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As Lethal as it Needs to Be: 7. Grand Weapons (Patreon)

Published:

2019-07-12 10:00:00

Imported:

2023-10

Content

Overview:

I think it is absolutely fair to call Grand Weapons one of the most dominant weapon types in the game as it stands right now, the combination of an incredibly powerful design ethos, a weapon specialisation that's so strong the Indomitable trait was created in 1.5 to negate some of its power, great availability and decent progression all come together to give us a roster of weapons that every single settlement makes serious consideration of. I don't think there is a single duff weapon in the Grand Weapon class, from the first one you make (Rib/Zanbato) through to the late game options (Skleaver, CJB, Dragon Slayer) all the way to the game winning Perfect Slayer. These weapons are one of the four staple weapon classes for tanks (club, katar, grand and always shield) while also being powerful options for DPS survivors.

The weapon specialisation gives you so much power, +1 accuracy is a significant boost in this game because of how often weapons cap at 5+ or 6+ to hit and the critical wound ability allows for other survivors to attack without fear of reactions (other than the trap). The master ability is not very powerful overall because most Grand Weapons are slow, which means it cancels just a single reaction, but there is a weapon which can make use of it. However, this makes Grand weapons an oddity, you want to hit the specialisation, but you're not that bothered about the mastery and because of Indomitable allowing L3 monsters to stand up quickly after being hit; Grand weapons fall off in the late game a little (which is where Clubs and Katars start to take over for Tanks).

There is very little to find at fault with the statlines of Grand weapons in general; they are designed to be low speed (often Slow), with solid accuracy, high strength, lots of abilities (some negative) and generally around 2 affinities. They also tend to have common access to Deadly and or Devastating which are two of the most powerful abilities in the game. Deadly is always relevant unless the monster is immune to crits because of how it cancels reactions and Devastating becomes more and more powerful as monster health increases and the need to crit farm decreases.

If anything I think the main criticism for Grand weapons is they are too good, they do too much. It seems that low speed was considered entirely a drawback during the design of Kingdom Death, but the community accurately figured out that in fact low speed is great when it is combined with decent accuracy, high strength and abilities like Deadly/Devastating. As a consquence I'd go as far as saying I think overall only Bows are stronger as a weapon type in general than Grand weapons.

Speed: Slow

To save repeating myself, before starting here's the blanket assessment for all the Grand weapons that are 1 speed + slow. This combination is mostly a positive one for a weapon, an attack that is slow, accurate and likely to wound is better than most other types of weapons for attacking. This is because of the hit location/reaction/trap design built into monsters. The more you hit a monster, the more it hurts you back, so you want those hits to succeed - which cancels Failure reactions (or score crits which cancels everything). Also the more you hit the monster, the more often the trap triggers, which is a full attack cancel + harm for your survivors. So low speed is amazing when it is coupled with good accuracy and high strength.

Tanks also prefer low speed weapons, this means they can contribute to the damage being dealt while also taking less damage in return. This is one of the reasons why I call Clubs and Katars top tier tank weapons, they have ways of scoring high wound rolls and/or cancelling reactions, providing evasion or manipulating AI. All these things help mitigate damage and put less pressure on your shield for tanking.

So, that written, lets take a look at the individual weapons.

Zanbato

Power Level: Mid game

Speed: No additional comments.

Accuracy: A 50% chance of hitting is reasonable for any weapon, and as we have established with the net graph above, it's within the average range of 50% to 60% chance to hit for Grand weapons.

Strength: 6 strength is a HUGE amount for what is basically a White Lion weapon located behind an unlock location. The Zanbato is pretty much the sole reason why you rush the weapon crafter early on and it's a massive spike in power for any hunt team, capable of wounding all the early game monsters on a 2+ and strong enough to threaten things like the Phoenix.

Affinities: These two affinities are amazing, they have an inbuilt synergy with Leather Armor and the helped create one of the cookie cutter mid game tank builds in Zanbato + Leather Armor + Leather Shield + Monster Grease. The game literally forces you into this build with these affinities and it's so powerful. About the only issue with these affinities is a lack of blue affinities, a blue up would have made this weapon almost totally OP in combination with Leather.

Ability: Frail is a strong downside on a weapon, hitting a super dense location is going to break the weapon, which will disadvantage the survivor by weakening their offense for the rest of the fight. However, 1 speed and the current available Hit Location scouting abilities (CECirclet, Wisdom Potion) essentially mitigate this disadvantage almost completely.

Deadly is a really powerful ability, and you can get this weapon online as a crit farming option with the use of Rawhide Armor + Lucky Charm + Fecal salve. This is a ridiculously cheap build (1 great cat bone, 2 organs, 6 hide) with a ton of offense and decent defense.

Finally we have Devastating 1, now I do not rate using this ability when you are farming for resources because it lowers the farming lifespan of monsters by removing wounds without giving a chance to score resources. But, you do not have to always have Devastating 1 on, you can choose to leave it off for farming and turn it on when fighting a nemesis monster or when you have sufficient resources and are looking for the end of fight rewards rather. This flexibility is incredible and part of what makes the weapon so strong.

Summary: The best weapon in the early game, the best weapon in the weapon crafter and the best weapon to let you move towards harder monsters (phoenix tier). The Zanbato is an essential part of weapon progression and you would not be hindered by having a party using nothing but them. The only downside this weapon has is frail.

It's also stupidly cheap at 1x Great Cat Bone, 1x hide.

Calcified Zanbato

Power Level: Mid to Late Game

Speed: No additional comments

Accuracy: At the higher end of accuracy for grand weapons, 60% chance, which essentially should be 70% chance to hit by this stage because of the weapon spec, is all you can really ask for.

Strength: It's "just" a +2 strength increase, but as noted elsewhere this is actually a significant increase. You're going from an 11.5 average wounding roll (before survivor strength) to a 13.5 average wounding roll. That means on the typical survivor at this stage (who should be at least +2 strength) you're threatening to harm stuff like the L2 Dragon King on the regular.

Affinities: Same as Zanbato.

Ability: Same as Zanbato, but there is no Frail downside anymore, so that is one minor downside consideration eliminated.

Summary: As one of two upgrade paths for the Zanbato (the other being the godly Trash Crown), the Calficied Zanbato costs an extra 1x Caustic dung + time (and a Scell resource if you want to make sure it doesn't get turned into a Trash Crown). The price is worth it, absolutely, it's a great price for this upgrade. Generally I recommend jamming 2-3 Zanbatos in the ground at the same time and trying to hit the Trash Crown as well as the Calcified versions.

This isn't one of the most powerful end game Grand weapons, but it is one of the cheapest.

Rib Blade

Power Level: Early to Mid Game

Speed: No additional comments.

Accuracy: 50% chance to hit, great for a weapon that is basically on par with the King's Spear for its crafting cost.

Strength: 5 strength is considerable, but it is very important to note that represents an average wounding roll of 10.5. A whole 2 strength away from reaching the 12 that you want for many of the L1 mid game monsters and it's only just above the average L2 early game monsters. It's just 1 point of strength lower than the Zanbato, but its a significant point drop.

Affinities: Just the one affinity, right blue, but it's a doozy. This combines with the Lucky Charm and a Wisdom Potion to give you a single row of powerhouse gear. This triple threat combo works with any armor set you desire and it's a great DPS loadout.

Ability: As mentioned above, this weapon's affinity + Deadly makes it a great combo with the Lucky Charm and a Wisdom Potion (Gorm also). Having this set up actually allows you to run no support survivor because the Wisdom Potion's scouting ability "replaces" the Cat Eye Circlet's one. It's not as powerful because you can't reorder things or see deeper than one card in the deck, but it is passive and always on.

It is also important to note that this is one of only two grand weapons that are one handed. So if your Grand Weapon trainer loses a hand, the Rib Blade is often where you'll go in order to continue using him. Because of Slow it doesn't work well with Blood Paint, you'd need a way to ignore Slow, such as frenzy. There is a meme build for this though.

It looks cool on a model though!

Summary: I L O V E the Rib Blade just too much, it's my number 3 goal when fighting the Gorm (after Riot Mace and Wisdom potion) and it's always a part of my early hunting parties if I can get my hands on it. I think it's the second best early game farming weapon (behind the hard to get Riot Mace) and if anything I think the weapon has too much strength for what it is.

Dragon Slayer

Power Level: Late Game

Speed: No additional comments.

Accuracy: 50% chance to hit is low for a late game weapon

Strength: 14.5 average strength for a 20 average wounding roll is pretty beastly, and 16's what you should be close to averaging from around LY15 onwards anyway. So it's great for the portion of the game where you get it.

Affinities: Just the one red right affinity and the only thing of note is that it works with Lantern Greaves, but you probably shouldn't be using this with Lantern Armor or Warlord Armor anyway.

Ability: Slow cancels out Early Iron (except when Frenzied) and you can check the Zanbato for the comments on Frail. So this weapon gets Sharp (+1d10 strength, average 5.5) and automatic Devastating 1. Essentially this is a super Zanbato.

Summary: One of the OG late game weapons, despite a bunch of exciting and more powerful options turning up in the expansions the Dragon Slayer still holds its own as an exceptional weapon for the late game.

Skleaver

Power Level: Late Game

Speed: This weapon is speed 1, but it is NOT slow. That's absolutely huge, this is the one place where you have access to a Grand weapon that can really take advantage of the Mastery ability, you just need to get your hands on extra speed without having the mastery cancelled as it is when you are Frenzied. (Speed Powder or Leader anyone?)

Accuracy: 60% is on the top end for Grand weapons. Solid as a rock.

Strength: Massive, this weapon has 10 strength baseline, which puts it at a 15.5 average wound roll before modifiers. But you cannot overlook that this is a Sunstalker weapon, which means that you can have your survivor in Cycloid Scale Armor every time if you want it. Because Kingdom Death isn't a game where things occur in isolation, out on a hunt this weapon is essentially baseline 20.5 average wounding roll.

You're going to get a lot of mileage out of this lady.

Affinities: Nothing particularly special here, mostly you'll be looking to connect them so you can activate the weapon's ability. Easily done with Cycloid Scale Armor.

Ability: The Perfect Hit ability is dope as heck. It has strong synergy with the weapon's lack of Slow and the Grand mastery. As mentioned above, you just need to stack speed and this weapon is ridiculous.

The activated one is a subtle one. The heavy keyword is generally a very negative one. You don't see immediate benefits from it, but you will avoid horrible things occasionally.

Summary: This weapon is expensive as heck (needs 2x L2 Sunstalkers for the strange resource requirements) but it is correctly gated at this price because of its power, versatility and unique nature. This is my top Grand weapon and that's not going to change until new stuff is released.

Calcified Juggernaut Blade

Power Level: Late game.

Speed: No additional comments.

Accuracy: Standard 60% accuracy for a late game weapon.

Strength: 9 base, with an increasing amount depending on tokens. See abilities below.

Affinities: The two affinities work well with Lantern Armor, and have some applications with Rolling. But overall they are not needed for much, they're not even that important for the Monster Tooth Necklace, but they do work with it.

Ability: Insert Standard Slow text here. For tanks Block 1 isn't a massively valuable ability on non-shields, but it is useful for a DPS or Bruiser type who has space concerns and wants occasional access to Block 1 in a pinch.

The other ability is super interesting and is what makes this weapon so powerful, while you have a baseline average wound roll of 14.5 generally this is going to be a lot higher because of how it interacts with any token. Each bleed token is +1 strength, a +1 strength token is +2 strength, a -1 strength token is canceled out (Speed Powder basically reads +1 strength unless you are Frenzied). You can do a lot of things that let you gain tokens (Phoenix Helm), Story of the Young Hero and so on and these boost your power a lot. It's not uncommon for this weapon to be more like 12-15 strength with the right hunt party in support of it.

Summary: Gained either by breaking a DBKs sword and calcifying the Regeneration Blade you get or by beating an L3 DBK (Option 1 is easier, Option 2 is a lot harder, but faster) this end game Grand Weapon packs huge offense alongside some defense to give you a good choice for the space restricted hunter. I feel it's not as good offensively as the Dragon Slayer or Skleaver because of their access to Devastating 1, but it is cheaper on the resource front than either one to make. Sometimes this thing just 'turns up' during the process of getting other stuff from the DBK and it's very welcome when it does.

Also it's the main viable choice for a one handed Grand weapon in the late game. Important for ensuring that a dismembered arm doesn't ruin your Grand weapon user.

Despite being People of the Bloom only, we're going to dip into the Replica Flower Sword next, because it is a) craftable, b) really good and c) is likely to turn up in the Abyssal Woods in some form where it will probably be a big part of the meta.

Replica Flower Sword

Power Level: Mid to late game.

Speed: Straight up has the best speed stat out of any Grand Weapon because it legitimately has 2 speed without slow. It's also one handed so you can Blood Paint/Ambidextrous it. Which is utterly mindboggling when you consider how large this weapon is.

Accuracy: 50% hit rate, better than most other grand weapons because that's actually 2 attacks at 50%.

Strength: 6 strength baseline (Zanbato tier at 11.5 average wounding roll), gaining sharp to climb it to 11.5 baseline (16 average wounding roll) once it's active. Very respectable stats and the self upgrade ability via affinities gives this weapon a huge level of efficiency.

Affinities: OK, so it's very important to note that in People of the Bloom you have +2 Green Affinities and -2 Red affinities (and +1 Luck). That has large impacts on how you're going to get this weapon active. You only need to connect the Green one and it's going to be live. But you need to hit a total of 3 red affinities, which this weapon provides only 2 halves, in order to get that Sharp and +1 evasion active. There are builds that do this, but it is restrictive for sure.

Ability: There is a LOT to unpack here. This weapon is always devastating 1, meaning that it's essentially a Zanbato when you get it. However the 'No Dodge' restriction limits this weapon to a DPS style survivor only, losing Dodge is a high price for a tank to pay because of the power that survival action brings when stacked with Dodge. You can't Surge to Block X and then Dodge to remove another hit - you are also left with nothing but passive defenses (position, evasion, AI control) if you surge to attack a second time.

When you activate the weapon you gain sharp, which is great, and +1 evasion. The evasion gain isn't that powerful here because losing dodge, as noted above, has a big impact on your durability against attacks. You can still stack this with stuff in order to get a Block/Deflect + Evasion build running for a tank, but sometimes you'll really feel hurt because of that missing Dodge.

Summary: This one is a very interesting weapon, honestly the lack of dodging is something that maybe should have been standard for Grand weapons, because it makes for solid design here. You have a very powerful, exciting weapon, but you lose out on one of the strongest abilities in the game if you use it.

It's going to be great fun to see how this one is used when PotBloom comes out, if it makes it without being changed. Or maybe Campaigns of Death will let us craft this weapon when you beat the L3 Flower Knight?

Perfect Slayer

Power Level: EXTREME

Speed: 3 speed with slow means that this weapon 'powers up' when you are frenzied. It's an interesting design and it really adds to the overall OP nature of this blade.

Accuracy: 50% hit rate is on the low end for a late game Grand Weapon. But who cares?

Strength: 14 baseline strength + sharp for an average wound roll of 19.5 (Range is 15 to 24 baseline strength + wounding roll. So in total: Anything from 16 to 34 wound roll with an average of 25). O B S C E N E. There's nothing in the game right now that shrugs this off apart from the L3 Hand. Even Gordon the Gold Smoke Knight is very concerned about this one.

Affinities: One single down red. That's not good, but who cares?

Ability: On top of the aforementioned Slow and Sharp. This weapon also has Devastating 2 - which is utterly disgusting. When it wounds it causes three wounds. It will shred through monsters very safely. The downsides to this weapon are irreplaceable and -2 movement. Irreplaceable is pretty much par for course with a weapon that has this power (but you're also unlikely to lose the survivor wielding this because of how nuts it is). The -2 movement is somewhat problematic, but as monsters usually like to run towards survivors, it's not as much of an issue as you'd think. Careful position play and control from the supporting cast (sorry guys anyone without the Perfect Slayer when it's around is a second string player at best) will mitigate this a lot of the time.

Summary: This thing is just too powerful for the game as it stands right now, it is fortunately very difficult to get, on top of its casting cost it also needs a two 1% hunt events to land in the right order. I still think it's too powerful for something that's given out so randomly, but it is fun when you have it.

Conclusion:

As a weapon suitable for Tanks, Gorment Bruisers (2H), Bruisers (1H) and DPS players alike, Grand Weapons deserve their position at the head of the table alongside Bows. They are a concentrated form of all the most desirable parts of weapons in Kingdom Death with very few downsides outside of crafting and generally being slow. While I think there are better tank specific weapons in Katar and Club, you are never wrong in taking a Grand Weapon onto the battlefield instead.

One of the top 5 weapon styles for sure.

Content

Contents:

Overview: