| “ | The Impact Axe is the connoisseur choice for the dwarf of tomorrow. Compact and easy to carry, extends to full size upon throwing, and discharges a lethal burst of electricity upon impact with any living target. Can be safely retrieved by the user in case of bad aim. |
| — Item Description |
About
The Impact Axe is the Driller's default throwable. Reminiscent of traditional throwing axes common in Dwarven folklore, it is a double-headed combat axe. It starts in a retracted state while in the Driller's hand, then expands and deploys the blade when thrown. The handle is proportionally small compared to the axe heads.
By far one of the most unique throwables in the game, the Impact Axe excels at doing high damage to singular targets. Along with the very high direct damage, this weapon emits a burst of electricity in a small radius upon hitting an enemy. These two numbers combine to deal 240 damage with a single thrown Axe; among some of the highest single-shot damage in the entire game.
This is especially good on the Driller, for whom his primary weapons deal mediocre base damage and have trouble shutting down tanky foes who can withstand their fire (or ice) streams. Glyphid Praetorians in particular are easy prey for Impact Axes, especially to their weak spots on their behinds for maximum damage. One can also throw an Impact Axe into their mouth to immediately stop their poison spray attack.
There are numerous other benefits the Impact Axe boasts as well. They're great at stunning enemies due to their high damage, and a lot of them can be carried; eight at once, which is the most of any throwable in the game. Even in the event of missing an axe, they can stick to walls or floors and can even be retrieved by the Driller, adding the axe back in to the carried total.
Although the Impact Axe has many powerful advantages it also comes with hefty drawbacks. Its most obvious is the lack of area control; a tiny effect radius on the electricity burst means that the Impact Axe should only ever be used against individual targets. It can sometimes kill very tightly clustered groups, but this should not be relied upon. The axes can also be difficult to use for new players due to their unique nature. Even when mastering their trajectory, distant or flying foes (such as Glyphid Acidspitters or Mactera Spawn) are hard to hit with this throwable. Practice on slower foes like Praetorians before trying to hit more erratic targets.
| Direct Hit Stats (Part 1) | ||||||||
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| *Will not benefit from Weakpoints |
| Direct Hit Stats (Part 2) | ||||||||
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| *Will not benefit from Weakpoints or Frozen status |
| Aoe Stats | ||||||||||
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Usage & Strategies
Impact Axe Demonstration
- Despite being a ranged weapon, the Impact Axe is affected by perks which activate on "melee" damage such as Vampire, which heals the user upon killing enemies with melee damage.
- For this reason you can combine Impact Axes, Vampire and Iron Will for a powerful combo effect. When using Iron Will, kill an enemy with an Impact Axe to get health back and ensure you won't go back down when Iron Will wears off.
- When calling a Resupply Pod, if you have more than four Impact Axes currently carried, throw any spare axes into the ground before taking one of the resupplies. When taken, you will be resupplied back up to eight Axes but those which you threw into the ground will still remain. You can then retrieve those Axes after using your new ones, essentially allowing you to use more than eight Axes at once.
- The high stun chance of this weapon makes it great at cancelling channelled attacks, such as Praetorian poison spray or Menace acid spitting.
Stats Breakdown
Damage Breakdown
- First damage instance: Direct Melee damage
- Damage: 50
- Damage type: Melee
- Friendly Fire Modifier: 0.5
- Armor damage multiplier: 0.25
- Weakpoint Damage x0
- Second damage instance: Direct Melee damage
- Damage: 110
- Damage type: Melee
- Friendly Fire Modifier: 0.5
- Armor damage multiplier: 0.25
- Stagger chance: 100 %
- Weakpoint Damage x0
- Third damage instance: Explosive AOE
- Damage: 80
- Damage type: Explosive
- Full damage radius: 140
- Damage radius: 80
- Friendly Fire Modifier: 0.5
- Armor damage multiplier: 0.25
Interaction with freeze
When using the Impact Axe on a frozen enemy only the second part of the direct melee damage (the one doing 110 melee damage) will do x3 damage. The other sub parts of the attack will do normal damage.
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