Mercury Arrow

Version 0.33: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Mercury Arrow
Level	2
School1	Alchemy
School2	Conjuration
Source(s)	My Sojourn through Swampland Young Poisoner's Handbook
Casting noise	2
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	50
Range	4
Flags	Dir or target, Needs tracer

Conjures an arrow of elemental mercury which deals direct poison damage to whatever it hits and may also weaken their melee attacks for a short while. The physical force of the arrow inflicts a small amount of damage even to those immune to poison, and the weakening effect can splash to adjacent targets and ignores poison resistance altogether. “During the course of the treatise, each element is allowed time to tout its own virtues and usefulness to mankind, but when it comes time for Mercury, he announces that he presides over all of the beings that have come before him. Mercury is mother and father. He gives other metals their splendor and makes them useful to humanity. Without Mercury, the other metals would have no (use) value. Perhaps a seat on the throne would restrict him to a fixed position of sovereignty. He reigns, but he must be mobile.” -Karen Pinkus, _Alchemical Mercury: A Theory of Ambivalance_, 2009

Spell Details
Damage Formula	2d(5.5+Power/4)
Max Damage	2d(17)
Max Power	50
Range	4
Targeting	Beam
To-hit	12+Power/5
Special	Inflicts weak

Mercury Arrow is a level 2 Conjurations/Alchemy spell that does 30% irresistible poison damage. It also has chance to inflict weakness on the enemy hit and all enemies adjacent to it (chance = 100% - 12*(HD - 4)%, checked per enemy), ignoring poison resistance/immunity.

Alchemists start with this spell in their library.

Strategy

With 1 higher range than Poisonous Vapours and a weaken, it's at least useful for an early game Alchemist. Poisonous Vapours never misses and costs less MP, so that spell is more reliable in the very early game.

The weaken is a good utility effect, although the success rate drops quickly with HD; it cannot affect monsters with 13 or more HD.

History

• This spell was added in 0.33, replacing Sting and Mercury Vapours.