Speed (brand)

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Attacks with this weapon are significantly faster.

Attacks made with speed branded weapons take only 66% as long as normal. This leads to a theoretical increase in damage output by +50%, before the effects of slaying, auxiliary attacks, and AC. As it is irresistible and provides a large increase to damage output, it is one of the best brands in the game.

Note that flaming and freezing do not perform any better than speed against AC. These brands are applied after AC, effectively meaning they multiply the effect of AC for every hit. Just like how speed checks AC 1.5x, freezing would face (1.0x to 1.5x) the AC for every hit. The speed brand simply deals more average damage, so it is a direct upgrade to both brands.

The speed brand cannot be obtained via a scroll of brand weapon. It can normally be found on Short Blades, quarterstaves, and lajatangs. However, quick blades cannot have the speed brand. Various artefact weapons may also come with this brand:

• The captain's cutlass
• Arga
• Finisher
• Skullcrusher
• Zephyr

Notes

If a weapon's normal speed can't divide cleanly into thirds, then the speed of each attack will be rounded up or down in a weighted manner. Assume an attack with your lajatang normally takes 7 auts to complete. 66% of that would leave you with 4.66 auts, and the game would implement this by having each attack take either 4 auts (33% of the time) or 5 auts (67%).

Speed will increase the amount of auxiliary attacks performed. No other weapon brand boosts them, making this brand even stronger. Species with powerful aux attacks, like Vine Stalker, will especially benefit.

History

• Prior to 0.14, melee weapons with the speed brand dealt only 90% damage but their attack speed was 50% of normal.
• Prior to 0.9, melee weapons of speed dealt full damage. Also, ranged weapons attack speed was 50% of normal.
• Prior to 0.8, all weapons of speed reduced attack speed to 50% of normal (though this calculation was then rounded up, leaving some weapons attacking slightly slower).