Katana
) 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | katana |
| Appearance | samurai sword |
| Damage vs. small | 1d10 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d12 |
| To-hit bonus | +1 |
| Weapon skill | long sword |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 80 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | iron |
A katana is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed melee weapon that uses the long sword skill. It is made of iron, and appears as a samurai sword when unidentified.
The katana is the base item for the artifact Snickersnee.
Contents
Generation
All Samurai start the game with a +0 katana.[1]
The katana is quite rare and makes up 1⁄250 (0.4%) 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 katanas. A katana generated this way has a base 1⁄20 chance of being made into an artifact, which will always be Snickersnee assuming no artifacts have been generated.[2]
Lord Sato, the quest leader for the Samurai quest, is always generated with a non-cursed and rustproofed +4 katana.[3]
Player monsters, including those generated on the Astral Plane, have a low 1⁄291 chance (effectively ~0.34%) of being generated with a katana as their initial weapon before role-based replacements are applied.[4] Samurai have a 1⁄2 chance of forcing a katana as their weapon, raising their effective chance to ~50.17%.[5]
Description
The katana deals 1d10 damage to small monsters and 1d12 damage to large monsters. A Samurai hero that attacks with a wielded a katana and is not wearing a shield has a base 1⁄40 chance of performing a shattering blow that destroys the target's wielded weapon.[6]
Strategy
The katana's primary advantages over a standard long sword are the +1 to-hit bonus and the higher damage to small monsters, though long swords are more common and can be converted into Excalibur by dipping (with a 1⁄6 chance of success for Knights and a lower 1⁄30 chance otherwise).[7] The katana is also the most damaging non-artifact weapon to use the long sword weapon skill, and is often sought after as an off-hand weapon for two-weapon combat: Samurai can not only handle early combat much easier with their starting katana, but the skill training pays off much more when wielding that katana in the offhand as a secondary weapon to Excalibur or any other artifact that uses the long sword skill.
Average damage calculation
The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons.
| Weapon | Small monsters | Large monsters |
|---|---|---|
| +0 katana | 
|
|
| +7 katana | 
|
|
History
The katana first appears in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, the defunct Ninja role starts with a katana.[8]
In NetHack 2.2a and 2.3e, Snickersnee can be created by naming any katana.
Lord Sato's katana is added in NetHack 5.0.0 as part of commit 20cbadcf, which makes it so that killing the quest leader no longer makes the game unwinnable and strengthens all quest leaders accordingly.
Origin
The katana is the name used for a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and a long grip to accommodate two hands. The term originates in the early 8th century CE and refers to single-edged swords in general, with the ones used by lower-ranking samurai and the like known as uchigatana (打刀). Despite the katana's modern reputation as a superb weapon, it was reserved for close combat, and only became commonplace as a weapon during the portion of the 16th-century Sengoku period where tactics changed and began to favor group battles by large groups of mobilized foot soldiers—the quality of steel in Japan was also relatively poor at the time of the katana's initial exportation.
The statline for the katana, including the +1 to-hit bonus, is derived from Dungeons & Dragons, which is one of many media franchises and works where the katana's reputation causes it to be treated as a superior type of sword weapon.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Samurai men start with a katana, while Samurai women are instead given a naginata.
Kiku-ichimonji is an artifact katana that acts as the male Samurai's first sacrifice gift—Snickersnee has its base item changed to a knife.
Maids have a 1⁄4 chance of generating with a katana if the hero is a Samurai, and a 7⁄10 chance otherwise.
The Chaos Temple Quest generates a blessed +3 katana named Sasuke's Blade in the hidden western-most room of the Fire Temple during level creation.
Yuki-onna Madpeople that started the game as female will have a +2 silver rakuyo katana generated among their belongings in the quest box on the goal level of the Madperson quest during level creation.
The katana gains a 1⁄2 (50%) strength-based bonus to damage when wielded without two-weaponing or using a shield in the off hand. A hero wielding a katana while they are at Skilled or better in long swords gains the "focus fire", "hew" and "graze" expert traits. In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will favor a katana over the droven lance (if they can use polearms in melee) and crysknife, and will prefer a chikage or better to the katana.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, extraplanar merchants have a chance of generating with a katana.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the katana has a base object material of steel. Ronin that appear on the Samurai quest have a 3⁄4 chance of generating with a katana.
A katana can be created at a forge by combining two long swords, and a katana can be combined with a two-handed sword to create a tsurugi.
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM has three artifact katanas:
- Nightingale is an artifact katana that is the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for the revived Ninja role.
- Kiku-ichimonji is adapted from dNetHack and serves as the Samurai's first sacrifice gift.
- Snickersnee is replaced as the Samurai's first sacrifice gift and is not tied to the role at all—the artifact can still be gifted and generated, and is otherwise unchanged from SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
The katana is a long, single-edged samurai sword with a
slightly curved blade. Its long handle is designed to allow
it to be wielded with either one or two hands.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 143
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 889-L893: artifact generation
- ↑ dat/Sam-strt.lua in NetHack 5.0.0, line 63
- ↑ 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
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 225-L228
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 966-L1011
- ↑ src/fountain.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 405
- ↑ u_init.c in NetHack 2.3e, line 184
