CrossReport
English：Cross · Characters
A smith who left nothing behind but the inscription on the blade. The only maker of Meitou, the highest weapon grade in the game — and beyond the name stamped on the steel, nothing about the person is known, not even their sex.
There was at some point in history a legendary master smith, of whom nothing is known except his (…her?) name from the blade inscriptions: "Cross". The blades never rust or need sharpening, and are said to be unbreakable. There are only a handful in existence. — in-game description
Cross is the only smith in Kenshi who can produce Meitou. Meitou sits at the end of the weapon manufacturer ladder; its cut damage is 5.7 times that of the bottom rung, Rusted Junk. Every single item at that grade came from this one pair of hands.
About the person, the game gives you nothing: no dates, no origin, not one line of dialogue and no body. Not even the sex is settled, because the only evidence is the mark on the steel.
What the work looks like
Cross weapons are not "slightly better". They are a different tier:
| Modifier | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Price | 2x |
| Cut damage | 1.1x |
| Min cut damage | 1x |
| Blunt damage | 1x |
| Weight | 1x |
What actually opens the gap is not those multipliers but the model itself: the same Katana has a base cut damage of 2.20 at Meitou and 0.385 at Rusted Junk.
Meitou cannot be crafted in the base game. No amount of smithing skill reaches it — the grade is not on the player's table at all. It only comes off specific characters.
Who is holding them
Meitou weapons are bound to fixed characters, which makes the list a roster of top-tier bosses: Falling Sun on Cat-Lon, the Katana on Emperor Tengu, Paladin's Cross on Holy Lord Phoenix, the Foreign Sabre on the Bugmaster, the Nodachi on Beep. The silver Staff carried by the Spider Foreman is Cross work too.
The description claims "only a handful in existence", but the countable total is at least several dozen, and some models have duplicates (three Wakizashi, two Longswords, two Fragment Axes). Lore and implementation disagree here.
The naming problem
In Chinese this site writes the name three different ways for the same person: 十字 (most articles), 克洛斯 (the manufacturer table in Weapons and the section on Meitou), and 克羅斯 (two character articles).
The trouble is not only the inconsistency. In Chinese, 十字 is simultaneously the smith's name, a nickname for the top quality grade, and the first two characters of "crossbow", "Paladin's Cross" and "Eagle's Cross" — so a bare 十字 in a sentence cannot be told apart from a weapon. That is why the confusable-translations table lists it. The one reliable test: if it is followed by "（Cross）", it is the person.
Trivia
A Lo-Fi Games devlog notes that the name "Cross" may be a nod to a donor from the game's very early days. It is the only lead about this figure that does not come from inside the game.
See also
- Meitou — the grade produced
- Weapons — the full ladder of seven manufacturers and fifteen models
- Confusable Chinese translations — why 十字 / 克洛斯 / 克羅斯