Artifact weapon

An artifact weapon is a rare unique weapon, often with special properties. It may be acquired by sacrifice, by finding in a bones file, by finding in the dungeon, by wishing for one, or at the end of a quest. Excalibur may be acquired by dipping an ordinary long sword, provided you are lawful and level 5 and it hasn't already been generated. Excalibur, Vorpal Blade and Stormbringer may be acquired by praying with very good Luck; this is known as crowning.

An artifact weapon resists being wielded as a second weapon when #twoweaponing.

Any artifact weapon given to you by your god will be noncursed and erodeproof, and you will be unrestricted in the appropriate weapon skill if necessary. Certain roles are guaranteed to receive a particular weapon as their first gift: Valkyries receive Mjollnir, Barbarians receive Cleaver, Wizards receive Magicbane, and Samurai receive Snickersnee.

Sunsword and Demonbane might be created in the possession of a humanoid angelic creature; Archons are sure to be generated with one. Sting and Orcrist may be created by #name'ing an ordinary elven dagger or elven broadsword.

Like all other objects, you may wish for an artifact weapon. There are some caveats:

• If two or more artifacts have already been created, there is a chance that wishing for another will fail.
• You cannot wish for your own quest artifact, and wishing for another class's quest artifact is only useful if it is of the same alignment as you - otherwise you will be unable to pick it up. If it is of your alignment, you can use it but it will blast you.
• More generally, an artifact of the wrong alignment has a chance of blasting you every time you attempt to pick it up or wield it. Being blasted is not dangerous unless you are low-level (it only causes a small amount of damage) but it prevents you from picking the item up if it is intelligent. (To be precise, damage is 4d10 if the artifact is intelligent and 4d4 if not intelligent.)

What is the Best Artifact Weapon?

Artifact weapons' effectiveness depend on a number of factors including the player's alignment, the stage of the game (early middle, or late game) and the skills that particular role has access to, their guaranteed sacrifice gift, their quest artifact and so forth. Many artifact weapons have specific drawbacks in certain situations.

Greyswandir, which when fully enchanted does the most amount of damage in the game as well as 1d20 silver damage to late game demons. Mjollnir does the most amount of damage of any weapon unenchanted and thus greatly increases damage output in the early game. Magicbane has an array of status effects on monsters, allowing extra hits and time for the player to regroup, use tactics, or run away. It also has ability to engrave semi permanent Elbereth in one turn, and is the only sacrifice gift that conveys magic resistance. Excalibur is easy to get by dipping a longsword, deals double the damage of a normal sword on each hit and aids in searching which can detect dangerous traps (such as polytraps). For Chaotics, Stormbringer can save a player's life many times over by draining hp and adding it to the player's own. Since so few monsters in the dungeon are cold resistant (meaning it will deal frost damage to 99% of monsters) Frost Brand is effective on almost anything. Frost Brand is also unaligned and usable by any alignment.

However, each of these weapons does have specific technical drawbacks. For instance, it is difficult to kill the riders with Magicbane because of its low damage and takes many turns, each turn on the Astral Plane is a valuable commodity. As time goes on the plane gets more difficult, and you are attacked on all sides by many monsters. This means the status effects of magicbane are a drawback and a time waster. Frost Brand can freeze and destroy potions. Stormbringer is very ineffective in the Valley of the Dead, and dangerous monsters such as Liches and some demons are immune to it. Mjollnir destroys rings and wands of opponents, this is rare but it does happen, and it is ineffective against energy vortexes, a dangerous monster in the mid game. Excalibur makes all demons hostile. Greyswandir is a sabre and not many classes can get expert in saber.

In General

Obtaining a good artifact weapon is a central and important strategem in nethack. If it's possible to get a powerful artifact weapon, the player should often try to obtain it, even risking death to get it, provided it is one of the stronger artifact weapons.

Many artifact weapons will double the player's damage output over time. Some artifacts outright do double the damage of a normal weapon of its type to all targets on every hit. Most have a bonus to hit which also increases damage output over time.

Artifact Weapons can be placed into three categories: Universal, Broad, and Narrow. Universal Artifact weapons such as Excalibur, deal their extra damage to all opponents. Broad weapons, such as Mjollnir and Frostbrand deal extra damage to all opponents EXCEPT those who are resistant to certain types of damage: shock and cold, respectively. Narrow Artifact Weapons only deal extra damage to specific monster types. For instance, Sunsword only deals extra damage to Undead and Demonbane only deals extra damage to certain demons.

In the early game very few monsters are resistant to these broad weapons, and most of the most common killers in Nethack (ants, bees, soldiers, orcs, elves, leucrotta, mumak, etc) are not resistant to fire/shock/frost/level drain. For this reason, broad weapons can almost be considered to be universal weapons, at least in the early game.

Universal

Universal weapons are considered the strongest in the game and often double damage output over time or strictly with each hit. Those weapons are: Excalibur, Greyswandir, Magicbane, Cleaver, The Tsurugi of Murumasa, and Snickersnee.

Excalibur does 1d8+1d10 to small monsters, and 1d12+1d10 to large monsters. This more than doubles your damage output over time particularly with Excalibur's +1d5 to hit, as normal sized monsters are far more common. Since Excalibur is easy to obtain by dipping, and also provides searching, level drain resistance. It's only downside is that it makes Demon Princes automatically hostile. This can be avoided by stowing the weapon somewhere on Demon levels.

Greyswandir in addition to doing double the damage of a longsword also doubles it's enchantment bonus for damage. It also does an additional 1d20 to silver hating monsters. It does the most damage per hit of any weapon in the game if fully enchanted. Even unenchanted it still does twice that of a normal weapon.

Magicbane, while not doing double damage on each hit, has a chance of inflicting a number of status effects on a monster such as extra damage, stunning, scaring and cancelling. These effects allow more unanswered hits by the player, thus doubling their damage output over time. In addition, Magicbane can engrave semi permanent Elbereth in one turn without dulling. This allows players in a higher speed category than the monster to hit the monster and engrave elbereth before the monster hits back. For this reason Magicbane is considered a powerful weapon.

Cleaver since it can hit multiple enemies in the same turn will double damage output over time, especially with it's to-hit bonus. Cleaver gifted to a non-barbarian will also give a huge damage jump in the early game just by virtue of a battle axe's damage and Cleaver's additional damage.

Snickersnee does slightly less than double the damage of a normal katana, but over many rounds of combat it's +1d5 to hit will double it's damage output.

The Tsurugi doubles damage output (and adds bisection 5% of the time) but is a two handed weapon, which prevents use of a second weapon or a shield, and has a danger of cursing both hands. However, being an intelligent weapon the Tsurugi will resist all curses. Samurai who get this weapon on the quest already have access to guaranteed Snickersnee, and may forgo using the Tsurugi because they want to use a Shield of Reflection or may want to two weapon with Snickersnee (or dip for Excalibur).

Broad Weapons Which Double Damage output Over Time

Some artifact weapons in Nethack are Broad weapons, meaning that they deal extra damage to most (about 90% or higher) monsters but are ineffective (doing only regular damage) to a few. Firebrand, Frost Brand, Mjollnir, The Scepter of Might, The Staff of Aesculapius, and Stormbringer. Few monsters are fire or frost resistant in the early game with the exception of frost wolves. Shock resistant monsters include grid bugs (which are so weak as to not be an issue) and energy vortexes (which usually do not appear before the midgame). The Sceptre of Might deals double damage to cross aligned monsters. If keyed to a lawful caveman will do double damage to virtually every target as lawful monsters are rare (and will likely be peaceful). This weapon could also be a wish target for lawful priests (who can get expert in mace). Neutral Cavemen will however experience more problems as there are a host of neutral monsters, including Elementals on the planes. The Staff of Aesculapis and Stormbringer drain levels ad add to your hit points, which is actually better than doing double damage. Hits gain you hp which allows you to continue the fight longer, or even be in a position where in combat you netting a gain of hp despite the monster's attacks. The only thing that resists level drain in the early game are undead. Barring a Zombie Ettin, the player will be able to deal double damage up to the castle. Liches and vampire lords in the castle may be a problem however.

Broad Weapon Drawbacks

Some Broad Weapons come with a drawback of destroying items. Mjollnir can, in rare circumstances destroy wands and rings held by opponents. Frost brand can freeze potions, and Firebrand can both boil potions and burn up scrolls. However, the instance of this happening is rare, and further, it happening and affecting a valuable object is also rare. Still, many players prefer to use other artifact weapons that don't destroy items in their game.

The survival rate of playing with these weapons vs. a normal weapon is so extreme that the drawback is negligible. However, a player (for instance) such as a Lawful Valkyrie can get guaranteed Mjollnir by sacrificing and guaranteed Excalibur by dipping, using Excalibur to avoid destroying items and Mjollnir to avoid angering demons. Lawfuls can all dip for Excalibur making it a favorite over item destroying Broad weapons.

Universal Weapons which do not double damage output

Vorpal Blade is the only Universal one handed weapon that doesn't double damage output over time. It does have a 5% chance of beheading and +1d5 to hit as well as +1 damage. Some players shun this weapon as it has much lower output than most of the other broad or universal weapons.

The Longbow of Diana ads a small amount of damage but is valued for it's other properties (reflection and telepathy, invoking for more arrows).

The Tsurugi of Muramasa (which is obtained at the quest at enchantment level +0) might not double damage for a Samurai who already is two-weaponing with a +7 Excalibur and a +7 Katana

Narrow Weapons, valuable property

Though narrow weapons are mostly shunned, several have a special aspect which players need or want to use. Sunsword, though only doing double damage narrowly to undead, is a permanent light source. When blessed it is equivalent to a magic lamp. A magic lamp's visibility is considered so useful, that players will often not rub it even to get a wish, preferring the utility of visibility. Visibility allows a player to run away from dangerous monsters, to hit with spells, missile weapons and wands from a distance, as well as use tactics many turns before engaging in melee. As such Sunsword may be valued for this special property rather than it's damage bonus.

Dragonbane, while only narrowly affecting dragons with it's extra damage, also confers reflection and might be used for this property until another source of reflection can be found.

Narrow Weapons

The Narrow weapons in Nethack are as follows: Demonbane, Giantslayer, Grimtooth, Sting, Orcrist, Werebane, and Trollsbane. These artifacts are generally not considered to be very useful to players as they can only be used for extra damage against a very specific opponent. Some special properties (warning of orcs, or elves) is not considered very useful by the Nethack community. Narrow weapons will do little to increase your survival rate, though they can be useful to carry around for certain situations (For instance, Werebane is a silver saber and does extra damage against silver hating monsters).

Strategy

All players should try and obtain a powerful artifact weapon as soon as possible. This becomes more crucial the weaker the physical stats of the role chosen as many artifact weapons can double damage output and compensate for To Hit deficits. Altar camping, that is, continual sacrificing at an altar, is the most common way to do this. Characters can eat corpses, temporarily abandon their pet (thereby having more food), pray when weak to get nutrition from prayer, buy the food from a random store or minetown shop or visit the first few levels of Sokobon to stock up on food. Stocking up on food is harder with a pet present that eats corpses.

It is difficult to get an artifact weapon at an altar on dungeon level one or two as the monsters will be very low level. You can also not get a sacrifice gift until player level 3. However, it is not at necessary to complete Mine's end or Sokobon before trying to sacrifice for an artifact weapons.

Players should map out their artifact weapon strategy by seeing what artifact weapons they can get by sacrificing, by dipping a long-sword (if lawful), by wishing, or on the quest. Lawfuls and Neutrals have a greater than 50% chance of getting a weapon that doubles damage output at least for the early game, which is when this is most important. Four classes (Valkyrie, Wizard, Barbarian, Samurai) have guaranteed sacrifice gifts which double damage output over time and should sacrifice instead of using an early wish on an artifact. Early wishes from quaffing from fountains, from sitting on thrones or from magic lamps should be used for weapons that at a minimum double damage output.

Neutrals and Lawfuls

Neutrals and Lawfuls can wish for Magicbane and the Scepter of Might respectively which double damage output AND provide magic resistance. Neutrals may want to sacrifice for an artifact weapon instead, hoping to get Magicbane, but Magicbane is only guaranteed to Wizards. Other Neutral gifts are also good, with an above average chance of getting an artifact that doubles their damage output (over time) in the early game.

Two weapons, Vorpal Blade and Sunsword can be first sacrifice gifts. Though not doubling damage output over time, many players can see these as viable weapons, as Vorpal sometimes insta-kills and Sunsword sheds light which increases the players ability to react to dangerous monsters.

Crowning

Crowning requires extremely good luck, which is usually only possible by obtaining the Luckstone at mines end, blessing it, and sacrificing many times or throwing identified gems at co-aligned unicorns. Thus, Crowning artifact weapon gifts are very difficult (but not impossible) to get early in the game.

Lawful Crowning will simply turn a wielded longsword into Excalibur (which can be accomplished by dipping anyway, though it does avoid the natural risks of dipping an item in a fountain).

Neutral Crowning provides Vorpal Blade, which isn't as strong as many other neutral sacrifice gifts, but is at least guaranteed if the player is getting an unfortunate string of narrow artifacts (see "second sacrifice" below)

Chaotic Crowning at least guarantees Stormbringer, which is a broad damage doubling over time weapon, in addition to the sword adding to your hit points on successful hits.

Second Sacrifice

If the first sacrifice gift is a narrow weapon, unfortunately, the second sacrifice gift may also be a narrow weapon. This is because the "Unaligned Gifts" are now a possibility which is a list that has many narrow weapons on it: Werebane, Dragonbane, Trollsbane, and Ogresmasher, while only unlocking two broad (damage doubling over time) weapons: Frostbrand and Firebrand.

Chaotics

Elves can name Sting and Orcrist in order to force Stormbringer to be their first sacrifice gift. Sacrificing as a chaotic without naming both artifacts and hoping to get Stormbringer on the first sacrifice can be perilous. Chaotic Gods are very hard to mollify or to please, and getting several artifacts from sacrificing to a Chaotic God can be difficult. Note that naming Sting and Orcrist will make wishing for artifacts later an uncertain proposition. However, all Chaotics can be crowned with Stormbringer.

Strategically, Chaotic Humans and Orcs may want to wish for artifacts exclusively rather than sacrificing for them (Chaotic Humans and Orcs have at best a 50% chance at a good artifact, and only if they can find an elven dagger and an elven broadsword to name as Orcrist and Sting). Thus an early wish may be on an unaligned artifact weapon such as Frost Brand or for an artifact with which they can take the blast damage such as magicbane.

Alternatives to Artifact Weapons

If an artifact weapon cannot be found because of lack of a viable altar, a weapon enchanted to +6 or +7 will do as much damage in most cases as an un-enchanted artifact weapon. Remember that Elven Weapons can be enchanted even higher, to +9, this includes elvish spear, elvish dagger, and elvish broadsword which are instantly recognizable by their "runed" appearance.

For those good at missile weapons, they may want to enchant a whole stack of missile weapons. This is particularly effective for daggers, as you can enchant a stack of 10-15 daggers all at once to +7, then name one differently and use it as a melee weapon, keeping the others in your quiver. This doubles your melee AND missile weapon damage. For those that have multishot with missile weapons, a stack of blessed +6 or +7 daggers can easily take down ANYTHING, even the riders themselves (you will want to pick up the daggers though, which again, takes turns and valuable time away on Astral). Enchanted daggers are a viable alternative to an artifact weapon for many classes for this reason, and are great for wizards, rangers, rogues, and healers

Tourists can enchant a unicorn horn to +7. Unicorn horns do 1d12 and are immune to rust or corrosion, elves can enchant their starting dagger to +9 (or collect a stack of elven daggers). Archaeologists can enchant a Dwarven Mattock to +7 for massive damage. Priests can simply enchant their mace to +7 and rustproof their mace, they can get expert in mace, which will be fine up to the castle.

Chaotics may even wait to get to the castle wand before sacrificing or wishing for an artifact, instead enchanting up to +9 an Elven Runesword. The Runesword's good base damage compares well with other artifact weapons, and also trains broadsword skill in preparation for Stormbringer. Chaotic Rangers and Chaotic Rogues may wish to enchant up a stack of daggers to +7 or a stack of elven daggers to +9 to use as a substitute for an artifact weapon. Monks can charge up rings of Increase damage to do artifact level damage with their fists, or use silver rings while punching do do extra silver damage to undead and demons.

Other Altars

If the minetown altar doesn't match your alignment it can still be converted so that you can get an artifact weapon. Doing so is dangerous but not impossible. Walls of the temple may be destroyed by monsters naturally (such as dwarves with a mattock). Attacking the priest while standing outside its walls will prevent you from being smited by the God of the temple. Highly enchanted missile weapons, magic missile, spells and powerful attack wands can then be shot at the priest. The priest will still summon insects and may use wands or cast spells at you but will likely not leave the temple. Scrolls of earth (guaranteed in Sokobon) can hedge the priest so that he cannot melee you, or hedge him so that he's standing in front of the altar's entrance, and you will not be smited for converting the altar (the priest can still cast spells/wands and summon insects). Enough scrolls of earth properly used can even completely trap the priest, allowing you to convert the altar and the insects he summon become corpses for you to sacrifice to get an artifact weapon. Obviously this strategy is more successful with good AC, reflection, magic resistance and powerful missile weapons wands or spells. Note also that attacking the priest will remove protection that you've bought and the next guaranteed priest who you can buy protection from is in the Valley of the Dead. Some quests do have guaranteed priests you can donate to.

Altars, if they don't appear in the dungeon, may be present in the quests of various roles. The knight quest locate level has a neutral temple, the healer quest locate level has a chaotic temple, the caveman quest home level a co-aligned one. The temple in the valley of the dead can be converted, but remember to kill the priest their first standing outside the temple. Remember that this will also remove protection (if you've already bought it). Protection could then be re-bought from the minetown priest. These altars can be used to obtain an artifact weapon.

List of artifact weapons

See Source:artilist.h, Source:artifact.c or the article for each artifact for more details.

Mean damage is calculated before any strength, skill, and blessed bonuses. Silver damage is indicated in italics. Assumes weapon enchanted to +7. Assumes monster is susceptible to special bonuses and includes them (i.e. double damage, +damage bonuses, and extra damage from a level draining attack) with the damage to resistant monsters in parentheses, if applicable.

Artifact name	Base item type	Alignment	Intelligent	Special properties			Mean Damage		Obtaining
				Carried	Wielded	Invoked	vs. Small	vs. Large
Cleaver	battle-axe (two-headed axe)	neutral	No		+d3 to-hit & +d6 damage. Attacks in an arc.		17.5	19	First sacrifice gift for Barbarians.
Demonbane	long sword	lawful	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to major demons. Prevents demon gating.		23 (11.5)	27 (13.5)	May be given to a new angelic being.
Dragonbane	broadsword	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to dragons. Reflection.		24 (12)	23 (11.5)
Excalibur	long sword	lawful	Yes		+d5 to-hit & +d10 damage. Drain resistance. Searching. Hostile demon princes. Monster tracking.		17	19	May be produced for lawful adventurers at fountains. Lawful crowning gift.
Fire Brand	long sword	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to non-fire-resistant monsters. Fire resistance.		23 (11.5)	27 (13.5)
Frost Brand	long sword	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to non-cold-resistant monsters. Cold resistance.		23 (11.5)	27 (13.5)
Giantslayer	long sword	neutral	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to giants.		23 (11.5)	27 (13.5)
Grayswandir	silver saber	lawful	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage. Protection against hallucination.		23+10.5	23+10.5
Grimtooth	orcish dagger (crude dagger)	chaotic	No		+d2 to-hit & +d6 damage. Warning of elves.		12.5	12.5
The Longbow of Diana	bow	chaotic	Yes	Telepathy.	+d5 to-hit. Reflection.	Creates arrows.	arrow damage	arrow damage	Quest artifact of Rangers.
Magicbane	athame	neutral	No		+d3 to-hit. Special damage. Magic resistance. Protects against cursing.		13.40 (10.5)	12.90 (10)	First sacrifice gift for Wizards.
Mjollnir	war hammer	neutral	No		+d5 to-hit & +d24 damage to non-shock-resistant monsters. Can return when thrown.		23 (10.5)	22 (9.5)	First sacrifice gift for Valkyries.
Ogresmasher	war hammer	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to ogres. Increases constitution to 25.		21 (10.5)	19 (9.5)
Orcrist	elven broadsword (runed broadsword)	chaotic	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to orcs. Warning of orcs.		26 (13)	23 (11.5)	May be produced by naming an ordinary elven broadsword Orcrist.
The Sceptre of Might	mace	lawful	Yes	Magic resistance	+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to cross-aligned monsters.	Conflict.	23 (11.5)	21 (10.5)	Quest artifact of Cavepeople.
Snickersnee	katana (samurai sword)	lawful	No		+d8 damage.		17	18	First sacrifice gift for Samurai.
The Staff of Aesculapius	quarterstaff (staff)	neutral	Yes		x2 damage & level drain to non-drain-resistant monsters (the draining itself causes an addition 1d8 damage to both current and max hp, and restores half that to your current hp, but this damage is NOT doubled.) Hungerless regeneration. Drain resistance.	Healing, cures sickness, blindness, & sliming.	25.5 (10.5)	25.5 (10.5)	Quest artifact of Healers.
Sting	elven dagger (runed dagger)	chaotic	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to orcs. Warning of orcs. Cuts through webs.		20 (10)	18 (9)	May be produced by naming an ordinary elven dagger Sting.
Stormbringer	runesword	chaotic	Yes		+d5 to-hit, +d2 damage & level drain to non-drain-resistant monsters (the draining itself causes an addition 1d8 damage to both current and max hp, and restores half that to your current hp.) Drain resistance. Bloodthirsty.		18 (12)	17.5 (11.5)	Chaotic crowning gift.
Sunsword	long sword	lawful	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to undead. Light. Protection from light-based blinding.		23 (11.5)	27 (13.5)	May be given to a new angelic being.
Trollsbane	morning star	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to trolls. Prevents trolls from reviving.		24 (12)	23 (11.5)
The Tsurugi of Muramasa	tsurugi (long samurai sword)	lawful	Yes	Luck	+d8 damage. 5% chance of double damage or instakill via bisection, depending on the size.		instakill (20)	38.85 (19.425)	Quest artifact for Samurai.
Vorpal Blade	long sword	neutral	No		+d5 to-hit & +1 damage. 5% chance of beheading monsters with heads. Instantly kills jabberwocks.		instakill(12.5)	instakill(14.5)	Neutral crowning gift.
Werebane	silver saber	unaligned	No		+d5 to-hit & x2 damage to werecreatures. Protects against lycanthropy attack.		23+10.5 (11.5+10.5)	23+10.5 (11.5+10.5)

See also

• Artifact
• SLASH'EM Artifact weapons

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