Oblivion Remastered: Best Weapons for the early and late game
Take the fight to Tamriel with this list of the best melee weapons in Oblivion Remastered.
Update: We've added a new section on creating enchanted weapons with Sigil Stones to our list of the best weapons in Oblivion Remastered.
If there’s one thing Oblivion Remastered understands, it’s that a legendary hero needs a legendary weapon. Tamriel is teeming with unique swords, staffs and other pointy objects that come in handy when you’re tasked with closing the gates to Oblivion, but with so many overwhelming options across the entire region of Cyrodiil, it can be tough to decide exactly what to stick with.
While you may very well be happy with a random enchanted weapon you found stashed in a reward chest or picked up from a quest, there are a few brilliant weapons that you can get right from the start of Oblivion Remastered which will always be there just waiting for you to pick up.
Then, as the plot thickens and the hordes of enemies swell, you’ll need a weapon that packs more punch than whatever you can cobble together. Again, there are plenty of awesome options which can be reliably found from the same quests - no relying on smithing, enchanting or RNG.
In this guide, I’ve assumed that you’ll be making a melee build. Staffs in Oblivion aren’t great, so you're much better off making an effective mage build with spells. Oblivion was also before the days of Skyrim’s massively OP stealth archery, so we've also made a separate page for the best Marksman build and bows.
But with that said, here are my picks for some of the best weapons you can get your hands on in Oblivion Remastered for the early game, mid-game and the late game.
Beware, in telling you how to collect these weapons there will be some spoilers for the outcome of a couple of early side quests, as well as the locations of Daedric Artifacts. However, I will try to keep them to the essentials and preserve the surprise of whatever I can.
Oblivion Remastered Best Weapons
Below we've embedded an interactive map showing the locations of our picks for some of the best weapons in Oblivion Remastered, before going into more detail on why they're the best:
https://mapgenie.io/oblivion/maps/cyrodiil?locationIds=On this page:
- Chillrend
- Honorblade of Chorrol
- Bands of Kwang Lao
- Calliben's Grim Retort
- Blackwater Blade
- Redwave
- Volendrung
- Ebony Blade
- Umbra
- Enchanted Weapons
Chillrend
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Frost, Weakness to Frost
- Level-scaled:Yes
- Location:Chorrol, The Killing Field Quest
After you leave the sewers underneath the Imperial City at the start of your adventure, the first task on your list is to make your way northwest to the outskirts of the town of Chorrol and speak to Jeauffre at Weynon Priory.
As well as netting you your first horse, travelling to Chorrol as your journey begins is a great idea for snagging a unique weapon too.
Talk to Valus Odiil inside the pub known as The Grey Mare and he’ll ask you to help his sons defend his farmstead from a gang of goblins terrorizing the surrounding area. Agree to help, then meet up with Antus and Rallus outside the town walls.
Make a save game as you walk to the farm, then help them to defeat the goblins and return to their father with the good news. If both of the brothers survive the encounter, you’ll be rewarded with a unique enchanted weapon that deals ice-type damage: Chillrend.
If either of the brothers fall in battle, reload your save and try again. If either of them die, their father will be overcome with grief at his cowardice and refuse to hand it over.
While Chillrend’s damage and effect scales with your level (eventually becoming more powerful as you level up), it’s good to grab in the early game since there are stronger weapons you can find later on.
Honorblade of Chorrol
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Physical
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:Chorrol, Sins of the Father Quest
Also in Chorrol, there's another easy line of quests you can complete to get a strong, early-game sword - at least for a while.
Ask around town and everyone is appalled by how rude Reynald Jemane is. When they were in Cheydinhal the other week, he acted like he didn't even know them.
When you head to Cheydinhal yourself to investigate, you complete the Separated At Birth quest, before reclaiming a family manor from ogres in the Legacy Lost quest.
When these are done, you're finally given the Sins of the Father quest, during which your asked to retrieve the Honorblade of Chorrol from an orge den.
However, if you keep the sword for yourself, it has a much stronger base attack than just about any other early game weapon you can find. Then, once you're bored of it, you can just turn it in to complete the quest!
Bands of Kwang Lao
- Weapon Type:Hand to Hand
- Damage Type:Physical
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:A locked box outside the Imperial City Arena
For a unique take on a melee build, why not try out the deceptively powerful Hand to Hand Skill?
In Oblivion Remastered, Hand to Hand is viable right from the start of the game, thanks to the Bands of Kwang Lao. These unique handwraps fortify the Hand to Hand Skill by 20 points, effectively giving you a huge and immediate damage boost.
When using Hand to Hand, you can hold down the attack button to charge power attacks, which adds an extra degree of interactivity to Oblivion’s usually one-paced combat.
To get them, you need to make your way to the Arena District of the Imperial City. Once there, rather than heading into the arena itself, you should spot two would-be fighters duking it out near the entrance.
In their makeshift camp, you should find a locked chest. Inside this chest are the Bands of Kwang Lao.
While it’s not so conducive to in-universe role play, if you’re going for these right at the start of the game, I’d advise making a save right as you’re about to try and pick the lock on the chest as it’s relatively difficult.
Alternatively, if you don’t have the resources to pick the lock, you can also pickpocket the key from Branwen, the Redguard fighter. Again, you should probably make a save when you try this as you will probably have to reload and brute force the pickpocket chance while your stats are low at the beginning of the game.
Calliben's Grim Retort
- Weapon Type:Blunt
- Damage Type:Frost, Absorb Strength, Absorb Blunt
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:Trentius Familiy Mausoleum, Unfriendly Competition Quest
If you prefer Blunt weapons as a Nord or Orc, then you can get a guaranteed enchanted mace with a slew of solid effects quite easily from the Imperial City: Calliben's Grim Retort.
Like the Honorblade of Chorrol, it's also a non-scaled weapon which breaks Oblivion's power curve, making it easily one of the strongest early-to-mid game weapons.
Make your way to the Market District and speak to Jensine in her second-hand shop, Jensine's Good as New Merchandise. Ask her about a new merchant, Thoronir, who's undercutting the prices of other shopkeepers. This gives you the Unfriendly Competition quest.
At the climax of said quest, you'll visit the Trentius Family Mausoleum in Green Emperor Way. Inside, look to your left.
On top of Calliben Trentius's burial vault, behind his sarcophagus, you find the hidden enchanted mace.
As well as mid-level base damage, it comes with
Redwave
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Drain Health
- Level-scaled:Yes
- Location:Anvil, Ghost Ship of Anvil Quest
Back to traditional swords, and Redwave is another great option for the early game since it doesn’t scale with your level and will be the same whenever you collect it.
Make your way to the far western port city of Anvil and head down to the docks. Speak to the High Elf Varulae on the top deck of The Serpent’s Wake and she’ll give you a quest to retrieve a crystal ball from a haunted ship in the harbour.
Depending on how strong you are (or what difficulty you’re playing on) you can stand up to whatever you find inside the haunted ship or go full Scooby-Doo and make a beeline for what you’re after before bravely running away back to shore.
Either way, Varulae gives you the Redwave pirate’s cutlass as a reward, which deals consistent health damage over time on top of its solid basic damage for the early game.
Blackwater Blade
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Absorb Fatigue
- Level-scaled:Yes
- Location:Imperial City Docks, Unexpected Voyage Quest
Finally for the early game and, strangely, another sword you get from a boat.
This time, all you need to do is sleep the night at the Bloated Float Inn in the Imperial Docks. I won’t spoil what happens, but all you need to know is that at the end you get the Blackwater Blade.
This longsword absorbs fatigue, keeping you refreshed and swinging as your foe gets weaker and weaker, eventually falling to the ground.
Volendrung
- Weapon Type:Blunt
- Damage Type:Drain Health, Paralyze
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:Malacath's Shrine, north of Anvil
As you enter the mid-game, it’s time to start going after Daedric Artifacts.
After level 10, go to Malacath’s Shrine to the north of Anvil. There you’ll get a relatively straightforward quest which results in you getting Malacath’s legendary weapon: Volendrung.
This two-handed hammer deals not just solid damage, but drains health over time and can paralyze foes for a full 3 seconds, making it a powerful asset for not just defeating enemies but minimizing damage against you as they’re impotently frozen.
As a neat little bonus, recognizing the legendary hammer, Orcs throughout Cyrodiil will refer to you as “Volendrung” in reference to your achievement.
Ebony Blade
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Absorb Health, Silence
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:Mephala's Quest, north of the Imperial City
Next, after Level 15 you can acquire Mephala’s Ebony Blade. Their Daedric Shrine is found to the northeast of the Imperial City, past the Red Ring Road and next to the “A” in “The Heartlands” on the map.
The Ebony Blade is a very high damage katana which absorbs health and silences enemies, leaving them unable to cast spells. This makes the Ebony Blade not just a powerful melee weapon, but pretty much the best weapon for defeating spellcasters.
Umbra
- Weapon Type:Blade
- Damage Type:Physical, Soul Trap
- Level-scaled:No
- Location:Clavicus Vile's Quest, west of the Imperial City
As you approach the end of your adventure, what else should have your attention other than the highest base damage one-handed weapon in Oblivion Remastered?
Regardless of whether you can enchant your own, more powerful, weapons, Umbra is a solid choice and its bundled Soul Trap enchantment makes it useful for recharging your other enchanted weapons as well.
To get it, you need to visit Clavicus Vile’s shrine to the southwest of the Imperial City once you’ve reached level 20. However, choosing to keep Umbra will mean that you have to forgo the Masque of Clavicus Vile, which fortifies Personality by a whopping 20 points.
Enchanted Weapons
Outside of the named, unique weapons you can collect throughout your adventure, it soon becomes quite easy to created your own enchanted weapons in Oblivion Remastered.
After you visit the city of Kvatch and advance the main quest past its third mission, you gain proper access to Oblivion Gates throughout Tamriel.
Oblivion Gates basically function like dungeons full of enemies and loot, but the real prize is at the end of the gauntlet. Once you fight your way to the end of an Oblivion Gate, you pull out its power source, a Sigil Stone.
These Sigil Stones go straight into your inventory and, when used, apply a powerful enchantment to a vanilla item in your possession.
Many of the effects offered by Sigil Stones are quite powerful, including large Feather effects for armor, which are great for lugging loot, or versatile damage buffs to the weapon they're applied to.
As you progress through the game, collect better regular weapons and close more-and-more Oblivion Gates, remember to check what effects your Sigil Stones offer (they're random every time). It's very likely that you'll be able to create a strong weapon with a Damage Health or elemental damage effect as you grab more Sigil Stones.