What are the benefits of using royal arms?

Aside from boosting your stats exponentially, there are two benefits for using the Royal Arms:

1. Deals non-specific weapon type damage, which are useful against enemies who have physical resistances. i.e. The Katana of the Warrior functions with mobility and style of a sword, but deals regular damage to enemies who have resistance or weakness to swords.

2. Enhances Warp Strike, Blitz Combos, and/or Directional Attacks to make them more powerful and effective by giving them additional abilities. iDigitalTimes Royal Arms contains a breakdown of each of the Royal Arm's hidden abilities

Sword of the Wise

1. Use as you would use a regular sword

2. Attack: 194

3. Has two-hit warp strike with delayed second hit

4. Initial hit of a Blitz combo is the strongest

5. Enables backflip as a backward directional attack

Blade of the Mystic

1. Use like a greatsword that can use combos

2. Attack: 396

3. Initial Blitz hit is slow, but speeds up with subsequent attacks

4. Warp-strike begins with three projectiles toward the enemy as Noctis stands in place, then Noctis warps forward with a physical attack

5. Pause during a Blitz combo to trigger the Tenacious self-buff that increases Noctis’ Strength by 100 for 10 seconds (does not stack but is repeatable)

Trident of the Oracle

1. Use like a polearm

2. Attack: 388

3. Creates afterimage of Noctis after each attack and performs up to three additional attacks there

4. Performs aerial diving warp-strike of up to three hits with follow-up afterimage attacks

5. Allows you to use an evasive leap and subsequent aerial dive attack as sideways or backward directional attack

Scepter of the Pious

1. Attack: 237, Magic: +150

2. Uses Magic stat in damage calculation

3. Performs two-hit aerial warp strike

4. Assumes different forms based on directional input

5. Blitz initial hit: Trident of the Oracle

6. Non-directional Blitz combo: Sword of the Wise

7. Forward directional Blitz combo: Sword of the Tall (ends in Axe of the Conqueror)

8. Sideways directional Blitz combo: Blade of the Mystic (no self-buff)

9. Backward directional Blitz combo (Trident of the Oracle)

Sword of the Tall

1. Use like a greatsword

2. Attack: 518

3. Has serrated blade that deals multiple hits per attack, with later hits dealing higher damage

4. Performs warp-strike that can deal more than 10 hits

5. Breakage multiplier of .50 is applied to all attacks but warp-strikes

Bow of the Clever

1. Uses Magic stat to calculate damage

2. Attack: 203, Magic: +80

3. Handles like a firearm with dagger-like mobility

4. Projectiles are slow and can easily miss from a distance but have a maximum range of 80 feet

5. Attacks have lower damage modifier but can pierce enemies

6. Deals bonus damage to enemies in Vulnerable condition

7. Has special warp-strike that tops in front of enemy and shoots three arrows rapidly at close range

Star of the Rogue

1. Handles like long-range pair of daggers

2. Attack: 177

3. Has multi-hit warp-strike ending with backward evasive flip

4. Allows directional aerial attacks during Blitz

5. Standard attacks pierce enemies

6. Max range of 130 feet for regular, 65 feet for warp-strikes

Mace of the Fierce

1. Use like a greatsword

2. Attack: 334

3. Has slow and linear attacks that don’t track well against fast enemies but all attacks can break

4. Performs slow to-hit warp strike

5. Great for well-timed attacks

6. All other attacks have minor damage modifier (including parries) but major breakage multipliers

Swords of the Wanderer

1. Handles like daggers when weapon is dual-wielded during Blitz combo but has weaker mid-Blitz attacks overall

2. Attack: 153

3. Has multi-hit warp strike

4. Has slower, focused hits in combined form as forward directional attack

5. Allows evasive leap with subsequent aerial dive attack as sideways or backward directional attack

Shield of the Just

1. Handles like regular shield, including warp-strike

2. Attack: 251, Strength: -100

3. Hold square or x to enter defensive stance similar to taking cover. Generates same HP but drains MP

Sword of the Father

1. Handles like Sword of the Wise but has unique attack animations such as a three-hit warp-strike with follow-up afterimage attacks

2. Attack: 141, Strength: +100

3. Enables unique Tenacious self-buff via a Blitz finale, increasing Noctis’ Strength by 200 for 5 seconds

Axe of the Conqueror

1. Use like a greatsword

2. Attack: 483, Strength: +60

3. Performs aerial dive warp-strike

4. Has slow, powerful, linear attacks

5. Enables aerial diving attack as forward directional attack

Katana of the Warrior

1. Handles like sword but has extended range and faster Blitz combos after initial hit

2. Attack: 361

3. Has delayed single-hit warp-strike and lets you chain successive warp-strikes quickly

The biggest reason to user royal arms are the stat boosts. A very viable and highly suggested strategy is to equip 3 royal arms and one actually "used" weapon or spell, to maximize the stat bonuses. Personally, I use the sword of the father and Axe of the conqueror in two slots as they increase str, which increases Noctis' dmg per hit. I then use the star of the roue just to have a ranged option, but Sword of the Wise is a good option for well rounded stats, and shield of the just is great for HP and defense, but it takes away stength. If your have built as a mage, there are arms such as the Scepter of the Pious that give a bonus to magic, and even uses magic for its normal attack damage.

They are also useful against enemies who are resistant to elements and/or weapon types. Royal arms all have no elemental affinity and also do not "count" as any weapon type for damage resistance. So if an enemy has two handed sword resistance, you can use the Sword of the Tall, or Axe of the Conqueror royal arm, you will bypass that resistance.

As a side not, if the enemy has an elemental resistance you want to exploit, but has weapon resistances that dont make you happy, you can use Ignus' Enhancement ability on your royal arm to give it the elemental damage bonus while still avoiding the weapon resistance of the enemy.