Axe

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

Acquisition

Axes are only available with the Royalty DLC active. Crafting an axe requires Smithing to be researched and a crafting skill of 3. It requires 50 Stuff (Metallic/Woody, 500 for SMVs) and 7,000 ticks (1.94 mins) of work.

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

Analysis

The axe appears to be inferior to its direct competitor, the gladius, in every way. Both weapons require the same amount of materials, have the same crafting skill and research requirements, and have the same cooldown (the one combat advantage the gladius has over the longsword).

However, the gladius does more damage per strike, has a better DPS, has higher AP, and weighs less. The only advantage Axes have is that their work to make is slightly less - only 7,000 ticks (1.94 mins) vs 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) for the Gladius, which in turn slightly reduces the Axe's market value, however neither difference is likely to ever be important when crafting.

An axe of higher quality will have a better DPS and may have better AP than a gladius of the same material, and a plasteel Axe will outperform a steel gladius in DPS and be only slighly worse in AP. Thus, it can be worth keeping axes of good materials and/or high qualities, but they should never be crafted for combat use unless a specific aesthetic is preferred over effectiveness.

Generally, an axe is superior in DPS to a longsword of 2 quality levels below itself but inferior to one of only 1 quality level below, for example a Legendary Steel Axe has higher DPS than an Excellent Steel Longsword, but lower DPS to a Masterwork Steel Longsword. The axe has AP superior to longswords of 3 quality levels below itself. Thus, besides in attack cooldown (a property shared by the gladius, which is superior to the axe), 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.