Caveman build

There is a permanent obscuring fog increasing each wave
You can burn your weapons to increase the visibility of the obscuring fog
You can't equip ranged weapons
Burning weapon gives bonus damage on primitive weapons based on tiers [1,2,4,8]

Unlock and starting weapons Open Flaming Brass Knuckles in the calculator Caveman on Nightmare

How players win with Caveman Community consensus

Run five upgraded Spears and keep the sixth slot to burn a locked primitive weapon at every shop.

Spear

Weapon classes: Primitive.

Primal Dread Nightmare Mode Guide (jldark89) (2026-11-07): Posted after Update 1.2; Nightmare difficulty. Mentions Mech being nerfed in a beta at the time of writing.

Summarised in our own words on 13 November 2026; check the patch date of each source against PC 1.2.

Weapons Caveman boosts most Computed from rules

Caveman: ordered by how much Caveman's modifiers raise each weapon's damage compared with a character without modifiers, then by damage per second; weapons Caveman doesn't boost fall back to raw DPS. Reference profile: Caveman's own stats plus 20 points bought in the weapon's main scaling stat, both multiplied by Caveman's modifiers; one weapon, its highest tier, no items, single target, every projectile hits. 51 of 55 equippable weapons scale with a stat Caveman can raise.

#	Weapon	Boost	DPS	Main stat	Hit	Cooldown
1	Flaming Brass Knuckles IV	×1	170.3+ burn 7×18	Melee Damage	100	0.59 s
2	Power Fist IV	×1	170.3	Melee Damage	100	0.59 s
3	Fist IV	×1	143.1	Melee Damage	84	0.59 s
4	Knife IV	×1	134.9	Melee Damage	41	0.76 s
5	War Hammer IV	×1	124.9	Melee Damage	240	1.95 s
6	Captain’s Sword IV	×1	113.8	Melee Damage	105	0.95 s
7	Cestus IV	×1	110.7	Melee Damage	120	1.10 s
8	Plasma Sledge IV	×1	109.8	Melee Damage	160	1.49 s
9	Hammer IV	×1	109.1	Melee Damage	160	1.50 s
10	Hatchet IVStarting option	×1	106.3	Melee Damage	65	0.63 s

Starting weapons by the same measure

Legendary-only weapons

These exist only at tier IV, cost a Legendary shop slot and carry the Legendary set penalty of −20 Max HP per weapon of the class. At the same profile: Excalibur 418.2 DPS; Scythe 243.2 DPS; Drill 116.7 DPS; DEX-troyer 92.9 DPS.

Items for the stats this build buys Computed from item data

Ranked by points per base material after Caveman's multiplier; prices rise each wave. Downsides are listed because they hit other stats.

Melee Damage main stat of the top weapons

Items that use Caveman's effects

You can burn your weapons to increase the visibility of the obscuring fog

What the modifiers change Computed from rules

Caveman has no stat multiplier, so the weapon decides the stat. Restrictions: melee weapons only. At the reference profile the highest single-target damage comes from Flaming Brass Knuckles IV (170.3 DPS).

Caveman has no stat multiplier, conversion or class bonus. Pick weapons by the stat they scale with and buy that stat.

Assumptions and method

Damage per hit = round(trunc(base + Σ stat × scaling) × (1 + %Damage/100 + class %Damage/100)); crits average in as chance × round(hit × multiplier). Formulas are datamined from the game code; weapon numbers come from the game-file tables.
Cooldown is the tooltip value, which includes the attack animation. Reload weapons average the long cooldown over its shot count. Attack Speed divides the tooltip, an approximation: the game divides only the cooldown frames.
Not modelled: pierce, bounce, explosion splash, knockback, on-hit and kill-count effects, structures, and how often the weapon actually reaches enemies. Multi-projectile weapons assume every projectile hits the same target, which favours shotguns.
Version: Brotato PC 1.2 with the 12 November 2026 patch. Reviewed 12 November 2026.