Melee weapon

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

Melee weapons refer to any weapons which are only capable of attacking opponents adjacent to you (with the exception of polearms; see below). While they lack the obvious range advantage of ranged weapons, they tend to be more powerful overall. Melee weapons are divided into several categories, each of which has its own associated skill and its own particular advantages.

Weapon attributes

The following is a table of all melee weapons in Crawl. Below is a short explanation of each field:

Name	The name of the item as it appears in Crawl.
Damage	The base amount of damage the weapon does, before various bonuses and adjustments.
Hit	To hit modifier for the weapon, before any other adjustments.
Speed	This is actually the attack delay in aut. Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 aut. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for rapiers; 10 for hand crossbows, arbalests, and triple crossbows), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste reduce the delay by one third (round randomly up or down). These effects stack, after the base cap, but there's an absolute cap of 2 for attack delay.
One-handed min. size	Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, giant.
Two-handed min. size	Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with two hands. When the player's size is equal or greater than 'Two-handed min. size', but less than 'One-handed min. size', the weapon cannot be used with a shield.
Dam Type	What category of damage does the weapon deal?
Prob	A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of acquirement.

Short Blades

Attacks with short blades tend to deal less damage than larger weapons do, but are significantly faster. They also deal very high damage when used to make stab attacks. Their damage scales with Dexterity instead of Strength, and they cross-train with long blades.

Name	Dmg	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Dagger	4	+6	10	Little	Little	Piercing	10	More stab damage than other Short Blades
Quick blade	4	+6	7	Little	Little	Piercing	2	Cannot receive speed brand
Short sword	5	+4	10	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Rapier	7	+4	12	Little	Little	Piercing	10	Min delay is 5

Long Blades

Long blades use Dexterity instead of Strength for damage scaling. They cross train with short blades. Their skill cost is lower than that of polearms and axes, but higher than maces and staves.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Falchion	8	+2	13	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Long sword	10	+1	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Scimitar	12	0	14	Little	Little	Slicing	10
Demon blade	13	-1	13	Little	Little	Slicing	2
Eudemon blade	14	-2	12	Little	Little	Slicing	-	A demon blade blessed by The Shining One
Double sword	15	-1	15	Medium	Little	Slicing	2
Great sword	17	-3	17	-	Medium	Slicing	10
Triple sword	19	-4	18	-	Medium	Slicing	2

Axes

Axes are unique among weapons in that they can perform cleaving attacks, striking multiple foes in a single strike. They cross train polearms and maces & flails.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Hand axe	7	+3	13	Little	Little	Chopping	10
War axe	11	0	15	Little	Little	Chopping	10
Broad axe	13	-2	16	Medium	Little	Chopping	10
Battleaxe	15	-4	17	-	Medium	Chopping	10
Executioner's axe	18	-6	19	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Maces & Flails

Maces & flails have no particular unique traits, but have significantly lower skill costs and are pretty common in the dungeon, making them a popular choice for both one handed and two handed combat. They cross train axes and staves. Ogres, trolls, and Formicids have access to giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, the two most powerful weapon types in the game. However, these require a lot of skill and preclude a shield.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Whip	6	+2	11	Little	Little	Slashing	0
Club	5	+3	13	Little	Little	Crushing	0
Mace	8	+3	14	Little	Little	Crushing	10	Certain vaults can spawn hammers, which have the same stats
Flail	10	0	14	Little	Little	Crushing	10
Morningstar	13	-2	15	Little	Little	Crushing (Piercing)	10
Demon whip	11	+1	11	Little	Little	Slashing	2
Sacred scourge	12	0	11	Little	Little	Slashing	-	A blessed demon whip
Dire flail	13	-3	13	-	Medium	Crushing (Piercing)	10
Eveningstar	15	-1	15	Little	Little	Crushing (Piercing)	2
Great mace	17	-4	17	-	Medium	Crushing	10
Giant club	20	-6	16	-	Large	Crushing	10	Can be used by Formicids using both hand-pairs
Giant spiked club	22	-7	18	-	Large	Crushing (Piercing)	10	Can be used by Formicids using both hand-pairs

Polearms

Polearms are unique among melee weapons in that they can make reaching attacks, striking foes up to two tiles away. They cross train axes and staves.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Spear	6	+4	11	Little	Little	Piercing	10
Trident	9	+1	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	10
Halberd	13	-3	15	-	Medium	Chopping (Piercing)	10	Sigmund and reapers spawn with scythes, which have the same stats
Demon trident	12	+1	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	2
Trishula	13	0	13	Medium	Little	Piercing	-	A blessed demon trident
Glaive	15	-3	17	-	Medium	Chopping	10
Bardiche	18	-6	19	-	Medium	Chopping	2

Staves

The Staves skill is used both to fight with physical combat staves (quarterstaves and lajatangs) and magical staves. Physical combat staves are powerful two-handed weapons that require less skill to use effectively, but unlike other weapon classes, there is no ultra-powerful, high-skill option available. Staves cross train polearms and maces & flails.

Note that magical staves fight like +0 staves, though some offer extra damage or other effects.

Name	Dam	Hit	Speed	One-handed min. size	Two-handed min. size	Dam Type	Prob	Notes
Staff	5	+5	12	Medium	Little	Crushing	-	Not available in game. Used only as a base type for magical staves.
Quarterstaff	10	+3	13	-	Little	Crushing	10
Lajatang	16	-3	14	-	Little	Slicing	2

Magical Staves

Magical staves are magical devices which are wielded like one-handed weapons (two-handed for Kobolds and Spriggans. While a spellcaster wields one, it enhances the spellpower of a certain school of magic and may add a resistance depending on type. Although normally very weak when used as melee weapons (they use the staff as a template for their stats), some magical staves inflict additional elemental effects when used by a skilled practitioner. See the magical staff page for more details.

Retired Weapons

Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup arsenal, either due to redundancy with existing weapons or simply due to flavor issues.

• Knife
• Sabre
• Cutlass
• Katana
• Bastard sword
• Claymore
• Ankus
• Spiked flail
• Staff
• Hammer
• The blessed versions of several long blades.
• Rods

History

Prior to 0.18, each weapon had a strength weight percentage that determined how the weapon would benefit from your strength and dexterity.