Lava Katana Not Working?

[Cowardly Camper]

So I've tried a variety of different combinations of +1/+2/+3/+4 defense shoes, crab ring, and lava katana, and everything seems to point to the lava katana not giving any defense bonus. Speaking of, does anyone have any idea how that works? Both the game and the wiki are obnoxiously vague on what defense bonus means. Anyway, here are some results.

Red Bat 5 attacks average
No defense - 15 damage taken
+1 Shoes - 15 damage taken
+2 Shoes - 13 damage taken
+3 Shoes - 10 damage taken
+4 Shoes - 9 damage taken

Crab Ring 10 damage taken
+1 Shoes & Crab Ring 8 damage taken
+2 Shoes & Crab Ring 7 damage taken
+3 Shoes & Crab Ring 7 damage taken
+4 Shoes & Crab Ring 7 damage taken

Lava Katana 18 damage taken
+2 Shoes & LavaKatana 12 damage taken

Same thing goes for serpents
Lava Katana 24 damage taken
+3 Shoes 22 damage taken
Crab & +4 Shoes 19 damage taken

Granted 5 attack average isn't the most statistically significant data set, but what is going on with the lava katana? Does it only provide a bonus when you're swinging it?

[I Kinda Fail]

I couldn't tell any difference when I more than doubled my defense with the crab ring, so maybe defense is just a useless stat. I dunno. I was getting hit for 30s from serpents both with and without the ring.

For a sword, maybe it's possible that the defensive boost on that is only when you parry, like, maybe it deals more damage to attackers? Do clubs or daggers have defense boosts?

[Cowardly Camper]

Interesting. Wonder if luck is a factor on how much damage is taken. Serpent's base damage is supposed to be 23 but it does a pretty large range. It appears that only swords have a supposed defense bonus, so it being a function of parry is very possible.

I've definitely given up on the lava katana. Crab ring does seem to have at least some results, even if not much.

[~\\Savarast//~]

Originally posted by Seftak:

Personally the only thing i've leanred about fighting is to not block, totally useless since blocking does not knockback the enemy.

I tried blocking slimes a couple of times and they just get on my tile and damage and freeze me when the block animation end, very useful...

I which there was better armors, i get wrecked in the new mine.

Agreed. In general the "special" attacks aren't worth it and I absolutely hate that monsters can share a space with you. I've died to slimes just camping on me while i'm slowed too many times.

[KellyR]

Originally posted by ~\\Savarast//~:

Originally posted by Seftak:

Personally the only thing i've leanred about fighting is to not block, totally useless since blocking does not knockback the enemy.

I tried blocking slimes a couple of times and they just get on my tile and damage and freeze me when the block animation end, very useful...

I which there was better armors, i get wrecked in the new mine.

Agreed. In general the "special" attacks aren't worth it and I absolutely hate that monsters can share a space with you. I've died to slimes just camping on me while i'm slowed too many times.

Hammer special attack is 100% worth it. If you know about the trick to hit like 6 times with it :D

[~\\Savarast//~]

Originally posted by KellyR:

Hammer special attack is 100% worth it. If you know about the trick to hit like 6 times with it :D

Between the insane knockback and limited swing, I'll stick with Galaxy Sword. Also, I don't generally choose to play games with exploits

[Zunkin]

Originally posted by ~\\Savarast//~:

Originally posted by KellyR:

Hammer special attack is 100% worth it. If you know about the trick to hit like 6 times with it :D

Between the insane knockback and limited swing, I'll stick with Galaxy Sword. Also, I don't generally choose to play games with exploits

The hammer special is likely working as intended.1.4 patched pretty much all the major known exploits and the hammer special remains unchanged. It also is the only thing balancing the hammers since they are otherwise inferior to the swords in every respect even overall damage output thanks to how important weapon speed is.Without the special being good, Hammers are just terrible compared to any comparable sword.

Even with their special most people still prefer swords. I personally use the Galaxy Hammer and acrobat on most of my games, but that's mostly because it's a lot more fun and interactive way to play. In all honesty I think the sword probably is the better weapon.

As for the Katana, although the sample sizes are small, I think they show a definite pattern of it's defense score not getting applied unless the stat means something completely different on a sword than it does on other equipment.

[I Kinda Fail]

I ate some magic rock candy for the +5 Attack and +5 Defense today, went to skull caverns, still didn't see a difference. I wasn't killing enemies much faster, if at all, and was still taking quite a bit of damage. Maybe it's... I don't know the word. But like, +1 Defence adds 10%, then +2 adds 15%, then +4 is +19%, so that the higher your buff, the less each level provides? I dunno.

[Zunkin]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I ate some magic rock candy for the +5 Attack and +5 Defense today, went to skull caverns, still didn't see a difference. I wasn't killing enemies much faster, if at all, and was still taking quite a bit of damage. Maybe it's... I don't know the word. But like, +1 Defence adds 10%, then +2 adds 15%, then +4 is +19%, so that the higher your buff, the less each level provides? I dunno.

I think you may have uncovered a bug here. I've been tinkering around a bit and I see no apparent effect from the Katana's defence bonus now that I am looking for it. The damage range of enemies seems completely uneffected. Try posting this as a bug report and see if you get clarification.