Weapons

Pistol
The Pistol is a great weapon to use early on in the game, as it will take down a variety of enemies (mainly Sniffers, both male and female varieties) and will become virtually useless as you come across tougher enemies in the game, giving you a bit of freedom to finally bust a cap rather than run like mad or attempt to beat something to death with a melee weapon. Even so, you shouldn't just waste ammo like mad. Knock the enemy down, and step on it to kill it.

Steel Pipe
The classic melee weapon of choice in the Silent Hill series is also one of the weaker weapons in the game this time around. The Steel Pipe has a long waiting time before swings, and it will certainly disadvantage you as you progress throughout the game. The ideal situations to use the Steel Pipe in are against flocks of Hummers, as you can charge your swing to hit multiple enemies at once, and against Sniffers (one on one only).

Spade
The Spade is a digging tool that can pierce skin very easily. The Spade has a better, longer range than the Aluminum Bat, but does less damage. The Spade also has an overhead strike attack that does a considerable amount of damage. The Aluminum Bat, Rusty Axe, and Spade all do the same damage, but they are all slightly different somehow.

Paper-Cutting Knife
This thing is complete and total garbage. If you're looking to pick up every weapon in the game, then you can find this one in the Hospital World, but it is very weak, doing minimal damage with every swipe. The special attack charges very fast, but alas, even that doesn't do much damage.

Aluminum Bat
The Aluminum Bat can be found at the sporting goods store inside of the Building World, along with the 5-Iron golf club. The Aluminum Bat works practically identical to the Steel Pipe, except it does much more damage. It other words, once you get the Aluminum Bat, the Steel Pipe becomes useless. They have the same load times for swings and all, so once you pick it up, drop off that Steel Pipe in your inventory chest. The Rusty Axe, Spade, and Aluminum Bat all do nearly the same damage.

Rusty Axe
The Rusty Axe can be found in the Building World, inside of the bar room on a stool. The Rusty Axe is powerful, but has a very short range (even shorter than the Aluminum Bat). The Aluminum Bat, Spade, and Rusty Axe all do nearly the same damage.

Broken Wine Bottle
When you obtain the Wine Bottle out of Henry's refrigerator in Apartment 302, you will notice that it is not broken, and boy does it suck as a weapon when it is not broken. Too bad you just can't drink the enemy to death, eh? It will take around ten whacks for the bottle to finally break, but once it does, you can use the Broken Wine Bottle as a nice, early melee weapon of choice. It strikes fast with slicing jabs to your enemies, but doesn't pack as much power as the Steel Pipe.

Golf Clubs
There are many different Golf Clubs throughout the game. They include the Pitching Wedge, the Sand Wedge, the Putter, the Driver, the 3-Wood, the 3-Iron, the 4-Iron, the 5-Iron, the 6-Iron, the 7-Iron, the 8-Iron, and the 9-Iron. They all have the same statistics, and they are excellent melee weapons. The reason that there are so many is due to the fact that they break after a handful of hits.

Bug Spray
Bug Spray, in a word, is "pointless." It damages all enemies in the game, but only does any significant amount of damage to Hummers, which go down fast against melee weapons. Don't take this when you find it unless you have a lot of inventory space.

Richard's Revolver
You can find Richard's Revolver in Richard's Room (Room 207) inside of the Apartment World after you've obtained the Apartment Keys. Richard's Revolver is a lot like the Pistol, only it has a longer load time between shots and packs a mighty fine punch. You should save the Revolver for enemies that truly need a good bullet in their head, such as Bottoms.

Torch
The Torch isn't too good of a melee weapon compared to what you already have, and it doesn't even do any additional damage if it's lit. You can find the Torch on the second visit to the Forest World, as it is used to proceed through the area.

Pickaxe of Despair
The Pickaxe of Despair is, hands down, the strongest weapon in the game. Expect all of the enemies to go down in a couple of hits, including the mystery man in the coat. The only bad thing about this weapon is that it takes forever and a day to swing, and about a full week to swing accurately. Regardless, if you can manage to precisely swing this huge thing, it's a real keeper. Otherwise, you'll likely despise it.

Stun Gun
This bad boy will surely come in handy, but if you rushed through the Water Prison World (First Visit), you might have missed it. Check out the Walkthrough on exact details on how to obtain this weapon. If you want to watch a Gum Head drop faster than an old lady after seeing The Fonz jump over a shark, the Stun Gun is the right choice. On the default difficulty (Normal), the Gum Heads will drop in a single hit against the Stun Gun. It have a long attack time, as well as a very short range, but it is highly worth taking a hit or two just to drop these suckers fast. The Stun Gun comes in handy throughout the game, as well, so it's a wonderful weapon to have.

Chainsaw
The Chainsaw may sound like the coolest weapon to ever exist, and that is partly true. The only part that we disagree with is the part of "obtaining" it. You must first complete the game to even get it. You'll find it near Jasper during your second romp through the game. Sadly, the Chainsaw doesn't do nearly as much damage as you'd expect it to do.

Sword Of Obedience
This is the only weapon that can permanently disable a specific ghost from rising after they have fallen. You will need to beat up on the ghost before you can use this item, as it pins them to the ground. You can retract these five swords from the ghosts to conserve them, and this is highly suggested until further in the game. You should use these only on the really powerful or really pesky ghosts.

Silver Bullets
These Silver Bullets will knock a ghost out for a few minutes, average. This is especially useful if you're taking out super tough ghosts that are hard to pin down with the Sword Of Obedience while you have a task to attend to inside of the room that they haunt. Be very careful with using these, however, as you will only find two in the entire game.

Holy Candles
The Holy Candles will absorb ghosts' energy when they get near it, thus clearing the specific area that you laid the Holy Candle in completely of ghosts. Try not to use these, either, as you will desperately need them as you grow closer to the closing of the game. We know what you're thinking, and that's "Okay, when will I get an item that I can actually use sparingly against ghosts to get them out of my way?" and the answer is, you simply won't find anything to fight them with. But...

Saint Medallions
...You can use the Saint Medallions whenever you truly feel as if you're in a dilly of a pickle. While the Saint Medallions do not work as actual weapons, they will work as defensive protection from the ghastly ghouls, and will actually hurt them whenever they hit you. Please keep in mind that the Saint Medallions will eventually break after they have absorbed so much damage, so try your best to save them for when you really need them.

On to Enemies...