Crysknife

)
Name	crysknife
Appearance	crysknife
Damage vs. small	1d10
Damage vs. large	1d10
To-hit bonus	+3
Weapon skill	knife
Size	one-handed
Base price	100 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	20
Material	mineral

A crysknife is a weapon that can only be produced by enchanting a worm tooth. It has a +3 to-hit bonus and does d10 damage against both small and large monsters, making it a nice choice for #twoweaponing. However, if it leaves your possession, it reverts back into a worm tooth (when fixed, this only happens 10% of the time). It can safely be put in a container without reverting, as long as that container remains in your possession.

Crysknives count as throwing weapons, so they get a to-hit bonus when thrown. Because of their reversion property, throwing them is typically not a good idea.

Slash'EM

Slash'EM changes the damage for crysknives to 1d20 against small and 1d30 against large. The Ice Mage, Flame Mage and Necromancer roles can gain Skilled in knife, Healer can gain Expert, and Yeomen can gain Basic. A healer can benefit seriously from the Crysknife, since they have little weapon choice other than darts, but still can achieve expert in knives, this can be the most lethal weapon for a healer in Slash'EM.

Generation

Crysknifes are not normally generated, but instead created by the player through enchanting a worm tooth. Over the course of the game the player is bound to have encountered several long worms. Should the player desire one, it may worthwhile to try reverse genocide. Other methods include create monster (for Healers), as well as loitering. It is not generally worth using a wish (which should be instead be used to wish for a magic marker to write the scrolls, for instance).

As long worms sometimes split when the nail is attacked, it may be worth farming should one, for some reason, be trying to get multiple copies.

Average damage calculation

NetHack

We assume the player has expert skill in knife, which gives a +2 damage bonus. A blessed weapon deals 1d4 extra damage against demons and undead. The worst case scenario is against a non-undead, non-demon monster. The best case scenario is against a undead/demon monster. Further, this damage calculation is based per 3.4.3, and not SLASH'EM.

Weapon	Against regular small monsters	Against regular large monsters	Worst case scenario	Best case scenario
Blessed crysknife +0	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2=\bold{7.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2=\bold{7.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2=\bold{7.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2=\bold{10}$
Blessed crysknife +7	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+7=\bold{14.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+7=\bold{14.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+7=\bold{14.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2+7=\bold{17}$
Blessed crysknife +9	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+9=\bold{16.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+9=\bold{16.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+2+9=\bold{16.5}$	$\frac{1+10}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2+9=\bold{19}$

SLASH'EM

We assume the player has expert skill in knife, which gives a +2 damage bonus. A blessed weapon deals 1d4 extra damage against demons and undead. The worst case scenario is against a non-undead, non-demon small monster. The best case scenario is against a undead/demon large monster.

Weapon	Against regular small monsters	Against regular large monsters	Worst case scenario	Best case scenario
Blessed crysknife +0	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2=\bold{12.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+2=\bold{17.5}$	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2=\bold{12.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2=\bold{20}$
Blessed crysknife +7	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2+7=\bold{17.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+2+7=\bold{22.5}$	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2+7=\bold{17.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2+7=\bold{25}$
Blessed crysknife +9	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2+9=\bold{19.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+2+9=\bold{24.5}$	$\frac{1+20}{2}+2+9=\bold{19.5}$	$\frac{1+30}{2}+\frac{1+4}{2}+2+9=\bold{27}$

Because of this increase in damage, the SLASH'EM crysknife compares favorably even to artifacts such as Excalibur. Against large monsters, it actually does more damage than the similarly enchanted Excalibur.

Mythology

The crysknife and the concept of worm teeth are from Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune.

Encyclopedia entry

[The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken
from dead sandworms. The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed".
An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's
electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives
are treated for storage. All are about 20 centimeters long.

[ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.