Bow-blade

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Name	bow-blade
Appearance	recurved sword
Damage vs. small	1d8
Damage vs. large	1d8
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	scimitar
Size	one-handed
Base price	75 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	iron

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Name	bladed bow
Appearance	bladed bow
Damage vs. small	1d8
Damage vs. large	1d8
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	quarterstaff/bow]]
Size	one-handed
Base price	75 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	iron

A bow-blade is a type of weapon found in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is a one-handed piercing/slashing weapon that uses the scimitar skill and is made of iron. At skilled and expert it gains the long slash expert trait. When unidentified it will appear as a recurved sword.

When applied, a bow-blades will transform into a bladed bow. A bladed bow is a one-handed blunt launcher that uses the quarterstaff skill when used in melee and the bow skill when used for firing projectiles. It is made of iron and can fire arrows, bullets and blood spears. At skilled and expert it gains the focus fire expert trait. Its appearance is the same as its formal identification.

Bow-blades are 25% (3 action points) slower to swing than other weapons unless used in two-weapon combat and count as valid melee weapons. Bladed bows are multi-ended weapons, hitting 1–2 times per attack. Both bow-blades and bladed bows can be used for twoweaponing.

Generation

Bow-blades make up ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of randomly generated weapons.

Non-vampire Undead hunters will start the game with a bow-blade and 26-45 +2 blessed arrows.

Strategy

Melee-oriented undead hunters who start the game with bow-blades will want to keep it until they find a weapon that uses their endgame weapon skill. But, for ranged builds this weapon is on par with the pistol in terms of rate-of-fire and a very solid melee weapon at the cost of higher weight and skill slot cost if all three skills are going to be advanced to skilled. In these use cases it is probably not worth also training firearms, which does restrict the use of offhand launchers for twoweaponing to bladed bows alone.

In the early game you will most likely be reliant on a forge and need a steady supply of arrows, ideally enhancing your smithing skill early to minimize the chance of your smithed arrows mulching. However, as the game progresses it is best to start relying on your blood-bullets more unless you wish to forego the bow and arrow approach entirely and only use the bladed bow to train your firearm skill.

The bow is is best paired with highly enchanted smithed arrows early on and later with blood-bullets or, if possible, blood-spears. In that regard, vampire undead hunters will benefit most from this weapon, though they will first have to find, smith or wish for one. In melee, the bladed bow will perform better overall until you get scimitar trained to skilled or expert, and can be switched to the bow-blade form for slashing resistant monsters such as zombie groups. Non-vampire undead hunters may want to save a midas potion for their stack of arrows. After obtaining 10 insight you may wish to silver flame your arrows as this will prevent mulching. Note that object properties cannot be removed from projectiles once applied and will prevent stacking. This is mitigated by the fact that object properties applied to bullet molds will also apply to any bullets made with them and can be removed at a forge for cult credit farming.

Messages

You open the bow-blade.

You close the bladed bow.

Origin

The bow-blade takes has its roots in the 2015 game Bloodborne, where it appears as Simon's Bowblade. It is wielded by Simon the Harrowed and it is stated in the item's description that the weapon was custom-made for him by the Church workshop to replace a normal gun, as he despised firearms. Obtained after finishing his questline or from killing him.

The weapon is a broad sword in its untransformed state, roughly 90-110 cm long from tip to pommel separated by a wide cross guard with the ends bent towards the hilt. It is a recurved blade designed to look like half a recurve bow, with the base curling slightly away and the tip curling towards the ground when held, vaguely sickle-like in this form. It is of a dark metallic color and bears ornate scrolling along the central part of the blade, where it is flat. The blade slims sharply towards the tip but is quite wide at the base, featuring three planes: two bevelled edges and a central plain part in between with the scrolling. The top edge is about 30 cm long and gradually vanishes into the central plain, where it becomes a single edged sword. The tip is shaped in a manner reminiscent of a small single-barb arrowhead or barbed broadhead, much more accentuated than kora or aruval swords. Its general shape doesn't really have any parallels with historical weapons, though some types of curved daggers such as the pesh-kabz, khanjar, bichuwa and, to a lesser extent, some instances of recurved yatagan bear some resemblance.

While transforming, the blade splits along the edge and the halves rotate 90 degrees in opposite directions relative to the handle. Two small metal support arches spring out, connecting to each half of the blade and with the string completing the bow shape. A short metal arrow fitted with a bodkin head and with fletching made of twisted metal is held in the other hand. The bow is used for shooting as well as bashing, sometimes instead using the arrow for stabbing/slashing. When transforming back into its normal state the halves of the sword perform the inverse motion, recombining at the hilt.

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