Glaive

The Glaive is a three-edged throwing blade that can be utilized as both a melee weapon and as a thrown weapon. If thrown, this weapon will bounce three times before returning to its owner (or after reaching the 30m radius distance limit).

Acquisition
The Glaive blueprint can be acquired through Alert missions, or obtained via Login Rewards.

This weapon can be sold for 5,000.

Characteristics
This weapon deals primarily damage.

Advantages:
 * Can be thrown using the charge attack function.
 * Silent.
 * The throwing attack still counts as melee, so it will do bonus damage against unalerted enemies even when thrown.
 * Can hit enemies on way back to thrower.
 * Can hit headshots and other weak spots for damage multipliers on its throw (with more ease than a standard melee swing which does not always land where you aim).
 * Can be aimed around corners and used to score up to whole group of enemies in one bounce.
 * Knockdown on jump attack.
 * Regular attacks have momentum, like heavy weapons (stagger resist).
 * Actions can be performed after the Glaive leaves the hand.
 * You are free to fire your weapon or reload after letting go of the Glaive.
 * Catching the Glaive while a reload is still ongoing will not interrupt the reload.
 * Has both  and  polarity slots.
 * Has it own exclusive mods: Power Throw, Whirlwind, Rebound and Quick Return. All of them can be collected in Orokin Void, Orokin Derelict and Survival missions' rewards. (†Note: all of these mods also work on the Glaive Prime, Halikar and Kestrel).
 * Saryn's Contagion is applied on charge attacks.
 * The Glaive can be detonated in-flight by pressing the channel button, Or with Power Throw when unequipped.

Disadvantages:
 * Short melee attack range.
 * Regular attacks can only hit one target.
 * Ground slam attack has a very small AoE radius.
 * The user cannot use melee attacks until the Glaive has returned (see notes section), limiting its rapid fire (charge) capability.
 * When it bounces off the wall, it has very low chance to hit an enemy.
 * If passing through Volt's Electric Shield it will inflict full damage to the owner when it returns, as of 10.3.4. Most likely a bug.
 * While using a weapon and throwing the Glaive with Power Throw, it can explode randomly, often dealing the explosion damage close to the user, causing self-harm.
 * Low critical chance.
 * Low status chance.

Comparisons:
 * Glaive, compared to Glaive Prime:
 * Slower attack speed (1.0 vs. 1.2).
 * Slower flight speed (20.0 m/s vs. 40.0 m/s).
 * Slower return speed.

Tips

 * slot is ideal for Killing Blow (channeling damage) and for Reflex Coil (channeling efficiency).
 * Glaive will always return in a straight path toward the player. It will ignore all obstacles and punch through anything in its path on return.
 * A player without the Power Throw mod can use this return path to emulate Power Throw by bouncing the Glaive off the floor, between the legs of enemies to allow the Glaive hit them all on return.
 * When using the slide attack, it is possible to chain a second slide attack, for even more slide range and speed.
 * The Glaive can be thrown under a mining machine so that it ricochets back and forth between ground and the machine for a maximum amount of bounces, sometimes destroying it in a single throw.
 * Against tougher enemies, the Glaive can hit more than once on, the outward throw, by aiming at the inside of their legs so that the first bounce will bounce the Glaive into their other leg. This is particularly useful on Ancients.
 * Throw cannot punch through Shield Lancer's shield even with Power Throw equipped. The invisible shield sometimes left on death also cannot be shot through.
 * When used up close with a Quick Return mod, the Glaive can be quickly thrown again and again.
 * When equipping the Glaive, the player can throw it and then press the channeling button to detonate the Glaive, dealing high AoE damage and returns to the player immediately. This is true for all thrown melee weapons.
 * With Power Throw equipped the Glaive will explode on the last bounce, with the explosion harming the user if it explodes close enough. This will occur whether or not the Glaive is currently equipped when thrown.
 * While the Glaive's slow flight speed is normally a disadvantage when aiming for direct hits, it can be beneficial when using the airburst function, as it allows one to better gauge where the Glaive is in relation to the enemy, allowing for better timing on when to detonate.
 * Mag's Bullet Attractor will attract the Glaive and allow the Glaive to continuously hit the enemy for the duration of the skill. This is especially useful for bosses.

Trivia

 * The Glaive was released on April 26, 2013 with update 7.9.
 * The Glaive shares the same sheath style with the other thrown melee weapons, where they retract and attach under the right arm.
 * The word "Glaive" historically has referred to many different weapons, however the term has only referred to thrown weapons in fiction.
 * In real life the Glaive is a type of polearm that originated from Europe, and is similar to the Guan Dao or the Naginata in both appearance and function.
 * In the 1983 film "Krull", "The Glaive" was the name of a weapon of legend which could only be wielded by the "chosen one". It was a five edged throwing weapon whos flight could be controled by the wielder after being thrown.
 * Update 11 teasers showed an Ember Prime wielding a Primed Glaive, along with a Sicarus Prime.
 * The Glaive having the ability to detonate mid-flight may be a reference to Dark Sector's Glaive mechanics.