Crystal Dagger

Crystal Dagger

Type	Weapon
Type	Dagger
Level	4
Damage	4-10
Crit Chance	3%
Stats	Crit. Power (+50); Weight (+5)
Location	Chest at Floor 60 in The Mines
Price	4500g

The Crystal Dagger is the weapon that explains critical hits. Its ordinary stab is feeble, 4 to 10, but it carries fifty points of critical power and multiplies a critical hit by four instead of three, so every so often the little quartz blade hits like something four tiers above it. It waits in the Treasure Chest on floor 60 of the Mines, which is the first serious reward a descending farmer gets, and Marlon sells one at the Adventurer's Guild for 4,500g once that floor has been reached. It is widely considered the best dagger for the early game, which says less about its damage than about how much the crit bonus is worth at that stage. The blade itself is described as purified quartz, and it hits with the fragile elegance that suggests.

The in-game description reads: The blade is made of purified quartz.

Location

The Treasure Chest on floor 60 is the classic route and costs nothing but the descent. Reaching that floor also lights up a stretch of new Guild stock, so most farmers arrive with a list.

Buying one is the alternative. Marlon's counter stocks the dagger for 4,500g once floor 60 has been reached, which is a strange price for a weapon that can be picked up free one elevator ride away. It exists for farms that sold or lost the original, and for anyone who wants a second.

On a farm created with remixed mine rewards, that floor 60 chest might hold something else entirely, and the shop becomes the only way to get hold of the dagger.

Stats

The order of these numbers matters. The stab lands between 4 and 10. The critical chance is slightly above the common baseline. When a critical lands, the multiplier is four rather than three, and the fifty points of critical power add half again on top. The result is a weapon whose damage arrives in occasional bursts far larger than its basic hit.

Five points of weight supply knockback, which is unusual for a dagger this small and is the other reason it works. Most daggers leave the farmer pressed against whatever is biting; this one pushes a Dust Sprite or a Skeleton away as it stabs.

What the dagger offers beyond that is the class's natural stab rate, and nothing more: the crit payoff is the whole plan. Against the ghost and skeleton floors of the sixties and seventies that is a reasonable trade.

Notes

Jade is the gem that matches it at the Forge, since more critical damage compounds with both the x4 multiplier and the existing crit power bonus. Aquamarine is the cleverer choice, because the dagger's weakness is not the size of its crits but how rarely they arrive.

The same logic makes the Scout and Desperado professions a strong fit. Half again as much crit chance, and double damage when a crit lands, suit this blade better than almost anything else available early.

The four-stab special move stacks neatly with all of it. Holding the alternate attack locks a monster in place and delivers four rapid stabs, each one an independent roll for a critical, so the burst turns the dagger's lottery into four tickets at once. Against a single Shadow Shaman that is often enough to finish the fight before it starts.

All Daggers

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Type	Level	Damage
Abby's Planchette	Dagger	8	24-30
Broken Trident	Dagger	5	15-26
Burglar's Shank	Dagger	4	7-12
Carving Knife	Dagger	1	1-3
Crystal Dagger	Dagger	4	4-10
Dragontooth Shiv	Dagger	12	40-50
Dwarf Dagger	Dagger	11	32-38
Elf Blade	Dagger	2	3-5
Elliott's Pencil	Dagger	8	24-30
Galaxy Dagger	Dagger	8	30-40
Infinity Dagger	Dagger	16	50-70
Iridium Needle	Dagger	12	20-35
Iron Dirk	Dagger	1	2-4
Shadow Dagger	Dagger	4	10-20
Wicked Kris	Dagger	8	24-30
Wind Spire	Dagger	1	1-5