Bullwhip
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| |
|---|---|
| Name | bullwhip |
| Appearance | bullwhip |
| Damage vs. small | 1d2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1 |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | whip |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 4 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 20 |
| Material | leather |
A bullwhip, sometimes known simply as a "whip", is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed melee weapon that uses the whip skill, and is made of leather.
Generation
Archeologists start each game with a +2 bullwhip.[1]
Bullwhips are quite rare, making up 1⁄500 (0.2%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can also stock bullwhips.
Some monsters can be generated with a bullwhip:
- Balrogs are always generated with a bullwhip.[2]
- Horned devils have a 1⁄4 chance (25%) of being generated with a bullwhip.[3]
- Lord Carnarvon, the quest leader for the Archeologist quest, always generates with a +4 bullwhip.[4]
- Player monsters that are not monks and are created on the Astral Plane have a 1⁄291 chance (~0.34%) of generating with a bullwhip as their initial weapon before role-based replacements are applied.[6][7]
- Archeologists have a 1⁄2 chance of forcing a bullwhip as their melee weapon.[8]
Rope golems may leave behind "rope" objects as a special death drop instead of a corpse that each have a roughly 1⁄3 chance of being a bullwhip.[9]
Description
A bullwhip deals 1d2 damage against small monsters and only 1 point of damage against large monsters, and will always deal 1 point of damage against thick-skinned monsters regardless of their size.[10] A hero can apply a bullwhip to wield and then snap it in a chosen direction, which can perform a number of special tricks:[11][12]
- Pick up items.[13]
- Wrap the whip around furniture, a boulder, or a large monster to climb out of a pit.[14]
- Disarm a weapon-wielding monster that you can see}}.[15][16]
- Attack a monster normally.[17]
The success of the intended trick occurring and whichever trick occurs being performed correctly both depend on the hero's "proficiency score", which is influenced by their dexterity, whether they are an Archaeologist, and whether they are fumbling[18]—whip tricks will always fail unless the hero is proficient. The hero also cannot perform any tricks besides attacking monsters if they are currently confused or engulfed.
NetHack makes the following assumptions to determine what to do when a bullwhip is applied:[19]
- If the hero is in a pit, then they are attempting to get out of the pit and the game will prioritize a boulder, a dungeon feature or a sufficiently-large monster in that order when the hero selects their target square—if a boulder and dungeon feature are on the same square, the boulder will be targeted first since it will be on top of the dungeon feature.
- Otherwise, if a hero in a pit targets a small or medium monster, the assumption is that they are attacking.
- If the hero is attacking a monster, and it is not concealed and is currently wielding a weapon, then the hero will attempt to disarm that monster.
- Otherwise, if the monster is concealed or else unseen for the hero, or else the monster is visible but weaponless, the hero performs a melee attack.
Disarming
A hero applying a bullwhip that wraps around a monster's weapon has a chance of yanking that weapon out of their hands, and the disarmed weapon may end up on the floor at their feet, on the floor at the hero's feet, or inside the hero's inventory, depending on a 'proficiency' check.[20] A weapon that is cursed and welded to the monster's hands cannot be pulled free with a bullwhip.[21] Beware: snagging a monster's wielded footrice corpse with a bullwhip and yanking it into the hero's inventory causes it to make contact with the hero's hands, resulting in stoning if they are not wearing gloves.[22]
A hero that successfully disarms a target wielding a non-cursed weapon does not break weaponless conduct, but failing and attacking the monster will break the conduct and always has a 1⁄10 chance of occurring:[23] this attack can only be declined for pets, which requires the safe_pet ooption to be enabled. A hero disarming a pet using a bullwhip does not reduce its tameness, but disarming a peaceful monster using a bullwhip will anger it.
Picking up items
Applying a bullwhip down towards an item while the hero is riding or levitating has a luck-based chance of picking it up off the floor, and picking up a footrice corpse from the ground this way does not bring it into contact with the hero's hands.[24][25] When applying a whip downwards while riding a steed, there is always a 20-33% chance of hitting the steed instead.[26]
Applying a bullwhip down while over a moat, pool or lava square will always fail to retrieve submerged items, and applying a bullwhip towards lava will burn or even destroy it.[27]
Riding
Applying the bullwhip to snap it at a steed while riding will cause it to gallop, temporarily increasing its speed but reducing its tameness by 1. This includes hitting the steed while trying to pick up an item off the floor using the bullwhip.
Monster usage
Monsters wielding a bullwhip will either attack with it normally or attempt to disarm the target, and disarming functions similarly for whip-wielding monsters as it does for the hero, with the following exceptions:[28][29]
- The monster will only attempt this on 1⁄5 of available opportunities.{refsrc|src/muse.c|2180-L2182|nethack=5.0.0}}
- A heavy iron ball is too heavy to be disarmed.
- A silver-hating monster using a whip to pull a silver item from the hero's hands will never pull the item into its inventory, instead dropping it at the hero's feet.
In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters that are not balrogs will prefer the bullwhip to a quarterstaff, and will prefer a flail or better to the bullwhip[30]—balrogs always favor their bullwhip for disarming a weapon-wielding hero, and will switch to a better weapon when the hero is weaponless.[31]
Strategy
Bullwhips are viable utility items, primarily sought after for their ability to pry desirable weapons out of the hands of a humanoid pet and/or forcing it to pick up and wield a different (usually better) weapon. While disarming thankfully does not constitute pet abuse, you will anger any peaceful monsters you disarm: using a bullwhip to grab the Minetown watch captain's silver saber is probably a Bad Idea if you expect to make off with it scot-free. Most monsters can wield bullwhips, but will prefer most other weapons over them unless they are balrogs or their weapon is of a relatively weak type.
Heroes looking to levitate frequently (e.g., Barbarians using The Heart of Ahriman) will also want to carry a bullwhip with them in order to reach items on the floor—since this is reliant on dexterity rather than weapon skill, all roles can make use of this through varying amounts of stat exercise.
Bullwhips can be used as an aid for riding players looking to put on a burst of speed in a pinch, and all roles capable of advancing the whip skill can also advance their riding skill to Basic. While the hero can also cause their steed to gallop by kicking them, the bullwhip is also useful for picking up items off the floor while still mounted, especially if you are Unskilled in riding (and/or cannot train the skill at all).
History
The bullwhip is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 5.0.0, including some variants based on those versions, the bullwhip is the subject of a few bugfixes and other code changes.
- In versions up to NetHack 3.4.3:
- A player that is polymorphed into a xorn cannot pick up items that are inside pits, and cannot fall into pits—the primary workaround for this is to obtain levitation and apply a bullwhip downward towards the pit in question to retrieve items from it. This is bug C343-16, and was fixed for NetHack 3.6.0 on January 27, 2004 via commit b661f86e.
- If a monster is wielding the artifact Sunsword and a bullwhip snatches it from their hands, it will continue to remain lit. This is part of bug C343-106—it was fixed previously in NetHack 3.4.1, and was fixed again for NetHack 3.6.0 via commit a1b4bce8 (which notes the previous fix) on July 15, 2005.
- Applying a bullwhip while stunned or confused and at an edge of the map may cause a panic or crash. This is bug C343-383, and was fixed for NetHack 3.6.0 via commit e11c136b and commit b71b3e92 on February 22-23, 2009.
- In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7:
- Rope golems do not have a special death drop of any kind that replaces their lack of a corpse. NetHack 5.0.0 gives the rope golem a death drop via commit 9e666b75, which gives each item a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being a bullwhip—this is changed to its current probability via commit eed952a0.
- The "dead horse" message is only printed when applying a bullwhip downwards towards the corpse of a horse. This is extended to pony and warhorse corpses in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 6f569f0a.
- Balrogs are highly unlikely to ever wield their bullwhip due to how much lower it is ranked in monster weapon preference]], e.g. they will only switch to it if they somehow lose their broadsword.[32] This behavior is updated in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 93b9467c.
- A hero wielding a two-handed weapon that is disarmed by a monster wielding a bullwhip can sometimes result in incorrect messages—this is fixed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit b76d4338 and commit be3d248a.
- Bullwhips can retrieve items submerged in water and lava. This is changed to its current behavior in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit ff483694.
Lord Carnarvon's bullwhip is added in NetHack 5.0.0 as part of commit 20cbadcf, which makes it so that a hero killing their quest leader no longer makes the game unwinnable and strengthens all quest leaders accordingly.
Origin
The Archeologist's starting bullwhip, along with the leather jacket and fedora, is one of the many trademark accessories of Indiana Jones, the titular character and star of a franchise of movies made by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Jones in turn is based on the heroes of 1930s pulp serials and inspired the Archaeologist role.
Messages
- Snap!
- You applied a bullwhip without hitting anything.[33]
- Why beat a dead horse?
- You applied a bullwhip downwards while flying or levitating, on a square containing a horse corpse.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Undead Slayers have a 1⁄4 chance of starting with a +2 bullwhip—this is based on the Castlevania franchise, where the whip is frequently used by the Belmont clan of vampire hunters.
An Archeologist wielding a bullwhip will not fall through trap doors, though objects on the trap door's square can still fall through:[34]
- But thanks to your trusty whip ... You don't fall in.
- A trap door opened under you, but you were an Archeologist wielding a bullwhip, preventing you from falling through.
Bullwhips tend to see somewhat more use in SLASH'EM: heroes with powerful humanoid pets will want to enchant that pet's weapon so that it can take on late-game foes that need enchanted weapons of a certain level to hit—this does not work for minions, who will not pick up or equip any items outside of the ones they are generated with. Additionally, vampire heroes can use bullwhips and a source of levitation to retrieve items in moats or pits.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, applying a bullwhip at a tame monster will abuse it if they are not disarmed by the bullwhip. Applying a bullwhip at a foocubus will cause it to attack, potentially initiating seduction.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, an archeologist corpse that is generated along with a rolling boulder trap has a chance of generating a bullwhip atop the corpse.
Durin's Bane is always generated with an uncursed fireproof bullwhip that has an enchantment of up to +7.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Xiuhcoatl is an artifact that has a bullwhip form, which is made of dragonhide flavored as "serpenthide".
Gnomish heroes in roles that start with bullwhips (i.e. Archeologist) have them replaced with an aklys, and drow heroes in roles that start with bullwhips (i.e. Noble and Priest) have them replaced with viperwhips.
Durin's Bane is always generated with a cursed +9 iron bullwhip.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Lord Carnarvon always generates with a +4 bullwhip.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Zookeeper starts each game with a +1 bullwhip.
Liontamer is an artifact bullwhip that has +5 to-hit and +8 damage versus felines, and acts as the first sacrifice gift for Zookeepers.
Encyclopedia entry
"Good," he said and, unbelievably, smiled at me, a smirk like
a round of rotted cheese. "What did your keeper use on you?
A bullwhip?"
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 44
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 503
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 510
- ↑ dat/Arc-strt.lua in NetHack 5.0.0, line 75
- ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 174-L392
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 150: 1⁄2 to get a random weapon—the designated range of objects covers weapons from the spear to the bullwhip inclusively in objects.h, and uses normal generation odds[5]
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 199: monks will always have no melee weapon
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 161-L162
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 686-L690
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 304-L306: bullwhip is the only actual weapon item to fit this case
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2954-L3271: use_whip() function
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4265-L4267
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3037-L3055: applying whip at an item on the ground from a height
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3069-L3127: applying whip at furniture unseen target defaults to attacking
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3128-L3146: applying whip at unseen target defaults to attacking
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3147-L3244: disarming an armed monster with a whip
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3245-L3259
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2990-L3003
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3070-L3088: directly pulled from code comments
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3153-L3244
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3166-L3173
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3210-L3229
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3156
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3049-L3055: calls pickup_object() with telekinesis boolean set to TRUE
- ↑ src/pickup.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1797-L1888
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3023-L3028
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3029-L3036
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2178-L2193: conditions for MUSE_BULLWHIP case
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2549-L2615: MUSE_BULLWHIP case and outcomes
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 697-L698
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 723-L724
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 639
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2962
- ↑ trap.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 359
