Skyrim talk:Dawnguard Rune Axe

Max Enchantment Damage

I've just watched a video and it seems the max bonus damage is 50. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWL0vR-Uro --Skyhirider 13:14, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

I just checked the game data and updated the page. Max bonus is 100 pts. The Silencer speaks^Talk 13:25, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

The video is also wrong. My axe has over 100 kills on it so far. — Kimi the Elf ^{(talk | contribs)} 14:09, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

So the axe will keep counting to who knows what point, but any kill after undead kill 100 has no further effect on the actual enchantment? And maximum sun damage is thus 110? Also, Florentius told me that the strength of the enchanment resets daily. Is this actually true?--Playerseekingbugs 05:12, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

To my experience, it seems that the damage keeps on growing past 100, but I can't be sure without further testing, with around 160 kills on it, I can kill a Draugr Deathlord with just 2 hits, and a Dragon Priest (Specifically Vokun) also suffered some pretty severe damage (at approximately 140 kills), for reference, I was level 1 with only about 40 levels of One-handed, as for the enchantment, IIRC Florentius says something along the lines of the power fading, unsure of what this means (might mean reset or just decreasing the kill-counter), but likely they haven't really implemented it yet 110.136.163.199 16:40, 13 September 2012 (GMT)

Yeah Florentius says something like "Arkay warns that its baneful power abates with the dawn," which sounds like the damage bonus from killing undead is supposed to reset every day, kind of like Dawnfang/Duskfang from SI. I only just got the axe, but from reading other posts, it sounds like this does not happen. Username12345 (talk) 19:28, 30 September 2012 (GMT)

I tend to agree that the sun damage does have a maximum, while the counter does not (so far as I've tested). Using summoned mistmen (I use my own summons to keep the environment controlled, always the same health), I was taking the same number of hits with my counter both around 150 and 250 (3 hits untempered, with 100 one-handed, level 81, and no perks or enchantments to aid one-handed damage). I hadn't checked them carefully any earlier than that, as I was using summoned bonemen to level the weapon. Scaled157 (talk) 00:44, 25 October 2012 (GMT)

Tips on rapidly powering this item up

Would it be a good idea to note on the item article that the Soul Cairn is an excellent place to charge this weapon? Every enemy you encounter is considered undead, and even at higher levels you will often find enemies with low health.--Playerseekingbugs 06:49, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Personally, I find getting Reanimate Corpse (I think Warlord Gathrik will always carry a tome) and perhaps some Magicka boosting gear works nicely, just keep your level low so that you can reanimate successfully every time, go to a dungeon inhabited by Draugr or Vampires, kill them as you meet them, then reanimate and kill them again, it works (strangely enough, reanimated non-undead doesn't count as undead for this purpose, I'm unsure how they count for any other purpose such as detect life though)110.136.163.199 16:44, 13 September 2012 (GMT)

I've also learned that you can use the Conjure Boneman, Conjure Mistman, and Conjure Wrathman found in the Soul Cairn to level this weapon. Boneman is the weakest, so it's the most useful. This method allows you to level the weapon anywhere, which allows a more controlled environment (and faster leveling if you can keep up the conjuring). Also, note that twin souls will not help with this (despite being able to take out both bonemen in one shot) because, I believe, the only kills that count are the ones where the axe actually strikes the target. Kills with area of effect sun damage will not increase the counter. Scaled157 (talk) 00:38, 25 October 2012 (GMT)

How the Axe Works

Just to make sure that nobody gets the wrong impression on this weapon, I'm going to post some things that I've found about this weapon :

1. Sun Damage means that it only affects undead, not just vampires, but any undead (including the ever-present Draugr and Skeletons, and even Dragon Priests)
2. The Sun Damage seems to affect an area, although I'm actually starting to doubt this, at Arcwind Point, hitting a skeleton in the middle of a tight group of them doesn't kill them all, this is with a kill-count of over 150 (I doubt the humble skeleton would have that much health)
3. Any undead adds to the kill-counter, even if the Dawnguards are specialized with vampires, this means that empowering this weapon is generally pretty easy, just delve into the nearest undead-infested ruin, and hack your way through
4. Reanimated creatures follow the same general rules, meaning reanimated undead (strange as it may sound) will add to the kill-counter, but reanimated non-undead don't somehow, also, reanimated non-undead are unaffected by the Sun Damage as well(thus the Axe become a humble axe in this respect, remain wary of those Necromancers)
5. Number 4 thus provides an incentive to reanimate undead enemies just to strike them down again, it denies the local necromancers of their resource, while at the same time it adds to your kill-counter as well (useful in places like Hillgrund's Tomb)

IMHO, this weapon is powerful, but not overpowered, and also practical, the Sun Damage blasts those around you, but doesn't affect non-undead, so it's companion and guard friendly, plus there is no impact unlike in Oblivion, and undead enemies are ubiquitous, even when we discount those raised by Necromancers

Would be nice if anyone would add to this110.136.163.199 17:06, 13 September 2012 (GMT)

I can confirm that the sun damage does in fact affect an area because I could kill two of my summoned bonemen with a single swing of the axe. However, the area seems to be based around the character, and not the creature you strike. I noticed this because when they were lined up, I would only damage one at a time; however when they were side by side (approximately the same distance, through several tests) I could kill them both simultaneously.

The counter continues to increase past the point where the actual damage increases. I was doing the same damage to summoned mistmen at 150 and 250 kills with no other changes in environment.

Rather than need to reanimate undead, the summon boneman spell (also mistman and wrathman, but they have more health) can be used to rapidly level the weapon as long as you can conjure. However it is not useful to use Twin Souls to kill two in one hit because only the one hit by the axe seems to increase the counter (those killed by the area of affect damage don't seem to add to it). Scaled157 (talk) 00:53, 25 October 2012 (GMT)

It says above that the axe is companion and guard friendly because the AoE sun damage doesn't affect non-undead targets. Would it damage Serana if she is your follower since she is a vampire? --Ignotus (talk) 03:24, 14 April 2013 (GMT)

Delayed reply, but yes, the AOE on the axe does affect Serana unless you cure her of vampirism, though she is set to esssential so it will not kill her.90.205.104.90 19:30, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Summary

I fail to understand the way it works. If my Dawnguard Rune Axe after tempering has 240 damage (Legendary) and 200 undead killed, how much damage does it deal against undead and vampires? Is it 340? 440? or something triple than that as Sun Damage itself gives triple bonus against undead? --Arkhon (talk) 05:22, 31 December 2012 (GMT)

Sun damage is not tripled against undead. It only deals the normal damage and none at all against non undead.

The bonus is capped at 100 and base sun damage is 10. So it is either 100 or 110 maximum sun damage... With the 240 basedamage in your example the axe would deal either 340 or 350 damage against undead and 240 against anything else.--89.13.21.120 00:00, 21 February 2013 (GMT)

Thanks for the explanation but it clearly states that Undead targets take triple damage... However, I'm still quite happy with the damage from this weapon. --Arkhon (talk) 05:00, 25 February 2013 (GMT)

The enchantment itself displays that, but the effect doesn't actually function that way in-game. This is noted on the Sun Damage effect page which you linked above. — ABCface^◥ 05:14, 25 February 2013 (GMT)

Breaks wards

I didn't see this mentioned, apologies if I missed it, but I think it would be worth mentioning somewhere on the page that this axe instantly breaks any ward spell an enemy puts up.90.205.104.90 19:23, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

Lock-In

Shouldn't the page discuss locking in the bonus sun damage? I don't own one for testing, but the internet is covered in references to this happening, where something stops the axe from resetting - the most popular method seems to be tempering it. Quindraco (talk) 06:16, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

It would discuss it if someone had ever brought it up. Some evidence other than "the internet says so" would help. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 14:54, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm curious as to the wording of "lock-in" because it makes it sound like the number can't change at all (increase or decrease) but the description says that the bug only prevents it from resetting, ergo, you'll keep powering it up with kills forever a la the Ebony Blade or the Glass Bow of the Stag Prince. Semigod (talk) 05:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Isn't it already well known that the bonus damage never resets anyway? Playing on the 360 with all updates, I think this was how it worked for me. Unless the Special Edition fixes it, in which case I'd think that should be noted on the main page. 174.238.15.78 16:22, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Total damage

This axe does max 300 damage to undead?! or is just 100 to everything? — Unsigned comment by 170.238.144.240 (talk) at 00:37 on 7 April 2020

Neither. When NOT powered its ENCHANTMENT does no additional damage . When FULLY powered its ENCHANTMENT would do +100 damage (or 125 damage if you have necromage perk) to UNDEAD ONLY. Ciberzombie (talk) 14:18, 11 April 2021 (UTC)

Quick Note About Bloodchill Cavern / Bloodchill Manor

The trophy room has a holder for the Dawnguard Rune Axe, Rune Hammer, and the Rune Shield

I'd edit the article myself but I don't know how.

(It's from the creation club if you don't know) — Unsigned comment by 68.106.21.55 (talk) at 05:52 on 5 March 2022

Hi, I've added this info in the notes section, thank you for bringing this up. Imperialbattlespire (talk) 11:18, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

Kill counter "bug"

It seems rather obvious that the so-called "kill counter bug" is not a bug, but rather a feature they were testing and decided against, seeing as having to scale a weapon's kill counter from 0-100 every day would be stupid. That info would be better served as a piece of trivia. — Unsigned comment by Cyan Ian (talk • contribs) at 01:01 on 14 September 2022 (UTC)

According to Florentius's dialogue, "Arkay warns it's baneful charge abates with each dawn. Something to keep in mind, I suppose." So whether or not they changed it in the end, the dialogue suggests to the player that that's how the axe is supposed to work. The counter actually does begin to reset if you pick up the version of the axe with a unique RefID stored inside the testPhil holding cell, so it most likely just wasn't implemented correctly. The Aetherial Crown actually has a script that replaces the one you craft with a copy from DLC1LDUtilityCell, and this could indicate that a similar trick was intended to make the Rune Axe's script work. Sickliff (talk) 23:15, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

I stand corrected. I was unaware of this dialogue. I've since found the dialogue of which you speak in quest DLC1RH08, so you are indeed correct. I don't recall however if this was corrected in USSEP or not. --Cyan Ian (talk) 23:56, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

As of now USSEP doesn't fix it, but it has been reported on their bug tracker. — Sickliff ^(T|C) 20:03, 15 October 2022 (UTC)