v0.31:Weapon

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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

"Weapon" can refer to either the manufactured weapons used by dwarves and other creatures for either Template:L or specific Template:Ls, or natural weapons like fists, horns and Template:L used for creature-specific methods of combat.

Manufactured weapons

These weapons are constructed by dwarves or other intelligent races. There are many types of weapons, but not all may be manufactured in Template:L.

Notes about manufactured weapons

• If you find your dwarves wearing more than one weapon -- or any unwanted Template:L, for that matter -- one way to get rid of them is to dump the weapon from their v-i inventory screen. This does not always work, as they might re-equip the item. Another option is to remove any weapons and/or shields listed on their military equip screen. This too does not always work. At least "left-handedness" seems to not pose a problem. If you cancel the work by v-p and selecting a job that needs a tool they will sometimes put it back in the pile. Example: Miners use picks, cancel their mining job and they will put the pick away AFTER you ordered it to be dumped.
• Using weapons is much more effective than unarmed combat -- an untrained swordsdwarf with an Template:L weapon can defeat a grand master Template:L, provided neither is wearing armor.
  • Larger weapons with more heft tend to do more damage. How damage is calculated is currently not fully understood, and this is an area requiring more research.
• Weapons and ammunition with the "foreign" attribute (item being rarer than Common in the entity file) must be either imported by either Template:Lrs or Template:Ls, or acquired from Template:Ls.
• Weapons originating from strange moods can be made from almost any material: while it is never normally possible to manufacture a Template:L spear, for example, a fey Template:L may produce one from a single Template:L bone.
• Training weapons are all wooden, and all made at the Template:L. All Battle axe, Spear, and Short Sword training weapons can be constructed in dwarf fortress mode.
• Crossbows can be made of metal, wood, and bone. Metal crossbows are made by a Template:L at a Template:L, while wood and bone crossbows are made by a Template:L at a bowyer's workshop. The material of a crossbow does not affect its firing ability, only its melee damage. A dwarf's marksmanship skill is only affected by the core Template:L of the bow. This may be a consideration when deciding which dwarf you want outfitting your marksdwarves: a Template:L bowyer is a better choice than a proficient weaponsmith.

• The size for a weapon is its volume in cm³.
• Attacks of type EDGE will either slice or pierce their target, depending on the contact area and penetration depth, while BLUNT attacks tend to damage internal organs without necessarily causing significant damage to outer layers.
• The contact area represents the area of contact of the weapon, and the penetration determines how deep the attack goes (and is apparently ignored entirely for BLUNT attacks -- indicated by numbers in parentheses). Large contact areas combined with low penetration represent slashing attacks, while small contact areas with high penetration behave as piercing attacks.
• The velocity seems to adjust the amount of actual force used during the attack (otherwise based on the size of the weapon, the material from which the weapon is made, and the strength of the wielder) - for example, war hammers have a 2x velocity multiplier, presumably to model the fact that the hammer's mass is concentrated at the tip which, when combined with a long handle, permits swinging it harder than a weapon whose mass is evenly distributed (such as a sword).

Weapons as tools

Template:L, Template:L and Template:L use weapons for their Template:L and if need be will also Template:L using them. Hunters seem to be limited to Template:L while miners and woodcutters use Template:L and Template:L respectively.

Dwarf-manufactured weapons

Type	Size	Attack	Template:L	Contact Area	Penetration	Velocity	Skill Used	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L
Battle Axe	800	Hack	Edge	40000	6000	1.25x	Axe	Yes	No	No	No
		Flat slap	Blunt	40000	(6000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1x
Crossbow (Melee)	400	Bash	Blunt	10000	(4000)	1.25x	Hammer	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Mace	800	Bash	Blunt	20	(200)	2.0x	Mace	Yes	No	No	No
Pick	500	Strike	Edge	100	4000	2.0x	Mining	Yes	No	No	No
Short Sword	300	Slash	Edge	20000	4000	1.25x	Sword	Yes	No	No	Yes
		Stab	Edge	50	2000	1.0x
		Flat slap	Blunt	20000	(4000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Spear	400	Stab	Edge	20	10000	1.0x	Spear	Yes	No	No	No
		Shaft bash	Blunt	10000	(6000)	1.25x
War Hammer	400	Bash	Blunt	10	(200)	2.0x	Hammer	Yes	No	No	No

Training Weapons

All training weapons must be made of Template:L at the Template:L.

Type	Size	Attack	Template:L	Contact Area	Penetration	Velocity	Skill Used
Training Axe	800	Hack	Blunt	30000	(6000)	1.25x	Axe
		Flat slap	Blunt	30000	(6000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Training Sword	300	Slash	Blunt	20000	(4000)	1.25x	Sword
		Stab	Blunt	50	(2000)	1.0x
		Flat slap	Blunt	20000	(4000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Training Spear	400	Stab	Blunt	200	(10000)	1.0x	Spear
		Shaft bash	Blunt	10000	(6000)	1.25x

Foreign weapons

In fortress mode, foreign weapons can only be constructed by a dwarf experiencing a Template:L, out of any material. They may also be acquired from other races through trade or looting. Template:L construct these out of wood, while other races construct them out of metal. Many dwarf-made weapons can be made by foreign civilizations as well, the Used by column is in no way all the weapons that race can make.

Type	Size	Attack	Template:L	Contact Area	Penetration	Velocity	Skill Used	Used by
2H Sword	900	Slash	Edge	100000	8000	1.25x	Sword	Template:L, Template:L
		Stab	Edge	50	4000	1.0x
		Flat slap	Blunt	100000	(8000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Blowgun (Melee)	150	Bash	Blunt	10000	(4000)	1.25x	Sword	Subterranean animal peoples
Bow (Melee)	300	Bash	Blunt	10000	(4000)	1.25x	Sword	Template:L, Goblin, Human, Template:L
Flail	500	Bash	Blunt	200	(4000)	2.5x	Mace	Goblin, Human
Great Axe	1300	Hack	Edge	60000	8000	1.25x	Axe	Goblin, Human
		Flat slap	Blunt	60000	(8000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Halberd	1200	Slash	Edge	20000	8000	1.25x	Axe	Goblin, Human
		Stab	Edge	50	2000	1.0x
		Shaft bash	Blunt	20000	(6000)	1.25x
Dagger (Large)	200	Slash	Edge	1000	800	1.25x	Dagger	Goblin, Kobold
		Stab	Edge	5	1000	1.0x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	20	(600)	1.0x
Long Sword	700	Slash	Edge	60000	6000	1.25x	Sword	Elf, Goblin, Human
		Stab	Edge	50	3000	1.0x
		Flat slap	Blunt	60000	(6000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	100	(1000)	1.0x
Maul	1300	Bash	Blunt	100	(6000)	2.0x	Hammer	Goblin, Human
Morningstar	500	Bash	Edge	10	500	2.0x	Mace	Goblin, Human
		Pommel strike	Blunt	50	(1000)	1.0x
Pike	800	Stab	Edge	20	12000	1.0x	Pike	Goblin, Human
		Shaft bash	Blunt	10000	(6000)	1.25x
Scimitar	300	Slash	Edge	20000	4000	1.25x	Sword	Goblin, Human
		Stab	Edge	50	2000	1.0x
		Flat slap	Blunt	20000	(4000)	1.25x
		Pommel strike	Blunt	50	(1000)	1.0x
Scourge	300	Lash	Edge	10	50	2.0x	Whip	Goblin
Whip	100	Lash	Blunt	1	(10)	5.0x	Whip	Goblin, Human

Arena Testing

Testing of weapons (15 dwarfs vs 15 dwarfs combats) shows that, in v0.31.12, the best dwarven-made weapon against humanoids is the Template:L war hammer. Even in 15x(steel armor+silver war hammer) versus 15x(adamantine armor+adamantine battle axe) matches, hammerdwarves won with less than 50% casualties (mostly one-strike kills). However, when the dwarves in question were without armor or only wearing leather/cloth, the result was inverted - axedwarves won with less than 50% casualties. In battles against megabeasts, 6 silver hammerdwarves were barely able to scratch a Template:L (attacks were glancing away) due to bronze being a better "weapon" material.

This is because silver has the highest solid density of all materials that can regularly be made into weapons by dwarves. Tests show that indeed Template:L and Template:L (increasingly dense) do increasing amounts of damage, and that war hammers remain the tool of choice, however they can only be produced by a moody dwarf (and a very lucky one at that).

Ammunition

Ammunition is fired from ranged weapons like crossbows and blowguns, and is stored in ammunition Template:Ls, sometimes in quivers. Ammunition may also refer to the Template:Ls and Template:L arrows fired from siege engines: For more information about these weapons, see the Template:L article.

Notes about ammunition

• Ammunition for foreign weapons like bows and blowguns is also considered foreign and cannot be manufactured in the fortress.

• All ammunition has the "EDGE" attack type.

Ammunition table

Type	Size	Contact Area	Penetration	Skill Used	Craftable	Used by
Bolt (Crossbow)	150	2	2000	Crossbowman	Yes (Template:L, Template:L, Template:L)	Template:L, Template:L, Template:L
Arrow (Bow)	150	2	2000	Bowman	No	Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L
Blowdart (Blowgun)	20	1	50	Blowgunner	No

Weapon-Dwarf Relationships

Dwarves can become attached to a weapon, even a low quality weapon, which can make it difficult or impossible to get them to upgrade later.

In addition, the game tracks kills not only by entity but also by weapon. A weapon that has racked up enough kills might be named by its wielder. When this happens the game will pause and bring up a dialog box, similar to discovering a new cavern. Once named, the weapon will appear in the artifact list, albeit in blue.

Natural weapons

Natural weapons are incredibly varied, but may be divided into a few basic types. Every creature in the game has natural weapons of one sort or another. (Even if one mods the attacks out, the creature will push as an attack.) A short description of natural weapons and damage considerations follows.

Types of natural weapons

Striking natural weapons

Every creature has basic natural weapons, most commonly biting and kicking. Damage done by these weapons depends greatly on the respective size of the combatants and the strength and striking/kicking/biting skill of the attacker.

Natural weapons in this category can include but are not limited to punching with the fists, biting with the teeth, goring with the horns, scratching with the nails, and kicking.

Other natural weapons

The various Template:L delivery methods fall under this category, including breath weapons, poisonous blood, area dusting, venomous bites, and so on. With the exception of some breath weapons, these attacks do not rely on size for damage calculation. For more information, see the Template:L page. For specific information on breath weapons, see the Template:L section of the syndrome page.