Gladius

Gladius

"A short sword of ancient design. Good for stabbing or slashing. It's light and nimble, which sometimes lets it beat bigger, heavier weapons."

Base Stats

Type

Equipment – Weapons

Weapon Class

Medieval

Mass

0.85 kg

Ranged Combat

Mode

Melee

Melee Combat

Mode

Melee

Melee Attack 1

Handle
9 dmg (Blunt)
13% AP
2 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 2 

Point
16 dmg (Stab)
24% AP
2 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 3 

Edge
16 dmg (Cut)
24% AP
2 seconds cooldown

Creation

Crafted At

 / 

Required Research

Smithing

Skill Required

Crafting 3

Work To Make

12,000 ticks (3.33 mins)

Stuff Tags

Metallic, Woody

Resources to make

50

Technical

weaponTags

MedievalMeleeDecent

The gladius is a melee weapon in RimWorld that does a moderate amount of damage, has a moderate cooldown, and deals sharp damage.

Acquisition

Gladii can be crafted at either a fueled smithy or an electric smithy once the Smithing research has been completed with  50 Stuff (Metallic/Woody, 500 for SMVs) and 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) of work. It requires a crafting skill of 3 to craft.

Gladii can also be purchased from any outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or obtained from outlander and pirate raiders.

Analysis

The gladius is one of the most well-rounded melee weapons in the game, striking an excellent balance between damage per hit and cooldown, and not being too expensive either.

As is typical with any sharp weapon, gladius attacks cause bleeding, and generally fare poorly against armor when compared to blunt weapons. While the gladius is slightly better at nominal DPS, the mace performs significantly better against armor since it deals blunt damage, which puts the gladius in a tough spot. Plasteel gladii, however, offer excellent base DPS which establishes a slightly noticeable lead over a plasteel mace in this aspect; combining knife-like cooldown with spear-like damage.

Still, the gladius offers significantly more performance than the knife while not really being that much more expensive to produce, possibly even outclassing the knife as a 'budget' melee weapon - but again, the mace is still the better choice.

Against armor, a steel gladius has considerably worse performance than a stone club. Therefore, even wooden clubs significantly outperform a steel gladius in this department - and a steel mace offers nearly double the damage output. When factoring in plasteel, the gladius claws back slightly but still falls slightly short behind even the wooden club, so a plasteel mace is going to be leaps and bounds ahead.

Overall, the gladius is by no means a bad weapon, because it's actually a decent melee weapon, but there are better options out there just for forking out slightly more silver or ingredients. At the end of the day, the mace is to the gladius what the gladius is to the knife - even when factoring in plasteel.

Trivia

A gladius is the classic Roman centurion's shortsword. Along with the ranged pilum, it is one of two Roman weapons in the game.

Material table

Material	DPS	AP	Handle (Blunt)					Point (Stab)					Edge (Cut)					HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
			Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance
Wooden Gladius	3.84	11.18%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	75%	6.4	2s	9.6%	3.2	12.5%	6.4	2s	9.6%	3.2	12.5%	65	90
Bioferrite Gladius	8.81	26.33%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	25%	20.8	2s	31.2%	10.4	37.5%	20.8	2s	31.2%	10.4	37.5%	200	146
Golden Gladius	5.63	16.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	12	2s	18%	6	37.5%	12	2s	18%	6	37.5%	60	5040
Plasteel Gladius	9.52	22.73%	8.1	1.28s	11.7%	6.33	25%	17.6	1.28s	26.4%	13.75	37.5%	17.6	1.28s	26.4%	13.75	37.5%	280	545
Silver Gladius	6.23	18.55%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	13.6	2s	20.4%	6.8	37.5%	13.6	2s	20.4%	6.8	37.5%	70	545
Steel Gladius	7.13	21.25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	16	2s	24%	8	37.5%	16	2s	24%	8	37.5%	100	138
Uranium Gladius	7.53	24.68%	13.5	2.42s	19.5%	5.58	25%	17.6	2.42s	26.4%	7.27	37.5%	17.6	2.42s	26.4%	7.27	37.5%	250	380

^{Assuming Normal quality, for the effect of other qualities, see Quality.}

Version history

• 0.7.581 - Added as the Short Sword.
• ? - Renamed to Gladius from Short Sword.
• ? - Buffed from 15 point and edge damage to 16.

• 

  Original Short Sword sprite

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Weapons

Melee | Neolithic

Breach axe • Club • Ikwa • Knife (Jade) • Spear

Medieval

Gladius • Longsword • Mace • Axe • Warhammer

Ultra

Eltex staff • Monosword (Persona) • Plasmasword (Persona) • Zeushammer (Persona)

Improvised

Beer • Elephant tusk • Thrumbo horn • Wood

Ranged | Neolithic

Greatbow • Pila • Recurve bow • Short bow • Flamebow

Medieval

Nerve spiker

Industrial

Assault rifle • Autopistol • Bolt-action rifle • Chain shotgun • Heavy SMG • Launcher (EMP, Incendiary, Smoke, Toxbomb ) • LMG • Machine pistol • Minigun • Pump shotgun • Revolver • Sniper rifle • Hellcat rifle • Incinerator

Spacer

Charge lance • Charge rifle

Consumables

Doomsday rocket launcher • Triple rocket launcher

Throwables

EMP grenades • Frag grenades • Molotov cocktails • Tox grenades

Mechanoid

Heavy charge blaster • Inferno cannon • Needle gun • Thump cannon • Beam graser • Charge blaster turret • Hellsphere cannon • Mini-flameblaster • Mini-shotgun • Slugthrower • Spiner • Toxic needle gun

Structures

Autocannon • Mini-turret gun • Mortar (Weapon) • Uranium slug cannon • Auto-mortar • Inferno cannon (Turret) • Light charge blaster • Mini-slugger • Tactical turret gun

Related | Body part weapons

Prosthetic arm • Bionic arm • Archotech arm • Power claw • Field hand • Drill arm • Venom talon • Venom fangs • Knee spike • Elbow blade • Hand talon • Flesh whip

Integrated weapons

Grenadier armor • Phoenix armor