I did not know if upgrading this tier 4 weapon a lot eventually makes it better than an upgraded tier 5 weapon. The in-game text is not clear on this. According to the fandom page, it appears the answer is no- https://pixeldungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Shattered_Pixel_Dungeon/Weapons#Runic_blade
Given that, I would like to know the reasoning behind this game design decision. Is this weapon supposed to incentivize players to wait until tier 4 weapons to start upgrading weapons with scroll of upgrade? Or is this weapon supposed to incentivize players to upgrade runic blade instead of upgrading a tier 5 weapon? The latter seems to not be the case, since tier 5 weapons with the same amount of upgrade seems to be stronger than the runic blade. However, the former may not be the case either, because if the beginner player does not know to wait on using scrolls of upgrade until they get high tier weapons or armor (instead of throwing them all into worn shortsword like I did originally), then the beginner probably does not know that this weapon exists either. So what is the game design decision regarding the effect of this weapon?
Thank you for your help.
Mainly runic is meant to be an option to access T5 scaling earlier in the game, at the cost of less base damage. While it doesn’t outpace a T5 weapon, it does outpace other T4 weapons.
It’s also worth noting that runic used to have stronger scaling, but I had to scale it back as its winrate was quite strong. In its current state it’s fairly well balanced, even if the effect is a bit plain.
I think it’s there just to give you one more option. Besides, it looks pretty cool B-)
When playing with a duellist-champion, though, the runic blade has a very attractive ability: it increases the power of its enchantment by a ton. Once I got a projecting runic blade, and I could hit enemies all the way across large rooms. Very entertaining!
I just want to note one thing, it’s absolutely valid to spend a couple upgrades on low tier gear, if the alternative is dying before you can get your hands on the high tier stuff.
And to me “This weapon benefits more from upgrades” seems pretty clear.
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Well, it seems pretty clear to me, just upgrade a T5
I’d say the appeal is that you get an “almost” tier-5 weapon that has lower strength requirements, and you generally find it earlier. This makes it attractive to dump scrolls of enchantment into it and have your end-game weapon relatively soon.
The other use is the dualist, as someone else mentioned. Some of the enchantments are extremely OP with an upgraded runic blade.
