Venom

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

This page is about the weapon brand. For the removed card, see Venom card.

It poisons the flesh of those it strikes.

The venom brand allows your weapon to poison your target, causing it to take further damage over time. All strikes have a 75% to poison targets. Poison works differently whether the target is a player or monster:

• Players attacking monsters: The venom brand deals 1 + (4 + 1d8 + 1d<1.5 * melee_dmg>)/7 "stacks" of poison. Monsters can be affected by a max. of 4 stacks.
  • Even a +0 dagger can inflict 2 stacks per successful hit. So, just 2-3 hits of any weapon will cause maximum poison. On stronger melee attacks, 1 hit can be enough.
  • For more detail on poison stacks, see the Poison article.

• Monsters attacking players: Poison inflicted equals to 4 + 1d8 + 1d(1.5 * melee_damage) HP. There is no stack system.

Poison resistance gives a 66% chance to negate the poisoning entirely, meaning venom has a net chance of 25% to poison. Resistance doesn't reduce the amount of poison otherwise. Poison immune creatures, like the undead and the nonliving, are completely unaffected by this brand.

Tips & Tricks

• Venom is generally an early- to mid- game brand. By the time you reach the Vaults and Depths, many enemies will be resistant or even immune to poison.
• The other main downside is that poison damage isn't done immediately. To compensate, Venom has the potential to deal a lot more damage than most other brands.
  • If you have a way to disengage from fights, like Swiftness or Blink, you can use them to run away, and let poison do its work. This works best when dealing with melee threats that aren't faster than you, of course. Ranged units will likely shoot you a few times before dying.
  • Alternatively, the spell Ignite Poison allows you to convert poison to instant damage. This spell further multiplies poison damage by 200%. As a level 3 spell, it often isn't worth to train on a heavy melee brute. But if you're using Poison Magic, anyways, Ignite Poison can provide valuable synergy.
• The poison is mostly independent from weapon damage; even a dagger can inflict max poison in 2-3 hits. Therefore, it's best used on a fast weapon. Daggers, whips, or short swords of venom can take out most enemies in the early Dungeon.

History

• Prior to 0.18, poison resistant monsters were completely immune to the venom brand.