What are the best weapons/methods for maiming a rapidly-healing humanoid target?

Question

In my canon, an essential preface to all combat is that nearly all combatants have innate, highly capable regenerative abilities that can reproduce lost limbs in minutes, and often in seconds should one expend additional resource. As I said however, this regenerative power expends resource (you might as well call it mana) and expending resource to heal means it can't be used in other manners (such as offensively).

As such, the dominant combat doctrine in the canon is extensively maiming targets to deplete their mana reserves or force them into situations where they must choose between healing and other options. My question is what are the most effective means to maim (remove the limbs of) a humanoid target?

I'd appreciate both close range/melee and ranged/firearm options, and they'd ideally be man-portable.

Answer 1

Shrapnel is your best friend

Big bits of white-hot metal flying around at supersonic speeds. More than happy to Mangle a Limb or take it clean off.

For Firearms - small calibre and intermediate calibre weaponary would not be appropriate (No assault rifles) - you want larger calibre projectiles (Hand cannons, Shotguns etc.)

The reason for this is you want the cavitation caused by the projectile to shatter the bone and rip the tissue - now, I will grant you intermediate calibres can do this on a direct hit on Bone, but a bigger projectile will ensure that if the projectile does not directly hit the bone, it will still take a limb off.

Also - consider explosive rounds for extra effect on target (See WH40K Bolters for example) - in the real world, .50BMG can have an explosive tipped round, there is even a South African firearm designer who made a man-portable 20mm rifle.

In terms of Melee... I mean, again - referencing Warhammer 40K - but Chain weapons would be hard to look past. A Chainsaw is more than capable of taking off a limb in an accident, not to mention the ripping and tearing of the flesh means more Mana would have to be expended to heal it as opposed to re-attaching a nice clean cut.

Answer 2

Real life weapons are already designed to maximize injury inflicted on human(oid) targets. Few weapons are designed for full limb dismemberment because that’s a difficult thing to do reliably, and it’s better to be able to inflict less dramatic (but equally fatal) injuries with greater consistency. Healing “normal” injuries like stab wounds and bullet holes should still exhaust plenty of “mana” in combat.

But let’s assume that we REALLY want to cut people’s limbs off. What are the best options?

Melee Weapons

Chopping off an entire limb with a handheld melee weapon is extraordinarily difficult. Even medieval executioners wielding special made execution swords/axes had trouble reliably decapitating people on the first swing, and their victims weren’t fighting back. We’re gonna need a weapon with a lot of power, which means length matters. Our best options are long two handed bladed weapons; Halberds, poleaxes, greatswords, and the like. These weapons can deliver the most force per swing, maximizing your odds of severing a limb in a single strike. They can also be used defensively to protect your own limbs. Even so, this will not be a reliable option for dismemberment especially if your opponent is wearing armour (and why wouldn’t they be?). Your next best alternative would be to bring a small but heavy one handed axe or machete, and hope you’re able to pin your opponent down while you gruesomely hack their limbs apart.

Ranged Weapons

Arrows and bullets are ill suited for this task because they work by poking many holes in their victims, which is a terrible way to cut things apart. Our best option is explosives; Grenades and rockets are ideal for blowing your target to bits.

Alternatively, a flamethrower can coat the target in sticky flammable chemicals that don’t rub off easily. Even if they healed themselves continuously it wouldn’t stop the burning. Molotovs could serve as the budget friendly alternative to this.

If those weapons aren’t available, or you’re concerned about collateral damage from fire and explosions, you’ll want to try large high caliber rounds like shotgun slugs. When it comes to bullets, bigger is better for our purposes. Still, limb dismemberment is an unlikely outcome compared to your target simply dying from regular bullet wounds.

Answer 3

Tranquilizer or Neurotoxin munitions

If the body is that hard to destroy, then the best option is to disable the mind that controls it. Unlike tranquilizer guns in our world, you do not need to design "non-lethal" dart guns. A military grade tranquilizer gun could literally work exactly like a normal firearm, but contain a dose of high concentration drugs inside of a hollow slug that is designed to come apart on impact. This way you are not sacrificing any of the range, rate of fire, accuracy, or easy of use of a modern assault rifle, while giving your bullets the ability to disable a hyper regenerative foe.

Additionally you could pack grenades and bombs with a knockout gas like Fluothane or Neothyl for things like room clearing and taking out fortified locations.

Once you've disabled all of your opponents, you just walk around the battlefield disarming and handcuffing them, and now you have a bunch of POWs... or if these Mana Charged super soldiers are too dangerous to capture, you just throw their unconscious bodies into a woodchipper... because "wood chipper beats everything".

Death by Foreign Object

It does not matter how fast you can heal if a foreign body interferes with your vital functions after your body has healed over. Anything that stops the flow of blood after your body heals around it will kill you anyway. So, bullets filled with a water activated expanding foam or powerful blood coagulants could do a lot more damage than any wound. A small shell filled with such a compound could fill your blood stream and flow as it expands or builds a clot until it lodges itself in an artery, your heart, or a major brain vessel delivering death by lack of blood flow.

Or... if you need an improvised kill, just stake them in the heart like a vampire. If they heal around the stake, their heart will not be able to beat and they basically die of a heart attack.

Answer 4

Melee

Axes

Axes are a chopping tool perfectly suited for separating things from other things. Usual combat axes are usually way smaller than what fiction depicts. This is because the larger the axe head, the heavier it is, the harder it is to use it for a prolonged time. But you might want bigger axe heads in your situation, because it also means easier to chop off whatever it hits.

This also means that axes will have to be employed more tactically than just a straight "go and smack people". You want to make each attack count. In that regard, you probably want to set up ambushes and/or distract the enemies before sending some people to axe them some questions. Try to blind and confuse them, or flashbangs, just general explosives (very loud, very distracting).

Do not bother with poleaxes and similar "long handle axe" weapons. They are good for hitting people from afar, if the other person wields a melee weapon. But are not really great at hitting them accurately. If you want fast maiming, use an axe. However, if you have a dedicated limb removal squad, you can have some members of it have some means of restraining a victim. Lassos, bolas, and even some polearm-type weapons. Maybe something as simple as what dog catchers use (a long stick with a loop at the end) or even a very long hook. Idea is to take down the target and have them as immobile as possible to allow axe wielders to attack more easily.

If the setting has them, stun guns are also going to be quite useful to give axe wielders an opportunity. Squad members can easily have both a taser and axe equipped.

Cleavers

Similar to axes, it is a chopping tool. It is less effective than axes (smaller, less power when swinging it) but it is more portable. Any soldier can carry one. And can serve as a replacement of (or addition to) a regular knife. More of an opportunity weapon but if you really have to dismember enemies often, it might be useful for everybody to pack a cleaver just in case.

Machettes

Also hacking weapons. Bigger than a cleaver, not quite an axe. Still an effective weapon if your aim is chopping.

Ranged

There is not much quite suitable for removing limbs in ranged weapons. It is usually an unreliable method of taking down an enemy - normally, you want to shoot at the centre of mass or at the head. Both would stop an attacker immediately. Most other shots are not guaranteed to disable an enemy, not to mention, it is also a lot harder to aim for limbs. Hence nobody has focuses on "arm chopping guns" or similar.

Various games have still tried. Unreal Tournament has a gun shooting razor sharp disks, Half-Life 2 allows you to shoot saw blades at people, Painkiller has a weapon that shoots shurikens and lightning, etc. However, they all essentially run on magic and generally mass producing these is going to be massively expensive and all sorts of logistic nightmare. Just imagine a crate of bullets - it can probably hold a thousand. The same crate can probably fit ten-ish disks for the Unreal Tournament razor gun.

Shotguns with less lethal ammunition

Assuming the aim is not to kill the enemy, your best bet might be to try and stun and/or disable them. Then move in with something more suitable. Like an axe.

There is no official "non-lethal" ammunition. Rubber bullets and other rounds that are not specifically designed to kill are called "less lethal". They can still kill if they hit some vulnerable spot. However, less lethal ammo does have good stopping power. However, the bigger the thing hitting the enemy, the better. Rubber bullets can hurt, sure, but shotguns can fire really big and heavy rounds that are almost guaranteed to stop an enemy. You probably do not care for any permanent damage from these rounds, so they can be employed liberally.

Less lethal grenades and other larger projectiles

Technically, the same thing as shotguns. However, there are less lethal projectiles designed to be shot from 40mm grenade launchers. There are also other guns that can shoot big things. This includes guns that quite literally can shoot a can of Coca-Cola (or anything shaped like it). Also potato cannons that can shoot potatoes (as the name suggests). But you probably want some projectiles that are more designed for aerodynamics.

These types of less lethal ammo should deliver a bigger punch than what a shotgun does. But also require more powerful guns to be shot with. You probably want something like this for longer range.

Lethal option - explosives

This is going to be tricky, mostly because there is a high chance the enemy does not survive. But if you do not particularly care, then just shoot them with explosives.

Assuming you want to make at least an attempt at capture, then do not shoot them with a rocket. Instead, you want something like FRAG-12 - it is a shell fired from a shotgun (specifically the AA-12) which explodes on impact. See demonstration on YouTube. This is very much not less lethal. But if you face soldiers that can regenerate in seconds, then they might be able to take few shots from this. There is probably not going to be too much of the body left where it hits, so try to aim for the limbs. And maybe hope that if you hit the body elsewhere, the enemy would survive.

Other

Mines and booby traps

This can probably help if backed up by an ambush. But you can set up traps for the enemy. A mine can ruin a legs, but you should follow this up with soldiers nearby attacking the poor victim while down.

Biologically active substances

In other words, pump the enemies with drugs. Not the lethal kind but any agent that can make the enemy less effective.

Sleeping darts are a definite option.

You can also shoot enemies with hallucinogenics. If they really are quite powerful, that can be a way to wreak havoc at the enemy lines, if some of the enemies start behaving erratically. Maybe even attacking their friends.

Parasitic agents can aid in capturing enemies.

Stun guns of all varieties

I mentioned tasers before but it still bears its own section. You can zap enemies with electricity from close range or longer range and incapacitate them for long enough to get into position and do something else.

Answer 5

Your problem is not the maiming — mankind has been very good at refining their capabilities on that front, starting at day 1.

Your problem is the regeneration. Take that away, and you can maim them as slowly and pleasurably as you like. If you find a disease, venom, radiation, field etc. that impairs their healing you have solved the actual problem.

Answer 6

Close range/melee weapons are a no go, as long as you remain in the domain of proper weapons: they would require a human to be used, and that human would get exhausted at the same rate or even faster than the humanoid would deplete their resources to heal.

With firearms you need to choose something with high rate of fire and decent bullet energy, so that aiming at the joints there is a decent possibility of maiming. I would say that from an AK-47 upward anything would suit your needs.

If you want to venture into gore TV-show-like spectacularity you can use a GAU-8/A Avenger. You can't really top that up.

Answer 7

Fire or possibly chemicals to cause extensive burns. So flame throwers, firearms with incendiary rounds, perhaps some type of taser like weapons causing thermal burns from electrical current.

Gel such as napalm is persistent, sticking to the body. Chemical like phosphorus will continue to burn even when in the wounds.

Burns are often difficult to heal, can be extensive covering much of the body, and are extremely painful. Even if it is not fatal, they will probably not be able to effective retaliate.

Answer 8

Are you set on combat requiring this sort of dismemberment, or are you only looking for an easy way to fight an opponent with significant healing capabilities? Because it seems like there are better ways to fight such a creature.

A flamethrower-type weapon could be particularly effective. Lopping off a limb would require a one-time expenditure of energy to regenerate. Exposing their entire front surface area to an intense flame would force them to continuously regenerate the skin and tissue that gets burned away. You should be able to deplete their energy much faster with something like this. With an intense-enough flame, you could even out-pace their healing abilities altogether.

A melee weapon capable of severing a limb must be able to cut through thick muscle and bone. If you can do that, you could use the same weapon to sever a neck or pierce a skull. Regeneration abilities are unlikely to operate fast enough to save you from such a wound.

You could even turn the regeneration against the victim. Imagine a blade that cuts a deep V-shaped groove into a bone. Part of the blade snaps off and remains in the groove, filling the empty space. That fragment then expands slightly, pushing the bone apart at the wide part of the "V". This forces the once-straight bone to bend slightly. The gap is filled with metal, so regeneration will not straighten the bone. It will heal with a permanent bend, similar to what happens to a normal human with a broken bone that does not get set properly. Repeat this process several times and your opponent can end up with limbs that are too deformed to be used normally. You can disable them long before their regeneration runs out. Firearms with expanding ammunition may similarly be able to create metal-filled cavities that can't heal correctly. A particularly cruel variation would be to use projectiles that embed themselves and wait until the victim has healed around them. Then, they start burning or damaging the victim from within, causing unbearable, disabling pain that cannot be relieved.

Answer 9

Disabling the enemy

In warfare you want to render your enemy ineffect. Killing is simply just one way to do it. That is why I give a frame challenge. If maiming or killing has become hard, you'll look at other ways that are more effective.

The goal becomes circumventing or nullifying the healing/mana.

Tasers

Tasers are great. Any damage they do is just a bonus. Their true potential is getting people down and keep them there. If you are on the receiving end there is little you can do, regardless of training or healing factor. Let the axe men in after and enjoy the show.

Fire

Fire is great at the nullifying. It uses the body as fuel. The body regenerates, adding more fuel. This cycle will continue until the healing is depleted. Afterwards you'll just burn the body. The pain will also disable the people involved.

Drugs

Healing is one thing. How about making the body go out of whack? Pump them full with hallucinating drugs like LSD, or motor function with alcohol. Mellow them out, or give them enough to go full on panic. Damage is hard to quantify in these scenarios. Chemicals bonding to your receptors is not damage in that sense. Grab an easy to produce low cost drug and lace your bullets with them.

Unknown methods with cascading effects.

The healing is ill defined. We could find a way that might be feasible, depending how it works. For example, something that quickly kills the blood cells. More are created by the mana, no biggie. These are killed as well. At a certain point the blood has become too thick to work, making the soldier keel over.

Answer 10

Chain shot

It seems a bit farfetched, but there is ample historical precedent for the use of cannonballs chained together, or at either end of a bar, to tear up ship rigging. The show Mythbusters in 2007 ('Cannonball Chaos') illustrated that a chain without weights fired from a cannon will completely break a pig carcass in half.

The smaller version of this is "bolo shells" (i.e. bolas-like shells) in which two or more shotgun slugs are attached to each other. This is intimidating enough that some states have laws against it, but bear in mind, those are the sort of people who banned marijuana... it doesn't prove they are much of a meaningful threat. Here's an amusing test of a defense against "Arial Trespassing" (manufactured by a company that also sells Preseasoned Cajun BBQ Duckshot) against a cardboard drone. In brief, I think you need more momentum.

Answer 11

Solution: War Crimes.

Nanobot weapons: A weapon that leaves nanobots on the target constantly "tearing" away to slow down the regeneration ability. Build these into small munitions so that bullets remain within the target creating wounds that remain open and constantly drain the regeneration mana.

Chemical/Bio weapons: If the regeneration ability is biological, there should be a method to outright disrupt the process. If it is magical... perhaps there is an "anti magic" chemical or something similar. Again, combine with small munitions that will remain within the target for maximum effect.

Bigger bullets or explosives: The cheapest solution would be mechanical trauma, larger bullets, more bullets, TNT, anything that goes boom, etc.

Honorable mention: Lasers & plasma beams, assuming regeneration is a biological thing. Lasers and plasmas are so hot they cauterize wounds and disrupt things at a molecular level. A strong enough laser should be painless and then the limb falls off. Plasma is basically lightning bolts so that explodes just by existing.

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The top 2 methods can be combined in many weapons for maximum effect. Bullets that are too "weak" to cause severe damage but become lodged in the target's body instead delivering nanomachine destroyers or biological toxins... acids... bases... etc.

Frag grenades, Anti personnel mines, anything that can embed material into the target and be coated with the above mentioned materials.

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If all else fails, good ol chemical warfare should do maximum maiming and hinder regeneration at the same time. Think explosive plastic vials of Fluoroantimonic acid, Chromic Acid, or just good ol sulfuric acid. Acid is just outright evil to fleshy bits, and some of them will dissolve bones too for bonus points.

What about "Substance N"? That is to say Chlorine Triflouride. It will burn through things that are non-flammable... like concrete, things that are already burnt, etc. I defy something that can regenerate to do so effectively inside an area where literally everything is on fire. Maiming would just be bonus points.

Want stealth points for your damage? Use orthodiethynyl benzene dianion or Hydroflouric acid. Chemical bases are corrosive to flesh and usually go slower and more hidden as you don't really notice when you are hit with it. Hydroflouric acid is known for being basically painless if you get it on your skin (until it falls off of course)

Answer 12

You have a logical fallacy - if your maiming an enemy doesn't disable them for long, then maiming them more is just waste of time and energy and will just annoy your enemy. Time to think of a different strategy. Go read Sun Tzu on the "Art of war" for some possible ideas.