Hunter's axe

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Name	hunter's axe
Appearance	hollow-handled axe
Damage vs. small	1d8
Damage vs. large	1d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	axe
Size	one-handed
Base price	100 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	90
Material	iron

)
Name	hunter's long-axe
Appearance	hollow-handled long-axe
Damage vs. small	1d8+1
Damage vs. large	1d6+2
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	axe
Size	one-handed
Base price	100 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	90
Material	iron

A Hunter's axe is a type of weapon that can be found in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is a one-handed slashing weapon that uses the axe skill and is made of iron. At skilled and expert, gains the hew expert trait. It appears as a hollow-handled axe when unidentified.

When applied (at yourself), the hunter's axe will transform into a hunter's long-axe, which is a one-handed slashing weapon that uses the axe skill and is made of iron. In this form, the axe becomes a polearm and can be used for pounding. At skilled and expert it gains the hew, fell, stop thrust and cleave expert traits. It will appear as a hollow handled long-axe when unidentified. Hunter's axes still functions as normal axes for purposes of cutting down trees.

Generation

Hunter's long axes make up ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of randomly generated weapons. Hunter's axes do not randomly generate.

Non-vampire undead hunters will start the game with a hunter's axe ¹⁄₆ of the time.

Strategy

Characters wishing planning to run axe artifacts may consider this weapon useful, especially since it doubles as a pole and can be used to attack unicorns before acquiring invisibility or dealing with fast monsters. Undead hunters who start out with this weapon might want to consider making a copy out of less heavy material. For most use cases, the hunter's axe offers too little in terms of raw damage to be very viable past the early game. Note that it is one of the few axe-polearms, with the other notable one being the Diskos. It can be transformed into its polearm form even while wearing a shield, which gives it a distinctive advantage over most other polearms.

Origin

The Hunter axe can be found in the 2015 game Bloodborne, where it is one of the possible starting weapons. It is also wielded by Father Gascoigne, though with a different moveset, and by the younger Madaras twin.

Bloodborne's depiction of the Hunter axe is that of a very large broadaxe head attached to an arms-length curved handle, capped at the tip with a spike. The handle curves away from the head, noticeably so when it is drawn out to its full length. It's hard to tell whether the shaft itself is actually telescopic, especially given the curve shape. The design makes the axe appear very visibly battered and where the axe head connects with the handle has been wrapped many times over with cloth as well as along the length of the handle. The axe doesn't actually deal slashing damage originally, instead dealing physical and blunt damage.

It's interesting to note that the design itself is also quite unique as far as axes go – though it has a crescent head reminiscent of a dervish ax it is spiked at the end, making it look more like a halberd or poleaxe. When the axe is extended the curve also becomes a lot more pronounced, as though it were a hewing axe. That said, it otherwise lacks any notable features of a hewing axe like having a single-basilled edge, and is actually swung like a club rather than an axe for a lot of its moveset. dNetHack's hunter's axe lacks the piercing capabilities seen in Bloodborne.

Messages

You lengthen the handle.

You applied a hunter's axe.

You shorten the handle.

You applied a hunter's long axe.

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