The Lantern of the Laughless Saint — How to Equip Weapons and Switch Loadouts

The Lantern of the Laughless Saint how to equip weapons answer is a hotbar answer, not a menu answer. Equipping is handled in play: an official update lists number-key hotkeys, a quick-options wheel for favourited weapons, and a dedicated control that swaps between your weapon and a spell, with the older equip system still available in settings. What the game does not have, at least in the public record, is a published weapon list or damage table, so this page sticks to the families the developer has actually named and flags the rest.

How to Equip and Switch Weapons

The documented control scheme is small and worth learning early, because combat is punishing when you fumble a swap. Official Update 17 notes list PC number keys 1 to 8 as hotkeys, R on keyboard and B on gamepad for switching between an equipped weapon and a spell, and a quick-options wheel that selects favourited weapons rather than the full equipped list. Tapping the relevant control toggles sheathing, and the previous equip system remains an option at the bottom of Gameplay settings.

Control	Documented effect
Number keys 1 to 8	Hotbar slots on PC
R (keyboard) / B (gamepad)	Switch between equipped weapon and spell
Quick-options wheel	Selects favourited weapons
Switch control tap	Toggles sheathing
Legacy equip system	Still available at the bottom of Gameplay settings

• Put your commonly used weapon on one of the first eight slots, since only those have dedicated hotkeys.
• Favourite the weapons you rotate between so the quick-options wheel stays short and usable.
• Learn the sheathe tap early: shrine and prayer interactions require the weapon to be put away.
• Keep a spell on the switch control if you play a hybrid build, because swapping mid-fight is the documented intent.
• Because remapping is allowed, test your own layout before a boss attempt rather than trusting a default.

Weapon Families Documented So Far

Only a few weapon families are named in first-party or clearly attributed material, which is itself useful information: the game is in Early Access and the dev has said the item pool will grow. The confirmed names are one-handed and two-handed weapons, both improved by the Umbrite racial bonus, plus maces and morningstars, which an official update added to the pool.

Weapon family	Evidence
One-handed weapons	Umbrite race starts with +5 One-Handed
Two-handed weapons	Umbrite race starts with +5 Two-Handed
Maces and morningstars	Added to the weapon pool in an official update
Bows / archery	Archery is a skill, with a -10 penalty on Thrakh
Complete weapon list	Not published; documented evidence gap

• The store page promises visceral combat with multiple weapon types, so families exist beyond the four named above.
• An official update also adjusted several item and combat behaviours, which means specific weapons can be rebalanced without notice.
• The game ships with more than 100 equippable items, so the weapon count is a subset of a much larger item pool.
• Combat uses multiple weapon types against strange horrors, so weapon choice is partly a matter of what an encounter punishes.

What Is Not Documented About Weapons

There is no official damage model, no reach or stamina cost table, no enemy weakness chart and no complete list of weapon types — the independent guide archive records exactly that gap rather than inventing numbers. That matters because a weapon guide built on unverifiable numbers is worse than no guide.

If you want to plan a loadout, treat the confirmed families as your floor, use the hotbar and switch controls to stay flexible, and re-test after each patch, since Early Access balance changes have already reshuffled the item and combat behaviours once. For how weapons fit into a full character plan, see the characters page on race bonuses and the combat tips page for the habits that keep a fight winnable.