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The Broad Sword, in the form of the "Shandy Gaff" weapon, is the first Great Sword blade and the seventh guaranteed blade available without drops (after Goblin Club and before Scramasax). A Large weapon, it has considerable range, but attacks slowly; this may have an affect on the player's ability to perform chains.

Broad Sword is one of only four of the Starting Weapons capable of a Progression, a superior combination with another of its type; the other three being Rapier, Glaive and Scramasax. The rest only devolve higher-Tier weapons; Spear is capable of passing on its Class and Affinity bonuses to a Scorpion, but the result remains a Scorpion. Broad Sword skips Norse Sword and combines with Katana to make Executioner, with another Katana being required to continue the progression to Claymore. With so few weapons to choose from at the start of the game, it is possible that this blade will acquire a great deal of Class bonuses, so it is worthwhile searching for a good combine target. A Katana is found on the Dark Crusader boss in Snowfly Forest (100% chance), another on a Crimson Blade Groundsgarde in Town Center South (26/255), and on four Orcs and one Orc Leader at the low rate of 8/255 in the Second Abandoned Mines.

The first Broad Sword blade is acquired in the The Lamenting Mother in the Catacombs; like most of the other guaranteed Starting Weapons, it comes from a chest. It is the reward for victory in a locked-door battle with a Ghost. The room has two versions, and the chest appears in both, but can only be opened to loot its contents one time.

Starting Weapon blades will acquire a great deal of Class bonuses, so it is worthwhile searching for a good combine target; some of the Starting Weapons can actually be made into a Broad Sword.

The skipping of Tiers makes Battle Knife a Volunteer. Broad Sword and Spatha, are also Volunteers, though of the Usurper type since the next blade in their Designs, Norse Sword and Scimitar, are skipped altogether and do not make any Progressions.

There is one caveat to progressing with Broad Sword, however, compared with using Spatha: all of the Broad Swords drops that you want to use will have to be acquired before fighting the first two Lizardman enemies in The Beast's Domain.

There is a pair of enemies in The Withered Spring just outside the first Workshop; the Ghoul has the Battle Knife (a HAGANE one, no less), and also a unique LEATHER Hauberk that cannot be obtained otherwise, even by crafting, and LEATHER Sandals that can turn any armor piece into leather for Divine Leather Armor crafting. Its arms are unarmored and so it is easy to kill too. Even the Zombie Knight in the same room has something special: the only Broad Sword drop in the game...and some unimportant gear: Ring Sleeve, Chain Coif, Ring Mail, that one may prefer to just throw away.

With Broad Sword, it is the first Tier weapon that is hard to obtain, not the third as with Dirk, and obtained in the same room in the same limited time frame. This is considerably easier to work with than Dirk, as Broad Sword is optional to use, a product of combinations with the Starting Weapons, not a required ingredient itself.


Combination[]

Dirk can be combined with Rapier or Gastraph Bow to make Broad Sword, but Dirk is almost as rare. Also, Rapier is a Progressive weapon, so although it can be used, like the Goblin Club or Hand Axe, to combine with the Gastraph Bow with the Gastraph Bow to make a Broad Sword, it is better kept to climb the Sword progression.

Progression[]

  1. Broad Sword skips the Tier 2 Norse Sword and combines with the third Tier Katana to make the fourth Tier Executioner
  2. Executioner plus another Katana will create a T5 Claymore.
  3. Claymore + Executioner = Schiavona T6
  4. Claymore + Schiavona = Bastard Sword T7
  5. Bastard Sword x 2 = Nodachi T8
  6. Nodachi x 2 = Rune Blade T9

Katana does not drop until Snowfly Forest, but it is a 100% drop from Dark Crusader boss. Through City Walls South to Keane's Crafts Workshop in The Keep; Combine it with the Broad Sword to make an Executioner. In Town Center South, kill the Crimson Blade Exequator in Rue Volnac until it drops another Katana; go back and combine it with the Executioner to make a Claymore. This will undoubtedly be the player's first Tier 5 weapon. After that, the optimal path to Progression depends more on the player; the countdown timer in Second Abandoned Mines adds an extra layer of difficulty to "farming" blades there, but Katana, Executioner, and Claymore all drop there. Or Schiavona drops easily, albeit much later, in Town Center East, and Claymore in the adjacent City Walls North. There is also a Schiavona in a chest in the room with the Air Elemental boss, and one drops 100% from the Ogre Lord boss, both in Limestone Quarry.

Integrating Starting Weapons[]

  1. Battle Knife, Spatha and Broad Sword are the potential targets of this process, and it is counterproductive to use them as an ingredient
  2. Dirks are very rare!
  3. Broad Sword Rapier and Glaive combine productively, and using them to create weapons that can Progress on another line is not recommended
  4. Higher levels of Daggers commonly combine with a blade to create Spatha or Battle Knife instead of Broad Sword, or for the same result. The lower levels are more frugal
  5. Combining the Wizard Staff Starting Weapon is impossible in the first playthrough because the Wizard Staff is SILVER
  6. Using two Starting Weapons at once reduces the number of potential lines, although it can be a powerful tool if Class or Affinity values are the same, as all the top values are retained. See All High

Two Starting Weapons:

Starting Weapon + X = Broad Sword:

etc


Stats[]

Broad Sword, like all Great Swords, is Edged Type. The Swept Hilt it comes with is Piercing type and is therefore unsuitable for the blade itself, but is perfect for use with the Rapier blade found earlier. The Rapier's Short Hilt is a good fit for the Broad Sword, but the Cross Guard hilt in the same chest as the "Pink Squirrel" Goblin Club is better.

Class, Affinity, Type, Damage Points and Phantom Points are all divided by four hundred and then multiplied by total Strength to determine Damage (Crossbow Phantom Points are divided by 800). For example, Simple Bolt has four Edged, and one Piercing (there is no such thing as a Blunt-Type Dagger, Sword, or Great Sword, so this stat on Hilts can be ignored entirely), for up to 1% times the value of Strength, compared with 3.75% for Minor Elemental gems such as Sylphid Topaz, and the same for Minor Nemesis gems such as Iocus. Broad Sword's Damage Points are 133 at maximum, which would add 33.25% to Strength. Its Phantom Points are 120 at maximum, adding 30% to Strength.

It is not possible to integrate the Starting Weapons into any combinations with Damascus until the New Game Plus, when the Godhands workshop is accessed.

Weapon Type RISK STR INT AGI DP PP Range
Broad Sword Edged 1 10 0 -2 133 120 4
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