Items

itemsJurassic War is a game of many items. They are as crucial to the gameplay as stats, spells and units. Legendary artifacts, powerful weapons, shields, regenerative crystals, instant healing food items and random useless junk. Each of them has a set of characteristics, strengths and weaknesses against certain enemies. This level of detail is rare nowadays. Weapons in the pre-alpha-demo gave some flat +x to OP, but in the full version… knowledge is power.

So here it is.


The first distinction is that there are mundane items and legendary items.

Let’s start with the former. These items can be bought and sold at an armory. To sell items, right click it in an inventory and click on the armory. The payment in food will appear in the unit’s inventory.
Choosing the food-storage results in depositing food and destroying the item!

The tribe armories selection of items changes from mission to mission, but here are the most often available items of the three blacksmith tribes. It is also the selection available in the multiplayer.

armories


Weapons and shields

Primitives attack with the same speed regardless of weapon choice. Even the animation is similar, excluding bows.
Bows are two-handed, the other weapons can be paired with a shield.

Craft times measured in an OBS-captured video on normal speed. Fastest speed is 3x times faster, so just divide it by 3.
Most of the numbers I got weren’t pretty and rounded, so I didn’t bother rounding them up.


SwordSword
buy 350/165 sell
(11.18s normal speed craft time)

Great against Primitive Men and Triceratopses
Good against Spellcasters
Quite good against Animals
Very good against the Moonlight Shield and Wood Shield
Good against the Sun Shield
(Relatively good against any shield because of innate bonus against Cavemen)

Weak against Rhamphorhynchuses

SpearSpear
buy 330/155 sell
(10.28s normal speed craft time)

Great against Dinosaurs, Rhinos and Mammoths
Weak against other animals
Blocked by Iron Shield

AxStone Ax
buy 310/250 sell
(10s normal speed craft time)

Good for hunting Curs, Leopards and Tigers
Good for destroying bases
Great against Sanctuaries specifically
Good against weeds

Blocked by Wooden Shield

BoomerangBoomerang
buy 500/200 sell
(16.16s normal speed craft time)

Great against magic units and flying units
Decent against Velocis, Trices and Carnos
Great against Moonlight Shield! Too bad both items are Kumba’s specialty!
One-handed ranged weapon

Low range
Weak against shields
Blocked by Wood Shield and Iron Shield
Expensive

Poison ArrowPoison Arrow
buy 400/175 sell
(12.38s normal speed craft time)

Stuns enemies for a split-second. Multiple bowmen can stunlock enemies.
A small bonus against Rhamphos (weaker than other bows)

Weaker damage than regular Arrows
No bonus damage against Elves, Dinos or Commoners (still stuns)
Blocked by Sun Shield
Generally a poor choice against shields in terms of damage, but still stuns!

Fire ArrowFire Arrow
buy 350/175 sell
(11.18s normal speed craft time)

Ignores Wood Shield defense
Surprisingly good against the Sun Shield
Great against buildings and Dilophosauruses
Good against Rhamphos

Decent against Velocis and Carnos
Blocked by Water Shield and Moonlight Shield
No bonus damage against Commoners

BowArrow
buy 350/175 sell
(11.18s normal speed craft time)

Great against animals and Water Shields
Good against Moonlight Shield
Good against Rhamphorhynchuses, Commoners and Builders
Small bonus against Elves

Doesn’t stun I guess
Boring compared to other Arrows
Weak against buildings

Wood ShieldWood Shield
buy 350/200 sell
(11.18s normal speed craft time)

Decent shield
Blocks Ax and Boomerang damage perfectly
Great against Arrows and Spears.
Decent against Poison Arrows and Hammer of Darkness. 

Weak against Swords
Useless against Fire Arrows
Useless against the Volcano Spear (which is lackluster against Primitives though)

Iron ShieldIron Shield
buy 400/190 sell
(13.07s normal speed craft time)

Blocks Spear and Boomerang attacks perfectly
Great against Ax of Darkness!

Overally very good shield. Very good.
And not that expensive,
Unless you buy it en masse.

Water ShieldWater Shield
buy 380/105 sell
(12.18s normal speed craft time)

Useful only against unarmed attacks, Fire Arrows and Volcano Spear
and somewhat against Poison Arrows

Looks cool!
Poor shield unfortunately
Doesn’t block spell damage
Low sell value I guess?


Food items

Snacks are eaten automatically when HP falls below half. So a fresh Muscle-Man eats when he has 35 health missing, a perfect candidate for a Herb. Or sometimes the AI hiccups and forgets about it, so yeah.
When a unit gets rid of all „food” food, it can pick up one more snack, but that is rarely a good thing.


foods…Food!

10 food – (0.25s normal speed craft time)
100 food – (1.20s normal speed craft time)
1000 food – (2.17s normal speed craft time)
10000 food – (3.10s normal speed craft time)

• Food is automatically hunted and collected when you move units into an area with game (as in „huntable animals”. I’m not sure tigers qualify as game in the dictionary, but it’s the Jurassic War after all)
• The amount you have stored is at the top (requires a storage to show in singleplayer)
• In the lower left corner is the amount your highlighted unit carries.
• You can take food out of storage, but it is hard to pick up large amounts without units storing it immediatelay. Bigger HP pool helps carry larger amounts of food.
• The food pile changes its appearance when it exceeds 500 and 1000 food.
• Maximum amount in a pile or carried by a unit is 65535.
• You can store food by right clicking it and then left clicking the storage, or the „store food” button between the attack and sleep buttons. There is no keyboard shortcut that I know of!
• Units leave themselves 50 food as „pocket money”. When ordered to store it anyway, they grudgingly do so.
• 60 food is enough to heal a max HP unit to full without sleep, so one unit of food heals about 4 HP. There is some ambient regeneration that is hard to measure and I guess that’s how the remaining 15 hp is healed.

Carried helps regenerate health. It happens automatically.
Stored is used to buy stuff.
Deteriorates over time if left on the ground.

Water PailWater Pail
buy 210 / 125 sell
Heals 10 HP/5 MP
In the armory of Kumba
(6.28s normal speed craft time)
Has a funny sound
The healing effect is too small to care, doesn’t even heal half a Commoner
The MP is even worse, 5 is enough for a Suicide spell, nothing else

AppleApple
buy 250 / 175 sell
Heals 20 HP/10 MP
In the armory of Kumba
(8.09s normal speed craft time)
Keeps doctors away
A single apple costs more meat than a leopard provides!
What a dystopian capitalist society!

HerbHerb
buy 350 / 225 sell
Heals 35 HP/15 MP
In the armories of Masai and Kumba
(12.01s normal speed craft time)
Makes it easier to relax
The only snack of the Eastern Tribes.
Most economically viable,
But it doesn’t matter much.
15 MP is enough for a single Healing spell. Which heals 20 HP.

Wild GinsengWild Ginseng
buy 450 / 175 sell
Heals 40 HP/20 MP
In the armories of Radumba and Kumba
(14.25s normal speed craft time)
Best food with a magical sound effect!
Expensive when bought for everyone.
A bit redundant as both clans are in the same alliance later on.
Not a banana >:(


And now the legendary items. Each tribe finds one in the fifth mission. The others can be found on the map. Items do not respawn.

The legendary weapons are very powerful compared to mundane equivalents. If a legendary weapon is „weak” against some type of enemy, it likely is still pretty strong overall, just pales in comparison with other legendary artifacts.

In multiplayer matches there is an option to turn on „events”, where a legendary item randomly spawns, followed by a prompt on-screen.


 Legendary Items

Celestial SwordCelestial Sword
Tyrano
(11.17 normal speed craft time)

Powerful weapon against anyone, especially Primitive Men.
Moonlight Shield is almost useless against it.

Good against dinosaurs, deadly against Rhamphorhynchuses.
Best damage against Shrooms and Weeds.

Quite good against spellcasters.
Can be crafted with a bug

Looks like taken straight from some anime
Somewhat weaker against Triceratopses
Lackluster building damage, but who cares

Moonlight SwordMoonlight Sword
Koaka

Powerful against spellcasters.
(If you can survive freezing, explosions, invulnerability and teleporting away that is)

Sun Shield is almost useless against it
Moon Shield is very weak against it
Great against Primitive Men.
Below average Dinosaur damage. Slightly better against Dilophos and Rhamphos.
Lackluster building damage, but who cares
The mission to get it is easy, scouting and snatching items is Koaka’s specialty.

Hammer of DarknessHammer of Darkness
Masai

The most powerful weapon against buildings. Yeah.
Weak against the Sun shield
Weak against Dinosaurs
Especially weak against Rhamphorhynchuses

Rock CrystalRock Crystal
Muspel

Helps Warlocks regenerate MP.
Stupidly spawns in Wizards’ inventories, where it is useless

Moonlight ShieldMoonlight Shield
Kumba

A more powerful version of Water Shield basically
Blocks Fire Arrows perfectly.
Relatively powerful defense against the Volcano Spear.
Very powerful overall
Best defense against Moonlight Sword (still takes solid damage though)
Looks very cool.
Weak against Celestial Sword.
A bit weaker against Sword.
Somewhat weak against regular Arrows.
Average against Axe of Darkness
Doesn’t block spell damage.

Mystical LiquorMystical Liquor
Canus

Helps Elves regenerate MP.
Stupidly overpowered
Stupidly overpowered

Volcano SpearSpear of the Volcano God
Radumba

Deadly against dinosaurs.
Also against Rhinos and Mammoths.
Ignores Wood Shield defense.

Still, worst legendary weapon against Primitive Men (well, better than a regular Sword).
Weak against other animals compared to other legendaries.

Damage mitigated by Water Shield, Sun Shield and Moonlight Shield. Ugh.
Worst legendary weapon against buildings.

Very weak against spellcasters. Boomerang is better!
On par with Stone Ax against Shrooms and Weeds.
Which makes it the worst Legendary Weapon against them.

Eye of the DragonEye of the Dragon
Romek

Helps Rangers regenerate MP.
Looks funny when you put two side by side
The mission to find it is not particularly hard or rewarding


Other (also legendary) Items

Skull StickSkull Stick
Helps Wizards regenerate MP.
A very rare item.
Not officially the Muspel Legendary Item, so it is seldom given at mission starts, and it not always is on the map whatsoever. Furthermore, no cheat can spawn it!

Ax of DarknessAx of Darkness
Powerful for hunting Animals.
Exceptionally splendid against Spellcasters. Second only to Moonlight Sword.
Great against Primitive Men. On par with Moonlight Sword.
Weak against Dinosaurs.

Sun ShieldSun Shield
The most powerful shield overall.
Unreal defense against Poison Arrows. They become weaker than punches.
Perfect against unarmed attacks, Arrows, Axes, Spears and Boomerangs.
Blocks Volcano Spear splendidly
Great defense against the Mace of Darkness
Best defense against Ax of Darkness attacks, but the Axe is strong vs Cavemen overall.

Best defense against Celestial Sword (still takes solid damage though)
Swords are a weakness somewhat, due to Cavemen Sword unresistance.
Fire Arrows are surprisingly good against it.

Useless against the Moonlight Sword (Worse than an Iron Shield)

Bone NecklaceBone Necklace
Absolutely nothing. Looks nice I guess.

Bone BraceletBone Bracelet
Nothing still. Takes up space.

Leather GlovesLeather Gloves
Sorry. Can’t even sell it.

Leather ShoesLeather Shoes
Also no. Junk like this appears when you try to cheat something useful.


These other legendary items may be all that’s left of the „twelve tribes” that inhabited the Island before the ones we know. They are hinted only once in the Romek campaign and so the rest is pure divination. I read on some Korean wiki site that considering Sun Shield and Ax of Darkness as legendary items of lost clans would give us ten items. Pairing the Leather Gloves and Shoes into a set, and combining Bone Necklace, Bracelet and Skull Stick into another, equals twelve legendary items of ancient tribes. That’s a stretch, but the alternative is just a plot hole with filler, useless items, so I prefer the Korean explanation :)


Skull Stick, Bone Bracelet, Bone Necklace and Leather Shoes (no gloves) actually gave some flat minuscule bonuses to stats in the pre-alpha demo version, Jurassic Primitive War. The stats there had maximum values (sometimes as low as 40 for the blue Akara tribe) so those extra points were rare and welcome (too bad they contributed to the overall max stats counter and effectively hindered growth, unless they were taken off for training!). Here’s proof, cursor points to MP of an Akara caveman:
Junk items giving stat bonusItems in his inventory, from upper-left downwards (as items are sorted that way):
Food, Stone Knife, Leather Shield, Arrows, Bone Bracelet, Bone Necklace, Leather Shoes and two (probably more) Wild Ginsengs, which look more like carrots than bananas here, I know.

The Bracelet gave 3 OP and 2 MP, the Necklace gave 3 DP and 2 MP.
Now the Skull Stick gave 2 OP, 2 DP and 8 MP, and it spawned right in the base of the magic-inclined and overpowered red clan of Romek.
The shoes gave a hefty 5 VP, which is a lot for the „special” Akara tribe, who have 60 as the absolute max (90 for Romeks).
I recommend trying out this version for a laugh, I have a link to download it somewhere.


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