Bone Club - The Powerhouse of 1.5? (Patreon)

Let's face it, Old Joe knows what's up; he doesn't come armed with a Founding Stone or Whip. Joe rocks up onto the showdown board with a weapon which I think might be amongst the best weapons out there right now. The bone club is certainly one of the most efficient purchases you can make in the early game despite it's three bone cost (3/4s of the Weapon Crafter!)

The Bone Club is a heavy, two handed weapon with a (2/6+/5/Cumbersome) statline with a red left and right affinity.  Now that's a massively powerful pile of stats for a starting weapon, the Bone Club in terms of sheer power is the strongest non-rare club in the game.  

This price however comes with a heavy cost, as anyone who has had to wield the Twilight Sword will attest, Cumbersome on a melee weapon is a huge pain in the ass to manage and deal with.  So the question is: With this drawback is the Bone Club a must have or a simply an oddity that works under certain circumstances?

Let's find out.

It's clear that the main issue with the Bone Club is that cumbersome, but in trade you get an accurate, strength 5 weapon.  That's something that hits 50% of the time and wounds on a 3+ (80% chance of a wound vs toughness 8 monsters).   Additionally it is a club, and club mastery - while not the best mastery - is one of the only routes we have available right now for hurting the Gold Smoke Knight and other super tough monsters that have a low crit chance.  Additionally Clubs are good vs. the Screaming Antelope and the Dung Beetle Knight  So if you can get around the drawback this is a weapon that will help you a great deal.  

Cumbersome means you cannot move and attack without Dashing and you cannot attack twice without Dashing and Surging, which is a huge investment in survival and stops your ability to move into position at first.

However, when we start to look at how the Bone Club interacts with the various armor sets in the game, we can see that this downside can be mitigated.

Rawhide Armor

Once you are wearing rawhide (plus monster grease) your club armed survivor can take the role of the primary tank. Because they're the main threat for the monster, they can ensure that the monster attacks them and ends it's turns next to the clubber by positioning them close in the front facing. Additionally, the turns where the survivor is out of reach they can activate their rawhide headband (as the last survivor to act) and ensure that they are more likely to be the the target of the monster.  This is very effective vs the core game monsters.

White Lion Armor

The Bone Club has a high level of synergy with the White Lion set because of Pounce.  Pounce allows the club user to move and attack in the situations where they normally would not be able to do so and it gives 2 red half affinities which can help get the armor set up towards 5 red affinities (where you can start using the Red Charm).  There's not much more to write really, it's a similar method to the one you can use to initially train up the Twilight Sword.  However there are better armor sets available for this.

Screaming Armor

Screaming Armor's "Slam" ability when combined with a complete set allows a Bone Club survivor to be able to move in a straight line and hit the monster with their movement, weakening it for the turn and then they can use the Skewer ability from the full set to be able to activate the bone club.  This combination provides enough power that the club becomes highly effective vs. Level 2 Lions and Antelopes (oh my!).  

Phoenix Armor

Phoenix Armor has a very similar ability to the two above armor sets, in that it allows you to move and attack with a bone club.  You can end up having a very high strength with a Bone Club with the right circumstances.

Leather Armor

This one has low Synergy overall, however the ability to move one after your activation does help a bit. Mostly I would not recommend using a Bone Club with Leathers unless you have a second weapon equipped.

Lantern Armor

Lantern Armor gives clubs sharp, which has a lot of power when combined with the mastery. In People of the Lantern I'm of the opinion that a club master in lantern armor is very essential for the late game.  You lose the ability to move about and attack as much, but you can spend your time setting up defensive actions on the turns that you cannot attack.  The only other sensible option for a club user is the Skullcap Hammer (because the Thundermaul has that ridiculous downside and it also is hard to guarantee); the Skullcap is less accurate and weaker, but you might end up wielding both clubs on Lantern Armor.

In addition the affinities on the Bone Club mean that it helps activate the Lantern Armor feetsies.

Gorment Armor

Mostly you'd use the Bone Club for its affinities, they help activate guard in a number of new ways. On the whole the set doesn't really work well with the Bone Club without a backup weapon (Beacon Shield works!).

Cycloid Scale Armor

This one works a lot like Lantern Armor, giving the Club sharp, but also providing some other bonuses like additional accuracy.  Activating the Bone Club causes you to shadow walk even if you can't move.  I think there are better weapons to use on Cycloid, but it's not terrible.

Dragon Armor

This one is really awkward to use with the Bone Club, however with clever planning and a plan for the turns where you are out of position this armor set will make your Bone Club as powerful as many other mid/late game weapons.  

The Others

There's not much synergy with Rolling, Silk, Warlord, Dancer or Brawler armor. It's much like using the weapon unarmored in these cases.

People of the Sun

It's worth noting here that the club is very good in People of the Sun. (Usual thing that must be noted, People of the Sun can carry heavy gear, they just cannot wear it). There are two reasons for this, the first is the Sun Vestments that let you ignore cumbersome and the second is that the best weapon in People of the Sun is the Prism Mace, which is a club. So the Bone Club lets you set up your settlement nicely for Club Mastery on your end game survivors.

Summary

Ultimately the power of the Bone Club isn't exactly because of its stats, it is because of the relative weakness of most other clubs in the game.  Outside of Green Armor (The Green Plate makes all weapons a club) there are few decent choices for late game clubs, previously you were forced to settle on either a Skullcap Hammer, Thundermaul or Riot Mace (if you have the Gorm expansion).  The Bone Club is not completely overpowered in a vacuum, but it is made considerably stronger because there are no other options.  Additionally the Gold Smoke Knight's toughness of 27 is very difficult to achieve without Club Mastery, so you are almost required to use and master this weapon in order to improve your chances of success.  I feel that your typical early game hunt party should now be 1 spear, 1 club, 1 katar and either a second katar or a bow.

The Bone Club is a superb piece of design, and a great weapon. Any perceived extreme level of power is because of how it highlight the flaws that exist elsewhere in the game's gear design and it's interactions with the late game armor sets.