Axe

The Axe is a melee weapon added by the Royalty DLC that primarily deals sharp damage.

Note: Although classified by the Ideoligion Weapon Preferences as a 'Melee Blunt' weapon along with weapons that predominately deal blunt damage, its primary attack deal sharp damage. It is unknown if this categorization is a bug or intended behavior.

Acquisition

Axes can be crafted at either a fueled or electric smithy once the Smithing research project has been completed. They require 50 Stuff (Metallic/Woody, 500 for SMVs), 7,000 ticks (1.94 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 3.

Alternatively, axes can be purchased from any combat supplier or war merchant and found on raiders and some Empire pawns.

Analysis

The axe is roughly equal to the gladius, having the same material cost, crafting skill, and research requirements. The gladius has slightly higher average DPS (6.71 vs 7.52) and AP (20% vs 22%), but an axe of better material or quality will be superior.

The axe has an advantage, in that it uses the Cut to a greater extent (75%) than the gladius (37.5%). This causes the axe to have a higher chance to destroy the body part of the opponent, rather than reducing it to 1HP. To have a 100% chance of destroying the targeted body part, Stab damage types must deal 70% more damage than HP is remaining on the bodypart, where as Cut damage types needs only 10% more. Most likely, the gladius of the same quality will outperform the axe versus opponents with high body part health such as elephants, and the axe will outperform versus opponents with low body part health. Note that this is theoretical and no explicit testing has been conducted.

Crafting wise, Axes take less work to make - with axes requiring 7,000 ticks (1.94 mins) of work, vs 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) for the Gladius. In turn, this slightly reduces the Axe's market value.

Compared to more complex melee weapons, an axe is superior in DPS to a longsword of 2 quality levels below itself or worse, for example a Legendary steel axe has higher DPS than an Excellent steel long sword. All but the very best quality and material axes are inferior to almost all longswords, and all axes are inferior to longswords of good material and quality.

Another potential use is for ideoligion with the Melee Blunt set as Noble weapons, providing a sharp weapon option that grants mood buffs instead of penalties.

Material table

Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Handle (Poke)					Edge (Cut)					HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Wooden Axe	3.79	10.98%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	75%	6	2s	8.8%	3	25%	65	78
Bioferrite Axe	8.33	24.38%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	25%	19.5	2s	28.6%	9.75	75%	200	101
Golden Axe	5.34	15.63%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	11.25	2s	16.5%	5.63	75%	60	5025
Plasteel Axe	9	21.08%	8.1	1.28s	11.7%	6.33	25%	16.5	1.28s	24.2%	12.89	75%	280	505
Silver Axe	5.91	17.28%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	12.75	2s	18.7%	6.38	75%	70	525
Steel Axe	6.75	19.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	15	2s	22%	7.5	75%	100	120
Uranium Axe	7.16	23.03%	13.5	2.42s	19.5%	5.58	25%	16.5	2.42s	24.2%	6.82	75%	250	350

^{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 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