Shuriken

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Name	shuriken
Appearance	throwing star
Damage vs. small	1d8
Damage vs. large	1d6
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	shuriken
Size	one-handed
Base price	5 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	1
Material	iron

A shuriken is a Japanese ranged weapon, designed for throwing. It appears as a throwing star when unidentified. Shuriken have damage exceeding that of daggers while having a weight equal to that of darts, but are quite rare. Like darts, shuriken can break when thrown, but this risk can be minimized by blessing them and having very high luck (9 or greater). Positive enchantment also helps. Samurai start with shurikens identified.

Shuriken skill

Shuriken
Max	Role
Basic	Monk, Priest, Tourist, Wizard
Skilled	Healer, Rogue, Ranger
Expert	Samurai

Shuriken are the only weapons to use shuriken skill, and there are no artifact shuriken.

Strategy

Shuriken are the second most damaging (after boomerang) stackable missile weapon in the game, give a to-hit bonus, don't need a launcher and can be poisoned. If you find some it is always a good idea to take them, and use them in emerencies to soften up tough monsters or against mind flayers. Their +2 to-hit bonus helps to reduce the uskilled to-hit penalty, what is usefull, since they are so rare that you might have trouble to raise the skill. Excessive usage of the rare shuriken may require polypiling, so strategies with shuriken should not be used if you play Polypileless conduct.

Monks are in a special situation. They can reach basic skill in only 4 ranged weapons : shuriken, spear, javelin and crossbow. As spears and javelins are heavy, and a crossbow must be wielded to be used, they should try raise the skill and enchant, bless and poison shuriken if they find them. They don't have much other use for scrolls of enchant weapon anyway. If you don't mind polypiling it is a good way to get large numbers of shuriken.

Samurai can reach expert, in shuriken and they have the advantage over a yumi that you don't need to wield something. Advancing the skill to expert is usually not possible and unwise, because shuriken are too rare to make intense use of them (unfortunately Ninjas don't drop shuriken). Further, Samurai have less access to polymorph than Monks as they are restricted in matter spells and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card is neutral (and Samurai always lawful). However, if the RNG blesses you with lots of shuriken or lots of wands of polymorph it may be considered.

Rangers and Rogues can reach skilled in shuriken, but do more damage with arrows and daggers because of their role-based bonusses, so increasing the skill and polypiling for shuriken is usually not neccessary.

Healers can reach skilled in shuriken. They can also reach skilled in the weaker daggers and sling, and expert in the weaker darts and rare knives, so shuriken are interesting. Healer are restricted in matter spells, and with a robe and high enough level they can cast polymorph at over 90% failure rate, so the PYEC and wands are usually the better way to get large numbers of shuriken.