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[Puzzlebark]

The wiki says that silver is very good for blunt weapons. Are silver blunt weapons better than steel blunt weapons?

[NullForceOmega]

Slightly dependent, silver is very good for warhammers, but steel is almost as good, copper is best for morningstars (somehow, and only a little), the advantage silver really has over steel is that it only requires a single stage of refinement (smelt native silver/galena/tetrahedrite to bars), whereas steel requires multiple steps (smelt iron bars, smelt pig iron, smelt steel.)

[Puzzlebark]

Ah, thanks!

[vjmdhzgr]

Slightly dependent, silver is very good for warhammers, but steel is almost as good, copper is best for morningstars (somehow, and only a little), the advantage silver really has over steel is that it only requires a single stage of refinement (smelt native silver/galena/tetrahedrite to bars), whereas steel requires multiple steps (smelt iron bars, smelt pig iron, smelt steel.)

Did you mean maces? Morningstars are edged weapons, and can't even be made by dwarves so you're not really likely to have much of a choice.

[Rekov]

The wiki has a decent rough guide on materials for different kinds of weapons.

[greycat]

As a first order approximation, it's fair to say that for blunt weapons, all of the metals you can actually use without a Strange Mood are equivalent.  Any differences you may have seen in testing (and all of the testing was done years ago, to boot) are lost in the statistical noise.

Platinum may be superior, but it's only available in a Strange Mood.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Technically, steel is better at breaking armour (since it's less bendy), while silver is better at breaking bones (since it's heavier). Bronze, copper, and iron are about the same effectiveness, with copper's weight overcoming its bendiness.

But it doesn't really matter, as others have said. A decently-trained soldier can take down about as many goblins with a copper hammer as with a steel/silver hammer. The quality is much more important.

[PopTart]

Now my question is, how much does a weapon's quality contribute to effectiveness?

[vjmdhzgr]

Now my question is, how much does a weapon's quality contribute to effectiveness?

With edged weapons it increases the sharpness, and it increases accuracy. Masterworks have double the accuracy, and artifacts have triple. Presumably the 4 quality levels between standard and masterwork go 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 in increases, but it's not explicitly known. For sharpness the standard quality is 50% of the max sharpness value of the material, and masterwork is 100%, artifacts also 100%. It might seem like it's not as important for blunt weapons, and it might be, but the increase in accuracy also most likely increases the effectiveness of the strike somewhat, based off of adventurer mode descriptions of attacks. Also double accuracy is a big deal for non-skilled soldiers.
I'll just also mention now that armor has the same increase to deflection as weapons have to accuracy.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Is a masterwork copper sword better than a no-quality steel sword? In general, does material or quality matter more?

[vjmdhzgr]

Is a masterwork copper sword better than a no-quality steel sword? In general, does material or quality matter more?

It depends on the skill of the user. If they're skilled enough to hit most of the time then it's material by far, but sometimes you just have a dwarf that can't really hit anything with their steel sword and the fact that it does significantly more damage doesn't even matter. This is why bone artifact weapons are worthless. Sure you might hit with it every single time, but you're not going to be getting any strong hits, and if they have any armor it's just going to bounce off. Same thing with copper compared to steel, except maybe when it's like, an excepional iron sword, up against a base quality steel sword. Then for blunt weapons most metals aren't too different so the quality is more what matters.

[Urist Sonuvagimli]

In ascending order:

Copper<Silver<Steel<Lead<Gold<Platinum<Slade

Don't even consider any other metal that is not listed above - its a waste. As for quality level, a "masterwork" weapons only get a 2x bonus to hit rate. However, armor/flesh penetration (damage) is based on the material: masterwork copper sword will hit more often, than standard steel sword, standard steel sword, on the other hand, will hit less, but easily pierce armor. Give all the masterwork copper to recruits, and standard steel to veterans to equalize odds.

Note, that Lead, gold and platinum are not weapon-grade metals, hence you can only have artifact maces/warhammers made from them.

Slade is the best material for this purpose, period. As it is impossible to even mine it (let alone make weapons) the only way to get a slade blunt is to raid a vault, grab a slade slab that is stored there, then use the said slab as an improvised bludgeon. Sometimes, if you get lucky, a gold or platinum slab might spawn in the necromancer's tower. Of course, there are always cheats, like dfHack.

[PatrikLundell]

It is possible to mine slade, but it's very slow, and since slade is neither a metal nor obsidian you can't make a weapon out of it. You can, of course, make a stone item of choice out of your slade and then send in your adventurer to pick up the slade mini forge toy. A more boring choice is to make a slab...

[Urist Sonuvagimli]

It is possible to mine slade, but it's very slow, and since slade is neither a metal nor obsidian you can't make a weapon out of it. You can, of course, make a stone item of choice out of your slade and then send in your adventurer to pick up the slade mini forge toy. A more boring choice is to make a slab...

Ah yes, now I remember that staircase trick at DFwiki. I guess slade toy hammer would make a decent weapon haha. As with the slab, I guess one way to be creative is to creative is to roleplay an insane priest as an adventurer, who spreads his (deity of death) words by beating them into the heretics with a slab o'commandments. Though shall kill!

 However, as with any exploit, I'd consider this cheating.

[greycat]

Is a masterwork copper sword better than a no-quality steel sword? In general, does material or quality matter more?

This thread was originally for blunt weapons.  With swords, it's a completely different matter.  A steel sword is vastly superior to a copper sword, especially against goblins (who will often show up in copper armor).  Steel can chop through the copper armor; copper can't.