Samurai

This article is about the role abbreviated as "Sam". For the guardian of the black market, see One-eyed Sam.

The Samurai, abbreviated as Sam, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. From the guidebook:

Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon. They are lightly armored and quick, and wear the dai-sho, two swords of the deadliest keenness.

Samurai are always humans, and always start as lawful.

Starting equipment

Each Samurai starts with the following equipment:

• a +0 katana
• a +0 short sword
• a +0 yumi
• 26-45 ya
• +0 rustproof splint mail
• an uncursed blindfold (20% chance or ¹⁄₅)

Samurai start with knowledge of all non-magical weapons and armor.

The Samurai's default starting pet is a little dog named Hachi.

Intrinsics

Samurai gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• Level 1: speed
• Level 15: stealth

Attributes

The Samurai's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	10	10	17	8	7	6	17
Distribution percentages	30%	30%	14%	10%	8%	8%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human)	15.90±1.94	15.54±1.75	17.91±0.32	9.94±1.37	8.56±1.27	7.37±1.20

Skills

Samurai have the following skills available to them:

Samurai skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, scimitar, saber, quarterstaff Spells: attack, divination
Skilled	Weapons: knife, broadsword, flail, polearms, spear, lance Combat: riding Spells: clerical
Expert	Weapons: short sword, long sword, two-handed sword, bow, shuriken Combat: two weapon combat
Master	Combat: martial arts

Samurai start with Basic skill in long swords, short swords, bows, and martial arts. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is clairvoyance.

Special rules

Samurai get a +1 bonus to multishot and damage when firing ya from a yumi.

Samurai can perform a shattering blow while wielding a katana without wearing a shield.

Samurai are expected to adhere to a role-specific code of conduct, detailed in the section below.

Code of conduct

The Samurai code of conduct is designed after bushido, and those following it must behave honorably—dishonorable acts will incur an alignment record penalty and display a guilt message:

You disturb the honorable dead!

You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from digging up a grave.

You dishonorably attack the innocent!

You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking peaceful or tame monster.

You dishonorably use a poisoned weapon!

incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking with a poisoned weapon.

Japanese names for items

On top of normal language-specific changes for some game dialogs while the hero is a Samurai, certain items also use Japanese names in place of their regular English names, which are listed below:

English	Japanese
short sword	wakizashi
broadsword	ninja-to
flail	nunchaku
glaive	naginata
lock pick	osaku
wooden harp	koto
knife	shito
plate mail	tanko
helmet	kabuto
leather gloves	yugake
food ration	gunyoki
potion of booze	potion of sake

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• XL 1-2: Hatamoto
• XL 3-5: Ronin
• XL 6-9: Ninja/Kunoichi
• XL 10-13: Joshu
• XL 14-17: Ryoshu
• XL 18-21: Kokushu
• XL 22-25: Daimyo
• XL 26-29: Kuge
• XL 30: Shogun

Gods

The Samurai pantheon is based on the pantheon of Japanese mythology. Their first sacrifice gift is Snickersnee.

• Lawful: Amaterasu Omikami
• Neutral: Raijin
• Chaotic: Susanowo

Quest

The Samurai's quest sees them fighting Ashikaga Takauji for the Tsurugi of Muramasa, an artifact tsurugi. The Tsurugi of Muramasa acts as a luckstone while carried, and while wielded it provides extrinsic protection and augmenting the hero's magic cancellation by 1, similar to a ring of protection (which does not stack). The Tsurugi deals +d8 damage against all monsters, with a ¹⁄₂₀} chance (5%) of a size-dependent effect: against medium-size or smaller monsters and any monster that is engulfing the wielder, the Tsurugi can bisect and instantly kill them upon hitting, which can include the hero if Ashikaga Takauji uses the weapon against them—against large-or-bigger monsters, the Tsurugi instead deals double damage.

Strategy

Samurai are among the easier roles overall with great starting body armor, a strong melee weapon in the katana and strong ranged weapons in their yumi and ya, though they lack the (relatively) straightforward and easy quest of the Valkyrie and the starting poison resistance of the Barbarian. In fact, their quest is among one of the most difficult, due to the amount of wand-wielding monsters and the threat of instant death that their nemesis poses while wielding the quest artifact against them. As an exclusively-lawful human role, luck of the draw in finding a long sword to dip for Excalibur with and/or an altar to sacrifice at can also make a large difference in how easy the early game truly is for the hero.

Early game

The samurai's starting katana is essentially a better long sword and one of the best mundane weapons available, and the yumi is a good ranged weapon due to the Samurai's multishot, so early combat is more or less laid out to a degree: slash any hostile monster that moves, and shoot any that doesn't. The yumi might even be preferred to the starting short sword as the secondary weapon for dealing with threats such as floating eyes and cockatrices—Skilled is an ideal plateau to settle on for training bows in the event you decide to collect and switch to shuriken down the line, saving the three slots that would be used on reaching Expert until then.

It may be tempting to start two-weapon combat immediately, but accuracy and training base weapon skills should be the main priority with any early hero: the short sword is passable as an offhand weapon, but a long sword (or even another katana if you should find one) is much better and requires less skill slot investment overall. Additionally, the katana will outperform almost any other weapon as an offhand once a Samurai obtains an artifact weapon and properly begins training two-weapon combat. Most Samurai will want Excalibur as their primary weapon, though any of the artifact long swords or lawful gifts are suitable candidates—even Snickersnee can do the job by virtue of being a stronger katana. Excalibur itself should be reserved until a Samurai obtains a physical long sword to dip and reaches experience levels 5-7, with more cautious ones opting for better equipment, higher HP and/or a poison resistance source as well.

Armor is similarly straightforward for a Samurai: wear whatever is not too heavy and gives the most AC, and swap the sturdy-but-weighty starting splint for a lighter suit of armor (e.g. either an elven mithril-coat or dwarvish mithril-coat) as soon as possible. The starting splint is also rustproofed and less immediately vital to cover with a cloak, though any cloak that significantly enhances AC or magic cancellation is still worth putting on, even before the hero switches suits. As with many melee-proficient roles, spellcasting is of no concern until much later down the line.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit e8212743, non-Knights have a ¹⁄₃₀ chance of transforming a long sword into Excalibur by dipping, making Snickersnee more of a priority in the early game if the Samurai can find an altar. Excalibur is still a possibility if a Samurai obtains a long sword and have a means of securing high luck for crowning, though both crowning and dipping for it will prove far riskier compared to previous versions, and it is unlikely that a Samurai will obtain the weapon before Sokoban.

Mid-game

With maximum strength and enchantment, shuriken and ya deal roughly comparable damage: ya are slightly more effective when their multishot is combined with a ring of increase damage (including multiple bonuses from eating jewelry), but require a launcher and do not benefit from strength bonuses; shuriken are very rare, and training the skill requires three skill slots and a combination of high luck, blessing and enchantment, but they are light and require no launcher at all, and additionally benefit from strength when thrown. Whichever projectiles you train to Expert, it might be worth poisoning a subset for situations where killing monsters such as minotaurs and mind flayers quickly is more important than a few points of alignment (especially post-Quest).

The Samurai quest has a decent amount of loot due to the amount of human hostiles present, with ninja and enemy samurai carrying several wands that can include sleep, fire, lightning or even a wand of death. Reflection is highly desirable if not strictly necessary, and a minimum of sleep resistance, cold resistance and fire resistance can help a lot. The ninja can also provide a useful source of shuriken on the home level alone, especially if you can kill them quickly without losing too many. The attack wands obtained during the Quest and from other areas can also help against the likes of Ashikaga Takauji, who ignores Elbereth and is very deadly in melee even without the chance of bisecting a Samurai outright by using their quest artifact against them.

When dealing with Ashikaga Takauji, a Samurai can sneak up to his dwelling in the center of the goal level without attracting his attention in order to get some clean shots—a wand of death will naturally end his threat immediately, while a wand of sleep or potion of paralysis can provide time to strike through other means, and even a strong elemental wand can deal enough damage to scare him to the up stair without picking up the Tsurugi. As with many other nemeses, a Samurai can also use a scroll of earth and attack from behind boulders with wands and projectiles—see Ashikaga Takauji's article for more details on how to bring him down without endangering yourself.

The Tsurugi of Muramasa is a thoroughly mediocre quest artifact for what it offers a Samurai and the risk involved in retrieving it: despite not being too bad as a weapon, it is two-handed, and the hero has likely spent most of their game two-weaponing either Excalibur and a katana or a comparable pair of weapons; it also carries many of the same risks as most two-handed weapons, in return for not dealing as much damage outside of the bisection chance. A luckstone is not too difficult to come by at this point, and protection is not essential for most kits in general. With all this in mind, being a quest artifact does protect the Tsurugi from the curse items monster spell and similar effects ⁴⁄₅ of the time, giving it more protection compared to an actual luckstone—if the artifact ends up cursed, they can use the #tip command to access the contents of their bags, e.g. uncursing methods stored in a separate bag.

Late game

In the late game, most Samurai have long figured out their primary weapons, and will be looking to flesh out the rest their ascension kit: two-weaponing Excalibur with a katana, silver spear or silver saber is more than sufficient through the endgame, and Frost Brand, Fire Brand or Grayswandir can replace Excalibur in the primary slot, either for long-term use or against specific monsters. It is very rare for even Samurai that do not two-weapon (itself an uncommon practice) to make use of The Tsurugi of Muramasa at any point after the quest, let alone for the rest of the game.

Most Samurai will either favor an amulet of reflection to go with gray dragon scale mail, or pair silver dragon scale mail with a cloak of magic resistance and amulet of life saving, using wishes if necessary: relying on quest artifacts such as The Magic Mirror of Merlin saves on slots and offers more build flexibility, but is very risky if the Wizard of Yendor manages to steal it and become immune to death rays, on top of possibly leaving you vulnerable to his touch of death. For Samurai that opt not to two-weapon, a shield of reflection allows them to keep the amulet slot open.

Samurai frequently go through entire games without bothering to spellcast once, and their penalties for base spellcasting and wearing metallic suits of armor will deter most players from even making the attempt. For those that do dabble in occasional casting, several divination spells such as their special spell of clairvoyance can prove decently powerful even at Basic, and Samurai are also capable of reaching skilled in clerical spells, which includes the highly-useful remove curse spell.

History

The Samurai first appears in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 3.0.10, including some variants based on those versions, Samurai start with a stack of shuriken—NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the yumi and ya and adds it to their starting inventory in place of the shuriken.

Origin

Samurai (侍) or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan, most prominent as aristocratic warriors during the country's feudal period from the 12th century to early 17th century. The first samurai emerged during the Heian period, during which nobles entrusted their regional estates to local warrior families. Powerful noble families began raising samurai armies and fighting others; in the Genpei War, the Minamoto clan defeated the Taira clan, leading to the beginning of the Kamakura period in 1185. This period is known for the establishment of feudalism and emergence of samurai as a hereditary, aristocratic class—by the Sengoku period, some samurai owned land, while others served as retainers to lords (daimyo) or mercenaries.

During the Edo period (1600–1868), though internal warfare largely ceased, samurai were formalized as a class positioned near the top of social hierarchy, comprising some 5% of the population: many samurai served as stewards of daimyo estates or became administrators, and were held up as examples of good morality, as formalized in the bushido code and displayed in incidents such as the Forty-Seven Rōnin in 1703. From the mid-Edo period, chōnin (townsmen) and farmers could rise to the samurai class by being adopted into vassal families to the shogunate or serving in the offices of local governors, and low-ranking samurai could fall to lower classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.

In 1853, Japan was opened to the West by U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry, beginning the Bakumatsu ("end of the bakufu") era. Samurai from the rebellious Chōshū and Satsuma Domains played a major role in the movement against the Tokugawa shogunate, and later in the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War of 1868, which restored power to the emperor. As modern militaries emerged in the late 19th century, the samurai were considered obsolete and expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier—their class was abolished in the 1870s by the policies of the new Meiji government. Most former samurai became members of the shizoku class, ranking above the commoner class and allowing them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles; the shizoku class was later abolished in 1947.

Throughout their history, samurai figures have been the subject of legends, folk tales, historical drama, theatre productions in kabuki and noh, and have appeared in literature, movies, animated and anime films, television shows, manga, video games, and finallyin various musical pieces in genre that range from enka to J-Pop songs. Samurai films and westerns share a number of similarities, and the two have influenced each other over the years: Akira Kurosawa is one of Japan's most renowned directors, and greatly influenced western film-making such as George Lucas' Star Wars series; he was in turn inspired by the works of director John Ford, and many of Kurosawa's works have been remade into westerns. Samurai are a frequent fixture of Japanese and American fiction alike, including those in fantastic settings ranging from the distant past to the modern era and even the future.

The Samurai's pet dog Hachi is a reference to Hachikō, a famous Japanese dog who faithfully waited for the return of his dead owner for nine years until his own death. Hachi means eight, in reference of his birth order in the litter, and ko implies affection.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Samurai are one of the least-changed roles from NetHack 3.4.3: they maintain an overwhelming majority of their playing style and traits from this version, but in SLASH'EM they are charged twice as much when dealing with shops, and can take up firearms as a replacement for their yumi and ya over the less-common shuriken. The hero's ability to two-weapon artifacts ramps up the Samurai role's already-impressive melee damage, and the "kiii" technique can temporarily boost it even further—while often unnecessary, it can find occasional use against especially powerful enemies that they want to fell quickly.

dNetHack

dNetHack expands both the list of items that are given Japanese names and allows players to disable these names via options. Actual Japanese weapons are also added that replace some of the items which used Japanese names in NetHack 3.4.3.

Samurai themselves are given a fuller complement of starting armor and a mask resembling the ones some samurai in history and fiction are depicted with—starting weapons and first sacrifice gifts are also differentiated by gender, with male Samurai retaining the katana and an actual wazikashi and being gifted Kiku-ichimonji, while female Samurai are given a true naginata and a knife and are gifted Jinja Naginata. Samurai can be humans, clockwork automata, half-dragons, or yuki-onna.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, Samurai can also be elves or clockwork automata, and their first gift is Kiku-ichimonji as in dNetHack.

The list of Japanese names is expanded using additions from NetHack--.

Encyclopedia entry

By that time, Narahara had already slipped his arm from the
sleeve of his outer robe, drew out his two-and-a-half-foot
Fujiwara Tadahiro sword, and, brandishing it over his head,
began barreling toward the foreigners. In less than a minute,
he had charged upon them and cut one of them through the torso.
The man fled, clutching his bulging guts, finally to fall from
his horse at the foot of a pine tree about a thousand yards
away. Kaeda Takeji finished him off. The other two Englishmen
were severely wounded as they tried to flee. Only the woman
managed to escape virtually unscathed.

[ The Fox-horse, from Drunk as a Lord, by Ryotaro Shiba ]