Stick

The stick is one of the seventeen sword types available to players in the game. It can not be purchased from stores.

Pirates are given a free stick after the last sword in their inventory has dusted. The only other way to obtain a stick is to trade with a player who has had their last sword dust. The stick has the worst drop pattern in the game, as it is the most ineffective pattern that the Ringers could come up with (at the time).

Sticks are further weakened by the fact that guard and hilt colors are always red/red. Barring horizontal attacks (which will always be mostly red or mostly green), every stick will always drop mostly red on the left side, nothing but blue in the center and mostly green on the right side. This creates two additional problems.


 * Firstly, even the foil, the cheapest sword in the game, comes in dozens of color varations and many foes will not know which colors will fall on which sides until the first attacks land. The stick wielder forfeits this advantage.


 * Secondly, sticks never team well together in multiplayer fights. For example, if two differently colored swords attack one foe, the color differences in their drop patterns can create even more complex patterns when combined, even if both swords are of the same type.  This will never occur when two sticks team together.

The stick's only strength is one shared by all swords&mdash;instakills and near instakills can defeat foes while the attacks are still grey and the attack pattern is irrelevant. Frequently defeating human foes with a stick is a sign of superior instakilling abilities.

Sticks do not decay and will never dust. Some pirates are avid stick collectors and hold over 300 in their inventory.

Historical notes
Sticks were added in the game with. Prior to that, if a pirate's last sword dusted, they had no sword, and were given a red/red foil for swordfights.

Prior to pirates could not trash sticks held in the inventory, and they were not destroyed by acquiring a new sword. Other than keeping the sticks on the character, a pirate's only options were to put them in sword racks or trade them away.