Quick blade

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

Name	Quick blade
Skill	Short Blades
Damage	4
Accuracy	+6
Base delay (%)	7 (70%)
Min delay	3 at skill 8
Hands	1H
Size	One-handed
Ranged?	No

A carefully wrought dagger which is preternaturally well-balanced, making it much easier for even inexperienced handlers to attack with it quickly. "He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword... -Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". 1861

This weapon falls into the 'Short Blades' category. It is a one handed weapon.

The quick blade is the fastest weapon in the game, with a minimum weapon delay of 3 aut. Either Finesse or Haste will bring your attack to a hard minimum of 2 aut.

Strategy

Quick blades are generally the strongest Short Blade. Quick blades with a "flat" damage brand, like pain, electrocution, or distortion brand, are quite powerful. The low skill is only a bonus. However, like any other short blade, its damage against armored opponents tends to be underwhelming.

However, quick blades are rare. They are most commonly obtained from Trog and Okawaru's weapon gifts, or a scroll of acquirement. Failing this, the Elven Halls provide a good chance at quickblades: Deep elf blademasters have a 1/26 chance of receiving twin quick blades, and the Hall of Blades may spawn one. In addition, some of the more powerful spriggans have a chance of spawning with one.

	Quick blades
Mundane
Magical
Artifact
	Unrandarts
Gyre and Gimble
Vampire's Tooth

History

• Prior to 0.30, quick blades could not naturally generate with brands.
• Prior to 0.29, quick blades dealt 5 base damage and scaled with strength instead of dexterity.
• Prior to 0.27, Cheibriados disapproved of quick blades.