Multishot
In NetHack, the hero and monsters are capable of multishot when throwing or firing certain projectiles, allowing more than one to be shot in a single move.
Contents
Calculation
The multishot counter starts at 1, and is modified as follows:
- +1 if the hero is at Skilled level in their weapon, unless:[1]
- +1 if they are at Expert level in their weapon (cumulative with the above, and not subject to its qualifications)
- +1 for a racial bonus, if they are not disqualified from the Skilled bonus for the reasons listed above, and are:
- an elf firing elven arrows from an elven bow
- an orc firing orcish arrows from an orcish bow
- a gnome firing bolts from a crossbow
- +1 for the hero's role bonus, if they are:
- if firing a crossbow with less than 18 strength (16 if a gnome), reduced to a number between 1 and itself, inclusive (so, e.g., a counter of 3 would be reduced to d3).
- reduced to 1 if the hero is confused, stunned, the missile requires a launcher that is not being wielded, or isn't a weapon at all (e.g., a meatball)
Racial bonuses are based on the hero's starting race, not their current race. For example, a human polymorphed into an orc will not fire an extra orcish arrow from his orcish bow, but an orc polymorphed into a mountain centaur will get the bonus. Because of this limitation, a human or dwarven player will be unable to achieve the maximum multishot value of 5 no matter their role, weapon, or weapon skill level.
The actual number of missiles fired is d(multishot)—that is, between 1 and the hero's multishot counter, inclusive—but no higher than the number of missiles in the stack.
A hero may limit the number of missiles fired or thrown by using a numeric prefix such as "1fh" in vi-mode or "n1f4" in numpad mode to fire one missile to the left - they will fire the lesser of the number of missiles chosen and the number that they would otherwise have fired.
Eligible missiles
The hero can fire or throw multiples of:
- any kind of daggers
- darts
- shuriken
- any kind of stones, gems, or pieces of worthless glass
- crossbow bolts
- any kind of arrows
- any kind of spears, including javelins
- boomerangs
- worm teeth, knives, stilettoes, scalpels, or even crysknives
A hero can only fire multiple stones, crossbow bolts or arrows if you are wielding the appropriate launcher.
Throwing with t and firing with f are equivalent, except that t does not trigger the autoquiver option. Throwing gold pieces is an exception; the hero can throw an arbitrary amount, but firing will only shoot one piece. The gold will always miss monsters, but has a chance of angering aligned priests and shopkeepers. Throwing gold down dark corridors can substitute for a way to detect monsters.
Monsters
For monsters, the multishot calculation is:[2]
- +1 if the monster is a lord
- +2 if the monster is a prince
- +1 if the monster is a player monster
- +1 if the missiles are non-cursed elven arrows
- +1 if the missiles are any type of arrows and being launched from a non-cursed elven bow
- If the launcher matches the missiles and is non-negatively enchanted, add 1⁄3 of the launcher's enchantment, rounded down.
At this point, the multishot counter is set to a random value between 1 and itself, inclusive.
- Add the race and role bonuses for players, as above.
- An orc is any monster represented by o for this purpose.
- +1 if the monster is a ninja throwing darts or shuriken or firing ya from a yumi
As with players, monsters fire between 1 and the multishot counter, and no more than the number of missiles in the stack.
Strategy
Be careful when multishotting projectiles: the first projectile may kill the enemy, allowing the next to proceed to hit a pet or peaceful monster. Numeric prefixes can be used to avoid these situations.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM calculates multishot differently, giving additional bonuses for elven bows, elven arrows, and enchanted launchers. The SLASH'EM multishot calculation is:[3]
- Base of 1
- +1 if you are Skilled or higher at your weapon
- +1 if you are Expert at your weapon
- +1 for your racial bonus, if you are:
- an elf firing an elven arrow from an elven bow
- an orc firing an orcish arrow from an orcish bow
- +1 for your role bonus, if you are:
- 33% of +1 if you are firing with a non-cursed elven bow
- 33% of +1 if you are firing non-cursed elven arrows
- 1⁄3 of enchantment of launcher (bow, crossbow, sling), rounded to the nearest integer, thus:
- +0 for +0 or +1 launcher
- +1 for +2 to +4 launcher
- +2 for +5 to +7 launcher
- +3 for +8 to +10 launcher, etc.
- reduced to 1 if you are confused, stunned, or the missile requires a launcher which you aren't wielding
Given that elven Rangers start out with a +2 elven bow and elven arrows, an elven ranger will shoot d6 arrows 1⁄9 of the time, d5 arrows 4⁄9 of the time, and d4 arrows 4⁄9 of the time, for an average of just below 3 arrows per turn, making them a potent choice in SLASH'EM's challenging early game. There is no multishot bonus for drow firing dark elven arrows from a dark elven bow.
Finally, firearms in SLASH'EM are a special case with a complex rate of fire calculation based on type of firearm and skill level of the user.
UnNetHack
UnNetHack grants +1 to the multishot counter when firing arrows from the Longbow of Diana.
FIQHack
FIQHack grants +1 to the multishot counter when firing arrows from the Longbow of Diana.
Fourk
Cavemen get +1 multishot with a sling, and can find slingable silver nuggets on their quest. Silver ammunition of any kind has reduced multishot potential.
Splicehack
Also grants +1 to the multishot counter when firing arrows from the Longbow of Diana.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.1. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-361}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.