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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace
Eric S. Raymond
Thyrsus Enterprises
Malvern, PA 19355
1. Introduction
You have just finished your years as a student at the local
adventurer's guild. After much practice and sweat you have fi-
nally completed your training and are ready to embark upon a
perilous adventure. As a test of your skills, the local guild-
masters have sent you into the Dungeons of Doom. Your task is to
return with the Amulet of Yendor. Your reward for the completion
of this task will be a full membership in the local guild. In
addition, you are allowed to keep all the loot you bring back
from the dungeons.
You have abilities and strengths for dealing with the ha-
zards of adventure that will vary depending on your background
and training. Here is a summary of the character classes:
Cavemen and Cavewomen start with exceptional strength and
neolithic weapons.
Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping
with) and an expensive camera. Most monsters don't like being
photographed.
Wizards start out with a fair selection of magical goodies
and a particular affinity for things thaumaturgical.
Archeologists understand dungeons pretty well. This makes
them able to move quickly and sneak up on dungeon nasties. They
start equipped with proper tools for a scientific expedition.
Elves are agile and quick and have keen senses; very little
of what goes on around an Elf will escape him or her. The quality
of Elven craftsmanship often gives them an advantage in weapons
and armor.
Valkyries are hardy warrior women. Their upbringing in the
harsh Northlands makes them strong and inures them to extremes of
cold, and instills stealth and cunning in them.
Healers are wise in the apothecary and medical arts. They
know the herbs and simples that can restore vitality and ease
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 1
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 2
pain and neutralize poisons, and they can divine a being's state
of health or sickness.
Knights are distinguished from the common run of fighter by
their devotion to the ideal of chivalry and the surpassing excel-
lence of their armor.
Barbarians are warriors out of the hinterland, hardened to
battle. They begin their quests with naught but uncommon
strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.
Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon. They are
lightly armored and quick, and wear the dai-sho, two swords of
the deadliest sharpness.
Ninja are the spy-assassins of Japan. They are quick and
stealthy, though not as strong as fighters. Their characteristic
weapon is the deadly shuriken or throwing-star.
Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, armed and ar-
mored to advance the cause of righteousness but also equipped
with some skills in arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune
with deities via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril
-- but can also put them in it.
You set out on your way to the dungeons and after several
days of uneventful travel, you see the ancient ruins that mark
the entrance to the Mazes of Menace. It is late at night, so
you make camp at the entrance and spend the night sleeping under
the open skies. In the morning you gather your weapons and dev-
ices, eat what is almost your last food, and enter the dungeons.
2. What is going on here?
You have just begun a game of nethack. Your goal is to grab
as much treasure as you can, find the Amulet of Yendor, and get
out of the Mazes of Menace alive. On the screen, a map of where
you have been and what you have seen on the current dungeon level
is kept. As you explore more of the level, it appears on the
screen in front of you.
Nethack differs from most computer fantasy games (other than
its ancestors hack and rogue and its cousin larn) in that it is
screen oriented. Commands are all one or two keystrokes (as op-
posed to sentences in some losing parser's notion of English) and
the results of your commands are displayed graphically on the
screen rather than being explained in words (a minimum screen
size of 24 lines by 80 columns is required; if the screen is
larger, only a 24x80 section will be used for the map).
Another major difference between nethack and other computer
fantasy games is that once you have solved all the puzzles in a
standard fantasy game, it has lost most of its excitement and it
ceases to be fun. Nethack, on the other hand, generates a new
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 3
dungeon every time you play it and even the authors still find it
an entertaining and exciting game.
3. What do all those things on the screen mean?
In order to understand what is going on in nethack you have
to first get some grasp of what nethack is doing with the screen.
The nethack screen is intended to replace the "You can see ..."
descriptions of text fantasy games. Figure 1 is a sample of what
a nethack screen might look like.
3.1. The bottom line
At the bottom line of the screen are a few pieces of cryp-
tic information describing your current status. Here is an ex-
planation of what these things mean:
Level
This number indicates how deep you have gone in the dungeon.
It starts at one and goes up as you go deeper into the
dungeon.
Gold The number of gold pieces you have managed to find and keep
with you so far.
Hp Your current and maximum health points. Health points in-
dicate how much damage you can take before you die. The
more you get hit in a fight, the lower they get. You can
regain health points by resting. The number in parentheses
is the maximum number your health points can reach.
____________________________________________________________
------------
|..........+
|..@....]..|
|....B.....|
|..........|
-----+------
Lev 1 Gp 0 Hp 12(12) Ep 3(3) Ac 8 Str 16(16) Exp: 1/0
____________________________________________________________
Figure 1
Ep Energy points. This tells you the level of mystic energy you
have available for spell casting. When you type `x' to list
your spells, each will have a spell point cost beside it in
parentheses. You will not see this if your site's version of
the game has been configured to omit spells.
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 4
Ac Your current armor protection. This number indicates how
effective your armor is in stopping blows from unfriendly
creatures. The lower this number is, the more effective the
armor.
Str Your current strength and maximum ever strength. This can
be any integer less than or equal to 18, or greater than or
equal to three (occasionally you may get super-strengths of
the form 18/xx). The higher the number, the stronger you
are. The number in the parentheses is the maximum strength
you have attained so far this game.
Exp These two numbers give your current experience level and ex-
perience points. As you do things, you gain experience
points. At certain experience point totals, you gain an
experience level. The more experienced you are, the better
you are able to fight and to withstand magical attacks.
3.2. The top line
The top line of the screen is reserved for printing messages
that describe things that are impossible to represent visually.
If you see a "--More--" on the top line, this means that
nethack wants to print another message on the screen, but it
wants to make certain that you have read the one that is there
first. To read the next message, just type a space.
3.3. The rest of the screen
The rest of the screen is the map of the level as you have
explored it so far. Each symbol on the screen represents some-
thing. Here is a list of what the various symbols mean:
- and |
These form the walls of a room (or maze).
. this is the floor of a room.
# this is a corridor.
> this is the staircase to the next level.
< the staircase to the previous level.
` A large boulder.
@ You (usually) or another human.
^ A trap.
) A weapon of some sort.
( Some other useful object (key, rope, dynamite, camera...)
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 5
[ A suit of armor.
% A piece of food (not necessarily healthy...).
/ A wand.
= A ring.
? A scroll.
! A magic potion.
+ A spellbook containing a spell you can learn; (but usually a
doorway).
} A pool of water
{ A fountain (your dungeon may not have these).
\ An opulent throne (You may not have this either).
$ A pile or pot of gold.
a-zA-Z
The uppercase letters represent the various inhabitants of
the Mazes of Menace. Watch out, they can be nasty and vi-
cious. Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.
4. Commands
Commands are given to nethack by typing one or two charac-
ters. Most commands can be preceded by a count to repeat them
(e.g. typing "10s" will do ten searches). Commands for which
counts make no sense have the count ignored. To cancel a count
or a prefix, type <ESCAPE>. The list of commands is rather long,
but it can be read at any time during the game with the "?" com-
mand. Here it is for reference, with a short explanation of each
command.
? help: print a help list.
Q Quit the game.
S Save the game.
! Escape to a shell.
^Z Suspend the game (UNIX versions with job control only).
< up: go up the staircase (if you are standing on it).
> down: go down (just like up).
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 6
[kjhlyubn]
go one step in the direction indicated.
k: north (i.e., to the top of the screen),
j: south, h: west, l: east, y: ne, u: nw, b: se, n: sw.
KJHLYUBN
Go in that direction until you hit a wall or run into some-
thing.
m[kjhlyubn]
prefix: move without picking up any objects.
M[kjhlyubn]
prefix: move far, no pickup.
g[kjhlyubn]
prefix: move until something interesting is found.
G[kjhlyubn]
as previous, but forking of corridors is not considered in-
teresting.
i print your inventory.
I print selected parts of your inventory, like in
I* - all gems in inventory;
IU - all unpaid items;
IX - all used up items that are on your shopping bill;
I$ - count your money.
s search for secret doors and traps around you.
^ ask for the type of a trap you found earlier.
) ask for current wielded weapon.
[ ask for current armor.
= ask for current rings.
$ count how many gold pieces you are carrying.
. rest, do nothing.
, pick up some things.
: look at what is here.
^T teleport.
^R redraw the screen.
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 7
^P repeat last message (subsequent ^P's repeat earlier mes-
sages).
/ (followed by any symbol) tell what this symbol represents.If
you see fancy graphics on your screen it may ask you to
specify a location rather than taking a symbol argument.
\ tell what has been discovered.
e eat food.
w wield weapon. w- means: wield nothing, use bare hands.
q drink (quaff) a potion.
r read a scroll.
T Takeoff armor. Remove Ring.
W Wear armor.
P Put on a ring.
X transcribe (learn) a spell.
x print a list of know spells.
z zap a wand.
Z zap a spell; same as the `# cast' extended command
t throw an object or shoot an arrow.
p pay your shopping bill.
d drop something. d7a: drop seven items of object a.
D Drop several things. In answer to the question "What kinds
of things do you want to drop? [!%= au]" you should give
zero or more object symbols possibly followed by 'a' and/or
'u'.
a apply - Generic command for using a key to lock or unlock a
door, using a camera, using a rope, etc.
c call: name a certain object or class of objects.
C Call: Name an individual monster.
E Engrave: Write a message in the dust on the floor. E-
means: use fingers for writing.
O Set options. You will be asked to enter an option line. If
this is empty, the current options are reported. Otherwise
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 8
it should be a list of options separated by commas. Possible
boolean options are: oneline, time, news, tombstone,
rest_on_space, fixinvlet, beginner, male, female. They can
be negated by prefixing them with answer to the question"Who
are you?"; it may have a suffix. A compound option is
endgame; it is followed by a description of what parts of
the list of topscorers should be printed when the game is
finished. There is also a graphics option that sets the
characters used for screen displays. Usually one will not
want to use the 'O' command, but instead put a HACKOP-
TIONS="...." line in one's environment.
v print version number.
V display the game history (about one page).
You can put a number before most commands to repeat them
that many times, as in "20s" or "40.".
5. Rooms
Rooms in the dungeons are either lit or dark. If you walk
into a lit room, the entire room will be drawn on the screen as
soon as you enter. If you walk into a dark room, it will only be
displayed as you explore it. Upon leaving a room, all monsters
inside the room are erased from the screen. In the darkness you
can only see one space in all directions around you. A corridor
is always dark.
6. Fighting
If you see a monster and you wish to fight it, just attempt
to run into it. Many times a monster you find will mind its own
business unless you attack it. It is often the case that discre-
tion is the better part of valor.
7. Objects you can find
When you find something in the dungeon, it is common to want
to pick the object up. This is accomplished in nethack by walk-
ing over the object (unless you use the "m" prefix, see above).
If you are carrying too many things, the program will tell you
and it won't pick up the object, otherwise it will add it to
your pack and tell you what you just picked up.
Many of the commands that operate on objects must prompt you
to find out which object you want to use. If you change your
mind and don't want to do that command after all, just type an
<ESCAPE> and the command will be aborted.
Some objects, like armor and weapons, are easily differen-
tiated. Others, like scrolls and potions, are given labels
which vary according to type. During a game, any two of the same
kind of object with the same label are the same type. However,
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 9
the labels will vary from game to game.
When you use one of these labeled objects, if its effect is
obvious, nethack will remember what it is for you. If its effect
isn't extremely obvious you will be asked what you want to scrib-
ble on it so you will recognize it later, or you can use the
"call" command (see above).
7.1. Weapons
Some weapons, like arrows, come in bunches, but most come
one at a time. In order to use a weapon, you must wield it.
To fire an arrow out of a bow, you must first wield the bow,
then throw the arrow. You can only wield one weapon at a time,
but you can't change weapons if the one you are currently wield-
ing is cursed. The commands to use weapons are "w" (wield) and
"t" (throw).
7.2. Armor
There are various sorts of armor lying around in the
dungeon. Some of it is enchanted, some is cursed, and some is
just normal. Different armor types have different armor protec-
tion. The higher the armor protection, the more protection the
armor affords against the blows of monsters. Here is a partial
list of the various armor types and the level of armor protection
each will give.
plate mail 3
splint mail 4
banded mail 4
chain mail 5
scale mail 6
ring mail 7
studded leather armor 7
leather armor 8
elven cloak 9
If a piece of armor is enchanted, its armor protection will
be higher than normal. If a suit of armor is cursed, its armor
protection will be lower, and you will not be able to remove it.
However, not all armor with a protection that is lower than nor-
mal is cursed and some enchanted armor is also "cursed" prevent-
ing removal.
The commands to use weapons are "W" (wear) and "T" (take
off).
7.3. Scrolls
Scrolls come with titles in an unknown tongue. After you
read a scroll, it disappears from your pack. The command to use
a scroll is "r" (read).
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 10
7.4. Potions
Potions are labeled by the color of the liquid inside the
flask. They disappear after being quaffed. The command to use a
scroll is "q" (quaff).
7.5. Staves and Wands
Staves and wands do the same kinds of things. Staves are
identified by a type of wood; wands by a type of metal or bone.
They are generally things you want to do to something over a long
distance, so you must point them at what you wish to affect to
use them. Some staves are not affected by the direction they
are pointed, though. Staves come with multiple magic charges,
the number being random, and when they are used up, the staff is
just a piece of wood or metal.
The command to use a wand or staff is "z" (zap)
7.6. Rings
Rings are very useful items, since they are relatively per-
manent magic, unlike the usually fleeting effects of potions,
scrolls, and staves. Of course, both good and bad rings are more
powerful. Most rings also cause you to use up food more rapid-
ly, the rate varying with the type of ring. Rings are differen-
tiated by their stone settings. Some rings are cursed, prevent-
ing removal. This can happen to helpful and harmful rings alike.
The commands to use rings are "P" (put on) and "R" (remove).
7.7. Spellbooks
Spellbooks are tomes of mighty magic. When read with the
`transcribe' command X, they plant the knowledge of a spell in
your head and disappear - unless the attempt backfires. Reading a
spellbook can be harmful to your health if it is cursed or the
mystic runes are at too high a level for your thaumaturgic
skills!
Casting spells can also backfire. If you attempt to cast a
spell well above your level, or cast it at a time when your luck
is particularly bad, you can end up wasting both the energy and
the time required in casting.
The `x' command lists your current spells, each preceded by
the spell points they require. to cast a spell, type `Z' and
answer the questions.
7.8. Food
Food is necessary to keep you going. If you go too long
without eating you will faint, and eventually die of starvation.
The command to use food is "e" (eat).
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 11
7.9. Options
Due to variations in personal tastes and conceptions of the
way nethack should do things, there are a set of options you can
set that cause nethack to behave in various different ways.
7.10. Setting the options
There are two ways to set the options. The first is with
the "O" command of nethack; the second is with the "HACKOP-
TIONS" environment variable.
7.11. Using the `O' command
When you type "O" in nethack, it queries you for an option
string which is parsed as though it were a HACKOPTIONS value.
7.12. Using the HACKOPTIONS variable
The HACKOPTIONS variable is a string containing a comma-
separated list of initial values for the various options. Boolean
variables can be turned on by listing their name or turned off by
putting a `!' or "no" in front of the name. You can set string
variables by following the variable name with a colon (this char-
acter was chosen over = to avoid conflict with the ring symbol)
and the value of the string. The value is terminated by the next
comma or the end of string.
Thus to set up an environment variable so that `female' is
on, `pickup' is off, and the name is set to "Blue Meanie", you
would enter the command
% setenv HACKOPTIONS "female,!pickup,name:Blue Meanie"
in csh, or
$ HACKOPTIONS="female,!pickup,name:Blue Meanie"
$ export HACKOPTIONS
in sh or ksh.
7.13. Customization options
Here is a list of the options and an explanation of what
each one is for. The default value for each is enclosed in
square brackets. For character string options, input over fifty
characters will be ignored.
Note: some of the options listed may be inactive if the game
has been subsetted.
standout
(default on) use standout where appropriate in display
lists.
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 12
null
(default off) don't send padding nulls to the tty.
tombstone
(default on) display tombstone graphic on death.
news
(default on) read hack news if present.
conf
(default on) have user confirm attacks on dogs and shop-
keepers.
silent
(default on) suppress terminal beeps.
pick
(default on) pick up things you move onto by default.
IBMB
(default off, PC-HACK only) for machines with an IBM-PC com-
patible BIOS ROM.
DECR
(default off, PC-HACK only) for machines with DEC Rainbow
compatible BIOS ROMs.
rawi
(default off) force raw (not cbreak mode) input.
sort
(default on) sort the pack contents by type when displaying
inventory.
packorder
(default `)[%?+/=!(*0 )') specify order to list object
types in. The value of this option should be a string con-
taining the symbols for the various object types.
dogname
give your (first) dog a name (eg. dogname:Fang).
time
(default off) show game time in turns on bottom line.
restonspace
(default off) make spacebar a synonym for `.'.
fixinv
(default on) an object's inventory letter sticks to it until
it's dropped. If this is off, everything after a dropped
object shifts letters.
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 13
male
(default on, most hackers are male) sets the player-
character's sex.
female
(default off) sets the player-character's sex (equal-
opportunity feature :-)).
name
(defaults to player's username) Set the player-character's
name.
graphics
(default ` |-++++.:<>^{}\"') set the graphics symbols for
screen displays. The graphics option (if used) should be
last, followed by a string of up to ", 17 chars to be used
instead of the default map-drawing chars. Replacing for any
of these chars causes it to be replaced in the dungeon level
displays, except that the five instances of + are used for
top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right and door
squares respectively. The last four characters are required
only if the corresponding options are configured in.
endgame
Endgame is followed by a description of what parts of the
scorelist you want to see. You might for example say:
`endgame:own scores/5 top scores/4 around my score'.
In the PC-HACK version, options may be set in a configura-
tion file on disk as well as from the hack options.
7.14. Scoring
Nethack usually maintains a list of the top scoring people
or scores on your machine. Depending on how it is set up, it can
post either the top scores or the top players. In the latter
case, each account on the machine can post only one non-winning
score on this list. If you score higher than someone else on
this list, or better your previous score on the list, you will be
inserted in the proper place under your current name. How many
scores are kept can also be set up by whoever installs it on your
machine.
If you quit the game, you get out with all of your gold in-
tact. If, however, you get killed in the Dungeons of Doom,
your body is forwarded to your next-of-kin, along with 90% of
your gold; ten percent of your gold is kept by the Dungeons'
wizard as a fee. This should make you consider whether you want
to take one last hit at that monster and possibly live, or quit
and thus stop with whatever you have. If you quit, you do get
all your gold, but if you swing and live, you might find more.
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 14
If you just want to see what the current top players/ games
list is, you can type
% nethack -s
8. Credits
The original hack game was modeled on the Berkeley UNIX `ro-
gue' game. Large portions of this paper were shamelessly cribbed
from A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom, by Michael C. Toy and Ken-
neth C. R. C. Arnold.
NetHack is the product of literally dozens of people's work.
A list of some of those who made major additions to the game ap-
pears below:
Jay Fenlason
wrote the original release of "Hack", with helpfrom Kenny
Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne.
Andries Brouwer
did a major re-write on the program andpublshed (at least)
two versions to the Usenet.
Don G. Kneller
ported the 1.0.3 version of Hack to the PC, creating PC-
Hack.
The following folks didn't actually re-write the game, or
port it to a new machine, but have made significant contributions
to the playability of the game:
ins_akaa@jhunix.UUCP (Ken Arromdee)
New character classes. New weapons code. Armor weights im-
plemented. New tools code. Polymorph Self code. Bug fixes.
srt@ucla-cs (Scott R. Turner)
Rockmole & Keystone Kops code. Squeaky Board & Magic traps.
Fountain code. More bug fixes.
gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger)
Magic Marker code. Fountain code enhancements. Enhancements
to dozens of routines. More bug fixes (esp. in hack.zap.c).
ericb@hplsla.UUCP (Eric Backus)
The #dip mods to fountain code. Yet more bug fixes.
mike@genat.UUCP (Mike Stephenson)
New character classes and traps. Throne Rooms. Spellbooks
and spellcasting. Praying. Endgame enhancements. Nethack
release and coordination.
eric@snark (Eric S. Raymond)
The GRAPHICS option. Changes to make character classes more
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 15
individual and mythohistorically authentic. Better random-
number generation. The blindfold tool. The 'Z' spellcasting
command synonym. General cleanup of much grotty code, remo-
val of magic numbers. More bug fixes. This Guide you're
reading.
You too can enhance this game and join the hallowed ranks of
the net.benefactors. Happy hacking!
Appendix A: Weapon Types in Hack
This material is adapted from a digest of email replies to
Carole Chang (carole@uhcc.uhccux.ha). Major sources were:
Paul Anderson pha@net1.ucsd.edu
Vernon Lee scorpion@rice.edu
Bryan Ewbank ihlph!bdewbank
Some terminological corrections (notably the correct set of dis-
tinctions for the great mace/morningstar/flail controversy) were
made by your editor (eric@snark), and a good bit of historical
context added.
8.1. Polearms
The following weapons are all "pole arms", meaning that they
are wooden shafts (5-9' long) capped with a particular weapon-
head. We list these first as they are most likely to mystify a
novice hacker.
glaive
a short polearm with a straight blade at the end of the
shaft. Rare in Europe; more popular in non-Western cultures
under other names, as in the Zulu war assegai and Japanese
ashigaru's pike.
halberd
a long (typically 6' or more) polearm ending with a single
axe-head, backed by a spike and tipped by a spear-head. An
extremely popular weapon in Europe from the Dark Ages to as
late as 1650. You can see them in pictures of royal or elite
Spanish, English, and French troops or the Vatican's Swiss
Guards.
bill-guisarme
a polearm, ends in a spear-head with a spike on one side and
a hook on the other.
fauchard
a polearm topped by a curved sickle-blade.
bec-de-corbin
(literally "crow's-beak") a polearm ending in a stout
Nethack Version 2.0 September 25, 1987
A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 16
spear-point, with a small axe-head on one side and a beak-
shaped spike on the other. This weapon was designed to act
like a can-opener for infantry fighting plate-armored
knights.
guisarme
a polearm, ends with a sharpened pruning hook.
spetum
a polearm, ends with a spear-blade that has a smaller blade
jutting at an angle from either side; the idea was to catch
an opponent's weapon between two blades and disarm him with
a twist of the shaft. Compare the japanese sai.
partisan
a polearm, has a spear-head with a small axe-head to either
side. Peasant levies often carried these; hence our modern
usage of `partisans' to describe guerilla or irregular
troops.
lucern
a polearm, ends in a forward-pointing and one or more
curved, downward-pointing (i.e.perpendicular) spikes. Named
after the Swiss city and canton of Lucerne.
voulge
a polearm, with a straight single-edged blade depending from
one side of the shaft's end.
ranseur
a polearm, ends with a broad spear-head with a flat base,
and a broader "hilt" (often a straight piece with sharpened
ends) behind it. As with the spetum, the idea was to catch
weapons between the blade and "hilt".
8.2. Blade weapons
Blades were, in most pre-gunpowder martial cultures, the
preferred weapon for one-on-one combat. Nethack includes several
kinds:
dagger
broadly speaking, could describe any blade less than about
two feet long. But `dagger' tends to suggest a hilted,
double-edged weapon.
short
are 2-3' long and used for stabbing. The Roman legionary's
gladius and the American frontiersman's Bowie knife were
both short swords.
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broad
are 3-4' long; they have sharpened edged for chopping and
cleaving.
long are also 3-4' long; they are narrower with sharpened tips
for stabbing and slashing.
two-handed
are 5-6' long, with long handles because they require both
hands to use.
bastard
a cleaving weapon 4-5' long, which can be wielded with one
or (more effectively) two hands.
scimitar
a type of curved, single-edged blade popular since ancient
times in the Near East, designed for slashing and drawing
strokes. Recent European weapons modeled on it include the
sabre and cutlass.
katana
the long, slender, sabre-like swords of the Japanese samu-
rai, often considered the finest blade weapons ever made.
Japanese forging techniques produced what was in effect a
micro-layered composite of high and low carbon steels, giv-
ing the blade its unique razor-sharpness and flexibility.
8.3. Missile weapons
These are all weapons meant to transfer kinetic energy to a
target via a rigid thrown projectile.
bow in nethack, probably represents the 'self bow', a smaller
single-piece or composite bow firing short feather-quilled
arrows (rather than the classic Robin Hood longbow with its
yard-long shafts).
crossbow
a mechanically-cranked bow firing stubby conical-profile
bolts, sometimes finned. Had a lower rate of fire than the
self- or long-bow but fearsome penetrating power.
javelin
a lightweight, flexible throwing spear.
dart not the three-inch, needle-pointed pub dart associated with
ale and tweed caps; rather, its progenitor, a shorter
javelin-like projectile that was mostly soft-iron head. Bar-
rages of these were thrown as first volleys in infantry
skirmishes to foul the opponents' shields.
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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace 18
shuriken
a flat, spiked wheel designed to be thrown with a wrist-
flick so the blades spin like a buzz-saw in flight. Also
called a `throwing star' or (in India) the `chakram'.
8.4. Miscellaneous strange weapons
bardiche
(literally, "bearded axe") a short shaft (5') with an enor-
mous long axe-head, connected at at least two places. Basi-
cally a huge axe (or a short voulge).
morning-star
usually a spiked ball attached by a chain to a truncheon-
like handle. The term is sometimes used to describe maces
with spiked heads.
flail
several chains, possibly spiked and possibly with small
balls on the ends, stapled to a truncheon.
crysknife
a fantasy weapon adapted from Frank Herbert's "Dune" books.
On Herbert's Arrakis, the fierce Fremen made their personal
weapons from the scimitar teeth of the shai hulud, the great
sandworms of the Dune deserts.
aklys
a long thong with a weight at the end. Holding the other end
of the thong, you throw the weight; the thong entangles the
target, and the weight whaps it.
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