Lead Rod

Lead Rod

Type	Weapon
Type	Club
Level	4
Damage	18-27
Crit Chance	2%
Stats	Speed (−4)
Location	The Mines; Skull Cavern

The Lead Rod is the slowest weapon a farmer is likely to pick up, and the description does not oversell it. Four points of swing speed are gone, which is more than the Claymore gives away and enough to make a Dust Sprite feel dangerous. In exchange it hits for 18 to 27 and throws monsters as far as any club in the game. Crates, barrels and the occasional monster hand it out across a huge stretch of the Mines and the upper Skull Cavern, so most farms end up with several, none of which stack in the bag. It has a reputation as a nuisance, and the reputation is earned, yet it is also the hardest-hitting thing many players own when they first reach the frost floors.

The in-game description reads: It's incredibly heavy.

Location

The Lead Rod appears across floors forty to one hundred and twenty of the Mines, and again on the first thirty-nine floors of the Skull Cavern. Breaking crates and barrels is the common route, and the special monsters that occasionally appear drop it as well, so anyone mining those depths will find one without trying.

That abundance is the problem. Weapons do not stack, so a sweep of a few floors can fill several inventory slots with identical rods. Marlon buys them at the Guild counter, which is where most of them end up.

The floors in question cover the frost section and the lava section, so the rod turns up alongside Dust Sprites, Frost Jellies, Ghosts, Skeletons and eventually Shadow Brutes. Anything that drops on the way down is worth grabbing, since a trip to the hundredth floor pays in iridium and gems regardless of what the barrels hold.

Stats

Eighteen to twenty-seven is a real improvement over the shop swords of the same era. A Silver Saber tops out at 15 and a Cutlass at 17, so the rod simply hits harder than anything Marlon will sell for a couple of thousand gold.

Then the speed penalty arrives. Minus four is among the harshest figures in the game, and it means the farmer stands exposed after every swing. Against a single Frost Bat that is survivable; against a swarm of Dust Sprites it is how a farm loses a day's mining.

Knockback is the saving grace. The rod sits at the heaviest setting clubs use, so a struck monster is thrown clear and takes time to come back. Used patiently, swinging once and stepping back, the rod wins fights it has no right to win.

The ground smash is the other answer. Driving the rod into the floor damages everything nearby and pushes it away. Right-clicking and then quickly left-clicking fires the smash several times in a row, which is the usual way players stretch a slow club against something stronger.

Notes

Emerald at the Forge is the rod's redemption. Each forge adds two or three points of weapon speed and up to three can be applied, so a fully forged Lead Rod swings at a normal rate while keeping its weight. That turns a joke weapon into something genuinely usable, and it costs only gems and Cinder Shards.

Level four leaves the innate enchantments available as well, since those only attach at level ten or below. A roll that reduces weight is the wrong one here, because knockback is the rod's main strength; extra attack or defence is what the rod wants.

Most players never bother, and that is reasonable. By the time the Forge is reachable, the Galaxy and Dragontooth weapons are in play and nobody is nursing a Lead Rod. Its real life is the hundred floors between finding it and outgrowing it.

All Clubs

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Type	Level	Damage
Alex's Bat	Club	7	40-55
Dragontooth Club	Club	14	80-100
Dwarf Hammer	Club	13	75-85
Femur	Club	2	6-11
Galaxy Hammer	Club	12	70-90
Harvey's Mallet	Club	7	40-55
Infinity Gavel	Club	17	100-120
Kudgel	Club	5	27-40
Lead Rod	Club	4	18-27
Penny's Fryer	Club	7	40-55
Sam's Old Guitar	Club	7	40-55
Seb's Lost Mace	Club	7	40-55
The Slammer	Club	7	40-55
Wood Club	Club	2	9-16
Wood Mallet	Club	3	15-24