Large rock

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

Name	Large rock
Launcher	Throwing
Base damage	20
Base delay (%)	20 (200%)
Min delay	7 at skill 26

A very large and very heavy stone. Only large creatures are capable of throwing it. "Well, I run to the rock and I hide my face The rock cried out, No hiding place There's no hiding place down here." -Negro spiritual. 19th cent.

Large rocks are massive throwing weapons. Only trolls, ogres, and giants have the sheer size necessary to throw these effectively. They have the best damage of all throwing projectiles, but have a high base delay. At Throwing 0, it takes 2 full turns in order to throw one.

Large rocks have a 4% chance of mulching when thrown, slightly lower than other physical projectiles. This destroys the rock, though does +33% more damage.

Strategy

Strong at high skill. It's often worth training Throwing on large species. Even at low skill, it can be worth throwing at melee enemies, though watch out for the delay. (If you don't have high Throwing skill, don't throw at a melee enemy at melee range.)

Another large benefit of rocks is that they are plentiful - often carried by cyclopses and stone giants. Large rocks are more common than boomerangs and javelins combined. In the late game, this makes large rocks a lot more disposable than javelins, since the latter can pierce through enemies.

Large Rock

History

• Prior to 0.30, mulched large rocks did not get bonus damage.
• Prior to 0.24, exploding large rocks could be found in a rare ammunition shop.
• Prior to 0.20, large rocks could be used by ogres and trolls to vastly increase the power of their Sandblast spells.
• Prior to 0.18, the attack speed of Throwing weapons did not rely on your Throwing skill, making large rocks much easier to utilize even without training.
• Prior to 0.16, they had a mulch rate of 2%, and their range was somewhat randomized; attempting to throw them long distances with low strength would often result in a toss that comes short of its target.
• Prior to 0.15, there was an ammunition shop that sold large rocks with the following brands: returning, exploding, chaos, poisoned, dispersal, flame, and frost.
• Prior to 0.13, large rocks were inherently penetrating.
• Prior to 0.11, mulching a large rock would create a stack of stones.