A surgical stapling assembly, comprising: a cartridge body defining a knife slot extending along a longitudinal axis and a channel slot for receiving and guiding an outer rail of a sled, wherein the cartridge body comprises a tissue-supporting deck, wherein rows of cavities are defined in the cartridge body and form rows of openings in the tissue-supporting deck, and wherein the rows of cavities and openings comprise: a first row of outer cavities on a first side of the knife slot and forming a first row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; a second row of intermediate cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first row and forming a second row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; and a third row of inner cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first and second rows and forming a third row of openings; and fasteners removably positioned in the cavities, wherein the fasteners are positioned to form longitudinally-repeating high-density clusters of fastener legs and longitudinally-repeating low-density clusters of fastener legs, wherein the cavities are arranged such that: i) a minimum distance between each inner cavity and an adjacent intermediate cavity, ii) a minimum distance between each intermediate cavity and an adjacent outer cavity, iii) a minimum distance between a distal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, and iv) a minimum distance between the proximal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, is between 0.01 inches (0.254mm) and 0.02 inches (0.508mm). a cartridge body defining a knife slot extending along a longitudinal axis and a channel slot for receiving and guiding an outer rail of a sled, wherein the cartridge body comprises a tissue-supporting deck, wherein rows of cavities are defined in the cartridge body and form rows of openings in the tissue-supporting deck, and wherein the rows of cavities and openings comprise: a first row of outer cavities on a first side of the knife slot and forming a first row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; a second row of intermediate cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first row and forming a second row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; and a third row of inner cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first and second rows and forming a third row of openings; and a first row of outer cavities on a first side of the knife slot and forming a first row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; a second row of intermediate cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first row and forming a second row of openings obliquely-oriented relative to the longitudinal axis; and a third row of inner cavities on the first side of the knife slot and closer to the knife slot than the first and second rows and forming a third row of openings; and fasteners removably positioned in the cavities, wherein the fasteners are positioned to form longitudinally-repeating high-density clusters of fastener legs and longitudinally-repeating low-density clusters of fastener legs, wherein the cavities are arranged such that: i) a minimum distance between each inner cavity and an adjacent intermediate cavity, ii) a minimum distance between each intermediate cavity and an adjacent outer cavity, iii) a minimum distance between a distal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, and iv) a minimum distance between the proximal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, i) a minimum distance between each inner cavity and an adjacent intermediate cavity, ii) a minimum distance between each intermediate cavity and an adjacent outer cavity, iii) a minimum distance between a distal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, and iv) a minimum distance between the proximal end of each outer cavity and the channel slot, is between 0.01 inches (0.254mm) and 0.02 inches (0.508mm).