Venom

Version 0.29: 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 flat 75% chance of poisoning monsters without poison resistance, and a 25% chance of poisoning resistant monsters, regardless of damage done. If the enemy would be poisoned, Venom will add poison damage equal to 6-13 plus a random amount from 0 to 1.5x the damage done (before being reduced by poison resistance). Poison immune creatures, like the undead and the nonliving, are completely unaffected by this brand.

Venom does not appear on ranged weapons except for the occasional randart, but can be given via a scroll of brand weapon.

Tips & Tricks

• Venom is generally an early- to mid- game brand. By the time you reach the Vaults and Depths, many enemies will be rPois or poison immune.
• Venom's ability to poison an enemy is largely independent of the amount of damage dealt, so it is best used on a fast weapon. Poisoning a target multiple times will strengthen the poison, causing it to deal more damage and take longer to run its course.
• The other main downside to venom, is that its damage isn't done immediately. 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.

History

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