Which weapons should you use?

Day 398, 12:11 • Published in Ireland USA • by Michael Collins

So an article I read this morning inspired me to do this. As it turns out, Q1 weapons may in fact be the best weapons of all. It you figure yourself a mercenary, or just want to know how to increase your rank for the least cost, then read on.

First, this is the formula for damage:


Force = Strength value * Wellness influence * Rank influence * Weapon * Trivia

Wellness influence = 1 + ((Wellness - 25) / 100)
Rank influence = 1 + (Rank level / 5)
if you have a weapon => Weapon = 1 + (Quality weapon / 5)
if you have no weapon => Weapon = 0.5
Trivia = 1 + Trivia points/10


Holding everything else constant, you can work out how much of an increase in damage using a higher quality weapon will result in. I am going to ignore the case of having no weapon, and use a Q1 weapon as the "base" damage.

Moving from a Q1 weapon to a ... weapon will result in a ... increase in damage:
Q2 - 16.66%
Q3 - 33.33%
Q4 - 50%
Q5 - 66.66%

Moving from a Q2 weapon to a ... weapon will result in a ... increase in damage:
Q3 - 14.3%
Q4 - 28.6%
Q5 - 42.9%

Moving from a Q3 weapon to a ... weapon will result in a ... increase in damage:
Q4 - 12.5%
Q5 - 25%

Moving from a Q4 weapon to a Q5 weapon will result in a 11.11% increase in damage


So, if the cost of your weapon is the only cost of your fight (you aren't going to buy wellness packs), then buying a Q2 weapon is only worth it if it is AT MOST 1.16x more expensive than a Q1 weapon. Using a Q3 weapon is only good if it is at most 1.33x more expensive. Using a Q4 weapon is only good if it is at most 1.5x more expensive. Finally, using a Q5 weapon is only good if it is at most 1.66x more expensive.

Let's take a look at the Spanish weapons market, since Spain is big the market will be competitive:
Q1 - 5.99 ESP
Q2 - 10.27 ESP - 1.71x more
Q3 - 18.47 ESP - 3.08x more
Q4 - 26.75 ESP - 4.47x more
Q5 - 45.47 ESP - 7.59x more

As you can see, prices are extremely disproportionate to the actual benefit the higher quality weapons give.

Now, lets say you are also going to buy some wellness packs to fight. Each cost 2 gold, so the percentage increase in the cost of a fight is going to be less when moving up to higher quality weapons. Let's see how it works out.

Lets assume that the "damage" you do with a Q1 weapon is 1, and the cost of a Q1 weapon is 1 for simplicities sake. Then the amount of damage per 1 gold is

1 / (2 + 1) = 0.33.

The amount of damage you do with a higher quality weapon will be

(extra damage of that weapon) / (2 + (cost of that weapon))

So, for a Q2 weapon, we can solve for cost:

0.33 = (1.166 / (2 + cost))
cost = 1.5

That means a Q2 weapon must be AT MOST 1.5x more expensive than Q1 for it to be cost effective. A bit more lenient than when not buying a wellness pack.
For Q3, it must be at most 2x more expensive.
For Q4, 2.5x
For Q5, 3x

Looking back at the Spanish weapon market, we can see that Q2 comes close to being cost effective, but not quite. The others again fall very short.


You may be asking, "what if I own a weapon company, and use the weapons I produce for myself?"

Well, let's take a look at the production formula:


W = 1/2 * A * B * C * D * E * (1 / Z)

Z = Company quality
(the other letters don't matter here)


That means that Q2 is 2x more expensive to produce, Q3 is 3x, and so on. Again, not cost effective for the extra damage they would give you.


Overall, if the question is "Should I use high quality weapons to get the most bang for my buck?" ...

The answer is a resounding NO.


If I have made any mistakes please tell me.