Gyre and Gimble

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

Two quick blades joined by a chain. Swinging one compels the wielder to swing the other, as if they have minds of their own.

the +12 pair of quick blades "Gyre" and "Gimble"

+12 quick blade

Protection brand
Each swing attacks twice
Always two-handed (Except for formicids)

Desirability

Gyre and Gimble are an unusual weapon - thematically two weapons, they are treated in-game as a single two-handed weapon that just so happens to make twice as many attacks as a normal quick blade. With a minimum delay of 0.3, these weapons can inflict an absurd amount of hits before the enemy can react.

Gyre and Gimble take the strengths of Short Blades to an extreme. They are impacted more by slaying bonuses and enemy AC.

• The faster the attack, the more powerful "flat" bonuses become. Having +1 damage per hit is twice as good if you attack twice as fast. Unfortunately, Gyre & Gimble, as protection weapons, are unable to benefit from flat damage brands like distortion, electrocution, or pain. Thus the most impactful bonus comes from slaying.
  • Note that Gyre and Gimble can only perform 1 set of auxiliary attacks per swing. Having an aux attack with G&G is as effective as any ordinary quick blade, which is still very good, just not twice-as-good.
• Conversely, enemy AC has the opposite effect. Gyre and Gimble's weaker, rapid-fire attacks work fine against low-AC targets, but high-AC opponents will shrug off the majority of your blows. You can get past this by stabbing opponents, or with liberal use of might and/or berserk.

Alternatively, if you happen to have a reliable, renewable way to stab enemies (confusion, invisibility, blindness), Gyre and Gimble function as a phenomenally deadly weapon. Confusing Touch works great in particular.

These stratagems apply to Short Blades in general, not just Gyre and Gimble. Their main advantage is the doubled attack speed, meaning more power at the cost of the shield slot. A well-branded, fully-enchanted quick blade with a shield may be the smarter choice. Formicids, of course, don't have to worry about losing their shield slot, but whether they'd prefer Gyre and Gimble over a heavy two-handed weapon is another question.

Trivia

Gyre and Gimble are a reference to the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carrol.

History

• In 0.29, the enchantment was changed from +7 to +12.
• Prior to 0.24, Gyre and Gimble had a +5 enchantment, the vorpal brand, and a -3 penalty to Dexterity.
• Gyre and Gimble were added in 0.16.