Breach axe

Breach axes are melee weapons that trade general efficacy for extra damage against buildings, and are commonly carried by tribal breach raids.

Acquisition

Breach axes can be crafted at either a fueled or electric smithy once the Smithing research project has been completed. They require 50 Stuff (Metallic, 500 for SMVs), 5,000 ticks (1.39 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 3.

They are also carried by breachers during Tribal breach raids.

Summary

While weaker than a mace, the breach axe has a significant damage multiplier against buildings. The head attacks of breach axes deal Demolish damage which has a 10x damage multiplier against passable buildings and a 7.5x multiplier against impassable buildings such as walls. Thus, for base damage before quality modifiers, the head attack deals:

Passable buildings: 75
Impassable buildings: 56.25
All other targets: 7.5

Note that only the head's attack has the multiplier. As this multiplier is not taken into account when choosing which attack to perform,other, much weaker attacks may be used instead.

For the purposes of armor calculation, all attacks by the breach axe are considered Blunt damage. However, it is classified as a 'Melee Piercer' weapon for Ideoligion Weapon Preferences.

Analysis

Breach axes are very dangerous against buildings. Generally, this makes them much more effective when used against the colony than by the colony, as players will rarely need to break structures quickly.

A niche use may be against mech clusters, where the ability to access them in the early game and high building damage can aid in rapidly destroying turrets in a few strikes. At high qualities and with the right material, this can even kill the large turrets in a single strike.

Against other targets, the mace deals more damage, with same cost and research requirement. While breach axes seem to have a similar (but lower) DPS to the mace, the mace has a significantly higher AP. And because the mace has a stronger, but slower attack, it is more likely to destroy body parts. While blunt armor is typically low, the AP of even a Legendary Uranium Breach Axe is insufficent to invalidate the blunt armor of some commonly encounted enemies.

As all attacks performed by the breach axe do blunt damage, uranium is the ideal material.

Material table

Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Handle (Poke)					Handle (Blunt)					Head (Demolish)					HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Bioferrite Breach axe	5.67	10.35%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	12.5%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	12.5%	6.75	1s	9.9%	6.75	75%	200	83
Golden Breach axe	6.3	11.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	7.5	1s	11%	7.5	75%	60	5015
Plasteel Breach axe	7.09	10.35%	8.1	1.28s	11.7%	6.33	12.5%	8.1	1.28s	11.7%	6.33	12.5%	6.75	0.64s	9.9%	10.55	75%	280	490
Silver Breach axe	6.3	11.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	7.5	1s	11%	7.5	75%	70	520
Steel Breach axe	6.3	11.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	12.5%	7.5	1s	11%	7.5	75%	100	113
Uranium Breach axe	8.59	17.25%	13.5	2.42s	19.5%	5.58	12.5%	13.5	2.42s	19.5%	5.58	12.5%	11.25	1.21s	16.5%	9.3	75%	250	335

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

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Chance for attack to be selected, assuming only the weapon's attack verbs are considered. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder

Version history

1.3.3066 - Added.
1.3.3200 - Changed breaching axe's damage multiplier versus walls from 1 to 0.75 (so their damage versus walls drops from 75 to ~56).

Weapons