How does slash/blunt damage work?

Question

All weapons in the "Kingdom come: Deliverance" have three damage stats: stab damage, slash damage and the blunt damage. The stabbing attack is performed with a different button than the slashing one, so there is no confusion between those two.

Quite obviously, swords deal lots of slashing damage while maces do a lot of blunt one, while axes do a bit of both:

But if a weapon (such as an axe) does "22 slash" and "21 blunt" - does it mean it deals both of this damage types on a successful swing?

I've seen a few answers suggesting that the blunt damage is dealt only when you attack with a blunt part of the weapon - in case of swords, you can see an occasional animation (during a perfect block) involving an attack with the hilt of the sword. But to my best knowledge, there is no such attack animation for an axe^* or animation showing attack with a sharp (?!!) part of the mace.

So, the question is: is blunt and slashing damage calculated at the same time on a regular swing?

• Edit: Actually there is an animation showing attack with the hilt of the axe, but its quite rare and I haven't notice that it was doing any damage. However, I've noticed a huge difference in damage done by sword and axe when fighting a knight in the full plate: while a St George sword (72 slashing) was doing barely any damage, an good old heavy axe (38 slashing, 36 blunt) took the knight down in a few hits.

Answer 1

There are three different types of attack, each making the most use of a different damage type. Additionally, each piece of armour has three different armour ratings, to counter those damage types.
Even though the linked video shows a mace for demonstrating the blunt damage and a sword for both slash and stab attacks, the point is that each damage type has its ideal use:

• Blunt damage – Strong against “harder” armor types.
• Slash damage – Strong against “softer” armor types.
• Stab damage – Strong against chain mails and the like.
  ^source

Nonetheless, although yielding several threads, your question of whether the different attacks exclusively deal their respective damage types remains unanswered.
Here are some interpretations (respectively):

• I guess slash or blunt damage applies depending on what kind of armor your opponent is wearing.

• Stab damage only applies to stab attacks and cut damage only applies to slashing attacks. Blunt damage applies to attacking with the blunt side of the weapon - on a sword it's the guard/pommel.

• I don't know, but I would assume a higher blunt damage deals more armour damage or only comes into play when doing a thrust.

• I’m pretty sure that the damage numbers do not stack. It just means that is the specific damage type it will do with that type of strike.

  Like Warhorse's video linked above, some comments, like this one, seem to suggest there are in fact three different attack types.

The most thorough comment I found is this:

• The "Slash" and "Thrust" through left- and right-clicks describe the action of the move, not the property of the attack. "Slash" means to swing the weapon towards an opponent, while "Thrust" means to poke at them with the tip of one's weapon.

  With a mace, both right- and left-clicks will primarily cause blunt damage (with certain kinds of maces having additional thrust/slash damage).
  With the axe, a Slash move would inflict both slash and blunt damage (slash due to the axe blade and blunt due to the weight/momentum of the heavy head). A Thrust on the other hand would primarily cause thrust damage due to the point of the axehead or spike hitting the opponent, with a bit of blunt damage factored in due to the handle.
  ^{source, edited}

  And further down that thread:

  My assumption would be both slash and blunt damage is applied when you hit, mitigated by the armor's respective resistance to their property. This means that plate would mitigate most of the slash damage while the cloth underneath would blunt... pun intended... the blunt damage dealt by the axehead. Main reason why it's so effective to have layers of armor to all parts of the body.

• Here is a nice comprehensive video that talks in-depth about the attack/defense mechanism, based on the OP's understanding (noteworthy is the part from 1:22 until 2:52, where he talks about this specific issue). He thinks a single attack can convey a mix of damage types.

Until the underlying calculations are published or found and explained, it seems this is the best answer you will get (as in: an inconclusive one - not my answer in particular).
In the end, I would proffer, it doesn't matter that much, since you need to choose your weapon based on the armour of your adversary - and there are weapons that work well overall (like the spiked War Axe).

Answer 2

Based on Joachim’s excellent answer/summary of what’s known about damage and defence in this game, and considering that each armor piece provides a given amount of Blunt/Slash/Stab protection, I believe the damage formula can be summed up as follows :

1. If stabbing (= right-click, either to the torso or the face) :

   Total damage = (Weapon’s Stab damage - Target’s Stab protection)

2. If slashing (= left-click from any of the 5 directions) :

   Total damage = (Weapon’s Slash damage - Target’s Slash protection) + (Weapon’s Blunt damage - Target’s Blunt protection)

That means the weapons in the question would deal the following damage (vs an unarmored opponent) :

• Burgher’s sword : stabbing 43, slashing 43 + 2 = 45

• Bailiff’s mace : stabbing 2, slashing 2 + 61 = 63

• Bludgeon : stabbing 2, slashing 2 + 31 = 33

• Axe 1 : stabbing 1, slashing 22 + 21 = 43

• Axe 2 : stabbing 23, slashing 36 + 34 = 70

EDIT:

According to https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Weapons#Basic:

All weapons deal blunt damage + slash damage if you perform a swing.

All weapons deal blunt damage + stab damage if you perform a stab.

Which I find a bit dubious, as that would mean that:

1. Most maces (= that have similar slash/stab damage) would be equally efficient in stabbing than swinging
2. Some maces (such as the heavy warhammer) would actually be more efficient in stabbing than swinging

So maybe, just maybe, when stabbing, only half the blunt damage is applied?