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Weapons of the Deep

Below five thousand rows a weapon from the surface starts to feel small. Fifty-two weapons are made for the deep: forged from what each band gives, left by its great ones, given at the end of the long quest lines, and sold by the Delvers' Lodge's curio-keeper for the rare things you bring up. The deeper a weapon comes from, the harder it hits, and what waits at the floor of the world is still the strongest of all.

Four of them fight in new ways: the spear, the greathammer, the flail and twin blades. The tooltip of each weapon says how it fights and how to get it.

Four new ways to fight

Each deals about a sword's damage a second, in its own way. They work everywhere a sword does, rift floors included, and the page shows your hit at once, as it does a sword's.

• Spear. A thrust straight at where you aim, out to twice a sword's reach, that hits every Grown in the line. It swings as often as a sword. Good in tunnels and on ledges, where the Grown come at you in a row.

• Greathammer. One slow, heavy blow every 0.6 seconds, each nearly twice a sword's. It knocks back what it hits, sends a shockwave along the ground (three tiles each side) that hurts the Grown standing there for 40% of the blow, and when it lands on a block instead of a Grown it cracks it, if your best pickaxe would break it at once and you may dig there: never in a town, on someone else's land or in a protected place. Great ones and bosses stand their ground.

• Flail. A ball on a chain swung right round you: it hits every Grown within reach, in front and behind. Each swing within 1.2 seconds of the last hits 10% harder, up to 30% more; stop for 1.2 seconds and it starts again. Keep it going.

• Twin blades. Two quick cuts each swing, a breath apart, at a short reach, and ten points more chance of a critical hit. The second cut finds whatever the first one hit, if it is still standing and still in reach.

Every weapon's own effect (slowing, poison, bleeding, lightning) works with every way of fighting, and so do the powers on your right click. In a duel or a fight between players the knock-back, the shockwave and the crack never touch a player.

Forged

Each band of the Twenty gives a weapon to whoever brings ten of its material and three Embersteel bars to an anvil, with gold. The seven bands of the Descent each give one made at a Deep anvil from the band's ore, a second thing it gives and a good deal of gold. The forge's gold is where the price is: a forged weapon sells for far less than it took.

Before you can forge one you must read its forging notes. The Recipe column says where they are surest to come from; the next part has every place, and how often.

Forging notes

No one is born knowing how to forge the deep's weapons. Each of the 27 forged weapons has its own forging notes: read them (double click them in your bag, or press its Read it) and you know its recipe for good. Until then the forge greys the weapon out and says where its notes come from, and over the first of them it counts how many of the 27 recipes you know. If you carried one of these weapons when forging notes came to the game, you know its recipe; after that only notes teach, and a weapon bought or given teaches nothing.

The notes come from the weapon's own band:

• The Twenty: Orla Underhill's chronicle of a band always ends with its notes, so finishing her chronicles is a sure way to every one of them. The band's great one leaves them one kill in four, and its Grown and the chests of its lost camps give them now and then.
• The Descent: the first time you kill a band's great one, it always leaves the band's notes, a set for each of your party beside you whose first kill it is too; after that, one kill in four, to whoever killed it. The band's Grown and the chests of its landmarks give them now and then.
• Notes never come to someone who knows the recipe already, or who carries unread notes of it, and what drops is yours alone. Spare notes sell, or a friend who does not know the recipe can read them.
• When notes fall, the chat says so and names the weapon: pick them up before you move on.

Every set, with its picture and where it comes from, is on the Forging notes page.

The great ones' weapons

The great ones of the Clockwork Under-city and every band below it each leave their own weapon, one kill in five, to whoever killed them. The Gardener and the Drowned King already left theirs; they are made stronger to fit: Gardener’s billhook (173), Tidecaller trident (176).

For finishing the long lines

The end of each long quest line gives its weapon once, bound to you. If you had finished one before these weapons came, its weapon comes by letter the next time you log in: from Orla Underhill, Captain Rusk, Edda or Bram.

Vesna and Lodge marks

Vesna, the curio-keeper of the Delvers' Lodge, stands by Captain Rusk in Aldhearth. She takes the rare things nobody else wants and pays for them in Lodge marks. Marks are kept on your character, like event points: they are never an item, so they cannot be traded, dropped or lost.

Click her and choose Trade curios. Her window lists only what you carry that she takes, never a thing you are wearing or holding or have locked, with Give one and Give all. Pages count only once you have read them. Ores and stained crystal go in whole marks' worth: give thirteen nightsilver and twelve go, one stays in your bag.

Her relics

Twelve relic weapons, each once per character and bound, each only to someone who has been as deep as its band: the Book of Delvers' own record of the deepest you have stood decides. A relic you cannot have yet is greyed and says how deep to go first.

Tips

• Not sure which to make? Take the band's forged weapon first: it is the cheapest way to a weapon of its depth, and the Book of Delvers and Vesna's relics will be waiting when you go further.
• A spear is at its best in a tunnel, a flail in a crowd, a greathammer on open ground where its shockwave can run, and twin blades on one tough Grown.
• Want a spear, a flail or twin blades to knock back as a greathammer does? Set a Ram’s horn in its socket at an anvil (see Crafting).
• Weapons wear as before: an anvil mends them, and the deep's are dearer to mend.
• See The Twenty for the bands and their materials, The Deep for what lies under them, and The Delvers for the Book of Delvers.