universal best, and large versions of the build may cause serious performance problems.
Does Soulstone Survivors have normal armor equipment?
The key pre-run equipment choices are weapons and runes rather than a conventional armor-and-loot set. For this comparison, equipment means the weapon choice plus the rune and skill package that supports it.
Sources
What we checked
Official listings establish current availability and product facts. Community pages are used for mechanics and build history, then labeled separately.
- OfficialOfficial Steam announcement: Update 1.5d, Gift of the Veil, June 12, 2026
- ReferenceCommunity reference: The Necromancer weapon and skill data
- CommunityCommunity guide: Necromancer weapon comparisons and build roles
- CommunitySteam support discussion: Bone Pillar and Necromancer performance issues