Thanks for the detailed feedback, I just pushed an update to equip the stick from the beginning and moved the other pickups a bit. (I've also added a small army protecting the king and a bonus gold pickup at the end)
I'll keep working on balancing the weapons so all of them have their use case.
Not sure I understand the last bit with arrow piercing and explosion upgrade though. Do you think they should be at the blacksmith so players don't try to get them before they have the weapon that uses them?

