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 being 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. There are also very rare instances of weapons that are permanently poisoned.

Generation

The following items can generate as poisoned:

Manually handling poison

A hero can poison a stack of darts, shuriken, crossbow bolts, or arrows that are not already poisoned by dipping them in a potion of sickness or a stack of potions, which will use up one potion and apply a poisonous coating to the dipped weapon(s).[8] Poisoned weapons that are dipped into a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing (or a stack of the potions) will lose their poisonous coating and use up one potion.[9] Samurai take a -1 penalty to alignment record for hitting a monster with a poisoned weapon, while lawful heroes that are not Samurai will also take the same -1 penalty to alignment record for hitting with poisoned weapons unless their alignment record is currently lower than -10.[10]

Each time a hero hits with a poisoned weapon, there is a weight-based chance equal to 1 in (10 - wt10) of the weapon's poisonous coating wearing off, which is always a 1⁄10 chance in practice.[11][12]

Effects of poisoned weapons

Poisoned projectiles that hit a hero or monster without poison resistance deal their standard physical damage plus +1d6 poison damage that ignores magic cancellation, with a chance of additional effects depending on whether a hero or a monster is the attacker or the target.

A hero without poison resistance that is hit by a poisoned weapon or projectile will take +1d6 damage per hit, with a 4⁄5 chance of losing 1 point of strength and a 1⁄30 chance of taking more severe poison damage:[13][14][15] severe poisoning inflicts an additional 6 + 4d6 damage, with half of that damage subtracted from the hero's maximum HP, and drains 3 points of strength.[16] All of these effects are blocked if the hero has poison resistance.[17]

A monster without poison resistance that is hit by a hero's poisoned weapon or projectile takes +1d6 damage, with a 1⁄10 chance per projectile of the poison causing instant death[18][19]—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.[20] Poison resistance blocks the extra damage and chance of instant death in both cases.

Artifacts

As the sole permanently poisoned weapon, the artifact Grimtooth deals harsher poison damage against targets without poison resistance on 1⁄4 of hits (whether in melee or when thrown), with a further 1⁄10 chance (effectively 1⁄40 or 2.5%) of that strike being instantly fatal.[7][21][22][23][24][25]

Poisoned direct attacks

Two monsters–the erinys and the Master Assassin–each have a weapon attack that is poisonous, and behaves as a hit with a poisoned weapon does independent of whether the monster is wielding an actual poisoned weapon (or any weapons at all):[26][27] erinyes in particular can gain a second such attack if the hero has committed a sufficient amount of alignment abuse.[28][29][30] These poison attacks generally behave like poisoned attacks from other monsters do rather than poisoned weapons, and are thus susceptible to cancellation: such attacks will deal normal physical damage if the attacker does not have a second weapon attack that deals physical damage, and they are either cancelled or else wielding a footrice corpse, Vorpal Blade or Stormbringer (whose effects are applied along with the physical damage of the poisoned weapon attack).[31]

Eating poisoned weapons

A hero that is polymorphed into a metallivore and eats a poisoned weapon will experience the same effects on strength and HP as when they eat a poisonous corpse, including both effects being blocked by poison resistance.[32]—metallivores will normally avoid eating poisoned objects unless they are poison-resistant. While poisoned wooden weapons (i.e. elven arrows) behave the same way, only gelatinous cubes (or heroes polymorphed into cubes) can eat them, and gelatinous cubes possess innate poison resistance.

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, even if death does not come instantaneously. 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 or Samurai) should ideally reserve spare potions of healing for this purpose—however, outside of situations where their survival hinges on it, they can just avoid using that weapon.

History

Main article: History of poison mechanics

The ability for the hero to poison weapons is introduced in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, strength is the hero's sole attribute and thus the only one that poison from weapons can affect—the other five attributes are introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.

From NetHack 1.3d to NetHack 3.2.3, including some variants being based on those versions, a much wider range of weapons can be poisoned, according to commented portions of code added in NetHack 3.3.0:[33] in these versions, any weapon that is not a mace, morning star, war hammer, club, rubber hose, quarterstaff, aklys, flail, bullwhip or launcher of any kind is eligible to be poisoned.[34][35] Additionally, poisoning in some of these early versions simply increased that weapon's enchantment rather than applying a coating of any kind. NetHack 3.3.0 establishes the current range of weapons that can be poisoned is defined along with the current poison-applying mechanics, and allows objects to generate as poisoned (including items in the hero's starting inventory, using the same ruleset).[36][37][38]

From NetHack 1.3d to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants being based on those versions, a hero without poison resistance that is hit by a poisoned projectile has a 1⁄30 chance of the poison being fatal and killing them outright.[39][40][41] This can lead to many unexpected early deaths that can be hard to avoid if the player cannot locate and identify a source of poison resistance in time, even if that player is a seasoned veteran: Barbarians, Healers and orcish heroes start each game with poison resistance and typically do not have to fear such scenarios, while Monks can quickly reach experience level 3 to gain poison resistance. The history section in the poison article linked at the top of this section has somewhat more detailed coverage for how poison behaves in older versions (including any relevant strategies).

NetHack 5.0.0 overhauls the functions of poison via commit d0b11fd2 in order to make it possible for a hero to survive longer without poison resistance, introducing the current behavior of poisoned weapons that strike the hero. Grimtooth is also made a permanently poisoned weapon and given its current behavior via commit 8f7258dc.

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 with its poison damage.
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.

Additionally, NetHack variants created prior to NetHack 5.0.0 may retain the chance of poisoned weapons causing instant death for the hero that is present in previous versions, while other variants may adapt that versions changes to poison mechanics or else design their own independently of vanilla NetHack.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, poison mechanics behave as they do in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions of NetHack. Randomly generated weapons that can be poisoned have a 1⁄100 chance of generating as poisoned.[42]

All weapons and projectiles that use one of the following skills can be poisoned:[43] 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.[44]

The hero can poison weapons by dipping them in a potion of sickness or a toilet.[45] Poisoned weapons deal damage as normal against monsters that otherwise need enchanted weapons to be damaged.

Plague is an artifact dark elven bow that automatically poisons any arrows shot 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.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, Dirge is an artifact that is permanently poisoned.

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. Certain shopkeepers can offer weapon-poisoning as a service.

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 for all poisons beyond the standard type.
  • Black signet rings can be dipped to store multiple doses of a single poison, and those poisons are applied when the wearer performs unarmed attacks while they are wearing that ring (either via bare hands or martial arts for the hero) and not wearing any gloves.
  • 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 an instant kill, 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 it also grants the hero shadowblade attacks, which are always treated as being coated in basic poison and used for passive and active spirit powers tied to the Black Web.

Some artifact weapons also utilize poison in some manner or another, with the poison being the standard type unless otherwise noted:

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 an artifact that is permanently poisoned.

References

  1. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1224-L1225: any poisonable weapons in hero's initial inventory can be created as poisoned, but will only remain poisoned if the hero is chaotic
  2. ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 140-L165
  3. ↑ include/obj.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 264-L268: specified range covers all projectile weapons from arrows to shuriken in objects.h[2]
  4. ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 886-L887
  5. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 155-L156
  6. ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1173-L1174
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 src/artifact.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2835-L2840
  8. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2615-L2626
  9. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2627-L2636
  10. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1519-L1525
  11. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1515-L1518
  12. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1526-L1531
  13. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 299-L309: handling for monster multishot, including instances such as the monster dying mid-attack that warrant ending the shots early
  14. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 745-L754: call to poisoned() for poisoned weapons hitting the hero
  15. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 315-L408: poisoned() function
  16. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 362-L383
  17. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 338-L343
  18. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1061-L1062
  19. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1532-L1537
  20. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 403-L417
  21. ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 306-L307
  22. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1064-L1066
  23. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4044-L4045
  24. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4107-L4121
  25. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4184-L4190
  26. ↑ include/monsters.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2954
  27. ↑ include/monsters.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3725
  28. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5920-L5966: adj_erinys() function
  29. ↑ include/monsters.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2952-L2953
  30. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1307-L1310
  31. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 394-L410
  32. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2795-L2800
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 obj.h in NetHack 3.3.0, line 117: purported range of poisonable weapons in previous versions
  34. ↑ objects.c in NetHack 3.2.0, line 81: start of described range[33]
  35. ↑ objects.c in NetHack 3.2.0, line 220: end of described range[33]
  36. ↑ obj.h in NetHack 3.3.0, line 160: range of poisonable weapons established by 3.3.0
  37. ↑ mkobj.c in NetHack 3.3.0, line 345
  38. ↑ u_init.c in NetHack 3.3.0, line 944
  39. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 285-L295: handling in 3.6.7 for monster multishot, including instances such as the monster dying mid-attack that warrant ending the shots early
  40. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 628-L637: call to poisoned() for monster's poisoned weapons hitting the hero in 3.6.7
  41. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 271-L337: poisoned() function in 3.6.7
  42. ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 444
  43. ↑ obj.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 200
  44. ↑ obj.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 195
  45. ↑ fountain.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 519
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