Codex
Martial arts list: every weapon style in English
Martial arts are the weapon movesets you equip in your two weapon slots. The English list is short but uneven: a few names are official, some are community standard, and a handful are still descriptive placeholders.
At a glance
- Starter arts
- Nameless Sword (无名剑法), Nameless Spear (无名枪法)
- Skill Theft art
- Strategic Sword (积矩九剑)
- Weapon classes
- Sword, spear, great blade, fan, twinblades, gauntlets, rope dart, drum
- Official vs descriptive
- Most are official; four names are working descriptions
- Shared weapon, two arts
- Raging Tides carries two separate spear arts
Every martial art, by weapon class
| Weapon class | Martial art (English) | Chinese | How you get it | Name status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sword | Nameless Sword | 无名剑法 | Starter art | Official |
| Spear | Nameless Spear | 无名枪法 | Starter art | Official |
| Sword | Strategic Sword | 积矩九剑 | Skill Theft | Official |
| Fan | Panacea Fan | 明川药典 | Silver Needle sect art | Official |
| Fan | Inkwell Fan | 青山执笔 | Silver Needle sect art | Official |
| Great blade | Thundercry Blade | 嗟夫刀法 | Well of Heaven sect art | Official |
| Twinblades | Infernal Twinblades | 泥犁三垢 | Midnight Blades sect art | Official |
| Spear | Heavenquaker Spear | 九曲惊神枪 | Raging Tides sect art | Official |
| Spear | Stormbreaker Spear | 八方风雷枪 | Raging Tides sect art | Official |
| Gauntlets | Heavenwill Gauntlets | 天志垂象 | Mohist Hill sect art | Official |
| Rope dart | Skygrasp Rope Dart | 千机索天 | Nine Mortal Ways sect art | Official |
| Gauntlets + rope dart | Bamboocut - Kite | 破竹·鸢 | Path-defining combination | Community |
| Ribbon drum | Museflow Waist Drum | 文动霓裳 | Not documented | Descriptive |
| Fan | Willowbend Fan | 杏游草野 | Not documented | Descriptive |
| Spear (dual) | Dual Spears | 双矛 / 双枪 | Launches late November 2026 | Official |
Three notes on that table. First, "how you get it" is only filled in where the source material confirms the route — an empty route means unknown, not "shop". Second, Dual Spears is a path with two spears rather than a single art, which is why it appears on its own row. Third, the descriptive names are not official; they exist so players can talk about the weapon without using a Chinese string.
Which arts are starter arts?
Two: Nameless Sword (无名剑法) and Nameless Spear (无名枪法). Both are native to the opening progression, and both are deliberately plain — they teach the Deflect loop without a flashy mechanic to hide behind. If you are still deciding on a sect, learning one of these first is the cheapest way to find out which weapon class you actually enjoy.
What is Skill Theft, and which art comes from it?
Skill Theft is how you get Strategic Sword (积矩九剑). It is the only art in the list explicitly tied to that route, and it sits outside the sect progression, which makes it the natural first target for a solo player who has not committed to a sect. The name is official; the route is confirmed.
Why do some names look like descriptions?
Because they are. Museflow Waist Drum (文动霓裳), Willowbend Fan (杏游草野) and Ribbon Drum (舞绫鼓) have no confirmed official English localization. The game has not published English, French or Japanese names for the drum in particular, so every site using "Ribbon Drum" is using a description rather than a translation.
The convention on this site: descriptive names are marked, and the Chinese is always shown. If an official name appears later, the page changes and the old description is noted, rather than quietly disappearing.
Which arts share a weapon class?
Spears carry the most overlap: two separate arts under Raging Tides, one starter spear, and now the dual-spear path. Fans have two sect arts plus a descriptive one. Gauntlets have one sect art plus a combination path (Bamboocut - Kite) that mixes gauntlets with the rope dart.
That overlap matters when reading builds: a build page that says "spear" may mean Heavenquaker, Stormbreaker, Nameless Spear, or the new Dual Spears, and those four behave differently. The Gauntlets build and the Dual Spears brief both spell out which art they mean.
Do martial arts have tiers or ranks?
Inner Ways have ranks (Tier 6 is the threshold that changes several builds). Martial arts themselves are not ranked in the same way, and this site does not publish a martial-art tier list, because our sources do not contain one and guessing one would be worse than leaving it out. What you can compare is the art's identity: what it wants from you (positioning, timing, burst window) and which sect or route supplies it.
How do I choose my second art?
- Keep the second slot for a weapon that solves a problem the first one has — range, sustain, or crowd clear.
- Do not double up on the same class unless the art is a deliberate pair (the dual-spear path, or gauntlets plus rope dart for Bamboocut - Kite).
- Check the Inner Ways you already own before buying a new art; a good art with no matching Inner Way support underperforms.
- Read the Inner Ways list — several entries are art-specific and only fire with the right weapon.