The sidearm runs on Resolve rather than ammunition, which means it is not a free slot — every shot is Resolve your weapon ability wanted. Here is our order for all 8, ranked on what each costs that bar, how much of the 35-stone ranged collection it can hold, and what it is actually for.
Ranked as of Balance Patch 1, August 21, 2026. Every balance change we hold is on the patch log, so you can see what has moved since.
How this list is ranked
The first question is the bar. Every shot here is Resolve your weapon ability was also asking for, and the bar refills by landing hits — so a sidearm that fires often and cheaply argues far less with the rest of your build than one that fires rarely and hits hard. That is why rate of fire outranks impact here, and why the heaviest option in the slot is not near the top of the page.
The second is the stone pool, which is where the spread is widest: sidearms take between 13 and 22 Tarstones each, so the Forgotten Crossbow holds 9 more than the smallest pool in the slot — and only 9 stones go in all 8, which means most of that gap is a real difference rather than a bigger share of the same staples. The ranged slot has a collection of its own — 35 stones are named by at least one sidearm, and almost none of them go in a primary — so a sidearm build is a second set of things to find rather than a smaller version of the melee one.
Third is what the thing is for, and here the page has to be honest about a gap: the catalog holds no ability for any of the 8, and no upgrade ladder for any of them either. What it holds is a line per sidearm saying how the weapon behaves, and that line is what the “what it brings” column and every verdict below are argued from — including the Troubadour's Lute and its Confusion, which is a recorded effect rather than a recorded ability. Where even that line is thin, the ranking says so and stops.
One thing worth knowing before you plan around any of this: the Slayer Seal makes sidearms deal Break Damage, which changes what the whole slot is for. Ranked below it is chip damage and status; ranked with it, the sidearm is how you set up Ripostes.
SWhich are worth building a run around?
Worth restructuring a playthrough to get hold of, and worth keeping once you have.
Forgotten CrossbowS
Traded to a merchant by a desperate addict, this crossbow is surprisingly well-calibrated.
What it does
A plain, accurate bolt-thrower with no gimmick attached, which makes it the easiest sidearm to aim under pressure.
Compatible Tarstones
22
Where it is
Chapel inside the Flooded Village dungeon
Twenty-two compatible stones is the largest pool in the ranged slot by three, and the weapon holding it is a plain, well-calibrated bolt-thrower with no gimmick to learn around. Those two facts point the same way: the sidearm that can use the most of your collection is also the easiest one to actually land while something is walking at you. It is in the chapel at the end of the Flooded Village, which is a short detour rather than a campaign.
No argument against taking one of these. Which you take depends on what you want to be doing.
Triarch RepeaterA
Carved bone and grafted metal reinforcements hint at this strange weapon's otherworldly origins.
What it does
Fires quickly and repeatedly for a small Resolve cost per shot, trading impact for uptime.
Compatible Tarstones
13
Where it is
Blackwell Cavern, below Castigator's Keep
Rate of fire is the whole argument and it is a better one than it looks. Resolve is earned by landing hits, so a sidearm that lands a great many cheap ones is the one that argues least with the weapon ability sharing its bar. Thirteen compatible stones is the joint smallest pool in the slot, which is the price, and Blackwell Cavern below Castigator's Keep is late, which is the other one.
The contraption pierces the creature trapped inside, prompting a violent and often useful reaction.
What it does
Goads the creature caged inside it into lashing out, firing a spread of quills rather than a single projectile.
Compatible Tarstones
17
Where it is
Reward for beating Sariel the Endless in the Chamber of Becoming
It fires a spread of quills rather than a single projectile, which means one shot applies a status to a group where every other sidearm applies it to one enemy. On any build carrying an infusion that is a multiplier rather than a convenience. Seventeen compatible stones is mid-pack, and beating Sariel the Endless hands you this and the Clockwork Scythe on the same trip.
Real strengths and a real condition attached. Excellent where it fits, ordinary where it does not.
Salvaged TrebuchaxeB
Surprisingly sophisticated for a device that utilizes axes as projectiles.
What it does
Throws axes on a heavy arc, so it wants a target that is standing still or walking into it.
Compatible Tarstones
19
Where it is
Ravaged Hideout dungeon, southern Gloomshade Grove
Nineteen compatible stones and a heavy arc, which is a liability against anything that moves and a gift against anything that does not — and a broken enemy does not. Take it for crowds and static targets and it is excellent; take it into a duel with something mobile and you will spend the fight watching axes land behind it. The Ravaged Hideout holds it, with a Bloodcursed Lithopod outside.
Accursed arms birthed by a malevolent forged rumored to have a will of its own.
What it does
A short-range burst weapon: it hits hardest with the muzzle almost touching, and falls off sharply at distance.
Compatible Tarstones
17
Where it is
Given with Harros the Vassal in the Prologue
The prologue hands it over and it never becomes embarrassing, because its damage curve runs the opposite way to every other sidearm's: it hits hardest with the muzzle almost touching. If a ranged slot keeps dragging you off a melee build, this is the one that does not. Seventeen compatible stones, none of which you had to go looking for, and it is the only entry on this list you own before the game opens up.
Heavy and unwieldy, scholars argue if the weapon was ever used in battle or just executions in Muraden.
What it does
A siege weapon carried by hand: slow to bring up, expensive in Resolve, and the hardest single hit in the ranged slot.
Compatible Tarstones
19
Where it is
Sentry's Grave
Its own record calls it the hardest single hit in the ranged slot, and the slowest and most expensive way to land one. Nineteen compatible stones is respectable; the problem is the bar it draws on, because an expensive sidearm is a sidearm arguing with your weapon ability every time you fire it, and this one argues loudest. Sentry's Grave is a detour off the Gate of Mammon with the Subjugated Guardian at the end of it.
A relic of a simple time. Favored by wanderers, this lute soothes man and beast alike.
What it does
Its shots inflict Confusion, which makes it the one sidearm you take for what it does to an enemy rather than for damage.
Compatible Tarstones
13
Where it is
Left of the stage in the One-Legged Wolf Tavern
Not one of the eight has an ability on record, so all eight are ranked on the line that says what the weapon does — and this is the only one of those lines that names a status rather than damage: its shots inflict Confusion. That earns a slot in any fight where one fewer enemy acting is worth more than a few points off another one's health. Thirteen compatible stones is the joint smallest pool, so this is a utility pick and nothing else — which is a perfectly good thing to be. It is left of the stage in the One-Legged Wolf Tavern.
CWhich come with a real cost, or too little on record?
A trade-off you have to accept, or a gap in what anybody has written down that we will not rank past.
Cursed ChildC
Stranded between life and death, this child yearns to be held and will desperately protect its caretaker.
What it does
Lashes out at whatever threatens the carrier, which is a defensive shape rather than an aiming one.
Compatible Tarstones
15
Where it is
Revered Beacon dungeon, Sester's Refuge
Fifteen compatible stones, and the honest difficulty is that its flavour line is the only description of it anybody holds: something that protects its carrier rather than something you aim. We rank what is written down, and what is written down here is a reading of a sentence. Down the stairs behind broken planking at the Revered Beacon, if you would like to settle it ahead of us.
Whichever one competes least with what your weapon ability is for. If your build spends heavily on one expensive move, carry something cheap that refills the bar between uses; if your weapon ability is cheap or situational, the slot can afford the heavy option. That is the whole decision, and it is a decision about Resolve rather than about damage.
The build guides each name a sidearm and the stones that fit it, and the compatibility chart holds the ranged half of the matrix as its own grid — the two lists genuinely are not the same, and a stone that fits your primary usually will not fit this.
