How To Become A Shadowhunter

Step 3 - Weapons

Ah, weapons. One of my favourite parts of Shadowhunting.

When you're locked in the midst of battle, blood and ichor flying everywhere and you're trying to stay alive, your weapon is the most crucial thing.

Whether you choose the surujin, a broadsword or a pair of daggers, it must be something you can conceal in the mundane world, but at the same time enable you to kill demons.

For a weapon to be able to harm demons fatally, it must be runed with Marks from the Gray Book, because regular weapons cannot permanently hurt a demon. Firearms cannot harm demons, because runes interfere with its workings, but if you don't put runes on your weapon, it's harmless to the demon you're fighting.

You must also be ready to have the tact and critical thinking to improvise in combat, using whatever's around you to protect yourself - a chair, a shard of broken glass, a bottle of nail polish remover, etc. Anything could be a potential weapon.

Suggested weapons if you haven't already got one are:

Bladed weapons - swords, knives, daggers, etc.

Blunt weapons - weapons that bludgeon your enemy with heavy attachments, like maces, axes, hammers, flails, and morning stars

Polearms - weapons with blades attached to the end of long sticks, such as pikes, spears, lances, and staves, which provide extended reach for fighting larger demons

Exotic weapons - nonstandard, specialty weapons from different cultures, like whips, sword canes, weapons of martial arts traditions, household objects modified to double as blades, etc.

Ranged weapons - projectile weapons like slings, crossbows, bows and arrows, for long-ranged fighting

When you are an Ascended Shadowhunter, provided that you haven't died in the process yet, you can use seraph blades, which are named after angels and inflicts maximum harm on demons. However, while you're still a mundane, you have to stick to mundane weapons, since seraph blades are made with adamas and only Nephilim can activate their power.