Unarmed combat

Unarmed combat occurs when a player or creature has no weapon equipped in their primary hand or in additional limbs capable of attacking.

Unarmed combat is a form of melee combat, but it uses natural body equipment, such as the player's \natural fist. In many cases, unarmed attacks have no effective strength cap to penetration, meaning that creatures with very high strength can gain very high penetration and do significantly more damage than they could with most melee weapons. The Fist of the Ape God is one of the only non-unarmed weapons with similarly uncapped penetration potential.

In many cases, unarmed combat uses the Cudgel skill. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as for creatures whose "natural equipment" uses a different skill (like the knollworm's \crab-crushing beak), or for the player when they have a mutation like Burrowing Claws or Horns - both of which use the Short Blade skills.

Unarmed combat can be enhanced through a variety of means:

• Learning the relevant power and skills associated with the unarmed weapon, such as the Cudgel power and its subskills.
• Starting with or obtaining the carbide hand bones cybernetic. This increases unarmed damage to 2d32-6 (Avg: 4).
• Obtaining fullerite hand bones. This increases unarmed damage to 2d4+13-9 (Avg: 6).
• Obtaining crysteel hand bones. This increases unarmed damage to 3d43-12 (Avg: 7.5).
• Gaining a fungal infection on the hands. waxflab is the best for this purpose, as it provides 2d32-6 (Avg: 4) unarmed damage.
• Wearing any spiked gauntlets. This adds additional bleeding damage to unarmed attacks made by a hand.

Common Unarmed Options by Damage

Unarmed Implement	Damage	Associated Power
\natural fist	1d2-10-1 (Avg: 0.5)	Cudgel
fickle gill on the hands	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)	Cudgel
glowcrust on the hands	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)	Cudgel
mumble mouth on the hands	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)	Cudgel
helping hands' metal fist	1d3+12-4 (Avg: 3)	Cudgel
waxflab on the hands	2d32-6 (Avg: 4)	Cudgel
carbide hand bones implant	2d32-6 (Avg: 4)	Cudgel
fullerite hand bones implant	2d4+13-9 (Avg: 6)	Cudgel
Burrowing Claws mutation	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5) - 1d121-12 (Avg: 6.5)	Short Blade
crysteel hand bones implant	3d43-12 (Avg: 7.5)	Cudgel
Horns mutation	2d32-6 (Avg: 4) (level 1) - 2d132-26 (Avg: 14) (level 20) no theoretical damage limit	Short Blade