Long sword
) | |
---|---|
Name | long sword |
Appearance | long sword |
Damage vs. small | 1d8 |
Damage vs. large | 1d12 |
To-hit bonus | +0 |
Weapon skill | long sword |
Size | one-handed |
Base price | 15 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
Weight | 40 |
Material | iron |
A long sword is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is made of iron.
There are several artifact weapon long swords: Demonbane, Excalibur, Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Giantslayer, Sunsword, and Vorpal Blade. Excalibur can be created by #dipping a long sword into a fountain as a lawful character who is at experience level 5, or else being crowned while wielding a long sword as a lawful character.
Contents
Generation
Long swords make up 5% of randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops, or in shops).
Knights and Valkyries start each game with a +1 long sword.[1][2]
Several monsters can be generated with long swords:
- Barrow wights and Nazguls are always generated with long swords.[3]
- Yendorian army lieutenants and captains, as well as watch captains, have a 1⁄2 chance of generating with a long sword as their primary weapon.[4][5]
- Monsters with weapon attacks that are strong and do not have a default initial weapon may generate with a long sword.[6]
- Chieftains, pages, roshi, and warriors have a 2⁄3 chance of generating with a long sword.[7]
- Humanoid angelic beings are always generated with blessed, rustproofed and enchanted long swords, with the long sword always being made into either Sunsword or Demonbane for Archons, and a 1⁄20 chance of being made into either artifact for Angels and Aleaxes.[8]
- Player monsters, including those on the Astral Plane, have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a long sword as their initial weapon, and otherwise have a 5⁄116 chance (~4.3%) of generating one, resulting in an effective ~54.3% chance before role-based replacements.[9] Knights have a 3⁄4 chance of forcing a long sword in place of their initial weapon, resulting in an effective ~34.3% chance of their weapon being a longsword.[10]
A long sword is always generated on a niche within the first floor of Vlad's Tower.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
As part of commit 20cbadc - which strengthens quest leaders and makes it so that killing them no longer makes the game unwinnable - the Valkyrie quest leader The Norn starts with a +4 long sword.Long sword skill
Long sword | |
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Max | Role |
Basic | |
Skilled | |
Expert |
Both long swords and katanas use the long sword skill.
The following artifact weapons use the long sword skill:
- Demonbane (lawful long sword)
- Excalibur (lawful long sword)
- Fire Brand (unaligned long sword)
- Frost Brand (unaligned long sword)
- Giantslayer (neutral long sword)
- Snickersnee (lawful katana)
- Sunsword (lawful long sword)
- Vorpal Blade (neutral long sword)
Strategy
The long sword is one of the more popular weapons for its damage and versatility, and has the highest amount of artifact weapons at 7. Characters in roles that start with one (i.e. Knights and Valkyries) or else find one early in the game should ideally make it their main or backup weapon until they can either sacrifice for an artifact weapon or dip for Excalibur if lawful. Lawful and neutral roles that are restricted in long sword can unrestrict the skill by receiving one of the many artifact long swords as a sacrifice gift, as well as via crowning (even if they do not receive Excalibur or Vorpal Blade this way).
Characters that have not yet found a long sword may consider attacking the Minetown watch captain, or else using a pet to kill them, if they have generated with a long sword.
History
The long sword first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, both based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds the silver long sword as a weapon that uses the long sword skill, and is simply a long sword made of silver. SLASH'EM also adds the following artifact weapons that use the long sword skill:
- Sword of Justice (lawful long sword)
- Thiefbane (chaotic long sword)
Giantslayer is replaced by Giantkiller, an artifact axe.
The Valkyrie's starting +1 long sword is replaced with a +1 spear.[11]
The Rat King is always generated with a long sword.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack,
Thiefbane is changed from a long sword to a two-handed sword, though the other black marketeers that can generate will always have an enchanted long sword.
dNetHack
dNetHack adds the crystal sword, white vibrosword, gold-bladed vibrosword, and red-eyed vibrosword as weapons that use the long sword skill. dNetHack also adds several artifacts that use the long sword skill:
- dNetHack artifacts#Claideamh (unaligned long sword)
- The Singing Sword (unaligned long sword)
- Mirror Brand (neutral silver long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Tobiume (chaotic metallic long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#The Holy Moonlight Sword (unaligned metallic long sword)
- Dirge (chaotic long sword)
- Clarent (lawful long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Avenger (lawful long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Aryvelahr Kerym (chaotic silver long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Werebuster (unaligned long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#The Kusanagi no Tsurugi (lawful Samurai-favoring intelligent long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Sword of Erathaol (lawful silver long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Wrath of Heaven (lawful large silver long sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Callandor (lawful crystal sword)
- dNetHack artifacts#Arcor Kerym (lawful iron crystal sword)
- Kiku-ichimonji (lawful katana)
- dNetHack artifacts#Sode no Shirayuki (lawful silver katana)
- dNetHack artifacts#Sky Render (lawful silvered katana)
Other artifacts make use of the long sword skill: Sunsword is a silvered gold long sword and uses the stronger between your long sword and short sword skills; invoking Tobiume casts the fireball or firestorm spell using the stronger between your attack spells and long sword skills.
Excalibur can be created from a long sword of any material via dipping or wishing. Fire Brand and Frost Brand have a 1⁄3 chance to generate as a long sword, and can be wished for in the form of a crystal sword as well.
Hydrargyrumach Rilmani are generated with metallic long swords.
The minor spires encountered in the Outlands of the Neutral Quest may contain a silver long sword and a shield of reflection if Mirror Brand has already been generated.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, two short swords can be combined at a furnace to create a long sword.
The November NetHack Tournament
In The November NetHack Tournament, all Devteam members have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a long sword. The deathmatch opponent will always generate with a +5 to +7 long sword if they are a knight or a valkyrie that does not have a weapon.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 74
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 153
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 474
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 203
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 207
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 539
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 292
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 329
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 155: 1⁄2 to get a random weapon - the designated range of objects covers weapons from the spear to the bullwhip inclusively in objects.c, and uses normal generation odds
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 199
- ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 229