Which bow, sword, polearm or lance should you actually be carrying in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord now that War Sails has filled the Nord towns with new axes, atgeirs and shields?
The item with the biggest number in its tooltip will not always be the right answer. The Noble Long Bow will not fire from a horse without a specific perk, two of the Empire’s lances cannot couch at all, and several bows on older lists lost 12 damage in a patch. All stats, shop rules and perk levels below are for patch v1.4.8 with the War Sails DLC installed. This guide will tell you the best pick for each weapon class, where you will find it, and how to get your couched lance working on PC and controller.
The quick answer: the Noble Long Bow is the strongest bow on foot, while the Noble Bow is the best bow you can shoot from a horse without a perk. The Bound Crossbow hits harder than any other bow or crossbow, and the Long Falx is the best one-handed sword you can buy for use with a shield. Among the polearms, the Voulge will serve you best on foot and the Long Glaive on horseback, the Heavy Knight Lance tops the couching list, and for shields you will want the Pavise for hit points or the Ornate Adarga for speed.
Best bow
The two noble bows are the best bows in Bannerlord, and they are fairly close to each other. The Noble Bow has 80 damage, 94 speed, 100 accuracy and 90 missile speed. The Noble Long Bow trades 3 speed, 2 accuracy and 5 missile speed for 15 more damage, which brings it to 95, the highest of any bow. Both are tier 6 and need 70 Bow, and only the Noble Bow works on horseback without a perk.
| Bow | Use | Damage | Speed | Accuracy | Missile Speed | Skill | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noble Long Bow | Foot* | 95 | 91 | 98 | 85 | Bow 70 | Any town |
| Noble Bow | Foot + horseback | 80 | 94 | 100 | 90 | Bow 70 | Any town |
| Strong Tribesman Bow | Foot* | 79 | 88 | 95 | 86 | Bow 50 | Aserai towns |
| Nomad Bow | Foot* | 70 | 89 | 91 | 77 | Bow 50 | Aserai towns |
| Woodland Longbow | Foot* | 64 | 88 | 94 | 82 | Bow 50 | Battanian towns |
| Steppe War Bow | Horseback | 54 | 89 | 95 | 80 | Bow 50 | Khuzait towns |
| Steppe Recurve Bow | Horseback | 52 | 89 | 94 | 78 | Bow 30 | Khuzait towns |
| Recurve Bow | Horseback | 51 | 90 | 94 | 77 | Bow 30 | Any town |
If you fight on foot and want every arrow to hurt as much as possible, the Noble Long Bow is your bow. If you ride, or if you simply want to shoot faster, you will be better off with the Noble Bow. Below the noble pair, the Strong Tribesman Bow is the pick for foot archers and the Steppe War Bow for horse archers.
Noble Bow or Noble Long Bow
Range and arc depend on the Missile Speed stat, and being a longbow does not change them. The Noble Bow (90) shoots a faster, flatter arrow than the Noble Long Bow (85), so the shorter bow will actually drop less over distance.
Most players who have used both end up preferring the Noble Bow, on foot as well as on horseback, because it is quicker to shoot and easier to aim. The Noble Long Bow keeps a smaller group of fans among foot archers who want a body shot to finish lightly armored enemies. I would say the Noble Bow is the better all-round choice, and you should only go for the long bow if you stay on your feet and care more about damage per arrow than about speed.
Longbows on horseback
Horse Master is the Bow perk at 225 skill, and its alternative is Deep Quivers. It lets you and any hero who has it, so your companions and other lords too, use every bow on horseback, including the Noble Long Bow. Regular troops will never get this effect, but as a captain, Horse Master gives +30 Bow skill to the mounted troops in your formation. You will find the rest of the bow tree in our Bannerlord best perks guide.
Mind that Mounted Archery at Bow 100 is a different perk. It lowers your accuracy penalty while riding by 30%, but it will not let you use a longbow from the saddle.
Where to find noble bows
Neither noble bow has a culture, so any town can sell them. The workshops in a town add what they make to its market. Smithies make melee weapons and wood workshops make bows, crossbows and shields. A workshop prefers items of its own town’s culture or items with no culture at all, it makes cheap items more often than expensive ones, and the highest tiers come out the slowest. Tier 6 bows share the slowest ranged output a wood workshop has, which is why you will rarely see a noble bow on sale.
Your best odds are in Battanian, Sturgian and Khuzait towns, where every top-tier ranged item a wood workshop makes is a Noble Bow or a Noble Long Bow. Masterwork and Legendary noble bows exist in the unmodded game as well. About 1 in 7 noble bows a workshop makes is Masterwork or Legendary, and a Legendary Noble Long Bow hits for 102 damage.
In a town at peace, and before your Trade skill lowers the price, you will pay roughly 71,000 to 115,000 denars for a plain Noble Long Bow and about 32,000 to 51,000 for a plain Noble Bow. Masterwork and Legendary copies cost more, and so does any bow you buy in an enemy town.
The other route is loot. No regular soldier carries a noble bow in 1.4.8. Sturgian, Aserai, Khuzait and Nord lords can carry the Noble Bow and Battanian lords the Noble Long Bow, so beating those lords in battle will give you a chance at one.
Budget bows
The Strong Tribesman Bow, with 79 damage, 86 missile speed and a requirement of 50 Bow, is the best bow below the noble pair and costs about a sixth of a Noble Long Bow. It is an Aserai item, so look in Aserai towns, where it is the most likely top-tier ranged item a workshop makes at 48%. It is a foot bow, though, so you will need Horse Master to use it mounted. In 1.4.8 the only troop that carries it is the Aserai Veteran Sailor from War Sails.
For horse archers, the Steppe War Bow from Khuzait towns is the best mounted bow below the Noble Bow with 54 damage. The Recurve Bow is a little weaker at 51, but every town can sell it.
Many older lists still show pre-patch numbers, so do not trust a bow damage value you find there. Several bows lost 12 damage and dropped to tier 3, so you will often see the Steppe War Bow listed with 66 damage instead of 54 and the Woodland Longbow with 76 instead of 64. The Woodland Longbow is also often called the longest-ranged bow, but its missile speed of 82 is lower than that of both noble bows and the Strong Tribesman Bow.
Best crossbow
The Bound Crossbow is the hardest-hitting bow or crossbow in the game, with 100 damage, 100 accuracy and a missile speed of 97. It needs 70 Crossbow and is a Vlandian item, so you are going to have to look for it in Vlandian towns.
| Crossbow | Damage | Speed | Accuracy | Missile Speed | Skill | Reload mounted? | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound Crossbow | 100 | 63 | 100 | 97 | Crossbow 70 | Fire only* | Vlandian towns |
| Hickory Crossbow | 93 | 62 | 99 | 90 | Crossbow 40 | Fire only* | Imperial towns |
| Arbalest | 89 | 60 | 98 | 87 | Crossbow 20 | Fire only* | Vlandian towns |
| Fine Light Crossbow | 85 | 80 | 90 | 70 | Crossbow 40 | Yes | Vlandian towns |
| Heavy Crossbow | 82 | 61 | 96 | 80 | Crossbow 20 | Fire only* | Imperial towns |
| Light Crossbow | 77 | 75 | 85 | 65 | Crossbow 20 | Yes | Vlandian towns |
| Simple Light Crossbow | 67 | 70 | 80 | 60 | Crossbow 0 | Yes | Imperial towns |
| Light Peasant Crossbow | 57 | 65 | 75 | 55 | Crossbow 0 | Yes | Vlandian towns |
On foot, take the Bound Crossbow once you can afford it and use the Hickory Crossbow from Empire towns until then, which hits for 93 and needs only 40 Crossbow. The Arbalest is the low-skill pick with 89 damage at 20 Crossbow, although it weighs 3.0. If you ride and do not have the right perk yet, the Fine Light Crossbow from Vlandian towns is the best crossbow you can reload in the saddle.
Crossbows on horseback
Light crossbows reload on horseback. A heavy crossbow will fire the bolt that is already loaded while you ride, but you will not be able to reload it until you dismount. Mounted Crossbowman is the Crossbow perk at 175, and with it you or any hero who has it can reload any crossbow on horseback, including the Bound Crossbow. Steady at 200 halves the mounted accuracy penalty. Neither perk helps your troops in battle, although Mounted Crossbowman also gives the ranged troops in your party 5% more experience.
When a crossbow beats a bow
A good crossbow asks for much less skill. The Arbalest will give you 89 damage at 20 Crossbow, while you need 70 Bow for either noble bow. That makes a crossbow a fairly solid choice for a character who will not put many points into ranged skills.
Later on the picture changes. Crossbow skill makes you reload faster and aim steadier, but unlike Bow it adds no damage. The only personal crossbow damage scaling is the 275 capstone Mighty Pull, worth +0.5% per skill point above 200, which adds up to +50% at 300. That is why a 300-skill archer will out-scale a 300-skill crossbowman. You will also carry fewer shots, since most bolts come 18 to a bag, while Piercing Arrows give you 23 and Stacked Steppe Arrows 36.
No hand-held bow or crossbow shoots through shields in 1.4.8. The shield-piercing icon the Bound and Heavy Crossbows used to show was a display bug, fixed in 1.3.0.
Best arrows and bolts
The damage on arrows and bolts is added to the damage of your bow or crossbow, so a few points here will count on every single shot.
| Ammo | For | Damage | Stack | Legendary (damage / stack) | Tier | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piercing Arrows | Bow | +4 | 23 | +7 / 28 | T4 | Any town |
| Stacked Bodkin Arrows | Bow | +3 | 32 | +6 / 37 | T4 | Any town |
| Bodkin Arrows | Bow | +3 | 24 | +6 / 29 | T3 | Any town |
| Stacked Steppe Arrows | Bow | +2 | 36 | +5 / 41 | T4 | Khuzait towns |
| Heavy Bolts | Crossbow | +5 | 18 | +8 / 22 | T5 | Vlandian towns |
| Bolts | Crossbow | +4 | 18 | +7 / 22 | T4 | Vlandian towns |
| Heavy Quarrels | Crossbow | +3 | 18 | +6 / 22 | T3 | Imperial towns |
| Light Bolts | Crossbow | +2 | 20 | +5 / 24 | T2 | Any town |
Piercing Arrows are the best plain arrows at +4, and since they have no culture, any town can sell them. If you would rather have more shots, Stacked Bodkin Arrows give you 32 arrows at +3, and Stacked Steppe Arrows from Khuzait towns hold the most with 36. For crossbows, Heavy Bolts from Vlandian towns are the top pick at +5.
Arrows take one modifier, but Legendary already includes the Large Bag’s +5 arrows plus +3 damage. That makes Legendary Piercing Arrows, with 7 damage and 28 arrows, the best arrows in the unmodded game, while Legendary Heavy Bolts reach 8 damage for crossbows. A Balanced Bodkin quiver with 5 damage actually beats plain Piercing Arrows with 4.
Best one-handed weapon
If you fight with a shield, the table below has the best swords, axes and maces to pair with it.
| Weapon | Type | Swing (damage / speed) | Thrust (damage / speed) | Length | Handling | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Falx | Falx (hand-and-a-half) | 95 cut / 87 | no thrust | 111 | 88 | Battanian towns |
| Falx | Falx (hand-and-a-half) | 76 cut / 101 | no thrust | 89 | 99 | Any town |
| Pointed Falchion | Sword | 93 cut / 81 | no thrust | 109 | 84 | Any town |
| Huscarl Runed Sword | Sword | 71 cut / 103 | 56 / 95 | 89 | 100 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Thamaskene Steel Kaskara | Sword | 83 cut / 84 | 42 / 91 | 111 | 84 | Aserai towns |
| Rectangular Bitted Axe | Axe | 83 cut / 86 | no thrust | 83 | 82 | Sturgian towns |
| Round Bitted Fine Steel Hatchet | Axe | 82 cut / 87 | no thrust | 85 | 84 | Battanian towns |
| Light Royal Mace | Mace | 67 blunt / 89 | no thrust | 55 | 93 | Imperial towns |
The Long Falx from Battanian towns is the strongest one-handed sword you can buy, with 95 cut and 111 reach. The Falx is the faster, shorter version, and any town can sell it, just like the Pointed Falchion, a cheap tier 4 option with 93 cut. If you want a thrust attack as well, look at the Huscarl Runed Sword in Nord towns or the Thamaskene Steel Kaskara in Aserai towns.
The Long Falx is a hand-and-a-half weapon, so these are the one-handed numbers it uses while you carry a shield. Other bastard swords work the same way. The Broad Kaskara, for example, drops to 80 cut at 77 speed with a shield, but it keeps its 126 reach.
Sword, axe or mace
The falxes (Falx, Long Falx and the Reaper) deal double damage to shields, like axes, and have no thrust attack. Only two other swords share the shield bonus, the Engraved Backsword and the Decorated Broadsword, and neither is sold in shops.
Axes pay for their shield damage with reach. The Rectangular Bitted Axe from Sturgian towns and the Round Bitted Fine Steel Hatchet from Battanian towns are the best one-handed axes in the shops, but at 83 and 85 reach they are a lot shorter than the Long Falx. Maces are shorter still. The Cataphract Mace from Empire towns hits hardest at 71 blunt and has 75 reach, second only to the Khuzait Steel Mace at 77, while the Light Royal Mace and the Fullered Cavalry Mace swing faster for a little less damage.
In general, a sword is the safe pick because of its reach, an axe makes sense if you keep running into shield walls, and a mace is a short, quick tool for close fighting. A falx gives you the shield damage of an axe at sword length, which is why it will be very hard to beat for anyone who fights with a shield.
Swords you cannot buy
Many lists name the Engraved Backsword as the best one-handed sword. Its stats are real, but no shop sells it, and only Battanian nobles carry it. The Berserkr Sword from War Sails swings even harder at 105 cut with 63 thrust. It is not sold either, but the Nord Ulfhedinn troop carries it, so you can loot it from them. The Reaper is the gift you get for joining Battania as a vassal, and it is the strongest weapon any kingdom gives you for joining.
Best two-handed weapon
War Sails changed quite a lot for two-handed weapons, since the Nord towns now sell a whole row of tier 6 axes and two-handed swords can now cut through several enemies in one swing.
| Weapon | Type | Swing (damage / speed) | Thrust (damage / speed) | Length | Handling | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Falx | 2H sword (hand-and-a-half) | 131 cut / 102 | no thrust | 111 | 91 | Battanian towns |
| Thamaskene Steel Two Hander | 2H sword | 133 cut / 91 | 57 / 93 | 119 | 84 | Vlandian towns |
| Wide Fullered Broad Two Hander | 2H sword | 128 cut / 93 | 56 / 94 | 111 | 85 | Vlandian towns |
| Two Handed Cleaver | 2H sword (hand-and-a-half) | 140 cut / 85 | no thrust | 117 | 82 | Vlandian towns |
| Nord Axe | 2H axe | 136 cut / 84 | no thrust | 107 | 77 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Reinforced Hollowed Wing Axe | 2H axe | 125 cut / 90 | no thrust | 107 | 80 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Reinforced Nord Axe | 2H axe, most damage | 141 cut / 78 | no thrust | 126 | 71 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Heavy Executioner Axe | 2H axe, long reach | 136 cut / 73 | no thrust | 137 | 66 | Aserai towns |
For a sword, the Thamaskene Steel Two Hander from Vlandian towns is the best all-rounder you can buy, with 133 cut and 57 thrust. The Long Falx swings faster and deals double damage to shields, but it has no thrust. It is a hand-and-a-half weapon, though, and the patch notes of the 1.5.0 beta list a fix for bastard swords that could not be used as two-handers. If the X key does not switch your Long Falx or Two Handed Cleaver to its two-handed grip, the Thamaskene Steel Two Hander is the safe pick. For an axe, the Nord Axe gives you 136 cut at 84 speed, and the Reinforced Nord Axe has the highest axe damage at 141. You will find both in the four Nord towns, which are Hvalvik, Gretysfjord, Thronderlag and Hargard.
Cleave
Two-handed axes and maces have always been able to hit several enemies in one swing. With War Sails installed, two-handed swords can too, on land and at sea, with or without the Mighty Blows perk. Each extra enemy takes about half the remaining force, and less through heavy armor. Axes only carry on if the first hit kills or takes at least half the target’s health. Otherwise they will stick in the first enemy.
Most Mariner combat perks only work in naval battles. The exception is the personal effect of Mighty Blows, which improves your two-handed cleave and also works on land and in tournaments.
Two-handed axes
The Heavy Executioner Axe is an Aserai tier 6 two-handed axe with 136 cut swing damage, 73 swing speed, 137 reach and 66 handling. Older lists give it 113, 116 or 133 damage, and none of those match the current game. Only the Swift Wing Axe has more reach among shop axes, but several axes hit harder or swing faster, so I would only pick it if reach matters most to you.
The Swift Wing Axe from the Nord towns gets 139 reach, 103 swing speed and 87 handling at just 0.56 weight, thanks to two hidden lightweight parts you cannot use in smithing. The trade-off is 83 swing damage, the lowest of any tier 6 two-handed axe, so you will want it for reach and speed and should not expect one-hit kills from it. No regular troop carries it, as only Nord lords have it in their gear.
Every two-handed axe deals double damage to shields. Two-handed maces get no shield bonus, but they can knock enemies down, and the Southern Two Handed Mace from Aserai towns is the strongest of them.
Best polearm
The Voulge has the highest swing damage of any polearm at 184 cut. The Long Glaive and the Fine Steel Menavlion follow at 182, and the Berdysh has 155.
| Polearm | Use | Swing (damage / speed) | Thrust (damage / speed) | Length | Handling | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voulge | Foot | 184 cut / 76 | 42 / 94 | 140 | 62 | Vlandian towns |
| Long Glaive | Foot or horse | 182 cut / 70 | 40 / 95 | 206 | 61 | Khuzait towns |
| Vargr Atgeir | Foot or horse | 161 cut / 77 | 52 / 93 | 160 | 63 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Ulfhednar Atgeir | Foot or horse | 165 cut / 73 | 53 / 91 | 171 | 61 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Glaive | Foot or horse | 142 cut / 83 | 30 / 93 | 152 | 71 | Khuzait towns |
| Fine Steel Menavlion | Horse (slow swing) | 182 cut / 59 | 46 / 91 | 208 | 52 | Imperial towns |
| Horse Guard Spear | Brace vs cavalry | no swing | 50 / 86 | 233 | 47 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Menavlion | With a shield | no swing | 42 / 87 | 163 | 74 | Imperial towns |
On foot, the Voulge from Vlandian towns is the top pick, and you can also loot it from Vlandian Voulgiers. From the saddle its 140 reach is a little short, so riders should go for the Long Glaive with 206 reach instead. The Nord atgeirs sit in between, and the regular Glaive is the faster, cheaper option for both.
Glaives on horseback
The Long Glaive is the best polearm to swing from a horse. Only Khuzait town workshops make Glaives and Long Glaives, and Khuzait elite troops (Torguud, Kheshig and Khan’s Guard) also drop the Glaive. Tier 6 weapons are the slowest thing a smithy makes, so keep checking back if the Khuzait towns do not have one yet.
The Fine Steel Menavlion matches the Long Glaive’s damage and reaches even further, but its swing speed of 59 is very slow. The Berdysh, which older lists still call the “Warrazor”, is sometimes named the hardest-swinging polearm in the game, but the Voulge, the Long Glaive and the Fine Steel Menavlion all hit harder. Of course, no shop item can both couch and swing, so a bought glaive will never replace your lance for a charge.
Polearms on foot
The War Sails atgeirs are strong foot weapons. The Ulfhednar Atgeir has 165 cut and 171 reach, and the Vargr Atgeir has 161 cut and 160 reach. You can buy them in the four Nord towns or loot them from Nord Ulfhedinn and Warfang troops. Very long polearms are clumsy in the tight spaces of a siege, so there a shorter Voulge or atgeir, or simply a one-handed weapon, is going to serve you better than a Long Glaive.
To hold a line against cavalry, the Nord Horse Guard Spear and Huscarl Spear are the best bracing spears, and both can dismount riders. With a shield, the Menavlion from Empire towns is the best balance among one-handed polearms.
Best couchable lance
Only 11 items can couch in v1.4.8, all from the base game, and War Sails adds none. The Empire’s long Courser Lance and Cataphract Lance cannot couch either. They are two-handed lances you can only thrust with or brace on foot, so an Imperial rider who wants to couch has to use the Light Cavalry Lance or buy a foreign lance.
| # | Lance | Couch power | One-handed + shield thrust (damage / speed) | Two-handed thrust (damage / speed) | Length | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heavy Knight Lance | 100% | 39 / 81 | 48 / 89 | 198 | Vlandian towns |
| 2 | Heavy Druzhinnik Lance | 100% | 40 / 82 | 47 / 89 | 197 | Sturgian towns |
| 3 | Noble Cavalry Lance | 98% | 39 / 83 | 47 / 91 | 200 | Khuzait towns |
| 4 | Knight Lance | 92% | 37 / 83 | 44 / 91 | 184 | Vlandian towns |
| 5 | Druzhinnik Lance | 88% | 36 / 85 | 43 / 93 | 171 | Sturgian towns |
| 6 | Mamluke Lance | 88% | 36 / 85 | 43 / 93 | 170 | Aserai towns |
| 7 | Heavy Cavalry Lance | 85% | 34 / 83 | 40 / 91 | 193 | Khuzait towns |
| 8 | Light Lance | 75% | 29 / 80 | 35 / 89 | 208 | Vlandian towns |
| 9 | Reinforced Highland Spear | 72% | 26 / 76 | 33 / 85 | 223 | Battanian towns |
| 10 | Light Cavalry Lance | 70% | 28 / 83 | 33 / 91 | 179 | Imperial towns |
| 11 | Light Steppe Rider Lance | 70% | 27 / 82 | 33 / 91 | 199 | Khuzait towns |
| – | Cataphract Lance | cannot couch | two-handed only | 42 / 88 | 248 | Imperial towns |
| – | Courser Lance | cannot couch | two-handed only | 40 / 86 | 226 | Imperial towns |
The top three are the Heavy Knight Lance from Vlandia, the Heavy Druzhinnik Lance from Sturgia and the Noble Cavalry Lance from the Khuzait. They are within 2% of each other, so simply buy whichever one a nearby town has in stock. The Knight Lance is the budget pick with 92% of the top lance’s couch power. Each lance sells in towns of its own culture, and the tier 4 lances come out of a slower workshop slot than the tier 3 ones, so you will see them less often.
Every couchable lance can be used one-handed with a shield, and you can couch with the shield up on your arm. The one-handed grip shows lower thrust numbers than the two-handed grip, but couch damage does not use those numbers.
How to couch a lance
Couching takes one button, but a few conditions have to be met before that button will do anything:
- Equip a lance that lists “Couch Lance” among its weapon usages and shows the “Couchable” icon when you hover over it in your inventory.
- Get on a horse and ride at a fast gallop.
- Watch for the couch icon on your HUD. It only appears once you are mounted with a couchable lance in hand and the game’s other conditions, like your speed, are met.
- On PC, press X, which is “Switch Weapon Usage” in the controls menu. On controller, tap RB on Xbox or R1 on PlayStation. Keep the tap quick, because holding it longer than a moment opens the equipment wheel instead.
- Steer so the lance tip meets your target. The couched lance can swing much further to your left than to your right (the game’s limits are 48 against 20), so line up targets slightly to your left as you pass.
The same key switches between one- and two-handed grip and braces a spear on foot. Since patch 1.3.13 lowering the lance takes a moment longer, so press the key a bit earlier.
Couch damage
Couch damage depends mostly on closing speed. Twice the speed means about four times the damage. The lance’s head matters next, and the Heavy Knight, Heavy Druzhinnik and Noble Cavalry lances hit about 40% harder than the light lances. Lance weight and length make almost no difference, and the thrust damage shown in the tooltip is not used at all.
Because closing speed is what counts, a head-on hit against a rider charging at you adds both your speeds together, while chasing a rider who is as fast as you will barely hurt him. There is no couch cooldown in the game files either. After a hit the lance lifts, and you can lower it again once you are back at speed, so the wait you notice is the horse regaining speed plus the lowering animation.
Couch perks
Three of your own perks change how your couch works, and all three apply to couched hits now that patch 1.4.5 fixed a bug that kept some perks from working on couches:
- Lancer gives a +20% speed bonus while mounted, which works out to roughly 40% more couch damage.
- Skewer at Polearm 150 gives a 30% chance, on top of a 5% base chance, that your lance stays down after a couched hit kills someone, so 35% in total. Without a kill the lance always lifts.
- Unstoppable Force triples your couch damage against a raised shield.
Your horse matters as much as your lance, since a faster horse will reach couch speed sooner and hit harder. You can find the quickest ones in our Bannerlord war mounts guide.
Couched lance not working
If your lance will not lower, the reason is almost always one of three things. The item cannot couch, your horse is not fast enough, or the button press is not doing what you think it does. The chart below checks them in order.
Here are the causes in a bit more detail, each with its fix:
- The item cannot couch. Only the 11 lances in the table above have the couch usage, so the Courser Lance, the Cataphract Lance, pikes, every War Sails spear and most other spears will never couch. Check for the “Couch Lance” usage or the “Couchable” icon before you buy.
- Your smithed polearm has a part that blocks the couch. Every part has to be on the couch list. The handles that allow it are the Long Ash Staff, Reinforced Long Pine Shaft, Hardened Pine Long Spear Staff, Oaken Long Spear Staff and Hardened Ashen Staff. The Riveted Spear Head Reinforcement guard and heads like the Pilum Head, Bill Head or Fine Steel Falx Blade block it, while banners and pommels never do. A weapon on the pike template will never couch.
- You are on foot. The couch only works while you are mounted.
- Your horse is too slow. The game has a fixed minimum speed for the couch. Rain or snow on the campaign map makes horses 25% slower in battle, riding without horse armor costs 10% speed, and rain in the battle itself or a night battle will slow you a little more. Every Riding skill point adds 0.2% horse speed. A slow horse in bad weather may never reach couch speed, so ride a faster horse and keep armor on it.
- The couch icon does not show. It only appears when you are mounted, hold a couchable item and the other conditions are met, so a missing icon can mean either the wrong item or too little speed.
- You are holding the controller button, or the key was rebound. Holding RB or R1 opens the equipment wheel, so tap it instead. On PC, check that “Switch Weapon Usage” is still on X.
- The lance lifts after almost every hit. That is normal. Get back up to speed and lower it again, or take Skewer so it stays down more often after a kill.
- The hit lands but does almost no damage. Your closing speed was too low, which happens when you chase a rider as fast as you. Gates and other destructible objects take almost nothing from a couch, since the game cuts couched hits on them to a fifth and pierce damage on them to a tenth.
Best shield
Bannerlord has no hidden shield-size number. How much a shield covers depends on its shape, and the game adds a fixed bit of padding to the arrow-catching area of any shield you hold.
| Shield | Best for | Hit Points | Speed | Weight | Armor (hidden) | Where sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pavise Shield | Most hit points | 750 | 82 | 10.0 | 1 | Vlandian towns |
| Ornamented Nordic Shield | Hit points, lighter | 660 | 88 | 6.4 | 5 | Nord towns (War Sails) |
| Ornate Adarga | Fastest, cavalry | 360 | 120 | 2.4 | 1 | Aserai towns |
| Studded Bound Kite Shield | Cavalry, more armor | 315 | 91 | 3.6 | 9 | Any town |
| Flat Heater Shield | Cavalry, more armor | 300 | 93 | 3.1 | 10 | Vlandian towns |
| Druzhinnik Kite Shield | Infantry | 610 | 87 | 5.4 | 5 | Sturgian towns |
| Steel Round Shield | Infantry, light | 540 | 82 | 4.4 | 1 | Khuzait towns |
| Large Round Shield | Budget | 480 | 89 | 6.9 | 7 | Sturgian towns |
For infantry, the Druzhinnik Kite Shield from Sturgian towns is the best pick, as it has the best hit points for its weight of any shield above 600. The Pavise Shield has the most hit points at 750 but weighs 10. On horseback, the Ornate Adarga from Aserai towns is the fastest shield in the game at speed 120 and weighs only 2.4. On a budget, the Large Round Shield from Sturgian towns will still do the job.
The Large Round Shield kept its 480 hit points and speed 89 through the 1.3.13 shield rebalance, weighs 6.9 and is still the fastest shield with more than 450 hit points. That patch rebalanced shield hit points and weights, so older shield numbers are stale. The Tall Heater Shield, for example, is often listed as the shield with the most hit points, but with 560 it sits well behind the Pavise.
Shield on your back
A shield slung on your back helps with no perk at all. Any shield in your four weapon slots that is not in your hand counts as a back shield, and any hit that lands on it counts as +10 armor, which takes roughly a fifth off a typical arrow or sword hit. The Crossbow perk Pavise at 225 makes it much stronger, since 75% of arrows, bolts and thrown weapons that hit your back shield will then do no damage.
Bought or crafted
For melee weapons, smithing beats the shops in a few clear cases:
- You want a weapon that can couch and swing. No shop item does both, so you have to craft it on one of the couch handles listed above.
- You want an item from a culture whose towns are far away. Town workshops only make melee weapons of their own culture or with no culture, while smithing lets you use any part you have learned, in any town.
- You want Nord sword parts on a hand-and-a-half sword. Early War Sails versions forced any two-handed sword with Nord parts to be two-handed only, but since 1.4.5 Nord blades, guards and pommels keep the one-handed mode with a shield if the grip allows it.
You cannot rebuild the Swift Wing Axe, because its parts are hidden, so buy it in a Nord town. If you want to forge your own weapons, our Bannerlord smithing guide will get you started.
FAQ
Where can you buy the Noble Bow?
Any town can sell it because it has no culture, but it is rare, since tier 6 bows come out of the slowest workshop slot. Battanian, Sturgian and Khuzait towns give you the best odds. You can also loot one from Sturgian, Aserai, Khuzait or Nord lords, who can carry it.
Can you use a longbow on horseback?
Only with Horse Master at Bow 225. Without it, the Noble Long Bow, the Strong Tribesman Bow and every other longbow will only work on foot.
Can troops use longbows on horseback?
No. Horse Master only works for heroes, which means you, your companions and lords. Your mounted troops will get +30 Bow skill from it if you lead their formation, but they still cannot shoot longbows from the saddle.
What is the best weapon for horse archers and cavalry?
A horse archer will do best with the Noble Bow and Piercing Arrows, plus a Long Glaive for melee. A lancer should carry one of the top three lances with an Ornate Adarga on the arm. If you want a crossbow you can reload in the saddle without a perk, take the Fine Light Crossbow.
Does weapon length matter for couching?
Not for damage. Length is not part of the couch damage formula, and weight barely matters either. Closing speed and the lance head decide most of how hard you will hit, with Polearm skill adding a little on top, so a fast horse will do more for your couch than a longer lance.
