Is the Sledgehammer any good?

[Midas]

When I was playing my first character I was looking at its perks and thinking that with some investment, it must be zombie mulching machine, but my second character has been strength focused, has a good iron sledgehammer and a few points into the relevant perks, and it still feels useless. Takes way too many hits to kill even a single zombie, and it's both slow and massively taxing on stamina.

Then I turn around and find a level 1 machete and it basically outclasses it entirely without any perk investment at all, while also being one of my necessary tools. Is the Sledgehammer just bad? Does it actually pay off compared to other weapons for the same investment? I haven't used clubs much at all, but the basic starter one seemed like a way better idea than investing into sledgehammers.

[KellyR]

Weapon choice is very personal in this game. You have people who'll tell you the machete and knife are garbage, and people who swear by them.

Every weapon type has it's adherents, except maybe spears.

I could never get with clubs or sledgehammers personally, can't deal with how slow they are. I used to be a shiv then knife then machete player, but then they added the Brawler to the skill tree and hoo boy.

Clubs and sledgehammer seem to be the most popular, even though I can't stand them :D

[RasaNova]

I've always been a fan of clubs, but hated sledges til fairly recently. They're slow, drain a ton of stamina, can leave you open to attack... But they have SO much stopping power! I power attack to the head will usually 1-shot kill any standard zombie, and if it doesn't it will knock them off their feed so you can easily finish them. But to do kinda need sexual tyrannosaurus to use them effectively at higher tiers.

For a main weapon though I still prefer clubs, they have a better balance of stopping power and usability.

[The Giving One]

A good compromise for the high stamina cost of a sledge is the stone sledge.

It still hits pretty hard, but uses less stamina, and you can craft one right at the start.

Takes only a single stone to repair. Many times I have played weeks into the game with a purple tier 6 stone sledge, fully modded because they still have four mod slots in them.

[...👑 JOST AMMAN 👑...]

Clubs also get the Flurry of Blows bonus while Sledge Hammers don't.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by ⚜ JOST AMMAN ⚜:

Clubs also get the Flurry of Blows bonus while Sledge Hammers don't.

Yep, that's a very good point. And just with one level of that perk , you can really see and feel the difference with speed of attacks.

I also find it kinda funny how it also speeds up harvesting with a knife. I bet they might fix that later on.

[Midas]

Hmm. Maybe if they had some extra use on top of being a weapon I'd like them more. You'd think a sledgehammer would be a premier tool for demolition.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Midas:

Hmm. Maybe if they had some extra use on top of being a weapon I'd like them more. You'd think a sledgehammer would be a premier tool for demolition.

You "can" use one for that, but the stamina is going to be a killer if you do.

[Bahrman74]

Originally posted by KellyR:

Weapon choice is very personal in this game. You have people who'll tell you the machete and knife are garbage, and people who swear by them.

Every weapon type has it's adherents, except maybe spears.

I actually like spears for melee, particularly early game. They have reach over most zed and it's a lot more easy to target specific limbs.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Bahrman74:

I actually like spears for melee, particularly early game. They have reach over most zed and it's a lot more easy to target specific limbs.

The flaming mod on a spear is awesome. Sets zeds on fire, and also serves as a torch in dark areas, without taking up another slot for a real torch.

[Necrozis]

sledge is amazing , it has a cone AOE knockdown potential and if you put mods in your weapon can be totally amazing one shotting if not two most zombies . You have to work on your timing starting your swing before you get close to the zombie you fight and then backing off as soon as it lands

[Captain Pike]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

A good compromise for the high stamina cost of a sledge is the stone sledge.

It still hits pretty hard, but uses less stamina, and you can craft one right at the start.

Takes only a single stone to repair. Many times I have played weeks into the game with a purple tier 6 stone sledge, fully modded because they still have four mod slots in them.

This, it gets the insane stunning/knockdown power and decap rate while costing practically nothing to power attack with a few ponts into regen.

[Blue Hasia]

upping the knife skill means you can do good damage with a blade and harvest for flesh with out carrying two melee weapons

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by Midas:

Hmm. Maybe if they had some extra use on top of being a weapon I'd like them more. You'd think a sledgehammer would be a premier tool for demolition.

Sledgehammers are actually very good for breaking things, check out the block damage next time you're looking at one. The drawback is that they're good for breaking things but not gently... You won't get many resources from whatever you're smashing.

[Tornat]

I like the sledge a'lot in the start , I find there there isn't a massive need to put weapon points into anything right away for awhile using the sledge so i always just max t-rex right away before i really pick what weapon I want to use. Last 2 runs I used the sledge to start and than switch to the knife mid game / late game , you get to a point where the only time you use melee weapons when your running PI and all the PI are derp easy so weapon choice really doesn't matter. I choose the knife later on mostly to just feel up a tool bar slot .

[Midas]

Originally posted by RasaNova:

Originally posted by Midas:

Hmm. Maybe if they had some extra use on top of being a weapon I'd like them more. You'd think a sledgehammer would be a premier tool for demolition.

Sledgehammers are actually very good for breaking things, check out the block damage next time you're looking at one. The drawback is that they're good for breaking things but not gently... You won't get many resources from whatever you're smashing.

They do have good block damage, but with their slow attack speed and huge stamina drain, they still don't do it as well as a proper tool.

Though I suppose if you don't want to carry tools, you could use a sledgehammer. That's basically part of why I like the machete since it's both my weapon and a tool.