Longsword

The longsword is a melee weapon in RimWorld that does a large amount of damage, has a long cooldown, and deals sharp damage.

Obtaining

Longswords can be purchased from any outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or obtained from outlander and pirate raiders. Longswords can also be crafted at any smithy (once the long blades research has been completed), from 100 of any metallic or wooden material, and 22,000 ticks (6.11 mins) of work.

Analysis

The longsword has the highest base DPS out of any weapon in the game; having a 22.5% higher nominal DPS than the mace, which is the most powerful blunt weapon in the game. Plasteel longswords are extremely dangerous weapons, and can handily cut down opponents, thanks to their gladius-like cooldown and enhanced damage per hit.

The longsword's primary disadvantage is that it suffers against the extremely high sharp-armor values of Flak vests and Marine armor. Against enemies with these armor variants, a mace of equal quality is usually superior, particularly if made of Uranium; even a humble club can often do the job better than a longsword against these armors. However, a plasteel longsword will still outperform a uranium mace against opponents with Flak jackets, Flak pants, or Plate armor, and longswords still reign supreme against unarmored or lightly armored opponents.

As is the case with any sharp weapon, longsword attacks cause bleeding. However, this has little advantage for the player since melee engagements are usually over long before combat penalties due to blood loss can kick in. It could even be seen as a downside, as any potential Prisoners will be more difficult to save from bleeding out, especially if your doctors are busy healing your own colonists.

Longsword vs. Comparable Weapons

This section goes over how well the longsword fares against comparable weapons (similar value, tech level or similar characteristics) in 1 vs. 1 combat.

Methodology

All testing is semi-automated which allows for large sample sizes to be gathered per set of results with ease
All pawns have a skill level of 8 in melee
No pawns have any traits that affect combat performance
All pawns are of 18 years of age and completely healthy

Results in the table below are the percentages of battles that longswords either won or tied against the weapon listed in the first column of said table, with a sample size of 2,000 battles per result. Higher percentages are better.

The following armor categories are:

Unarmored - Plainleather button-down shirt and plainleather pants
Flak - Steel simple helmet, flak jacket, flak vest, plainleather button-down shirt and flak pants
Marine - Marine helmet, marine armor, plainleather button-down shirt and plainleather pants