Pitchfork Bolt

A wide-headed ballista bolt that trades raw damage for a big hit area. The forgiving pick when your target is a moving player rather than a wall.

Table of contents

Characteristics

Category: Ammunition

Stack size: 3

Workbench: Level 2

Craftable: Yes

Researchable: Yes · 30 Scrap

Damage: 120

Bullet speed: 100 m/s

Overview

In-game description

A wide-impact bolt for a ballista, covering a large area while dealing moderate damage.

Hitting a running player with a ballista is hard. The pitchfork bolt makes it less hard: its head covers a wide area, so a shot that would have whistled past with a normal bolt still catches them. You pay for that in damage, which the game itself calls moderate.

So it fits defence more than offence. If people are crossing open ground toward your walls, or a small group has bunched up around a downed teammate, the pitchfork is the bolt that actually connects. Against a wall or door, load a hammerhead. Against a car, a piercer.

It is also cheap to make. The extra material is plain wood, so you can keep a full stack beside the ballista without thinking about cost, unlike piercers that eat your HQM.