# Snickersnee

)   Snickersnee   

Base item

katana

Damage vs. small

1d10 +1d8 (2–18)

Damage vs. large

1d12 +1d8 (2–20)

To-hit bonus

+1

Bonus versus

(any)

Weapon skill

long sword

Size

one-handed

Affiliation

lawful(Samurai)

When carried

(none)

When wielded

(none)

When invoked

(none)

Base price

1200 zm

Weight

40

Material

iron

Snickersnee is an artifact weapon that appears in NetHack. It is lawful-aligned, and its base item is a katana.
Snickersnee deals an extra +1d8 damage to all monsters.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Strategy

2.1 Average damage calculation

3 History
4 Origin
5 Variants

5.1 SLASH'EM

5.1.1 Damage calculations

5.2 SporkHack
5.3 dNetHack
5.4 SlashTHEM

6 Encyclopedia entry
7 References

Generation
In addition to random generation, Snickersnee may be given as a sacrifice gift to lawful characters, and is the first guaranteed sacrifice gift for Samurai.

Strategy
Snickersnee is a serviceable artifact weapon, if generally unremarkable - it has marginally lower damage on average compared to Excalibur, with lower to-hit bonuses and no additional properties. While outclassed by Excalibur and many other artifact weapons, it is still decent as a first artifact weapon for Samurai and other lawful characters, and can at least tide them over until you are prepped to dip for Excalibur or transition to another artifact weapon.

Average damage calculation
The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons.

Weapon

Small monster

Large monster

+0 Snickersnee

+7 Snickersnee

History
Snickersnee first appears in NetHack 2.2a; in 2.2a and NetHack 2.3e, any katana could be named Snickersnee, and it had a +d5 damage bonus against all monsters.[1] In NetHack 3.0.0, artifacts were made unique, and Snickersnee was given its modern traits.

Origin
Snickersnee is derived from The Mikado, a popular 19th century comic opera set in Japan. Its name is actually an old English word for "large knife".

Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, due to artifact weapon changes Snickersnee now has a flat +8 damage bonus, making it significantly more powerful than in vanilla. Additionally, since artifacts can be #twoweaponed, a Samurai who finds a long sword can get easy access to both Excalibur and Snickersnee, which makes for a formidable combination well into the late game.

Damage calculations

Weapon

Small monster

Large monster

+0 Snickersnee

+7 Snickersnee

SporkHack
In SporkHack, Snickersnee gains +1d5 to hit (in addition to the +1 for being a katana), but is otherwise unchanged. This is more significant than it might initially seem because of the to-hit calculation changes in SporkHack.

dNetHack
In dNetHack, Snickersnee is much different from vanilla. It is an intelligent Samurai-favoring artifact knife with doubled base dice (i.e. 2d5 versus small monsters and 2d3 versus large monsters) and +1d10 to damage. Snickersnee cannot be gifted at all, but is nameable by Tourists who have either finished their quest or reached experience level 19; Kiku-ichimonji replaces Snickersnee as the Samurai's first gift. Both Tourists and Samurai can twoweapon Snickersnee in the off-hand, but will suffer a -20 to-hit penalty unless they are Skilled in twoweapon.
Snickersnee has a chance of beheading its target similar to Vorpal Blade, and also shares Vorpal Blade's exploding dice: If any of its base weapon damage dice roll their maximum damage value, a bonus roll is made with the same-size die (i.e. 1d5 or 1d3) with a flat +1 bonus applied, and the result is added to its damage - if that die then rolls is maximum value, another such roll is made, and so on until the die rolls stop "exploding". This can result in absurdly high-damage strikes with Snickersnee (at least in theory), independent of the high-damage "vorpal blows" that the artifact is already capable of.

SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to retaining SLASH'EM changes, Snickersnee is one of the many artifacts that can be requested from Duri at The Forge if it has not generated during a game. Kiku-ichimonji replaces Snickersnee as the first sacrifice gift for Samurai, as with dNetHack.

Encyclopedia entry

Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
or the shriek that shrieked he,
As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
I drew my Snickersnee!
--Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu

[ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ] 

References

↑ fight.c in NetHack 2.3e, line 399