The Tsurugi of Muramasa

)   The Tsurugi of Muramasa   (No tile)
Base item	tsurugi
Damage vs. small	1d16 +1d8
Damage vs. large	1d8+2d6 +1d8
To-hit bonus	+2
Bonus versus	(any)
Weapon skill	two-handed sword
Size	two-handed
Affiliation	lawful Samurai intelligent
When carried	acts as luckstone
When wielded	bisection protection
When invoked	(none)
Base price	4500 zm
Weight	60
Material	metal

The Tsurugi of Muramasa is the Samurai quest artifact. It is the prize for completing the Samurai quest, and its default alignment is lawful. Its base item type is a tsurugi.

Generation

For Samurai, The Tsurugi of Muramasa is always generated on the goal level of the Samurai quest, where it is placed on Ashikaga Takauji's square at level creation.

Description

While carried, The Tsurugi of Muramasa acts as a luckstone, and while wielded, it provides extrinsic protection, augmenting your magic cancellation as with a ring of protection, but not cumulative with one. The Tsurugi has +2 to-hit and deals +d8 bonus damage against all monsters, and it has a ¹⁄₂₀} chance (5%) of bisecting and instantly killing medium-size or smaller monsters that it hits, including any monster engulfing the wielder; large-or-bigger monsters instead take double damage.

Unlike most other quest artifacts, The Tsurugi of Muramasa has no effect when invoked.

Strategy

The chance of bisection makes it very dangerous for Samurai to face their quest nemesis Ashikaga Takauji in melee. Those facing him may employ ranged attacks, controlled polymorph, a boulder fort, or a wand of death among other options to liberate the artifact from him.

As a two-handed weapon, if the Tsurugi becomes cursed, you will need to #tip an uncursing item out of your bag to regain use of your hands. However, as an intelligent artifact it resists the curse items monster spell 80% of the time, making it much safer than most other two-handed weapons. Beyond that, the Tsurugi's extra Luck and protection renders it barely noteworthy among lawful artifacts for non-Samurai, if not artifacts in general.

Unfortunately for Samurai themselves, that it uses the two-handed sword skill may prove a deterrent for those looking to twoweapon or use a shield. While they can attain Expert level in the skill, most samurai may already be comfortable with the easier-obtained Excalibur or Snickersnee as their main weapon and their starting katana or another long sword as their off-hand weapon. In addition to dealing roughly similar damage outside of the Tsurugi's bisection, there is a much less significant risk of item curses welding both weapons to your hands.

Average damage calculation

The base damage range of the Tsurugi of Muramasa is 2–24 against small monsters, and 4–28 against large monsters before doubling damage. The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons. Also, they do not include the 5% chance of either instantly killing the target (if it is a small monster) or doing double the damage (if it is a large monster). Furthermore, the twoweapon skill bonuses are not included for the damage calculations when using Excalibur with a katana.

Weapon	Small monsters	Large monsters
+0 Tsurugi of Muramasa	1+162 + 1+82 = 13	1+82 + 2+122 + 1+82 = 16
+7 Tsurugi of Muramasa	1+162 + 1+82 + 7 = 20	1+82 + 2+122 + 1+82 + 7 = 23
+0 Excalibur and +0 Katana	1+82 + 1+102 + 1+102 = 15.5	1+122 + 1+102 + 1+122 = 18.5
+7 Excalibur and +7 Katana	1+82 + 1+102 + 7 + 1+102 + 7 = 29.5	1+122 + 1+102 + 7 + 1+122 + 7 = 32.5
+9 Excalibur and +7 Katana	1+82 + 1+102 + 9 + 1+102 + 7 = 31.5	1+122 + 1+102 + 9 + 1+122 + 7 = 34.5

History

The Tsurugi of Muramasa is introduced along with most of the other quest artifacts in NetHack 3.1.0.

The Tsurugi of Muramasa providing extrinsic protection while wielded is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0.

Origin

Muramasa Sengo (千子 村正) was a famous Japanese swordsmith who founded the Muramasa school and lived during the Muromachi period (14th to 16th centuries) in Kuwana of Ise Province. They were originally reputed as fine blades favored by the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu and his vassals, but gradually became a symbol of the anti-Tokugawa movement.

The idea of Muramasa's swords being bloodthirsty and compelling the wielders to murder or suicide is a product of both the aforementioned political shift and of 18th century Japanese lore and popular culture, such as kabuki dramas - this is also likely the source for the idea that Muramasa passed his own violence and bloodlust on to the blades he forged.

Variants

Variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 may not give the Tsurugi of Muramasa the ability to provide extrinsic protection.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the Tsurugi of Muramasa deals +8 damage to all monsters with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance (10%) of bisection or doubled damage depending on the target's size, and does not provide protection or magic cancellation.

Despite its improvements from NetHack 3.4.3, the ability in SLASH'EM to dual-wield artifact weapons diminishes the Tsurugi's appeal considerably: combining Excalibur and Snickersnee is excellent for Samurai, since both weapons are easily available to them, use the same weapon skill, and both have a flat damage bonus against all monsters that allows far more damage on average than the Tsurugi. A Samurai who can get his hands on one of the better lawful swords, such as Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Grayswandir, or the Sword of Justice can be even more powerful. Additionally, SLASH'EM lacks the #tip command, making it more serious if a two-handed weapon is cursed.

The following table summarizes the best-case scenario average damage for the Tsurugi of Muramasa versus two-weaponing the most powerful one-handed lawful swords. The following table does not include applicable strength or ring-based damage bonuses.

Weapon(s)	Average damage vs. small	Average damage vs. large
Tsurugi of Muramasa	28 + 10% instakill	33
Snickersnee + Excalibur	49	52
Snickersnee + Sword of Justice	51	54
Snickersnee + Fire Brand or Frost Brand	51	56
Snickersnee + Grayswandir	61	62
Excalibur + Sword of Justice	52	56
Excalibur + Fire Brand or Frost Brand	52	58
Excalibur + Grayswandir	62	64
Sword of Justice + Fire Brand or Frost Brand	54	60
Sword of Justice + Grayswandir	64	66
Fire Brand + Frost Brand	53	61
Fire Brand or Frost Brand + Grayswandir	64	68

The best case for all listed weapons assumes that a Samurai has reached Expert in the relevant skill, is attacking an undead monster or demon with a blessed weapon, and the weapon(s) are enchanted to +7. The following additional restrictions are also applied to each weapon in this table:

• Sword of Justice: not lawfully aligned
• Fire Brand: not fire resistant
• Frost Brand: not cold resistant
• Grayswandir: silver-hating (only demons are both silver-hating and suffer blessed damage)

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, The Tsurugi of Muramasa grants half physical damage while carried and augments protection while wielded.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, The Tsurugi of Muramasa has +1d2 to-hit and deals double damage to all targets, with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance (10%) of bisection. The Tsurugi acts as a luck item and grants automatic searching; it is also bloodthirsty and can cause the hero to attack adjacent monsters each turn.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, the Tsurugi of Muramasa does double damage rather than +1d8, and can be invoked to uncurse itself.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the Tsurugi of Muramasa has +1d3 to-hit and grants half physical damage while carried.

If The Tsurugi of Muramasa is successfully wished for by a non-Samurai, there is an effective ^x⁄_(x+1)² chance (where x is the amount of previous artifact wishes) of a hostile Lord Sato generating adjacent to the hero, with the artifact in his possession.

All of the above also applies to Hack'EM.

Encyclopedia entry

This most ancient of swords has been passed down through the
leadership of the Samurai legions for hundreds of years. It
is said to grant luck to its wielder, but its main power is
terrible to behold. It has the capability to cut in half any
creature it is wielded against, instantly killing them.