Silver dagger

)
Name	silver dagger
Appearance	silver dagger
Damage vs. small	1d4+(1d20)
Damage vs. large	1d3+(1d20)
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	40 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	12
Material	silver

A silver dagger is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is nearly identical to a regular dagger, but is made of silver that renders it erosion-proofed and capable of dealing +d20 damage to silver-hating monsters.

Generation

Silver daggers constitute 0.3% of randomly-generated weapons in the dungeon.

Strategy

The silver dagger is incredibly rare, and its material makes each one slightly heavier than a standard dagger, which can add up if you are fortunate enough with weapon generation to assemble a stack of them - characters that aim to use daggers as their primary ranged attack throughout the game might consider using a spare wish for an enchanted stack after the necessities are taken care of. A stack of highly enchanted silver daggers is among the deadliest weapons to use throughout Gehennom.

Average damage calculation of thrown silver daggers

The following average damage calculation shows the average amount of damage dealt per turn by throwing as many silver daggers as possible. We assume the player has expert skill in dagger, which gives a +2 damage bonus, and a multishot rate of 1d3 daggers. A blessed weapon deals 1d4 extra damage against demons and undead. The worst case scenario is against a non-silver-hating, non-undead, non-demon large monster. The best case scenario is against a silver-hating undead/demon small monster.

	Weapon
	Uncursed silver dagger + 0	Blessed silver dagger +7
Against regular small monsters	$\left(\frac{1+4}{2}+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{9}$	$\left(\frac{1+4}{2}+7+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{23}$
Against regular large monsters	$\left(\frac{1+3}{2}+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{8}$	$\left(\frac{1+3}{2}+7+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{22}$
Worst case scenario	$\left(\frac{1+3}{2}+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{8}$	$\left(\frac{1+3}{2}+7+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{22}$
Best case scenario	$\left(\frac{1+4}{2}+\frac{1+20}{2}+2\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{30}$	$\left(\frac{1+4}{2}+\frac{1+20}{2}+7+2+\frac{1+4}{2}\right)\times{\frac{1+3}{2}}=\bold{49}$