Knife

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Name Knife
Appearance Knife
Damage vs. small 1d3
Damage vs. large 1d2
To-hit bonus +0
Weapon skill knife
Size one-handed
Base price 4 zm
(+10/positive
enchant)
Weight 5
Material iron

A knife is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed stackable weapon that can both be used in melee and thrown as a projectile, and uses the knife skill.[1] It is made of iron.

Samurai know the knife as a shito.

Generation

Knives make up 1⁄50 (2%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the floor, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock knives.

Many randomly-created monsters can generate with knives:

  • Mordor orcs have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a knife.[2]
  • Orc-captains have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with Mordor orc weapons, giving them an effective 1⁄6 chance of generating with knives.[3]
  • A skeleton has an effective 1⁄6 chance of generating with a knife as its weapon.[4]
  • Watchmen and Yendorian army soldiers have an effective 1⁄3 chance of generating with a knife as a secondary weapon.[5] Guards have a 9⁄56 chance of generating with a knife, and other mercenaries have a 1⁄4 chance.[6]
  • Barrow wights and Nazgul are always generated with a knife.[7]
  • Player monsters that are not monks and are created on the Astral Plane have a 10291 chance (~3.44%) of generating with a stack of 8 knives as their initial weapon before role-based replacements occur.[9][10][11]

Description

A knife inflicts piercing and slashing damage, and deals 1d4 damage versus small monsters and 1d3 versus large ones. Rangers gain a +1 multishot bonus when throwing knives.[12]

A hero that wields a knife while eating a non-blessed tin will open the tin in 3 turns at most.[13]

In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will only prefer a knife to a worm tooth for melee, will favor the knife over slinging flint stones and throwing darts in ranged combat, and will prefer an orcish dagger or better weapon to the knife for melee combat.[14][15]

Strategy

The knife is an incredibly unimpressive melee weapon, but may be worth collecting to use as projectiles for certain roles, particularly Healers. Unfortunately, they are sparse compared to the extremely common daggers, making it somewhat difficult to assemble and enchant a stack.

History

The knife first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, knives are not intrinsically capable of being multishot.[16] Starting in NetHack 3.6.0, any stackable weapon can be thrown with multishot if the hero is Skilled or higher in the appropriate weapon skill.[17]

Variants

In variants that incorporate the Pirate role, all Pirates start the game with two +1 knives.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, upgrading a knife successfully will produce a stiletto and vice versa.[18][19]

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the knife has improved damage dice, and deals 1d5 piercing and slashing damage versus small monsters and 1d3 versus large monsters.

Snickersnee has its base item changed to a knife.

Knives are generated in several circumstances—each tab fully lists where and when knives can be found.

Heroes in several roles can start with knives or appropriate replacement weapons:

  • Binders that are not orcs, drow or elves start the game with a rusty +0 knife. Dwarven Binders start the game with a non-eroded +0 knife.
  • Pirates start each game with 4-6 uncursed rustproof +0 knives.
  • Samurai women start each game with a non-cursed +0 knife as their secondary weapon.
  • All dwarven heroes begin the game with knowledge of all staves, along with a knife to carve those staves and a wooden club to carve into.
  • All drow heroes in roles that start with knives will be given droven daggers instead.
  • All elven heroes in roles that start with knives will be given elven daggers instead.
  • All orcish heroes in roles that start with knives will be given orcish daggers instead.

The following monsters can be generated with knives:

  • Valavi can be generated with two separate knives.
  • Deepest ones created under normal circumstances have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a huge and erosion-proofed +3 knife, with an equal probability of it being either their primary weapon or their secondary weapon paired with a huge and erosion-proofed +3 trident.
  • Female tengu that generate on the Samurai quest, or else with a 1⁄20 chance on other levels, are generated with a knife as their secondary weapon.
  • Imps that are generated in Gehennom or slated for good equipment have a chance of generating with an equipment set that includes a knife.
  • Legion devils each have a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating with a knife as their secondary weapon.
  • Corvians have a 1⁄5 chance of generating with a knife.
  • Watchmen and soldiers have a 1⁄6 chance of generating with a knife as their secondary weapon, and all mercenaries also have a 1⁄4 chance of generating with a knife as their secondary weapon if their primary weapon is not a dagger.
  • Y-cultists have a 9⁄10 chance of generating with a knife, whose material will be either iron (roughly 1⁄2 chance), obsidian (roughly 1⁄4 chance) or bone (roughly 1⁄4 chance) and has 1⁄20 chance of being filth-encrusted.
  • Apprentice witches are always generated with knives.
  • Peasants have a 1⁄6 chance of generating with a knife.
  • Gnolls have a roughly 1⁄8 chance of generating with a knife.
  • Deep ones created in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest) have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a weapon set that includes a thoroughly eroded knife.
  • Angband orcs that are created in the Mordor Ruins quest and elsewhere are always generated with knives.
  • Mordor orcs, Mordor orc elites, Mordor marshals, and orc-captains that are slated for "good equipment" will always generate with knives, and otherwise have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with one.
  • Deminymphs that are generated within the Drow Healer quest outside of level creation will be given knives as part of the "barbarian", "noblewoman", "ranger", and "samurai" role kits.
  • Befouled wraiths have a 2⁄3 chance of generating with two separate knives.
  • Skeletal pirates have a roughly 1⁄2 chance each of generating with a knife as either of their weapons.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the kitchen is a type of themed room that contains knives and other cooking necessities.

The slaughterhouse is a Gehennom-exclusive special maze room that contains several knives.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, a knife can be combined with an iron chain at a furnace to create a spiked chain.

Carnwennan is a lawful artifact knife that has +d3 to-hit and deals +d8 damage versus all monsters, grants automatic searching and stealth, and can be invoked to toggle invisibility.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, knives and other knife weapons use the dagger skill as of version 0.8.3. EvilHack also adds Secespita, a chaotic artifact copper knife that acts as the first sacrifice gift artifact for Infidels.

Cultists have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a knife.

A knife can be created at a forge by combining 2 arrows and 2 darts. Knives can be used to forge several items:

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Diver starts the game with a +2 rustproof knife.

SlashTHEM also adds two artifact knives:

Hack'EM

Hack'EM adds Carnwennan from SpliceHack and Secespita from EvilHack as artifact knives.

In addition to EvilHack forge recipes, 2 darts can be combined with 2 orcish arrows or elven arrows to create a knife.

Encyclopedia entries

Knife

Possibly perceiving an expression of dubiosity on their faces, the globetrotter went on adhering to his adventures.

-- And I seen a man killed in Trieste by an Italian chap. Knife in his back. Knife like that.

Whilst speaking he produced a dangerous looking clasp knife, quite in keeping with his character, and held it in the striking position.

-- In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two smugglers. Fellow hid behind a door, come up behind him. Like that. Prepare to meet your God, says he. Chuck! It went into his back up to the butt.

[ Ulysses, by James Joyce ]

Shito

A Japanese stabbing knife.

References

  1. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1433-L1435
  2. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 420-L421: chances of weapons for Mordor orcs
  3. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 413-L414: switch for orc-captains
  4. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 492-L493
  5. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 199: 1/3*1/2 at line 195 plus 2/3*1/4 at line 218
  6. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 222-L223: must fail both other weapon rolls
  7. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 486: wraiths are the only monster in their class to lack weapon attacks, and are thus not given weapons
  8. ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 174-L392
  9. ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 150: Default equipment; the helm is chosen from within the designated object classes inclusively in objects.h[8]
  10. ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 199: monks will always have shuriken or no weapon
  11. ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 267-L270: Stackable thrown weapons may be generated in multiples
  12. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 58-L62: bonus is granted for all projectiles others than daggers
  13. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1757-L1761
  14. ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 501-L502
  15. ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 700
  16. ↑ dothrow.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 110
  17. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 112-L113
  18. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2208
  19. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2211
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