A command in
Nethack to toggle, aptly enough,
two-weapon combat (no, it's neither an
IRC channel nor an assassin version of
Twoflower). It was first introduced in
SLASH'EM, and was integrated into the "
official" Nethack game in version 3.3.0. To use the technique,
follow these steps:
- wield the one-handed, non-artifact weapon you want as your secondary weapon.
- Exchange weapons. This will leave your character fighting barehanded and designate the Step 1 weapon as "alternate; not wielded."
- wield the one-handed weapon you want as your primary weapon. This may be an artifact.
- Type "#tw" (NH will autocomplete #twoweapon) and press Enter. Your character will now attack with both weapons in a round.
"Two-weapon combat" is a separate skill from that of specific weapon classes, and uses a harsher table of to-hit and damage numbers than weapon skills do. Not only that, but since version 3.3.1, your character's skills in the individual weapons used figure in: the lower rating of the primary weapon's skill and two-weapon combat is used to calculate to-hit and damage penalties/bonuses (using the aforementioned table). This, plus the fixing of a few bugs in 3.3.0's #twoweapon code, makes #twoweapon a viable option for only classes that can really get good at it, such as Rogue and Samurai, or extremely high-level characters, whose base to-hit numbers are good enough to counterbalance the bad effects of low skill.
Interestingly enough, there is only one to-hit roll per #twoweapon attack; you will always either hit and damage with both weapons, or with none at all.