Knife

)
Name	knife
Appearance	knife
Damage vs. small	1d3
Damage vs. large	1d2
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	knife
Size	one-handed
Base price	4 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	5
Material	iron

A knife is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is made of iron, and can double as a projectile weapon.

Samurai will know it as a shito.

Generation

Knives make up about 2% of randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops, or in shops).

Many randomly created monsters can generate with knives:

• Mordor orcs have a ¹⁄₃ chance of being generated with a knife; orc-captains have a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with Mordor orc equipment with the same odds of a knife, resulting in an effective ¹⁄₆ chance.
• A skeleton has an effective ¹⁄₆ chance of generating with a knife as its weapon.
• Yendorian army soldiers and watchmen have a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with a knife as a secondary weapon if their primary weapon is a polearm.
• Barrow wights and Nazgul are always generated with a knife.
• Player monsters, including those on the Astral Plane, have a ¹⁄₅₈ chance (~1.7%) of generating with a knife as their initial weapon before role-based replacements.

Knife skill

Knife
Max	Role
Basic	Archeologist, Knight
Skilled	Caveman, Ranger, Samurai, Tourist, Wizard
Expert	Healer, Rogue

The following weapons use the knife skill:

• knife
• stiletto
• scalpel
• worm tooth
• crysknife

The knife is the only ranged weapon class that gives Healers a multishot bonus at Skilled level.

There are no artifact knives.

Strategy

As wielded weapons, knives are generally some of the lowest damage weapons in NetHack. The sole exception is the crysknife, roughly comparable to a long sword in terms of damage; the next best knife is the rare scalpel, whose damage is only on par with an orcish dagger, and is mostly seen on Healers as their starting wielded weapon.

History

In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, knives could not be multishot. Starting in NetHack 3.6.0, any stackable weapon can be thrown with multishot if you are Skilled or higher in the appropriate weapon skill.

Encyclopedia entries

Knife

Possibly perceiving an expression of dubiosity on their
faces, the globetrotter went on adhering to his adventures.

-- And I seen a man killed in Trieste by an Italian chap.
Knife in his back. Knife like that.

Whilst speaking he produced a dangerous looking clasp knife,
quite in keeping with his character, and held it in the
striking position.

-- In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two
smugglers. Fellow hid behind a door, come up behind him.
Like that. Prepare to meet your God, says he. Chuck! It
went into his back up to the butt.

[ Ulysses, by James Joyce ]

Shito

A Japanese stabbing knife.