Ranged weapon

Version 0.15: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ranged weapons include all weapons capable of attacking any target within your line of sight. All of these require ammo to function, and most of them require you to wield a launcher. The ability to attack distant foes is very helpful, particularly for characters with fast movement speed (see kiting). However, ranged weapons are not without their drawbacks. Running out of ammo renders a ranged weapon nearly useless, and melee weapons tend to have better overall stats.

Weapon attributes

The following is a table of all ranged 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, which is multiplied by 10 to get the "percentages" you see in-game. (That is, attack delay 10 shows as 100%.) Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 unit. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for cutlass, 10 for hand crossbows, arbalests and triple crossbows), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste cut delay by one third (round randomly up or down). These effects stack, after the base cap, but there's an absolute cap of 2 for attack delay.
Mass	How heavy a weapon is. Note that this is used for game calculations and is not the same as the weight as it appears in your inventory.
Str weight	A bigger strength weighting is better for strong characters, while a low strength weighting is better for dexterous characters.
Skill	Which skill is required to effectively use this weapon.
One-handed min. size	Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, big.
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.
Missile	The sort of ammo needed to use this weapon
Dam Type	What category of damage does the weapon deal?
Prob	A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of acquirement.

Throwing

Throwing weapons can be further divided into two categories: thrown weapons and blowguns.

Thrown weapons are unique among ranged weapons in that they do not require you to wield anything to use them; you simply hurl them without needing a free hand (Don't ask). This means you don't have to waste time in combat swapping weapons, saving turns and reducing frustration, you can wear shields, and you can save many scrolls of enchant weapon. Thrown weapons need 27 skill levels to reach minimum delay, but despite this the average damage per turn of tomahawks, javelins, and large rocks is better than any other ranged weapon at the same skill level.

• Stone
• Tomahawk
• Javelin
• Throwing net
• Large rock (trolls and ogres only)

Blowguns are very unusual ranged weapons. In spite of the fact that they are affected by your Throwing skill, they require you to wield a blowgun and fire needles at the enemy. These deal no damage, but inflict devastating status effects.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	Mass	Str weight	Skill	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Missile	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Blowgun	0	+2	10	20	0%	Throwing	Little	Little	Needle	None	0	Deals no damage, but inflicts status effects

Slings

Slings are ranged weapons which hurl sling bullets (or stones in a pinch) with great force. They are one-handed weapons for all but the tiniest characters and require much less skill than most other weapons to reach min delay, but they are significantly less powerful than their slower, more cumbersome alternatives.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	Mass	Str weight	Skill	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Missile	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Hunting sling	5	+2	12	20	10%	Slings	Little	Little	Stone / Sling bullet	Non-melee	10
Greatsling	8	-1	14	30	10%	Slings	Small	Little	Stone / Sling bullet	Non-melee	10

Bows

Bows are a moderate player's choice of ranged weapon, firing arrows at your opponents to deadly effect. They are universally more powerful than slings, and require only a reasonable skill investment to fire quickly. However, both kinds of bow require two hands to wield.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	Mass	Str weight	Skill	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Missile	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Shortbow	9	+2	13	90	20%	Bows	-	Little	Arrow	Non-melee	10
Longbow	15	0	17	120	30%	Bows	-	Medium	Arrow	Non-melee	10

Crossbows

If you want a ranged weapon that tears into foes with the strength of a melee weapon, consider getting into crossbows. These contraptions are the largest, slowest ranged weapons available, but they launch their bolts with unparalleled force. Unfortunately, they require the most skill of all ranged weapons to attack quickly, particularly in the case of the super-heavy triple crossbow. With the exception of the tiny hand crossbow, crossbows are two-handed weapons and benefit much more from high strength than from dexterity.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	Mass	Str weight	Skill	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Missile	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Hand crossbow	12	+5	15	50	50%	Crossbows	Little	Little	Bolt	Non-melee	10
Arbalest	18	+2	19	150	80%	Crossbows	-	Little	Bolt	Non-melee	10
Triple crossbow	22	0	23	250	90%	Crossbows	-	Small	Bolt	Non-melee	2

Brands

Ranged weapons and their associated ammunition are capable of carrying a wide variety of brands which can greatly increase your lethality when used correctly:

Ranged Weapon Brands

• Electrocution - Deals additional electricity damage
• Evasion - Increases EV
• Flame - Converts all damage to fire, increases damage by 0-40%
• Frost - Converts all damage to cold, increases damage by 0-40%
• Penetration - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
• Speed - Attacks take 66.6% normal time
• Venom - Poisons target
• Vorpal - Increases damage by 0-40%

Ammunition Brands

• Confusion - Confuses target
• Curare - Poisons, slows, and asphyxiates target
• Dispersal - Forces target to blink randomly
• Exploding - Hits target and all adjacent tiles with a small unavoidable explosion
• Flame - Converts all damage to fire, increases damage by 0-40%
• Frenzy - Berserks target and temporarily turns it hostile to everything
• Frost - Converts all damage to cold, increases damage by 0-40%
• Paralysis - Paralyses target
• Penetration - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
• Poisoned - Poisons target
• Returning - Ammo may return to the attacker, with chance based on player skill or monster HD
• Silver - Deals massive damage to chaotic targets
• Sleep - Puts target back to sleep
• Slowing - Slows target
• Steel - Increases damage by 30%, mulches much less often

If both your launcher and your ammo have brands, the brand of the missile usually overrides that of the launcher. Exceptions include the vorpal and speed brands, which stack with any ammo, and the fire/cold damage brands, which cancel out each other when paired together.

Retired Weapons

Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup arsenal.

• Bow
• Crossbow
• Dart
• Sling

See also

• Ranged Combat

History

Prior to 0.15, ranged combat was significantly more complicated. Min delay was heavily influenced by your stats, and there was a much smaller variety of weapons available.

Prior to 0.14, daggers, spears, hand axes, and clubs could be thrown.