Hand cannon

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

Name	Hand crossbow
Skill	Ranged Weapons
Damage	15
Accuracy	+3
Base delay (%)	19
Min delay	10 at 18 skill
Hands	1H
Size	Little
Ranged?	Yes

A compact piece of machinery, used for firing bolts. It takes some time to load and fire.

The hand crossbow is the strongest one-handed ranged weapon, allowing for the use of a shield while being much stronger than a sling. However, like all crossbows, it fires slowly (with a mindelay of 1.0).

	Image
Mundane
Magical
Artifact

History

• In 0.31, hand crossbows will be rethemed into hand cannons. Hand cannons are loud (2x as loud) and create transparent clouds on shot. They also get +1 base damage (15 -> 16) and are more likely to generate with a good brand.
• Prior to 0.30, hand crossbows had 17 base damage.
• In 0.29, hand crossbows were made heavier (previous stats: 12 damage, +5 accuracy, 15 base delay), and became designated for later portions of the game. They were affected by the ranged weapons rework that applied to all launchers, including the removal of the dedicated Crossbows skill and bolts. Prior to this version, Hunters and Arcane Marksmen could start with this weapon.
• In 0.15, hand crossbows (as well as arbalests and triple crossbows) were introduced, replacing the standard crossbow.
• In very old versions of Crawl, the hand crossbow was a one-handed ranged weapon which fired darts.