Infinity-1 Sword

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The bigger the quest, the harder it hits.

The Infinity-1 Sword is the most powerful BFG or BFS in the game... almost.

It's not the Infinity+1 Sword. Statistically Speaking, it's not as good. It's not necessarily the Sword of Plot Advancement either (although it could be). And yet, you find people using it for most of the game, despite not being the actual "best" weapon available. Perhaps the Infinity+1 Sword is too hard to get, and the Sword of Plot Advancement doesn't show up until five minutes before the Final Boss fight. Often, however, the Infinity Minus One is available at any shop for the whole party to use, whereas there is only one of the Infinity+1 Sword. Or that sword is a Bragging Rights Reward, while this sword is useful in getting that reward.

Compare with the Penultimate Weapon. That's the sword meant to be the best that you'll always end up replacing anyways. With this sword, you normally don't want to replace it, and if you don't do some special quest, you probably can't. This sword is in fact typically the replacement for the Penultimate Weapon (so the ultimate weapon) when the Infinity+1 Sword is difficult to reach. This sword may be Level-Locked Loot, although if so, the Infinity+1 Sword will probably be much worse.

Likely to be Boring but Practical, and can often be a Disc One Nuke as well.

Examples of Infinity-1 Sword include:

Video Games

• People who use the New Game+ feature in Chrono Trigger know to always keep a BraveSword in the inventory for Frog. The Masamune doesn't carry over and doesn't get really powerful until after an endgame sidequest, so the BraveSword becomes his most reliable weapon by default.
  • Ditto for the Spectral Swallow in Chrono Cross, for the same reasons.
  • In the DS version, the Dinoblade is added, and it's better than the BraveSword, and you get it in the Lost Sanctum.
  • Ditto Lucca's weapons. Due to a case of Awesome but Impractical, most people will end up using her second best weapon - the Shockwave, compared to her ultimate weapon Wondershot. This is because Wondershot does randomly generated damaged suggested to be taken from playtime, so Shockwave ends up more consistent and thus, more used. (As with Frog, Lucca gets a better weapon in the Lost Sanctum - Turboshot.)
• The Kusanagi Blade, Last Fencer, One World, and various other weapons from Tales of Symphonia gotten through various sidequests. They're more powerful than the weapons you get from the storyline, however the Devil's Arm have the potential to become the Infinity+1 Sword.
  • Similar deal for Tales of Eternia. When looking at sheer strength, the Eternal Sword actually is the best weapon. But to get it you have to beat Cless(and possibly Arche) in the arena, which can be difficult if you don't know what you're doing or stacked up on Reverse Dolls. So some just settle for weapons that work like the Eternal Sword, like the Mystic Sword and Gaia Clever. Or the easy to get Last Fencer which is the true Infinity+1 Sword in every aspect but sheer power...
    • Speaking of Cless and Arche, in Tales of Phantasia, this is pretty much the case with the Excalibur. Sure, it's not the strongest weapon for Cless in the game, but it's one of the most balanced (And either the best or second best of the ones with equal power for both slashing and thrusting) and is light elemental. There are better weapons for either slashing, OR thrusting, but they tend to be significantly stronger in one than the other, which limits their usefulness significantly.
    • Excalibur is most definitely Cless's Infinity+1 Sword. It's got the highest combined slash/stab of any weapon in the game, is non-elemental, and is only acquired at the end of a long and difficult optional Bonus Dungeon, and if you're able to get it, you certainly wouldn't have needed it to finish the game. Though it will still get a little mileage against Pluto and maybe Lilith in the PSX remake. In the remake, Gungnir's third form is probably the Infinity-1 Sword (despite being a spear) - nearly the best stats, relatively easy to get, and acquired fairly early so you'll probably use it for quite some time.
  • Also featured in Tales of the Abyss. The Catalyst Weapons have the potential to become the game's Infinity Plus One Swords, but to unlock their power you have to beat That One Bonus Boss, who is so overpowered that the game is perfectly justified in not even letting you go into that battle without the bonuses of a New Game+. Thus, if you have the Infinity Plus One Swords, you don't need the Infinity Plus One Swords. Most people prefer the weapons won from the Coliseum, or better yet, the weapons that unlock your characters' second-order Mystic Artes.
    • To add insult to injury about the Catalyst Weapons, you can't fight That One Boss to unlock them as Infinity Plus One Swords until you've completed a horribly irritating puzzle in the final dungeon and seen the cutscene right before the final boss. While the coliseum prize weapons and the ones you can forge in Din's Shop may be statistically inferior, you can get them pretty much as soon as you unlock the coliseum (depending on your mastery of the battle system or what your New Game+ bonuses are) or get your Global Airship working, both of which happen reasonably early in the game.
    • By exploiting Good Bad Bugs, you can also get the Vorpal Sword the first time you're free to wander the world map. You're intended to not get the Vorpal Sword until late in the Second Act (if you get it at all), so it outclasses just about every other sword you'll get until then (but has the disadvantage of being water-elemental). If you get it (and don't feel guilty about cheating or making the game too easy), it'll be your go-to weapon for Luke or Guy for most of the game.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World gives us one of Emil's early forge weapons, the Echo Tracer. While it's not substantially stronger than other weapons even at the time you get it, and quickly becomes beaten by even store-bought weapons in sheer power, one of its abilities is Accelerate, which reduces attack lag. The sheer speed of this weapon makes infinite combos possible, and even without them, this speed makes it far more useful than the brute force of the later weapons. The only other weapon in the game that has Accelerate is the Nether Traitor, so most players will be using the Echo Tracer for a long, long time.
    • Also from the same game is Marta's War Chariot. This can be acquired right around the same time as the Echo Tracer, and has the effect of randomly casting Fire Ball every time Marta attacks. Note that Marta's standard combo on the ground can be up to nine hits, the fireballs come out immediately from wherever she is straight to the enemy and with no cost whatsoever, based on her magic stat (which, considering she's the White Magician Girl, means they will be very strong), and there's nothing stopping Marta from getting multiple fireball casts in one combo. Comically, this means that the best way to deal damage with Marta (before you get Speed Cast 3, anyway) is to have her swing at empty air. There are two other weapons with similar instant-cast effects, but the Energy Arc requires a Philosopher's Stone to make, while the Millstone is found in a chest in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• The grade seven Spectre Master Gear guns you can get on a first-time playthrough of Mass Effect, as compared to the grade ten varieties that become available at around 50th level.
• Lilarcor in Baldur's Gate 2 is a bit like this: You get it early, it's +3 and has some useful special abilities (and it's sentient) usually you keep it around for most of the game (since Carsomyr is paladin-only and the demon sword has nasty side-effects).
  • The silver vorpal sword also sees a lot of use: the enchantment level is sub-par, but it's good enough for anything except bosses and the chance for an insta-kill isn't to be sneezed at. You only get it in chapter six, however, so whether it is a Infinity+1 Sword or Infinity-1 Sword depends on how much of the game you did back in chapter two. In Throne of Bhaal it is a definite Infinity-1 Sword, however, since you start the game with it and it has a chance to instantly kill any non-boss enemy.
• Kingdom Hearts has a few of these
  • First game: the Oblivion
  • Kingdom Hearts II: Oblivion again, and / or the Decisive Pumpkin.
    • If you use the Dual-Wielding Drive Forms then Oathkeeper is this as well since it makes up for its lack of stats by extending the time you can stay in a form. Once you obtain the Oathkeeper it WILL be in the offhand slot of your Drive Form of choice, Despite its lack of raw stats.
  • Each of the three protagonists has their own minus-one in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, that has stats tailored to their personal strengths. Bright Crest for Aqua, which boots her magic, Lost Memory for Ven, which has balanced strength and magic, and Chaos Ripper for Terra which has incredibly high strength stats but low magic. Aqua only gets Bright Crest in the Final Episode though, in her storyline this role falls to Stormfall or Pixie Petal, the former having balanced stats but the latter boosting her magic higher.
  • Re:coded has the Zero/One, won for defeating the Climax Boss a hour or so before the Final Boss. It has good abilities attached for boosting magic and strength, while the reward for beating the Final Boss has solely defense-oriented abilities and Keyblades that outperform Zero/One are acquired in the difficult optional system sectors.
• In the updated rerelease to Fable, The Sword of Aeons falls under this. While it was the strongest in the game and so everybody put their worth into making sure they had it by the time the expansion came around, The Lost Chapters halved its attack power, and a few weapons beat it out now, most notably the Solus Greatsword. You can buy this weapon in a store, or even get it as a gift from your wife (if you married the Lady Grey) for free.
• The Magicant Bat in EarthBound, because the best weapon, the all too rare Gutsy Bat, can only be obtained past the Point of No Return. And the only way to return from that Point of No Return is to use a glitch in the GBA port.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The first game has the White Sword, which is more powerful than the Wooden Sword obtained at the start of the game but less powerful than the Magical Sword.
  • The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is like this to Biggoron's Sword, which requires an extremely long Chain of Deals complete with several Timed Missions to get. The Master Sword is a Sword of Plot Advancement that you obtain through the course of normal play (and a good example of Infinity-1 Sword overlapping with Sword of Plot Advancement). Biggoron's Sword being a two-handed sword that denies usage of a shield also helps, though a quick-fingered player can get around this by simply drawing another item when about to be attacked, then switching back to the sword.
  • The Razor Sword from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a mini example. In the Goron area, you have to restore the blacksmith's forge by melting the ice around it, which allows him to forge the Razor Sword for you immediately. the Razor Sword is much more powerful than the basic sword, but dulls after 100 uses and can't be taken back with you through time. However, the best Sword upgrade, the Gilded Sword, can't be obtained until you've completed Snowhead Dungeon, opened the way to the Goron Races, completed the races in first place to get gold dust, and brought the gold dust to the forge - which probably won't happen until a few cycles later, whereas the Razor Sword is available pretty much as soon as you get to Snowhead and, despite its weaknesses, will be what you'll be using until you unlock the gilded sword.
  • The Gilded Sword itself, surprisingly, it is also an example of this, since you can obtain it roughly a half into the adventure and there two more powerful swords after it. However, one requires you to complete 99% of the fourth dungeon, (and denies your shield-carrying ability, because of its massive size) and the other can only be obtained by collecting all the masks, and it only works on boss' fights. Fortunately, the Gilded Sword itself is pretty awesome with its long range and great strength.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games, the Noble Sword is this, though it's the most powerful sword the first game played can be finished with. (The Master Sword is the Infinity+1 Sword of these games, and can only be obtained after linking the two games together after finishing one of them, and can only be used in the first one played after it's already beaten.)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword once again uses this on most everything. You not only have the Goddess Sword (and unpowered Master Sword) but you have your potions, gear, and even shields which can all be upgraded to "master" level by investing tons of time collecting bugs, ore, and goop.
• Getting the best weapon for Vyse in Skies of Arcadia is a fool's errand, as the next best, and significantly easier to obtain, weapon for him hits the damage cap anyway.
• In Max Payne, the three best weapons are the assault rifles - the Kalashnikov, MP5, and M4 Carbine. However, the handgun Desert Eagle is arguably superior with decent power, a decent rate of fire when DualWielded (an ability exclusive to the second game), and it has great accuracy. With proper use of bullet time and good aim, the player can headshot most Mooks with it and kill them with one hit. As well, the Desert Eagle, like most shotguns and handguns, is quite common in the first 66% of the game or so while the three assault rifle weapons are rare. Not to mention they are assault rifles, and thus you use up a lot of ammo fast.
• The Kikuichimonji in Golden Sun and the Tisiphone Edge and Excalibur in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The Kikuichimonji and the Tisiphone Edge are found as (not quite) Random Drops from enemies, so the sufficiently patient player can get multiple copies. The Kikuichimonji and Tisiphone Edge are classed as "light blades", meaning the only people in your party who CAN'T wield them are the resident White Mages Mia and Sheba, while the Excalibur has a 5% chance of being forged from the rarest forgeable material in the game, and has the potential to do more damage than the Infinity+1 Sword.
  • They are, however, the Infinity+1 Sword weapons of choice for Ivan and Jenna, who can't use heavier equipment.
• The Chicago Typewriter of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop is easier to get than the Mega Buster, and can take out any boss you can use it on with less than a magazine's worth of ammo.
• The Infinite Rocket Launcher in Resident Evil 4. Costs the same as the Chicago Typewriter, useless up close due to it being explosive, and a worse firing rate than the other two secret weapons. But at the same time, all you need to do to get it is beat the game once. Assignment Ada and the Mercenaries minigames are required if you want to get the other two guns and that will take up at least some time, and it sure makes all those bosses you fought before much easier to kill. Many of the standard guns can also become this. After upgrading them full you get an exclusive upgrade that gives the Striker a magazine of 100 rounds for example. Another good example is the Red9, which gains a very high firepower, together with a stock making it steady and as it's available early on, you will probably have upgraded it fully once you reach the end. As it's a handgun you will never have to worry about ammo either.
  • You will find many Resident Evil 5 players using an infinite rocket launcher rather than a rifle, which is even less useful, because if you miss (and if you're on chapter 3-3, you will), you either have to wait for the weapon to re-scope or blind-fire it. Also, many people use the SIG 556, an assault rifle with lower firepower but a higher capacity than the AK-74 (but the capacity becomes moot when you unlock infinite ammo), and the "Lightning Hawk", which is the weakest magnum, is middle in capacity, but has the highest reload speed (again, a moot point when you have infinite ammo). Both of these guns have to do with recoil, which is not measured by the game. The M3 is the Infinity-1 Sword of shotguns: it technically has lower firepower than the Hydra (M3 has 900, but the Hydra has 550 for each of the three barrels it fires), but has the benefit of not blocking your field of vision when you aim it with Chris.
    • Give the best magnum to the computer controlled character, because they will never miss. Keep the lesser magnums for yourself because they reload faster and have less recoil.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, on one hand, has the Infinity+1 Sword Goldbrand, which deal a ludicrously gigantic punch but is also ludicrously hard to get (and upgrading it to Eltonbrand absolutely requires reading a guide). On the other hand, there are the much easier to find, still quite powerful weapons Umbra—provided you can find and kill the Orc, Magebane—a glass claymore which lies within the Urshilaku burial and can be taken with just a telekinesis or levitate spell, and the Scourge mace, which lies in one of the main quest destinations and only needs a powerful unlock scroll and bit of stealth skill to get. Alternatively, once you've leveled enough, you can simply kill monsters in shrines or in the Grazelands until you find a Daedric sword, or you can train your Conjuration skill so you can summon Daedric swords all the time.
  • The Dwemer Jinksword can purchased from the Fighter's Guild in Balmora after completing the initiation quest less than thirty minutes into the game. Who needs to do 100+ damage when you can just paralyze your foe, switch to the bound dagger (also for sale in Balmora), and just wail on them until they die?
    • If you're after paralyzation effects, you might as well get the Daedric Crescent, which has the same enchantment, packs a wallop, and looks much more cool. You do have to kill the guy who wields it to get it, though.
  • The shack in the corner of the Dren Plantation, where lurks a guy with a Daedric Daikatana, the most powerful unenchanted weapon in the game... right from the beginning of the game, requiring no quests, and only enough levelling (or skill) to shank the guy. Actually enchanting one of these can take it up to Game Breaker status.
  • Dragonplate Armor in Skyrim. Daedric Armor is strictly better, but the materials to make it include Ebony Ingots(expensive) and Daedra Hearts (rare). Much easier to get Dragonplate, since it uses those Dragon Bones and Dragon Scales you've been saving up all game.
    • Also, there's a point at which the extra armor points for daedric don't matter because damage reduction is capped at 80%. With maxed Heavy Armor and Smithing, it's possible to hit said cap with steel.
    • For efficiency's sake, there is a perk which greatly boosts the effectiveness of Dwarven armor to just under that of Daedric, and the smithing perk for Dwarven gear is one of the first in the tree. The only issue then are the weapons.
• In Final Fantasy IV there's the Excalibur. It isn't too hard to get—you need to visit a blacksmith in a very easy to reach location, he needs Adamantite, also obtained from an easy to reach location. The single catch is you have to trade a Rat Tail for it, which isn't a problem because it's in an optional area you're likely to visit anyway (the area provides access to two good Summons) and the chest holding it is right out in the open at the entrance. Cecil's ultimate weapon Ragnarok is found deep in the final dungeon guarded by a strong optional boss, while Excalibur can be gotten before you attempt said dungeon.
• In Final Fantasy V there are the twelve legendary weapons, the Weapons Of Plot Advancement. Only three of the twelve are actually the strongest weapons of their type in the original game, and in the Advance remake there are many weapons better. In the literal sword category there's the Excalibur again—the actual strongest sword (not counting the two in the Advance bonus dungeons), the Ragnarok, is obtained in an area roughly three screens before the final boss, and is guarded by Shinryu, a Bonus Boss famous for being incredibly difficult to defeat if you try and face him in a head-on battle of attrition.
  • But if you choose to never run away throughout the entire game, you can pick up the Brave Blade for free with no necessary fights as soon as World 3 becomes explorable (in other words, before you can even get the Excalibur). At max power, the Brave Blade has 150 Strength, stronger than even the Ragnarok. The only thing that beats it is the Ultima Weapon, which can only be obtained by killing Neo Shinryu at the end of the remake's tedious postgame bonus dungeon.
• Final Fantasy VI has the Enhancer. Its attack power is only average, but it gives +7 magic power, the highest stat boost to magic power of any equipment piece in the game—even the ultimate weapons in the bonus dungeon in the Advance release don't give more than that. The Enhancer also gives +20% Magic Block, so with a Genji Glove and two Enhancers, your magic power is +14 and you have roughly a 33% chance to block any blockable magic attack. And if you're playing the SNES version, where evasion of physical attacks is mistakenly tied to the Magic Evade stat, the Enhancer can help make some characters virtually invulnerable. And to top it off, the Enhancer is buyable in a normal town and is actually pretty cheap.
  • For Edgar and Mog, the Holy Lance. High power, boosts magic, randomly casts Holy, and only outperformed by spears acquired in the final dungeon and bonus dungeon.
  • There's also the Infinity Minus One Hat, the Circlet. Its defensive stats are only a few points lower than the top-grade helmets, but it gives a boost to all other stats, is buyable and is very cheap, and everyone can equip it.
• Pretty much all of Final Fantasy VII's ultimate weapons have some sort of limiter that makes them less than ideal choices, primarily that they have zero Materia growth. Thus you're more likely to equip those mid-game Double growth weapons, rare Triple growth weapons, or weak 8-slot normal growth weapons for a fair chunk of the game if you ever want to level up your Materia at a reasonable pace (or at all). The Infinity Minus One Swords tend to be those one or two weapons with high attack power and normal materia growth that you can use until you're ready to switch over to the ultimate ones-Vincent's Outsider/SuperShot ST, Tifa's God Hand, Barret's Max Ray, Yuffie's Oritsuru, Nanaki's Behemoth Horn/Spriggan Clip, Cait Sith's Starlight Phone, Cid's Spirit Lance/Flayer, and Cloud's Ragnarok.
• Final Fantasy IX has Steiner's Ragnarok sword. His best weapon, Excalibur 2, is difficult to obtain to the point of being a Bragging Rights Reward—it is found only in one single spot in the final dungeon, but only if you can get there in under twelve hours. This means a lot of missed content and rushing through the entire game for a weapon that is simply not worth the hassle.
  • Zidane has The Tower and the Masamune, if for some reason you skipped you skipped the chocobo hot and cold sidequest, both of which have debatedly better Soul Blade abilities and decent attack stats.
• The Brotherhood in Final Fantasy X - you get it early in the game, and at that point it has only one effect (Strength +5%). However, when you reach Guadosalam and visit the Farplane, it gets an upgrade, gaining a total of four effects (Strength +5%, Strength +10%, Sensor and Waterstrike). These effects are are nothing to scoff at—if you want a stronger weapon for pure power you're looking at expending several rare items to customize Strength +20% onto a different weapon. Furthermore, due to Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors water attacks are effective against lightning-elemental enemies, and you power up the Brotherhood just before you enter an area full of lightning enemies. The only drawback of the sword is that it heals enemies that absorb water attacks, but thanks to Sensor you'll be given advance warning of them.
  • In the first temple right at the beginning of the game, you can find a Rod of Wisdom. It has the abilities Magic +5%, Magic +3%, and Sensor. It is used by Yuna, a White Mage and Summoner who thus will be using a lot of magical abilities. Considering you don't get to customize weapons and armor until the midway mark of the game, and even then you need a lot of rare items to customize the better abilities, odds are this will be Yuna's best weapon for most of the game.
• Final Fantasy XI has the elemental staves, each of which grants a variety of massive boosts to spells of that element. Despite only being level 51 weapons, mages will carry a collection of them all the way to level 75 and beyond thanks to their versatility and crafted, auctionable nature. Even supposed "ultimate" staves are completely ignored. The game eventually introduced entire branching family trees of Infinity Minus One Swords (and daggers, and clubs, etc) with the Trial of the Magians system. Time, patience, and perserverence translate directly into progress towards upgrading the weapons created for this system, which is more than can be said about earning relic and mythic weapons—not to mention that the completion of each stage only takes a few days' investment. (Relics and mythics can be upgraded via this system too, but at a maddeningly slow pace—and you have to earn such a weapon firs].)
• In Final Fantasy XII the Orochi is acquired from the Bazaar by selling fairly common loot and is the second-strongest ninja sword by 8 attack points. The strongest ninja sword, the Yagyu Darkblade, is a very rare drop from the Bombshell, a powerful enemy deep in a dangerous optional dungeon, and besides the fact that there's a very slim chance it'll drop the weapon at all, there's only a 20% guarantee of the Bombshell itself appearing in the first place.
  • Final Fantasy XII has many Infinity Plus One Weapons, most of them hard to get, so it only follows that many players "make do" with others—the interesting thing is that some of them are, technically, Infinity Plus One Swords—for example, if the player cannot be bothered to go after the Zodiac Spear or the superior greatswords and katanas, there's always the top-tier hammer, the Scorpion Tail. Sure, it requires rare loot, yes—but from particular (relatively) weak enemies available very early in the storyline. Determined players can have it immediately after the first visit to Henne Mines, and it will remain useful throughout the entire main storyline. The best and second-best guns, Arcturus and Fomalhaut, are in a similar position. And even players who plan on getting and using the best weapons will often get these as well, to tide them over until the good stuff is unlockable.
  • It also has this with its armor—the best stuff tends to be either one-of-a-kind from Guide Dang It chests, ridiculously hard to get drops from the Rare Game, or both. Hence, gamers who can't or don't want to chain Helvinek for Grand Armor survive with the Maximilian, fill the empty slots left by only two possible Circlets with Golden Skullcaps, and so on and so forth.
  • If you simply can't be bothered at all to grind for the materials needed to forge various weapons, or you're playing the game without a guide or FAQ of any kind and don't have the faintest idea what to look for to get the best stuff, it's entirely possible to complete the game with almost exclusively store-bought equipment.
• Final Fantasy XIII also features a version of this in a more wide term, rather then a single weapon it applies to a rank of weapons, as it is better to keep your weapon of choice in "Tier 2" rather then upgrading it to the ultimate one, as the ultimate ones not only require expensive materials with a absurdly low drop-rate, but also lose their ability to create Synthesized Skills with other equipment, and due how battle rank and the ATB cost for the "ultimate" attacks are calculated the higher attack and magic stats and additional ATB bar do not compensate for losing those, even after players have capability to make ultimate weapons for the whole party they are still likely to use Tier 2 ones instead.
• The Excalibur in Final Fantasy Tactics. Not the most powerful sword when it comes to pure stats, but the fact that it automatically buffs the wielder with Haste means it was probably duplicated more than the stronger swords. Not to mention, it comes free when a certain character joins your party, whereas the other swords have to be caught from high-level ninjas in a specific area of the game's most difficult dungeon, or dug up from specific coordinates in the same dungeon with a character with low Brave.
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and its following titles have this. The best weapons in the game require obscure and rare items that only might be dropped by bosses or uncommon and/or powerful mooks. You'll often stick with something a few steps short of best. In the later games, you may find yourself skipping on better head gear since it looks so tacky when combine with your latest armor.
  • With enough defensive artifacts, it pays for the player to get armor that resists status effects rather than get armor for sheer defensive bonuses.
• In Dissidia Final Fantasy, everyone has a Level 100 Infinity+1 Sword that gives them unique status boosts reflective of their fighting style. However, several generic Level 99 weapons are better depending on your character build. For example, Excalibur II gives Exp +100% (a requirement weapon for Exp -> Brave builds), the Nirvana gives EX Mode Duration +40%, and the Stardust Rod and Ragnarok give +25% damage to magical/physical attacks.
  • The prequel turns the Lufenian equipment, a set of Infinity Plus One Equipment in the original game, into this in the Bonus Storyline. Once you rescue the mured moogle, Lufenian equipment can be farmed easily in treasure chests in several gateways, but aside from its stat boosts isn't that useful due to the effect tied to the equipment being split into two different ones from the first game, and odds are you won't get three matching pieces to trigger that effect in battle. However, the equipment bought in the shop is absurdly expensive, reaching into several hundred thousand gil when you total up the cost needed to trade for low level weapons to trade for better ones, etc, and the trade accessories needed for them are acquired from multi-floor gateways or require trading rare Elixir items to get one at a time.
• The Fire Sword in Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. It does high damage, being a Flaming Sword. However, it's not a patch on the game's Infinity+1 Sword, the Soul Reaver (which would later obtain Sword of Plot Advancement status in the sequels), which can one-hit kill bosses. However, the Fire Sword is still preferable in most situations, as the Soul Reaver drains the players magic, and prevents them from casting any spells.
• Nethack's strongest artifacts, such as the undead- and demon-slaying silver saber Grayswandir and the handy-in-hell long sword Frost Brand, can only be found by expending a wish, or a once-in-a-blue-moon random drop. On other hand, Excalibur can be obtained as early as level 5 by knights and lawful valkyries and will carry you though to the endgame. It is, however, a bit of a Crutch Artifact, in that its damage is less than impressive in late-game, and wielding it draws monsters to you like moths to a flame.
• In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, you're almost sure to pick up a Long Spear on your first visit to the Nation of Fools (high drop rate). Its high power and speed will get you through a large part of the game. Later on, the Vampire Killer itself takes on this role—it's not one of the game's several Infinity Plus One Swords and you don't have to go out of your way to get it (just beat That One Boss), but many players stick with it for its ease of use and handy elemental attributes.
  • Abusing a small glitch to double jump early (which normally comes just after Nation of Fools) can get you the Nebula (a homing whip), the most powerful whip that is obtained before Vampire Killer, a powerful weapon that will last until endgame unless you abuse a Good Bad Bug to buy the Holy Claymore early.
• In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, there is an enormously powerful weapon called Death's Scythe that can only be found late in the game if one is playing Hard Mode. However, it is actually much easier to access the bonus sword "Claimh Solais" before one finds the Scythe. Interestingly, the Death's Scythe is actually somewhat less powerful then the Claimh Solais despite its greater attack increase, because many enemies both resist the Scythe and are weak to the Solais.
  • People still use it to farm souls, as it raises the drop rate of enemy souls and adds a massive luck bonus.
  • Not to mention Death's Scythe is one of two weapons that annihilates That One Boss, Julius Belmont, who is neutral to dark and tremendously resistant to holy. The Claimh Solais is hardly more useful than Soma's bare fists against him.
  • There is also the Balmung if it isn't Hard Mode which only slightly less powerful than the Claimh Solais and is of the Darkness type meaning its effective against that one boss mentioned above.
• There are a lot more powerful swords available in Diablo than Griswold's Edge - but those are all random drops, whereas Griswold's Edge is guaranteed if you get the right quest, and it does do decent damage and knock back enemies. In addition, its additional damage is fire damage, which is the only energy type that's of any use in the final level.
  • Regular magic weapons in the original Diablo carry over into new game +, while unique weapons do not.
• In Ace Combat games, while there are Game Breaker superfighters with powerful weapons like the Tactical Laser System of the Falken and Morgan or ADMM of the Nosferatu, most of these are Infinity Plus One Swords with the difficulty of acquisition that implies. Most players therefore settle for more easily available planes like the F-22 or Su-37.
  • One can even go farther back than that, unlike Air Force Delta stats tend not to count so much in Ace Combat, indeed you really only want to focus on Mobility and Attack (use less mini-missiles) unless the level specifically calls for a lot of hopping back and forth between locations. It is actually easier to take out enemies with a slower but far more maneuverable plane in the pure dogfight levels. You basically make yourself into a floating turret and blast everyone that overshoots. Any plane before the superplanes but after the Tiger II/Crusader/A5 can generally be this. All about playstyle. {{YMMV You might even be able to consider the MIG 31 the infinity minus if you are crazygood with rockets.}}
• Star Ocean the Second Story has the Eternal Sphere. Provided you know how to get it, it's the sword Claude will spend half the game equipped with and statistically superior ones only appear in the Bonus Dungeon. In fact, it's so powerful, it's arguably the Infinity+1 Sword for certain playstyles.
• X-COM: Terror From The Deep has Gauss weapons become this until you engineer Sonic Cannons. Sonic weapons are accurate, but have no auto-fire, and, while they make great snipers, are useless in closer quarters combat, which is where the Gauss excels due to its relatively high speed and power.
  • The first game has the humble Laser Rifle. Easily obtainable within the first month, cheap, accurate, with respectable stopping power, and it has infinite ammo, a godsend in holding back the dreaded 80-item limit. As an added bonus, it's a required stop upon the research tree to Laser Cannons, which are the Infinity-1 Sword for your ships (and pocketbook).
• Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams has these as rewards for completing 50 floors in the Dark Realm, with Infinity Plus One Swords for finishing all 100 floors. The Infinity Minus One Weapons all have the best combo type for the characters, elemental attacks (while the Infinity Plus Ones just have raw power) and have generally great attack power that should do you well enough.
• Overlord II has The Reaper, which is an axe that absorbs health every time it connects an attack. In case The Apocalyptor is too expensive for you and you want to save up the finite Dark Crystals for other stuff (armor or Minion upgrades), it'll do perfectly unless you want to be a full-on Sauron clone.
• Oddly enough, SaGa 3 (Final Fantasy Legend 3) forces you to get the Infinity+1 Sword, but you have to quest to find the other three mythic weapons. The #2 blade would be the Masamune, which is found as the Muramasa and misses every time you use it until uncursed by your party's smith back at your time-travelling stealth jet. The game also features spell synthesis: the best spell is Flare and requires two Fire Stones, but there are only 4. Combining a Fire Stone with any other stone gives you an elemental spell that's almost just as good, but lets you get enough spells for everyone.
  • The reason the Mythic Swords are worthwhile in SaGa 3 is because they have no element, even "Weapon", and the final bosses have blanket strengths against every element, including "Weapons". So on a similar note, the element-free White spell, otherwise three tiers from the top, becomes your only spell casting option.
• Star Ocean 3 Til the End of Time has a weapon called "Laser Weapon", which can be purchased any number of times, and which any character can equip. Interestingly enough, these are only a little weaker than the character's ultimate weapons, and require significantly less work. Also, since any characters can use them, they are often buffed using the in-game item-synthesis to make a beat-down stick to swap between characters.
• Danu's Light in Albion is one of the most versatile weapons in the game. Deals a decent amount of damage, boosts melee attack skill and speed (both of them are vital for melee fighters), it even gives defense bonus and can be used to heal the entire party. Oh. There's also comes in four copies. All of which can be bought from the same blacksmith. While there are at least two swords out that that are way more destructive, one of them is two-handed and the other is cursed, and comes with ridiculously huge penalties.
• The Violent Light sword in Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. It's not even found until near the end of the game, well after obtaining the Sword of Plot Advancement, which is required for the Final Boss. And nearly all the gimmick sword magics suck anyways.
• Company of Heroes's recognized Infinity Plus One units are the Wehrmacht King Tiger and the Panzer Elite Jagdpanther; however, because both are irreplaceable doctrinal units, most Axis players are content to churn out ordinary Panther tanks, which are still the best buildable tanks in the game, for the simple reason that they are typically replaceable and that teching up to their level generally comes sooner than spending all the Command Points needed for the ultra-heavy tanks/TDs.
• RuneScape's Abyssal Whip, while weaker than a Chaotic Rapier, was for many years the most effective weapon in the entire game for a large variety of popular tasks - it is tradeable, unlike the Chaotic Rapier, and costs less even than many of the other tradeable weapons that are less effective, due to the ease of acquisition. The Chaotic Rapier's Dungeoneering requirement and Dungeoneering reward token cost makes it a serious time investment. The Abyssal Whip is still the most effective option by a wide margin for those without the Chaotic Rapier's Dungeoneering requirement.
• The hunting rifle, and it's unique version in Fallout 3 qualify. Solid, dependable, capable of ludicrous accuracy, common drops for repair and some of the most common ammo in the wasteland. Sure, it's no Alien Blaster or Gatling laser, but the enemy is just as dead.
  • Fallout: New Vegas's Dead Money DLC has the holorifle, the third most damaging energy weapon in the game behind the Gauss Rifle and its unique variant, the YCS/186. The holorifle can load four shots (the gauss rifle and YCS are single-shot), only uses one unit of ammo per shot (compared to five and four), can be modded so that it almost never needs repairs, and it's dropped into your inventory as soon as you begin the DLC.
• Quel'Delar in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. It was the best level 80 weapon you could get without ever going to a raid or the arena (and better than weapons from the lesser raids), and as a bonus comes in different versions for different characters.
• In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, you can buy a Beast Killer knife for Sothe as early as chapter 1-4. While this immediately comes in handy on that same chapter (which is filled with beast laguz, and the Beast Killer does Exactly What It Says on the Tin), you'll quickly find that the beast-killing is just a bonus. It has a Might of 9, which is a lot for a knife weapon (only three of them have a Might over 10), and a Crit of 20 (only the rare Killer weapons offer more than that, and as there is no Killer knife, well...) Its only weakness is its low Hit%, which doesn't matter for Sothe who is virtually guaranteed to hit everything anyway. Considering that you don't get the second-best knife until Endgame, and don't get the best unless you know what you're doing (and on a chapter very close to Endgame anyway), odds are that the Beast Killer will be Sothe's best weapon for a long, long time.
  • A general rule of thumb is that most B or A rank weapons will be this.
• In the iPhone game Battleheart, you can get this by upgrading a weapon to the max for a Tier 7. (Well, that would actually be a Infinity Minus Two Sword as you can get Tier 8s from the arena) The Infinity Plus One Sword is unlocked by doing extremely well in the arena.
• Freelancer's level-9 guns. These guns are often something you can buy in any quantity from the faction that uses them, whereas the level-10 guns can only be obtained by finding and looting far-flung Derelict Graveyards or fighting Nomads, and furthermore can only be mounted on the three highest-level ships.
• The Alba ATAC from Vanguard Bandits is a decent machine that you'll have from the start of the game. It will get outclassed latter, but even then it remains a nice suit to give to some of your other pilots.
• Every main series Pokémon game has these. In addition to the base-stat-680 "boxart legendaries" that every game features, which can often only be caught in the post-game, every generation also introduces a "legendary trio" of Pokémon, all with a base stat total of 580, not quite as powerful as other legendaries, but easily outstripping all but a handful of fully-evolved Pokémon, and which can be caught at a much earlier stage in the game.
  • Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos in Pokémon Red Blue and Yellow, as well as remakes Pokémon Firered and Leafgreen.
  • Entei, Raikou, and Suicine in Pokémon Gold Silver and Crystal, as well as remakes Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver.
  • Regirock, Regice, and Registeel in Pokemon Ruby Sapphire and Emerald.
  • Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit in Pokémon Diamond Pearl and Platinum.
  • Terrakion, Virizion, and Cobalion in Pokémon Black and White. (Tornadus and Thundurus have the same base stat total, but cannot be found as early).
  • There are also the starter Pokémon, as in the first Pokémon you get at the beginning of the games. Not only do you get them without much effort but they are also very unlikely to ever leave your party. The reason that a player would be hard-pressed to ditch the starter Pokémon is because such Pokémon have respectable stats and also gain access to powerful moves exclusive to them later on in the game. It is not unheard of people beating the games with their starter and a band of low-level HM slaves.
  • Finally, there are Pseudo-Legendaries - Extremely powerful Pokémon with three-stage evolutionary lines, a base stat total of 600, and (usually) are Dragon-typed or otherwise fierce looking that evolve at high levels.
    • The first evolutionary line, Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite, were the first and only Dragon-types in Pokémon Red and Blue. However, unlike later Pseudo-Legendaries, Dragonite was cute and whimsical in appearance rather than fearsome.
    • Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced Larvitar, Pupitar, and Tyranitar, set the trend of Pseudo-Legendaries being vicious-looking in their final stages - which is rather strange considering the general trend for Second Gen Pokémon was being cute. It starts off as a Rock/Ground type, but Tyranitar, an Expy of Godzilla, is a Rock/Dark type.
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire' introduced two lines - the first was the Bagon, Shelgon and Salamence line. Basically a Composite Character of the Dragonite and Tyranitar lines, it has Dragonite's typing with Tyranitar's fierce nature.
    • The other Third Gen Pseudo-Legendary line, Beldum, Metang, and Metagross, is the odd one out of the Pseudo-Legends. A Steel/Psychic-type line, Metagross resembles a Spider Tank. It's also the first Pseudo-Legendary line without a dual weakness to any type.
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl introduced one of the most infamous Pseudo-Legends: the Gible, Gabite and Garchomp line. these Ground/Dragon-types were based on the concept of a Land Shark and were swiftly Kicked Upstairs to the Uber tier.
    • Perhaps to compliment Tyranitar's affiliation with Godzilla, Pokémon Black and White introduced Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon. Hydreigon, a Dark/Dragon-type, is obviously based on Godzilla's Arch Enemy, King Ghidorah.
• In Devil May Cry the first sword Alastor can be upgraded to max by exploiting a bug as soon as it is obtained in game. it will easily last until the end of the game.
• In Rune Factory, most players stick with the Chaos Blade, the second-most powerful one-handed sword. The Rune Blade has better overall stats, but the Chaos Blade takes a lower Forging Skill score to make and has a raft of nifty status effects to boot (including HP Absorb and Paralysis and 30% crit rate). Its also far faster and easier to use than any two-handed sword, war hammer, or battle axe of similar crafting level (and has a wider attack range than any non-sword). And all that is assuming they haven't finished the main quest with the Heaven Asunder before they're even able to forge the Chaos Blade.
• In EVE Online, Tech 2 weapons are these. At first glance they seem to be the top weapons in the game and require that players train a whole upper tier of skills to use effectively, but they are not the best damage dealers when compared to rare officer-modified Tech 1 weapons. The top level officer weapons are quite a bit more devastating, but they are extremely rare to find and thus cripplingly expensive to buy from other players in the game. The Tech 2 weapons also have the advantage of being able to use Tech 2 specialty ammunition that can boost range, weapon accuracy, and damage.
• In MMORPGs in general, the Infinity+1 Sword from a previous update is relegated to this position in the newest version (if it is not bound to the first owner's account) as players sell their formerly uber gear en masse to fund a round of upgrades, driving prices down drastically.
• In Neverwinter Nights 2 the Silver Sword of Gith definitely qualifies for Cool Sword, Oddly-Shaped Sword, and Sword of Plot Advancement. But it's entirely possible to forge and enchant weapons on your own that have it beat on damage output. Two factors are to blame: A, the weapon has no type, so your weapon skills feats have no effect on it whatsoever. B, the Sword is incomplete (there are still chunks missing). It is far deadlier when it reappears in Mask of the Betrayer, though still crippled by having no type.
• All weapons (except the very worst for obvious reasons) in Fallout: New Vegas are designed to be deliberately worse than their predecessor in at least one area, even if they are better overall. While most of the time this means higher burst damage in exchange for lower capacity (9mm pistol to .357 Revolver) or having a silencer and being able to be snuck into restricted areas with ease in exchange for everything else (Silenced .22 pistol to anything else). The scoped weapon "tree" is perhaps the most extreme example since it has limited things to actually decrease (since they start slow and low capacity) and ends with the Anti-Materiel Rifle being accurate and powerful (over double the next best), but also fragile, only available at later levels, expensive to buy and fire, has very high strength requirement counter to most builds that would use it, and can't really be suppressed (important for sniping due to how enemy detection works in the game). By contrast the "lesser" scoped rifles use very common ammo, are more durable, will kill most things you can sneak up on in a single sneak attack headshot anyways and can easily be found even without prior knowledge well before the Anti-Materiel Rifle shows up.