Location, Location, Location: Reviewing the Gear - Bone Smith (Patreon)

There was a request for a review of each location and the gear involved, and while this is something that happens during the Great Game Hunter podcasts, my prefered medium for communication is actually in text form. So after considering this for a while, I decided that it would be a good thing to do and would be better than the Top X Series because we can look at the more situational gear items and discuss why they'll actually get into your builds in the first place.

In order to follow this series in full, you're going to have to have the relevant location and the gear to hand as I do not want to be uploading every single piece of gear individually along with the locations.

This is going to be a marks out of 10 system (with half marks allowed), and the score for the weapon is in comparison to the part of the game where it is available.  A 7/10 early game weapon is not going to be as powerful as a 7/10 late game weapon, but both of them have equal merit during their respective portion of the campaign's timeline.

Bone Smith

This location is a Tier 1 (T1) location (tier 0 is the Lantern Horde/Throne/Sun style starting location card) and it is usually one of the most important locations to build in your first year (depending on what resources you have).  The Bone Smith is not as powerful as the other two T1 locations because the bone gear tends to be 'stepping stone' gear - that is, gear which is used to get the resources to build its replacement gear.  This is because most of the gear is weapons, and weapons tend to be the most replaceable gear items in the game - typically you only need one weapon per survivor and the strength on them falls off quickly.

This location is gained by spending a single endeavor and it is, itself a stepping stone location that leads onto the Weapon Crafter.

Bone Sword - 1 Bone

If anything could be considered the 'default' starting weapon to craft, the Bone Sword would be it. This weapon is around twice as effective as the Founding Stone and it has an incredibly low cost to craft.

The Bone Sword is attached to a pretty below average mastery (sword) and swords in general do not become impressive until you reach the mid/late game so this is not a weapon you should pursue the mastery for.  But it is a great weapon to use to kill White Lions/Gorms/Spidicules until you get the resources required to build your proper Tier 2 (T2) weapon.

Crafting Count: 1 - 3

Score: 7/10

Bone Axe - 1 Bone, 1 Organ

The cost for this weapon is horrendously prohibitive and it's Savage ability is pretty much a wash, it's got benefits and drawbacks - Savage becomes stronger in the later part of a campaign. Statistically however the Bone Axe is very powerful.

However, axes are a solid weapon type and it is very useful to have an axe master in your settlement ready for the late game.  The Bone Axe gives you an early leg up on this.

Crafting Count: 0 - 1

Score: 6/10

Bone Dagger - 1 Bone

The Bone Dagger is pretty close to being a trash tier item. Its awful strength, excessive speed and hard to control triggered ability result in a weapon that actually makes monsters more dangerous.  On top of that Dagger Mastery is close to being one of the most irrelevant masteries in the entire game. So the Bone Dagger's main benefit is highlighting how awful Daggers are in Kingdom Death.  Also this thing doesn't have paired... COME ON!

If you want to play with Daggers, get the Gorm and Sunstalker expansions instead of touching this - if you want to feel like a backstab master - choose Katars.

However, this item does have a rare pair of affinities and can be helpful in activating red charm builds/White Lion armor so it is not a total write off, it's just a cheap affinity activator that can also be used to give your red charm attacks 3 speed.

Crafting Count: Usually 0, but 1-2 are used in Red Charm/White Lion cheese.

Score: 3/10

Skull Helm - 1 Skull/2 Bone

The Skull Helm is often used as a quick stopgap item to provide some protection and then discarded once a survivor has an armor set helmet. It is especially of use when you are facing the Gorm (because the Gorm's trap headbutts). However the Skull Helm is also part of the Brawler armor set (Lion Knight) and it also is one of the few pieces of armor that the People of the Skull can use (which is worth half a point).  So this gear can become far more valuable under certain circumstances.

Crafting Count: Usually 1

Score: 5.5/10

Bone Darts - 1 Bone

While I have called the Bone Sword above the 'default' crafting item, my personal default item is always the bone darts. I prefer the low speed, high strength, range design of the bone darts early on, it suits my playstyle a great deal.

But even if you are not willing to play the way I do, every early hunt party should be rocking at least one set of Bone Darts in order to handle the more unusual situations where range is essential. The most iconic of these is the White Lion's Ground Fighting mood - but also the bone darts come in handy against the Gorm's retch and the hypermobility of Screaming Antelope/Spidicules.

Crafting Count: 1-3

Score: 8/10

Bone Pickaxe - 1 Bone, 1 Leather, Ammonia

It is VERY easy to forget about this item, however I can tell you that as soon as you have access to leather you should be trying to ensure that you have at least 1 of these items in your hunt party (except for People of the Sun, who don't need as much iron, so they can wait a bit).

This item is your primary source of Iron and it also has a tonne of unusual interactions, such as synergy with the Manhunter's Tool Belt, Sunstalker's Shadow Saliva Shawl, Dragon King Showdown, Crystal Mhendi (Slenderman) and so on. 

Do not forget about it any more!

More details about this gear in this article on mineral gathering. 

Crafting Count: Many

Score: 10/10

Bone Sickle -  1 Bone, 1 Leather, Ammonia

This one I consider to be a bit less vital than the pickaxe, because it has less synergies, the synergies it does have are less powerful and even the event doesn't really require multiples of it because the best result isn't the highest one.  

More details about this gear in this article on herb gathering.

Crafting Count: 1+

Score: 7/10

Bone Club - 3 Bones 

I have left this one for last because this beauty is easily one of the best items in the entire core game.  In 1.31 Clubs were a pretty weak part of the game when you did not have access to the expansions.  However, this all changed with 1.5's revision of the weapon mastery and the introduction of the Bone Club.

There is no doubt that Club Mastery is now one of the premier end game masteries for People of the Lantern. However if you are new to this patreon, you might not be aware that the Bone Club is one of the most powerful weapons you can craft, good enough to last from the LY1 fight all the way to the end of the campaign (if you desire).

It has synergy with the following armor sets:

• Rawhide Armor
• Screaming Armor
• Phoenix Armor
• White Lion Armor 
• Dragon Armor
• Lantern Armor
• Leather Armor
• Silk Armor

This is something I could write about in more detail again if there is interest. Because it is amazing how much pressure you can pull away from a settlement's precious resource count if your tank is rocking a bone club - it's a similar effect to the potency of Rawhide armor and Screaming armor, because it's used for almost the entire campaign, it is an incredible ROI.

Crafting Count: 1

Score: 10/10

What do you want next? Skinnery or Organ Grinder?