Weapons

The equipment screen

Weapons are offensive equipment in Caves of Qud. They are separated into categories, each with their own skill and specialization. That includes:

For most weapons, damage is determined using its penetration and damage values; see the article on penetration for details. A few weapons, such as flamethrowers and explosives, ignore these calculations.

A character with a standard humanoid body can wield a melee weapon in each hand and a ranged weapon in each hand, though without the Dual Wield skill the chance to strike with an off-hand melee weapon is just 15%. Dual-wielded ranged weapons causes you to alternate them with each attack unless you have the Akimbo skill.

Weapon types

Melee Weapons

Melee weapons are held in your normal hand slots and are used whenever you walk into an enemy, as well as for for melee skills. They are separated into four categories; generally, each has its own one-handed and two handed version.

Axe
- Axe specializes in Cleaving, which reduces enemy armor, and Dismembering, which allows you to hack off enemy limbs and heads
Cudgel
- Cudgel specializes in causing Dazed and Stunned on hit. They are also proficient at destroying walls.
Long Blade
- Long Blades specialize in flexibly switching between 3 stances (Aggressive, Defensive, and Dueling) each with their own specialty which changes your abilities depending on your stance used. It also includes the ability to reliably disarm enemies.
Short Blade
- Short Blades specialize in attacking really fast, causing Bleeding, movement speed reduction, and other status effects to which only make short blade attacks faster. It is also highly effective as an off-hand weapon thanks to jab and shank.

Missile Weapons

Missile weapons must be fired with the fire command (default f), or by using a ranged weapon skill. They are separated into three categories. Ranged weapons are equipped in dedicated ranged weapon slots, allowing you to have both ranged and melee weapons ready at once.

Pistol
- Pistols are one handed missile weapons whose skills generally focus on firing as rapidly as possible. The akimbo skill allows you to shoot all your one-handed weapons in one attack. Pistols also specialize in mobility based combat, allowing you to move around while shooting really fast, and can disarm with disarming Shot, though not as reliably as long blades.
Bow and Rifle
- These fall under the same skill category, though Bows and Rifles function differently. Bows and Rifles specializes in focusing attack to one target dealing massive damages and various status effects. They generally have a longer range than pistols.
Heavy Weapon
- Heavy Weapons are a broad category of weapons with a wide range of effects; many of them ignore standard weapon mechanics. These include the missile launcher, flamethrower, grenade launcher, and defoliant pump. Most heavy weapons inflict movement penalties when wielded without the appropriate skills and are, as the name implies, quite heavy.