A Tool weapon that quietly becomes a crit weapon
The Screwdriver starts as a 10-gold, 8-damage melee weapon with 135 range and 7.5 base DPS. Nothing about tier 1 suggests it is worth a slot. But follow the crit column across its four tiers — 10% at x2, 15% at x2.15, 20% at x2.3, 30% at x2.5 — and a different weapon appears. By tier 4 it has a 1.45x expected damage multiplier on every swing, which turns the listed 22.7 DPS into roughly 32.9 in practice.
That is not a huge number in isolation. But it is the only Tool-class weapon in the table that gains crit as it upgrades, and Tool is where Artificer’s “+100% Damage with Tool weapons” lands.
“Screwdriver crit progression parsed from brotato.wiki.gg and cached in src/data/brotato-weapons.json: 10% x2, 15% x2.15, 20% x2.3, 30% x2.5 across tiers 1-4.”
The full stat line
| Tier | Damage | Cooldown | Base DPS | Range | Crit | Expected multiplier | Effective DPS | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 8 | 1.06s | 7.5 | 135 | 10% x2 | 1.10x | 8.3 | 10 |
| T2 | 12 | 1.01s | 11.9 | 135 | 15% x2.15 | 1.17x | 14.0 | 22 |
| T3 | 16 | 0.98s | 16.3 | 135 | 20% x2.3 | 1.26x | 20.5 | 45 |
| T4 | 20 | 0.88s | 22.7 | 135 | 30% x2.5 | 1.45x | 32.9 | 91 |
The expected multiplier is arithmetic on the crit field: 1 + crit% × (multiplier − 1). At T4 that is 1 + 0.30 × 1.5 = 1.45. Effective DPS is base DPS × that multiplier — a derived figure, not a field in the table, and worth treating as an estimate rather than a guarantee.
Two structural facts stand out. Range never moves. 135 at every tier, which makes the Screwdriver one of the shortest-reaching weapons in the game — Hatchet is 125, Fist 150, Brick 150. You are inside contact range permanently, and the 3 knockback will not fix that. Cooldown barely moves either: 1.06s to 0.88s is a 17% faster swing across the entire ladder, so almost all scaling comes from damage and crit, not speed.
Why 135 range is the real constraint
Range 135 is 15 units short of the 150 cluster where most budget melee weapons live. That sounds trivial and is not, because 150 is already the shortest common melee reach and the difference decides whether you can hit an enemy at the edge of a swing arc or have to step in.
For scale across the table: Sword 200, Captain’s Sword 200, War Hammer 200, Scythe 250, Slingshot 300, SMG 400, Revolver 450, Sniper Gun 1000. At 135 you are the closest-range weapon class in the game, which means every defensive stat matters more than it would on a 200-range Blade.
Knockback 3 is the second problem. Fist carries 15, Wrench 20, Hammer 30 to 50. At 3, a Screwdriver swing barely nudges anything, so a wave that reaches you stays on you. The weapon’s only safety is killing fast, and 32.9 effective DPS at tier 4 is not enough to kill fast on its own at wave 16.
Screwdriver versus the other crit weapons
The crit line looks impressive until you put it beside the weapons built for it:
| Weapon | T4 base DPS | Crit | Expected multiplier | Effective DPS | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knife | 32.9 | 50% x4 | 2.50x | 82.3 | 91 |
| Thief Dagger | 41.1 | 40% x2 | 1.40x | 57.5 | 105 |
| Screwdriver | 22.7 | 30% x2.5 | 1.45x | 32.9 | 91 |
| Pistol | 57.5 | 25% x2 | 1.25x | 71.9 | 91 |
Knife is the honest comparison: identical 91-gold price, 32.9 base DPS, and 50% crit at x4 for an expected multiplier of 2.5. That is 82.3 effective DPS — two and a half times the Screwdriver — with 150 range instead of 135. If crit is your plan, Knife is the weapon, and Screwdriver is strictly worse at the same cost.
So the Screwdriver cannot be justified on crit or DPS. It can only be justified on its tag.
The Tool tag is the whole argument
Tool holds 4 weapons: Chainsaw, Screwdriver, War Hammer and Wrench. Three of them are low-damage support tools (Wrench 16.1 DPS at T4, Screwdriver 22.7, Chainsaw 34.2) and one is a genuine damage weapon (War Hammer 102.6).
Two characters pay you for holding a Tool weapon:
Artificer — “+100% Damage with Tool weapons”, “+175% Explosion Damage”, “+4% Explosion Size for every 1 Elemental Damage you have”, “-100% Damage”, “Armor modifications are reduced by 50%”. Artificer’s perk structure is unusual: a global -100% Damage paired with a +100% Tool-specific bonus. The net effect on a Screwdriver is the interesting question and the data does not resolve the stacking order, so treat Artificer as a build to test rather than a solved multiplier. What is certain is that Artificer starts with Plank, Screwdriver, Shredder and Wrench — the game itself treats the Screwdriver as its starter Tool.
Engineer — “+10 Engineering”, “Engineering modifications are increased by 25%”, “You start with 1 Wrench”, “Structures spawn close to each other”, “Damage modifications are reduced by 50%”. On Engineer the Screwdriver is a tag holder for structure triggers, not a damage source. Its 22.7 T4 DPS after a 50% damage penalty is 11.4 — negligible. Buy it for the Tool count, not the swings.
That is the honest verdict: the Screwdriver is a 10-gold Tool-tag token that happens to crit. It is not a crit build.
Wave plan
Waves 1–5. Buy one at 10 gold as a Tool tag holder. At 7.5 base DPS (8.3 effective) it clears the earliest waves only in combination with something else. Do not buy a second.
Waves 6–10. T2 at 22 gold gives 11.9 base / 14.0 effective. That is a 69% gain for 12 gold, the best upgrade ratio in the weapon’s life. If you are committed to the Tool plan, take it.
Waves 11–15. T3 at 45 gold gives 16.3 base / 20.5 effective. At this point the Screwdriver is a mild contributor and a tag holder. If your structure damage is doing the work, this is enough.
Waves 16–20. T4 at 91 gold for 22.7 base / 32.9 effective. Compare with what 91 gold buys elsewhere: Fist 108.5 DPS, Pistol 57.5, Knife 32.9 with a 2.5x crit multiplier. The Screwdriver T4 is only correct if the Tool tag is load-bearing for a perk you cannot get otherwise.
Boss waves. 135 range against a boss is a contact-range fight with 3 knockback and no escape tool. Expect to spend Max HP here. If you are on Engineer, let the structures tank; if you are on anything else, this is the wave where the Screwdriver gets sold.
When to swap out
Three clean signals:
- A Knife is on offer. Same price, same tier availability, 2.5x crit multiplier versus 1.45x, and 15 more range.
- You stopped using the Tool tag. If no perk or stat line reads Tool, the Screwdriver is a 135-range 22.7 DPS weapon at 91 gold. Nothing justifies that.
- You are taking contact damage every wave. 135 range plus 3 knockback means you cannot disengage. A 200-range Sword or a 15-knockback Fist solves the problem the Screwdriver creates.
Where to go next
Compare all four Tool weapons in weapons by class, then check the crit-heavy alternative in Fist build. The Tool damage route is covered in Chainsaw build and the structure route in Wrench turret build. For the full ranking, read best weapons tier list.