# Dart

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Name

dart

Appearance

dart

Damage vs. small

1d3

Damage vs. large

1d2

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

dart

Size

one-handed

Base price

2 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

1

Material

iron

Darts are a type of projectile that appear in NetHack. They are the most common type of ranged weapon.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Dart skill
3 Description
4 Strategy
5 External links
6 References

Generation
Tourists start with 21–40 +2 darts.[1][2]
1⁄4 of kobolds are generated with 3–14 darts.[3] 1⁄4 of ninja are generated with 6–11 darts.[4][5]
Dart traps will shoot darts when activated, and untrapping them will produce 50−rnl(50) darts.[6]

Dart skill

Dart

Max
Role

Basic

Archeologist, Priest

Expert

Healer, Rogue, Ranger, Tourist, Wizard

Darts are the only weapons to use the dart skill, and there are no artifact darts. The skill can only be trained by throwing the darts.

Description
As with most other projectiles, darts are used by throwing or firing them, and are ineffective in melee. They may break after hitting a monster, which is based on their enchantment, beatitude and Luck; depending on role and skill, they may also be multishot. Like other missile weapons, darts that are cursed occasionally slip from your hand and hit the ground or fly in a different direction.
Dipping darts in a potion of sickness will poison them, adding d6 damage and 10% chance of instadeath per dart against non-poison resistant foes.

Strategy
Because of their initial low damage and high chance of breakage, daggers or an aklys are generally preferable choices for your primary thrown weapon in the early game. However, darts can still be of use as disposable projectiles, particularly against otherwise sessile monsters; darts are also incredibly common and light, can be poisoned, and do not require a launcher. They also gain damage bonuses from strength, and combined with high Luck and enchantment, they can last through a significant amount of the game.[7]
Tourists in particular should manage their starting darts carefully as they work their way to a viable weapon and armor - once suitably kitted out, you can supplement your weapon of choice with darts as a ranged option; Tourists are unrestricted in every skill except clubs like the aklys. A stack of enchanted and poisoned darts thrown at Skilled or better is also enough to bring down their quest nemesis, the Master of Thieves, with relative ease.

External links
An RGRN discussion on the usefulness of darts.
References

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 768

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 143

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 456

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 266

↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 803

↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 4241

↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1101: damage bonus from strength