Weapon speed

Version 0.15: 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 except hand crossbows, arbalests and triple crossbows.

The minimum delay is base delay divided by 2 rounding down. If that number is greater than 7, truncate to 7. The only exceptions are cutlasses, which can reach 5, and the three types of crossbows which can only reach 10.

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	1H Size	2H Size
Dagger	4	6	10	5	10	Little	Little
Quick blade	5	6	7	3	8	Little	Little
Short sword	6	4	11	5	12	Little	Little
Cutlass	7	4	12	5	14	Little	Little
Long Blades
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	1H Size	2H Size
Falchion	8	2	13	6	14	Little	Little
Blessed falchion	9	2	12	6	12	Little	Little
Long sword	10	1	14	7	14	Small	Little
Blessed long sword	11	0	13	6	14	Small	Little
Scimitar	12	-2	14	7	14	Small	Little
Blessed scimitar	13	-1	13	6	14	Small	Little
Demon blade	13	-1	13	6	14	Small	Little
Eudemon blade	14	-2	12	6	12	Small	Little
Bastard sword	15	-1	15	7	16	Medium	Little
Blessed bastard sword	16	-2	14	7	14	Medium	Little
Great sword	16	-3	16	7	18	-	Medium
Blessed great sword	17	-4	15	7	16	-	Medium
Claymore	19	-4	19	7	24	-	Medium
Blessed claymore	20	-5	18	7	22	-	Medium
Axes
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Hand axe	7	3	13	6	14	Little	Little
War axe	11	0	15	7	16	Small	Little
Broad axe	13	-2	16	7	18	Medium	Little
Battleaxe	15	-4	17	7	20	-	Medium
Executioner's axe	18	-6	20	7	26	-	Medium
Maces & Flails
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill required	1H Size	2H Size
Whip	6	2	11	5	12	Little	Little
Club	5	3	13	6	14	Little	Little
Rod	5	3	13	6	14	Little	Little
Hammer	7	3	13	6	14	Little	Little
Mace	8	3	14	7	14	Little	Little
Flail	10	0	14	7	14	Little	Little
Morningstar	13	-1	15	7	16	Small	Little
Demon whip	11	1	11	5	12	Little	Little
Sacred scourge	12	0	11	5	12	Little	Little
Dire flail	13	-3	13	6	14	Big	Medium
Eveningstar	15	-1	15	7	16	Small	Little
Great mace	17	-4	17	7	20	Big	Medium
Giant club	20	-6	17	7	20	-	Large
Giant spiked club	22	-7	18	7	22	-	Large
Polearms
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	1H Size	2H Size
Spear	6	4	11	5	12	Small	Little
Trident	9	1	13	6	14	Medium	Little
Halberd	13	-3	15	7	16	-	Medium
Scythe	14	-4	20	7	26	-	Medium
Demon trident	12	1	13	6	14	Medium	Little
Trishula	13	0	13	6	14	Medium	Little
Glaive	15	-3	17	7	20	-	Medium
Bardiche	18	-6	20	7	26	-	Medium
Staves
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Staff	5	5	12	6	12	Medium	Little
Quarterstaff	10	3	13	6	14	-	Medium
Lajatang	16	-3	14	7	14	-	Medium
Throwing
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Blowgun	0	2	10	5	10	Little	Little
Slings
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Hunting sling	5	2	12	6	12	Little	Little
Greatsling	8	-1	14	7	14	Small	Little
Bows
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Shortbow	9	2	13	6	14	-	Little
Longbow	15	0	17	7	20	-	Medium
Crossbows
Name	Damage	Hit	Base Delay	Min Delay	Skill Required	Hands	Size
Hand crossbow	12	5	15	10	10	Little	Little
Arbalest	18	2	19	10	18	-	Little
Triple crossbow	22	0	23	10	26	-	Small

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 0.15 ranged weapons used a completely different delay formula.

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.