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.)

This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.

List of artifact weapons

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

Artifact name	Base item type	Alignment	Obtaining
Cleaver	battle-axe (two-headed axe)	neutral	First sacrifice gift for Barbarians.
Demonbane	long sword	lawful	May be given to a new angelic being.
Dragonbane	broadsword	unaligned
Excalibur	long sword	lawful	May be produced for lawful adventurers at fountains. Lawful crowning gift. Intelligent.
Fire Brand	long sword	unaligned
Frost Brand	long sword	unaligned
Giantslayer	long sword	neutral
Grayswandir	silver saber	lawful
Grimtooth	orcish dagger (crude dagger)	chaotic
The Longbow of Diana	bow	chaotic	Quest artifact of Rangers. Intelligent.
Magicbane	athame	neutral	First sacrifice gift for Wizards.
Mjollnir	war hammer	neutral	First sacrifice gift for Valkyries.
Ogresmasher	war hammer	unaligned
Orcrist	elven broadsword (runed broadsword)	chaotic	May be produced by naming an ordinary elven broadsword Orcrist.
The Sceptre of Might	mace	lawful	Quest artifact of Cavepeople. Intelligent.
Snickersnee	katana (samurai sword)	lawful	First sacrifice gift for Samurai.
The Staff of Aesculapius	quarterstaff (staff)	neutral	Quest artifact of Healers. Intelligent.
Sting	elven dagger (runed dagger)	chaotic	May be produced by naming an ordinary elven dagger Sting.
Stormbringer	runesword	chaotic	Chaotic crowning gift. Intelligent.
Sunsword	long sword	lawful	May be given to a new angelic being.
Trollsbane	morning star	unaligned
The Tsurugi of Muramasa	tsurugi (long samurai sword)	lawful	Quest artifact for Samurai. Intelligent.
Vorpal Blade	long sword	neutral	Neutral crowning gift.
Werebane	silver saber	unaligned