# Samurai

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Samurai 

'Sam' redirects here. For the guardian of the black market, see One-eyed Sam.
Samurai are Japanese warriors who adhere to the discipline of bushido (honor) and fight their enemies using ancient martial arts. Therefore they start out lawful and human, but can be of either gender. Their first sacrifice gift is Snickersnee.
The Samurai is one of the strongest roles in the early game, and thus an excellent choice for a new player.  The guidebook describes them like this:

              Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon.   They  are
         lightly  armored  and  quick, and wear the dai-sho, two swords of
         the deadliest keenness.

Contents

1 Starting equipment
2 Intrinsics
3 Skills
4 Special rules

4.1 Japanese names for items
4.2 Code of Conduct

5 Strategy

5.1 Early game

5.1.1 Weapons
5.1.2 General

5.2 Mid game

5.2.1 Objectives
5.2.2 Weapons

5.3 Late game

5.3.1 Weapons
5.3.2 General

6 Rank titles
7 Quest
8 Variants

8.1 Additional Japanese item names
8.2 SLASH'EM
8.3 dNethack

9 Encyclopedia entry
10 References

Starting equipment
Each samurai starts with the following:[1][2]

a +0 katana (samurai sword)
a +0 wakizashi (short sword)
a +0 yumi (bow)
26 to 45 ya (bamboo arrows)
a +0 rustproof splint mail
a blindfold (20% chance)[3]
Instead of a random pet, a samurai always starts with a little dog called Hachi. This is in reference to Hachikō, a famous Japanese dog who faithfully waited for the return of his dead owner for nine years until his own death. Hachi means eight, in reference of his birth order in the litter, and ko implies affection.

Intrinsics
Samurai gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[4]

Level 1: speed
Level 15: stealth
Skills

Samurai skills

Max
Skills

Basic

Weapons: dagger, scimitar, saber, quarterstaff
Spells: attack, divination

Skilled

Weapons: knife, broadsword, flail, polearms, spear, lance
Combat: riding
Spells: clerical

Expert

Weapons: short sword, long sword, two-handed sword, bow, shuriken
Combat: two weapon combat

Master

Combat: martial arts

Samurai start with Basic skill in Long sword, Short sword, Bow, and Martial arts

Special rules
Samurai get a +1 bonus to multishot when firing ya from a yumi.
Samurai may perform a shattering blow while wielding a katana; other roles must wield a two-handed weapon to perform one.

Japanese names for items
Since the samurai are Japanese, some of the game items use Japanese names in place of their regular English names when playing as a Samurai. The following is a list of those items with their Japanese names:

English
Japanese

short sword
wakizashi

broadsword
ninja-to

flail
nunchaku

glaive
naginata

lock pick
osaku

wooden harp
koto

knife
shito

plate mail
tanko

helmet
kabuto

leather gloves
yugake

food ration
gunyoki

potion of booze
potion of sake

There are also some regular items that are uniquely Japanese. Once identified, these are described using their Japanese name, regardless of which role you are playing. These items are the following:

ya ("bamboo arrow")
yumi ("long bow")
katana ("samurai sword")
tsurugi ("long samurai sword")
shuriken ("throwing star")
Additionally some pieces of dialog are also changed. On losing a level or dying, you receive the message "Sayonara", instead of the usual "Goodbye"; when starting or loading a game, it greets you with "Konichi wa"; and friendly shopkeepers and priests greet you with "Irasshaimase".

Code of Conduct
The bushido code requires that samurai behave honorably.  Dishonorable acts will incur an alignment penalty and display a guilt message.  Examples include:

Digging up a grave: −1  "You disturb the honorable dead!"
Attacking a peaceful or tame creature: −1  "You dishonorably attack the innocent!"
Attacking with a poisoned weapon: −1  "You dishonorably use a poisoned weapon!"
A Samurai with a non-Lawful alignment (probably from wearing a helm of opposite alignment) will still receive the message, but will not suffer the alignment penalty.

Strategy
Early game
Weapons
While it may be tempting to start two-weapon combat with your starting katana and wakizashi, the to-hit penalty is quite severe, the wakizashi is a middling weapon that uses a different weapon skill from your katana, and you won't train your base weapon skill while twoweaponing. It's better to use your katana alone, and wait until you've found another long sword later.
As far as weapons go, the samurai should not bother with any sword other than a long sword. The katana they start with is the finest one-handed non-artifact weapon in the game. Since the samurai can reach expert level in two-weapon combat they are better off swinging two long swords/katana than one of any larger non-artifact weapon. However, in the early game it is important to build up skill in individual weapons, which cannot be done while using two weapons.
Of course, the samurai becomes even more powerful with an artifact weapon. Early options include Snickersnee, a buffed-up katana that's your guaranteed first sacrifice gift, or Excalibur, an artifact weapon that has a 1⁄6 chance of being created if you dip a long sword into a fountain. You may do this when you have attained experience level 5, though you may also wish to delay doing so until you have better HP or equipment to handle the possible fountain monsters. Note that you must use an actual long sword to accomplish this, do not dip your starting katana into a fountain to try to accomplish this. Once you have a decent artifact weapon and expert skill in long sword, slide your original katana over to the secondary hand in two-weapon combat, and it will continue to add its damage to your attacks. 
The yumi is a good long distance ranged weapon, especially given your multishot bonus with ya. It will aid you in situations where melee combat may prove fatal—fighting floating eyes and cockatrices for example. Since you're likely to want to switch to shuriken once you retrieve some from your Quest, consider not advancing bow skill to Expert to save three skill slots.

General
The samurai strategy is very simple: If it moves, stab it, and if it's sessile, stab it anyway. Samurai are also good ranged warriors, receiving a bonus to hit and damage when shooting ya from a yumi. Samurai aren't good at spellcasting, but are very unlikely to need it; the katana and splint mail they start with also make the first few levels a breeze.

Mid game
Objectives
The Samurai quest item is the Tsurugi of Muramasa, a powerful two-handed tsurugi with the ability to bisect enemies (i. e. kill them outright) 5% of the time, much like the Vorpal Blade. Therefore it is not a good idea to engage your quest nemesis in honourable melee combat, since he might bisect you; making things worse, he ignores Elbereth.  It's better to zap him with a wand of death.  If you don't have one, other techniques include zapping him with a wand of sleep or hurling a potion of paralysis at him before attacking so that he can't fight back, protecting yourself with a scroll of earth  on the upstair and killing him with ranged attacks, polymorphing into a black dragon and disintegrating him, and so forth.  If you have a strong melee attack, you could just wear an amulet of life saving and hope for the best, possibly retreating if you have to burn the amulet; actually, having an amulet of life saving is probably a good idea anyway no matter what strategy you choose, just in case you get unlucky.
The quest is notable for producing a lot of loot, especially attack wands, which your opponents will use against you.  Reflection, or at least resistance to sleep, fire, and cold, are highly desirable.

Weapons
With maxed strength and enchantment, shuriken and ya deal roughly comparable damage (since ya do not benefit from your strength bonus). Ya are slightly more effective when you have a substantial damage bonus, thanks to the Samurai's +1 multishot bonus when using them. Shuriken, on the other hand, do not require a wielded launcher (potentially saving valuable turns), and are generally more plentiful thanks to the Quest. Since you take an alignment record penalty when using poisoned missiles, poisoning your entire stack is a Bad Idea, but it might be worth poisoning a subset of your missiles to use against monsters such as minotaurs and mind flayers, where killing them quickly is more important than a few points of alignment.
The Tsurugi of Muramasa isn't as useful as it might seem, as it compares unfavorably to twoweaponing Excalibur and your starting katana, and doesn't provide any essential extrinsics.

Late game
Weapons
Samurai typically get the most out of two-weaponing, using Excalibur with an offhand katana or silver saber through the endgame; Frost Brand, Fire Brand or Grayswandir can replace Excalibur in the primary slot if you have them available, and can also be swapped into that slot against specific monsters. If no other source of reflection is available for you, you can forgo two-weapon fighting for a shield of reflection.

General
If you want to twoweapon in the late game and also wear an amulet of life saving, you will probably want a cloak of magic resistance paired with silver dragon scale mail, using a wish for the cloak if necessary. Relying on a quest artifact like the Magic Mirror of Merlin for magic resistance is risky, because the Wizard of Yendor can steal it, leaving you vulnerable to his touch of death.

Rank titles
The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

XL 1-2: Hatamoto
XL 3-5: Ronin
XL 6-9: Ninja/Kunoichi
XL 10-13: Joshu
XL 14-17: Ryoshu
XL 18-21: Kokushu
XL 22-25: Daimyo
XL 26-29: Kuge
XL 30: Shogun
Quest
Main article: Samurai quest
The Samurai quest sees you fight Ashikaga Takauji for the Tsurugi of Muramasa.

Variants
Additional Japanese item names
In several variants, including SlashTHEM, and NetHack--, these additional items have Japanese names:

Japanese
English

bokken (previously jo)
club (actually means "wooden sword")

dai-kyu
bow

jo (reassigned from club)
baseball bat (actually means "short staff")

kaginawa
grappling hook

mizugumo
water walking boots

okonomiyaki
pancake

onigiri
doughnut

timbe
small shield

SLASH'EM
Samurai can be played more or less the same way in SLASH'EM as in Vanilla. Just be a little more wary of enemies' stronger attack power, using your ya and scribbling the E word whenever enemies are near.

Their "kiii" technique gives a temporary boost to your attack power. Due to the Samurai's strong attack power you may never use it, but it can be useful if you're facing somewhat powerful enemies and want to take them out quickly.
SLASH'EM allows you to #twoweapon two artifacts at the same time. Considering that Samurai can easily get both Excalibur and Snickersnee—two of the most powerful weapons in the game—and are able to advance both longsword and #twoweapon to expert, this is a huge advantage.
Since a Samurai wielding both Excalibur and Snickersnee will do large amounts of damage even with zero enchantment, enchanting your weapons is a low priority. If you find any scrolls of enchant weapon, consider blessing it and enchanting your unicorn horn—enchanting unicorn horns increases their chances of working in SLASH'EM.
Once you have at least a submachine gun and a bunch of bullets, don't bother any more with the yumi. Firearms are superior to bows and arrows. Later, replace your submachine gun with an assault rifle. The assault rifle will be very good for the special cases where melee is a bad idea.
Save up gold for shops, or get good at stealing: along with rogues and barbarians, samurai are massively overcharged in shops, paying twice as much. This is mainly relevant when you find a magic lamp in a shop, which in SLASH'EM has a base price of 1000zm.
A good ascension kit for a Samurai is:
+7 Excalibur two-weaponed with +7 Snickersnee or other powerful artifact weapon
an amulet of life saving or amulet of flying
+5 silver dragon scale mail
+7 cloak of magic resistance (enchant an elven cloak to +7 and upgrade it)
+5 gauntlets of power or gauntlets of dexterity
+5 fireproof speed boots for the extra attacks, jumping boots for the extra movement, water walking boots to be safe from create pool, or +7 elven boots for the extra AC and stealth
+5 shirt
greased +5 helm of telepathy or +7 elven leather helm
A +7 assault rifle and bullets
All the other standard ascension kit items that all roles need (bag, rings, potions, wands, tools, etc.)
dNethack
dNethack expands the list of items with Japanese names. This list is presented alphabetized by Japanese name for easy lookup.

Japanese
English

bisento
halberd

bo
quarterstaff

bo-shuriken
dart

chokuto
long sword

dai tsuchi
war hammer

dou-maru
splint mail

dwarvish zaghnal
dwarvish mattock

gunyoki
food ration

hira-shuriken
shuriken

kabuto
helmet

kamayari
guisarme

kote of fumbling
gauntlets of fumbling

kote of power
gauntlets of power

kunai
dagger

silver kunai
silver dagger

jade o-yoroi
crystal plate mail

silver yari
silver spear

jo
club

koto
wooden harp

magari yari
trident

naginata
glaive

ninja-to
broadsword

no-dachi
two-handed sword

nunchaku
flail

ono
battle axe

osaku
lock pick

o-yoroi
plate mail

potion of sake
potion of booze

shito
knife

tanko
bronze plate mail

uma-yari
lance

wakizashi
short sword

yugake
leather gloves

Samurai now get an artifact yumi as a crowning gift, Yoichi no yumi. It grants +1d20 to hit, 2x damage to fired ya, and can be #invoked to create ya.  
In addition, the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for a samurai is now Kiku-ichimonji.  It's a lawful samurai-favoring katana that grants +1d4 to hit and 1d12 to damage.
Snickersnee is relegated to a nameable artifact, which can be named at xplvl 18 by tourists and 30 by samurai.  It's now an intelligent knife, and has +1d3 to hit and +1d6 to damage, and a chance of beheading targets.
Lastly, the The Kusanagi no Tsurugi can be named at level 18, but only used as a weapon at 30.  It's an intelligent long sword with +1d20 to hit and +1d12 to damage. In addition, it may behead targets and will instantly kill elementals.  It grants energy regeneration while wielded, and searching and luck while carried.

Encyclopedia entry

By that time, Narahara had already slipped his arm from the
sleeve of his outer robe, drew out his two-and-a-half-foot
Fujiwara Tadahiro sword, and, brandishing it over his head,
began barreling toward the foreigners.  In less than a minute,
he had charged upon them and cut one of them through the torso.
The man fled, clutching his bulging guts, finally to fall from
his horse at the foot of a pine tree about a thousand yards
away.  Kaeda Takeji finished him off.  The other two Englishmen
were severely wounded as they tried to flee.  Only the woman
managed to escape virtually unscathed.

[ The Fox-horse, from Drunk as a Lord, by Ryotaro Shiba ] 

References

↑ u_init.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 131

↑ u_init.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 695

↑ u_init.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 695

↑ attrib.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 75

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