Poisoned weapon

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In NetHack, various projectile weapons can be coated with poison by dipping them in a potion of sickness, and under some circumstances they can also generate as poisoned—these poisoned weapons can deal extra damage and even prove deadly to monsters that the hero hits with them, but they can be just as deadly to a hero on the other end of them.

Generation

The following items can generate as poisoned:

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 8f7258dc, Grimtooth is permanently poisoned, and each hit with the artifact against targets without poison resistance having a 1⁄4 chance of dealing harsher poison damage, with a further 1⁄10 chance of causing instadeath.

Manually handling poison

A hero can poison a stack of darts, shuriken, crossbow bolts, or arrows by dipping them in a potion of sickness.[6] A hero's weapon that is poisoned has a weight-based chance (which is always 1⁄10 in practice) of its poison wearing off after each hit.[7] Poisoned weapons that are dipped into a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing will immediately lose their poison and use up the potion.[8]

Lawful heroes take a -1 penalty to alignment record for using a poisoned weapon (unless their record is lower than -10), and Samurai take a separate -1 penalty to alignment record for using poisoned weapons.[9][10]

Effects of poison

Poisoned projectiles that hit a hero or monster deal their standard physical damage plus +1d6 poison damage, ignoring magic cancellation.

A hero without poison resistance that is hit by a poisoned projectile has a 4⁄5 chance of losing 1 point of strength, a 1⁄30 chance of the poison being fatal, and otherwise they take +1d6 damage, with the chances applied per individual projectile and all of these effects being blocked by poison resistance.[11][12]

A monster without poison resistance that is hit by a hero's poisoned weapon or projectile takes +1d6 damage, with a 1⁄10 chance of the poison being fatal[13]—a monster hit with a poisoned weapon or projectile thrown or shot by another monster takes +1d6 damage with a 1⁄30 chance of the poison being fatal.[14] Poison resistance blocks the extra damage and chance of instant death in both cases.

Of note is that the erinys and the Master Assassin both have a weapon attack that is poisonous, and behaves accordingly independent of whether they are using actual poisoned weapons.[15][16]

A metallivore or gelatinous cube (including a hero in the form of one) that eats a poisoned weapon experiences the same effects on strength and HP as eating a poisonous corpse, including both effects being blocked by poison resistance[17]—gelatinous cubes naturally have poison resistance, and are thus typically unaffected.

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 d0b11fd2, poisoned weapons do not instantly kill the hero, instead dealing an additional 6 + 4d6 damage (half of which is subtracted from the hero's maximum HP) and inflicting harsher lowering of attribute points.

Strategy

The ability to poison weapons can be an invaluable combat edge for a hero in the early stages of the game, but it also carries the risk of poisoned projectiles being shot or thrown back at them with fatal results if they lack poison resistance. Poisoned darts and arrows generated in the hands of kobolds and Uruk-hai also pose a significant threat to early heroes that lack poison resistance.

Players that want to remove poisonous coatings from weapons for any reason (e.g. avoiding alignment record penalties as a lawful hero) should ideally reserve spare potions of healing for this purpose, and outside of situations where their survival hinges on it they can simply avoid using the weapon altogether.

History

The ability for the hero to poison weapons is introduced in NetHack 1.3d.

Messages

<The potion> forms a coating on <the weapon>.
You dipped a poisonable weapon into a potion of sickness.
A coating wears off <the weapon>.
You dipped an already-poisoned weapon into a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing.
The poison was deadly...
A poisoned weapon killed you or a monster.
The poison doesn't seem to affect <you/the monster>.
A poisoned weapon hit you or a monster, but the victim had poison resistance.
Your <weapon> is no longer poisoned.
Your poisoned weapon lost its coating after hitting a monster.

Variants

NetHack variants often expand on which weapon types can be poisoned, and some add other types of potions and substances that a weapon can be coated in. Some NetHack variants may also add artifacts or other items that function as permanently poisoned weapons, including through the use of object properties.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the hero can poison weapons by dipping them in a toilet.[18]

All weapons and projectiles that use one of the following skills can be poisoned:[19] dagger, knife, axe, pick-axe, short sword, broad sword, long sword, two-handed sword, scimitar, saber, polearms, spear, javelin, trident, lance, bow, crossbow, and shuriken. Firearms ammo and sticks of dynamite explicitly cannot be poisoned.[20] Randomly generated weapons that can be poisoned have a 1⁄100 chance of generating as poisoned.[21]

Poisoned weapons deal damage as normal against monsters that normally need enchanted weapons to be damaged.

Plague is an artifact dark elven bow that automatically poisons arrows fired from it.

Serpent's Tongue is an artifact dagger that does not inflict actual poison damage, but deals higher damage against targets that lack poison resistance and has a similar chance of causing instant death.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, poisoned weapons are reworked, dealing +1d6 damage against non-resistant monsters with a 1⁄10 chance of severe damage occurring instead, rather than instant death: this inflicts +80 damage to monsters and +3d6 damage to the hero, rather than +1d6 for both. Lawful Knights, Samurai and Valkyries take a -1 penalty to alignment record for attacking with a poisoned weapon.

There are also several distinct types of "poison" that can be used to coat weapons and inflict different forms of damage and/or harmful status properties, most of which also have a corresponding potion that can produce those coatings via dipping:

Potions of blood from poisonous or acidic monsters can be used as substitutes for coating items in poison or acid, respectively. Beartraps and all weapons that can deal piercing and/or slashing damage can be poisoned—launchers, lightsaber-style weapons, firearms ammo (minus the blood-spear), and sticks of dynamite all explicitly cannot be poisoned. Some other items can be poisoned in unique ways:

  • Viperwhips are a special type of weapon that can stores multiple 'doses' of a single type of poison (though this behavior is currently bugged).
  • Black signet rings can be dipped to store multiple doses of a single poison that are applied apply when performing attacks with ungloved hands (either via bare hands or martial arts for the hero) while wearing that ring.
  • The eldritch knightly stance paired with the spell of poison spray or acid splash will cause the wielded the weapon to be treated as a poisoned weapon of the respective type, i.e. basic poison or acidic poison—this will add the corresponding effects of those poisons, including bonus damage, potential for a poison instakill, and alignment penalties if used by a lawful Knight.

The poison-secreting and acid-secreting object properties can be found on some weapons, and those weapons have a chance of automatically applying coatings of basic or acidic poison to themselves on each turn if they do not have the respective coating already applied.

The Black Web entity is a spirit that grants the hero the ability to fire poisoned spikes using its active power while bound, and also grants the hero shadowblade attacks which are always treated as coated in basic poison and are used for both passive and active powers.

Some artifact weapons also utilize poison in some manner or another:

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, weapons can be 'poisoned' or otherwise coated with the contents of various potions similar to dNetHack and its derivatives, resulting in distinct "poisons" that can inflict different forms of damage and/or harmful status properties, and most of them have a corresponding potion:

EvilHack

In EvilHack, all bladed and edged weapons can be poisoned, and they can also be tainted with drow poison by dipping them in the appropriate potion.

The Sword of Kas is permanently poisoned.

References

  1. ↑ src/objects.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 113-L130
  2. ↑ include/obj.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 201: specified range covers all projectile weapons from arrows to shuriken in objects.c[1]
  3. ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 813
  4. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1090
  5. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 157
  6. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2114
  7. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1117
  8. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2125-L2131
  9. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1122
  10. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1125
  11. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 285
  12. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 628
  13. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1135
  14. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 374
  15. ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2396
  16. ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3069
  17. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2579
  18. ↑ fountain.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 519
  19. ↑ obj.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 200
  20. ↑ obj.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 195
  21. ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 444
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