Most tome advice treats all 23 tomes as interchangeable stat sticks. They are not. On the wiki, every weapon has an “Affected by” column listing the stats that actually change it — and only seven of the 23 tomes provide a stat that appears in that column at all.
That split is the most useful thing you can know about tomes. Everything below comes from the Mega Bonk Wiki’s Tomes page and the Weapons page, and every count is taken from those tables.
The seven tomes that scale your weapon
| Tome | Stat it gives | Weapons affected | Unlocked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage Tome | Damage | 27 of 29 | Default |
| Quantity Tome | Projectile Count | 24 of 29 | Fire 5,000 projectiles, 9 silver |
| Size Tome | Size | 23 of 29 | Default |
| Projectile Tome | Projectile Speed | 12 of 29 | Default |
| Duration Tome | Duration | 8 of 29 | Upgrade Axe to level 10, 9 silver |
| Precision Tome | Crit Chance | 7 of 29 | Default |
| Knockback Tome | Knockback | 6 of 29 | Default |
Damage Tome is the best tome in the game and it is free. It scales 27 of the 29 weapons — every one except Black Hole and Corrupted Sword, the two whose stat lists the wiki leaves empty. There is no build where Damage Tome is a bad pickup.
Quantity Tome is the best thing you can buy with silver. Projectile Count scales 24 of 29 weapons, second only to Damage, and it costs 9 silver — the same as Duration Tome, which scales 8. If you have 9 silver and no idea what to spend it on, this is the answer.
Duration Tome is the trap. It also costs 9 silver but only reaches 8 of 29 weapons, and its unlock objective is upgrade Axe to level 10 — while Axe itself is locked behind killing 2,000 enemies with the Sword. Two chained unlocks to reach the fourth-narrowest weapon stat in the game.
The sixteen tomes that do not scale your weapon
These are not bad — several are essential — but they change you, not your weapon. Take them for survival, economy or clear speed, and never expect them to make your weapon hit harder.
| Tome | What it does | Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| HP Tome | Max HP | Default |
| Shield Tome | Shield absorbs damage before HP, regenerates after a no-damage window | Default |
| Regen Tome | HP regen per minute | Default |
| Evasion Tome | Chance to avoid an attack entirely | Default |
| Agility Tome | Movement speed | Default |
| Gold Tome | More gold from all sources | Default |
| Silver Tome | More silver from all sources | Default |
| Cooldown Tome | Attack Speed | Default |
| Thorns Tome | Damage enemies when they attack you | Block 250 attacks with Aegis, 9 silver |
| Armor Tome | Armor reduces damage taken | Kill 5,000 enemies as Sir Oofie, 9 silver |
| Bloody Tome | Lifesteal; over 100% guarantees 1 heal and chances a second | Kill 12,000 enemies, 9 silver |
| Attraction Tome | Pickup range for XP | Use the Shrine of Succ 8 times, 9 silver |
| XP Tome | More XP from all sources | Break 20 pots in a single run, 12 silver |
| Luck Tome | Better tier offers from level-ups and shrines | 0.01% drop chance, 10 silver |
| Cursed Tome | Raises enemy quantity, health, speed and strength | Beat the Stage Boss in under 5 minutes |
| Chaos Tome | Boosts a random stat | Charge all Charge Shrines on a Tier 3 run across all 3 stages without leaving the charge zone |
Cooldown Tome deserves a note, because it is the one players most often miscategorise. It gives Attack Speed, and Attack Speed appears in zero of the 29 weapon stat lists. That does not make it weak — firing twice as often is roughly twice the damage — but it means it is a separate multiplier. It stacks with Damage Tome rather than competing with it, and it will never show up as a weapon upgrade roll.
Cursed Tome is the only tome that makes the game harder, raising enemy count, health, speed and strength. Players run it because difficulty scales rewards, and because two things are locked behind it: the Corrupted Sword needs Cursed Tome at level 20 in under 10 minutes, and the Skuleg item needs 40% Difficulty.
Tomes are also keys: five weapons are unlocked by tome level
This is the part that changes how you value a tome. Five of the 29 weapons are not earned by killing things — they are earned by levelling a specific tome.
| Weapon | Tome requirement |
|---|---|
| Sniper Rifle | Precision Tome to level 10 |
| Black Hole | Knockback Tome to level 10 |
| Blood Magic | Bloody Tome to level 12 |
| Dice | Luck Tome to level 12 |
| Corrupted Sword | Cursed Tome to level 20 in under 10 minutes |
So Knockback Tome is not just a 6-of-29 stat stick — taking it to 10 gives you Black Hole, which is itself scaled by Duration, Damage, Size and Projectile Count. Same for Precision: it only scales 7 weapons, but level 10 hands you the Sniper Rifle.
The worst chain in the game is Dice: it needs Luck Tome at level 12, and Luck Tome’s unlock is a 0.01% drop chance from killing an enemy plus a 10 silver purchase. Dice is the highest-ceiling weapon in the game — it shares all six of its stats with Bow — and it is deliberately the hardest one to reach.
Which tomes to take, by what you are doing
- You want the weapon to hit harder — Damage Tome, then Size Tome, then Quantity Tome. Those three cover 27, 23 and 24 weapons respectively and need no unlocks beyond Quantity’s 9 silver.
- You are on a character with a crit weapon (CL4NK with Revolver, Ninja with Katana, Bandit with Dexecutioner, Robinette with Bow) — Precision Tome, because Crit Damage only appears on 4 of 29 weapons and Crit Chance on 7. Outside those characters, Precision is a weak pickup.
- You are dying — Shield Tome, Regen Tome, Armor Tome, Evasion Tome. None of these touch your weapon, which is exactly why they are safe: they never cost you damage.
- You are farming unlocks — Gold Tome and Silver Tome for currency, XP Tome for level speed, Luck Tome for better upgrade tiers.
- You want the highest ceiling run — Cursed Tome for difficulty-scaled rewards, accepting that enemies get faster, tougher and more numerous.
For the weapon side of this pairing see best weapons, for which character starts with which weapon see best character, and for how tomes and weapons combine see the synergy guide. Silver and gold economy is covered in the economy guide, and the full item pool is in the items database.