Spear

The spear is a melee weapon that does a large amount of damage, has a fairly long cooldown, and deals sharp damage.

Acquisition

Spears can be crafted at any smithy once the Long Blades research has been completed, from 75 Stuff (Metallic/Woody, 750 for SMVs) and 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) of work.

Spears can be purchased from any combat supplier or war merchant, or obtained from several kinds of melee raiders.

Analysis

As is typical with any sharp weapon, spear attacks cause bleeding, and generally fares poorly against armor when compared to blunt weapons. Just like the club, the spear is a melee weapon that tribals use - but unlike the club, spears must be produced at an electric or fueled smithy.

Spears have the second highest base damage output out of all melee weapons, with the highest being the longsword. On that note, the spear seems to serve as a middle-ground between the gladius and the longsword, seeing as its damage output and cost also stands right between the two weapons.

It has a great advantage against armored targets, with the stab attack having much greater armor penetration, at 50% base.

Spear vs. Comparable Weapons

This section goes over how well the spear 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 spears 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

Steel spear vs.	Unarmored	Flak	Marine
Steel ikwa	50.95%	62.60%	72.85%
Steel gladius	46.40%	60.45%	69.60%
Steel mace	50.75%	44.15%	31.85%
Steel longsword	36.05%	42.30%	52.30%
Plasteel spear	31.63%	33.30%	35.50%

Plasteel spear vs.	Unarmored	Flak	Marine
Plasteel ikwa	49.35%	60.00%	66.90%
Plasteel gladius	49.00%	59.15%	67.35%
Uranium mace	48.75%	40.75%	25.70%
Plasteel longsword	36.75%	39.20%	46.10%
Steel spear	68.37%	66.70%	64.50%