Hi there! For all my hours in Mordhau, I have been playing toolbox based builds currently for around 90 hours and I have been trying to figure out what is effective and what is not so that you don't have to. If you are new to using the toolbox I suggest you read everything but otherwise feel free to jump to the sections that you find interesting! There is quite a lot to read but even if you are a veteran, you might find something that you have missed.

The YouTube videos linked to the guide are very short. There are only two that are 30 seconds long and one that is one minute (has a notice within text), the rest are a lot shorter. If you happen to see any mistakes, leave a comment so that the error can be corrected.


Small updates here and there to respect the changes, added info for fire pots stacking in duration under section 3, updated the info for structure formations and builds to take into account the changes to anti horse warfare, new wall and spike behaviour and the Heater Shield mechanics.

Latest buffs:

• Spike friendly damage (not including the builder) capped at 25 max if not pushed by an enemy.
  
• Toolbox has now full 6 supply on spawn.
  
• Targe stamina negation increased by 1.

Latest nerfs:

• New state added for wooden walls: they now start in a disabled state like spikes.
  
• Heater shield nerfs to turncap and stamina negation.
  
• Having the Heater Shield in hand reduces movement speed to same level as 3/3/3 armor.

Other notes:

• No changes to the automatic build time or total health of wooden walls.
  
• Horde mode projectiles do less damage to players
  
• Axes do more stamina damage to shields than other weapons
  
• Fire pot functionality was changed, damage starts earlier but has a wind up before reaching the full potential.
  
• Autoban when enough team kills. Watch your mounted crossbow aim!

The practical effect of the changes:

The nerfs to the wooden walls were quire heavy, although, very understandable both from the view of realism and from the view of the receiving end. You cannot stop horses anymore with a surprise wall and you cannot fully block a hallway when retreating with magically appearing walls within a single second.

Overall, the changes to the toolbox were not directly a buff or nerf but rather a shift in playstyle and power. The immediate defensive use of walls was nerfed due to the added stage, but at the same time, you can now be a bit more liberate with the placing of your spikes without worrying about killing your team and you can place one more defensive structure directly after spawning.

The offensive use of walls against horses is now gone, but in return, you can always build a mounted crossbow after spawn, and you can always setup a full nest with a single resupply after spawning. However, that being said, the toolbox has now a higher skill floor and ceiling, meaning it is even harder to use effectively but it is possible to achieve even greater efficiency than before.

If you still want to surprise wall a horse, you need to make sure that there is enough distance to give you the time to put down your wall, switch to your tool and smack the wall once. Note that the wall is extremely hard to hit in the disabled state. I recommend aiming a right underhand or right overhead on the tip of the long plank next to your right leg. The strike must be accurately aimed or you will not get consistent results.

The changes to the Heater Shield were major. It can still be used with the toolbox builds, however, it does require constant awareness of your surroundings. You have to swap between holding it and having it on the back and you can easily be flanked by light armoured enemies while using it. For these reasons, I do not recommend using the Heater Shield with the Toolbox but recommend taking the Targe instead if you like a shield.

The toolbox costs 8 gear score to equip on your loadout. It can be used to build structures and mounted crossbows. Using the toolbox requires supply (kind of ammunition for the toolbox). Regardless of the game mode there is a limit of 6 structures and 1 mounted crossbow per player. If you build more when you have already hit the limits, the old ones will be automatically destroyed in the order they were placed.

There is a separate balancing in the game for the Horde mode. All the other game modes share the same balancing, therefore all the numbers discussed are considering the 'normal' values and the horde mode differences are presented in a separate section.

The toolbox initially contains 6 supplies when you spawn with it. You can gain 6 supplies by visiting a resupply box and there is a moderate delay before you can resupply that persists even if you die immediately after resupplying. You can carry a maximum of 6 supplies. If you resupply with any supplies left, you are kind of wasting your refills but sometimes it is better to waste a few supplies before a resupply box will be conquered by your enemies or when you absolutely need to head out.

All you need for building the two structures and the ranged weapon is the toolbox. However, you can speed up the build up of the structures but not the weapon with specific tools, more on that later.

Once you have the toolbox equipped and you have the necessary amount of supply, you can build with left mouse button and change the object by pressing R (alternate grip button), but only on flat surfaces with enough space. Once placed, there will be an assembly sound and the object will automatically build up. The automatic build is interrupted on damage, except for the mounted crossbow which still continues building through damage. Do note that the mounted crossbow option only shows up with 6 or more (horde mode) supplies!



The wooden spikes have 125 health, cost 1 supply and it takes 20 seconds for the automatic build. The build progress is indicated by sawing noises that rise in pitch as the build becomes ready. The spikes deal damage based on the magnitude of the player velocity directly towards the spikes so if you run nearly perpendicularly to the tips you can be as close as you can physically get to them without getting harmed. On a flat terrain, there is no way to jump over the spikes from the pointy end but with some elevation in the terrain it can become possible, although very risky.

The spikes will deal damage both to team mates and enemies, although, the friendly fire is capped at 25 maximum when not hit by an enemy player. However, the cap does not apply to yourself. The spikes will get damaged by friendly and enemy attacks and they can survive a single fire bomb if not damaged otherwise.

The spikes are exceptionally good for keeping horses away, slowing down troop movements and creating traps.


The wooden walls have 250 health, cost 1 supply and it takes 20 seconds for the automatic build. The build progress is indicated by sawing noises that rise in pitch as the build becomes ready. You can provide cover with it for your archers or block doorways and narrow corridors with them. One can also relatively easily stab with a spear or sword through the hole but it does require some practice and an enemy to stand quite near on the other side. The wooden walls can survive two fire bombs if not damaged otherwise.

The walls are exceptionally good for blocking pathways and providing cover.




The only weapon that you can build is the mounted crossbow / ballista. The devs were not able to agree for a name for it so if you use it you will see a health bar for mounted crossbow but your kills will be listed as ballista on the kill feed.

The mounted crossbow has 65 health, costs 6 supplies and takes 10 seconds to build. The build up process is indicated by 2 laud assembly sounds after the initial one, with the last one having more pause before it comes and indicating that the weapon is ready. It has a 5 ammunition clip that is initially full and recharges at 1 ammunition per 2.5 seconds as long as the clip is not full.

The mounted crossbow does 20 to 100 damage depending on the enemy armour and where you hit them and provides some small cover from projectiles when used. However, the mounted crossbow will deal the damage even through shields. The fire rate is quite fast but the arrows fly slowly and the turning angle is quite limited. One can also place a wooden wall directly in front of the mounted crossbow to provide extra cover from archers and shoot through the small hole, however, this will limit your field of view to extremely narrow.

Anyone can shoot the mounted crossbow but due to the limited turning angle, it cannot really be used against you. Because of the small health pool, it is often destroyed in a few swings once the position is overrun by the enemy or by a single fire pot.

The mounted crossbow is exceptionally good for shooting narrow choke points from short to mid range, but with practice and a good choke you can reliably hit far away targets. It is also a very capable anti-catapult weapon.

There are three tools in the game that allow you to repair all your structures, the mounted crossbow and fortifications in the Frontline game mode: The Wooden Mallet, the Blacksmith Hammer and the Heavy Handaxe. In addition, there is the smith perk for 1 gear score, which increases the repair and building amount of your tool by +50%. An important factor is to note that the smoke bomb will extinguish fires when thrown. However, it should be noted that fire pots do not stack in magnitude, only in duration so keep that also in consideration when saving your walls, a smoke bomb is not always necessary.

In order to speed up the build, you need to hit the actual object, which can sometimes be a bit tricky. Crouched overheads and uppercuts are your friend here. The smaller the health of the structure is, the faster you can build it up with the tools, with the exception of the mounted crossbow which cannot be sped up. Speeding up the build is essentially the same as repairing the object.

There are six levels of repair (and build up) speed that you can obtain:

• Level 1: 1 gear score - Wooden Mallet
  
• Level 2: 3 gear score - Heavy Handaxe
  
• Level 3: 2 gear score - Blacksmith Hammer
  
• Level 4: 4 gear score - Heavy Handaxe + Smith
  
• Level 5: 2 gear score - Wooden mallet + Smith
  
• Level 6: 3 gear score - Blacksmith hammer + Smith

The Wooden Mallet and the Blackmith Hammer are dedicated tools for building and repairing, where as the Heavy Handaxe is a weapon that has the same repair amount as the Blacksmith Hammer, is noticeably slower but has very good combat capabilities. The difference in speed between all the tools is very subtle when repairing or building the toolbox structures. For building and repairing the fortifications in Frontline, the difference is a bit more noticeable.

Here is a table showing how many seconds it takes to build/repair the stone wall from 0 to 100%:


The measurements were done with a stopwatch from initiating first strike to the last needed contact, so there is some measurement error in the data. It seems that due to rounding of the repair amounts, the Wooden Mallet gets lucky and obtains a bit bigger boost from smith than the others when building the stone wall. It seems that when you count in the swing time, you get the repairs done in around 30% less time.

The choice of your tool should be very simple: if you have a weapon, take the mallet, if you plan to not bring any other weapon, take the handaxe. Currently, there is no reason to pick the Blacksmith Hammer. The Heavy Handaxe costs just 1 point more and has so much more increased combat potential that will make your life much easier. For fast repairs, the mallet + smith combo is just around 1.3 seconds slower in repairing the sturdiest fortification than the hammer + smith and it is around 2 seconds faster than the plain hammer with the same cost.


The walls get holes and fall down as they are being damaged and spikes break down, they essentially go through the stages of building up in reverse when they break down with the exception of the mounted crossbow, which becomes more dirty and scratched looking when it is damaged.

The most effective tools against the buildings are all the different axes and the wrecker perk as well as fire pots. If you have a level 2 repair speed, you can keep up against a non-wrecker quite well if you happen to find a safe spot to hit from. A level 5 speed enables you to easily keep up with multiple structures and against multiple opponents.

When an object is destroyed beyond repair, it will be deleted from the game. The only exception is the mounted crossbow which splits into two parts for a while before disappearing.


That being said, there seems to be a miss understanding with the spikes for quite many. Very often you can see the spike sticks on the ground like in the figure on the right. However, the spikes are only disabled and a hit or two away from being destroyed. If you see spikes like this, you can repair them and activate them with a single repair strike, but remember, you must achieve a direct hit so a crouch overhead is your friend on flat terrain.

Interestingly though, the damage of the spikes is not affected by their condition with the exception of the last stage where they are completely disabled. The wall obviously gets more holes that arrows, spears and sword thrusts can slip trough.

The toolbox is very hard to use effectively and it is a very expensive piece of gear. Your combat capabilities will therefore be very limited. Throughout my testing, I have encountered a lot of players from my own team that are intentionally destroying buildings. There are also some who like to punch you out of the mounted crossbow so that they can use it instead.

The toolbox is also a great tool for trolling, which in turn makes the life of those who actually want to use it even more miserable as the general attitude towards buildings is very negative. Luckily the developers have been actively implementing ways to reduce all kinds of griefing with vote kick and auto ban features that have improved the gameplay for toolbox based builds quite a lot.


When you are getting team killed or an ally is destroying your buildings, there are few things to consider. First, make sure that you did not build a trap for your team mates or that you did not completely block an important route from spawn area to the next target. Second, make sure that you are not sitting around and building objects where it does not matter. Camping far from objectives and enemies achieves nothing and you will be even worse in value for your team than someone who went idle, because the game will automatically kick those people giving the player slot to someone else.

If someone is constantly taking your mounted crossbow, the best way to get it back is to hold your toolbox, go in front of the mounted crossbow and start spamming XX1 (Shake Fist) emote. It can also help if you are wearing the Peasant hat as that is the hat the default engineer class uses and seems to send a clear message. Do note that it is advisable for your team mates to empty the ammunition from the mounted crossbow while you are away but it is very dumb of their end to stay there when you want it back as they most probably have invested 8 points more towards combat gear or perks than what you have.

If the message is not received, the best option is to waste 6 supply, unfortunately, and build a new mounted crossbow. Try to avoid hitting the player taking your mounted crossbow as it will most probably end up in the other player starting a vote kick against you, and people in this game will most often vote yes when they see a vote kick due to the huge amount of trolling players.

Keep calm, and continue building.

I have used the toolbox in pretty much every game mode. It should be rather obvious that playing with a toolbox in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Skirmish should be done only for the memes, be sure to pick up the lute or frying pan to complement your style. Orange hair colour, huge nose and a floppy voice with the highest pitch are your only chance of successfully pulling it off. Although, you can create some nice arenas on 1v1 (duel) Deathmatch servers, for example, a bridge section enclosed with spikes so that if a player backpedals too much they risk getting instantly killed.

That being said, the more serious environments for using the toolbox are the Frontline, the Invasion and the Horde. The toolbox is very powerful in the Horde if used correctly, however, I have written a dedicated section for the Horde so the guide lines provided under this section were created with Frontline and Invasion in mind.

One should note that a toolbox build is a support build. Having too many toolbox users running around is not good for your team. The toolbox builds need regular builds to be effective and in return, correct usage of a toolbox can boost the performance of your team mates tremendously or even turn the tide of the battle.


You will rarely be on top of the score board with the toolbox, but if you always focus on the objectives and enemy siege weaponry, you can quickly notice that you do have quite an impact on the battlefield.

Invasion is much better for new players, as there is always only one objective and it is always clear if you should attack or defend. For this reason, I recommend practicing in Invasion if you are new to the toolbox, for a better gameplay experience.

In Frontline, your team will lose tickets based on how much the enemy has pushed in. Therefore, you can only turtle defend once you have 3 or more capture points. However, attacking is always a viable option regardless of the game situation, as long as you are not suicide running into the enemy team.

Whether you want to play defence or offence, always build the mounted crossbow, even if you do not want to use it yourself. The mounted crossbow is a very effective weapon when placed correctly and it is hands down the best bow in the game with the drawback of being immobile and having a high cost.

The mounted crossbow is en exceptional tool against catapults and sometimes even the fixed ballistas as it is sometimes possible to hit both, the siege weapon and the operator with a single bolt. You can also safe spot some targets that need to be destroyed before the next objective can be captured. For example, the barricades before Smith if you play red on Grad or the barricades (blue) / destroyable objects (red) on Taiga after the center objective has been captured by your team.

Here is an example of an offensive pressure as the attacker on Invasion (blue on Grad). I placed down some wooden walls to make it easier to carry the explosives and built a mounted crossbow for the pressure. I was able to control the zone and the enemy ballista, so we eventually got the objective with ease.

https://youtu.be/25LdLwJk4v8

For defending the objectives, block ladders, flanks and doorways, build wooden walls around structures that need to be defended and create some spikes around the hostages. Create wooden spikes and walls on the outer edge of your capture point for slowing the enemy down and preventing access to the control point if they start to approach it.

For offence, follow the front wave to an objective and if there are fortifications, hit all fortifications once so that you can see where they end. Lay down some walls and spikes so that it is hard for the enemy to push back in. You can really make the difference if you are fast and know what you are doing. If you cannot get to the point, provide some cover for the reinforcements.

When your lines seem to become very thin, retreat and resupply as your gear will not be optimal for a 1v1 and 1vX if you have a toolbox. If you play on Grad as red team, you can also quickly solo the Warden in the basement with the spikes after the Smith is captured as shown in the video below.

Note that you do not have to constantly repair the spikes, the spikes will not get damaged by the warden. I just like to swing my mallet.

https://youtu.be/ZBQHrqh_Qns

If you cannot get to the control point, a good temporary target is a resupply box that is on the way there. This is especially true for the maps Camp and Mountain Peak. The resupply box allows you to quickly set up a nest and guarding the supply box will help your team to push forward as it is quite close to the next objective.


With a full load of supply you can either create a single mounted crossbow or 6 structures. If you need to leave your buildings to get more supply from further away, there is a high chance that the battle has already moved elsewhere or that your buildings were destroyed by any player.

These are the type of formations that you can create with the toolbox with their common supply requirements. Decide if it is time to attack or defend, determine what you want to do and pick the items that suite your needs from the following list:

• Create a trap (1-3 supplies)
  
• Fully block a choke (1-3 supplies)
  
• Partially block a choke (1-3 supplies)
  
• Provide protection from horses (3-6 supplies)
  
• Provide cover on an open area (3-6 supplies)
  
• Slow down enemy movement (3-6 supplies)
  
• Add ranged pressure (6 supplies)

I will explain these in detail in the next few sections.

There are four ways of placing your structures: fully blocking, partially blocking, slowing down the enemy and providing cover.


You should only consider fully blocking a choke point as means of waiting for reinforcements and stalling the enemy. It is an active defence tactic and should be used only in a pinch. Do not just fully block something and leave it there, be kind and take it out before you leave... if you can.

A full block can be made on a narrow passage or a doorway and consists of only wooden walls side to side until the narrow passage is closed. A doorway takes one wall but bigger entrances take three. Do note that if there are any friendlies falling back you will sentence them to death if you close the escape route before them.



The main purpose of the partial block is to allow fast movement to one direction and block the movement completely into the other direction. The best way to do this is to use only a single set of spikes and fill the rest with wooden walls for their durability. However, you should use only wooden spikes if you plan to put your mounted crossbow behind the partial block as you can shoot over the spikes.

Sometimes, when you have many allies in front of you, it is best to leave the partial block open and only close it when the situation calls for it. There are two ways to do this, either place the spikes a bit further back so that people can walk around the spikes or leave a hole so that one can direclty run past the spikes. You can also use the wooden walls to prevent enemies from jumping over the spikes with high elevation. The hitbox of the wooden wall is quite large and it cannot be climbed over.




For slowing down the enemy, you have two options. Either spread your spikes around a field or create a line of spikes with some space between them. It is important to leave some space between the spikes so that your own allies can also retreat and the fire bombs cannot clear everything as fast. If there are no friendly archers or you want to also provide some cover, it is a good idea to use walls between the spikes but so that one can still move freely around.

This formation is only effective as long as you have allies around to fight the enemy. You should place a lot of these if you do not run around with a repair tool.




This is pretty simple, just place wooden walls around a field, doorway or a pathway so that your allies have some cover from rangers.



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You can spike against horses by placing 6 spikes here and there or on some strategic locations. If there are many horses giving you trouble, it can be a good idea to close a passage with spikes. Wooden walls work also and are a good option for simultaneously providing cover from ranged projectiles for a catapult operator.

The horse hit box is a bit wider than a player, so you can close a pathway so that infantry can freely pass through but horses cannot.

A practical example of spiking against horses, a rider was giving us trouble so I closed the path way with spikes:
https://youtu.be/UNbJmhUYayM

DISCLAIMER: creating a dedicated trap formation is mostly for your own entertainment. It is not an effective tactic in terms of winning the war but hey, video games are for entertainment so if you like trapping, this is how you do it. However, you can embed some traps into your other formations which do work, as long as your team mates care to leave them alone.


For creating a trap, you want to use spikes that are actually facing the direction you are coming from. Unfortunately, most of your team mates see the enemy colour when they see a spike pointing towards their face even if they could just walk past them.

The main idea is to place the spikes so that it is easy for the enemy to jump in but very hard to get out. You can kick or push the enemy into the spikes with a weapon if they stand in front of them or start backpedaling back where they came from. You can make use of wooden walls to extend the tunnel and allow for spikes to be placed also on the sides.


For the maximum effect, you should also build a mounted crossbow so that the enemy cannot just stand there on the other side and start to slowly chip away your spikes. Unfortunately, a single fire bomb is often enough to ruin a trap that has been slightly damaged. Therefore, I suggest taking the Heavy Handaxe with a smoke bomb so that you can counter that. Here is an example of an embedded trap with an open partial block.






Yes, this does exist in the game, an instant kill trap, and you can have at most 4 of them at the same time. It is not the most effective tool but it does give out some giggles when it works. On patch #6 the dimensions of the spikes were changed to a bit wider, which unfortunately also made this trap to be harder to build correctly so that it functions consistently.

Let me introduce you to the bear trap:


The bear trap is a consumable item that can be placed down. It will close on a player that walks over it, dealing 30 to 100 damage depending on the leg armour and always knocking the player backwards, with relatively high velocity. Team mates will always take a flat 50. Once placed you can go to a resupply chest and obtain an other one. A person can have a maximum of 4 bear traps placed on the ground at the same time.


You can build an instant kill trap by placing a bear trap under fully finished spikes as close as the game allows. If you place it before finishing up the build, you can actually have the bear trap so close to the spikes that it never activates. When correctly constructed, the trap will instantly kill a person walking to it from any direction as the fall down animation begins inside the spikes, instantly killing the person. Due to the spike dimension changes of patch #6 if someone slowly walks directly to the spikes from the front, only the bear trap will activate, making it a bit more unreliable nowadays.

However, it is completely safe to walk over the spikes from the non-pointy end. Only backpedaling in high armor over the spikes will harm you, and even then only the trap will go off and knock you away from the spikes dealing only the bear trap damage. If you crouch backpedal over the spikes it is completely safe, as the bear traps do not trigger if crouched.

Instant kill trap in action (with old narrower spikes):
https://youtu.be/TLMAyVI3x38

Here I see a loosing battle on the other side of the logs and do a quick setup. A random team mate gives a little push (again with old narrower spikes):
https://youtu.be/WRMZOatKylA

For adding pressure to a choke point, you need the full 6 supplies so that you can build a mounted crossbow. Place the crossbow near the choke and try not to shoot your allies. The crossbow is very inaccurate at long ranges due to the recoil and projectile speed but from a short distance, you can quickly kill the first few brave souls that dare to push through. However, due to the short reload speed, you can make some use of longer ranges if you practice a bit with the shooting.

A short example of adding pressure and working with the shield and spear:
https://youtu.be/i5jq2A4USas

As previously stated, the mounted crossbow is also excellent against the catapult. Hitting from the side is usually the safest but once you have the target locked on you can also challenge the catapult head on. It is extremely easy to hit the operator even from a longer range once you have shot a couple training shots.

https://youtu.be/6cIhY5ySpLs

After you have learned to build the basic style formations, it is time to mix it up and combine all your knowledge as seen in the embedded trap picture. Once you figure out the good spots, which depend on the map and the state of the battle, you can also try to convert your blocks and pressure points into nests.

Nests basically combine the pressure of the mounted crossbow with the stalling and trapping capabilities of the other structures. There is no single correct way to build them. Here are few examples of two extremes, one small one and one of the largest you can build:

An example of a small nest, the choke is partially blocked by using spikes and the mounted crossbow:
https://youtu.be/XyhY4osLmYQ

One of the largest nests one can build, combining partial blocks and instant kill traps, a single bear trap was also used to provide slight cover from a flank:
https://youtu.be/yhb2c5q7qPU

Here is an example of using doors so that the ladder and the doorway is partially blocked, while still allowing for ease of entrance from the safe side. If you want to spare supply you can also just spike the doorway and people can crouch walk over the spikes to get into the tower but then the spikes are also easier to destroy from the safety of the corners.

The battles in Frontline are often very dynamic. For this reason, you don't actually even need to care about repairs if you don't want to. However, if you are defending in Invasion, I strongly recommend to pick something that you can repair with into your loadout.

If you want to repair the map structures properly, you should invest to the smith or use the heavy handaxe, but if you only want to repair some damaged spikes and walls you can get away with any tool you like.

The toolbox itself already takes up one slot and half the available gear score leaving you with 8. If you take the Wooden Mallet with Smith, you are left with 6 gear scores and one slot, which is not a lot. There are a few more different gear options and play styles if you just leave the tool out as you can then use a total of 8 points and 2 slots towards weaponry and some armour.

The wooden mallets can also be picked up from the battlefields, here is a link to the mallet location guide by Arrav VII. It might be handy to know a few locations if you decide to not take one at spawn.


If you take the pure engineer route of bringing in a hammer/mallet and a toolbox, your combat capabilities are very limited. It is hard to get a lot of efficiency out of the combination and don't expect to be anywhere near the top of the score board.

This is more of a support build in a sense that you are trying to shut off flanks and create cover for your allies. You can leave the third slot open for picking up a weapon that might be on the ground or invest in a throwable and do the same with a bit less armour.


If you want to build a lot, you should quickly realise that you are constantly running for the supplies. The front of the battle keeps actively moving so you either need to reposition or rebuild a lot. While you are at it, you might as well grab a medic bag that you can throw for your allies to heal or a throwable that you can use against the enemies. This way, you can at least get some extra value for constantly running to the resupply create and back to the structures.

I recommend 1/1/1 or 1/1/0 armor here for the running speed. The smoke bomb can be used for meme spiking (throw smoke and quickly build a few spikes) but your enemies will learn very fast to be cautious with the smoke so don't expect to land many kills. A fire pot is my personal favourite here as you can throw it behind enemies so that they are stuck between the fire and your spikes.


This is the build you want to use if you want to create the instant kill traps. Here I would suggest to take the Heavy Handaxe as well as you rely on keeping those walls and spikes intact for the traps to work and it provides good self defence capabilities. This play style is more for the fun of the instant kills and is not that effective towards winning the war. However, it is a good source of some giggles. Try to kite your enemies to the bear traps.


If you leave the tool out, you have just enough supply for a recurve bow or a crossbow, leaving you with 1 more gear score to spend. That being said, you will have no armour so I suggest picking the crossbow for the range. However, I do not recommend this build as all the objects you can build are more effective the closer to the enemy they are. You will achieve a lot more if you just leave the toolbox out and take a pavise shield and a backup melee weapon, leading to a quite similar play style but allowing for better perks and armour.


The shields do help a bit by increasing your survivability but be careful of kicks and enemies that can get around you. I strongly recommend you to consider picking up a shield if you like to battle engineer. The best choice is the Targe. The Heater Shield provides a constant block but it is very easy to get around for experienced and light armoured players so be careful. The Targe provides a better and more flexible parry, and is much better at keeping you mobile. However, if you decide to take the Heater Shield, remember to only have it in hand when you need it.


Short spear and shield is an extremely versatile combo. The damage is not huge but the relatively long reach of the short spear combined with the protection of the shield will make it very safe to get that damage in. You can also take a mallet with smith instead of the shield if you want to do better repairs.

If you do take the shield, I recommend on lurking for those chokes and focusing on building mounted crossbows. When you see a battle moving into a choke point, drop the mounted crossbow, go poke for a few seconds and then start shooting the enemy heads.

This is a very active toolbox build. If you are decent with your combat awareness you should be able to take part in the battles quite well in addition to applying that extra pressure to the choke points or blocking them if needed, either with a quick full block or partial block. Just remember that you still do have low armour, so do not dive in too deep, pick your engagement timings and try to go for those pokes from the side.

On top of everything, you can of course throw the spear to finish off a fleeing enemy or land a kill on an unsuspecting archer. Just make sure that if you miss the throw, there is something to stop your spear as the weapons do have a relatively short timer before they disappear, not giving you too much time to pick it up.

This is one of the three builds that allow you to build and actively participate in melee combat. Just try to avoid a pure 1v1 and stay away from 1vX as your armour is not that great.

A few spear throw kills just for the fun of it:
https://youtu.be/TffKvgAvz9w
https://youtu.be/Rf5nKTI_eG8

There are two builds that clearly stand out from the rest due to the synergies they have with the toolbox.


Even though the anti horse warfare with the toolbox is now nerfed, the best build for direct combat with the toolbox is still combining it with the billhook.


Or as I like to call it, the fishook. What makes the billhook special is that it has attacks with negative knockback. When in normal mode, your slashes will pull the target next to you instead of pushing back and with the alternate grip the stab attack will pull instead. The billhook is essentially a short spear++ for a toolbox user. It has a tiny bit slower attack speed but it does a bit more damage and has slightly more reach. It is a thrusting weapon so the stabs do more than the slashes.

If a rider is stupid enough to ram into your walls, the billhook is capable of pulling the rider of a horse. If you do a pulling attack, you will pull the player off the horse, causing a lengthy knock down animation and allowing for an easy kill with stabs. As a bonus, the horse will not be harmed as long as you are accurate with your strikes. I recommend using the alt grip for the stab pull as it does more damage and is easier for hitting only the raider and get the timing right.

Furthermore, you can actually use the billhook to pull people into your spikes for instant kills. Here I have set up an open partial block so that the resupply box is accessible for allies but I guard it against enemies that were trying to overtake the mid point at Camp.

https://youtu.be/XZKJwVclZcQ

Pulling people into your spikes is more common when you are actually camping somewhere tight, it rarely happens in the wild. Just don't actively pursue it unless you have a good open partial block as it requires the enemy to be quite close to the spikes so that you can reach him, which is quite rare when they can freely move around.

https://youtu.be/qPPgMm5KdjA

Here is a tower defense with the billhook. The towers and houses in the game provide excellent camping spots with the infinite ammo mounted crossbow. If you can access some extra supplies you can really turn the towers and houses into fortifications.

https://youtu.be/lVR68DpKSmo

On top of having those meme moments, the billhook is actually a very versatile weapon as it is the big brother of the short spear. You can actively participate in melee combat due to the long reach as long as you remember to avoid 1v1 and 1vX situations. If the enemy does not have a lot of head or body armour, you can two shot stab with the billhook.

The pull is actually super useful and often times what you can do is go pull a single enemy and let your friends handle the rest of him. Pulling an enemy next to you on a front battle will get them killed almost instantly by your friends, and as you have low armour, so will you, so get out of there if you pull in an enemy. The fishook is also exceptionally good with catching runners as there is no escape once you start to reel them in.

The art of the billhook is to know when you should change the grip so that you can pull or push with your attacks depending on the situation, so there is also a high skill cap for using the setup.

In my opinion, this is the best setup to run with the toolbox if you want to be offensive and actively participate in the melee combat, get rid of some riders or have a good time fishing people into the spikes.


The Heavy Handaxe is very cheap and versatile, but slow, weapon. It is not the best weapon for duelling up close but on the Frontlines you can really get some sliced meat with it. The Heavy Handaxe is a very unique weapon as the alt grip also functions as a slow Blacksmith Hammer while having really good head shot damage. Both grips will one shot light armoured heads, which you see quite often running around the fields.

The greatest bonus of the Heavy Handaxe is that it combines a capable melee weapon and the repair tool, leaving you with one free utility slot when you take the toolbox. If you want to focus more on building and repairing, I recommend picking up the smith perk and grabbing the smoke bomb as it allows you to extinguish fires and counter the fire bombs. The mounted crossbow rarely survives a bombing but you can easily save your spikes and walls.

If you want to be aggressive but don't like the billhook or you just want to use the handaxe, combine it with a shield and you are good to go. I personally recommend the Targe as you have low armor so you need to keep yourself mobile. The Heater Shield easily results in turtling which will get you killed in no time. It is very possible to pull off a 1vX with the Heavy Handaxe due to its high damage if you find yourself in one, but you should not actively seek for such situations.

Here is a 1vX, the loadout I had on was Heavy Handaxe, Targe, Toolbox and 1/2/0 armor (1 minute video):

https://youtu.be/drj2jXz-2vI

The Heavy Handaxe is also the only tool that can be used for combat repairs as you can repair your structures and threaten your enemies at the same time because of the good damage of the weapon. Just remember to look around as much as possible and be aware of your surroundings. Do not look directly at your structures when initiating the swing, use the fact that you can still rotate while swinging to hit your structures while allowing you to have a better view of your surroundings.

In my opinion, this is the best setup if you want to focus more on building and repairing, you want to be able to extinguish fires or you are looking for a more all-around build with the toolbox.

There is a separate balancing in the Horde mode.

The toolbox costs 250 gold which is quite a lot, so you need to get around the mid game in order to use it. In addition, the supply comes with packages of 2 and the package costs 50 gold to purchase. The wooden spikes get also damaged for dealing damage so they eventually require some repairing even if the placement is very successful. (Spoiler for later wave enemy types) The wooden spikes will be instantly destroyed if a giant walks over them.

In Horde mode, the toolbox has a limit of 10 supplies instead of 6 and initially comes with 4 supplies. The wooden spike cost is increased to 2 supplies in Horde mode and the mounted crossbow can hold 10 arrows in it. Other than the mentioned differences, everything else functions the same.

The following text contains spoilers for how to complete the horde mode easily, so if you want to figure it out yourself, don't open the spoilers.

Due to the high cost of the toolbox, it is only accessible in mid game, but once you get there, combine it with a bow and you cannot be killed. You should first prioritise obtaining a bow and then the toolbox and a blacksmith hammer. If you want to go for a budget option, obtain the blacksmith hammer first for 30 gold and then go for a recurve bow for 100 gold, find a tower to camp and farm the final 250 and build some spikes below the ladders. If you happen to have 300 or more, build the mounted crossbow first instead.


Get to any tower with ladders as the bots cannot climb them up and build a mounted crossbow on top of it for free infinite ranged damage. Once you have the time, place spikes behind doorways and around the ladders as the bots will push each other into the spikes, killing many before they are able to smack them down. The turd got a minor buff lately but nothing huge, remember to throw a medic bag or two somewhere into the tower when you have time.

The most dangerous enemy type is the red fire bomb dwarfs that spawn for the last couple of waves, you should prioritise killing them with any bow and your mounted crossbow. Avoid towers with only simple wooden floor on the later waves as the fire pots can be thrown through the floor and try to place spikes on small choke points to slow the enemy down.

If you decide to take the melee route, the wooden spikes function against the enemies just like against the warden. This makes the bosses very easy to kill as you can just sit behind a single set of spikes and let them suicide.

I do not like having balance opinions directly within the guide but I think there are some severe problems that need to have more visibility.

The Toolbox

The toolbox is a very good tool for defending, however, this game was very clearly built with the mind of rewarding active play and offence. At the moment, the toolbox struggles a bit in supporting your teams offence outside of the mounted crossbow and I think this could be an area for improvement.

The Buildables

The buildables (spikes, walls and mounted crossbow) are currently in a quite balanced state. However, I would like to see a buildable ammo box which could resupply bandages, arrows and throwables but not give any supply for the toolbox. It should work with supply that can be refilled into the ammo box by 'repairing' it after it is on full health. This could provide an alternative option to support the offence of your team as the defending team almost always has an easy access to a resupply box.

There is also a severe issue with the mounted crossbow interraction: other players perventing the engineer from using the mounted crossbow. In my opinion, the player who built the mounted crossbow should be able to overtake the mounted crossbow and throw out the other player using it by just interacting with the mounted crossbow. This would be a great quality of life change for the toolbox.

The tools

The Blacksmith Hammer is driven totally useless by the Heavy Handaxe. In my opinion, the cost of the Heavy Handaxe is in a good spot as it allows more versatility in the builds. Increasing the cost would definitely narrow down the options one has with the toolbox destroying the greatest feature of the weapon.

I would like to see an extra functionality added to the Blacksmith Hammer that would separate it from the other tools and give it a new purpose: Break down weapons on the ground for supply.

This would create a new interesting playstyle and reward those who take the risk of picking up the Blacksmith Hammer instead of the Heavy Handaxe. Together with the ammo box you could be able to provide ammunition for your team to better support the offence of your team, and perhaps make the scavenger perk a bit more interesting. Furthermore, you would have a dynamic way of generating more supply for repositioning your structures as the battle advances and evolves, allowing better support for the offence of your team.

In addition, the Blacksmith Hammer could use a tiny range buff in order to make it somewhat useable as a low damage weapon.