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.)

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)

Strategy

It is useful to obtain an artifact weapon that provides a bonus against most or all enemies, such as Excalibur, early in the game. However, wishing for one may not succeed if artifacts have been generated already (perhaps without your knowledge), and uses a valuable wish which normally could be used to considerably improve your defenses.

Selection

Because of the way that the odds of getting an artifact from a sacrifice reduce as more artifacts are generated, and the odds of getting an artifact from wishing becomes uncertain after two artifacts are generated in the game, artifact selection tends to be about acquiring the best artifact possible, rather than getting the perfect artifact, which may be either impossible or improbable.

Some artifact weapons, such as Giantslayer, only give a bonus against a narrow subset of monsters. These are nigh-useless; in practice by the time you see large numbers of giants (if you ever do), you'll have a better option. Receiving one as a sacrifice gift does unrestrict the relevant skill, which can be useful if you have a better artifact of the same type. Many variants try to improve artifacts of this type. Unfortunately there are quite a few artifacts that only give a narrow damage bonus.

A two-handed weapon means that you cannot use a shield, and in the late game it can become cursed, requiring you to #tip an uncursing item out of your bag to regain use of your hands. Intelligent artifacts resist curses, and holy water, scrolls of remove curse or the spell of remove curse can uncurse a two handed item. Use of a two handed weapon in the late game thus depends on available resources.

An intelligent cross-aligned artifact is unusable; an unintelligent cross-aligned artifact is potentially dangerous to use.

Some artifact weapons provide a useful resistance or other ability. For example, Stormbringer's level drain resistance means that you might wield it to clear the Valley of the Dead - it does no bonus damage to undead, but it essentially eliminates any threat they pose. Sunsword only deals bonus damage to undead, but can be useful as a light source.

Cleaver and Stormbringer are both dangerous to use around pets or neutral monsters you don't want to anger as they will attack without y/n confirmation.

Mjollnir, Fire Brand, and Frost Brand can destroy consumables that monsters are carrying. All things being equal, you would rather have those consumables for yourself, but all three of these weapons are also powerful.

Some artifact weapons give a bonus against most targets, like Fire Brand and Frost Brand. Very few monsters are energy resistant in the early game, and these monsters are rare in number and in frequency, meaning the weapon is useful except against resistant monsters. These weapons which damage a broad array of monsters can be used as part of an ascension kit. Energy resistant monsters are more of an issue in the late game as the high priest, the quest nemesis, Rodney, and the riders have some or all energy resistances. Wielding a highly enchanted regular weapon, or obtaining a second artifact for resistant monsters can be used in those instances.

A few artifact weapons, like Cleaver and Excalibur, give a bonus against all targets, applying their damage bonus universally. Especially noteworthy is Grayswandir, with double damage against everything and additional damage to targets harmed by silver.

See also

• Artifact
• SLASH'EM Artifact weapons

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