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. Dwarves only carry a weapon if their profession requires one: that is, if they are a woodcutter, hunter, or soldier. Dwarves working in other trades will only collect a weapon upon being drafted, which may cause a long walk to collect equipment depending on weapon availability and settings.

Availability

Some weapons cannot be used by dwarves in Fortress mode, such as bows. They can however be used in weapon traps just fine. In Adventure mode however, all weapons are usable; an adventurer can become a bowdwarf, or use a human great axe in one hand despite the fact that he is smaller than the minimum size required to use the axe at all, with both hands or one. It is not clear if there are any penalties associated with using oversized weapons

Manufacture

Dwarves with relevant skills can create weapons using an appropriate workshop and raw material. Wooden and bone crossbow bolts can be created at the craftsdwarf's workshop. Better material (metal) bolts and melee weapons can be created at a metalsmith's forge (or the magma equivalent). Dwarves can only create weapons they themselves can wield, with the occasional exception of artifacts.

Most weapons can be made of a single bar 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 (obsidian swords require stonecrafting not weaponsmithing). 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.

Use in Fortress mode

Upon being drafted, dwarves will get a "pick up equipment" job and go and pick up the assigned weapon and armor. However, there are three labors, when enabled, allow the dwarf to be fully equipped (but not in the military). This can be very useful to quickly defend against an ambush or attack.

• A woodcutter carries a battle axe even as a civilian. If a woodcutter is assigned to use an axe as a weapon he or she will only need get the assigned armor. The caveat is that woodcutters need to be cross-trained as axedwarfs (as wielding an axe requires the axe skill) and if you designate a section of trees for wood-cutting, all your dwarves will rush out to cut them down.
• A miner carries a pick at all times. The drawback is that picks are mediocre weapons (see below and a miner will still need to equip the desired armor. Because wielding the pick is based on the civilian "mining" skill, miners don't have to train as soldiers to be semi-effective fighters. Picks will only be used as weapons by miners who are holding picks and instructed to fight unarmed.
• A hunter will equip the armor and weapon assigned to hunt with (Note: this needn't be a crossbow with leather armor). Military dwarves that are deactivated while fully equipped with a weapon and armor and have the hunting labor enabled will keep their weapon and armor equipped. This case is only practical when the surrounding wild animals have been depleted and armor and weapons are plentiful.

Effectiveness

Weapons vary in the amount and type of damage inflicted, according to raw/objects/item_weapon.txt^{v0.28.181.40d}. 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.

High "Crit. Boost" is a better chance of causing internal injuries, rather than simply wounding body parts. This is useful against big, hard-to-damage enemies -- piercing weapons like spears will tend to damage their organs, which is usually a faster way to take them out.

Weapon statistics

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/Lasher	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/Lasher	None

† Dwarves wield weapon two-handed
‡ Dwarves cannot wield weapon (too large)

Ammunition statistics

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.

While trap components are wieldable weapons in adventure mode, they are only available to use in traps in fortress mode.

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. It is, however, the same penalty as glass items.

Damage calculation

Weapons and traps do one of four types of damage, the type of damage influences what type of critical hits it can inflict. Damage is reduced by the targets armor and toughness.

Type	Criticals	Weapons and Traps
Slash	Sever Limbs	axe, sword, dagger, giant axe blade, serrated disc
Pierce	Organ damage	pike, pick, spear, bolt, arrow, blowdart, enormous corkscrew, menacing spike, spiked ball
Bludgeon	Break bones	war hammer, mace, unloaded crossbow or bow or blowgun, maul, flail, morningstar, fist, stone-fall trap
Gore	Heavy Bleeding and Pain(?)	whip, Scourge
Burn	Extreme Pain	Special Creature Tokens(Attack)
Heat	Ignition of target	Special Creature Tokens(Attack)
Cold	Freezing/Frostbite	Special Creature Tokens(Attack)

Material damage modifiers

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

Toady has stated that 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