In Conan Exiles, equipping your thralls with effective weaponry is essential for surviving high-level dungeons, purging threats, and defeating world bosses. Because non-player character artificial intelligence handles weapon combinations differently than human players, selecting the optimal gear depends heavily on attack animations, stagger resistance, and hyper armor mechanics. Understanding these combat nuances ensures that your companions deliver maximum damage while minimizing downtime during skirmishes.
Why One-Handed Maces Excel in Thrall Combat
One-handed maces are widely considered the premier choice for strength-based fighter thralls across various scenarios. The attack chain of a mace provides reliable hyper armor, which prevents thralls from being interrupted mid-combo by incoming enemy attacks. Weapons like Momentum stand out due to their high base damage and armor penetration, allowing companions to deal consistent heavy hits.
Additionally, maces apply the sunder status effect, which reduces enemy armor and increases overall damage output for the rest of your squad. Thrall AI executes full heavy attack combos far more consistently when equipped with a mace compared to other weapon categories. This continuous hyper armor execution makes one-handed maces the top recommendation for single-target boss encounters.
Two-Handed Swords for Crowd Control and Area Damage
When defending bases against purges or engaging multiple enemies simultaneously, two-handed swords serve as an excellent alternative. The broad sweeping motions of a greatsword allow thralls to hit several targets in a single swing, maintaining clear space around your squad. Legendary options such as the Sword of Crom or Annihilator provide massive raw damage output during large group fights.
While two-handed swords do not offer the same single-target sturdiness as maces, their push immunity and staggering capabilities excel at keeping groups of enemies locked down. They are ideal choices for companions patrolling base perimeters or standing guard at chokepoints. Equipping high-tier crafted or legendary variants ensures your followers maintain high battlefield control.
Agility Weapons and Alternative Options
For thralls with high agility growth rather than strength, selecting the correct weapon type is vital to maximizing their natural stat bonuses. Katanas and two-handed spears offer great range and swift combination attacks that prevent nimble enemies from retaliating. Spears are particularly beneficial during defensive setups because their linear attack vectors reduce friendly fire complications in tight formations.
Weapons that apply damage-over-time effects like poison or bleed are highly recommended if your character does not apply them personally. Adding a Master Weapon Fitting further boosts overall armor penetration and raw damage output for any selected weapon tier. Balancing your thrall's scaling attributes with the proper weapon preset yields the most effective results in the Exiled Lands.
