The Banjo is not a damage weapon and never really tries to be. It deals 10 damage, fires once every 1.3 seconds, holds a single shot, and has zero listed range. What it does have is a right-click that heals you and any allies standing in a zone around you, which makes it the one support option among the melee weapons in Far Far West. Built correctly, it becomes a switch-in tool you pull out for two seconds, top up health, and put away.
Quick answer: Slot the Banjo as your secondary, spend upgrades on Draw Speed (+90%), Attack Speed (+40%), Chord Capacity (+5), and Damage (+30%), pick the Frost element, and run Lullabard with two copies of Eat-a-Punch plus Heavy Weapon.
What the Banjo costs you in the secondary slot
Melee weapons in Far Far West do not get their own slot. They replace a gun. Knuckles and Lasso take the primary slot, while the Banjo takes the secondary, so whatever you were carrying as a backup is gone the moment you equip it. That single rule shapes the whole build. Your primary has to be able to carry a run by itself, because the Banjo is not going to help you clear a room.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | Secondary |
| Damage | 10 |
| DPS | 7.7 |
| Fire rate | 1.3 s |
| Range | 0 m |
| Magazine / total ammo | 1 / 1 |
| Unlock level | 0 |
| Price | 12 credits |
It unlocks at level 0 and costs 12 credits, so there is no real gating on trying it. The trade is entirely about the slot.
Banjo upgrade allocation: Draw Speed and Chord Capacity first
Because this is a weapon you swap to mid-fight and immediately swap away from, Draw Speed matters more than anything else. Take it to the cap. Chord Capacity comes next, since it raises how many chords you can hold before spending them on a heal. Damage is worth a partial investment for one specific reason covered below, and Range is a wasted line on a weapon that heals in a zone centered on you.
| Upgrade | Build target | Stack cap |
|---|---|---|
| Draw Speed | +90% | +30% × 3 |
| Attack Speed | +40% | +5% × 8 |
| Chord Capacity | +5 | +100% × 5 |
| Damage | +30% | +5% × 8 |
| Range | +0% | +4% × 10 |
The Damage number is not arbitrary. Basic Cryptic grunts sit at 20 HP, and +30% pushes each Banjo hit past 10 damage, which means two swings kill them. That is the difference between the Banjo being able to finish a straggler and being completely inert. Chord Capacity is Banjo-exclusive, so nothing else in your loadout competes for it.
Why Frost is the element to roll
Frost is the pick, and it has nothing to do with the damage type. Applying frost grants a shield point, and shield points sit above your HP bar and absorb damage before your health does. They cap at 100 and come from certain jokers, weapons, and Frost spells.
There is a catch worth planning around. Shield points decay on their own if you go a few seconds without either gaining or losing them. They are not a reserve you stockpile before a fight and cash in later. They reward staying in the fight and freezing things repeatedly, which is exactly what a slow melee weapon swung near a crowd does anyway.
Note: that decay is why the Banjo works better as a quick tap mid-combat than as a between-rooms recovery tool. Walking away to heal is walking away from your shield.
Joker picks: Lullabard, double Eat-a-Punch, Heavy Weapon
Lullabard is the unique that makes this build a healing build rather than a bad melee build. It grants an extra chord per hit and widens the healing zone, and the cost is the slam attack. Since you are not using the Banjo to hurt anything meaningful, losing the slam is close to free. The other Banjo unique goes the opposite direction, letting you hold the slam longer for a bigger hit, which suits a damage-first setup instead.
| Joker | Effect | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Lullabard (unique) | Extra chord per hit, wider healing zone | Removes the slam attack |
| Eat-a-Punch ×2 | 4 HP per melee kill combined | Two joker slots |
| Heavy Weapon | +10% damage | +30% gravity while active |
Running Eat-a-Punch twice is the second half of the sustain. Each melee kill returns health, and two copies bring that to 4 HP per kill, which stacks on top of the chord heal instead of competing with it. Heavy Weapon adds a flat +10% damage and is the reason the Banjo clears its 10-damage breakpoint comfortably. The +30% gravity penalty only applies while the weapon is out, and you are only holding it for a couple of seconds at a time.
Where the healing Banjo is worth the slot
The clearest case is the jungle questline, where spell casting is disabled. Every healing option that runs through a spell school is off the table there, and the Banjo does not care because its heal is a weapon function. That turns a mediocre secondary into the only sustain you have.
Outside that, it earns its keep in long boss fights where you have downtime between damage windows. Swapping to the Banjo, spending chords, and swapping back is fast enough at +90% Draw Speed that it costs you very little uptime. In co-op it is more valuable still, since the right-click heals allies inside the zone, not just you.
Your primary weapon and hero jokers do not affect this
This is a self-contained switch-in package. Nothing about your primary or your hero card feeds into how well the Banjo heals, so build those two however you normally would. A Shotgun with heavy Damage and Clip Size investment works fine, as does a hero card leaning on Health, Speed, and Jump Height. Pick whatever actually kills things, because the Banjo will not.
One practical note on leveling. Joker slots on a weapon open as the weapon gains levels, so a freshly bought Banjo cannot hold the cards this build depends on. Get it up in levels first, then slot Lullabard and the rest.
How to confirm the build is working
Three things tell you it is set up right. Chords accumulate visibly faster than one per hit once Lullabard is slotted. Shield pips appear above your HP bar the first time you freeze something, then tick down if you stop engaging. And a basic Cryptic grunt dies to two Banjo hits rather than three, which confirms your Damage investment plus Heavy Weapon is clearing the 10-damage line against their 20 HP.
If the heal feels weak, the usual causes are a missing Lullabard, an element other than Frost, or Damage left below +30% so grunts survive two hits and you never bank kills for Eat-a-Punch.
Far Far West is still in Early Access, and melee is described by the developer as a first batch with more weapons planned, so the numbers above hold for version 0.2.0.x rather than forever. The underlying logic should survive additions, though. As long as the Banjo occupies a secondary slot and heals through chords, the build is Draw Speed to swap fast, Chord Capacity to hold more heals, Frost for shields, and just enough Damage to kill something.
