Ranged weapon

A ranged weapon is any weapon which can attack a monster not adjacent to you. Technically, any item in the game could be a ranged weapon, if thrown. However, the source code officially designates some weapons as ranged:

dwarvish spear, silver spear, elven spear, spear, orcish spear, javelin, shuriken, ya, silver arrow, elven arrow, arrow, orcish arrow, crossbow bolt, silver dagger, elven dagger, dagger, orcish dagger, knife, flint stone, rock, loadstone, luckstone, dart, boomerang, cream pie.

Colloquially, any item which can be used to damage a monster at a distance could be considered a ranged weapon. This includes items like attack wands, hurled potions and spells.

Monster usage

The order of preference in which hostile monsters will use a ranged weapon is:

1. cockatrice egg,
2. cream pie for Keystone Kops,
3. boulders for giants,
4. polearms if you are in range,
5. the above list, if a necessary launcher is available.

Gems are inserted into said above list between luckstone and darts. The preferece of polearms is: halberd, bardiche, spetum, bill_guisarme, voulge, ranseur, guisarme, glaive, lucern_hammer, bec_de_corbin, fauchard, partisan, lance. Of course, polearms can only be used by "strong" monsters without a shield.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

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See Also

• projectile
• Pet#Weapons lists the order of preference of melee weapons

References

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