Melee weapon

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Version 0.15: 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 do not require ammunition, and 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, which is multiplied by 10 to get the "percentages" you see in-game. (That is, attack delay 10 shows as 100%.) Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 unit. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for cutlass, 10 for hand crossbows, arbalests and triple crossbows), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste cut 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.
Mass How heavy a weapon is. Note that this is used for game calculations and is not the same as the weight as it appears in your inventory.
Str weight A bigger strength weighting is better for strong characters, while a low strength weighting is better for dexterous characters.
Skill Which skill is required to effectively use this weapon.
One-handed min. size Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, big.
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.

Name Dmg Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-handed min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Dagger 4 +6 10 20 10% Little Little Stabbing (Slicing) 10
Quick blade 5 +6 7 50 0% Little Little Stabbing (Slicing) 2 Cannot get a speed brand
Short sword 6 +4 11 80 20% Little Little Slicing (Piercing) 10
Cutlass 7 +4 12 90 20% Little Little Slicing (Piercing) 10 Min delay is 5

Long Blades

Long blades have the highest base stats of all weapon types, and deal moderate damage when used to make stab attacks.

Name Dam Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-hande min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Falchion 8 +2 13 170 30% Little Little Slicing 10
blessed falchion 9 +2 12 170 30% Little Little Slicing -
Long sword 10 +1 14 160 30% Small Little Slicing 10
Blessed long sword 11 +0 13 160 30% Small Little Slicing -
Scimitar 12 -2 14 170 30% Small Little Slicing 10
Blessed scimitar 13 -3 13 170 30% Small Little Slicing -
Demon blade 13 -1 13 200 30% Small Little Slicing 2
Eudemon blade 14 -2 12 200 30% Small Little Slicing - A blessed demon blade
Bastard sword 15 -1 15 220 30% Medium Little Slicing 2
Blessed bastard sword 16 -2 14 220 30% Medium Little Slicing -
Great sword 16 -3 16 250 50% - Medium Slicing 10
Blessed great sword 17 -4 15 250 50% - Medium Slicing -
Claymore 19 -4 19 260 50% - Medium Slicing 2
Blessed claymore 20 -5 18 260 50% - Medium Slicing -

Axes

Axes are unique among weapons in that they can perform cleaving attacks, striking multiple foes in a single strike.

Name Dam Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-handed min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Hand axe 7 +3 13 80 60% Little Little Chopping 10
War axe 11 +0 15 180 70% Small Little Chopping 10
Broad axe 13 -2 16 230 80% Medium Little Chopping 10
Battleaxe 15 -4 17 250 80% - Medium Chopping 10
Executioner's axe 18 -6 20 280 90% - Medium Chopping 2


Maces & Flails

Like long blades, maces & flails have no particular unique traits, though ogres and trolls have access to giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, the two most powerful weapon types in the game.

Name Dam Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-handed min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Whip 6 +2 11 30 20% Little Little Slashing 0
Club 5 +3 13 50 70% Little Little Crushing 0 Inflicts confusion when used for stabs
Hammer 7 +3 13 90 70% Little Little Crushing 0 Only generates in vaults
Mace 8 +3 14 120 80% Little Little Crushing 10
Flail 10 0 14 130 80% Little Little Crushing 10
Morningstar 13 -2 15 140 80% Small Little Piercing (Bludgeoning) 10
Demon whip 11 +1 11 30 20% Little Little Slashing 2
Sacred scourge 12 +0 11 30 20% Little Little Slashing - A blessed demon whip
Dire flail 13 -3 13 240 90% Big Medium Piercing (Bludgeoning) 10
Eveningstar 15 -1 15 180 80% Small Little Piercing (Bludgeoning) 2
Great mace 17 -4 17 270 90% Big Medium Crushing 10
Giant club 20 -6 17 330 100% - Large Crushing 10
Giant spiked club 22 -7 18 350 100% - Large Piercing (Bludgeoning) 10

Rods

Rods are magical devices which are wielded like one-handed weapons. They can be evoked to produce powerful magical effects, but (usually) serve poorly when used in melee combat. They have stats identical to those of a club, but are not technically considered "weapons". See the rod page for more details.

Polearms

Polearms are unique among melee weapons in that they can make reaching attacks, striking foes up to two tiles away.

Name Dam Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-handed min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Spear 6 4 11 50 30% Small Little Piercing 10
Trident 9 1 13 160 40% Medium Little Piercing 10
Halberd 13 -3 15 200 50% - Medium Chopping (Piercing) 10
Scythe 14 -4 20 220 70% - Medium Slicing 10
Demon trident 12 1 13 160 40% Medium Little Piercing 2
Trishula 13 0 13 160 40% Medium Little Piercing - A blessed demon trident
Glaive 15 -3 17 200 60% - Medium Chopping 10
Bardiche 18 -6 20 200 80% - 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 surprisingly little skill to use effectively, but unlike other weapon classes, there is no ultra-powerful, high-skill option available.

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

Name Dam Hit Speed Mass Str weight One-handed min. size Two-handed min. size Dam Type Prob Notes
Staff 5 5 12 130 30% Medium Little Crushing - Not available in game. Used only as a base type for magical staves.
Quarterstaff 10 3 13 180 30% - Medium Crushing 10
Lajatang 16 -3 14 200 30% - Medium Slicing 2

Magical Staves

Magical staves are magical devices which are wielded like one-handed weapons. While a spellcaster wields one, it grants a variety of useful benefits, such as enhancing the spellpower of certain schools of magic or negating the hunger costs associated with powerful spells. 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.