Melee weapon

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Melee weapons refer to weapons which can only attack adjacent to you (with a few exceptions). While Ranged Weapons have an obvious range advantage, melee weapons have better stats. Melee weapons are divided into several categories, each of which has its own associated skill and its own particular advantages.

Weapon attributes

The following is a table of all melee weapons in Crawl. Below is a short explanation of each field:

Name	The name of the item as it appears in Crawl.
Damage	The base amount of damage the weapon does, before various bonuses and adjustments.
Hit	To hit modifier for the weapon, before any other adjustments.
Speed	This is actually the attack delay in aut. Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 aut. A weapon's minimum delay is usually the lower of {half of its base delay, rounded down} or 7 aut. It is 5 aut for rapiers, and 10 aut for hand crossbows, arbalests, and triple crossbows. This can be modified by brand and status effects, to a hard minimum delay of 2 aut.
One-handed min. size	Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, giant.
Two-handed min. size	Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with two hands. When the player's size is equal or greater than 'Two-handed min. size', but less than 'One-handed min. size', the weapon cannot be used with a shield.
Dam Type	Slashing, slicing, and chopping weapons will cut hydra heads. Otherwise has no effect.
Prob	A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of acquirement.

Short Blades

Attacks with Short Blades tend to deal less damage, but they can attack faster. They also get a bonus to stab damage. Their damage scales with Dexterity instead of Strength, and they cross-train with Long Blades.

Name	Dmg	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Dagger	4	+6	10	Little	Little	Piercing	10	More stab damage than other Short Blades
Quick blade	4	+6	7	Little	Little	Piercing	2	Cannot receive speed brand
Short sword	5	+4	10	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Rapier	7	+4	12	Little	Little	Piercing	10	Min delay is 5

Long Blades

Long blades are heavier weapons that use Dexterity instead of Strength for damage scaling. They cross-train with Short Blades.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Falchion	8	+2	13	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Long sword	10	+1	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Scimitar	12	0	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Demon blade	13	-1	13	Little	Little	Slicing	2
Eudemon blade	14	-2	12	Little	Little	Slicing	-	A demon blade blessed by The Shining One
Double sword	15	-1	15	Medium	Little	Slicing	2
Great sword	17	-3	17	-	Medium	Slicing	10
Triple sword	19	-4	18	-	Medium	Slicing	2

Maces & Flails

Maces & Flails have no unique traits. They generally have higher damage and lower base delay (thus, lower skill to reach mindelay) than other weapons. They cross train Axes and Staves.

Ogres, Trolls, and Formicids have access to giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, the two most powerful weapon types in the game. However, these require a lot of skill and preclude a shield.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Whip	6	+2	11	Little	Little	Slashing	0
Club	5	+3	13	Little	Little	Crushing	0
Mace	8	+3	14	Little	Little	Crushing	10	Certain vaults can spawn hammers, which have the same stats
Flail	10	0	14	Little	Little	Crushing	10
Morningstar	13	-2	15	Little	Little	Crushing (Piercing)	10
Demon whip	11	+1	11	Little	Little	Slashing	2
Sacred scourge	12	0	11	Little	Little	Slashing	-	A blessed demon whip
Dire flail	13	-3	13	-	Medium	Crushing (Piercing)	10
Eveningstar	15	-1	15	Little	Little	Crushing (Piercing)	2
Great mace	17	-4	17	-	Medium	Crushing	10
Giant club	20	-6	16	-	Large	Crushing	10	Can be used by Formicids using both hand-pairs
Giant spiked club	22	-7	18	-	Large	Crushing (Piercing)	10	Can be used by Formicids using both hand-pairs

Axes

Axes have cleaving attacks. When attacking, axes strike all other enemies adjacent to you for 70% damage. They cross-train Polearms and Maces & Flails.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Hand axe	7	+3	13	Little	Little	Chopping	10
War axe	11	0	15	Little	Little	Chopping	10
Broad axe	13	-2	16	Medium	Little	Chopping	10
Battleaxe	15	-4	17	-	Medium	Chopping	10
Executioner's axe	18	-6	19	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Polearms

Polearms have reaching - they can strike foes up to two tiles away. They cross train Axes and Staves.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Spear	6	+4	11	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Trident	9	+1	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	10
Halberd	13	-3	15	-	Medium	Chopping (Piercing)	10	Sigmund and reapers spawn with scythes, which have the same stats
Demon trident	12	+1	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	2
Trishula	13	0	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	-	A blessed demon trident
Glaive	15	-3	17	-	Medium	Chopping	10
Bardiche	18	-6	19	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Staves

Staves are used to fight in physical combat. Quarterstaves and lajatangs offer high damage for their base delay (thus, don't require much skill), but are rarer and two-handed. Magical staves primarily boost the power of spells, but can be used in melee too.

Note that magical staves fight like +0 staves, though with added damage based on your magical skill and Evocations.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Staff	5	+5	12	Medium	Little	Crushing	-	Not available in game. Used only as a base type for magical staves.
Quarterstaff	10	+3	13	-	Little	Crushing	10
Lajatang	16	-3	14	-	Little	Slicing	2

Retired Weapons

Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup arsenal, either due to redundancy with existing weapons or simply due to flavor issues.

• Knife
• Sabre
• Cutlass
• Katana
• Bastard sword
• Claymore
• Ankus
• Spiked flail
• Staff
• The blessed versions of several long blades.
• Rods

History

• Prior to 0.18, each weapon had a strength weight percentage that determined how the weapon would benefit from your strength and dexterity.