Attacking and Weapons
Attacking monsters in melee is simple: if you move into a creature, you
attack it, provided you have something to attack with. Usually
"something to attack with" means a wielded melee weapon, but this is
not an absolute requirement: a few classes can use martial arts to
attack with their bare hands; Shield-speciality Weaponmasters can bash
with their shields; and Werewolves, Beornings and many Monster-mode
races often rely on innate attacks like claws or teeth.
Ranged combat (shooting) requires you to equip a sling, bow, or
crossbow, and to have appropriate projectiles you can fire with the f
command (t in the roguelike keyset). Ideally, you would like to have a
quiver you can wield and keep your projectiles in, but this is not a
requirement; it is merely a convenience that saves valuable inventory
slots. The v command can be used to throw items at monsters, but this
is rarely very effective, except in special cases like Ninjas (or
Ninja-Lawyers) throwing Iron Spikes.
Finally, you can use magic to hurt monsters: all characters except
Berserkers can attack with magical devices, and spellcasters may also
have access to offensive spells.
Many characters are versatile enough to use most or all of these
attacking methods to good effect. In such cases melee is usually the
form of attack that deals the most damage per turn; but as it only
works against adjacent monsters, you will likely suffer plenty of hits
in return, so melee also causes you to suffer the most damage per turn.
Whether this is a good trade-off is for you to determine!
Often you will use all of these attacking methods side-by-side, rather
than relying on just one. Bows and melee weapons do not compete for the
same equipment slots, so you can have both equipped at the same time.
Attacking from a Distance
Non-melee attacks always need to be aimed. Whether you are attacking
with a shooter, a magic device, a spell, or by throwing items, you must
select a target for your attack. This can be done by either firing into
one of the eight compass directions, or by using * to select a more
specific target.
For example, if you want to fire (f/t) the second ammo (b) from your
quiver, you could type fb9 to fire northeast; or fb* to target a
specific monster or square followed by 5 when you are happy with your
selected target. See [a] for more details on the * targetting command.
Often, after one attack of this type, you can speed things up by using
the n command (X in the roguelike keyset) to attack the same monster in
the same way again. Note, though, that this may sometimes produce
unexpected results; for example, if you ran out of your original ammo,
a new ammo would move into the b quiver slot and you would start using
it instead. Also, n only tracks a moving target if you targeted a
monster; if your target was a compass direction or a square, n will
keep firing in that direction even if monsters move away from there.
Melee Weapons
Carrying a weapon in your backpack does you no good; you must wield a
weapon with the w command before it can be used in a fight. Most
characters begin the game with a starting weapon already equipped.
Melee weapons have three main combat characteristics: their damage
dice, their accuracy bonus (to-hit) and their damage bonus (to-dam). A
long sword might be displayed as a Long Sword (2d6) (+3,+4); here 2d6
are the damage dice (throw two six-sided dice, giving between 2 and 12
damage per hit), +3 is the accuracy bonus (improving your chance to
successfully hit monsters) and +4 is the damage bonus (which will be
added to the 2d6 roll). For newly discovered objects, these numbers
will only become visible once you have identified the weapon. (See [b]
for an explanation of what other numbers might appear on your weapon.)
The weapon with the highest dice and damage bonus will not necessarily
be the weapon you do the most damage with; heavy weapons often have
higher dice, but your strength and dexterity might allow more blows per
round with a lighter weapon. To review your average damage (and
accuracy) with your current weapon, type either Cm (Character Sheet,
melee section) or ~W (Knowledge Menu, Weapon section); the two display
the same information, so just use the one you find more comfortable.
Ranged Weapons
Slings, bows and crossbows differ from melee weapons in that they have
damage multipliers instead of damage dice. A short bow, for instance,
might be displayed as a Short Bow (x2.50) (+4,+7) where the x2.50 is
the multiplier, and the (+4,+7) are bonuses to accuracy and damage.
The full damage calculation for a shot starts with the damage dice of
the projectile (which might be an Arrow (3d4) (+2,+5)), then applies
the damage bonus from the projectile, then slays and brands (see [c]
below), then boosts from lucky critical hits, then the multiplier, and
finally damage bonuses from the launcher and possibly other sources.
Because slays, critical hits and the multiplier are all applied fairly
late in the process, after the damage bonus from the projectile, the
total damage from a single hit can be high.
The various ranged weapons each have their own strengths and
weaknesses; some have higher multipliers, but give fewer shots per
turn. Note that the shots per turn in the table below are relative and
should not be taken literally, as your shooting speed depends on not
just the weapon but also your Archery skill.
Shots per turn Multiplier Ammunition
Sling 1.40 2 Pebbles, Iron Shots
Short Bow 1.12 2.50 Arrows
Long Bow 1.00 3 Arrows
Light Crossbow 0.83 3.50 Bolts
Heavy Crossbow 0.75 4 Bolts
The maximum range of a shot depends on the multiplier, and thus tends
to be higher for bows and crossbows than for slings.
To review your average damage (and accuracy, range, shooting speed
etc.) with your current shooter and ammo, type either Cs (Character
Sheet, shooting section) or ~S (Knowledge Menu, Shooter section); the
two display the same information.
Ego Weapons and Artifacts
The best weapons in the game are imbued with mighty magical powers, and
fall into two broad categories: (1) artifacts and (2) ego items. These
categories are explained in more detail elsewhere ([d] and [e]); the
main difference between them is that an artifact can only be found once
in each game, while an ego item shares its type with unlimitedly many
other items.
Both artifacts and ego items can be highly valuable, and may provide
exceptional damage against certain monsters, boosts to your stats or
speed, elemental resistances, and other nice stuff. Typically, once
you've got past the very early game, the weapon you wield will always
be either an artifact or an ego item.
A list of all artifacts and ego types, and all the bonuses they give,
would be both a spoiler and excessively long; so play the game and find
out what there is :)
Slays and Brands
Slays and brands are weapon attributes that give you extra damage
against certain monsters. A slay increases your damage against a
particular class of monsters (such as orcs, demons, or undead), while a
brand is elemental and gives extra damage against all monsters not
resistant to that element. Slays and brands are functionally one and
the same thing, the only difference between them is terminology.
Melee weapons frequently have a slay or a brand, and may receive
additional off-weapon slays (or brands) from sources such as Gloves of
Slaying. Melee slays work by multiplying the damage dice roll of the
weapon; for example, Viper's Fang (poison brand) multiplies the dice
roll by 2.4 if the monster attacked does not resist poison.
Accordingly, slays and brands are much more valuable on weapons with
high damage dice (like a 4d10 Heavy Lance) than on a tiny but otherwise
competitive 1d5 dagger. The multipliers differ from slay to slay, and
range from as low as x1.9 for Slay Evil (which is still one of the best
slays due to its broad applicability!) to a mighty x4.5 for some
mega-slays like Kill Demon.
Archery slays and brands work in a slightly different way: they
multiply both the damage dice of the projectile and the damage bonus of
the projectile. Archery slays use lower multipliers than melee slays,
but this is more than made up for by their application to the
projectile's damage bonus. Off-weapon archery slays and brands are
practically unheard of, and even the bows themselves only rarely have
slays; most commonly, archery slays come directly from the projectiles.
Slays (and brands) never stack; if multiple slays are available that
would apply to the same monster, only the strongest slay is actually
applied. There are two main exceptions to this: one is Mark of Chaos,
which is essentially a random slay or brand re-rolled for each attack.
If the random brand coincides with an existing brand, it can make the
brand slightly stronger. The other is Force Brand (or Mana Brand), a
very strong brand that consumes your mana; it fully combines with other
slays and brands, but only works as long as you have mana.
A few classes, such as Samurai and Sword-speciality Weaponmasters, have
access to special brands available only to them. These may be very
strong (the special Samurai version of the lightning brand has a higher
multiplier than any normal brand or slay), and sometimes combine with
normal brands: also having a regular Lightning Brand makes the Samurai
brand stronger still.
The slays and brands on a weapon only apply to the weapon itself; they
have no effect on innate attacks or the attacks of another weapon.
Off-weapon slays and brands are never applied to innate attacks or
unarmed combat, except for six specific brands (Acid, Electricity,
Fire, Cold, Poison and Mana) which are special-cased for martial arts.
Choosing the Right Weapon
In the early game, before you find your first decent ego weapon, you
probably just want to pick the weapon you do the most damage with. (As
noted above, you can type either Cm or ~W to check your damage output
per round.) Things get more complicated once you start discovering good
ego weapons or artifacts; one weapon might do more damage, but another
has bonuses or resistances you'd like. You will need to compromise:
make sure you get the resistances you need, but also that you still do
enough damage! (A common dilemma faced by new players is that they find
the artifact sword 'Sting', but aren't sure whether to equip it since
their previous weapon did slightly more damage per round. The general
solution to this dilemma is that Sting wins and you ought to switch.)
In comparing weapon damage, pay attention to not just the raw damage
number but also to your hit chance against monsters: high theoretical
damage is no good if in practice you always miss! Note, though, that
poor accuracy with a new weapon might be just due to your lack of
experience with that weapon: your proficiency is low, and your accuracy
will improve as you gain proficiency. See [f] for more details on how
weapon proficiency works.
Remember also your speed: damage per round is a good general yardstick,
but a bonus to speed means you get more rounds.
Attacking Monsters in Walls
Some creatures, like ghosts, have the ability to pass through walls.
You can attack monsters in adjacent walls in melee by trying to move
into the wall space containing the monster; if the creature is
invisible to you, this requires you to tunnel (+) into the wall.
Bolt spells (and projectiles) do full damage to monsters in walls, but
ball spells will be stopped and blow up just in front of the wall,
dealing only half damage. (Conversely, if you manage to assume a
ghostly form, you will also take reduced damage from ball and breath
attacks while inside a wall.)
Attacking Pets or Friendly Monsters
As long as your character has a clear head, the game usually assumes
that you don't really want to attack somebody who is on your side.
Attempted melee will either have no effect or just results in you and
the monster swapping positions, and the targetting menu skips pets.
Sometimes, though, you might actually want to hurt a pet or a friendly
monster. (The classic case is killing Farmer Maggot for the sake of a
cheap item...) To accomplish this, use the + "alter adjacent grid"
command to melee; in the targetting menu, p allows you to choose any
square or monster as your target.
Note that attacking a friendly monster will turn it hostile.
Martial Arts
Monks, Mystics and Force-Trainers prefer to fight unarmed; they can
only use a handful of weapons well, and even then are generally more
effective barehanded. As these classes gain experience, they learn new
and more powerful attacking techniques; high-level attacks may even
stun or slow opponents. Most other classes cannot learn martial arts;
the only exception is Skillmasters, who can invest skill points in
unarmed combat.
Martial arts characters can view their attack list and average damage
per round in the usual ways: by typing Cm or ~W.
Two-Handed Wielding
Most characters wield a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other;
but from a damage point of view, your best option is nearly always to
do away with the shield and leave both hands for the weapon. Wielding a
single weapon with both hands improves your damage and accuracy; and
unless your blows per round were already maxed out anyway, you also
receive more blows. (Gloves of the Giant amplify this bonus to blows.)
The downside is that you effectively have one fewer equipment slot: you
miss out on the AC, stat bonuses, resistances and other nice stuff that
a shield (or a second weapon) in that slot would have given. Whether
this is a good trade depends on your character; but a fairly typical
approach is to wield a weapon two-handedly until you find a good ego
shield, and then stop.
Many light weapons (specifically, those that weigh less than 10 pounds
and are not polearms) cannot be wielded two-handed, and should always
be used together with either a shield or a second weapon. On the other
hand, very heavy weapons (compared to your strength) can only be
wielded properly with two hands.
Dual-Wielding
Wielding one weapon in your right hand, and another in your left hand,
is called dual-wielding. Unlike two-handed wielding, which almost every
character can do, dual-wielding works best on specific classes: those
with a high dual-wielding proficiency cap (see [g] for more details on
dual-wielding proficiency). Dual-wielding also differs radically from
two-handed wielding in that two-handed wielding works best with heavy
weapons, while dual-wielding works best with very light weapons.
The two classes best suited for dual-wielding are Ninjas and
Berserkers; not only can both reach Master proficiency (the highest
possible), but it also fits their skillset in other ways. The usual
damage penalty from dual-wielding without special Genji gloves is
waived for Berserkers, while Ninjas have a strong preference for light
weapons and cannot equip a shield without incurring penalties. It is
possible for dual-wielding to work well on other melee classes as well,
but you should always check your proficiency cap.
There is one somewhat surprising class that might like to dual-wield
despite an extremely low proficiency limit: sorcerers. Being the
ultimate mage class, sorcerers never really melee... so they don't need
AC or melee accuracy much, and weapons often give better bonuses than a
shield would.
Magical Aids to Physical Combat
There are several ways to increase your physical combat ability through
magic. The most common are Potions of Heroism and Potions of Berserk
Strength, which temporarily increase your accuracy and HP pool and
provide resistance to fear. Scrolls of Blessing, Holy Chant and Holy
Prayer can also be used to temporarily improve your AC and accuracy;
these bonuses are cumulative with the potions.
Some characters (such as Troika Disciples, Craft realm users, and many
Weaponmasters) can place temporary slays or brands on their weapons.
Improving Your Odds
Using magic to get better at combat is nice; but using magic to make
your opponents less dangerous tends to be even more effective. In
practice this means using spells or magic devices to confuse or slow an
enemy.
Confusion in particular is an incredibly powerful tool. A Wand of
Confuse Monster, a Staff of Confuse Monsters or even splash damage from
a thrown Potion of Booze can send monsters stumbling into random
directions, unable to use their spells or breath attacks as they could
not aim them reliably. Confused monsters can only hurt you in melee,
and then only if they happen to find the right direction. Not all
monsters can be confused, but many can, including quite a few uniques.
Slowness is a bit less dramatic, but still very valuable. In the early
game, -10 to speed tends to mean a monster's speed is reduced by half
or more, which needless to say is an enormous advantage; for faster
monsters the effects will be less dramatic, but you will still get a
turn in more often and be at much less danger of a deadly double-move.
All uniques are immune to slowness, but most non-uniques can be slowed.
Attacking with Magic Devices
Many magical devices can be used to attack monsters directly. Nearly
all characters (other than Berserkers) use offensive wands and rods to
at least some extent, usually in a supporting role, but sometimes as
their main source of offense.
Each device produces a specific effect when used. For offensive
devices, these tend to be either bolts, which hurt a single monster;
balls, which hurt all monsters within a given radius of the ball's
epicenter; beams, which hurt all monsters within the beam's path; or
breaths, conical effects that explode into a ball. These bolts, beams,
balls or breaths are elemental, meaning their damage relies on a
specific damage type (such as acid, electricity, fire, cold or nexus)
and monsters resistant to that element will not suffer full damage.
Bolt devices are generally the least exciting, but they are also the
most common in the early game and so likely to be your first offensive
devices. An early Wand of Frost Bolts can really help a character with
otherwise limited offense, and some characters accordingly buy one from
the Magic Shop as soon as they can afford it.
With some very rare exceptions, offensive magic devices are always
aimed at a target or direction, and are accordingly best used from
range. See [h] for more information about magic devices, and [i] above
for more on attacking from a distance.
Attacking with Spells
Spells and spell-like special powers are an important source of offense
for many characters. Sorcerers, Mages and other mage-like classes often
rely on them as their main offense, although this depends on build and
(for book classes) the realms selected; some realms (like Armageddon)
are full of attacking spells, while others (like Sorcery) offer great
options for tactics and utility but nothing that would hurt a monster
directly. While a Mage does not necessarily need offensive spells -
they can use high-level wands and rods more effectively than most
classes, and even their melee and archery can get the job done in a
pinch - spell attacks are the most stereotypical and often also the
strongest.
The downside of relying on spells for offense is that they can deplete
a caster's mana very rapidly. Accordingly, characters built for magical
combat tend to invest disproportionately in their spellcasting stat,
and greatly value items that increase their mana pool or reduce the
mana cost of spells. Early attacking spells like Magic Missile
sometimes stay relevant for a very long time, simply because they are
so cheap; while the damage is relatively low, so is the mana cost.
Offensive spells resemble offensive devices; most of them are also
bolts, beams, balls or breaths of some element.
See [j] for more on magic and spellcasting.
Basic Tactics
Pillardancing
Not recommended since monsters move at irregular speeds. Monsters will
also "splash" you with area-of-effect spells, curses, or summoning, so
this tactic is probably the last thing you want to try. It is mentioned
here because it is a popular tactic in vanilla Angband.
Shoot'n Scoot
Requires a large room, Phase Door, and some type of ranged weapon.
Stand at one end of the room, your enemy at the other. Fire at him
until he gets close, blink away with Phase Door, and repeat until the
monster is dead. If you are much faster than the monster, or the
monster is confused, using Phase Door may not be necessary; you can
just back away if the monster comes uncomfortably close.
Wail'n Bail
Requires Teleport items. Fight the monster until you're almost dead,
teleport out (or teleport him out), find him, and resume fighting.
Watch out - your teleport might land you right next to some unfriendly
fellow who'll kill you dead. Also, this tactic relies on your ability
to recover from damage faster than the monster does; usually this will
be the case, but you cannot always rely on it.
Anti-Summoning Corridor
Requires a little time to set up, but can be done just about anywhere
with non-permanent walls. Dig a twisting corridor into the rock and
station yourself at the far end. Most monsters that summon are smart
about this tactic, and will refuse to approach closely if they detect
you using it; but if you are quick enough, you can rush them and still
fight in semi-contained quarters. This tactic can also be useful
against large groups of non-summoners, for example dragons.
Line-of-Sight Cheese
Requires a ranged attack. You exploit the local terrain to your
advantage by shooting enemies when you are not in their line of sight
and they, therefore, cannot shoot back. Like pillardancing, this tactic
is much less useful here than in Angband; the usual result is that the
monster gets pissed off and buries you in double the summons. However,
it does still work well against some specific monsters like hand drujs.
Original : (??) Chris Weisiger and Leon Marrick
Updated : (??)
Updated : Zangband DevTeam
Updated : Hengband 1.5.2
Updated : PosChengband 1.0.0
Updated : PosChengband 4.0.0
Updated : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice