# Battle-axe

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Name

battle-axe

Appearance

double-headed axe

Damage vs. small

1d8+1d4 (2-12)

Damage vs. large

1d6+2d4 (3-14)

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

axe

Size

two-handed

Base price

40 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

120

Material

iron

A battle-axe is a kind of melee weapon, a more powerful two-handed version of the regular axe.  When unidentified, it appears as a double-headed axe. Having a double head, the battle-axe is twice as heavy as the regular (single-headed) axe. Cleaver is the only artifact battle-axe.
Battle-axes, like plain axes, do an extra d4 damage against wood golems,[1] and can be used to chop down doors.

Generation
In addition to being found randomly generated on new dungeon levels, in shops, and as a death drop, the battle-axe is one of a number of two-handed weapons that strong monsters can be generated wielding.[2]
Barbarians start with a battle-axe 50% of the time.[3] Cleaver is their guaranteed first sacrifice gift.

Strategy
Main article: Two-handed
While they may be powerful early-game choices, battle-axes are two-handed. This means that if a battle-axe become cursed while you wield it, you will lose the ability to do a number of actions. In NetHack 3.6.0 and later, players wielding two-handed weapons can use the #tip command to get items out of containers and onto the floor, so the curse is slightly more manageable than in earlier versions.

References

↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 327

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 473

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 673

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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.2. Information on this page may be out of date.
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