Pistol (dNetHack)
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| |
|---|---|
| Name | pistol |
| Appearance | broken hand-crossbow |
| Damage vs. small | 1d2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 |
| To-hit bonus | +2 |
| Weapon skill | firearm |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 100 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 12 |
| Material | iron |
- For the weapon in SLASH'EM and its derivatives, see pistol (SLASH'EM).
A pistol is a type of firearm that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The pistol is a small one-handed futuristic launcher, making it one-handed for all users, and uses the firearms skill. It is designed for use with bullets, silver bullets, blood-bullets, and blood-spears.
The pistol has a default material of iron, and appears as a broken hand-crossbow for heroes in most roles when unidentified—Anachrononauts, Androids, Pirates, and Undead Hunters will instead see the item as an "unfamiliar handgun".
Contents
Generation
Anachrononauts and Androids start each game with knowledge of the pistol's appearance.
Pistols are not randomly generated, though they can be found in bones and can only be wished for by Tourists. They cannot be created by smithing unless the hero is an Undead Hunter that knows their appearance.
Pistols may very rarely generate within the scrap piles on the first three levels of the Law quest.
Four pistols each are placed randomly on the locate and goal levels of the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest at level creation.
A pistol is always generated within a chest in the northwestern inner room of the Undead Hunter quest home level.
The Archeologist quest leader, Lord Carnarvon, is always generated with a blessed +7 pistol and 20 blessed +7 bullets for ammo.
Parasitized commanders will have a holy-property +3 silver pistol placed on the square where they generate.
Pseudonatural deminymphs will receive Anachrononaut kits that include a bone pistol and 20–39 bone bullets for ammo, both of which have an enchantment ranging from +1 to +3. Deminmpyhs that are given Undead Hunter kits have a chance of being generated with a pistol as their firearm that has an enchantment ranging from +0 to +3: their primary ammo will consist of either 3–62 standard bullets (2⁄3 chance) or 3–62 silver bullets (1⁄3), and they also have a separate 1⁄3 chance of being given 3–22 blood bullets.
Several monsters in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest) can also be generated with pistols and ammo:
- Nurses are always generated with blessed +3 silver pistols and 20–39 blessed +3 bullets made of silver for ammo.
- Commanders are always generated with holy-property +3 silver pistols and 20-400 silver bullets for ammo.
- Changed that are not given hand blasters have a 1⁄9 chance of generating with a bone pistol and 20–39 bone bullets for ammo.
- Deep ones and deeper ones have a 1⁄6 chance of generating with a pistol accompanied by a stack of bullets, with the properties of the shotgun itself dependent on which monster is given one—deep ones will have fully eroded pistols, while deeper ones will have pistols with 1 level of erosion and an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4.
- Dwarven monsters generated at level creation are always generated with a +7 pistol and a stack of 100–199 silver bullets that have an enchantment ranging from +1 to +3.
Description
Pistols are lightweight firearms that can be shot from the offhand and twoweaponed, and possess a maximum range of 15 squares and a +2 to-hit bonus. When wielded by a hero who is Skilled or better in firearms, pistols gain the "focus fire" expert trait. The pistol's base rate of fire is 1, and improves along with the hero's firearms skill: 1 per action at Basic skill or lower, 1–2 at Skilled and 1–3 at Expert.
Quickdrawing increases the rate of fire by 1. Wielding either of the Sansara Mirror, or The Pen of the Void with Eve bound into the blade, doubles the rate of fire.
Strategy
Pistols fire 1–3 bullets per turn at expert skill, a relatively low rate of fire, but are exceptionally light. Roles that do not naturally have access to the two-weapon combat skill may wish to use pistols as offhand launchers instead of heavier guns to hit more consistently. Undead Hunters will find this to be the only gun with a rate of fire of 3 they can easily obtain, as well as the lightest.
Origin
A pistol is a type of handgun characterized by a barrel with an integral chamber: the most common type of pistol used in the contemporary era is the semi-automatic pistol (e.g., Colt M1911), while the older single-shot and lever-action pistols are rarely seen and used primarily for nostalgic hunting and historical reenactment. Fully-automatic machine pistols are uncommon in civilian usage because of their generally poor recoil-controllability (due to the lack of a buttstock) and strict laws and regulations governing their manufacture and sale (where they are regarded as submachine gun equivalents).
The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French pistolet (c. 1550), meaning "a small gun or knife", and first appeared in the English language c. 1570 when early handguns were produced in Europe. In colloquial usage, the word "pistol" is often used as a generic term to describe any type of handgun, inclusive of revolvers (which have a single barrel and a separate cylinder housing multiple chambers) and the pocket-sized derringers (which are often multi-barrelled).
