Shattered Pixel Dungeon/Weapons (2024)

Overview[]

Weapons are an essential part of Pixel Dungeon; without one, you will become easy prey for even the weakest of monsters you encounter. Try to make sure you equip weapons that are at your strength level. Equipping too light a weapon may mean you won't be able to deal enough damage to enemies in later stages, while too heavy weapons will cause the hero to suffer massive combat penalties. If a weapon is too heavy, its strength requirement can be brought down using scrolls of upgrade. Weapons can be identified either by a scroll of identify, Well of Awareness, or by getting familiar enough with it by gaining enough EXP while using it. Damage is computed the same way as in vanilla.

Upgrading[]

Weapons can be upgraded using a Scrolls of Upgrade or Curse Infusion or by reforging it at the Blacksmith. This increases, minimum damage by 1 and maximum damage typically by tier + 1 and reduces the strength requirement by 1 at levels +1, +3, +6, +10, +15 and +21.Other weapon stats are uneffected with the exception of damage reduction provided by shields, which gets increased by upgrades too.

Using a scroll of upgrade on a weapon also uncurses it and has a chance to remove any enchantment (scaling with weapon level starting at +4) or curse enchantment (33% regardless of weapon level).

Augmentation[]

Any weapon can be augmented by using a Stone of Augmentation on it increasing either its attack speed or damage at the cost of the other.

• Augmenting for speed decreases damage of a weapon to 70% and decreases attack delay to 66.67%.

• Augmenting for damage increases damage of a weapon to 150% and increases attack delay to 166.67%.

It's worth noting that while augmenting for speed should increase your damage per turn and damage augmentation should decrease it, in reality it's often the opposite as lower damage per hit means a larger portion of damage is absorbed by enemy armor.

Damage augmentation works best for high damage weapons with the kinetic enchantment as it helps you deal enough damage to kill an enemy in one hit.Meanwhile, speed augmentation makes on-hit effect trigger more frequently making it a good choice for weapons with blazing, chilling, blocking, grim or unstable enchantment (and elastic enchantment if you are trying to keep enemies away from you) and Gladiator or Battlemage subclass.

Encumbrance[]

Equipping weapons that are too heavy will cause rather severe penalties to be imposed upon the user.

If the weapon blocks damage, it will block two less damage per point of encumbrance, but never less than 0. This is identical to the behavior of armor that is too heavy.

Encumbrance can be utilized to determine the potential upgrade level of weapons and armor before they are identified.

**Wheel Change represents the position of the Turn Wheel after going up/down floors, and then on a fresh turn, attacking with an over encumbered weapon. As long as the circle is completely black/invisible before attacking, this is pretty much a universal way of determining the strength deficit, and ultimately upgrade level of all weapons with an attack speed of 1 (SPD. mod) before they are identified.

1. Notice how the decimal place in "Turns Per Attack" Correlates to how much of the Wheel is black.

Determining Upgrade Level Without Identifying.**Note: Ring of Furor, Being Chilled, and if you happened to use a stone of augmentation beforehand on the weapon being tested are all things that will affect a weapon's speed and mess up your findings.

1. Equip weapon that is above your current strength level.
2. Note where your character is in the Turn Wheel (if not starting freshly reset)
   1. The Turn Wheel is located in the top left of the screen, underneath the character, shown in the picture to the right. This specific turn wheel is at the halfway point.
   2. At the beginning of a turn, the Turn Wheel would not be visible.
3. Find a weak enemy that can't kill you after a few hits.
   1. It is preferable that you reset your Turn Wheel after equipping your weapon by going up/down steps before attacking an enemy. Although not necessary, this makes it much easier to utilize "Wheel Change" in the table above.
      1. **Wheel Change demonstrates how the Turn Wheel would look visually different IF you were to attack at the very beginning of a turn when no part of the wheel is visible.
4. Attack enemy, and see how many times the Turn Circle spun, and where it ended up.
   1. This is your Turns Per Attack
   2. If utilizing wheel change correctly, your wheel should match one of the images above.
5. Reference Table above
   1. Look at which Turns per Attack or Wheel Change has a matching Strength Deficit in its column.
      1. Example below for figuring out Turns per Attack without resetting turn wheel before hand.
         1. Character has 10 Strength, wanting to use Whip (14 strength).
         2. In this example turn cycle starts at "a." (picture below).
         3. Attack enemy, and note how many times the circle spun "b.", and where it ended up "c."
            1. In "b." Circle appears to have spun ~2.1 times (2 whole circles, and a fraction of a circle). This is the Turns per attack
            2. If I look at the above table 2.1 Turns Per Attack means that there is a Strength Deficit of 4.
               1. This means that the whip is not upgraded.
   2. Understand how upgrade level can influence Strength Requirement
      1. Upgrading reduces the strength requirement by 1 at levels +1, +3, +6, +10, +15 and +2
         1. If a weapon requires 16 strength, such as a Battle axe, and you have 14 strength, but it only takes 1.2 Turns per Attack, you can assume that this weapon is either +1 or +2, because this indicates a Strength Deficit of only 1.
6. **Note Certain Weapons Have different attack speeds than usual. You can use this equation for Calculating Str. Deficits Past 2.
   1. "(1/SPD Mod.) * Turns Per Attack = Found Turns Per Attack" - Pick a Turns Per Attack from the table above, plug it into the equation, and if the output matches the turns you were getting from observing the Wheel ("Found Turns Per Attack"), then that correlates to the same strength deficit found within the table.

Generation[]

Weapons are the most common type of equipment; they make up 2 in every 35 random items and are also found in many special rooms.Furthermore, weapons are dropped by Slimes, Skeletons, DM-200s and Golems, given as a reward by Sad Ghost and one always appears in the shop.They are almost always unidentified and can be randomly enchanted, upgraded and cursed. but +3 weapons can be found rarely from certain sources.

Whem generating a weapon, the game first chooses the tier, usually using standard tier distribution, then one weapon of that tier is randomly selected.All weapons of a given tier start with the same weight of 4, but each time a weapon is generated, its weight is reduced for that run to increase the variety of dropped weapons.

With the exception of weapons from sacrificial altar, enchantments and curses are always mutually exclusive, as an enchantment is always visible, it tells you that a weapon is safe to equip. Consequently an unenchanted weapon has a 33.3% chance to be cursed, not 30%.

Stat comparison[]

Tier-1[]

Tier-1 weapons do the least amount of damage but are the lightest weapons. They usually gain +1/+2 damage upon being upgraded, making them unsuitable for combat past the Sewers. They do not drop naturally, so the only tier-1 weapon the player will have all game is the one they start with.

Worn shortsword[]

Deals the same damage as the vanilla shortsword, but cannot be reforged.

This weapon is the standard starting weapon for the Warrior.

Dagger[]

When surprise attacks, damage is boosted to 6*-8 damage before augment multipliers and strength, scaling by +1.75/+2 with upgrades.

This weapon is the standard starting weapon for the Rogue.

Studded gloves[]

This weapon attacks twice per turn at the cost of having halved damage scaling, putting it in the unfortunate position of having only +1/+1 damage scaling. It is very ineffective against anything more advanced than a Gnoll Scout unless upgraded.

This weapon is the standard starting melee weapon for the Huntress.

Rapier[]

The Rapier has a decent damage, and provides blocking, which can improve survivability in the Sewers. Its main strength, however, is the active ability the Duelist can perform with it.

This weapon is the standard starting weapon for the Duelist.

Mage's staff[]

When imbuing the staff with a wand, the staff will take the properties of the wand. The staff recharges twice as fast as wands and can hold one additional charge. If the wand being imbued is the same level or higher as the staff, the staff will take the level of the wand and carry over one of its own upgrades, if it has any.

This weapon is the standard starting weapon for the Mage, and starts as being imbued with a wand of magic missile. It cannot be transmuted into, and if it is transmuted using a Scroll of Transmutation, the wand it is imbued with will change, rather than the weapon itself.

Tier-2[]

Tier-2 weapons do around 2-15 damage at +0 and typically require 12 strength to use properly. They typically gain +1/+3 damage upon being upgraded.

Shortsword[]

Hand axe[]

This weapon boosts the wielder's accuracy by 32%, making the Hero suffer an effective 12% penalty to their accuracy if equipped while being one point of strength shy of the requirement rather than the standard 33%; this makes wielding a hand axe with insufficient strength much more viable than it would be for other weapons.

Despite its accuracy bonus, this weapon's lackluster damage output and scaling make it a subpar choice for a Gladiator, especially later in the game.

Spear[]

This weapon attacks 33% slower (1.5 turns per attack), but can reach an enemy an extra tile away and gets a boosted +1/+4 damage per upgrade. This damage output makes it surprisingly effective in the Sewers, and it should not be underrated. If one decides to fight the Goo with this, make sure the player can quickly get out of the Goo's sight via patches of tall grass, doors, artifacts or other speed sources.

Dirk[]

When landing a surprise attack, damage is boosted to 9*–12 damage (scaling by +2.34/+3 with upgrades) before augment multipliers and strength. This makes it a preferred weapon for the Rogue in the early stages of the game, being a direct upgrade from the dagger.

Quarterstaff[]

This weapon blocks up to 2 damage, making it a decent weapon for Heroes that are having a hard time finding good armor in the Sewers.

Sickle[]

This weapon deals greater base damage than the Shortsword, but at the cost of lower accuracy. This makes it quite powerful if you frequently use surprise attacks. The accuracy penalty can also be countered with a Ring of Accuracy.

Pickaxe[]

This weapon has the same damage and scaling as the Shortsword, but it requires 14 strength instead of 12. It is given to you by the Blacksmith as part of his quest and it cannot be obtained by other means. It has little use outside of the quest, as it is even worse than an average tier 2 weapon due to higher strength requirement. It can be somewhat useful for the Duelist though, for its unique ability.

Tier 3[]

Tier-3 weapons typically deal around 3–20 damage at +0, require 14 strength to use properly, and gain +1/+4 damage per upgrade.

Sword[]

Mace[]

This weapon boosts the wielder's accuracy by 28%, making it a workable option for mid-game Gladiators that do not have access to a Ring of Accuracy. However, while it can certainly also work as an end-game weapon for that subclass, the increased damage and scaling of battle axes and war hammers usually make them better for serving this purpose.

Scimitar[]

This weapon attacks 25% faster than other weapons, making it attack an extra time every 4 turns under normal conditions. This speed makes it a very versatile weapon, especially when considering that its damage is not reduced to the same degree as other speedy weapons, and it also means that enchantments are slightly more effective on it.

Sai[]

This weapon attacks twice per turn under normal conditions, but only gains +1/+2 damage per level and has half the base maximum damage of its tier. This speed makes it a great choice for newly sub-classed Gladiators that have access to a Ring of Accuracy, allowing them to achieve high combos very quickly. In addition, many enchantments are much more effective on it than they would be for other weapons.

Something to note is that it's true damage output can be determined by simply doubling its stats, but only as long as you consider armor to be 2x effective. Because of this, it becomes clear that armored enemies such as prison guards and Gnoll Brutes will often take negligible damage from the Sai especially at low upgrade levels. In addition, due to its intended nature of attacking twice, the Gladiator's combo finishers will often fall short of what one may expect from them unless he is using Slam.

Round shield[]

This weapon can block up to 4+2×level damage (block scaling of +0/+1), but only gains +1/+2 damage per level rather than +1/+4.

Whip[]

This weapon can attack an enemy that is three tiles away from the Hero, but gains a reduced +1/+3 damage per level. This makes it a great weapon for the Freerunner.

Tier-4[]

Tier-4 weapons typically deal 4-25 damage and require 16 strength to use properly at +0. They usually gain +1/+5 damage per upgrade.

Longsword[]

Battle axe[]

This weapon has 1.24x accuracy, making it a good choice for Gladiators that lack a Ring of Accuracy when coupled with its great damage scaling.

Flail[]

At the cost of imposing a 20% penalty to the wielder's Accuracy, the flail boasts superb damage output, courtesy of its sizable base damage and +1/+8 damage scaling. This massive damage scaling, which is unique to it and the glaive, lets it do tremendous amounts of damage after only a few upgrades, especially when supported by a Ring of Accuracy or by sufficiently upgraded armor. That property also makes it desirable for all those who intend to use their scrolls of upgrade on items other than the melee weapon.

This weapon is not recommended if playing as the Assassin, as it cannot surprise attack, making it harder to make use of the subclass perks. However, its high scaling can find it a place with Berserkers who prefer to invest heavily in their armor; in this case, it is often advantageous to augment the flail for damage.

Assassin's blade[]

When surprise attacking, deals 12–20 damage (scaling by +3/+5 with upgrades). Augmentation affects this, so augmenting for damage will increase this to 18–30 damage with +4.5/+7.5 scaling. This makes it an excellent end-game weapon for the Assassin, especially when augmented for damage.

Runic blade[]

This weapon has tier-5 damage scaling. This means that it will out-damage an equivalently-upgraded longsword at +5 and approach, but never surpass, the damage of an equivalently-upgraded greatsword.

Crossbow[]

In exchange for causing all thrown darts to deal 4–12 damage, scaling by +1/+3 as the crossbow is upgraded, the crossbow has a reduced scaling of +1/+4, making it effectively a tier-3 weapon with a tier-4 strength requirement (this phenomenon is similar to that of the pickaxe, which has a tier-3 strength requirement, but tier-2 stats). Any enchantment on this weapon will apply to all thrown darts, making it possible to trigger 2 effects at once.

When used right, the crossbow can become really powerful, as it offers theoretically infinite attack distance, limited only by the view distance, dungeon walls and ammunition count. In order to unlock this power however, a decent amount of darts must be bought first; two darts can be bought at each shop.

It is worth noting that the Stone of Augmentation only applies to the weapon itself; however, the throwing speed of the darts can still be affected by the Ring of Furor.

Katana[]

The Katana is essentialy a more powerful version of the Rapier, trading a bit of base damage for protection. The damage reduction makes it a decent choice for Heroes with an inadequate armor.

Tier-5[]

Tier-5 weapons usually deal somewhere around 5–30 damage and are the heaviest weapons, requiring 18 strength to use. They typically gain +1/+6 damage per level.

Greatsword[]

The classic tier-5 weapon. Nothing special about it, aside from the fact it does heavy damage, much like the rest of the tier-5 weapons.

War hammer[]

This weapon boosts accuracy by 20%, allowing the wielder to choose to suffer a noticeably reduced 20% penalty to accuracy when equipped while being 1 point of strength shy of its requirement (compared to a 33% penalty).

Glaive[]

A spear on steroids, the glaive attacks 33% slower (1.5 turns per attack), but gains +1/+8 damage per level rather than the +1/+6 tier-5 weapons normally get and can attack enemies that are two tiles away from the Hero. This scaling means that it gets the highest damage scaling in the game, something that only it and the flail can boast about; beginning at +3, it will have the highest raw damage in the game for its upgrade level, passing the greataxe.

Because of these attributes, the Assassin loves this weapon, and augmenting for damage will make its damage mind-boggling, with the potential to one-shot many bosses; however, one thing to note is that Preparation does not take its increased range into account when checking if it is possible to blink to an opponent.

Greataxe[]

A direct improvement on the greatsword stat-wise, this weapon does massive damage and has an amazing base damage output at the cost of requiring 20 strength to use properly. However, its damage scaling is not adjusted for its strength requirement, so it still scales by +1/+6 rather than the expected +1/+7 befitting a seemingly tier-6 weapon. While this discrepancy may mean that the greataxe may not do as much damage as one may think it could, its damage output is nothing short of amazing compared with almost any other weapon in the game courtesy of its tremendous base damage, which adeptly compensates for this issue. In fact, the greataxe holds the distinction of having highest raw damage of all +0, +1, and +2 weapons. It is only surpassed by the glaive at +3 and the flail at +8 due to their higher scaling, but these weapons have their own respective drawbacks. In contrast, the greataxe has none, aside from requiring 20 strength.

To deal with this thing's massive strength requirement, the hero needs to either:

• Drink every potion of strength in the game (at which point the game is practically already over)

• Use a potion of mastery to decrease the strength requirement

• Upgrade the greataxe so that it can be used earlier

Greatshield[]

This weapon can block up to 6+3×level damage (block scaling of +0/+2), but its damage only increases by +1/+3 per level instead of +1/+6. This damage blocking can make it an invaluable end-game weapon for the Berserker.

Stone gauntlet[]

Much of what was written about the sai applies to this weapon, too; the stone gauntlet can attack two times per turn, but only gains +1/+3 damage per level and has half the base maximum damage of its tier. This is an amazing choice for a Gladiator with a Ring of Accuracy, for it will allow him to easily achieve high combos while doing much more damage than the Sai, and the ring will allow it to be equipped early with negligible penalty. Due to its speed, enchantments tend to be more effective for it than most other weapons, especially the grim, blazing, unstable and chilling enchantments.

It still shares the same issues as the Sai, though its increased tier makes upgrading it solve most of its armor-related problems.

War Scythe[]

This weapon is a stronger version of the Sickle, trading accuracy for base damage.

Related badges[]

History[]