I've been playing as Ranger and love my bow. But I'm having a very hard time because I'm always running out of arrows. I went through the first level of my quest to visit the leader, but can't progress further due to level – I only got 60 or so arrows on that level, another question's answer mentioned "hundreds".
When I was playing, whenever I ran out of arrows, I'd switch to melee, and this isn't always a good idea with strong-melee monsters. Because I was stubborn, I never picked up any other projectiles, and reading now, I realize I could have been keeping darts, daggers, or crossbow bolts.
How can I avoid running out of arrows?
Best Answer
While written prior to v3.6, much of the following advice largely stands. v3.6 considerations are added at the end of the answer.
My personal approach to the Ranger:
AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTION="<* named Q"
to your.nethackrc
ordefaults.nh
. N)ame all your Q)uiver-able items "Q".When it's time to kill:
Ranged
Stacks of fewer than (Skill+1) missiles will be less affective, consider switching to another stack or launcher. Stacks of 1 should never be F)ired/T)hrown at point blank range.
This will quickly boost your skill in Daggers, which should be your "go to" weapon. You should consider your Bow to be your "Sunday Best" weapon. It will serve you well killing those special guests, corrosive critters, (dagger eating) rust monsters and when you've managed to throw all your "more durable but heavy" daggers. A Gnome's crossbow is really just a filler weapon until an uncursed bow and a collection of arrows can be found. The opportunity to spend Skill Points in Crossbow means you've probably held on to it for too long or you've been remarkably unlucky finding arrows.
Melee
If you've got any stacks of more than 1 Dagger or Arrow left, don't do it. Or you've thrown your daggers & what's left just isn't Arrow worthy... 3 or 4 rapid fire missiles to their teeth will beat your pathetic attempts to poke its gut. A stack of 1 Dagger or 1 Arrow is about the only thing less effective than melee.
Skill points
Dagger & Bow: Yes! You'll need 5 Exp Levels each to buy Expert. (Gnomes need 6 for Bow.) Think carefully about buying any other skills before L11. Your Class Artifact will be a Bow!
Crossbow: Generally not. Bolts are as fragile as Arrows and there are no "Bolt Traps", nor does your class artifact create them. Your Class Artifact will not be a Crossbow!
Darts: The Healer's ranged weapon of choice... Even Tourists should prefer daggers. 1d3 damage against small enemies, 1d2 against large, -2 penalty for unskilled. Even with a Ranger's +1 multi-shot max, hardly worth the effort. If you've got encumbrance to spare, sure carry some around. Better yet, spend the encumbrance on more daggers. Still, valuable for identifying potions of sickness or polymorph without damaging a stack of arrows. Don't waste skill points. (3.6: Healers now see the +1 multi-shot bonus for "Skilled" only with knives. Same for Tourists & Darts. /cry My tourists will miss their daggers...)
Shuriken: The good news - Damage levels of a spear with the encumbrance and multi-fire of a dart! The bad news - You'll never find enough to make a habit of them. Skill points here are definitely wasted. ... presuming of course that you've been able to practice with them enough to be given the opportunity to spend any points.
Spear: Perhaps. (3.6: Probably!) Nice missile, but without rapid fire. (3.6: Now with multi-fire!) Fair melee weapon. No applicable artifacts in vanilla. Will consume 3 Levels to get to "Skilled". (3.6: make that 6 for "Expert")
(Whatever your Melee Artifact is): Yes. Odds are it's only 1 point to get to "Basic".
Spells: Probably. Divination Rocks! "Skilled" in Diviniation is a great upgrade to the Identify spell. Upgrade as needed to offset failure rate due to spell difficulty. The 1 point upgrade to "Escape" spells may also be worth it to upgrade the "Jump" spell
Changes for 3.6.0
AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTION
hack. Though items that are picked up by opponents and merged into their existing stacks seem to loose their "thrown by you" attribute.#untrap
ping them to exercise Dex an unreasonable risk.