Gladius

The gladius is a melee weapon in RimWorld that does a moderate amount of damage, has a moderate cooldown, and deals sharp damage.

Acquisition

Gladii can be crafted at either a fueled smithy or an electric smithy once the Smithing research has been completed with 50 Stuff (Metallic/Woody) and 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) of work. It requires a crafting skill of 3 to craft.

Gladii can also be purchased from any outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or obtained from outlander and pirate raiders.

Analysis

The gladius is one of the most well-rounded melee weapons in the game, striking an excellent balance between damage per hit and cooldown, and not being too expensive either.

As is typical with any sharp weapon, gladius attacks cause bleeding, and generally fare poorly against armor when compared to blunt weapons. While the gladius is slightly better at nominal DPS, the mace performs significantly better against armor since it deals blunt damage, which puts the gladius in a tough spot. Plasteel gladii, however, offer excellent base DPS which establishes a slightly noticeable lead over a plasteel mace in this aspect; combining knife-like cooldown with spear-like damage.

Still, the gladius offers significantly more performance than the knife while not really being that much more expensive to produce, possibly even outclassing the knife as a 'budget' melee weapon - but again, the mace is still the better choice.

Against armor, a steel gladius has considerably worse performance than a stone club. Therefore, even wooden clubs significantly outperform a steel gladius in this department - and a steel mace offers nearly double the damage output. When factoring in plasteel, the gladius claws back slightly but still falls slightly short behind even the wooden club, so a plasteel mace is going to be leaps and bounds ahead.

Overall, the gladius is by no means a bad weapon, because it's actually a decent melee weapon, but there are better options out there just for forking out slightly more silver or ingredients. At the end of the day, the mace is to the gladius what the gladius is to the knife - even when factoring in plasteel.

Trivia

A gladius is the classic Roman centurion's shortsword. Along with the ranged pilum, it is one of two Roman weapons in the game.

Material table

Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Handle (Blunt)					Point (Stab)					Edge (Cut)					HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Material	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value [ExpandCollapse]
Wooden Gladius	3.84	11.18%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	75%	6.4	2s	9.6%	3.2	12.5%	6.4	2s	9.6%	3.2	12.5%	65	90
Bioferrite Gladius	8.81	26.33%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	25%	20.8	2s	31.2%	10.4	37.5%	20.8	2s	31.2%	10.4	37.5%	200	146
Golden Gladius	5.63	16.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	12	2s	18%	6	37.5%	12	2s	18%	6	37.5%	60	5040
Plasteel Gladius	9.52	22.73%	8.1	1.28s	11.7%	6.33	25%	17.6	1.28s	26.4%	13.75	37.5%	17.6	1.28s	26.4%	13.75	37.5%	280	545
Silver Gladius	6.23	18.55%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	13.6	2s	20.4%	6.8	37.5%	13.6	2s	20.4%	6.8	37.5%	70	545
Steel Gladius	7.13	21.25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	16	2s	24%	8	37.5%	16	2s	24%	8	37.5%	100	138
Uranium Gladius	7.53	24.68%	13.5	2.42s	19.5%	5.58	25%	17.6	2.42s	26.4%	7.27	37.5%	17.6	2.42s	26.4%	7.27	37.5%	250	380

^{Assuming Normal quality, for the effect of other qualities, see Quality.}

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Chance for attack to be selected, assuming only the weapon's attack verbs are considered. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder