Sword of Zonguldrok

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A blade imbued with the essence of a legendary necromancer. Those slain in its presence are reanimated by its power and forced to fight on. Any living foe damaged by it may be reanimated upon death as a zombie friendly to the wielder, with an increasing chance as more damage is dealt

the +9 Sword of Zonguldrok

+9 double sword

Reaping brand
Evil

Desirability

The sword of Zonguldrok is a decent weapon, but not a great one. Even with its high enchantment level, its lack of a damaging brand makes its damage output noticeably worse than a well-enchanted branded demon blade or double sword. Friendly zombies can be useful, though for those without heavy armour, Animate Dead or even Animate Skeleton can replicate the effects quite easily.

The sword of Zonguldrok can always be found in Zonguldrok's Shrine if it has not already generated elsewhere, though you'd likely have found a better damage sword by then.

Prevents

• Due to the fact that it passively uses a necromantic effect each turn, even wielding it is enough to offend the good gods.
• Yredelemnul already reaps zombies, so the reaping brand is useless.
• Okawaru prevents reaping entirely.

History

• Prior to 0.26 and the removal of the food/hunger system, having all slain monsters turned into zombies could create food problems.
• Prior to 0.19, the sword created hostile undead in your LOS, was cursed, and would recurse itself when wielded (33.3% chance).
• Prior to 0.9, this artefact was a long sword.