Quick Links

In the opening hours of the original Kingdom Hearts and its subsequent re-releases, the player is forced to make several choices that will impact the rest of their gameplay experience. These choices can be quite confusing for anyone who doesn't understand their consequences. One such instance occurs during Sora's dream of the Station of Awakening, where he is forced to choose between a Sword, Shield, and Staff as his main combat focus while sacrificing one of the remaining two.

Related: Kingdom Hearts: Things You Didn’t Know About Ava

On the surface, this choice doesn't seem to make much difference to gameplay, as each of the three weapons functions identically to one another during the opening dream sequence. However, this choice is one of the more important players will make and can potentially make the game significantly harder if they choose poorly.

Updated January 5, 2023 by Ryan Bamsey: With Kingdom Hearts being an ever-replayable game, we've taken another look at this very important choice and provided you with our very own recommendations - the ones we always seem to pick!

How The Choice Affects The Game

Tutorial dream sequence in Kingdom Hearts

In a nutshell, each weapon has its own focus in combat that affects the skills that Sora learns and also his stats at level one, something that should be taken into consideration when playing on higher difficulties. While the Sword results in Sora gaining more attack and attack-focused skills earlier, this can be detrimental if the player also chooses to sacrifice the Shield while not taking the time to learn how to parry and dodge attacks. Sacrificing the Shield will result in a slower defense stat at the beginning of the game.

The Staff, as would be expected, affects the amount of MP available to Sora as well as allowing him to learn several great skills earlier on in the campaign. Naturally, it comes at the cost of a loss in attack or defense.

This guide talks only about the choice presented at the beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts game. There is a similar choice in Kingdom Hearts 2, but that has slightly different outcomes.

Picking The Sword

Sora holding the Dream Sword in Kingdom Hearts

The main reason why players should choose the Sword over the Shield and Staff is the stats Sora has at the beginning of the game. If the Sword is picked, Sora will have a Strength stat of six, which is the highest possible at level one.

Choosing the Sword will also result in Sora learning the incredibly useful Scan ability much earlier than if players picked the Shield or Staff, gaining the ability to see the enemy's health bar at level 9. The Sword also enables Sora to learn the combat abilities Sliding Dash and Slapshot at levels six and 12 respectively, giving him a wider range of attacks much earlier in the game than the other two weapon options.

While at first glance it would appear that sacrificing the Sword would result in Sora's damage output being severely hindered, the reality is that it doesn't make all that much of a difference to combat, particularly towards the end of the game. The difference in damage output is noticeable early on, but not as much as the lack of Defence or MP - as a low amount of those two means the player has far fewer chances to mess up in boss battles before dying.

Several of the skills gained quicker by picking the Sword are also unnecessary in early fights and can make combat more confusing for newcomers to Kingdom Hearts. The one main benefit of taking the Sword, the ability to learn Scan earlier, is made redundant by level 21, as that is the latest that any build can learn it.

Picking The Shield

Sora holding the Dream Shield in Kingdom Hearts

For many Kingdom Hearts veterans, particularly those who like to play on higher difficulties, the Shield might be the best choice to make when starting a new playthrough. It not only gives Sora a Defense stat of four, the highest possible at the beginning of the game, but it also grants him the highest number of item slots by the end. This can make tougher battles much easier, particularly the optional boss fights that can require the use of several healing items to defeat.

The greatest advantage that comes with choosing the Shield is the early access to both Leaf Bracer, which makes Sora immune to all damage while healing, at level 27, and Second Chance, which leaves Sora with 1HP remaining if he takes a fatal blow with more than 1HP in his pool, at level 36. This is much earlier than if players chose to take the Sword or Staff, as Leaf Bracer is learned at level 39 when the Staff is chosen and 69 when the Sword is taken, while Second Chance is learned at level 48 for the Sword and 90 for the Staff.

Taking the Shield will also get you much earlier access to the Lucky Strike ability, which really helps out when grinding for synthesis materials.

There are very few benefits to sacrificing the Shield during the prologue, as it not only makes the initial combat encounters less of a slog for inexperienced players but also grants several good skills early in the game.

The only reason you should think to sacrifice the shield in the prologue is if they want to make the game harder on themselves in subsequent playthroughs, as this will result in a diminished ability to take damage that makes even low-level Heartless a threat at higher difficulties.

While it is a tenuous benefit at most, there is one benefit to sacrificing the Shield: you don't have to sacrifice the Sword or the Staff. If you like playing on the offensive, this is more than enough reason.

Related: Kingdom Hearts: Things You Only Know About Aqua If You've Played All The Games

Picking The Staff

Sora holding the Dream Staff in Kingdom Hearts

Aside from the Shield, the Staff has some of the best benefits when it comes to combat. While taking the Staff results in several good skills being learned much later in the game, it grants Sora the most MP and AP before taking Keychains and equipable items into account, allowing for greater use of skills and spells in combat. This is incredibly important for those who like magic, as magic damage in Kingdom Hearts is based on your Max MP.

While taking the Staff does result in the lowest Attack stat at the beginning of the game, it also gives Sora access to Stun Impact at level six. This skill helps Sora make up for his lack of damage output by giving him a 30 percent chance to create a shockwave on the final attack of a combo that stuns enemies.

While the Staff's roster of abilities isn't exactly perfect for making a physically-oriented Sora, it's notable for granting very early access to both Air Combo Plus abilities - Sora will get both copies of this ability before a Sword or Shield Sora gets even one.

Depending on how players like to play the Kingdom Hearts series, the Staff may be the only viable option to sacrifice in the opening prologue. Choosing to sacrifice the Staff will greatly reduce the number of spells that Sora can cast as well as his AP at the beginning of the game. However, AP can be increased as Sora levels up and it is very easy to play through all of Kingdom Hearts by using only Cure and Aero spells while focusing on melee damage using the Keyblade.

Thankfully, sacrificing the Staff results in the same MP as when the Sword or Shield is sacrificed. Sora's MP pool only goes up if you choose to take the Staff, when Sora reaches a certain level, or with certain keychains equipped.

What We Recommend

For a typical playthrough, we recommend Taking the Staff, and Sacrificing the Shield. There are multiple reasons for this:

  • The ability order of the staff will have you learning some very important abilities far earlier, giving you more time with them.
    • Specifically, your Air Combo will be very useful for much of the game, especially with how many tough enemies and bosses force you up into the air.
    • Early Stun Impact and Ripple Drive should make up for your slightly lower attack.
    • An early Treasure Magnet is nice for the early-game, where Munny is scarce and HP orbs can come in clutch more often.
  • Having more MP makes your magic attacks stronger, and magic can get incredibly strong in this game, especially when you have the abilities that make gaining MP easier.
  • As you'd expect, picking the staff will get you those MP-centric abilities earlier than the other weapons.
  • Sacrificing the shield will make you a bit trailer, but your skill with magic should make up for that. Fewer item slots means nothing when you can cast Curaga almost constantly.

How This Choice Affects Your Abilities

Kingdom Hearts Ability Menu
The ability menu in Kingdom Hearts with Berserk highlighted

The table below details all of the abilities that Sora can learn and at what level he will learn them based on the weapon he chooses in the prologue. Some of these abilities are learned more than once - every level that he gains these abilities will be listed.

Ability

Sword

Shield

Staff

Combat Abilities

Aerial Sweep

60

84

36

Air Combo Plus

72, 96

93, 99

24, 45

Blitz

33

60

78

Combo Master

50

55

55

Combo Plus

21, 66, 93

63, 87, 96

87, 93, 99

Counterattack

15

45

57

Guard

24

15

33

Hurricane Blast

27

51

18

Ripple Drive

39

69

12

Slapshot

12

6

69

Sliding Dash

6

39

51

Stun Impact

51

18

6

Vortex

57

78

84

Support Abilities

Berserk

78

9

60

Critical Plus

84, 99

48, 75

96, 100

Jackpot

100

42

63

Leaf Bracer

69

27

39

Lucky Strike

90

24

48

MP Haste

45

72

21

MP Rage

63, 87

90, 100

42, 75

Scan

9

21

15

Second Chance

48

36

90

Tech Boost

18, 81

12, 81

27, 81

Treasure Magnet

36, 75

30, 57

9, 72

Next: Kingdom Hearts: Every Spinoff Game And How They Are Important To The Main Story