I started playing again last night, and was wondering what I should use as my second weapon for my samurai. My wakizashi is rusted and the game doesn’t want to give me access to altars. My twoweapon is at skilled and my Long Sword is at skilled. I’m in the mines amd my level is 8.
or is there some way to fix rusted equipment?
Well what you should use for two-weapon is really going to depend on what sort of artifact weapon you get. I believe two weaponing works at the skill level of whatever is worst, so for example if you’re wielding a katana and wakizashi and katana and two-weapon are skilled while wakizashi is basic, everything will be wielded at basic level. Weapon skill levels won’t matter too much once you get to Gehennom, but they do now.
Now your first priority is to get an artifact, there is always an altar in the minetown (Although you may not be able to use it if its not aligned with you). If you can’t find an altar find a longsword and #dip it into a fountain, if you’re lawful and level 6 or higher there is a chance it will turn into Excalibur.
If you get Excalibur, Snickersnee, or either of the brands; dual wield them with your starting katana
If you get Grayswandir you may want to dual wield that with a silver saber, Samurai can only get basic in saber but grayswandir is so ridiculously powerful it doesn’t matter.
If you can’t find anything good you’ll get the tsurugi of might when you complete your quest, it’s two handed though.
Dip a rusted weapon into an (unlit) potion of oil to repair damage. You can also read a scroll of enchant weapon while confused to make your weapon rust/fire-proof (Also works with armor). Praying while on an altar and in good standing with your god may also bless and repair your weapon, but I wouldn’t bother.
I just noticed something: we both like Nethack and Dune, a correllation somewhere? 
Too bad you can’t #twoweapon with two artifacts. On one of my old attempts I sacrificed for the snickersnee and later my dog stole me the vorpal blade from a shop. That would have been fun to double up with!
I think it may be some kind of a bug but sometimes I will kill a something and eat it immediately and the game will think that it is rotten. It gets kind of annoying when you’re fainting, confused, and stunned at the same time.