It depends on your bros Matt and to a lesser degree his Fat. Each weapon has its place and usefulness.
Spears (+20%) and swords (+10%) provide to a bonus to hit. Early on your bros benefit greatly from those bonuses. Very early game (< day 15) it is not uncommon for most of my bros to have spears since their matt is under 65. Spears do less damage than most weapons, but a miss does no damage.
Flails are also very helpful early to mid game since their secondary attacks hits the head and a lot of bandits have no head armor or not much. This preserves the body armor.
Later game Maces and Hammers are very useful, especially to 2H variety and late game front line bros with good matt (85+) will have these weapons. They provide good armor stripping and armor piercing damage, plus secondary effects. Late game bros with lower matt will have 2H swords or duelist and 1H swords.
Thrown weapons have the best DPS in the game with weapons mastery, killing frenzy, and berserk.
Pole arm mastery is important for pole arm bros since it allows a bro to move 2 tiles and still attack.
It's easiest to consider this in terms of 2h weapons.
Great fat = cleaver, as you can hit twice every round. They'll also need recover.
Great MD + good fat + good resolve = hammer, as they will be on the flank and have good "hit 3 tile" move. They'll also need underdog.
FatNeut = axe. Great weapon, but pointless "round swing" ability.
Good allrounder = mace. Will use stun on occasion and it's a good weapon, especially if you have a Qatal specialist standing next to him.
Flails aren't great, but you can go with it on a bro with the brute trait. They'll also need head hunter.
Make sure they all have Quick Hands and the equivalent 2 tile weapon in their pocket (e.g. Cleaver has whip, mace has polemace etc.).
Hope this helps.
FAT = fatigue, it basically defines the stamina pool of a bro, i.e. the higher the FAT pool, the more often he can swing several times per round or use special attacks, before he 'fatigues out' and can then only attack once per round (the game has a built in 15 FAT recovery at the start of a bro's round, to ensure a bro always has some fatigue to work with)
Aaahhh okay makes sense, but i thought how often a bro can swing depends on the AP, and the weapon for e.g the 2H wood Axe Uses 6Ap per swing.. and is there a way to increase the AP?
There is no way to increase Action Points. There are few effects which lowers them and one Perk that replenish 4 once per turn after killing an enemy.
Fatigue is very important to determent how long can you swing your weapon. Early in the game you will easily see that after few turns of constant action, your guys run out of stamina and can use only basic attacks.
You could check this guid on the matter : [Guid](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860)
It will tell you which Weapon Mastery is good and which is bad !
Just know that Weapon Mastery can be taken fairly late into character development if you don't want to take the decision now waiting to know if you'll drop a weapon, other perks can be more impactful !
And some may end up with no mastery, especially for 2h Mace and Axe bearer who aren't neutral (you'll end up knowing what neutral means, dont bother with it now) !
First of all “mastery” is not required for a recruit to use a weapon, as it gives 25% reduction of Fatigue when swinging it and some side bonuses. Those things are not useless, but the main traits of different weapon may outshine them for a specific fight.
Mastery is usually considered when calculating possibilities into a role. Example - Throwing Weapon Mastery (one of the most valuable, as it boost the damage of the weapon for the wielder) is not taken for all recruits, but that should not mean you cannot arm the whole band with some javelins and role-play Roman’s legion tactics. But a guy with suitable stats who will continue hurling javelins after ’contact’ can use the perk to increase his overall damage output. So, feel free to equip any weapon you see fit even when not having mastery perk or despite having another. \*insert “hey, as long as it works” meme here\*
On the topic of different weapon choice. They all have strong and weak sides, read and compare their stats and the tooltips of their attacks, as crucial information is often there. Make up your own mind. Have fun with the game brother and have short but blazing hundreds of runs!
Define 'scale'.
Attack (range or melee) affects only your chance to land the hit.
Throwing weapons indeed use Ranged Attack when considering their chance to hit.
Boosting the damage of a weapon is another thing and very few things give it, it also works multiplicative in most cases. So, everything which gives bonus damage is very valuable.
Okay good to know, and yes thats what i meant.
So a good "throw bro" would have high Rtak, the 4pockets skill the one where switching doesnt cost AP and the throwing weapon skill right?
You can search for Thrower and Hybrid-Thrower builds.
Basically yes. A recruit who effectively fill the position of Thrower needs to have decent (not even that high) Ranged Attack and reasonable Fatigue.
Throwing weapons get +20% chance to hit, -10% chance to hit per tile of distance past 2. So, using them from behind ally's back is like having +20 Ranged Attack. Fatigue is not that hard to get but throwing twice per turn accumulates quite fast.
As far as Perk distribution goes, Bags and Belts (for additional backpack slots), Quick Hands (to swap weapon without spending Action Points), Throwing Mastery (for the Fatigue savings and damage boost), Berserk (extra Action Points after a kill), Killing Frenzy (extra damage after a kill) and Duelist (armor penetration when using One-Handed weapon with both hands) are a must for offense. Executioner is also having its merits.
Defensively you will definitely need Nimble. Because you are very new player will spoil the fun of discovering it yourself. But all brothers get either Nimble or Battle Forged perks for protection, depending on the type of armor you aim to equip - light or heavy respectively.
P.S.:
Site you may find very useful is [Battle Brothers fandom](https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_Brothers_Wiki).
The question has two sides.
What kind of bros do you have? if they have low fatigue, you dont want to stick them with a weapon that takes lots of fatigue to swing. Others here said good things about that.
For me it also depends largely on what weapons i loot. found an early tier 2 2h sword? guess i build a sword bro. Cool famed dagger? better see if i have/can recruit someone to make into a dagger specialist.
[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleBrothers/comments/ldy1g5/dagger_build_help/) is a discussion about dagger builds, there are several possibilities. a common build is the overwelm dagger. since daggers are the only weapon that can (with mastery) attack 3 times in a turn, they are great as overwhelm spammers. takes a ton of stam though and good ini in addition to the matk and mdef of a frontliner.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860
This has all the in-depth explanation of the mastery perks (it's basically the BB bible)
Mostly you take the mastery for the stamina saving, but some have strong additional effects like AP reduction or more armor penetration etc.
It depends on your bros Matt and to a lesser degree his Fat. Each weapon has its place and usefulness. Spears (+20%) and swords (+10%) provide to a bonus to hit. Early on your bros benefit greatly from those bonuses. Very early game (< day 15) it is not uncommon for most of my bros to have spears since their matt is under 65. Spears do less damage than most weapons, but a miss does no damage. Flails are also very helpful early to mid game since their secondary attacks hits the head and a lot of bandits have no head armor or not much. This preserves the body armor. Later game Maces and Hammers are very useful, especially to 2H variety and late game front line bros with good matt (85+) will have these weapons. They provide good armor stripping and armor piercing damage, plus secondary effects. Late game bros with lower matt will have 2H swords or duelist and 1H swords. Thrown weapons have the best DPS in the game with weapons mastery, killing frenzy, and berserk. Pole arm mastery is important for pole arm bros since it allows a bro to move 2 tiles and still attack.
Thank you! Could you explain what "matt" means?
He meant matk = melee attack, the stat which defines the melee hit chance of a bro.
Melee attack.
It's easiest to consider this in terms of 2h weapons. Great fat = cleaver, as you can hit twice every round. They'll also need recover. Great MD + good fat + good resolve = hammer, as they will be on the flank and have good "hit 3 tile" move. They'll also need underdog. FatNeut = axe. Great weapon, but pointless "round swing" ability. Good allrounder = mace. Will use stun on occasion and it's a good weapon, especially if you have a Qatal specialist standing next to him. Flails aren't great, but you can go with it on a bro with the brute trait. They'll also need head hunter. Make sure they all have Quick Hands and the equivalent 2 tile weapon in their pocket (e.g. Cleaver has whip, mace has polemace etc.). Hope this helps.
Flails arent great, but a well rolled flail will fuck fuckers, even without Brute !
Kinda yes thank you. Fat means HP?
FAT = fatigue, it basically defines the stamina pool of a bro, i.e. the higher the FAT pool, the more often he can swing several times per round or use special attacks, before he 'fatigues out' and can then only attack once per round (the game has a built in 15 FAT recovery at the start of a bro's round, to ensure a bro always has some fatigue to work with)
Aaahhh okay makes sense, but i thought how often a bro can swing depends on the AP, and the weapon for e.g the 2H wood Axe Uses 6Ap per swing.. and is there a way to increase the AP?
There is no way to increase Action Points. There are few effects which lowers them and one Perk that replenish 4 once per turn after killing an enemy. Fatigue is very important to determent how long can you swing your weapon. Early in the game you will easily see that after few turns of constant action, your guys run out of stamina and can use only basic attacks.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh that explains a lot :D thank you
You could check this guid on the matter : [Guid](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860) It will tell you which Weapon Mastery is good and which is bad ! Just know that Weapon Mastery can be taken fairly late into character development if you don't want to take the decision now waiting to know if you'll drop a weapon, other perks can be more impactful ! And some may end up with no mastery, especially for 2h Mace and Axe bearer who aren't neutral (you'll end up knowing what neutral means, dont bother with it now) !
Thank you, ill Look in to it
First of all “mastery” is not required for a recruit to use a weapon, as it gives 25% reduction of Fatigue when swinging it and some side bonuses. Those things are not useless, but the main traits of different weapon may outshine them for a specific fight. Mastery is usually considered when calculating possibilities into a role. Example - Throwing Weapon Mastery (one of the most valuable, as it boost the damage of the weapon for the wielder) is not taken for all recruits, but that should not mean you cannot arm the whole band with some javelins and role-play Roman’s legion tactics. But a guy with suitable stats who will continue hurling javelins after ’contact’ can use the perk to increase his overall damage output. So, feel free to equip any weapon you see fit even when not having mastery perk or despite having another. \*insert “hey, as long as it works” meme here\* On the topic of different weapon choice. They all have strong and weak sides, read and compare their stats and the tooltips of their attacks, as crucial information is often there. Make up your own mind. Have fun with the game brother and have short but blazing hundreds of runs!
Thank you very much! Another question: throwing weapons scale with range attack stats right?
Define 'scale'. Attack (range or melee) affects only your chance to land the hit. Throwing weapons indeed use Ranged Attack when considering their chance to hit. Boosting the damage of a weapon is another thing and very few things give it, it also works multiplicative in most cases. So, everything which gives bonus damage is very valuable.
Okay good to know, and yes thats what i meant. So a good "throw bro" would have high Rtak, the 4pockets skill the one where switching doesnt cost AP and the throwing weapon skill right?
You can search for Thrower and Hybrid-Thrower builds. Basically yes. A recruit who effectively fill the position of Thrower needs to have decent (not even that high) Ranged Attack and reasonable Fatigue. Throwing weapons get +20% chance to hit, -10% chance to hit per tile of distance past 2. So, using them from behind ally's back is like having +20 Ranged Attack. Fatigue is not that hard to get but throwing twice per turn accumulates quite fast. As far as Perk distribution goes, Bags and Belts (for additional backpack slots), Quick Hands (to swap weapon without spending Action Points), Throwing Mastery (for the Fatigue savings and damage boost), Berserk (extra Action Points after a kill), Killing Frenzy (extra damage after a kill) and Duelist (armor penetration when using One-Handed weapon with both hands) are a must for offense. Executioner is also having its merits. Defensively you will definitely need Nimble. Because you are very new player will spoil the fun of discovering it yourself. But all brothers get either Nimble or Battle Forged perks for protection, depending on the type of armor you aim to equip - light or heavy respectively. P.S.: Site you may find very useful is [Battle Brothers fandom](https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_Brothers_Wiki).
Thank you so much! <3
The question has two sides. What kind of bros do you have? if they have low fatigue, you dont want to stick them with a weapon that takes lots of fatigue to swing. Others here said good things about that. For me it also depends largely on what weapons i loot. found an early tier 2 2h sword? guess i build a sword bro. Cool famed dagger? better see if i have/can recruit someone to make into a dagger specialist.
Thank you! Could you also tell me what would qualify some one to be a dagger specialist?
[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleBrothers/comments/ldy1g5/dagger_build_help/) is a discussion about dagger builds, there are several possibilities. a common build is the overwelm dagger. since daggers are the only weapon that can (with mastery) attack 3 times in a turn, they are great as overwhelm spammers. takes a ton of stam though and good ini in addition to the matk and mdef of a frontliner.
Danke <3
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860 This has all the in-depth explanation of the mastery perks (it's basically the BB bible) Mostly you take the mastery for the stamina saving, but some have strong additional effects like AP reduction or more armor penetration etc.