So you got - or are planning to get - Disgaea PC after hearing about how good it is. Then you realized how complex it is and got stuck not knowing where to start. Well, I hope this guide will ease you in to how the weapon system works and give you some ideas on how to equip your party!

Anyone can equip anything
Unlike most other RPGs, Disgaea has no limits to who can use what sort of weapons. Give your archer a sledgehammer or your karate champ a longbow if you see fit, it'll let you. It's not always the most efficient solution since characters has different stat and weapon aptitudes that makes them better at some things and worse at others, but you can do it.

Items can be levelled up
The game has a random-dungeon mode called the Item World, where the gist of things is that you go inside an item and beat up bad guys to make the item level up. You can level up any item, although it's generally far more worthwhile to level up equipment than consumables.

Equipment stat points are not absolute
Unlike many other RPGs, an item giving 100 ATK when equipped won't always give 100 ATK in Disgaea. Characters' weapon mastery level and stat aptitudes acts as two multipliers, influencing anything they equip. For instance, witches get 110% of INT boosts - used to compute magic damage - and 50% of ATK, used to compute physical damage; brawlers more easily gets fist sword mastery than swordfighters, and thus more quickly will build up their bonuses for fist weapons.

Items are half your stats
Some games has characters that outpowers their gear and singlehandedly tears apart trolls and boars in their underwear. While this can happen in Disgaea's endgame, the entire story campaign probably won't. Equipment makes up a big chunk of your stats, is mandatory for many special attacks, and keeping track of your gear and make sure it's up for the task at hand is vital for progression.


So with that general briefing taken care of, let's get to the gritty details.

There are multiple different categories of weapons in Disgaea (see below for a breakdown of how they differ from each other), and unlike some other games such as Fire Emblem, you can equip any unit with any weapon (with the exception that monsters and humans have different weapon ranges; humans can only equip human weapons and monsters only monster weapons). However, it's not always the most beneficial thing to do.

Weapon Aptitudes
Each class - and each special character, such as Laharl and Etna - has different weapon aptitudes, ranging from E over D, C, B, A to S. A higher weapon aptitude means a higher multiplier to weapon experience - received each time you do a normal attack - which in turn means the character gets mastery in certain weapons faster than others. Mastery is measured in levels and is displayed on the status screen (alongside a weapon experience bar) as a number.

Weapon Mastery
Using a weapon to hit people gives weapon experience, which eventually turns into weapon mastery levels. Weapon mastery has two benefits: first, you unlock new Weapon Skills at certain levels, making the character more versatile and powerful. Secondly, each mastery level you attain increases the stat boost multiplier for that weapon (4% for each mastery level). While 4% doesn't seem like much at first when weapons have stats in the single digits, once you start reaching high levels of weapon mastery and obtain weapons with hundreds of stat points in several stats, this becomes a substantial part of the character's total stats.

Weapon Skills
Reaching certain weapon mastery levels unlock new skills for that character, differing from weapon to weapon in power and effects. The skills stay unlocked even if you change to a different weapon type, and no weapon mastery levels are lost either; however, the skills can only be used with the corresponding weapon. It's always a better idea to have a character use only a single type of weapon rather than balancing out two or more; after all, you can only equip one weapon at a time. You can change equipment mid-battle without wasting your turn, but you can only access the 16 items in your item bag, and you get a better stat boost from your weapon mastery level if you have all the weapon experience go to the same weapon.

Disgaea PC has the following categories of weapons:

• Swords
  Being the coolest weapon around since before the written language was invented, swords has to be part of any and all RPGs or something just feels wrong. Swords have average power, and many classes are at least decent in wielding them, making them the goto option for most attack classes. In particular, the fighter and samurai classes are good at wielding them.
  Sword special attacks generally have a big area-of-effect, with the first skill Blade Rush being able to hit three enemies at a time and the later skill Winged Slayer hit nine enemies at once, but their SP cost are very high compared to how much damage they actually do, making them more useful to finish off multiple weak enemies at once or weakening prey from a distance than to deal damage. It's also worth noting that the game's most powerful weapon is a sword.
  
• Spears
  Spears are weaker than swords in terms of stats, but has a range of 2 panels. This means you can have spear units hide behind tanky allies and still be able to get hits in, or attack diagonally. Spear skills often move their user around somehow, making them really useful for hit-and-run tactics, especially the late skill Avalanche that moves the user 4 panels backwards. Also note that you can execute an attack first and then move, unlike some other RPGs. This is really useful in cases where you are surrounded and use a spear skill to get free; you generally want to cover some distance afterwards as well.
  Also worth mentioning is that spear skills can deposit you on the other side of a No Entry geo panel barrier, letting you cheat one of the harder stages in the final chapter if you use an allied unit as a springboard to escape from a gauntlet.
  
• Axes
  Axes are the most powerful weapons in terms of raw power, but generally have a negative HIT stat, which means they are more prone to missing. This generally isn't an issue, though, especially since many classes that are good at using them have a HIT aptitude of under 100%, which not only lower stat boosts but also stat nerfs. The effect can also be mitigated by equipping the wielder with glasses accessories.
  Axe special attacks all hit a single target, generally for pretty huge damage, and most of them also incur debuffs on the target. In particular, Rock Breaker, the first axe skill, debuffs DEF. This makes axe users pretty useful during boss battles where you focus on a single target.
  
• Fists
  Fists have average power and look kinda meh, but don't let that fool you - they're incredibly powerful in the right hands. They're generally used only by brawlers, but many classes has average weapon aptitudes for them.
  The main reason why fists are so useful is because of their special attacks' effects; moving your target around. You can knock No Lifting or Invincibility geo symbols - normally impossible to get rid of - off their panels, push enemies together to be able to hit more of them with a single AoE attack, or knock Gatekeeper mini-bosses off the dimensional gates in the Item World, letting you clear the floor without having to defeat them.
  Also worth mentioning is that unlike later entries in the Disgaea series, you cannot gain Fist weapon mastery when fighting unarmed, nor use weapon skills.
  
• Guns
  Gun use the HIT stat instead of the ATK stat to compute damage, making them easy to boost by equipping the character with three pairs of glasses. Many of the gun skills are elemental and can hit any target in your normal attack range, but only hits a single target.
  While guns are easily made very powerful since you can get accessories boosting their power easily, you can abuse elemental weaknesses to deal bonus damage, and their range is the furthest in the entire game (up to 6 panels), a significant drawback is that you don't get many classes that excel at using them. The 'gunner' class, EDF Soldier, is unlocked really late in the game, by having a character attain a gun mastery of 25 levels. The second best gun user would be a Scout, who are a lot easier to unlock, although Etna has A-rank mastery in guns and it's Flonne's 3rd best weapon category. Since Etna and Flonne has 100% aptitudes in everything and Scouts has lower defensive aptitudes, making them die a lot, having Etna tote guns instead of spears could be worth consideration.
  
• Bows
  Bows use the average of your ATK and HIT stats to compute damage. This essentially means that any accessory you use to boost weapon damage is half as good as you want it to be, so I'm not a huge fan of bows because of that. On the plus side, though, most bow skills cause status ailments such as poison and blindness, and there are bow skills with AoE, so they can be useful if you don't build your strategy on min-maxing.
  Also worth mentioning is that archers has 100% aptitudes in both ATK and HIT as a result. While this means you can give an archer a sword or something for the heck of it despite it being a bad idea in terms of weapon mastery, you should keep in mind that enemy archers with melee weapons are a lot more dangerous than they look.
  
• Magic Rods
  Magic rods use ATK to compute damage, but generally only boost INT, so they are not that useful in melee combat. However, you gain weapon mastery for spellcasting with a rod equipped, and as your rod mastery goes up, you'll get bonuses to your spell range and maximal hitbox size all over the board, even for Lv.1 spells. This means they're really useful for magic units and healers, giving them a head start at using new spells compared to a mage with any other weapon. Also, there is a lot of units available with S-rank mastery in rods, such as all the basic mages.
  
• Monster Weapons
  Monster weapons can only be equipped by monsters, and there are no special skills associated with them. There's not really anything special to say about them, either... they basically act as an accessory that boosts your stats flatly. Monsters don't gain weapon experience, which means they don't gain stat boosts from their mastery levels, but monster weapons generally are more powerful to compensate.

• What weapon should I give my new character?
  Depends on what you want them to do, but if you don't really know, you should probably give them the type of weapon they have the highest aptitude for. And when in doubt, probably swords, since they have the most versatile skills.
  Primarily-spellcaster characters probably should have magic rods to get bonus range and area-of-effect (also useful for healers) so they don't need to risk getting up close and personal.
  
• What weapon should I give Laharl, Etna and Flonne?
  If you think Laharl using swords is too cliché, he's got the same aptitude for most melee weapons, including fists and axes. I'd personally recommend fists as the most viable alternative to swords.
  Etna is just as good with a gun as she is with spears - she even uses guns in several cutscenes - and since there's no good gun user class available early on, it's a really good alternative to spears, especially if you need a tanky gun user due to her 100% aptitudes all around.
  Flonne is the best as a spell caster - once you get her to learn any spells - but she's also good with bows and decent with guns, being an otaku and all. It's also worth mentioning that Flonne has 100% DEF and HP aptitudes, which is very rare in primarily magic characters, making her the most tanky mage available for most of the game.
  
• What is the best weapon in the game?
  The Yoichitsuna, a sword that is only available as Legendary, has a range of 5 panels, bestows 4000 ATK and 2000 to all other stats and increases your movement and counterattack stats. It can only be obtained by stealing it from an Item God residing on the 100th floor of a Cosmic Blade, the second best sword. The hardest part isn't getting the Yoichitsuna itself, it's getting a Legendary-rank Cosmic Blade.
  
• What does the Rare/Legendary weapons do?
  First of all, Rare and Legendary weapons has bonuses to their stats, making them superior to the common versions. Secondly, their level cap is higher - common weapons can be levelled to Lv.30, Rare to Lv.60, and Legendary to Lv.100 - making them potentially even more powerful. They also have more Specialist slots, letting you customize them more freely. Finally, they have stronger enemies in their Item Worlds, making them a good place to level grind when you'd like some actual gameplay.
  
• Is there any point to go in the item world?
  Long story short, yes.
  
  • Levelling up cheap items makes them more powerful than a Lv.0 item from the next rank of that particular type, which is particularly noticeable in the middle of the game where top-rank items are accessible but too expensive to stock up upon.
    
  • Any Specialist you defeat in an item world gets twice as powerful, and can also be moved around to other items. While Gladiators and other main-stat specialists don't get too awesome by this, it's very noticeable for specialists that raise elemental resistances, EXP gain rates and the alike. You can also carry on the poisoning specialists from weapons like Venom Fist to more powerful weapons while still keeping the ailment bonus.
    
  • The item world generally has higher bonus rates than the story stages, letting you get powerful items and tons of EXP/cash.
    
  • Several monster types only show up in the item world, so you'll need to find them there in order to unlock everything.
• Why are all the weapons in the shop crap?
  You need to pass Dark Assembly bills to upgrade the shop's selection, so if you don't do that, they'll only stock the most basic items. As you progress through the game, the bills gets easier to pass without violence or bribes, so if you feel like the items available are completely useless, chances are you'll pass a few shop bills without even trying.
  
• Is it worthwhile to do some weird loadout for the heck of it?
  If you're prepared to spend more time getting your axe-wielding healer to become a reliable damage-dealer, you can do it. I'd recommend against making a character mainly rely on a stat they have a less-than-100% aptitude in, but there's no penalties for weapon mastery in a weapon you're not comfortable with other than weapon experience being awarded at a slower rate.
  
• What's the best class in the game?
  Pretty situational in my opinion, but from a combat perspective...
  
  • For physical attacks... the Ronin class (unlocked by having a Lv.10 female Fighter and a Lv.10 female Brawler) is good with most melee weapons and has a 110% attack aptitude. You can get them early on, and they stay powerful throughout the entire game, outclassing their male counterparts.
    
  • For magic... the Star Mage class gets access to neutral magic and slight stat boosts from the three elemental mages, and overall feels more worthwhile than the two upgrades Prism and Galaxy that trade power for versatility. You can also get Star Mages relatively early - as soon as you get a Lv.10 Fire, Wind and Ice mage - compared to Prism and Galaxy mages.
    
  • For support... Scouts can change geo layouts in the Item World and spawn a turret NPC once per battle. The turret can be really useful since it can shoot enemies that are anywhere on the map provided there's line-of-sight, and it can also be used as a sacrificial lamb to stop enemies from approaching along a narrow path, giving you a precious turn to regroup. Thieves can get a 100% steal rate and overall have their steal rate doubled, making having a thief around to pick up any Legendary items you come across on your enemies pretty useful.
    
  • For monsters... Nekomatas have good movement and very high jump ability, and also skills that push their enemy aside and skills that move the nekomata herself around. They're really useful as support/runner units in the Item World, second only to the Brawler. Also, they're cute.
    Dragons are powerful but needs 50% more EXP to level up than the average value, but if you don't mind the grind, they're among the best units in the game (at least until the postgame introduces Shaitans and Majins) with access to both powerful single-target skills (Bloody Talons) and area-of-effect skills that varies with the dragon's element.
    
  • Archers have really balanced stats and can handle swords and spears pretty well if you can stand weapon mastery taking forever to improve. I would personally choose a ronin over an archer any day, but archers are the viable hipster alternative.

Closing words:
I hope this guide helps you enjoy Disgaea more! If you feel like I missed something, feel free to ask about it and I might add it into the FAQ! :3

Legal stuff:
Guide contents written by Yal, do not repost it anywhere without providing a link to this page and do not claim you wrote it. Disgaea is a registered trademark by Nippon Ichi Software.