40d:Weapon

Weapons are items that increase the damage dealt by creatures in combat. In fortress mode, after accessing the military screen with m, pressing w gives a list of which weapons you desire your dwarves to use. Regardless of your choice here, civilians will not wield weapons until drafted.

Weapons have different properties that affect the way they deal damage. Blunt weapons like hammers and maces tend to deal large amounts of damage to external body parts, and never get stuck in targets. Slashing or cutting weapons such as axes or swords have a tendency to sever limbs on good hits, but sometimes get stuck in their victims. Piercing weapons such as spears or crossbow bolts have a high chance to deal damage to internal organs, possibly resulting in instant kills, but have the highest chance to get stuck in victims. Weapons that get stuck in their victims cannot be reused until pulled free, which can leave the attacker vulnerable. While stuck, the weapon can be twisted in the wound, possibly causing the victim to pass out from pain.

Not all weapons can be wielded by dwarves. Larger weapons like bows cannot be wielded by the stubby dwarves, they use the smaller crossbows instead. Merchant caravans will happily sell you weapons too big for you to wield, so if you are purchasing weapons for your fortress, be sure they are usable by dwarves.

Dwarves can also create weapons themselves. Wooden and bone crossbow bolts can be created at the craftsdwarf's workshop. Higher quality bolts and melee weapons can be created at a metalsmith's forge. Dwarves can only create weapons they themselves can wield, with the occasional exception of artifacts.

Most weapons can be made of iron, silver, copper, bronze, steel, bismuth bronze, or adamantine. A handful of weapons can be made of other materials such as wood or obsidian. The material of crossbows does not affect the damage of fired bolts, although it does affect the damage of the crossbow when it is used as a bludgeon (i.e., when all bolts have been expended).

There are a few enormous weapons that no race can wield, these are only usable when mounted into weapon traps. These are the menacing spike, the large, serrated disc, the spiked ball, enormous corkscrew, and the giant axe blade.

In most cases, dwarves will go to pick up an assigned weapon upon being drafted. However, there are a few special cases. A woodcutter uses a battle axe even as a civilian, so if a woodcutter is assigned to use an axe as a weapon he or she will not need to prepare (except to wear any assigned armor). A hunter usually carries a crossbow, bolts and even light armor, all of which can carry over to the military if the settings are appropriate. And miners carry their picks at all times; picks make mediocre weapons, but they use the civilian "mining" skill in combat, so miners don't have to train as soldiers to be effective fighters.

Picks will only be used as weapons by miners who are not instructed to wield any other weapon (in other words, the dwarves must be set to "unarmed" and drafted while carrying a pick).

Weapons have varying amounts of damage and type, according to raw/objects/weapons.txt.^{v0.27.169.33a}

High "Crit. Boost" is a better chance of causing internal injuries, rather than just decreasing HP. This is useful against big, hard-to-damage enemies -- things like spears will tend to damage their organs, which is usually a faster way to take them out.

Weapon Stats

These have been taken from /raw/objects/item_weapon.txt:

Name	Damage	Damage Type	Skill Used	Crit. Boost
Battle axe	110	Slash	Axe	None
Blowgun† (melee)	20	Bludgeon	Sword	None
Bow† (melee)	40	Bludgeon	Sword	None
Crossbow† (melee)	70	Bludgeon	Hammer	None
Dagger	70	Slash	Dagger	1
Flail	130	Bludgeon	Mace	None
Great axe‡	150	Slash	Axe	None
Halberd‡	140	Slash	Axe	None
Long sword†	120	Slash	Sword	1
Mace	120	Bludgeon	Mace	None
Maul‡	160	Bludgeon	Hammer	None
Morningstar	120	Bludgeon	Mace	None
Pick	70	Pierce	Mining	2
Pike‡	120	Pierce	Pike	2
Scimitar	100	Slash	Sword	1
Scourge	30	Gore	Whip	None
Short Sword	100	Slash	Sword	1
Spear	100	Pierce	Spear	2
Two handed sword‡	140	Slash	Sword	1
War hammer	120	Bludgeon	Hammer	None
Whip	20	Gore	Whip	None
† Dwarves wield weapon two-handed ‡ Dwarves cannot wield weapon (too large)

Ammunition Stats

These have been taken from /raw/objects/item_ammo.txt:

Name	Damage	Damage Type
Arrow	100	Pierce
Blowdart	10	Pierce
Bolt	100	Pierce

Trap weapon statistics

These have been taken from raw/objects/item_trapcomp.txt:

Name	Damage	Damage type	Number of hits	Critical boost	Wood?
Giant axe blade	220	Slash	1	None	No
Enormous corkscrew†	150	Pierce	1	2	Yes
Spiked ball	100	Pierce	3	1	Yes
Large, serrated disc	120	Slash	3	None	No
Menacing spike‡	150	Pierce	1	2	Yes
† This trap component is a screw and can also be used in screw pumps. ‡ This trap component is a spike and can also be used in upright spike traps.

All trap component weapons can be made out of metal, as well as glass, oddly enough. Some can also be made out of wood, as noted in the table. This can be useful in getting some heavy weapons traps set up before you have a steady smelting operation going. Remember though that weapons made of wood suffer a penalty to damage.

Material Damage Effects

Actual weapon damage depends partially on the material from which the weapon was forged. An iron battle axe does 110 damage for example, while a steel axe does 146 damage etc.

Material	Damage %
Adamantine	500
Steel and †Obsidian	133
Iron	100
Bronze and Bismuth bronze	75
Copper	66
†All other materials (wood, silver, etc.)	50
† This value could not be verified from the raws. It is believed to still be accurate but use at your own risk.

Item quality

• This section needs to be verified. Perhaps you can help!

Toady has stated that item quality increases its protection (or damage, in the case of weapons), namely, "Quality has a huge effect on damage and damage reduction... Exceptional is almost double damage/damage block."

• Item Name : Basic crafted weapon - x1.0 damage
• -Item Name- : Well-Crafted weapon - x1.2 damage
• +Item Name+ : Finely Crafted weapon - x1.4 damage
• *Item Name* : Superior Quality weapon - x1.6 damage
• ≡Item Name≡ : Exceptional weapon - x1.8 damage
• ☼Item Name☼ : Masterful weapon - x2.0 damage