Arrow and dart trap

^ arrow trap
Generates	Anywhere
Effect	Fires arrows

^ dart trap
Generates	Anywhere
Effect	Fires darts

The arrow trap and dart trap are two similar traps that can fire projectiles.

Generation

Both traps can be generated on almost any level.

On the Ranger quest, there are 2 guaranteed arrow traps on the home level and 2 more guaranteed on the locate level.

Dart traps are guaranteed on the following special levels:

• the Monk quest home level
• the Priest quest home level
• the Wizard quest locate level
• the Valley of the Dead

Effects

A dart trap fires a dart which does the following:

• There is a (13-AC)/20 chance that it misses, where AC is the victim's Armor class. If AC is -7 or less, the dart always misses. A missed dart stays at the place, causing no harm. Otherwise the following happens:
• The dart inflicts a damage amount that is typically 1d3, but it can be higher or lower than that based on the nonzero enchantment of the dart.
• There is 1 in 6 chance of the dart being poisoned.. In that case, unless the victim has poison resistance, one of the following happens:
  • Loss of one point of constitution (4/5 chance)
  • Loss of 1d6 HP points (1/6 chance)
  • immediate death (1/30 chance)
  • The same dart cannot kill twice. If the victim without poison resistance dies from the basic HP damage but is saved by amulet of life saving, and the dart which killed them is poisonous, the poison always causes constitution loss rather than HP loss or death.

The total chance of instadeath from a dart trap, if the victim has no poison resistance or AC of -7 or better, but their HP is high enough, is min((7+AC)/20, 1) / 180.

An arrow trap fires an arrow which generally deals 1d6 damage (can be higher or lower than that based on the nonzero enchantment of the arrow). Arrow traps never fire poisoned arrows. The chance for an arrow to miss is (12-AC)/20.

Each time you or a monster triggers one of these traps, there is a ¹⁄₁₅ chance that the trap will disappear. Any projectile that hits you or a monster is guaranteed to be lost.

Removal

Use the #untrap command, or trigger it repeatedly until it runs out of projectiles.

While standing on or adjacent to the square with the trap, successfully untrapping an arrow or dart trap will yield a large supply of projectiles (50 − rnl(50)). The average number of projectiles you obtain by disarming is dependent on luck, but is higher than the average number you obtain by stepping on the trap until it disappears.

Strategy

These traps can be a useful source of projectiles. However there is a risk of being hit by a projectile and suffering damage. Dart traps in particular are dangerous to adventurers lacking poison resistance.

History

Both arrow and dart traps were introduced in Hack 1.0.

Messages

<An arrow/A little dart> shoots out at you!

You triggered an arrow or dart trap.

<monster> is hit by <an arrow/a dart>!

A monster triggered an arrow or dart trap.

You hear a loud click!

The arrow trap was out of arrows and is now gone.

You hear a soft click.

The dart trap was out of darts and is now gone.

<monster> triggers a trap but nothing happens.

The trap was out of projectiles and is now gone.

xNetHack

Dart and arrow traps generate with 15+1d20 ammo. Ammo that comes out of a launcher trap is stored as one stack, so its ammo will all be identical and you will get the same amount of items from it whether you repeatedly trigger it or untrap it.

Poison darts from traps deal Con damage 60% of the time and higher HP damage when they don't deal Con damage. However, poison dart traps don't appear until depth 7.

When disarming a trap that shoots ammo (e.g. a dart trap), the ammo is placed into your inventory instead of on the floor.