Rapier

The Rapier is a weapon added by Tinkers' Construct. Its famous, lightweight design allows the wielder to make quick, armour-piercing strikes, then leap backwards and out of harm's way. The Rapier may be crafted in either a Tool Station or a Tool Forge.

Recipe
To craft the Rapier, click the Rapier icon in a Tool Station or Tool Forge. It requires one Sword Blade, one Crossbar, and one Tool Rod.

Repairing
A Rapier may be repaired with whatever material the Sword Blade is comprised of; the Rapier is said to be of this material.

Characteristics
The player using a Rapier can attack much more quickly than they could with other weapons; under normal circumstances, a player can only deal damage to a target every half-second. The Rapier ignores this restriction.

Damage dealt by a Rapier ignores a portion of the target's armor.

Right-clicking will cause the player to leap backwards, allowing them to attack and hop out of range.

However, the Rapier has almost no knockback, lower durability, and deals significantly less damage with each strike than other Swords. When used correctly in a sustained fight against a heavily armored opponent, the Rapier allows for more damage-per-second than other weapons, but against unarmored opponents or when charging forward into battle, its damage can be lacking. Even so, its increased attack speed makes it a commonly valued weapon.

Details
To calculate the attack damage dealt by an unmodified Rapier, use the following formula (find swordBladeAttack in Materials and You: Volume 2): $$\text{attack} = \lfloor\frac{(2 \times \text{swordBladeAttack} + 2)}{2}\rfloor$$

To calculate the durability (find swordBladeDurability and toolRodDurability in Materials and You: Volume 2): $$\text{durability} = \lfloor(\text{swordBladeDurability} \times \text{toolRodDurability} \times 0.39375) \rfloor$$

The Crossbar part does not factor into attack or durability.

Tips
Manyullyn is the endgame material for Rapiers because it is tied for the highest base attack (2 hearts) with Steel, but it has more durability. It may a good idea to use a Writable material such as Paper for the Crossbar, since this does not affect attack or durability (alternatively use Cactus for the Jagged modifier). If Thaumcraft is installed, using a Thaumium Tool Rod will add another modifier slot without the severe penalty of paper. Otherwise, it is a choice between Paper (extra modifier) and Manyullyn (extra durability) for the Tool Rod.