Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is one of the roles in NetHack. They are based on the valkyries of Norse legend who would carry the spirits of fallen warriors to the afterlife.
Unlike other roles, all Valkyries are required to be female when starting the game, though they can become male through polymorph or with an amulet of change. Valkyries are often considered to be the easiest role for a new player. The guidebook describes them like this:
Valkyries are hardy warrior women. Their upbringing in the
harsh Northlands makes them strong, inures them to extremes of
cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning.
Valkyries can be neutral or lawful humans or lawful dwarves. Their first sacrifice gift is Mjollnir. Lawful dwarf is usually the best alignment and race for a Valkyrie: they have better physical stats such as HP, the Gnomish Mines will have more peaceful monsters in comparison to a lawful human Valkyire, and since the class has the third-highest spellcasting penalty, the mental disadvantages of dwarves rarely come into play.
Contents
Starting inventory
Each Valkyrie starts with the following:[1]
- a +1 long sword
- a +0 dagger
- a +3 small shield
- 1–2 food rations
- an oil lamp (16.7% chance)[2]
Intrinsics
Valkyries gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[3]
- Level 1: cold resistance
- Level 1: stealth
- Level 7: speed
Skills
| Valkyrie skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic | |
| Skilled |
|
| Expert |
|
Valkyries start with Basic skill in Long sword and Dagger.
Valkyries use wisdom as their spellcasting stat.
Quest
The Valkyrie quest sees you fighting Lord Surtur for the Orb of Fate.
Gods
Rank titles
The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:
- XL 1–2: Stripling
- XL 3–5: Skirmisher
- XL 6–9: Fighter
- XL 10–13: (Wo)man-at-arms
- XL 14–17: Warrior
- XL 18–21: Swashbuckler
- XL 22–25: Hero(ine)
- XL 26–29: Champion
- XL 30: Lady/Lord
Strategy
Early game
Weapons
Valkyries start with a fairly good +1 long sword; for lawfuls, they can upgrade to Excalibur by #dipping it in a fountain as soon as they experience level 5. However, it is advisable to wait until at least level 7, as the intrinsic speed is a useful aid in evading and wearing down whatever monsters the fountains may spawn. Ranged weapons are not strictly necessary, but they can come in handy for wearing down particularly strong monsters, eliminating ones with annoying passive attacks, or shooting past boulders in Sokoban. The best option is usually a stack daggers, as Valkyries can train the skill to Expert and the dungeon is a plentiful source of daggers.
Mjollnir is an incredibly powerful artifact for a guaranteed first sacrifice gift, and remains useful as a long-term option well into the late game; neutral Valkyires will almost certainly want to go for it, while lawful Valkyries will eventually have other options such as Excalibur and Grayswandir to weigh the choice against. Valkyries are the only class who can use the gauntlets of power to throw Mjollnir that can also have it return; the hammer has a 99% chance of returning,[4] as well as a 99% chance of the player catching it unless they are impaired in some way, e.g. confused, stunned, etc.[5]
Armor
The starting +3 shield is an extremely good option and incredibly light for its AC, and is thus worth keeping and fireproofing if possible. Valkyries can wear all armor without any penalty beyond weight, as the class already comes with a substantial spellcasting handicap; players should put on any armor they find that isn't cursed and burdensome, pet testing them where applicable, and upgrade to better and lighter armor as they find it. An AC of roughly −5 by the end of the Gnomish Mines is a reasonable goal to shoot for.
General
Valkyries are strong early game characters that can hold their own in one-on-one combat, but will still need to exercise caution against YASD and mind their HP, even after finding some decent armor and weapons. Poison resistance should be obtained as soon as possible, and retreating and Elbereth usage can save a Valkyrie's life many times over, especially against groups of monsters such as soldier ants and Mordor orcs.
The Gnomish Mines are a plentiful source of armor and weapons. Many of the inhabitants of the Gnomish Mines will be peaceful towards lawful Valkyries, even more so if playing a dwarven Valkyrie, making it a relatively safe first destination; for packrat players, this also means that more of the random items lying around the Mines may be left untouched. Lawful Valkyries can let their pet fight the inhabitants to get at their armor and weapons, though they must take care not to let them die in the process. Conversely, while neutral Valkyries will find most of the dwarves and gnomes much less peaceful and more willing to pick up and use items against them, the risk also provides an opportunity to gain valuable experience and skill training while allowing them to gather weapons and armor more easily.
As the Orb of Fate, the Valkyrie quest artifact, acts as a luckstone, Mines' End is not strictly necessary, but can be a viable choice for players who have picked up poison resistance and want an earlier guaranteed source of luck. With that in mind, the potential minotaur that can spawn in the Catacombs variant can pose an incredible danger to even the most hardy Valkyrie. The Catacombs' random spellbooks will do little good outside of certain applications such as providing a reliable source of confusion, and are most likely not worth the dangers of polymorph traps and other pitfalls.
Midgame
Objectives
By this point, players should have the scroll of enchant weapon and scroll of enchant armor identified, and bless a few in order to enhance the weapons and armor that will make up their future ascension kit, especially their primary artifact weapon. In addition to Excalibur and/or Mjollnir, a particularly patient Valkyrie player may want to shoot for Grayswandir or Frost Brand. Twoweaponing is a viable option to consider at around XL 10; since Valkyries can only train #twoweapon to Skilled, players taking that path should give some though to leaving long swords at Skilled, as well as training up the skill of the desired secondary weapon if applicable. Common choices include long swords, katanas, and silver sabers.
Fire resistance is an invaluable intrinsic for the Valkyrie quest, due to the abundance of lava, fire ants and fire giants as well as the quest nemesis, Lord Surtur. An AC of about −10 with a solid weapon and fireproofed pieces of armor is considered safe, and dragon scale mail should be pursued if a wish for one has yet to be obtained. A source of levitation or other means of crossing water (e.g. water walking boots) is also handy - both for the home floor, where a well-prepared Valkyrie can drown if the ice is melted out from under them, and the lower floors, where lava abounds and may rarely block a player in.
Late game
Weapons
- Excalibur is a great weapon through the remainder of the game, especially when paired with a silver saber as an offhand weapon for extra damage in Gehennom. Keep in mind that you cannot bribe Asmodeus and Baalzebub if you are carrying Excalibur in open inventory.
- Mjollnir can make a good backup weapon, particularly if you have found gauntlets of power (throwing it at things like mind flayers can be useful). If you want to throw Mjollnir occasionally, you should keep most of your wands in your bag of holding to minimize the chance of blowing your valuable wands up. You should not rely on Mjollnir as a primary weapon at this stage, if possible, as many of the most dangerous endgame monsters such as priests are shock resistant.
- If you can get Grayswandir or Frost Brand, they're even better for Gehennom, however, at this point, you should have little difficulty wielding any artifact long sword. If it is testing your patience, it's likely unnecessary.
Armor
- With half physical damage from the Orb of Fate, an armor class of −25 or so should be more than enough. Your magic marker charges are probably better spent on enchanting weapons or writing scrolls of magic mapping.
- Speed or jumping boots are very nice but not necessary. Unless you have spare wishes, these are probably not worth a wish if you haven't found them. (The Castle armory, Orcus-town, and the rest of Gehennom may still have some—keep your eye out.)
- If you don't have GDSM or a magic resistance-providing artifact, you should wish for a cloak of magic resistance if you don't have one—doing Gehennom without MR is an extremely bad idea.
General
- Continue on to Medusa's Island and the Castle and get the wand of wishing. As a Valkyrie, if you make it to the castle, you can typically clear it out without too much difficulty. If you don't have reflection or magic resistance, though, you're taking your life into your hands—the chance that someone has a game-ending wand of death is quite high. Look out, and check Perseus's statue on Medusa's level for a shield of reflection before going in without reflection. There are often powerful spellcasters such as liches and golden nagas here as well, so prepare accordingly with magic resistance or a scroll of scare monster.
- Since you likely don't need more armor class that much, it's not a bad idea to spend some of your gold on clairvoyance rather than protection. This will make it much easier to map Gehennom.
- The Orb of Fate will work to detect portals on the Elemental Planes in a pinch, but confused scrolls of gold detection are vastly preferable, as they don't immobilize you like a crystal ball does and are therefore much less dangerous.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Valkyries start with a spear or dwarvish spear instead of a long sword.
SporkHack
Valkyries in SporkHack are substantially similar to Valkyries in vanilla NetHack, but there are a few wrinkles players should be aware of.
- SporkHack Valkyries can be of any race. Elven and orcish Valkyries are always neutral.
- It is no longer possible to obtain Excalibur by dipping; this option is only available to Lawful Knights. Therefore, unless you find lawful Knight bones (unlikely) or get crowned (more likely), you won't be getting Excalibur.
- Sacrificing is no longer guaranteed to yield artifacts; it may yield mundane weapons and armor instead. These will be highly enchanted, so it is a very valuable source of early game equipment. However, it's no longer nearly as easy to obtain Mjollnir. Combined with the lack of Excalibur, this can mean that sacrificing in hopes of getting Fire or Frost Brand, Vorpal Blade, Snickersnee, or Grayswandir (depending on your alignment) is worthwhile.
- With the two-weapon fighting changes in SporkHack, offhand long swords and sabers are no longer viable. Instead, consider a silver spear or silver short sword as an offhand weapon. Silver daggers, though weak, are useful as well, since Valkyries can reach expert in daggers, but are limited to Skilled in spears and short swords.
- Racial armor bonuses make dwarven Valkyries even stronger than they might otherwise be—but be aware that dwarves aren't the only ones who get racial armor bonuses. In particular, if you're an orc, a simple orcish helm improves AC by 3, even before enchantment.
Encyclopedia entry
The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the
beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and
over the sea. They watched the progress of the battle and
selected the heroes who were to fall fighting. After they
were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them
and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors
lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating
without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
which they died and in which they had won their deathless
fame.
References
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