What determines weapon endurance cost?

[Sotanaht]

I know that certain weapons, specifically the sledgehammer, wood axe, and all stabbing short blades, have an "endurance mod" stat. My question is what, if anything, affects the base cost value before that stat. Not asking for players stats (fitness) either what im interested in is the difference between weapons.

My guess is either nothing (all weapons cost the same unless they have a mod value), weight (heavier weapons cost more) category or handedness (2 handed weapons cost more, regardless of weight). If anyone knows for sure how it works, especially with evidence, I want to know.

[Naya]

I think it's weight, but someone who knows the calculations will know more, all I can say for sure is the shovel is sure slow

[Sotanaht]

If weight affects swing speed, after the base coded numbers given on the wiki, I'd like to know that too, but mostly I want to know about endurance.

[hardy_conrad]

This is an interesting question, I wouldn't mind knowing more myself. All I've heard on the topic is that if a weapon "overkills" because of a crit (as in katana) the endurance cost is negated. The server I'm on has multihit turned off, and keeps glitching with armies of clone zombies (as in a group of 15 different zombies turns into 10 groups of those exact same 15 zombies), so assuming I don't get eaten outright becoming exhausted is a real concern.

[Sotanaht]

So I did some testing in Debug Mode. It seems that Weapon Weight is the main factor. A weapon that weighs 2x as much (and does not have a special "endurance mod" stat) costs 2x as much to swing. At level 0 fitness a Pool Cue (1 weight) costs 0.3%, a Crowbar (2 weight) costs 0.7% and a Plank (3 weight) costs 1.0%. Note that the the precision is only displayed up to 0.1% increments so the differences from expected values are due to roundoff. Using a 2-handed weapon in 1 hand costs double, but there's no difference between a 2-handed weapon used in 2 hands and a 1-handed weapon used in a 1 hand if both weapons are the same weight and have no mod.

I couldn't determine any effects on swing speed. While some weapons are indeed noticeably slower, neither weight nor "swing time" as shown on the wiki has any effect I can determine by eye. A "swing time" of 4 generally has the same apparent speed as a "swing time" of 2, and a weight of 0.5 has the same speed a as a weight of 3. There MAY be a subtle effect, but again it's not conclusive enough to see without counting frames.

[Sotanaht]

Further testing: Weapon skill has an effect. The above values were from skill 0. At skill 10, the values are 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8.

Except that doesn't apply to all weapon types. The Katana stamina cost is unchanged (0.7) regardless of Long Blades skill. Hitting a zombie with a swing costs significantly less stamina however, only about 0.1 (seems closer to 0.15)

Hitting zombies has more effects I can't even begin to understand. Where a Katana costs 0.7 normally, against a zombie it only seems to cost 0.1 (actually 0.15). It does not matter if it crits or kills the zombie, nor does it matter if you have 0 or 10 skill in long blade, hitting a zombie with a katana only costs 0.15% endurance. This isn't a "long blades" thing, because hitting with a Machete costs 0.4 (vs 0.7 base), an axe (0.8 base at skill 10) costs 0.7, a pickaxe (in most ways identical to a normal axe) costs 0.6. There's also a difference with a Plank on hit vs not hit, but I've given up on testing this now.

Hitting multiple zombies costs that many times the stamina cost, so 2 zombies costs 2x. No stamina savings for multi hit. I suspect no durability savings either though I have no possible way to test something so random.

At this point I'm just about ready to throw up my hands and say I have no idea what a weapon will cost without specifically testing that weapon extensively. Weight works as a rule of thumb and it's definitely very important, but there are other hidden factors that only show up when you hit a zombie.