Knife (skill)
The knife is a weapon skill that appears in NetHack.[1]
Available roles
The following roles can reach the listed skill levels in knives:
| Knife | |
|---|---|
| Max | Role |
| Basic | |
| Skilled | |
| Expert | |
List of weapons
The following weapons use the knife skill:
There are no artifacts that use the knife skill.
Description
All knife weapons other than the scalpel are designed to be thrown.[2] The knife is the only weapon class that gives Healers a multishot bonus when thrown at Skilled level or better.[3]
Strategy
As a weapon class, knives are generally some of the lowest-damage melee weapons in NetHack: the sole exception is the crysknife, which has damage roughly comparable to a long sword—the next-best knife weapon is the very rare scalpel, whose damage is on par with an orcish dagger.
History
The knife skill is introduced with many other weapon skills in NetHack 3.2.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, knife weapons are not intrinsically capable of being multishot.[4] 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.[5]
Variants
NetHack: The Next Generation
In NetHack: The Next Generation, the tooth of an algolian suntiger is a new weapon that uses the knife skill.
dNetHack
dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack add the spoon and fang of apep as weapons that use the knife skill, and Snickersnee has its base item changed to a knife.
Staves are a type of ward that can be carved into a wooden weapon with any type of weapon that uses the knife skill.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds Carnwennan, 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, the knife skill is merged into the dagger skill as of version 0.8.3.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Diver starts the game with a +2 rustproof knife. Vampire heroes can always reach a minimum of Basic in knife skill.
Some artifacts added in SlashTHEM use the knife skill:
- Shadowblade (chaotic knife)
- Deluxe Yendorian Knife (neutral knife)
- Spineseeker (stiletto)
- Wormbiter (crysknife)
- Oathkeeper (stiletto)
Hack'EM
Hack'EM retains knives as a separate skill compared to later versions of EvilHack. Hack'EM also adds Carnwennan from SpliceHack and Secespita from EvilHack as artifacts that use the knife skill.
