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 wishing for one, at the end of a quest, by crowning, in a shop, dipping a longsword if you are lawful, or through random generation. An artifact weapon resists being wielded as a second weapon when #twoweaponing. Artifact weapons have special bonuses to hit and damage, and sometimes other special abilities. Because Artifact weapons can greatly increase damage output over time (and greatly increase one's chance of survival), obtaining one is a central strategy in Nethack.

Sacrifice

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.

Wishing

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.)

Crowning

Excalibur, Vorpal Blade and Stormbringer may be acquired by praying with very good Luck; this is known as crowning.

Naming

Sting and Orcrist may be created by #name'ing an ordinary elven dagger or elven broadsword.

Dipping

Excalibur may be acquired by dipping an ordinary long sword, provided you are lawful and level 5 and it hasn't already been generated. Dipping your longsword will rust it. If you are dipping your only longsword, or your only weapon, you risk the weapon not changing to Excalibur. Many effects can result from dipping some of which are dangerous for a low level player.

Bones File

An artifact weapon can be found in a bones file, but it will likely by cursed. A player may wish to use it despite its curse, and attempt to remove it by another means later. See Cursed items.

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)

In General: Universal, Broad, and Narrow

Artifact weapons' effectiveness depend on a number of factors including the player's alignment, the stage of the game (early middle, or late game), 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. Some artifact weapons, as noted in the list above, affect all targets with their extra damage (Example: Excalibur). Some affect most targets but not those resistant to a type of damage (Example: Frostbrand). Some only do extra damage narrowly to specific targets (Example, Sting).

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. Fully 90% of monsters (adjusting for frequency and rarity) have no energy resistances.

However, this changes in the mid and late game as the quest Nemesis of many roles, The Riders, the High Priest, and Demons have resistances to some or all types of energy. As well, certain guaranteed levels in Nethack are stocked with monsters which are all resistant to a certain type of enemy (For instance, Plane of Air has monsters that are shock resistant, Plane of fire has monsters that are fire resistant).

Damage Output Over Time

Some artifact weapons greatly increase a player's damage over time as compared to a normal weapon. This is partially because of the "to hit" bonus of many artifacts as well as that they do extra damage to all targets (universally) or most targets (broadly). Damage output over time is also increased because of other special attributes of the weapon (for instance Cleaver hitting more than one target at a time, or Magicbane stunning a monster and allowing for subsequent unanswered hits on a monster).

Damage output over time is a crucial property when facing the most common monster deaths such as bees, ants, leucrotta, soldiers, orcs, elves, and so forth. This is also why obtaining an artifact weapon that greatly increases damage output over time as soon as possible is valuable.

Valuable property

Sunsword, though only doing double damage narrowly to undead, is a permanent light source. 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. Werebane, while only doing extra damage to lycans, is a silver saber which does silver damage to all silver haters.

Chaotics

The Sacrifice gift list for Chaotics is significantly worse, containing many more narrow weapons than for Lawfuls or Neutrals. 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 at expert skill 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. For those that have multishot with missile weapons, a stack of blessed +6 or +7 daggers provides a great deal of damage per turn which can take down almost anything. 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 Broadsword. The Broadsword'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.

Factoids

Sunsword and Demonbane might be created in the possession of a humanoid angelic creature; Archons are sure to be generated with one.

Some 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 weapons.

If the minetown altar doesn't match your alignment it can still be converted so that you can 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.

See also

• Artifact
• SLASH'EM Artifact weapons

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