Weapon speed

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

See Attack speed, for an in-depth article on attack delay.

Attacking with a weapon with a listed attack delay of, for example, 150%, uses 15 units of time (on a scale where most actions take 10 units). Each two levels of weapon skill cut the delay by 1 unit down to a minimum that depends on weapon type.

The following table lists the base attack delay of melee weapons, the minimum possible delay, and the skill level required to reach this minimum. Note that all weapons eventually reach delay 7.

The minimum delay is base delay divided by 2 rounding down. If that number is greater than 7, truncate to 7. The only exception are cutlasses, which can reach 5.

For weapons of speed, multiply the numbers by 2/3 rounding up or down randomly.

Finesse halves all attack delays rounding up or down randomly.

Haste or Berserk rage multiplies delays by 2/3 (but not if Finesse is active), rounding up or down randomly. Delay can never go below 2.

If you are wearing a shield you may suffer some penalties, see Shields.

General Weapon Speed
Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required
10	5	10
11	5	12
12	6	12
13	6	14
14	7	14
15	7	16
16	7	18
17	7	20
18	7	22
19	7	24
20	7	26
Short Blades
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Dagger	4	6	10	5	10	One	Little
Quick blade	5	6	7	3	8	One	Little
Short sword	6	4	11	5	12	One	Little
Cutlass	7	4	12	5	14	One	Little
Long Blades
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Falchion	8	2	13	6	14	One	Little
Blessed falchion	9	2	12	6	12	One	Little
Long sword	10	1	14	7	14	One	Small
Blessed long sword	11	0	13	6	14	One	Small
Scimitar	12	-2	14	7	14	One	Small
Blessed scimitar	13	-1	13	6	14	One	Small
Demon blade	13	-1	13	6	14	One	Small
Eudemon blade	14	-2	12	6	12	One	Small
Bastard sword	15	-1	15	7	16	One	Medium
Blessed bastard sword	16	-2	14	7	14	One	Medium
Great sword	16	-3	16	7	18	Two	Large
Blessed great sword	17	-4	15	7	16	Two	Large
Claymore	19	-4	19	7	24	Two	Large
Blessed claymore	20	-5	18	7	22	Two	Large
Axes
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Hand axe	7	3	13	6	14	One	Little
War axe	11	0	15	7	16	One	Small
Broad axe	13	-2	16	7	18	One	Medium
Battleaxe	15	-4	17	7	20	Two	Large
Executioner's axe	18	-6	20	7	26	Two	Large
Maces & Flails
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill required	Hands	Size
Whip	6	2	11	5	12	One	Little
Club	5	3	13	6	14	One	Little
Rod	5	3	13	6	14	One	Little
Hammer	7	3	13	6	14	One	Little
Mace	8	3	14	7	14	One	Little
Flail	10	0	14	7	14	One	Little
Morningstar	13	-1	15	7	16	One	Small
Demon whip	11	1	11	5	12	One	Little
Sacred scourge	12	0	11	5	12	One	Little
Dire flail	13	-3	13	6	14	Two	Large
Eveningstar	15	-1	15	7	16	One	Small
Great mace	17	-4	17	7	20	Two	Large
Giant club	20	-6	17	7	20	Two	Big
Giant spiked club	22	-7	18	7	22	Two	Big
Polearms
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Spear	6	4	11	5	12	One	Small
Trident	9	1	13	6	14	One	Medium
Halberd	13	-3	15	7	16	Two	Large
Scythe	14	-4	20	7	26	Two	Large
Demon trident	12	1	13	6	14	One	Medium
Trishula	13	0	13	6	14	One	Medium
Glaive	15	-3	17	7	20	Two	Large
Bardiche	18	-6	20	7	26	Two	Large
Staves
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Staff	5	5	12	6	12	One	Medium
Quarterstaff	10	3	13	6	14	Two	Large
Lajatang	16	-3	14	7	14	Two	Large

In-game display

There are two different ways to obtain some information about your attack speed.

• When the options show_gold_turns and show_game_turns are true, the turn counter in the stat area will display the exact value of the delay of your last action.
• The @ command will print a description of your attack speed:

Attack speed description	Attack delay
blindingly fast	<3.4
extremely fast	3.5-4.4
very fast	4.5-5.4
quite fast	5.5-7.4
above average	7.5-9.4
average	9.5-10.4
below average	10.5-12.4
quite slow	12.5-15.4
very slow	15.5-19.9
extremely slow	>=20

History

Prior to 0.14, the speed brand halved your attack delay rounding up, and decreased pre-AC damage by 10%.

Prior to 0.13, Finesse had no effect on non-blowgun throwing weapons.