Arrow

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Name	arrow
Appearance	arrow
Damage vs. small	1d6
Damage vs. large	1d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	bow
Size	one-handed
Base price	2 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	1
Material	iron

An arrow is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. The arrow is a stackable projectile weapon that is designed for use with bows, and is made of iron.

There are multiple types of arrows:

• elven arrow (elven bow)
• orcish arrow (orcish bow)
• silver arrow (bow)
• ya (yumi)

All arrows except the silver arrow are designed for use with their own appropriate launchers, while silver arrows function best with the bow as regular arrows do.

Generation

Human Rangers start the game with two separate stacks of +0 and +2 arrows for their bow.

Stacks of arrows make up ¹¹⁄₂₀₀ (5.5%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock arrows.

Forest centaurs have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being generated with a bow and a stack of arrows. Hunters are always generated with a bow and arrows, and chieftains, pages, roshi, and warriors have a ¹⁄₃ chance of generating with a bow and arrows.

A humanoid monster with a weapon attack, the ability to wield weapons and no other ruleset governing its monster starting inventory has a chance of generating with a stack of arrows accompanying a bow, unless they are being generated on the Rogue level: the base odds are ¹⁄₁₄ for normal monsters, ¹⁄₁₂ for a monster that is a lord or nasty, ¹⁄₁₀ for a monster that is either an overlord or else is both a lord and nasty, and ¹⁄₈ for a monster that is both nasty and an overlord.

One of the weapons guarded by the ghost on the Rogue level is a +0 stack of arrows accompanying a bow, each of which have a ³⁄₄ chance of being cursed.

An arrow trap will shoot an arrow at any monster or hero that steps on their square until they run out of arrows, and untrapping them produces 50−rnl(50) arrows.

The Longbow of Diana can be invoked to create a stack of arrows.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 76381815, the themed room containing the ghost of an adventurer and their "bones" pile has an independent ⁹⁄₂₀ chance of including a bow and arrows in the pile.

As part of commit 20cbadcf–which strengthens quest leaders and makes it so that killing them no longer makes the game unwinnable–Orion, the Ranger quest leader, always generates with a stack of 50 +4 arrows for his yumi.}}

Description

Arrows are ineffective in melee, and must be used by shooting or firing them from a wielded bow of any type. Like some other missile weapons, arrows can misfire if they or their launcher cursed, and have a chance of mulching upon hitting a monster based on their enchantment, their beatitude and the hero's luck. Dipping arrows in a potion of sickness will poison them, adding +d6 damage and a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of instadeath per hit against monsters without poison resistance (including the hero).

The number of arrows that can be shot at once depends on the hero's bow skill: a hero shoots 1 arrow per attack Basic skill or lower, up to 2 arrows at Skilled, and up to 3 at Expert. Rangers shooting arrows gain a +1 multishot bonus that stacks with skill-based multishot.

The range for an arrow is dependent on the character's strength—the equation is $\lfloor \frac{Strength}{2} \rfloor +1$ when fired from a wielded bow, and $\lfloor \frac{Strength}{4} \rfloor$ otherwise:

Strength:	3	4, 5	6, 7	8, 9	10, 11	12, 13	14, 15	16, 17	18–18/31	18/31–21	22, 23	24, 25
Range of arrow (with wielded bow)	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Range of arrow (without wielded bow)	0	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	5	6

Strategy

Average damage calculation

The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demonss—note that these bonuses apply per arrow, and can add up to deal more damage than melee attacks.

The calculations for poisoned arrows assume the monster is not poison resistant.

Weapon	Number of arrows fired at once
	1	1d2 (average 1.5)	1d3 (average 2)	1d4 (average 2.5)
+0 arrows	$\frac{1+6}{2}=\bold{3.5}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 1.5=\bold{5.25}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 2=\bold{7}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 2.5=\bold{8.75}$
+7 arrows	$\frac{1+6}{2}+7=\bold{10.5}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 1.5=\bold{15.75}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 2=\bold{21}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 2.5=\bold{26.25}$
poisoned +0 arrows	$\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}=\bold{7}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 1.5=\bold{10.5}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 2=\bold{14}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}\right )\times 2.5=\bold{17.5}$
poisoned +7 arrows	$\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}+7=\bold{14}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 1.5=\bold{21}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 2=\bold{28}$	$\left (\frac{1+6}{2}+\frac{1+6}{2}+7\right )\times 2.5=\bold{35}$

History

Arrows first appear in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and are included in the initial weapon list for Hack 1.0.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, upgrading standard arrows will produce either elven arrows, dark elven arrows or ya with an equal probability of each, while upgrading any type of arrow other than a silver arrow will produce standard arrows.

dNetHack

dNetHack adds the golden arrow and ancient arrow as arrow types.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, marrashi are generated with several stacks of standard arrows for their footbow, including a special filth-encrusted arrow.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Eve is generated with a bow and arrows when summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, centaur heroes gain a multishot bonus when firing arrows from a bow, and centaur Rangers start with the same bow and arrows as human Rangers.

Gnoll hunters always generate with a bow and arrows, and player monster rangers that are humans or centaurs will generate with two stacks of arrows for their bows. Sergeants and lieutenants that are dwarven or human and are generated in the Castle will generate with a bow and arrows. Arrows can be used to create many items at a forge:

• 2 arrows can be combined with a dagger to create a spear.
• 2 arrows can be combined with a spear to create a dwarvish spear.
• 2 arrows can be combined with a knife to create a dagger.
• 2 arrows can be combined with 2 darts to create a knife.
• 2 arrows can be combined with 2 crossbow bolts to create a club.

Hack'EM

Hack'EM retains the multishot bonus for centaur heroes when firing arrows from a bow from EvilHack, as well as the starting bow and arrows for centaur Rangers.

Upgrading a regular arrow successfully will produce an elven arrow, and upgrading an orcish arrow successfully will produce a regular arrow.

Encyclopedia entry

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
 
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?
 
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

[ The Arrow and the Song,
           by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]