Sword of Zonguldrok

Version 0.29: 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 good weapon, but not a amazing one. Without a damage-dealing brand, it is less consistent than a well-enchanted/branded demon blade or double sword. The friendly zombies can be useful, but if you aren't wearing heavy armour, Animate Dead can replicate that effect. The lack of corpses also means the lack of dragon scales or troll leather armour, though you can swap weapons if need be.

The sword of Zonguldrok can always be found in Zonguldrok's Shrine if it has not already generated elsewhere.

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.
• Gozag and Okawaru prevent reaping entirely.

History

• Prior to 0.28, reaping did not deny death drops.
• 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.