Artifact
In NetHack, an artifact is a rare, magical and unique version of a specific object, with special qualities compared to their mundane counterparts. Each role that a player character can select has their own special quest artifact associated with them.
Contents
Generation
Items that are randomly generated on the ground have a base 1⁄20 chance (5%) of being made into an appropriate artifact, with an equal probability for each artifact if there are multiple artifacts of that item's type.[1] Artifacts are not generated in a monster's starting inventory unless they are a player monster that is generated on the Astral Plane, though monsters can pick up artifacts they come across.
The odds of an artifact being generated are affected by the amount of artifacts that already exist in the current game, and the more artifacts that have been generated, the less likely it is for another artifact to be generated. This also applies to wishing for artifacts: the odds of obtaining an artifact with a wish steadily decrease for each artifact generated after the second - see the linked section for further details.
Only one of each artifact can be generated in a given game, and artifacts will not generate under their normal circumstances if they already exist elsewhere in the game. Conversely, artifacts left in a bones file will revert to their base item if a character that encounters the bones file has already generated the artifact(s) in question, or else if the artifact belongs to that character's role - artifacts that have their alignment changed due to being a sacrifice gift or a quest artifact revert to their base alignment if left in bones.
Sting and Orcrist can be created by naming their base items, while Excalibur is not randomly generated and can only be created by certain methods detailed in its article.
Sacrifice gifts
Characters that sacrifice to their god while their prayer timeout is zero may be given an artifact as a gift, increasing the prayer timeout; some roles have guaranteed first sacrifice gifts that they will always receive if it has not yet been generated. A gifted artifact will always be either unaligned or the same alignment as the character, and the character's first sacrifice gift will always match their alignment, with the artifact's alignment being changed if necessary (e.g. a lawful Valkyrie will always receive the neutral Mjollnir, which is lawful when gifted to them).
Quest artifacts
Each role has a special artifact that they are tasked with retrieving for their Quest - these artifacts are only generated on their respective quests, where they are found on the square of their quest nemesis, although they can be wished for or left behind in a bones file. A character's quest artifact is set to match their starting alignment at the beginning of each game; they cannot ever wish for their role's quest artifact, and their quest artifact will also be reverted to their base item if the character encounters a bones file with that artifact.
Crowning
If a character prays to their god while they are piously aligned and have at least 10 Luck, there is a chance that they will be crowned, which usually results in an artifact being gifted - the artifact and its generation method depend on the character's alignment, and both are described in the article linked above.
Description
An artifact is a magical version of its base item with additional properties layered on top of the base item's properties, and appear as a named version of that base item while unidentified: for example, Excalibur will appear as "a long sword named Excalibur". Attempting to give an object the name of an artifact will fail if it is of the same base item type as that artifact, with the exception of Sting and Orcrist, and changing an existing artifact's name always fails - these mechanics are the basis for the naming artifacts trick.
Artifacts in shops are sold for four times the normal price, and can be sold to shops for only 1⁄4 of their normal base price.[2][3]
Alignment
Many artifacts are unaligned and can be used by any character, while an artifact that is one of three alignments has a 1⁄4 chance of magically blasting a cross-aligned character that touches it for 4d4 magical damage. Intelligent artifacts will always blast characters that touch them for 4d10 magical damage if they are cross-aligned or attuned to a specific role (i.e. quest artifacts); an intelligent artifact that is both of a different alignment and role from a character will both blast on contact and evade their grasp altogether. Characters that have a poor alignment record will be blasted by an intelligent artifact that is otherwise co-aligned and of their role (if applicable). Monsters will never touch cross-aligned artifacts, regardless of whether the artifact or the monster themselves are intelligent.
Unique items
While not considered artifacts, there are objects with unique item types that also only appear once per game, and will always revert to mundane items if left behind in a bones file.
List of artifacts [4]
The hero's quest artifact and any guaranteed sacrifice gifts are adjusted to the hero's starting alignment. For example, for a wizard who starts chaotic, Magicbane and The Eye of the Aethiopica are generated chaotic.[5]
See the article for each artifact for more details.
| Artifact name | Base item type | Alignment | Intelligent | Special properties | Obtaining | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carried | Used (worn, wielded, applied, or read) | Invoked | |||||
| Cleaver | battle-axe (two-headed axe) | neutral | No | +d3 to-hit and +d6 damage. Arc-swing hits up to 3 monsters at once | First sacrifice gift for Barbarians. | ||
| Demonbane | long sword | lawful | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to major demons. Blocks demon gating. | May be given to a new angelic being. | ||
| Dragonbane | broadsword | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to dragons. Reflection. | |||
| Excalibur | long sword | lawful | Yes | +d5 to-hit and +d10 damage. Drain resistance. Searching. Hostile demon princes. Monsters track player. | May be produced for lawful adventurers at fountains. Lawful crowning gift. | ||
| The Eye of the Aethiopica | amulet of ESP (random amulet) | neutral | Yes | Energy regeneration. Half spell damage. | Magic resistance. Telepathy. | Branchport. | Quest artifact of Wizards. |
| The Eyes of the Overworld | pair of lenses | neutral | Yes | Astral vision. Protection against blindness and gazes. Magic resistance. | Enlightenment. | Quest artifact of Monks. | |
| Fire Brand | long sword | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to non-fire-resistant monsters. Fire resistance. | |||
| Frost Brand | long sword | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to non-cold-resistant monsters. Cold resistance. | |||
| Giantslayer | long sword | neutral | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to giants. | |||
| Grayswandir | silver saber | lawful | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage. Protection against hallucination. Silver damage | |||
| Grimtooth | orcish dagger (crude dagger) | chaotic | No | +d2 to-hit and +d6 damage. Warning of elves. | |||
| The Heart of Ahriman | luckstone (random gray stone) | neutral | Yes | Stealth. | As projectile, +d5 to-hit and double damage. | Levitation. | Quest artifact of Barbarians. |
| The Longbow of Diana | bow | chaotic | Yes | Telepathy. | +d5 to-hit. Reflection. | Create arrows. | Quest artifact of Rangers. |
| The Magic Mirror of Merlin | mirror (looking glass) | lawful | Yes | Magic resistance. Telepathy. ×2 to some spell damage. | Rumors. | Quest artifact of Knights. | |
| Magicbane | athame | neutral | No | +d3 to-hit. Special damage. Magic resistance. Protects against cursing. | First sacrifice gift for Wizards. | ||
| The Master Key of Thievery | skeleton key (key) | chaotic | Yes | Warning. Half physical damage. Teleport control. | Rumors. As of 3.6.1, automatically untraps when used to unlock. | Untraps. | Quest artifact of Rogues. |
| The Mitre of Holiness | helm of brilliance (random helmet) | lawful | Yes | Fire resistance. | Protection. Half damage from undead and demons. | Energy boost. | Quest artifact of Priests. |
| Mjollnir | war hammer | neutral | No | +d5 to-hit and +d24 damage to non-shock-resistant monsters. Can return when thrown. | First sacrifice gift for Valkyries. | ||
| Ogresmasher | war hammer | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to ogres. 25 constitution when wielded. | |||
| The Orb of Detection | crystal ball (glass orb) | lawful | Yes | Magic resistance. Half spell damage. Telepathy. | Invisibility. | Quest artifact of Archeologists. | |
| The Orb of Fate | crystal ball (glass orb) | neutral | Yes | Half physical damage. Half spell damage. Warning. Luck. | Level teleport. | Quest artifact of Valkyries. | |
| Orcrist | elven broadsword (runed broadsword) | chaotic | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to orcs. Warning of orcs. | May be produced by naming an ordinary elven broadsword Orcrist. | ||
| The Platinum Yendorian Express Card | credit card | neutral | Yes | Magic resistance. Half spell damage. Telepathy. | Charging. | Quest artifact of Tourists. | |
| The Sceptre of Might | mace | lawful | Yes | (Magic resistance prior to v3.6.0) | +d5 to-hit and double damage to cross-aligned monsters. Magic resistance | Conflict. | Quest artifact of Cavepeople. |
| Snickersnee | katana (samurai sword) | lawful | No | +d8 damage. | First sacrifice gift for Samurai. | ||
| The Staff of Aesculapius | quarterstaff (staff) | neutral | Yes | Double damage and level drain to non-drain-resistant monsters. Hungerless regeneration. Drain resistance. | Healing, cures sickness, blindness, and sliming. | Quest artifact of Healers. | |
| Sting | elven dagger (runed dagger) | chaotic | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to orcs. Warning of orcs. Cuts through webs. | May be produced by naming an ordinary elven dagger Sting. | ||
| Stormbringer | runesword | chaotic | Yes | +d5 to-hit, +d2 damage and level drain to non-drain-resistant monsters. Drain resistance. Bloodthirsty. | Chaotic crowning gift. | ||
| Sunsword | long sword | lawful | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to undead. Light. Protection from light-based blinding. | May be given to a new angelic being. | ||
| Trollsbane | morning star | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to trolls. Prevents trolls from reviving. | |||
| The Tsurugi of Muramasa | tsurugi (long samurai sword) | lawful | Yes | Luck. | Protection. +d8 damage. 5% chance of bisection. | Quest artifact for Samurai. | |
| Vorpal Blade | long sword | neutral | No | +d5 to-hit and +1 damage. 5% chance of beheading (100% for jabberwocks). | Neutral crowning gift. | ||
| Werebane | silver saber | unaligned | No | +d5 to-hit and double damage to werecreatures. Silver damage | |||
Variants
Most (if not all) variants change artifacts or add new ones, so it would be impractical to list them all here. See the article on a variant for information about its new or changed artifacts, or see an artifact's article for information on changes made in different variants.
Some variants also make changes to artifacts in general:
- In SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM, artifacts that inflict added damage (as opposed to double damage) deal the maximum amount on every hit (e.g. Excalibur deals a flat +10 damage, rather than +1d10).
- Many variants ease or remove the restrictions on dual-wielding artifacts.
