Cane

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Name	cane
Appearance	cane
Damage vs. small	1d8
Damage vs. large	1d10
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	long sword
Size	one-handed
Base price	100 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	metal

)
Name	whip-saw
Appearance	whip-saw
Damage vs. small	1d10
Damage vs. large	1d8
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	whip
Size	one-handed
Base price	100 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	metal

A cane is a type of weapon that features in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is a one-handed blunt/piercing weapon that uses the long sword skill. It is typically made of metal. At skilled and expert it gains the focus fire, lunge and stop thrust expert traits.

When applied, the cane will transform into a whip-saw. Whip-saws are one-handed slashing weapons that use the whip skill and are typically made of metal. At skilled and expert they gain the bleed expert trait. To revert to its cane form, the whip must be applied directionally at yourself.

Canes are self-righteous weapons, dealing additional 2.5x the normal amount of holy/unholy damage to monsters not resistant to both slashing and piercing.

Whip-saws are serrated weapons, stacking +20% to your damage bonus against poorly armored monsters.

Generation

Canes make up ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of weapons generated in the dungeon. Whip-saws do not generate normally.

At game start, Undead hunters will start out with a cane with a probability of ¹⁄₆.

Strategy

For Undead hunters, the cane is an excellent starting weapon both in terms of its versatility – being the only starting weapon possessing both the serrated properties – and for having all three damage types covered. It also deals respectable damage and can carry a character well into the mid-game, when more powerful weapon options become available. Since it doubles as a whip, it will also see some use in disarming opponents: this is especially handy for iron-hating and silver hating player races. Canes/whip-saws can be smithed out of differing materials for each form as well, either for reduced weight or to take advantage of a monster's vulnerabilities to different materials.

For non-Undead hunters this is still a very good find, though it may be less advantageous than other long sword types overall since it cannot be used as a base for artifact naming.

Origin

Spoilers ahead for the 2015 game Bloodborne.

The cane can be found in Bloodborne, where it is called a Threaded cane. Imposter Iosefka will use a Threaded cane when confronted. Yurie, the Last Scholar is a Choir hunter encountered in the Byrgenwerth building that also makes use of this weapon.

The weapon is in a similar vein to sword-whips as seen in various other media, though the use of a cane as the alternate form is unique. There are no direct historical counterparts to the weapon, though various types of concealed weapons fashioned into canes or made to resemble them were made. Cane guns and sword sticks were at the height of their popularity near the end of dueling's decline as a socially acceptable practice in England, roughly coinciding with the Victorian era – which Bloodborne takes heavy inspiration from. Historically, there were some types of swords and whips that were used in martial arts which were sectioned (chain whips) or made of flexible metal (urumi), though whips themselves weren't known to be used as common dueling weapons and especially not a sectioned metal whip. The 2001 movie [Brotherhood of wolves] features a segmented wooden sword attached with chains which can extend and retract on command. Despite the similarities in themes and weaponry the movie was never officially cited as having inspired the game, and is likely only related by coincidence.

When in its normal form the Threaded cane is a simple hexagonal section of metal coming to a point fitted with a simple, elongated T-shaped grip normally seen on walking sticks. Although appearing completely solid the cane is actually made of smaller individual parallelograms, where a pair comes will form a section of the cane when put together. The edges of the 21 segments are also bevelled in a manner that allows them to fit back together and also retain a sharp edge when used as a lash. The mechanism contracting the segments and maintaining the cane in rigid while in its cane form are supposedly contained in the grip but aren't ever visible. It is possible given the sound the cane makes when extended and contracted that it is using a spring-loaded or mechanical spooling retraction method. The pieces are held together by the whip's single central lash, a piece of wound rope or cable. When transformed the cane is swung outward in a whip cracking motion, allowing the individual segments of the cane to separate and coming to rest in almost the same solid cane shape as before, but with the segments rotated 45 degrees. In this form the weapon's handle is held in an icepick grip and swung in wide lashing arcs. The cane extends by about 2-3 times its lengths in these attacks for a wider attack range at the cost of speed. Whether the cord is elastic or spooled can't be determined from official artwork alone.

Messages

You unlock the whip-saw.

You applied a cane.

You latch the cane.

You applied a whip-saw

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