# Demonbane

)   Demonbane   

Base item

long sword

Damage vs. small

1d8 x2

Damage vs. large

1d12 x2

To-hit bonus

+1d5

Bonus versus

demons

Weapon skill

long sword

Size

one-handed

Affiliation

lawful

When carried

(none)

When wielded

prevents demon gating

When invoked

(none)

Base price

2500 zm

Weight

40

Material

iron

Demonbane is an artifact weapon that appears in NetHack. It is lawful for wishing purposes, and its base item type is a long sword.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Description
3 Strategy
4 History
5 Variants

5.1 dNetHack
5.2 FIQHack
5.3 UnNetHack
5.4 SporkHack

5.4.1 Generation

5.5 SpliceHack

6 References

Generation
If Demonbane has not yet been created, an Archon has a 50% chance of being given Demonbane.[1]

Description
Demonbane has +1d5 to-hit and deals double damage against major demons - including demon lords and princes, but excluding the Riders,  djinn, the mail daemon, and sandestins - and blocks demon gating while wielded.[2][3]

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Wielding Demonbane now prevents you from bribing demons as Excalibur does.

As of commit b1a5a9c, Demonbane's base item is now a mace, it is the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for Priests, and it can be invoked to banish major demons to Gehennom. The former two traits are adapted from SporkHack. This means that angelic beings will not ever receive Demonbane (since they receive long swords).
Strategy
Demonbane is slightly less useless than most of the other monster-specific weapons, since demons are actually reasonably common in the late game and could use an extra dose of damage. However, there are plenty of other weapons that do extra damage to demons, such as Grayswandir, Frost Brand, or even a regular silver saber, on which your scrolls of enchant weapon are certainly better spent. Therefore, Demonbane is rarely used.
If you have no other particularly good artifacts, it may make a good weapon for an intelligent pet, especially since Archons are often generated with it.

History
Demonbane's ability to block demon gating was first added in SporkHack, and much later added to 3.6.1.

Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Demonbane is a lawful silver saber that blocks demons' passive summoning abilities, even when wielded in the offhand. Its double damage and warning are preserved.

FIQHack
In FIQHack, Demonbane is a silver saber. Its damage bonus is changed from double damage to +1d20. It still prevents demon gating.

UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Demonbane grants warning versus demons.

SporkHack

)   Demonbane   

Base item

silver mace

Damage vs. small

1d6+1 x2

Damage vs. large

1d6 x2

To-hit bonus

+1d5

Bonus versus

demons

Weapon skill

silver mace

Size

one-handed

Affiliation

lawful

When carried

warning versus demons

When wielded

demon summoning is blocked

When invoked

(none)

Base price

2500 zm

Weight

40

Material

iron

In SporkHack, Demonbane has been significantly overhauled. It is now a silver mace, and like all revised SporkHack artifacts, it gets +1d5 bonus to hit; it does double damage to demons, provides warning versus demons and prevents demons from summoning in your presence. It is the first sacrifice gift for priests.

Generation
Because silver maces are not randomly generated, Demonbane will never be randomly generated.

SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, Demonbane is a silver long sword that blocks demon gating, does double damage to major demons, warns of demons and can be invoked to toggle flight.

You sprout three pairs of angelic wings!
You invoked Demonbane, and gained the ability to fly.
Your wings vanish.
You invoked Demonbane and lost the ability to fly.
References

↑ makemon.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 268: the game always tries to give overlord A one of the two artifacts; if the chosen artifact has already been generated, it will be converted to a normal rustproof long sword. Thus, when one of the two artifacts has already been generated, the next Archon generated has a 50% chance of receiving the other.

↑ artilist.h in NetHack 3.4.3, line 105: Demonbane gets a bonus against monster types with the M2_DEMON flag set

↑ Imps and other minor demons in monst.c: No minor demon has M2_DEMON set

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.