From Dungeons of Dredmor Wiki

[edit] Introduction

Damage is what happens when you hit your foot on the door a little bit too hard.

Whenever your character or a creature attacks, that attack deals a set amount of damage. In order to be successful in your adventures through the Dungeons of Dredmor, it would be a good idea to maximize the damage the character deals. To achieve this, you must use the benefits of stats, skills and equipment. It would also be a good idea to minimize the damage monsters and traps deal to the character; check out Damage resistance and Secondary Stats to find out how.

[edit] Damage Types

Damage comes in all sorts of flavours and colours, as seen below:

Icon	Name	Description	Monsters that resist it	Resistance
	Crushing	"Crushing damage is caused by maces, blunt objects, feet, rocks, and elderly gravy. It is affected by your opponent's armour."	Kleptoblobby	1
			Sanguiblobby	2
			Tuber-spirit	10
	Slashing	"Slashing damage is caused when you manage to get the sharp bit of the weapon to cut through the flesh of the other guy. It is affected by your opponent's armour."	Tuber-spirit	10
			Agar Aguardian	2
			Ectoplasmic Excession	3
			Plegmatic Animation	5
			Nether Cube	10
			Cosbian Horror	18
			Pectinous Tesseract	18
	Blasting	"Blasting damage, first discovered by Alfred Nobel, refers to any damage projected from the quasi-elemental plane of dynamite. It is affected by your opponent's armour."
	Piercing	"Piercing damage is caused when you manage to get the pointy bit of the weapon to stick into the other guy's flesh. It bypasses armour."	Robo	10
			Unfriendly AI	10
			Enchanted Plaguetato	2
			Golden Doom-Tuber	2
			Eldritch Tuber	2
			Tuber-spirit	10
			Butcher Yam	4
			Mummy	3
			Preserved Witch	5
			Red Lichess	8
			Agar Aguardian	10
			Ectoplasmic Excession	11
			Plegmatic Animation	14
			Nether Cube	15
			Cosbian Horror	18
			Pectinous Tesseract	18
			Lord Dredmor	10
	Conflagratory	"Conflagratory damage is inflicted upon your opponent when you manage to set any part of them on fire. It is not affected by armour."	Thermoblobby	4
			Lava Eely	24
			Magma Carrot	20
			Flaming Golem	30
			Flamer	20
			Big Red	20
			Lava Fish	8
			Red Lichess	5
			Lord Dredmor	15
	Hyperborean	"Hyperborean damage is inflicted by frost bite, frost demons, frost weapons, Frost Brand, and frost giants. It is not affected by armour."	Cold Carrot	10
			Icy Golem	20
			Ice Wyrm	16
			Snow Baal	12
			Cold Fish	5
			Entropic Elemental	5
			Mummy	5
			Preserved Witch	10
			Red Lichess	10
			Lord Dredmor	20
	Voltaic	"Voltaic damage is any damage of an electrical nature. It is not affected by your opponent's armour."	Electroblobby	4
			Lord Dredmor	20
	Toxic	"Toxic damage is everything icky, nasty, and poisonous. It is often inflicted by tiny Brazilian frogs. The frogs do not like you very much, and we do not recommend strapping them to your equipment. It is not affected by armour."	Toxiblobby	4
			Sickly Diggle	2
			Zomby	10
			Flaming Golem	10
			Unhealthful Golem	10
			Magicky Golem	10
			Steamy Golem	10
			Golden Golem	10
			Robo	10
			Unfriendly AI	10
			Enchanted Plaguetato	10
			Mummy	10
			Preserved Witch	15
			Red Lichess	20
			Agar Aguardian	3
			Plegmatic Animation	3
			Lord Dredmor	30
	Righteous	"Righteous damage is inflicted by holy weaponry, really pretty elven maidens, angelic beings, certain sorts of very mystical and holy crystals, and mineral water. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Fish Warrior	1
			Fish Paladin	3
			Cold Fish	5
			Lava Fish	7
			Sea Crusader	7
			Lutefisk Avatar	10
			Entropic Elemental	5
	Necromantic	"Necromantic damage is inflicted by necromancy, which usually means that you have a sword that drains life or turns people into zombies or something. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Fell Carrot	6
			Golden Doom-Tuber	1
			Eldritch Tuber	10
			Eldritch Slick	14
			Nether Cube	15
			Cosbian Horror	10
			Lord Dredmor	30
	Acidic	"Acidic damage is why you should always be careful when attempting to make a really large baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Blobby	3
			Kleptoblobby	4
			Acidic Slick	12
			Agar Aguardian	3
			Plegmatic Animation	3
	Putrefying	"Putrefying damage is inflicted by any attacks that cause your opponent's flesh to decay and rot, such as by attacking them with the vegetable crisper in a refridgerator. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Fell Carrot	2
			Robo	10
			Unfriendly AI	10
			Lord Dredmor	20
	Transmutative	"Transmutative damage is inflicted when your attack changes something into something else, like clean white linens into a very large drycleaning bill. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Golden Golem	10
			Magic Dragon	6
			Golden Doom-Tuber	10
			Lord Dredmor	10
	Aethereal	"Aethereal damage is inflicted when your attack damages using the power of the stars. We have absolutely nothing funny to say about this, because we take astronomy very seriously. So should you. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Enchanted Plaguetato	1
			Arboreal Wisp	10
			Ectoplasmic Excession	3
			Pectinous Tesseract	10
	Asphyxiative	"Asphyxiative damage is very hard to spell, and is inflicted upon your opponent when your attack suddenly causes them to stop breathing. This is usually accomplished by removing air from the room, and replacing it with gas, cabbage scents, or noxious cologne. It bypasses your opponent's armour."	Zomby	10
			Flaming Golem	10
			Unhealthful Golem	10
			Magicky Golem	10
			Steamy Golem	10
			Golden Golem	10
			Robo	10
			Unfriendly AI	10
			Mummy	10
			Preserved Witch	15
			Red Lichess	20
			Agar Aguardian	10
			Ectoplasmic Excession	10
			Plegmatic Animation	10
			Nether Cube	10
			Cosbian Horror	10
			Pectinous Tesseract	10
			Lord Dredmor	20
	Existential	"Existential damage: does it exist or not? We don't know, but your weapon may inflict it on somebody... if they exist. It bypasses your opponent's armour, if it exists. This tooltip is now going to go off and question its existence, read Heidegger, and weep piteously into a bottle of Dr. Sanin's New-Age Pilsner."	Zomby	10
			Agar Aguardian	10
			Plegmatic Animation	10
			Nether Cube	10
			Cosbian Horror	10
			Pectinous Tesseract	10
			Lord Dredmor	30

[edit] Guide

This is a general guide on maximizing the damage output of your character.

Skills like Axes or Unarmed Combat and Equipment are the main things which will increase your damage, along-side the Stats Burliness and Melee Power. These will passively increase how much damage you deal with every blow, but there are Stats like Critical Chance and spells such as Viking Strike which further increase the amount of damage you deal, occasionally.

Characters with Dual Wielding deal damage according to both the weapons they are wielding. For example, a character starting with the Axes and Maces skills starts with an axe ( 2) and a mace ( 2). In addition, the level 1 Axes skill grants a +1 to the axe while the level 1 Maces skill grants a +1 bonus to the mace, for a total of 3 and 3 . As another example, if you wield two maces (each 2) and have a single level of the Maces skill, then each mace is effectively a 3 weapon and this character deals 6 per melee attack. Characters that attempt to wield two weapons without dual wielding will have their mundane damage reduced to a third of the total.

Because of enemy armour and resistances some damage types are more effective than others, but the choice is usually very simple:
The best damage types are Righteous Damage and Aethereal Damage, as no ordinary monster resists them.
Slashing Damage, Crushing Damage and Blasting Damage are absorbed by armour, but if you expect to do enough to bypass armour then few monsters resist these.
Piercing Damage, Putrefying Damage, Existential Damage, Voltaic Damage, Necromantic Damage, Acidic Damage and Transmutative Damage are resisted by a limited number of monsters.
Hyperborean Damage, Conflagratory Damage, Toxic Damage and Asphyxiative Damage should be avoided as many monsters resist them.