Top 10 Most BROKEN Gear cards in Kingdom Death (Patreon)

We're going to go with a lovely clickbait title article this time, constructed for the purposes of giving us something to compare with the items that are fixed in the upcoming Card Pack and Campaigns of Death. 

These items make the list because of either their absolute domination of portions of the game, because of how undercosted they are, how they devastate monsters or because they do things that no gear card should do.

10. Tempered Spear - 10th Anniversary Promotional Survivors 

Deceptively powerful, you could be forgiven for looking at this one and saying that it's not too bad. Why is it on this list? Well, it turns out that in isolation this weapon wouldn't be too much of an issue, but because Cycloid Scale Armor, The Blue Charm and Blue Affinities in general exist, this weapon almost entirely deletes the trap from the monster. Going from a 50% to a 60% chance of cancelling the trap is a large increase, even more so when you can potentially reroll it (SotF or more importantly Infinite Lives) and have a Blue Charm trigger sitting behind that.

The reasons it doesn't get higher on this list is because it's limited to one craft per campaign thanks to the pattern rules and it isn't as good at ignoring the reactions as some other entries.

9. Tempered Axes - 10th Anniversary Promotional Survivors

Oh dear, another entry from the 10th Anniversary set... Whoops.  This axe is more obviously powerful than the Tempered Spear. First of all, ignore the Paired text on it, you use these separately, they get worse when paired.

This weapon is super cheap to construct, requiring ammonia & scrap smelting along with a bone axe, 1x bone, 1x leather and 1x scrap. Meaning that you can get it online well before LY10. It is a well statted weapon (on par with the Zanbato), but it is the Axe Specialization ability that pushes this one beyond being Overpowered (like the Zanbato) and into the world of Broken. When you use this without paired and with specialization, it's basically better than the Lantern Glaive in every way that matters. Yeah, that's how the odds end up working out, this is in essence a 6+1d10 Strength Axe in the hands of an Axe Specialist... Look at the Lantern Glaive in comparison.

You lose Reach 2 & Spear, but in exchange you lose Early Iron, Two-Handed and gain 2 points of strength. Oh and you can make the axe without the Blacksmith.

So for the reasons of how easy it is to get, and how powerful it is (slap it on a Dragon or Phoenix Armor survivor and watch them really shred) - being stronger than one of the already agreed best weapons in the game AND you can build two of them. The Tempered Axe makes it onto the list.

8. Amber Poleaxe - Spidicules

The key part of a strategy known as 'Punji Sticking' the Amber Poleaxe allows for killing certain monsters (notably the King's Man and Butcher) by kiting them into colliding with 2+ survivors holding this weapon. Because of how automatic wounds work (and expect to see automatic wounds more on this list), you are able to slay the monster without having to draw

This one isn't higher up simply because it is less reliable at causing automatic wounds than other options, you need a lot of positional skill and set up (with things like Gloom Man or Fecal Salve) and it requires collisions, which some monsters punish survivors for doing. However, given that it can kill the King's Man without ever letting that monster attack a single survivor or draw a HL location, it deserves a spot on this list. 

Without that ability, it would just be a slightly better King's Spear.

7. Dense Bone Arrows - White Gigalion

Sunshark Arrows were one of the best arrows in the entire game, then along came the unlimited version of them in the Dense Bone Arrow. Woo... 

These arrows allow you to use the Catgut Bow for the entire game as you no longer need to worry about strength. The only issue is you can't advance your mastery without a single wound not using the arrows. But that's it. These are relatively easy to make and more powerful than Blacksmith gear.  And that's enough to get them onto this list.

6. Black Sword & Vagabond Armor

The Combo that should NOT exist (and the only combo on this list), the Black Sword is one of the strongest weapons in the game and it's absolutely fair if you've worked all that time to become a Sword Master (because swords are not the best weapon type and becoming a master in one is a lot of work & cost opportunity). 

But given that Vagabond Armor allows any old survivor to become effectively a Sword Master, the Black Sword went from being a real journey filled with effort into becoming a cheap way to cheese most of the monsters in the game. Because 30+ Strength is too much for even the L3 Hand or GSK to deal with.

In isolation, these two pieces of gear are both very reasonable, it's just the combo that breaks the game and I hope that it is FAQ'd to disable this in the future.

5. Screaming Horns - Screaming Antelope

If you're deaf, either naturally, or via an item like the Lantern Helm. This piece of armor gives you access to unlimited insanity. But even without that bizarre, unintended loophole you can protect all your survivors from almost anything apart from L3+ monster intimidates. It helps keep sentient stuff active and affects all of the survivors on the showdown board. But it's the Insanity Abuse loops with deaf survivors that got it on this list.

It is the existence of the helm and a few other insanity loops that make the Xmaxe, Butcher's Blood and Gloom Katana incredibly busted.

4. Hope Stealer - Halloween Satan

The price for getting this one is quite high, the survivor who initially gets it from the hunt event (instead of the Adventure Sword) will die, and usually they're a survivor of some worth. But in exchange you get access to a weapon that will quickly surpass even the Black Sword in power.. and it's a Spear (the best offensive weapon type). So you can run a series of endless Red Shirts into battle, knowing that they're completely disposable and their deaths will fuel the weapon's strength even further. 

Because of various exploits that let you climb your population up to a massive amount  through the method of killing off your survivors, you can end up with a death count in excess of 30 very easily. If you're a gambling person you can also run this item with the Green Charm or Hunter's Heart. 

Only the Sentient Keyword stops it from climbing up even further in the rankings. You can also consider the Gloom Katana & Xmaxe to be in a similar tier to this one.

Honorable Mentions

Before we get to the final three, here are some honorable mentions:

• Xmaxe / Gloom Katana - because 10000 Insanity or higher is possible without much effort. However, it is not their fault these loops exist.
• Hollowpoint Arrow - when used in multiples, especially when combined with the Shielded Quiver from the Dragon King, you can reduce monsters to such low movement that they can't hardly manage to hurt the survivors. Doesn't work so well vs. Teleporting monsters like the Hand or Phoenix. Just didn't make the list because a single HPA isn't broken, it's stacking it which is.
• Slayer Cape - If this triggered only for White Lion keyword rather than fur, it wouldn't even be on the honorable mentions, but because it uses the fur keyword, it's ridiculous and is only going to get stronger in the future.
• Oxidized Ring Whip - Provoke on a weapon that can actually wound the monster is obscene. But you can only get this via the Oxidiation process, so it's at least correctly priced.
• Fetorsaurus - One of these is fair, but multiples is all kinds of broken. I nearly put this one on the list, but it is difficult to make and only distorts the game severely once you have 2+.
• Green & Blue Rings - These Spidicules rings are ridiculously powerful when combined with the Gloom Hammer, individually they are a lot fairer, so they didn't make the list because it takes effort to really break them and even then the survivor still has weaknesses.

 3. Red Ring - Spidicules 

I'll just link you to the old article on the RRoD build. But even without going all out, this item shreds monsters without any danger.  

The only reason it's not higher on the list is it's a chore to make this item.

2. Silk Body Suit - Spidicules

Craftable from nothing but the L1 Spidicules resources, this absolutely insane piece of gear gives you the largest damage soak in the entire game. It combines with other damage mitigation items as well such as the Slayer Cloak (Gigalion), Feather Shield, Lion Skin Cape or Fetorsaurus to stack further mitigation. The right builds can cancel 4 points of damage from monster attacks (plus evasion/block/deflect), which is enough to make even the Lion God or DBK balk. You are not allowed to use it with metal or heavy gear, but it turns out that doesn't really matter when you've got access to Screaming or Leather Armor...

Given the power of this item, how easy it is to get, how stackable the bonus is and how hard the monsters struggle to overcome something like this. It gets the #2 spot ahead of the Red Ring, because it is at least HARD to make the Red Ring.

And at number one, with zero surprises at all, it's... 

1. Counterweighted Axe

Relatively cheap, absurdly well statted for the cost and with an automatic wounding ability that bypasses the Hit Location deck entirely. The Counterweighted Axe is responsible for killing every single monster in the game without any concerns. In fact, in combination with Butcher's Blood and high insanity it's able to kill every single monster in the first attack, but that is just one example. After I used that build to solo kill the Gold Smoke Knight, other members of the community worked out that in combination with the Bone Witch negative accuracy and Timeless Eye you could create a weapon that would only Perfect Hit and you could stack as much speed as you wanted onto that without ever suffering any consequences.

If there are any items that should be fixed in the legendary card pack and campaigns of death, it is these offenders on this list, but none more so than the Counterweighted Axe, Red Ring and Silk Body Suit.