Castlevania: Symphony of the Night/Weapons

The Shield Rod
This is by far the best weapon in the game, if equipped together with a shield. Press and hold psx: C to bring out the shield (in the left hand), then press psx: Spsx: S (twice) to activate the Shield Rod magic effect (in the right hand).

Furthermore, if you press psx: Left Dpad, then psx: Right Dpad, then psx: S, Alucard will throw a small shield in front of him. That shield only stops enemy shots.

The Shield Rod is found in the Colosseum, before fighting the fifth boss (Minotaur & Werewolf). That means just 25% through the game, that is extremely early!

The Mablung Sword is the only weapon better than the Shield Rod: it has the same abilities, plus its basic attack value is more than three times higher. On the other hand, it is much harder to obtain: it is occasionally dropped by an enemy in the reversed castle.

Shields
The first table lists the shields that can be obtained in Dracula's normal castle, the second table those that can only be obtained in the inverted castle.

Other weapons
Once you obtain the Shield Rod you will hardly need any further weapon, but they will be listed here for completion.

Notable weapons
List of weapons with special effects. These are the only weapons that can still occasionally be useful after the Shield Rod is found.
 * Jewel sword: defeated enemies often drop jewels; found in the castle entrance, using the wolf and bat forms.
 * Mablung sword: same ability of the Shield Rod, smaller attack range, higher attack power; found in the reversed Royal Chapel.
 * Stone sword: occasionally turn enemies into stone.
 * Mourneblade: drains HP from enemies.
 * Muramasa sword: sets constantly in Dark Metamorphosis state (drains HP from enemies that bleed); two-handed.
 * Sword of dawn: summons skeletal warriors that attack enemies; two-handed sword; found in the reversed Castle Keep.

Plain weapons
List of weapons with no special abilities (high damage and increasing damage are not considered special abilites).