Valkyrie

This article is about the player role with "Lord" and "Lady" as one of its rank titles. For other uses of the former term, see Lord (disambiguation).

For other uses of the latter term, see Lady.

The Valkyrie, abbreviated as Val, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. Their corresponding player monster is the @ valkyrie. From the guidebook:

Valkyries are hardy warrior women. Their upbringing in the harsh Northlands makes them strong, inures them to extremes of cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning.

Valkyries can be humans or dwarves, and can be lawful or neutral. Unlike other roles, they always start the game as female.

Starting inventory

Each Valkyrie starts with the following equipment:

• a +1 spear (wielded)
• a +0 dagger (alternate weapon)
• a +3 small shield
• 1-2 uncursed food rations
• an uncursed oil lamp (¹⁄₆ chance or 16.7%)

Dwarven Valkyries will start with a dwarvish spear rather than a normal one.

Valkyries that are not paupers will start with knowledge of all armor and weapons that are not magical or polearms, along with any applicable racial equipment.

The Valkyrie's default starting pet is a little dog or kitten with equal probability.

Intrinsics

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

• Level 1: cold resistance
• Level 3: stealth
• Level 7: speed

Attributes

The Valkyrie's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	10	7	10	7	7	7	27
Distribution percentages	30%	20%	30%	6%	7%	7%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human)	18/00.86±2.34	12.72±2.08	17.11±1.32	8.75±1.35	9.04±1.43	8.76±1.35

The means and standard deviations were calculated via simulation, whose source code can be found on the role article's talk page, and assumes that all given roles are played as humans—non-human races will have different attribute means as a result of different attribute maximums.

Human Valkyries start with 16 HP and 2 Pw, and . Dwarven Valkyries start with 18 HP and 1 Pw.

Skills

Valkyries have the following skills available to them:

Valkyrie skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: saber, quarterstaff, trident, sling Spells: attack, escape
Skilled	Weapons: pick-axe, short sword, broadsword, polearms, lance Combat: two weapon combat, riding
Expert	Weapons: dagger, axe, long sword, two-handed sword, hammer, spear Combat: bare hands

Valkyries start with Basic skill in spears and daggers. They use the wisdom stat to cast spells, and their special spell is cone of cold.

Special rules

Valkyries never fumble while walking on ice.

Valkyries have a +2 bonus to casting emergency spells.

If the wielded Mjollnir is thrown by a Valkyrie with 25 strength, it will return to their hand ⁹⁹⁄₁₀₀ of the time, and the Valkyrie will catch it ⁹⁹⁄₁₀₀ of the time unless they are impaired: if a Valkyrie fails to catch the returning Mjollnir, it has a roughly equal probability of either landing at their feet or hitting them in the arm.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels, which are also used by player monsters of the same role and monster level:

• XL 1-2: Stripling
• XL 3-5: Skirmisher
• XL 6-9: Fighter
• XL 10-13: (Wo)man-at-arms
• XL 14-17: Warrior
• XL 18-21: Swashbuckler
• XL 22-25: Hero(ine)
• XL 26-29: Champion
• XL 30: Lady/Lord

Gods

The Valkyrie pantheon is based on Norse mythology. Their first sacrifice gift is Mjollnir.

• Lawful: Tyr
• Neutral: Odin
• Chaotic: Loki

Quest

The Valkyrie's quest sees them fighting Lord Surtur for The Orb of Fate, an artifact crystal ball. The Orb of Fate grants warning, half spell damage, half physical damage, and acts as a luckstone while carried—a Valkyrie applying the Orb of Fate only needs 8 intelligence to guarantee success, compared to 16 for other roles applying an artifact crystal ball and 20 for heroes applying normal crystal balls. Invoking the Orb allows the hero to level teleport.

Strategy

While NetHack is still an overall difficult game, Valkyries are often considered to be among the easiest roles available, if not the easiest outright. The role is heavily tailored towards melee combat by their attributes and starting inventory, which includes one of the stronger starting melee weapons in the +1 spear (or dwarvidh spear)—their heavy spellcasting penalty for metallic armor also means that a hero can freely wear whatever armor they determine to be non-cursed and best for them. This straightforward focus also allows new players to more readily grasp the basic goals that a hero must meet to progress, and gives them room to develop a sense of when their melee strengths are not enough and when to resort to ranged attacks (e.g., daggers and attack wands).

The following information pertains to a recently-released stable version (NetHack 5.0.0) and will be subject to revision as strategy is developed and bugs are discovered and/or fixed.

Strategy developments still in progress.

Character creation

The dwarven Valkyrie is both frequently recommended for new players and employed for speed ascensions by more experienced players. The always-lawful dwarves are most suited for a role with such physical prowess, especially with their generous HP growth, and infravision is a major boon for finding distant targets to storm with daggers or strike with a thrown Mjollnir; they are also guaranteed to have a very peaceful Gnomish Mines. The dwarvish spear does more damage than the human variety against small targets, although many Valkyries will discard the spear as soon as they find a long sword, which has superior base damage to both weapons but cannot be thrown and requires more training in the skill.

For a human Valkyrie, being lawful makes the Mines somewhat safe since most of the dwarves will be peaceful, though fewer hostile dwarves does mean that it will be comparatively more difficult to acquire their gear without the hero losing alignment record or risking their pet's safety. Later in the game, several powerful spellcasting monsters like titans and golden nagas are often peaceful to lawful heroes. This is especially important for Valkyries, who often have difficulty dealing with casters outside of melee range without wands or a stack of projectiles, since hostile spellcasters are at their most dangerous up close. Lawful sacrifice gifts are generally better and include Grayswandir along with several artifact long swords—while dipping for Excalibur is also an option, it is much less reliable to obtain unless the hero is a Knight.

The neutral alignment has different upsides: In the early game, neutral Valkyries will encounter more hostile monsters, but can more reliably obtain armor and weapons from them, while in the mid-to-late game they benefit from a better selection of artifact wishes than than their lawful counterparts, and the mysterious force is less punitive for them on the ascension run. In particular, players aiming for a spellcasting Valkyrie build will likely favor neutral humans, especially because of the benefits provided by The Eye of the Aethiopica.

Early game

A Valkyrie's starting +1 spear meets the mass majority their melee weapon needs throughout the early game, which is especially true of the dwarven valkyrie's +1 dwarvish spear—multiple spears offer a strong ranged option, though they are much heavier compared to a stack of daggers (which Valkyries can train to Expert). Such ranged weapons are handy for wearing down particularly strong monsters, eliminating ones with annoying passive attacks or shooting past boulders while in Sokoban. The starting spear will likely be exchanged for a long sword down the line, which trades the ability to throw the primary weapon for one with better base damage against large monsters and a gateway skill to many artifact weapons.

The +3 small shield is extremely useful armor that is incredibly light for its AC, and can be supplemented with any armor that isn't cursed or too cumbersome. This leaves a Valkyrie player somewhat more room to focus on obtaining resistance properties, including poison resistance to avoid possible deaths from traps. A Valkyrie's combat prowess should not be taken for granted: smart retreating and Elbereth usage can prevent YASD and save a Valkyrie's life many times over, especially against groups of monsters such as soldier ants and Mordor orcs.

The Gnomish Mines are a plentiful source of armor and weapons among other loot, and many of the typical inhabitants will be peaceful for dwarven Valkyries, making it more likely that the Mines' random items will be left untouched. Lawful Valkyries can let their pet fight to obtain armor and weapons, though they should take care not to let the pet die in the process. Conversely, human Valkyries will find some of the dwarves and gnomes (or all of them, for neutral humans) less peaceful and more willing to grab and use items against them—while this means facing more threats that can prove unexpectedly deadly, it also provides an opportunity for valuable experience, skill training and gathering equipment. An AC of roughly -5 by the end of the Gnomish Mines is a reasonable goal to shoot for, and the luckstone at Mines' End is worth going for to secure the hero's luck going forward, though they must also be prepared for the dangers of polymorph traps and other severe pitfalls en route.

Mjollnir is a strong first sacrifice gift that remains useful well into the late game, as few monsters have shock resistance, and most Valkyries will almost certainly want to sacrifice for it when possible. Lawful Valkyries that manage to successfully create Excalibur will likely prefer it as their main artifact weapon to Mjollnir throughout the game for its better base damage, bonus damage that hits all monsters including nastier shock-resistant hostiles such as energy vortices, and the drain resistance it provides that is only obtainable from a few sources otherwise.

A Valkyrie with gauntlets of power can throw Mjollnir as a powerful ranged attack, though this is optional and also has a ¹⁄₁₀₀ chance of the artifact either failing to return or else hitting the hero upon returning: while the odds of each are incredibly low overall, the risk to any rings and wands in the open inventory is enough to deter most players from attempting it in the first place. For Valkyries willing to take that risk, finding a ring or shield of shock resistance randomly–or else using an early wish on an item like blue dragon scale mail (which provides shock resistance and very fast speed)–will have the already-low odds of inventory destruction reduced much further.

Mid-game

By around the mid-game, most Valkyries should have at least one of the scroll of enchant weapon or scroll of enchant armor identified, along with some holy water to bless a few of the scrolls for reading—when enchanting and/or erosion-proofing equipment, priority should be given to the primary artifact weapon and any additional weapons or armor that will remain in their long-term kit. An AC of roughly -10 is considered sufficient for the later portions of the mid-game, which can be trivialized for a majority of builds by obtaining dragon scale mail or happening upon a wish source: spellcasting Valkyries will be more reliant on both, since high-AC armor outside of dragon scale mail will be metallic and their casting ability is already limited. On the note of spells, a melee-focused Valkyrie can read a spellbook or two at this point in order to have confusion on-demand if they are confident in their ability to reach the late game.

While gaining experience levels, a Valkyrie player should also give consideration to whether or not they want to utilize two-weapon combat, which foregoes the ability to use a shield for much higher damage output. Excalibur and/or Mjollnir are the most common weapon choices in either case, and a particularly patient Valkyrie player may opt to try for Grayswandir or Frost Brand. Valkyries that favor two-weaponing long-term may further consider leaving their primary weapon's skill (usually long swords for Excalibur) at Skilled due to their twoweapon skill cap, though they normally have spare skill slots to spend on raising a skill to Expert for some short-term benefits. Common choices for the offhand when two-weaponing combat include long swords, katanas, silver spears, and silver sabers.

The Valkyrie quest is overall not too difficult, but may provide surprisingly tricky for more inexperienced players: the abundance of fire traps make drowning a feasible hazard, and later floors are full of narrow paths surrounded by lava. A source of levitation or a pair of fireproof water walking boots is worthwhile and may even be necessary in the event that lava blocks movement on the goal level, a means of trap detection can prevent the hero from being caught off guard, and teleportation can also be used to cross the lava-filled lower levels more safely. The fire giants and fire ants present on the quest can grant fire resistance to a hero that eats their corpses, and giant corpses additionally provide boosts to strength—a tinning kit is especially nice for amassing strength boosts if you come across one, even before the hero has full Quest access. Heroes unwilling to take chances during the quest may seek out a source of magic resistance or reflection in case any of the giants are generated with a wand of death.

Lord Surtur is not particularly difficult by quest nemesis standards, to the point an accidental spill into the lava or a mishap involving the drawbridges on the goal level may prove a bigger threat. Even so, he still hits quite hard and has the standard suite of quest nemesis tactics, along with higher resistance to damage from the carried quest artifact—clear out the other giants first before engaging him, unless you plan to use a cursed potion of invisibility or a similar item to bring him to the up stair. Lord Surtur himself is vulnerable to the wand of cold and other cold-based attacks.

The Orb of Fate is heavy due to its base item, but significantly enhances a Valkyrie's defenses with its half physical damage and half spell damage, along with providing the useful warning intrinsic for detecting hostiles. Its ability to level teleport the hero when invoked is especially useful for cross-dungeon traveling when paired with a source of teleport control—in a worst-case scenario where you have no means of crossing or cooling the lava between the goal level's up stair and the rest of the map, you can use any source of teleportation to warp across, and then a cursed scroll of teleport or the freshly-secured Orb of Fate to make your way back out upon defeating Lord Surtur.

Late game

The Castle is usually no trouble for a Valkyrie, especially one that has completed their quest, though the possible lich or demilich can prove a nasty surprise—golden nagas and titans can prove majorly troublesome as well and will most often be hostile for neutral Valkyries. Magic resistance is worth obtaining as soon as possible, though a means of monster detection (e.g. the potion or intrinsic telepathy) may be worthwhile to scope the floor upon first arriving&mash;for Valkyries without reflection, Perseus's statue on Medusa's Island may contain a shield of reflection. To make Gehennom much easier to navigate and map, it is worth buying clairvoyance from the Valley of the Dead's aligned cleric and/or using a magic marker on scrolls of magic mapping.

Excalibur remains a great weapon in the late stages, especially when paired with a silver saber or silver spear for twoweaponing: Excalibur-users should remember that they will anger Asmodeus and Baalzebub if wielding the sword at either level generation or when either demon prince warps over to demand a bribe. Most other artifact long swords are sufficient for Gehennom in the absence of Excalibur, and Grayswandir and Frost Brand are especially solid artifact weapons for the branch. Mjollnir can make a good primary weapon, or a good backup ranged weapon if you have gauntlets of power, and blue dragon scale mail is a strong choice of armor for this purpose—remember that several of the most dangerous end-game monsters (e.g. hostile clerics) are shock resistant.

For a Valkyrie's magic marker use, the Orb of Fate can reduce a lot of ink that would be spent on certain scrolls: half physical damage and half spell damage make AC and thus enchant armor scrolls less of a concern, and applying the artifact can easily be used by Valkyries to detect the vibrating square, traverse Gehennom and find magic portals on the Elemental Planes, reducing the need for scrolls of gold detection to read while confused. The level teleportation invoke is also a great means of escape in perilous situations, especially paired with teleport control.

A hero still lacking magic resistance after clearing the the Castle and checking the armory may consider making gray dragon scale mail, or else spending a wish for the mail or a cloak of magic resistance depending on their build preferences, in order to better handle the many deadly spellcasters they will encounter from the Valley onward. Orange dragon scale mail is also a good consideration for the body armor slot due to its free action. A source of very fast speed is nice, but is only worth spending a wish on if the rest of a Valkyrie's kit is absolutely covered—the Castle's armory, the abandoned shops in Orcus-town or the loot in the mazes of Gehennom may provide valuable gear and items for more daring heroes. Conversely, a wand of polymorph is a great utility wand and solid wish candidate that can potentially provide several worthwhile pieces of armor and other items through polypiling.

Despite the role's lack of spellcasting prowess and energy growth, it is not impossible for a Valkyrie that forgoes gauntlets of power and a metallic helm to make very occasional use of low-level healing spells due to their +2 emergency spell bonus. Wisdom is also the easier of the two casting stats to raise, e.g. through natural exercise or consorting with foocubi, and human heroes will naturally find this much easier than dwarven ones. Valkyries dedicated to casting are limited to Basic skill in attack spells and escape spells, but can make decent use of low-level spells such as jumping, and the Castle provides a lot of non-metal armor that has a chance of being enchanted: the wand of wishing can help further complete the kit, but the player should prioritize essentials first and foremost before trying for a robe or helm of brilliance—they may also choose to wish for a wand of polymorph and polypile as above.

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 28fb6fc6, the intelligence check when applying an artifact crystal ball uses a d8 for the hero's own quest artifact, or d16 for other quest artifacts. This means that Valkyries can reliably use the Orb of Fate to search for magic portals and other dungeon features, saving time and resources in navigating Gehennom and especially in the Elemental Planes.

Per commit ef1eeed7, dragon scale mail that is not gray or silver grants additional properties while worn, increasing build diversity and making colors such as blue dragon scale mail (which grants very fast speed) and orange dragon scale mail (which grants free action) more tempting to wish for. Blue dragon scale mail in particular also keeps the boots slot open, and its extrinsic shock resistance makes throwing Mjollnir much safer.

History

The Valkyrie first appears in NetHack 1.3d.

In NetHack 3.6.7 and earlier, Valkyries started with a long sword instead of a spear, and had intrinsic stealth immediately rather than from level 3.

Origin

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja, lit. "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide half of the souls of those who die in combat to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar ('single fighters' or 'once fighters') who are given mead by the valkyries when not preparing for the cataclysmic events of Ragnarök. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals as well as daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans or horses.

Valkyries are attested in the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Heimskringla, and the Njáls saga, all written—or compiled—in the 13th century. The goddess Freyja is herself portrayed as a valkyrie, due to her association with war and Fólkvangr, (Old Norse "field of the host") a meadow or field she rules over where the other half of those killed in combat spend their afterlife—the Prose Edda also describes Fólkvangr as the location of Freyja's hall Sessrúmnir. In modern culture, valkyries have been the subject of works of art, musical works, comic books, video games and poetry—many of these works portray the valkyrie as an exceptional shield-maiden warrior of mortal or divine heritage.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Valkyries can also be doppelgangers as well as humans or dwarves, and start with a spear (or dwarvish spear for dwarves) and a stack of daggers instead of a long sword and singular dagger. Mjollnir is given a stronger base item in the heavy hammer and made much stronger due to universal mechanic changes, dealing +24 shock damage to non-resistant targets—SLASH'EM also allows artifacts to be two-weaponed in the offhand.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, Valkyries can be of any race, and elven and orcish Valkyries are always neutral.

Only Knights can obtain Excalibur by dipping long swords, meaning that lawful Valkyries will have to resort to crowning or finding the artifact in bones. Mechanical changes to sacrifice mean that Valkyries will not obtain Mjollnir as quickly, though they will appreciated the enchanted gear provided while trying for the artifact. Weight-based changes to two-weapon combat also mean that offhand long swords and sabers are not immediately viable: spears, short swords and even daggers are useful offhand weapons, and each have silver counterparts (including the newly-added silver short sword). Racial armor bonuses also make it possible and easy for non-human valkyries to boost their AC early on.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Valkyries can also be nymphs (specifically yuki-onna) as well as humans and dwarves, and start with a spear similar to SLASH'EM, though they are given a bow and arrows instead of daggers.

NetHack Fourk

In NetHack Fourk, the Valkyrie is replaced as a role by the Shieldmaiden role, with the valkyrie made into a playable race.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to the aforementioned SLASH'EM races, Valkyries can be giants, incantifiers, or nymphs.

Mjollnir remains as powerful as ever, while the Orb of Fate is somewhat overshadowed by the lighter Hand of Vecna for half physical damage, but remains a stellar artifact to carry.

Encyclopedia entry

The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and over the sea. They watched the progress of the battle and selected the heroes who were to fall fighting. After they were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating without restraint and fighting over again the battles in which they died and in which they had won their deathless fame.

[ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]