v50 Steam/Premium information for editors
  • v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
  • Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
This notice may be cached—the current version can be found here.

Editing v0.34:Attack types

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Warning: You are not logged in.
Your IP address will be recorded in this page's edit history.

You are editing a page for an older version of Dwarf Fortress ("Main" is the current version, not "v0.34"). Please make sure you intend to do this. If you are here by mistake, see the current page instead.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.

Latest revision Your text
Line 1: Line 1:
−
{{Quality|Exceptional|22:59, 6 July 2013 (UTC)}}
+
{{Quality|Fine|08:49, 12 June 2010 (UTC)}}
 
{{av}}
 
{{av}}
−
All physical [[weapon]]s have one of two '''attack types''': blunt weapons, which deal damage through crushing blows that break bones and penetrate [[armor]], and edged ones, which deal damage by cutting into and slicing through foes. Edged weapons can be further broken down based on the shape of the blade, into "slashing" weapons that aim to slice into your foe, and "piercing" ones that penetrate vital organs. Some weapons have more than one attack type: for instance, the multipurpose [[short sword]] has a slashing cut, a piercing stab, and a blunt pommel strike. For a greater discussion on the properties of the weapons themselves, see [[weapon]].
+
With the exception of some [[syndrome|breath weapons]], all [[weapon]]s have an attack type. There are two attack types: blunt and edged. Edged can be further broken down into based on the distribution of the blade into "true" edged attacks and piercing attacks.
 +
 
 +
Some weapons can have more than one attack: a short sword has a slash, a stab, and a pommel strike.
  
 
==Blunt weapons==
 
==Blunt weapons==
−
Blunt weapons inflict just that, blunt damage, distributing strong blows along a wide surface area; examples include [[war hammer]]s, [[mace]]s, melee attacks with [[crossbow]]s, and even [[whip]]s. For these types of weapons a high [[mass]] and [[density]] are the most important [[material science|material properties]] (for this reason the best blunt weapons tend to be both heavier and slower than their edged counterparts). Blunt attacks do little contact damage but have an extremely high degree of armor penetration, breaking bones even through the best of armors. On the other hand, though blunt weapons are very good at breaking foes they are terrible at actually killing, and seeing your hammerdwarf knock a foe unconscious and then proceed to break every bone in their body is not an uncommon sight. Blunt weapons are most effective against heavy and heavily armored foes that can be incapacitated with internal injuries and pain.
+
Examples of blunt weapons include hammers, maces, and melee attacks with crossbows.
 +
 
 +
Blunt weapons generally have poor penetration but are good for bruising and breaking internal bones and tissues. Blunt weapons tend to be more effective when they have greater weight. This can lead to disappointment when using blunt weapons made from [[adamantine|awesome materials]]. They are not designed to kill, but to incapacitate, and they do that very well.
  
 
==Edged weapons==
 
==Edged weapons==
−
===Slashing weapons===
+
Examples of edged weapons include heavy bladed weapons where the focus of the swing is generally distributed across a long, thin blade. Bladed weapons include axes, swords, and even scourges.
−
Slashing weapons have a long, sharp blade that is designed for cutting and severing limbs. Examples of slashing weapons include [[short sword]]s, [[battle axe]]s, and [[scourge]]s. Of the three weapon classes they do the most damage, hacking through tissues and severing limbs and heads, especially those of smaller and weaker creatures. Slashing weapons are at their best cutting through small organic creatures, but fare extremely poorly against armor of equal or better material parity, which converts most of the blow into weak blunt damage. Thus high material quality is paramount for effective slashing weapons.
 
  
−
===Piercing weapons===
+
Edged weapons do significant amounts of tissue damage and may sever limbs or heads, especially of smaller, weaker creatures. Against large creatures they cut gashes in the surface tissue, causing bleeding and pain but generally not doing a lot of organ damage, unless the strike is to the head, of course.
−
Piercing weapons focus large forces on a single sharpened point, allowing deep penetration on even the largest of creatures. The weapons often get stuck within their targets, allowing your dwarves to leverage them into tearing apart your foes internally. This gives piercing weapons such as [[spear]]s, [[dagger]]s, [[bolt]]s, [[arrow]]s, and [[pike]]s combat properties between those of the blunt and slashing weapons, not quite as good at piercing armor as blunt weapons, not quite as good at cutting off things as slashing ones. Piercing weapons are the most effective weapon class at killing large, unarmored creatures due to their ability to penetrate vital organs: although hits to the limbs will be largely ineffective, it doesn't take much for a spear strike to puncture a lung or a kidney, so it's possible (although unlikely) to kill even a [[dragon]] with one decisive hit from a spear or pike. Piercing weapons remain viable against equivalent and better [[armor]]s, although they do not maintain blunt weapons' levels of penetration.
 
  
 +
==Piercing weapons==
 +
Examples of piercing weapons include any weapon that focuses a significant amount of energy on a single point. Piercing weapons include spears, bolts & arrows, and some sword attacks.
  
−
{{Weapons}}
+
Piercing weapons are perhaps the most effective at killing large creatures due to the penetration required to hit vital organs. It doesn't take an extremely lucky strike with a spear to puncture a lung or other organ, although hits to the limbs will be largely ineffective because piercing weapons aren't designed to break bones or cause deep lacerations. It's possible (although unlikely) to kill even a megabeast in one hit with a spear or pike (unless the megabeast in question is made of [[metal|fun substances]]).

Please note that all contributions to Dwarf Fortress Wiki are considered to be released under the GFDL & MIT (see Dwarf Fortress Wiki:Copyrights for details). If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel Editing help (opens in new window)

Templates used on this page:

Retrieved from "https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.34:Attack_types"