Dart

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Dart
Launcher	Throwing
Base damage	0
Base delay (%)	10 (100%)
Min delay	7 at skill 6

A thin piece of metal, typically coated in some harmful substance. When thrown with skill it can deliver its toxins into the bloodstream of a living or demonic being. In addition to throwing skill, stealth skill improves the chance for a dart to affect its target.

Darts are Throwing weapons designed to incapacitate foes, inflicting various status effects. They may be found on the Dungeon floor or in the possession of some monsters (kobolds and spriggan riders).

Darts come with the following brands:

• Poisoned
• Curare - inflicts heavy poison, slows, and deals direct damage on impact
• Datura - sends target berserk and neutral, causing them to attack whatever's closest
• Atropa - blinds and may briefly confuse target
• Dispersal (brand) - blinks target

Undead and nonliving creatures are immune to all darts. Different brands of darts work differently:

• Poisoned and curare darts always inflict their statuses against any target without poison resistance.
• Atropa and datura have a chance to inflict their statuses, increased by your Throwing and Stealth skills, and decreased by the target's HD.

The chance is 100 - 100 * (HD - 2) / (4 + pow)%, where pow = (Throwing + Stealth) * 2 / 3. For monsters with HD < 15, there's a minimum chance of 3% for success.

When thrown, darts of dispersal always mulch. Poisoned darts have a 8.33% chance to mulch, destroying the dart. The other three brands instead have a doubled chance (to 16.66%).

Strategy

In the early game, darts can be useful for all character types. Poisoned darts can be used to soften enemies up, curare slows enemies, and atropa/datura darts are likely to inflict their statuses (even at little skill).

As the game progresses, most darts become less useful. By the late game, poison darts don't do a lot of damage. And if you don't have high Throwing and/or Stealth, atropa and datura are unlikely to succeed. But curare remains useful for just about anyone - it can slow dangerous enemies, like ettins, juggernauts, and even Antaeus, making them weaker and easier to escape from.

Sneaky stabbers can benefit a lot from the two stealth darts, even late game. Their quantity is limited, however.

Poisoned	Atropa-tipped	Curare-tipped	Datura-tipped

History

• In 0.24, blowguns were removed and needles were replaced with the new version of darts.
• Prior to 0.15, darts were a thrown weapon that did damage comparable to stones but could be branded. They were removed in 0.15.
• Prior to 0.6, darts could be fired from a hand crossbow.