You don't need a bow to fight at range. Any one-handed weapon can be thrown — daggers, axes, spears, torches and sickles — and if your hands are empty you can hurl rocks. No ability is required; anyone can throw, and the throw action can be bound to any key in Settings.
A thrown weapon has the same stats as its melee version, so a quality spear thrown still hits like a quality spear. The catch is range: the farther a weapon flies, the less damage it does, which makes throwables a short-to-mid-range tool, not a sniping one.
How throwing works
- Each weapon has its own speed, flight path and range — a thrown dagger flies flat and fast; a spear arcs and lands heavy.
- Damage drops with distance — commit your throws at close-to-medium range for the real damage.
- Headshots give no bonus on a throw — unlike a bow, where they do.
- A hit puts the target in combat mode, the same as any blow — useful for stopping an enemy from regenerating or fast-travelling.
- Throwables damage siege equipment, so they're handy for chipping a ram or catapult crew in a siege.
One pool, shared with your arrows
This is the part that catches people out. Throwing weapons all draw from a single shared pool — the same pool as your bow's arrows. Spend 75% of your arrows and you've also spent 75% of your throwables, and vice versa. If you've thrown half your daggers, you've thrown half your spears, axes and torches too.
- The pool regenerates slowly over time on its own, and faster when you wound or kill with a throw — exactly like arrow regeneration.
- Swapping weapons does not hand you a fresh load and doesn't speed up regeneration — there's no refilling by switching.
How many you carry
Base throw counts are low, but the same archery abilities that grow your quiver grow your throwables. The right column is with Marksman, Athlete and Not on My Watch all invested:
| Throwable | No abilities | Marksman + Athlete + Not on My Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Rocks | 6 | 15 |
| Daggers / sickles | 5 | 15 |
| One-handed axes | 3 | 15 |
| One-handed spears | 2 | 8 |
| One-handed torch | 3 | 10 |
Huntsman increases the *regeneration* rate of thrown weapons on top of that. One thing no ability touches: the time to wind up to a full-power throw and how long you can hold it at max are fixed — you can't spec faster throws. Plan the abilities in the Build Maker.
Throwing against cavalry
A throw is one of the infantry's answers to a horseman. A full-power (red) throw that lands on a horse slows it, opening the window for the line to swarm the rider — and mounted players can throw one-handed weapons too, so a horseman can answer another horseman. See Mounted Combat for the wider anti-cavalry game.