Hand-Held Torch
Weapon · WeaponMelee0★Burns bright enough to light dark ground and hold off the cold, and it serves as a close-range weapon when there's nothing better on hand.
Hand-Held Torch is an early melee weapon: 78th of 79 by attack, so treat it as a stepping stone, at 10 against the 2,400 of Laser Sword.
No recipe takes it as an ingredient. Whatever you build is the finished article, so there is no reason to hoard spares.
Details
It does not stack, so every spare copy costs an inventory slot.
Wood
StoneWhere to Find Hand-Held Torch
Hand-Held Torch is not something you find lying around — you craft it, and the recipe is below.
Using Hand-Held Torch Well
A torch takes 1,000 work to build, which is near the floor of the whole crafting table — only 18 of the game's 1,414 recipes are cheaper. It finishes almost as fast as you can queue it, so there is no reason to hoard one: burn it down and craft another instead of nursing the durability.
The 2 Wood and 2 Stone a torch costs is the exact same bill, and the exact same work time, as a batch of 10 Arrow. On the first night that is the real decision at the bench — light and warmth, or a full quiver — so gather eight of each material and skip the choice.
Alternatives and Upgrades
Step up from here and you get Stone Pickaxe at 20 attack; step down and it is Stun Baton at 10. Weigh the jump against what the next tier costs you before committing the resources.
Other melee weapons at a similar tier, for when you want to weigh this against the rest of its class:
