Fabled Weapons

Fable® is the best-looking console RPG yet, with the most absorbing storyline since somebody decided that swords and sorcery go great together. But, let's face it; sometimes you just want to plunge into the thick of battle and beat the living daylights out of somebody, hang the graphics and high-falutin' role-playing!

Luckily for you, Fable’s got just what your combat addiction wants, a cache of weapons that any fan of sword-swinging would admire. However, not all weapons are created equal. So, to help you stop mashing buttons and get the most out of your weaponry, here's a strategic overview of the road to melee mastery.

Who needs armor when you have a greatmace?

"Caddy, hand me my cleaver."
Most RPGs follow a familiar pattern when it comes to melee weaponry: find or purchase a new weapon, compare its statistics to what's already in your inventory, and use whichever weapon boasts the highest damage value. Fable, however, offers a more varied array of cutlery than many games—ten different types in all—and learning to wield the right weapon is the key to victory.

Here are a few pointers:

• Melee weapons in Fable differ in speed as well as damage. Weapons like the axe, pickhammer, and mace are substantially faster and lighter than their bigger cousins, the greataxe, greathammer, and greatmace. Faster weapons allow you to strike more quickly and more often, and make it more difficult for your enemies to break up your combos with blocking moves. The Obsidian Hammer does more damage than the Obsidian Katana, but the Katana is much faster, so you react much more quickly when an enemy lets down his guard.
• Don't automatically discard less-damaging weapons when you gain improved models, unless you need to sell them to raise cash. Faster, lighter weapons are more effective against blockers such as Bandits, while slower, heavier weapons fare better against mobs. Nothing takes out a horde of Hobbes faster than a greathammer (unless it’s a master hammer)!
• Slower weapons hit about 30 percent less during long combos, but each hit can deliver devastating damage, so they're great against opponents that don't block, such as Trolls.

These guys don't block. But, then, they don't have to.

Material Melee Matters
Pay attention to weapon materials as you're building up your personal armory. Weapon quality plays a significant role in how much damage your longsword dishes out, or how fast your greataxe blocks incoming attacks. Each of the Fable weapon types comes in five materials. From worst to best, the five are iron, steel, obsidian, master, and legendary.

Each is a significant step up from the previous one, so use the highest grade of weapon material you can afford. Some weapons can be found inside locked chests scattered throughout Albion, and others can be purchased from shops and wandering traders. All weapons have a varying number of slots for magic enhancements, called augmentations. The better the weapon material, the more augmentation slots it has to offer.

"I'd hammer in the morning ..."

Better, Stronger, Faster, Sharper
After the third or fourth Balverine rips off your face, you may find yourself wondering why your spiffy obsidian katana and fly combos aren’t making mincemeat of the fuzzy menaces. Maybe it’s because you haven’t been augmenting your weapons. Find or purchase a silver augmentation—available in Knothole Glade, on the Hook Coast, or at the Old Graveyard Path, slap it on the katana, and suddenly you're a Balverine's worst nightmare! (Works great against Undead, too, since they're also highly vulnerable to silver.)

Iron weapons can't be augmented, but all other weapons of every type have a number of augmentation slots. The steel cleaver, for instance, has one slot, while the master cleaver offers three. And, Legendary weapons come with augmentations of their own, already built in.

Fable features eight distinct augmentations: Experience, flame, health, lightning, mana, piercing, sharpening, and silver. Some affect weapon damage against specific creature types, others generate increased damage overall, and a few don't affect weapon properties, but are linked instead to other characteristics. Like the silver augmentation, flame and lightning inflict extra damage on creatures vulnerable to these elements.

Sharpening increases total damage inflicted against all enemies, while piercing reduces the effectiveness of your opponents' armor. Health and mana regenerate those properties continuously. Finally, the experience augmentation, aka the Big Kahuna, grants you extra experience points. Don't waste your augmentations. They're not cheap, and once placed on a weapon, they're permanent!

Experiment with the different weapon types until you find the ones that are right for you. Just remember that Fable's armory is more diverse than in most games, and damage isn't necessarily the supreme factor in choosing your weapons. Weapon type, material, and augmentations should all be considered when you're about to enter a fight. If you make good weapon selections, then you should never hear any of your buddies making any comments about how you should "never bring a knife to a gunfight."

Article by Jason Carl