Sledge Hammer best weapon?

[Rican]

I love using the sledge hammer but I'm a little confused as how to improve my skills at it. Is it a construction tool or a blunt weapon or is it both. Does anyone know which way to put points toward sledge hammer. Is there a weapon that is better?

[Cultist]

If you examine an item you can see what skills govern it. Tool smithing determines the quality of a crafted sledgehammer, which affects its damage and durability. I think it goes in the blunt weapons category and the associated trait line.

All of this could change in A16 though, I know the way item quality is handled is different.

[Dies Fourth]

Correct, at this time its a blunt weapon, just like all clubs.

[God Bless The Dead]

Weapon Smithing (Skill) To level up the sledgehammer and increase overall damage (1-100).

Blunt Weapons (Skill) Increases the Blunt weapon damage just slightly each time (1-100).

Pummel Pete (Perk) +11.25% damage per level (blunt weapons) can buy 5 times.

[Marstil]

The advantage to the sledgehammer is that it is a club that not only hits Zs hard, but it also does great block damage. This can allow you to not carry a pick and free up one inventory slot. More inportantly, it means you can use the sledge to gain blunt weapon skill by mining (at the expense of a smaller material return on the blocks you mine.) After you weapon skill comes up a bit, just switch to a pick and start building your mining skills.

[Unorganized Crime Mob]

Originally posted by Cultist:

If you examine an item you can see what skills govern it. Tool smithing determines the quality of a crafted sledgehammer, which affects its damage and durability. I think it goes in the blunt weapons category and the associated trait line.

All of this could change in A16 though, I know the way item quality is handled is different.

sigh, weapon smithing.
blunt weapons/pummel pete
just smash rock underground while mining/ break into pois/safes with the sledge to level up fast

[God Bless The Dead]

Also, Best melee weapons are the sledgehammer, spiked club and the machete.
Its all personal preference really, they do different things better.
The sledge deals the most damage but swings the slowest.
Machete is good for removing heads and some love it.
But my favorite is the spiked club as it swings fast and does pretty high damage, best overall for me personally.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by God Bless The Dead:

Also, Best melee weapons are the sledgehammer, spiked club and the machete.
Its all personal preference really, they do different things better.
The sledge deals the most damage but swings the slowest.
Machete is good for removing heads and some love it.
But my favorite is the spiked club as it swings fast and does pretty high damage, best overall for me personally.

Machete animation is messed up, the full length of the blade does not do damage with the tip. As it's reach is only about the same as the hunting knife, its easier to take off heads with the hunting knife as you can more accurately see the useable range

Also, the % chance of removing a head with a bladed weapon is the same and is based on your blade skills, not the weapon you are using

So if you are running around trying to chop off heads, the hunting knife is just as valid and IMO easier to use

The best part of the machette is the block damage to corpses (gore blocks) while cutting up bodies, it's the fastest way to cut up a body (animal or zombie)

I primarily use a hunting knife for combat and if I happen to have a machette it's for cleaning up the body piles

The only time I switch to a sledge is if there is a group that I'm trying to keep at a longer distance: the sledge has the longest range of any melee weapon

I don't waste time with a spiked club, my goal in melee is one kill headshots and the spiked club just doesn't beat the hunting knife or the sledgehammer for that

[RaSte]

Sledge Hammer best weapon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iTHuWCPaqo

[The Fool]

yes. It is.

[God Bless The Dead]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I don't waste time with a spiked club, my goal in melee is one kill headshots and the spiked club just doesn't beat the hunting knife or the sledgehammer for that

You are very wrong my friend, the spiked club kills most zombies one hit (after leveling it up, like other weapons) and swings faster than the sledge (though sledge does more damage), so you can kill zombies faster really, once you have leveled up a bit.
The knife is pretty good too, but the spiked club does more damage and swings around the same speed as the knife but the spiked club also has more buffs and crit hits.
Like I said already though, its all a matter of personal preference really, but claiming the spiked club doesn't kill one shot is wrong, I have many hours using it and use it most horde nights running around outside killing z's.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by God Bless The Dead:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I don't waste time with a spiked club, my goal in melee is one kill headshots and the spiked club just doesn't beat the hunting knife or the sledgehammer for that

You are very wrong my friend, the spiked club kills most zombies one hit (after leveling it up, like other weapons) and swings faster than the sledge (though sledge does more damage), so you can kill zombies faster really, once you have leveled up a bit.
The knife is pretty good too, but the spiked club does more damage and swings around the same speed as the knife but the spiked club also has more buffs and crit hits.
Like I said already though, its all a matter of personal preference really, but claiming the spiked club doesn't kill one shot is wrong, I have many hours using it and use it most horde nights running around outside killing z's.

Depends what you have the difficulty set to. Knife has a higher decapitation rate once you raise the decap skill for it

So with higher difficulty where one-shot-kill depends on head removal, knife is better than spiked club and sledge

And the only point I was making with the sledge is if you wanted to fight with a bit more range the sledge has a longer reach than both

On any difficulty level where the spiked club doesnt kill in one shot to the body, then head removal is better with the knife and reach is longer with the sledge

As a weapon it sits between these two, not as much damage or reach as the sledge and not as much head removal % as the knife

And for inventory clutter knife + sledge has more versatility as you also have door breaking with the sledge and body cutting with the knife. You don't even need to carry other tools/weapons while looting in the day so you have more carry space

[ChewyChops]

Sledge hammer is great but risky to use in a horde, especially early game because it uses so much stamina. I prefer spiked club and knife as alternative.

[-= Sk1F =-]

Originally posted by RaSte:

Sledge Hammer best weapon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iTHuWCPaqo

Put all settings to the highest difficulty and then you will see the difference.

Best of all is sledge hammer cause simply it does have multirole purpose - you can clean out simply everything with it, killing, mining, opening doors and vaults.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by -= Sk1F =-:

Originally posted by RaSte:

Sledge Hammer best weapon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iTHuWCPaqo

Put all settings to the highest difficulty and then you will see the difference.

Best of all is sledge hammer cause simply it does have multirole purpose - you can clean out simply everything with it, killing, mining, opening doors and vaults.

It's not efficient for mining as you get less resources per block broken by using the wrong tool + slower than any other mining tool