Stone

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

Name	Stone
Launcher	Throwing
Base damage	2
Base delay (%)	11 (110%)
Min delay	7 (at Throwing skill 8)

A small chunk of dense but otherwise unremarkable natural mineral. It can be thrown to cause minor damage. "How happy is the little Stone That rambles in the Road alone, And doesn't care about Careers And Exigencies never fears - Whose Coat of elemental Brown A passing Universe put on, And independent as the Sun Associates or glows alone, Fulfilling absolute Decree In casual simplicity -" -Emily Dickinson, "How happy is the little Stone". ca. 1865.

Stones are a somewhat common form of ammo which can thrown by hand for minimal damage. While unimpressive, they let early characters deal some extra damage at a distance. Stones get half the damage bonus from Throwing skill that other weapons do.

Stones are always mulched (destroyed) after being thrown.

Strategy

Stones are useful for a couple of reasons:

• If you can't attack from range, you might as well throw a stone. Stones let you deal some extra damage against adders and other melee enemies.
• Stones create a soft noise where they land. If you throw a stone at the edge of line of sight, you can quietly attract enemies that were just out of sight.
  • This can be used to split up packs. Many monsters will shout after hearing a noise, waking up the whole pack. However, when a monster shouts, the noise is projected on their tile, not yours. Because some monsters only hear that shout, they won't know your actual location. Some monsters will wander towards the shout (then a random direction), others towards the direction of the stone. Therefore, some monsters will be split from the pack. This doesn't work on herd animals like yaks.
• If you hit an enemy, it will always notice you. If you want a monster to notice you, it's better to throw a stone than to wait around or shout yourself.
• Even stones can deal very respectable damage in the early game if you happen to find some slaying bonuses.

You can largely disregard stones the moment you find a better ranged option.

Note that stones used by monsters will use the monster's base damage. For example, an orc warlord will deal up to 29 damage with a stone.

Stone

History

• Prior to 0.29, stones could be used for hunting slings, fustibali, and Sandblast. They were more common, and only mulched 12.5% of the time.
• Prior to 0.20, Sandblast did not require stones to function.
• Prior to 0.17, stones were particularly useful as an anti-jelly weapon, as jellies would eat most other projectiles and heal by doing so.
• Prior to 0.11, mulching a large rock would create a stack of stones.