Mastodon tusk

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

Acquisition[edit]

Butchering an adult^{[male only?]} mastodon will yield two mastodon tusks, unless the parts have been destroyed by damage. Only a full adult mastodon will produce tusks when butchered. All wild mastodon spawn as adults.

They can also be purchased from traders.

Summary[edit]

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

Analysis[edit]

A mastodon tusk is a decent, early choice for melee weapon. It requires no crafting and has no quality, so isn't reliant on having skilled pawns nor does it consume resources. 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 better melee weapons become available, and can be effective for longer if materials and/or skilled crafters are lacking. The primary difficulty comes in killing a mastodon in the early game, but the hardy leather and large amount of meat make it a valuable feat if it can be accomplished.

After the early game, tusks are out-competed by more effective melee weapons, but they are still a nice freebie that adds to the value in preferentially hunting and/or slaughtering mastodons over other big game.

Taming vs hunting[edit]

Hunting mastodons may be faster but can prove difficult or prohibitively dangerous, especially when herds turn manhunter. Taming mastodons is not without risk as they have a 10% chance of turning manhunter on failure. Slaughtering a tamed mastodon will still produce both tusks, along with significantly more meat and leather. Taming mastodons requires an Animals skill of 8.

Attack table

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Mastodon tusk		Point (Stab)					Point (Scratch)					Base (Blunt)					Human: Left & right fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value
6.57	25.75%	20	2.8s	30%	7.14	37.5%	20	2.8s	30%	7.14	37.5%	10	2.2s	15%	4.55	8.33%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 8.33%	200	120

↑ ^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 if the weapon is wielded by some other than a baseline human.
↑ Chance for attack to be selected, assuming the weapon is wielded by a baseline human. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder