Swords and katanas

[Hazmat616]

How have we gone this long and never got a katana at the very least? That’s a zombie trope staple. Mechanically they’d be classified as knives similar to how smgs are handguns so all those perks and such would apply to them. They’d have better range but less attack speed and heavily rely on stacking bleed and dismemberment with poor raw damage against armored targets. I’m thinking you could have the base tier be something makeshift like a sharpened lawnmower blade as iron and steel as a katana. Also these would probably not have the sneak bonus so there will be reasons to use them or knives of similar quality. Think bows vs crossbows.

 

[Jost Amman]

A machete sounds better for AZ.

 

[gofantasy542]

How have we gone this long and never got a katana at the very least? That’s a zombie trope staple. Mechanically they’d be classified as knives similar to how smgs are handguns so all those perks and such would apply to them. They’d have better range but less attack speed and heavily rely on stacking bleed and dismemberment with poor raw damage against armored targets. I’m thinking you could have the base tier be something makeshift like a sharpened lawnmower blade as iron and steel as a katana. Also these would probably not have the sneak bonus so there will be reasons to use them or knives of similar quality. Think bows vs crossbows.

I have felt for years that bladed weapons did not get enough love in this game. There are tons of people in the world that are sword collectors, myself being one, so I don't think it is unreasonable at all to think you could find them in houses, or even museums and such.

 

[Jost Amman]

There are tons of people in the world that are sword collectors, myself being one

That justifies, maybe, finding it as a "legendary weapon" (e.g.: like "gofantasy542's Katana") but in my opinion shouldn't become the norm, especially considering in AZ most people use guns.

 

[Hazmat616]

That justifies, maybe, finding it as a "legendary weapon" (e.g.: like "gofantasy542's Katana") but in my opinion shouldn't become the norm, especially considering in AZ most people use guns.

Sledge hammers are more nonsensical than a katana.

 

[zztong]

How have we gone this long and never got a katana at the very least? That’s a zombie trope staple. Mechanically they’d be classified as knives similar to how smgs are handguns so all those perks and such would apply to them. They’d have better range but less attack speed and heavily rely on stacking bleed and dismemberment with poor raw damage against armored targets. I’m thinking you could have the base tier be something makeshift like a sharpened lawnmower blade as iron and steel as a katana. Also these would probably not have the sneak bonus so there will be reasons to use them or knives of similar quality. Think bows vs crossbows.

I'm into this.

I'm not sure it matters, but my assumption would be that most swords we find in real life would be decorative replicas with low durability. I'd happily be proven wrong, and again I'm not sure that matters here.

 

[Jost Amman]

Sledge hammers are more nonsensical than a katana.

I disagree. If I had to squash zombie heads in an apocalypse I'd probably be able to put together a makeshift sledgehammer by using a shaft and a big rock, can't say the same for a katana. Also, sledgehammers can be found in hardware stores all over the place.

I understand that many players have this movie fantasy trope about katanas, especially after the huge success of the Kill Bill series from Quentin Tarantino, but to be honest, even in that movie, the main lady character had to travel to Japan and find a weaponsmith who still knew the crafting techniques for that weapon.

So, no, your example is not even remotely close.