Broad axe

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Broad axe
Skill	Axes
Damage	13
Accuracy	-2
Base delay (%)	16
Min delay	7 at skill 18
Hands	1H
Size	Medium
Ranged?	No

An axe with langets, spikes, a lengthed haft and a single-bladed crescent head. "Weapon, shapely, naked, wan! Head from the mother's bowels drawn! Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one! Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown! Resting the grass amid and upon To be lean'd, and to lean on." -Walt Whitman, _Song of the Broad-Axe_, l. 1-6. 1867

Broad axes are the most powerful one-handed axes, but they also have the highest base delay. They don't do as much damage as two-handed axes, but they are still good enough to make them a viable choice throughout the game, especially if you find a nice artefact axe.

Like all axes, this weapon allows the player to cleave, which helps compensate somewhat for its relatively mediocre base damage and speed.

Strategy

Broad axes are as strong as a morningstar, but with a 1 higher base delay. Morningstars are strong enough to win the game, and broad axes, with the extra cleave, are no different.

They are somewhat more common than other "top tier" one-handers like the eveningstar or double sword. This is because broad axes can be wielded by a number of enemies, including orc warriors, orc knights, and vault guards. You shouldn't rely on this fact, but its worth noting anyhow.

	Image
Mundane
Magical
Artifact

	Unrandart Broad Axes
"Arga"
Obsidian Axe

History

• In 0.27, the base delay was changed back to 16.
• In 0.26, the broad axe's base delay was increased from 16 to 17, with the minimum attack delay requiring 20 Axes skill instead of 18.
• Prior to 0.12, broad axes had 14 base damage and no cleaving.

References

A more complete list of monsters that can spawn with a broad axe can be found at mon-gear.cc:567 (0.29.0), mon-gear.cc:603 (0.29.0). It is 1/120 for "NAGA_WEAPONS" and 1/25 for "ORC_KNIGHT_WEAPONS".