Axe (skill)
The axe is a weapon skill that appears in NetHack.[1]
Available roles
The following roles can reach the listed skill levels in axes:
| Axe | |
|---|---|
| Max | Role |
| Basic | |
| Skilled | |
| Expert | |
List of weapons
Both the axe and the battle-axe use the axe skill. There is one artifact that uses the axe skill: Cleaver, an artifact battle-axe.
Description
Axe-type weapons deal +d4 damage versus wood golems.[2]
Chopping
A hero can apply any axe-type weapon to chop in a specified direction, which they can use to attack an adjacent monster or chop through a door or tree on an adjacent square[3][4]—trees that are "undiggable" cannot be chopped down this way.[5][6] Felling a tree with an axe has a 1⁄5 chance of generating a fruit comestible, independent of the odds of kicking fruit loose from a tree.[7] Applying an axe-type weapon to chop into a statue will produce a unique message with no effect on the statue, and may cause the hero to take 2 points of physical damage.[8] An axe can only be aimed downward to chop when doing so can trigger or disarm a trap other than a bear trap or land mine, and doing so will scuff any engravings present on the hero's square.[9]
The process of a hero chopping into dungeon features with an axe is an occupation that can be interrupted, similar to digging with a pick-axe or dwarvish mattock, and losing the axe by some means or else being teleported away from the chopping target will cause the hero to stop.[10] A hero attempting to chop through a shop's door with an axe weapon will produce a message and cause the hero to abort the attempt, though if the player constantly resumes the chopping action, they will eventually succeed in destroying the door and thus anger the shopkeeper.[11][12]
A tunneling monster can wield an axe-type weapon to chop down doors and trees, favoring the battle-axe over the regular axe if they have both items, and they will automatically do so when moving onto a square with a closed door, a locked door or a tree.[13][14][15][16] For cases such as chopping through doors where pick-axe weapons and axe-type weapons can both be used, monsters will favor picks over axes to minimize weapon switching, and they will prioritize the dwarvish mattock, battle-axe, pick-axe, and regular axe in that given order.[17]
Strategy
Axes are very useful as a means of breaking through locked doors, especially if you lack an unlocking tool: applying an axe to a door is a safer way to break one than kicking, since it cannot immediately destroy shop doors and incur a 400-zorkmid bill for damages—the message indicating that you are chopping a shop's door is slightly misleading, but will generally display enough that a player can catch on before it is too late. Do not attempt to chop through any doors and trees in view of a Minetown watchman, or you will instantly anger them.
History
The axe skill is introduced with many other weapon skills in NetHack 3.2.0.
Messages
- This door seems too hard to chop through.
- You attempted to apply an axe-type weapon to a shop door.
- "Halt, vandal! You're under arrest!"
- A watchman saw you chop into a tree or door with an axe-type weapon.
- Sparks fly as you whack the statue.
- You attempted to apply an axe-type weapon to a statue.
- The axe-handle vibrates violently!
- You took some damage from the above attempt.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds Giantkiller as an artifact that uses the axe skill, and it replaces Giantslayer from NetHack.
dNetHack
dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack add the diskos and moon axe as weapons that use the axe skill, and all axe weapons deal an extra d4 damage to plants and wooden enemies. The diskos uses the higher between a hero's axe and polearms skills for damage if they are not performing two weapon combat or wearing a shield, and will otherwise default to their axe skill if either is applicable.
The Air Crystal increases a hero's skill cap for axes by 1 while carried.
Marionette is a spirit that grants skill in axes while bound.
Giantslayer's base item is changed to an axe, and The Rod of Lordly Might and The Sceptre of Lolth can be invoked to take on the form of an appropriate axe.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack introduces the throwing axe as a weapon that uses the axe skill and can be multishot when thrown.
EvilHack
EvilHack adds the dwarvish bearded axe as a weapon that uses the axe skill, and it can disarm weapons and most shields in addition to chopping.
SlashTHEM
In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM allows dwarven heroes to reach a minimum of Skilled in axes.
SlashTHEM also adds another artifact axe weapon in Frostbite, a lawful battle-axe.
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds the dwarvish bearded axe from EvilHack and the throwing axe from SpliceHack as axe weapons.
References
- ↑ include/skills.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 26
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 329-L330
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 177-L180
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1229-L1230
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 173-L174
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 323-L328
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 477-L483
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1239-L1248
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1328-L1358
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 309-L315
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 507-L516
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 546-L556: The check occurs after the digging effort has been applied, and if enough effort has been put in, the door will break as usual
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 817-L823
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1420-L1422
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1424-L1455
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1482-L1485
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 831-L842
