Not too long ago I created an adventurer in the current version named Asob Whiplessons, a male dwarf peasant; he has a large body, one large enough for him to singlegrasp a pike! He is not particularly important in the place I had the game spawn him in.
So long story short, I grinded his skills to legendary or near-legendary, got some good gear including his main weapon which is an iron greataxe which he uses with a copper shield, then grinded my skills some more then killed a troll, then 2 rocs and a giant alligator and giant snapping turtle, then went west and fought and killed a ribbon worm titan.
For a pretty long time I was using my iron greataxe against it; eventually I cut off both of its wings and its stinger, but it wasn't showing any signs of weakness; eventually my iron greataxe got lodged in one of its wounds, and I was forced to either use another weapon or risk dying as i struggle to pull out the iron greataxe; so I pulled out a steel mining pick that I traded some dwarf a bunch of meat and/or clothes for, and killed it in the first hit which hit the head, which tore its brain.
Then I went to an elven forest retreat and retired there for ~15 days, then I went to a bandit camp; strangely enough, there was only one single guy in that bandit camp; a dwarf necromancer, who was dispatched in one hit. I chose not to become a necromancer.
After that I went out further west to find a human town; that town's population was at the time, and last I checked, one goblin ranged weapon user and a goblin "commander", who is the leader of its civilization. When I got there the first time one goblin was freshly killed, but the killer got away. I soon went to an ambush tile * just north of the mostly abandoned houses and found a bunch of neutral goblins that started following me around, eventually they demanded I yield; I foolishly did then they started spitting on me, which kept missing or getting blocked. Then, they told me to drop my iron greataxe, then I took it out, stood up, and stopped yielding, and killed them all! After that I asked around about bandits and the like and went around and slaughtered bandit camps one by one; I got some good gear outta that, but nothing to replace my iron greataxe due to my skill in it. West of there was a human town with probably less than 5 people living in it, one of which was an elven leader of the civilization there. South of those human places were more elven forest retreats, I went there and slaughtered even more bandits surrounding them and (I think) got some more good gear out of it.
After that I went back north to that human town, and found the place completely empty, even the inside of the fort; presumably the town is completely empty now, all of its inhabitants presumably dead. I then decided to go northwest around a section of ocean that looks like a lake; it took me so long to go around that water that I had to sleep on a narrow beach where it was freezing(I made sure I was on a sand tile), or at least it would've been if I didn't have 3 campfires adjacent to me. I slept there for 8 hours and woke up "encased in ice", but for some reason I wasn't dead; thr campfires I'd made previously were gone, so I immediately created a campfire next to me, and somehow I'm still not dead.
After that I went further north, and went to a shrine, where I killed a bronze colossus with my steel mining pick by decapitating it, which actually didn't take that long, then I went a little northnorthwest to a cave whose entrance was occupied by goblins, probably using it as a makeshift bandit camp; of course those goblins aren't alive anymore.
Then, I made a mistake that could've ended my life. I went to the shrine where I killed the bronze colossus, set up a campfire or two, and went to sleep. I woke up getting hit in the head by a bogeyman, which bruised me; somehow I survived until I stopped being stunned by dodging out of the way of stuff, then when I got back up on my feet and had some bruises I killed the bogeyman, then I went to the cave entrance to find a place to sleep for the night, then unexpectedly, the sun started coming up, so I went northeast instead; there I coincidentally found a dragon's lair whose location was unknown to me before I came across it by foot. I went and snuck in there and ran out many times, but only four times did I attempt to attack it. The first time I tried to hit it, I snuck up on it and hacked at it very hard in the head with my iron greataxe; it just started bleeding "heavily", so I ran out of the cave and fast traveled a tile. Next time, I went back in and snuck up on it again, and I hacked it precisely in its throat, which surprisingly enough didn't cause any bleeding; it only tore the scale. I then ran out and fast traveled a tile again. The time after that, I went in yet again and snuck up on it, and that time I cut off its tongue, then ran away since it wasn't spraying blood all over the place; I ended up running away then too. Then the last time I fast traveled a tile and came back, I snuck up behind it, and swapped out my iron greataxe for a steel pike. With the first strike I stabbed it in the upper body severely hurt its middle spine, causing it to become a paraplegic on the spot. I then stayed there and ended up killing it, I think by stabbing it in the head but I'm not completely sure.
After that dragon died and I stole its three eggs(which I still have) I slept there for the night and went northwest and retired in a human village. When I unretired ~15 days later I went and started slaughtering more bandit camps. Recently I've gotten some pretty nice gear, including a <<☀silver flail☀>>, an <<☀iron shield☀>> , an <<☀iron pike☀>>, a silver whip, and some decorated masterwork socks, hoods, cloaks, and a pair of mittens too, thats where I currently am.
Now I ask you guys, is an <<☀iron pike☀>> better than a steel pike? Does an <<☀iron shield☀>> hit harder than a copper shield?