Elephant tusk

An elephant tusk is an item obtained from butchering an elephant. Tusks can be sold to exotic goods traders, or used as a melee weapon.

Acquisition

Butchering an adult elephant will yield two elephant tusks, unless the parts have been destroyed by damage.

They can also be purchased from traders.

Summary

Elephant tusks function identically to any other melee weapon, despite their unorthodox method of production. They do not have a quality value - all elephant tusks are statistically identical.

Analysis

An elephant tusk is a good choice for a early melee weapons. It requires no crafting, and it has no Quality value and is thus not reliant on skilled pawns. While it has a modest DPS, its AP is fairly high for the early game. It thus an effective choice until Smithing is researched and other alternatives become available. Potentially longer, if a death of skilled crafters or materials is experienced. The primary difficulty comes in killing an elephant in the early game, but the hardy leather and large amount of meat make it a valuable feat if it can be accomplished.

Note: If hunting an elephant proves difficult or prohibitively dangerous, elephants have a 0% manhunting chance on a failed taming attempt. Slaughtering a tamed elephant will still produce both tusks, along with additional meat/leather. Taming elephants requires an animal skill of 5. Only a full adult tame elephant will produce tusks when slaughtered. All wild elephants are considered full adults.

After the early game, the practical value of the tusk goes down as more effective weapons become available, but it still acts a free bonus to hunting or slaughtering elephants.