Frost Brand

)   Frost Brand   (No tile)
Base item	long sword
Damage vs. small	1d8 ×2
Damage vs. large	1d12 ×2
To-hit bonus	+1d5
Bonus versus	targets without cold resistance
Weapon skill	long sword
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	unaligned
When carried	(none)
When wielded	cold resistance
When invoked	(none)
Base price	3000 zm
Weight	40
Material	iron

Frost Brand is an artifact that appears in NetHack. It is unaligned, and its base item type is a long sword.

Fire Brand is the fire-aligned counterpart of Frost Brand.

Generation

Any long sword that is randomly generated on the ground has a base ¹⁄₂₀ chance (5%) of being made into an artifact, which has a ¹⁄₆ chance of being Frost Brand. Frost Brand can be given to any hero as a sacrifice gift, though it will never be the first one given.

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

Demonbane's base item is changed to a mace, so any long sword made into an artifact has a ¹⁄₅ chance to be made into Frost Brand.

Description

While wielded, Frost Brand grants fire resistance, has a +1d5 to-hit bonus and deals double damage against monsters without cold resistance - it may also destroy potions in the target's open inventory.

Strategy

Frost Brand is more popular than its counterpart Fire Brand due to many of Gehennom's denizens being fire-resistant demons, and it does not destroy as much valuable loot when used to attack, making it an excellent artifact weapon to have. Frost Brand is considered the best artifact weapon to have for Gehennom after Grayswandir: it deals slightly more damage against non-resistant large monsters that are not weak to silver, though Grayswandir naturally still has the advantage against. Frost Brand is also the weaker of the two on the Astral Plane, where most of the monsters present will resist cold damage but not fire damage.

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	Cold-resistant		Not Cold-resistant
	Small monster	Large monster	Small monster	Large monster
+0 Frost Brand	$\frac{1+8}{2}=\bold{4.5}$	$\frac{1+12}{2}=\bold{6.5}$	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2} \right )\times 2=\bold{9}$	$\left (\frac{1+12}{2} \right )\times 2=\bold{13}$
+7 Frost Brand	$\frac{1+8}{2}+7=\bold{11.5}$	$\frac{1+12}{2}+7=\bold{13.5}$	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2}+7\right )\times 2=\bold{23}$	$\left (\frac{1+12}{2}+7\right )\times 2=\bold{27}$

History

Frost Brand is introduced alongside Frost Brand in NetHack 3.0.0.

From NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.2.3, Frost Brand is neutral-aligned - NetHack 3.3.0 makes Frost Brand and Fire Brand unaligned.

Messages

The ice-cold blade <hits/freezes> <monster>!

Frost Brand was used to attack a monster, with "hits" used only if the target has cold resistance.

Variants

Variants of NetHack commonly make it possible to pair Fire Brand with Frost Brand in some manner.

NetHack: The Next Generation

In NetHack: The Next Generation, Frost Brand is one of the artifacts that can be created by Duri at The Forge, with a base price of 6750 (slightly higher than Fire Brand). This also applies to SlashTHEM.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, Frost Brand and Fire Brand can be generated or wished for as any of the following:

• Gauntlets (for Monks)
• Any bladed weapon that is one-handed for medium-sized characters with the exception of:
  • Any vibroweapon
  • Crow quill
  • Set of crow talons
  • Rakuyo
  • Crystal sword
  • Runesword
  • Mirrorblade

When given as a sacrifice gift, Frost Brand has a ¹⁄₃ chance of being created as a long sword, and will otherwise be created as one of the following, with an equal probability of each: a saber, a scimitar, gauntlets, a broadsword, an axe, a short sword, or an athame. Any valid object that is randomly generated on the ground has the normal chance to be made into a Brand, but once either one has generated, the other can only be generated as the matching object type.

Frost Brand appears as an ice-runed variation of its base item, and has +1 to-hit and deals double cold damage: the damage of its base dice is dealt as explosion damage, making it much harder to resist. Frost Brand does not resist being two-weaponed with Fire Brand and vice versa.

NetHack Fourk

In NetHack Fourk, Frost Brand can be two-weaponed with Fire Brand.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, Frost Brand has its base item changed to a short sword, and it can be twoweaponed with Fire Brand or Mirror Brand.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, Frost Brand can generate as any one-handed sword weapon, and can be combined with Fire Brand at a furnace to create Frostburn.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Frost Brand can generate as a crystal sword.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, Frost Brand has its base item changed to a steel short sword. It can be combined with Fire Brand at a forge to create Dichotomy, an artifact runesword.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, Frost Brand has its base item changed to a steel short sword as in EvilHack.

notnotdNetHack

In notnotdNetHack, in addition to notdNetHack details, Frost Brand can generate as any bladed weapon other than a vibroweapon or runesword.

Encyclopedia

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

[ Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost ]