# Knife

) 

Name

knife

Appearance

knife

Damage vs. small

1d3

Damage vs. large

1d2

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

knife

Size

one-handed

Base price

4 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

5

Material

iron

A knife is a kind of weapon. Samurai will know it as a shito. It can be used in melee or thrown. 

Contents

1 Knife skill
2 Generation
3 Description
4 History
5 Encyclopedia entries

5.1 Knife
5.2 Shito

6 References

Knife skill

Knife

Max
Role

Basic

Archeologist, Knight

Skilled

Caveman, Ranger, Samurai, Tourist, Wizard

Expert

Healer, Rogue

The following weapons use the knife skill:

knife
stiletto
scalpel
worm tooth
crysknife
There are no artifact knives.

Generation
Knives make up about 2% of randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops, or in shops).
The knife can appear in many a monster's starting inventory:

Mordor orcs, orc-captains[1] and skeletons[2] may be created with a single knife.
Yendorian army soldiers, watchmen and guards. have a 50% chance of getting a knife as a secondary weapon if their primary weapon is a polearm.[3]
Barrow wights and Nazgul are always generated with a knife and a long sword.[4]
Description
Knives can be multishot; the knife class is the only ranged weapon class that gives Healers a multishot bonus at Skilled level.[5]
As wielded weapons, knives are generally some of the lowest damage weapons in NetHack. The sole exception is the crysknife, roughly comparable to a long sword in terms of damage; the next best knife is the rare scalpel, whose damage is only on par with an orcish dagger, and is mostly seen on Healers as their starting wielded weapon.

History
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, knives were not included in the list of weapons that could be multishot.[6]  As of NetHack 3.6.0, any stackable weapon can be thrown multishot, if you are Skilled or higher in the appropriate weapon skill.[7]

Encyclopedia entries
Knife

Possibly perceiving an expression of dubiosity on their
faces, the globetrotter went on adhering to his adventures.

-- And I seen a man killed in Trieste by an Italian chap.
Knife in his back.  Knife like that.

Whilst speaking he produced a dangerous looking clasp knife,
quite in keeping with his character, and held it in the
striking position.

-- In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two
smugglers.  Fellow hid behind a door, come up behind him.
Like that.  Prepare to meet your God, says he.  Chuck!  It
went into his back up to the butt.

[ Ulysses, by James Joyce ] 

Shito

A Japanese stabbing knife.

 

References

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 359

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 431

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 197

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 423

↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 117

↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 110

↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 113

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.