The Spear, in the form of the "Rusty Nail" weapon, is the first Polearm blade and the fifth guaranteed blade available without drops (after Rapier and before Goblin Club). It is also the ninth guaranteed blade, a 100% drop from a Lizardman, but because a duplicate, not counted as a Starting Weapon. The second guaranteed Polearm blade Design, the actual ninth blade drop Glaive, comes from the same one-time, locked-door battle in The Beast's Domain in the Catacombs.
Like the Starting Weapons before it and the Goblin Club after it, it is not capable of superior combinations with other swords, and mostly devolves higher-Tier weapons. However, unlike most of the others, it will make an Equal combination, a Scorpion with another Scorpion. 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.
What little potential Spear might have had in the long term is made redundant once the second Pierce weapon, the Glaive, is found. Still, the Spear is still of immediate use, since Pierce weapons are by far the most powerful Type in the Three Blades strategy that exploits enemy vulnerabilities.
The fifth Starting Weapon is acquired in the The Hero's Winehall in the Wine Cellar; like most of the other guaranteed weapons, it comes from a chest. It is the reward for victory in Ashley's first encounter with the summoned armor autonomatons animated by Evil and the Dark.
Spear is one of seven Piercing Type Polearms, out of the twelve. The Spiculum Pole grip it comes with is about as strong as any of the Starting Weapons' grips, and unlike most of them, even has room for a Gem. It is an excellent Pole for the Edged-Type Glaive or Voulge or Bardysh, but it should be stored as soon as a Piercing type grip is found. This will probably be much much later; Polearm grips are very strangely arrayed in loot, with few good Piercing types available early on, and yet the very best pole of all available in the early midgame, in a chest in Companions in Arms in the Limestone Quarry.
Class, Affinity and Type are all divided by four hundred and then multiplied by total Strength to determine Damage. For example, Winged Pole has two Blunt, six Edged, and sixteen Piercing, for up to 4% 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.
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 | Range |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spear | Piercing | 1 | 8 | 0 | -2 | 5 |