Melee weapon

Version 0.23: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Melee weapons refer to any weapons which are only capable of attacking opponents adjacent to you (with the exception of polearms; see below). While they lack the obvious range advantage of ranged weapons, they do not require ammunition, and they tend to be more powerful overall. 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, 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 rapiers; 10 for hand crossbows, arbalests, and triple crossbows), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste reduce the 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.
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.
Dam Type	What category of damage does the weapon deal?
Prob	A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of acquirement.

Short Blades

Attacks with short blades tend to deal less damage than larger weapons do, but are significantly faster. They also deal very high damage when used to make stab attacks.

Name	Dmg	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Dagger	4	+6	10	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Quick blade	5	+6	7	Little	Little	Piercing	2	Cannot receive speed brand
Short sword	6	+4	11	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Rapier	8	+4	12	Little	Little	Piercing	10	Min delay is 5

Long Blades

Long blades can riposte on successfully evading a blow. They deal moderate damage when used to make stab attacks and cross train with short blades. Their skill cost is lower than that of polearms and axes, but higher than maces and staves.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-hande min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Falchion	7	+2	13	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Long sword	9	+1	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Scimitar	11	0	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Demon blade	12	-1	13	Little	Little	Slicing	2
Eudemon blade	13	-2	12	Little	Little	Slicing	-	A demon blade blessed by The Shining One
Double sword	14	-1	15	Medium	Little	Slicing	2
Great sword	15	-3	17	-	Medium	Slicing	10
Triple sword	17	-4	19	-	Medium	Slicing	2

Axes

Axes are unique among weapons in that they can perform cleaving attacks, striking multiple foes in a single strike.

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	20	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Maces & Flails

Maces & flails have no particular unique traits, but have significantly lower skill costs. Married to the fact that the most powerful weapons are pretty common in the dungeon, they're a popular choice both for one handed and two handed combat. Ogres and trolls have access to giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, the two most powerful weapon types in the game. However, these are generally not recommended for either race.

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
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
Giant spiked club	22	-7	18	-	Large	Crushing (Piercing)	10

Polearms

Polearms are unique among melee weapons in that they can make reaching attacks, striking foes up to two tiles away.

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
Scythe	14	-4	20	-	Medium	Slicing	10
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	20	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Staves

The Staves skill is used both to fight with physical combat staves (quarterstaves and lajatangs) and magical staves. Physical combat staves are powerful two-handed weapons that require surprisingly little skill to use effectively, but unlike other weapon classes, there is no ultra-powerful, high-skill option available.

Note that magical staves fight like +0 staves, though some offer extra damage or other effects.

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

Magical Staves

Magical staves are magical devices which are wielded like one-handed weapons. While a spellcaster wields one, it grants a variety of useful benefits, such as enhancing the spellpower of certain schools of magic or negating the hunger costs associated with powerful spells. Although normally very weak when used as melee weapons (they use the staff as a template for their stats), some magical staves inflict additional elemental effects when used by a skilled practitioner. See the magical staff page for more details.

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
• Hammer
• The blessed versions of several long blades.
• Rods

History

• Prior to 0.19 or perhaps 0.15, dire flails and great maces were one-handed weapons for trolls and ogres.

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