Wield

Wielding is the action of holding an item in the hand, performed with the w key.

While an item is wielded, it will be used by your character to perform melee combat, so the main use of wielding is to ready weapons. Ranged weapons also require wielding before they can be used.

Wielding is also required for some items before their powers can be evoked. This includes rods, decks of cards, and various miscellaneous items.

Wielding is sometimes required for spells that require a material component to be held in the hand, like Sandblast, which uses stones, or Sticks to Snakes, which uses any wooden item.

Finally, wielding is required for butchering, but this is handled automatically; see Butchering, below.

The game will warn the player if they attempt to perform melee combat with an unsuitable weapon, as this is a common mistake.

Wielding nothing

The player may choose to wield nothing and go empty handed, by pressing ‘-‘ (the minus key) when prompted for an item.

Switching between weapons

Pressing ' (the apostrophe key) will attempt to wield and switch between the contents of the special inventory slots a and b.

The player may set their favorite weapons to these two slots by pressing the ‘=‘ key, then selecting ‘i‘tems.

Wielding failure

Wielding will fail if:

• the item the player is trying to wield is too large for them
• the player is already wielding a cursed weapon
• the player tries to wield the item they are already wielding
• the player tries to wield an item they are wearing
• the player is berserk
• the item requires two hands to wield and the player is wearing a shield

Butchering

If the player tries to butcher a corpse, they will automatically wield a weapon capable of doing so, and wield their original when finished - unless they are interrupted whilst doing so, in which case they will have to either fight with their butchering weapon, or spend time to wield their normal one.

If no safe weapon has been identified to butcher with, the player is prompted to choose one, with the risk of it being cursed.

Exceptions to wielding

Wands are an exception to wielding; they do not have to be in the hand, and can be zapped even if the player is already wielding an item.

Another exception is thrown items; it is not necessary to wield an item to throw it. Instead, thrown items are held in the quiver.

Wielding cursed weapons

A cursed weapon will stick to your hand when wielded, making it impossible to unwield or drop. This does not apply to cursed non-weapons, such as arrows.

Wielding Distortion weapons

Unwielding Distortion-branded weapons can cause severe Translocation miscast effects, including banishment to the Abyss. For this reason, low-level players should exercise caution in wielding known and possible distortion weapons (eg, artefacts, melee weapons found in troves or dropped by powerful monsters). Risk-averse players can identify suspect weapons before wielding. An identified distortion weapon will always ask for a confirmation before wielding.