Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls Farmable Items Guide (Alucard, Shanoa, and Simon)

Do you want to play a specific character but the gacha just won't give you what you want? Do you want to save gems for limited edition weapons and armor? Do you just want that extra oomph to supplement your character's gacha choices?

This guide has you covered, but only up until the Nov. 13, 2019 content update and does not include 1* or 2* weapons and subweapons, or any armor. I'm going to break this guide down into the following sections: 

• Who is the most to least viable using only farmable weapons?
• Each character's weapon and elemental options for farmables
• Individual guides for each character:
  • Alucard, Shanoa and Simon (located below)
  • Charlotte and Maria (located here)

[Tip: The stages mentioned in this guide will be in #-#-# format, meaning Book-Chapter-Stage.]

All characters, when properly outfitted with their very very best, are extremely powerful. They can all go toe to toe with one another with an even competition. When it comes to just using things the game lets you farm though? There's definitely a tier list. 

The very best: Alucard and Shanoa. Why? Well, Alucard has a number of extremely good farmables with his best subweapon type being free and his farmables span all but one element (lightning). Shanoa has two stupidly broken weapon skills… but the rest of her weapons are somewhat mediocre, and her gun is all right.

The middle of the road: Simon. Simon has some good whips and a type B dagger, but his main concern is with his Astral Atrament weapon being rather bad on top of being the only character missing two farmable elements. 

The unfortunate ones: Charlotte and Maria. While they can be good, their options are extremely limited in what build they can do with only freebies. You're going to really be yearning for the gacha for them if you decide to main either one without pulling. If it's just for one or two supplemental weapons, however, it's somewhat more acceptable, especially since Charlotte has all elements available, but that doesn't fix their dire subweapon straits.

For easy reference, as of the Nov. 13, 2019 update, the following characters have the following weapon and Subweapon elements:
 

Alucard

Ice 

Weapon: Sabre, 3* rarity

Subweapon: Ghost Stiletto, 3* rarity

Fire

Weapon: Sword of Hador, 4* rarity

Weapon: Gold Pipe, 5* rarity

Weapon: Agni's Flame, 5* rarity

Subweapon: Silver Chalice, 3* rarity

Lightning 

None

Holy

Weapon: Alucard Sword, 5* rarity

Dark

Weapon: Bastard Sword, 3* rarity

Subweapon: Thief's Dagger, 3* rarity

Shanoa

Ice

Weapon: Grando Duplex, 5* rarity

Fire

None

Lightning

Weapon: Hasta Magicae, 3* rarity

Weapon: Anubis Rod, 5* rarity

Weapon: Tonitrus, 5* rarity

Holy

Weapon: Luminaire Aurore, 4* rarity

Subweapon: Blanky, 3* rarity

Dark

Weapon: Falcis Grandis, 3* rarity

Subweapon: Black Musket, 3* rarity

Simon

Ice

Weapon: Rockbreaker, 3* rarity

Subweapon: Ghost Stiletto, 3* rarity

Fire

Weapon: Chain Mace, 3* rarity

Weapon: Naga Whip, 5* rarity

Weapon: Salamander, 5* rarity

Weapon: War Whip, 5* rarity

Subweapon: Chakram, 3* rarity

Lightning

Weapon: Shock Whip, 4* rarity

Holy

None

Dark

None

Alucard

If you're an older player, let me just get the priority list out of the way. Ghost Stiletto = Alucard Sword = Pipe > Sabre > Agni. 

For newer players or those just starting, welcome! You've chosen the easiest character to play with only farmables. He has weapons loaded down with powerful passive and active skills, his best subweapon type for free and an easy early game. The only content right now that needs Thunder can be muscled through with just his other free weapons.

Going in order, let's review Alucard's arsenal:

Sabre: Don't be fooled by the fact it's only 3*. Pump it with a few limit breaks and it's going to perform perfectly. Its skill has huge coverage to clear entire portions of a map, or can be fired midair in case getting close to an enemy isn't an option. While its HP fixed up active isn't much to write home about, its Crit passive definitely is. Extremely worth 35 and should be your first farmed weapon from 1-1-3H or 5-2-3 as an Alucard main. If you sub Simon, you get Rockbreaker free from 1-1-3H but 5-2-3 also has their shared subweapon. See what would be best to farm, but starting players should get at minimum 3 LB before going to chapter 5 to farm stilettos.

Bastard Sword: The unfortunate dud in his kit. Still serviceable, but with a less than desireable skill and worse passives. If you can't pull any of his dark weapons, this is still worth at least 3 LB to bring it to the level of a base 4* gacha weapon. Worth level 35? Not really, but it's still a free weapon

Sword of Hador: Aaah, Hador. It's extremely hard to farm because of the low droprate, but Hador Hunters should go to 1-1-5H and wallow in that for about two weeks per copy. You only really need one copy for later triple fire things with Agni and the Pipe, but more copies mean more attack. Its skill is also one of the best, especially for Co-Op.

Boss Farmable weapon:

Agni: Agni is extremely worth farming off of chapter 4. While Gram(Gacha) works as an "okay" replacement, Agni will far outpace it in the long term. Its active wants a full fire loadout (which Alucard can do for free!) And its first limit break even tacks on 5% attack. Its skill is the same type as Sabre's but inflicts burn on enemies. If you need gold or souls, go farm 4-3-5, but 4-4-1 has better droprates for the sword itself.

Bounty Hunt weapon:

Gold Pipe: The second most broken BH prize. Its skill can take down multiple bosses in one swipe and its passives include 10% crit and 5% weapon skill damage. As a weapon, it's probably one of the best in the game to just keep as a secondary or tertiary on a load out and is the easiest of his 5* weapons to max to 55. Its active is a bit garbage and the skill locks you in place for a few seconds, but that's not why you keep the pipe. You keep it because just passively owning a maxed pipe is going to do more for you than almost any other weapon in the game for Alucard.

Astral Atrament weapon:

Alucard Sword: This is where things get interesting. The sword's passives are hit and miss with two support and two offensive passives… But its active is to die for. 20% attack when MP is over 50% is monumental. An Alucard with three level 35 farmables and a 35 subweapon farmable has over 13500 attack. That's over 16000 effective attack when Alucard Sword is in main slot and you meet the MP requirement. That allows you to overcome and brute force any elemental disadvantage you may need to take if you don't have any thunder weapons. Its skill also teleports you through walls and ignores some shields, as a final kicker. 

Subweapons:

Alucard's subs are pretty straightforward. The Thief Dagger sucks, the Ghost Stiletto is sent by the gods, and while the Silver Chalice isn't exactly bad, there are very few times you'd want a type B holy water over a type B dagger.

Shanoa

For the experienced player: Zappy (Tonitrus) and Noob (Anubis Rod), then get out. 

For new players who want to main a farmable Shanoa, welcome! Your early game is gonna be a little tough. Shanoa's not in top tier because she has diversity or multiple good weapons like Alucard, but because she has two extremely broken and overpowered weapons that carry her. The rest of her farmables are either mediocre, hard to get, or hard to get while being mediocre. 

Let's look at Shanoa's options one by one:

Falcis Grandis: You're going to get one. Seriously, this thing is everywhere. It's a scythe, which is good and… That's all that's really good about it. Its skill is subpar, as are its active and passives. If you need a third for mono dark then at 2 LB it gets +5% attack, but… again, it's not worth it.

Hasta Magicae: So this thing has a heal skill. If you have to slot one, slotting it on your lowest rarity is okay. This also has the benefit of rounding out a third free Thunder weapon for Shanoa's triple thunder. Its passives are absolutely dead in the water, but its main perk is okay for early game. 

Luminaire Aurore: This is actually an okay weapon. Its passives and active are a bit useless, but it's her best "normal" weapon skill. The orb is definitely great. Unfortunately, the drop rate is less great. 2-3-5H is probably the best place to get a drop, but just like Hador, expect a minimum of two weeks at 50 skips per day to gain even one copy. 

Boss Farmable weapon:

Grando Duplex: This weapon is a scythe (yay!) With an uprising earth spire skill (boo!) And an interesting build of passives. It's actually a perfect weapon if you own a Snow Lion. This is obviously fringe and requires a 5* gacha subweapon, but I really need to make it clear that this weapon has a use. It just doesn't have a feasible use for farmable only or primary farmable runs, or anyone without the .3% chance to get the subweapon. 

Bounty Hunt weapon:

Anubis Rod: The big reason to play Shanoa, the Anubis Rod. Good passives, good active, and an actual ascended skill. It will wipe a boss or a full room. If you are a Shanoa, your goal is to spam Bounty Hunt to at least get one copy. It's a spear, which is her worse attack string, but that is more than made up for by the scatter shot.

Astral Atrament weapon:

Deus Tonitrus: It's smaller than Anubis, faster (30 second cooldown) but the same huge damage. It can span across an entire map and can knock out a total of two entities. Entities include things like fleamen, a non main body shield or sword on a ruler sword, a boss, etc. Again it's a spear, but its skills make the sacrifice of the attack string change 100% worth it. 

Subweapons:

The cat and the gun… while neither is particularly good, they're both definitely usable, especially the gun. She's, again, mostly being carried by Tonitrus (Zappy) and Anubis (Noob).

Simon

For experienced players: Stiletto > Salamander > Rockbreaker max > Thunder = Naga, don't you dare ever touch the War Whip.

For new players: So Simon's in a bit of a unique place. One of his farmables is bad, two are okay, and two are great. His subweapon choices between the Chakram, Thief Dagger and the Ghost Stiletto should have you choosing the Stiletto every time.

Simon is easy enough to use with or without Gacha supplementation. He may not have a Holy farmable, but I preface with the assumption that he begins with a gacha-only Judgement Whip, which is holy. For Dark though, he has no great options even in gacha. It may be best to use a secondary character or just muscle through. 

Simon's array of whip-pons is as follows:

Rockbreaker: New players? Your bread and butter. You'll be using this for a long time to come. It's got an okay waverider skill, okay permanent active, kinda dead passives. It's not the worst there is, by a long shot, but it's more for stat boosting than making it some mandatory weapon like some other characters' farmables. Get this one from 1-1-3H for efficiency and either use Sabres on Alucard or Parchment Fuse them.

Chain Mace: Not that great, not by any means. Simon has a lot of fire weapons and this one is pretty bad. The skill is quite possibly his worst skill aside from one very special case. Its actives and passives are all, in short, bad. It is, however, extremely easy to farm and obtainable early in the game, so it has that going for it. 

Shock Whip: Okayish active, good passives! Huzzah, we got a useable one! Like all other 4* farmables this is going to take a long time to get. Its swing skill is definitely worth it for both damage and mobility though! I'd recommend at least one copy for any Simon, whether you use the Gacha or not. 

Boss Farmable weapon:

Naga Whip: This is a genuinely good whip! Hit and miss passives, bad active, stamina sink to farm on hard because of all the low rarity parchment, but the special not only burns, it has enormous range horizontally and vertically. It's better to get Salamander first, though, it'll do more for you. 

Bounty Hunt weapon:

Salamander: It's not great but it's the best you're gonna get. The skill is wonderful, active is questionable, passives are mostly good… And the thing is guaranteed to drop. There isn't much to say about this other than "you should get it as a Simon main."

Astral Atrament weapon:

War Whip: Don't. I cannot stress enough, please do not buy the War Whip early game!!! Save your AA or use it on someone else, but the War Whip is useful only in endgame situations. It has a whopping 120 second cool down for a mediocre attack that's comparable to a 4* type B cross subweapon. However… its secondary effects are what make it viable. It grants attack and defense bonuses for 15 seconds, granting you 'god mode' to do as much damage as possible with little to no retaliation from enemies. This is extremely useful in the hands of a veteran player with the stats to take advantage of it, but only those who have such high stats to start with. 

Subweapons:

Simon is viable without gacha, but you're going to struggle somewhat farming what you need for him to be considered "good" endgame without a lucky roll or two to help your weapon roster along. Fortunately, the Ghost Stiletto can carry his subweapon slot.

If you want a guide on all weapons and their uses for each character, there will be a main guide and character specific weapon tierlists for gacha and non gacha weapons both. Check back later for a link once it's complete!