Hall of Blades
Template:Obsolete This article refers to the retired branch in earlier versions of Crawl. For the current iteration of the Hall of Blades, see Elven Halls.
The Hall of Blades is an optional single-floor branch accessed from the Vaults: 3-4, filled with randomly branded dancing weapons, the occasional unique enemy, and little else.
Layout
All versions of the Hall of Blades' floor plan are nearly identical, mostly differentiated by shifting its orientation 90 degrees or inverting the map. The hall is a single, large chamber with diamond-shaped pillars on each side and only one staircase (located in the center of the Hall) back to the Vaults.
Useful Info
For the most part, the only enemies and loot you're going to find here are the many dancing weapons you'll encounter. Go slowly, as the open nature of the level makes it impossible to create bottlenecks, and the fast-moving attackers are very hard to outrun. Fortunately the floor is sparsely populated enough that you can face them one or two at a time.
The dancing weapons themselves are not too dangerous when handled cautiously; melee fighters with high AC, several resistances, and a shield can handle them one or two at a time with little concern, though encountering a distortion branded weapon that lands a lucky hit and sends you to the Abyss is not too uncommon. Sneaky characters with access to invisibility can simply stab their way through, as none of the weapons can see invisible. Casters have the most trouble here, and should use non-elemental spells that have high to-hit or are completely undodgeable, such as Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, Airstrike, or Orb of Destruction. Low-accuracy spells like Iron Shot will take out dancing weapons if you can hit, but will have a hard time bypassing their EV, while elemental spells do minimal damage, making options like Fireball or Freezing Cloud a poor choice.
Be aware that unique monsters can spawn here. Along with the threat they pose, there are also two "boss" weapons found on either end of the Hall which function as the prize of the floor; while most weapons you encounter will be fairly common, these two will be one of the following rare weapons:
And they will have one of these brands:
How useful these weapons will be to you is largely luck of the draw. The Hall appears fairly late in the game, and if weapons generate that you don't have the skill for, you'll likely have no use for them no matter how tempting that vampiric executioner's axe may be. As such the Hall of Blades is completely optional, and players who have already found acceptable end game weapons often skip it entirely.