Weapon variety

[Kayderim]

Is it optimal to have one member of the team with each weapon type? Or there are some weapons that are just too limited to be useful gainst most enemies?

[The Duck Knight]

well, daggers are kinda mostly for Niche-build and armor farming, but on the other hand, they all got they use.

[gazomierz]

There are some weapons that are less effective against certain enemy types. Mostly piercieng weapons against ancient dead.

It's more of a case where certain weapons offer serious advantages against some enemies. Armour destroying weapons against heavy targets, like orc warriors or linds. Aoe weapons against chaff enemies, 2hswords and greataxes. Shieldspliiting weapons against schrats. 2handed hammers to modify ini of enemies. And so on.

I'd say no weapons is so limited it can't be reasonably used. It all depends on your overall gamestyle and tactics, on what you aim to achieve and how. I would suggest to try them all out and find out what suits your playstyle most.

[Kill'em ALL]

Originally posted by Kayderim:

Is it optimal to have one member of the team with each weapon type?

No. It's optimal to always use the best weapon for the job at hand, either through keeping different spares in the company inventory and swapping them just before the battle (once you know the enemy you'll be facing) or by keeping every bro equipped with 2 weapons and swapping them during battle. Both approaches have their pros and cons and the amount of micro-management can be tedious for some people but it's definitely the most eficient approach.
Hammers are awesome when you need to get rid of heavy armor quickly. They do poorly when you are faced with low-armored enemies with a lot of HP, where cleavers really shine. Weapon effectiveness is really like rock-paper-scissor in this regard.

Originally posted by Kayderim:

Or there are some weapons that are just too limited to be useful gainst most enemies?

There are no truly "useless" weapons and every weapon has a role that it exceeds at, though some tend to be consistently useful while others are very specific to either the enemy that you are facing or the competence of the wielder.

Outside of early game (when bonus accuracy is the king so spears, swords and flails rule supreme) I'd consider high-end cleavers and axes the most universal. I see a lot of people really liking maces, too. Flails and spears tend to fall out of favour pretty quickly (because their main advantage is accuracy which you don't need as much once you have better bros), swords are debatable (solid overall but if your accuracy and Fatigue are good they offer little advantage) and daggers are mostly used for farming armor through Puncture.
2-tile melee weapons always have the advantage of increased tactical flexibility on top of their specific weapon type (like Polehammer dealing great armor damage), so they're pretty solid, especially in the backline.

[Winter Wolf]

Originally posted by Kill'em ALL:

Originally posted by Kayderim:

Is it optimal to have one member of the team with each weapon type?

Outside of early game (when bonus accuracy is the king so spears, swords and flails rule supreme) I'd consider high-end cleavers and axes the most universal. I see a lot of people really liking maces, too. Flails and spears tend to fall out of favour pretty quickly (because their main advantage is accuracy which you don't need as much once you have better bros), swords are debatable (solid overall but if your accuracy and Fatigue are good they offer little advantage) and daggers are mostly used for farming armor through Puncture.
2-tile melee weapons always have the advantage of increased tactical flexibility on top of their specific weapon type (like Polehammer dealing great armor damage), so they're pretty solid, especially in the backline.

Should probably mention something about ranged weapons too since those can be confusing in effect.

[Kill'em ALL]

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

Should probably mention something about ranged weapons too since those can be confusing in effect.

Why not. I just kinda assumed that it's obvious that they are good ;]

Ranged weapons require higher attack skill values than melee to be effective so you'll need some patience. R-attack skill grows faster than M-attack, though.

Bows are very good in general, especially on high-skill bros and against low-armor targets. Their effectiveness suffers with lower R-attack score and against heavily-armored targets. I am myself very partial to them but some people prefer x-bows because bows require heavy investment before they really pay off.

Crossbows have higher accuracy but lower range than bows and are much better against high armor. They are more viable for less-skilled bros ranged/melee hybrids and pair very well with throwing weapons, too. They are a good way to give your backline bros something to do if you let the enemy come to you, especially for xbow/polearm hybrids with Quick Hands perk (shoot and strike in single round).

Throwing weapons are mediocre when not specialised into and very, very good when paired with Mastery and Duelist perks. They are pretty crazy when you throw other damage-increasing perk on top and use heavy barbarian versions (WotN DLC required), enough that I'll be surprised if they don't receive a nerf. Throwing/polearm hybrids are somewhat viable but less than xbow/polearm in my opinion.

Most ranged weapons are classified as "piercing" and therefore much less effective against Ancient Dead who are resistant to this type of damage. Their armor takes the full damage, though, so you can still weaken them at range. Switching to throwing axes for AD fights allows your ranged bros to stay highly effective.

For the sake of fairness it must be added that it is not *necessary* to include any ranged bros in your composition and it *is* possible to fight effectively with melee-only squad, albeit for the great majority of fights I'd consider that giving yourself a handicap. I find it hard to resist keeping at least 4 ranged/ranged hybrid bros in my line for 90% of fights.

[Kayderim]

Hm.. I really wanted to create an assassin that would kill things only with a knives. Like throw him away from the group and have him take enemies on the flank, taking percs and the best stats for it. I heard piercing do reduced damage against undead, what is it? 30% less?

Also, are there any daggers that deal any damage besides piercing, like a flaming dagger or something? Or bows that uses flame arrows?

I also wanted to take especial care of all my goons, i only wanted to recruit the best and finish the game at 0 death count, i know that this game have some unlucky headshots but that's what save-scumming's for.


Also, did they put a hotkey to change weapons already? Last time i checked some years ago they didn't have yet.

[Kill'em ALL]

Originally posted by Kayderim:

I really wanted to create an assassin that would kill things only with a knives. Like throw him away from the group and have him take enemies on the flank, taking percs and the best stats for it

It's possible to build a bro like that, but you need a really good recruit who would end up much more useful built for another role, like riposte duelist. But if you want a dagger specialist is doable as well.

Originally posted by Kayderim:

I heard piercing do reduced damage against undead, what is it? 30% less?

50% damage reduction, even more for ranged weapons other than throwing axes. And it's not against all the undead enemiec, only the Ancient Dead skeletons (no flesh left to pierce, after all).

Originally posted by Kayderim:

Also, are there any daggers that deal any damage besides piercing, like a flaming dagger or something? Or bows that uses flame arrows

In general outright magical items are very rare in accordance to the game design if a low-fantasy, low-power setting of BB. Most special items that you can find are "named" and are basically exceptional quality tier 3 weapons, offering stat bonuses but no flashy extra effects. What you are asking for can be found only on "legendary" items that are very rare indeed, mostly found in legendary locations. Only several of them exist in the game so far and they are always limited to one copy per playthrough.
There is a sword with added elemental damage and a dagger that has some dark magic in it that's useful against humans. I'd suggest you don't spoil the details for yourself, it's fun and exciting to find them on your own :)

Originally posted by Kayderim:

i only wanted to recruit the best and finish the game at 0 death count, i know that this game have some unlucky headshots but that's what save-scumming's for

It's not only the unlucky headshots that kill your brothers, it's the game design to make you face losses and deal with them. Honestly if you want to reload every time somebody dies or you hire non-perfect bro you're probably better off just using an editor. Result's really the same and you spend less time reloading and more playing.

I would discourage either way to cheese the game, it's like ordering spicy food sans the spices - possible and probably still tasty but you miss out on what is the defining factor.

Originally posted by Kayderim:

Also, did they put a hotkey to change weapons already? Last time i checked some years ago they didn't have yet.

There is a mod for that I think but it's not in the vanilla game yet. They did say they are going to introduce various QoL improvements with the next DLC so maybe it will be one of them.