Against the Storm: Keepers of the Stone does not have equipable weapons, armor slots, or a character weapon tier system. The best “equipment” is a production priority: Steel Tools sit at the top, Copper Tools are the strongest practical mid-game option, and Simple Tools are an early-game emergency tool rather than a long-term investment. If you came looking for a sword ranking, this is the important correction—your real loadout is made of tools, food, resolve goods, and the buildings that produce them.
That distinction matters even more with the Keepers of the Stone expansion. The Frog species adds another layer to housing, food, and resolve planning, while the settlement still lives or dies on efficient glade events and a clean production chain. The official Against the Storm Steam page confirms the game’s core identity: this is a survival city builder with roguelite progression, not an action RPG with lootable weapons.
The real Against the Storm equipment ranking
Here is the useful version of the weapon tier list. It ranks the tool goods and combat-adjacent supplies that actually influence a settlement’s ability to crack caches, survive dangerous glades, and finish a cycle before the Queen loses patience.
| Tier | Item or system | Why it ranks here | Best timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | Steel Tools | Best premium cache-opening tool and the strongest payoff for a mature Smithy chain | Mid to late game |
| A | Copper Tools | Excellent value when copper is available; reaches dangerous glades without demanding a full late-game economy | Early to mid game |
| A | Training Gear | Supports resolve needs and species demands, indirectly protecting reputation and production uptime | Any cycle with frequent resolve pressure |
| B | Simple Tools | Cheap access to caches, but weak as a permanent answer once glade rewards scale upward | Opening phase |
| B | Provisions and Packs | Not weapons, but vital for trade routes, orders, and expedition-style deliveries | When economy or orders require them |
| C | Luxury goods without a demand | Ale, Wine, Incense, and similar goods are wasted if no species or cornerstone currently needs them | Only after demand is visible |
The key ranking principle is opportunity cost. Steel Tools are not automatically correct because they are the highest-quality tool. If producing them delays housing, fuel, or food, they can lose a run faster than they save one. A bundle of Simple Tools used on the right cache at the right moment is worth more than a warehouse full of advanced goods that never reach a glade event.
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View on Steammoz Store →S-Tier: Steel Tools and the Smithy economy
Steel Tools are S-tier because they convert a late-game industrial chain into concentrated glade value. They are especially powerful when a dangerous glade contains multiple caches, blueprints, or a timed event where opening speed affects your ability to complete the objective. The exact reward varies by cache and event, but the strategic value is consistent: tools turn surplus metal and production capacity into additional resources, reputation opportunities, and sometimes rare blueprints.
The catch is that Steel Tools are not an early-game purchase. You need a dependable source of metal, a building capable of producing the recipe, workers who can keep that building supplied, and enough fuel to keep the settlement alive while you manufacture them. If your settlement is still rationing fuel or building its first crude shelter, forcing a Steel Tools chain is flashy but reckless.
Use them when three conditions line up:
- You have identified a dangerous glade worth opening rather than chopping blindly into the forest.
- Your metal input is stable enough that tool production will not starve other essential recipes.
- You can staff the Smithy or equivalent production building without removing workers from food, fuel, or construction.
Keepers of the Stone makes this judgment sharper. Frog settlements can benefit from a larger, more flexible workforce, but extra workers also increase food consumption. That means your tool factory must be judged against the food curve, not just its recipe. The official Eremite Games site is worth checking for expansion notes and balance changes before copying an older production plan.
A-Tier: Copper Tools, Training Gear, and timing
Copper Tools
Copper Tools are the best all-purpose answer for most settlements. They reach the important part of the game earlier than Steel Tools, and copper is often easier to integrate into a developing economy than a full steel chain. Their biggest advantage is timing: they let you open a valuable cache before impatience climbs too far, without turning your entire settlement into a specialist metalworks operation.
Do not spend them on every event simply because you can. Scout first. A cache behind a dangerous glade is worth more when it offers a blueprint, a large resource payout, or an event reward that fixes your current bottleneck. If the glade contains only a mediocre reward and a brutal event requirement, keep the Copper Tools for a better opportunity.
Training Gear
Training Gear is not a weapon, but it belongs in the equipment conversation because resolve is one of the game’s most important forms of defense. It supports species needs and can help stabilize villagers before hostility, storm penalties, or a difficult production cycle pushes them toward leaving.
Its value depends on your population. With Humans, Beavers, Lizards, Harpies, and Frogs sharing one settlement, needs can become a logistics puzzle rather than a simple checklist. Training Gear is strongest when it completes a reliable complex-food or luxury-good route and weakest when produced speculatively. Check the Resolve panel, identify which species is closest to a threshold, and make only the goods that directly improve that situation.
For more general strategy-game economy reading, Steamoz’s fast-leveling and farming guide is useful for the same reason: tempo beats hoarding when every minute creates pressure.
B-Tier: Simple Tools and the early-game loadout
Simple Tools are B-tier overall but can be S-tier in the first few minutes. They are the bridge between discovering a cache and having the industrial capacity to make better tools. The mistake is treating that bridge as a destination.
At the start of a settlement, prioritize the basics: a Hearth, shelter, food gathering, woodcutting, and enough fuel to avoid a sudden resolve collapse. Once those are stable, produce or acquire a modest number of Simple Tools if the first dangerous glade has a reward that answers a known problem. For example, a blueprint that unlocks food production can be worth far more than opening an ordinary cache for random materials.
Simple Tools also shine when the settlement has no copper node, no suitable metal recipe, or no spare workers for a Smithy. A low-tier tool that is available now beats a premium tool that exists only in your theoretical build. That is the central lesson behind this tier list.
There is one hard warning: never open a dangerous glade just because your tool count looks healthy. Dangerous glade events frequently impose time limits, worker requirements, fuel costs, or hostility pressure. Before committing, pause the game and inspect the event. Count the workers you can spare, confirm your fuel reserve, and make sure the event will not interrupt your only food chain.
How to build the best tool-and-equipment pipeline
The strongest setup is a staged pipeline rather than a permanent “weapon build.” Your first objective is survival, your second is reliable glade access, and your third is converting surplus production into reputation and Queen’s impatience control.
| Stage | Priority | Recommended action | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening | Food, fuel, shelter | Secure the Hearth and keep woodcutters supplied | Chasing tools before the settlement can survive a storm |
| First expansion | Information | Scout nearby glades and inspect event rewards before spending tools | Opening every glade without a reason |
| Stabilization | Copper Tools | Use a metal chain to create targeted cache access | Running a Smithy with no stable input |
| Industrial phase | Steel Tools | Scale premium tools when surplus metal and labor are available | Starving food or fuel to maintain production |
| Endgame | Resolve and reputation | Finish orders, satisfy species needs, and open only high-value caches | Growing the settlement after victory is already secured |
When selecting blueprints, favor the one that improves the whole pipeline. A building that supplies food, fuel, planks, or metal can outperform a tool recipe on paper because it makes every later tool easier to produce. This is why early blueprint choices should be judged by chain length and worker efficiency, not by the rarity of the final item.
Keep an eye on production limits. Set a modest limit for Simple Tools during the opening and raise it only when you have a clear cache target. Later, switch to Copper Tools or Steel Tools once your inputs are stable. Limits prevent a prolific workshop from consuming every bar of metal while the rest of the town waits for construction materials.
For players tuning their broader PC strategy setup, Steamoz’s performance settings guide covers the same practical mindset: optimize for consistent decisions and visibility, not vanity numbers. Against the Storm is not mechanically demanding, but smooth scrolling and readable event panels matter during a chaotic storm cycle.
The final verdict on the “weapon” tier list
Steel Tools take first place, Copper Tools are the best practical all-rounder, and Simple Tools remain an essential early-game bridge. Training Gear deserves an A-tier ranking whenever resolve is the real threat. Everything else should be produced in response to a specific need, not because it looks like equipment.
That is the most useful way to approach Against the Storm - Keepers of the Stone weapon tier list and best equipment ranking: stop searching for combat stats that the game does not use, then rank goods by how much tempo they create. Scout valuable glades, protect your food and fuel economy, and upgrade tools only when the settlement can afford the workers and materials. For another take on ranking winter-themed gear and progression systems, see Steamoz’s Dungeons 2 winter weapon tier list—but remember that Against the Storm wins through logistics, not damage numbers.
For official mechanics and current expansion information, consult the Against the Storm Steam announcements and the community wiki. The best loadout is the one that reaches the right cache, solves the current bottleneck, and gets your settlement through the next storm alive.