- A Dunce Cap will set your Intelligence and Wisdom to 6, regardless of their previous value, and will become cursed when you wear it. Shopkeepers will charge you extra if you are wearing a dunce cap, and the cap itself provides no protection against attacks by mind flayers.
- The Cornuthaum is marginally useful to the Wizard character class, providing a +1 charisma bonus. Other classes should steer clear, however, since their impostiture will result in a -1 charisma penalty and prevent them from casting a clairvoyance spell. Wizards are permitted to safely enchant their cornuthaum even when it is already at +5.
See the section entitled Body Armour
Heavy Iron Ball and Iron Chain
A projectile weapon, if an awkward one, these items are acquired as a consequence of being punished.
See the section entitled Punishment.
See the section entitled Hats and Helmets
See the section entitled Musical Instruments
See the section entitled Containers
See the section entitled Disease and Injury
One useful method of gaining intrinsics is to eat the appropriate rings after polymorphing yourself into a creature which is capable of eating the material from which the ring is made. This approach will work approximately 33% of the time. For example, if the ring of teleport control happens to be made out of granite then polymorphing into a Xorn (or some other lithovore) and eating the ring carries a one-in-three chance of acquiring intrinsic teleport control.
See also the sections entitled Corpses, Experience Level, Gremlins and Unicorns and Theology and also look under the name of the ability.
Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
If a thing is invisible, it cannot - by definition - be seen. If a thing is displaced, it will be seen - by, for example, an opponent in battle - to be displaced one space to the side of where it actually is.
Invisibility may be acquired temporarily by wearing a cloak of invisibility - the effect lasting for as long as the cloak is worn - or by quaffing a potion of invisibility, zapping yourself with a wand of invisibility, casting a spell of invisibility over yourself or wearing a ring of invisibility - the effect lasting for as long as the ring is worn.
The ability to see invisibile objects may be acquired by wearing a ring of see invisible - the effect lasting for as long as the ring is worn - or quaffing a potion of see invisible. If the potion is blessed then the ability to see invisible objects will become intrinsic. Sitting on a throne also carries with it a one-in- twelve chance of gaining the intrinsic ability to see invisible. In addition, quaffing from a fountain provides a one in thirty chance that you will gain the intrinsic ability to see invisible, that gain being signalled by the message that "you see an image of someone stalking you. But it disappears."
Intrinsic invisibility can be acquired by eating a stalker corpse. If you are already invisible (by whatever means) when the corpse is eaten, then the intrinsic ability to see invisible objects will instead (or also) be acquired. Note that it is a very bad idea to acquire intrinsic invisibility without intrinsic see invisible, since you will then be invisible even to yourself.
If you are invisible, wearing mummy wrappings will make you visible until you remove them (consider Claude Rains in The Invisible Man).
Note that elves intrinsically possess the ability to see invisible objects and creatures.
There is no known method of acquiring intrinsic displacement. Displacement can be acquired only by wearing a cloak of displacement - the effect lasting for as long as the cloak is worn. If invisibility is also possessed, by whatever method, then displacement has no effect whatsoever.
See the section entitled Heavy Iron Ball and Iron Chain
See the section entitled Lock Pick, Credit Card, Key and Skeleton Key
A lamp may be used to light a dark room.
A magic lamp, indistinguishable at first sight from a lamp, can be rubbed to summon a djinni - who may grant a wish.
See the section entitled Containers
A leashed pet will keep close, and will follow from level to level even if not adjacent to its owner. A cursed leash, however, will choke a pet, eventually choking it to death.
Be careful not to cross water when your leashed pet cannot do so as it will follow, and drown.
If you teleport within a level or level teleport, leashed monsters will teleport with you.
Levitation lifts you bodily into the air, from which position you are able to fight monsters but are not able to pick up objects. You are also not able to trigger traps or drown in water while levitating. It is important to ensure that leashed animals who are to be taken across water can, in fact, swim, float or fly - and that leashed animals do not vanish down trapdoors while you float serenely above them.
Levitation can be performed by drinking a potion of levitation, casting a spell of levitation, wearing a pair of levitation boots or wearing a ring of levitation. In the latter two cases, the effect lasts only as long as the item is worn.
Lock Pick, Credit Card, Key and Skeleton Key
A lock pick or credit card can be used to open a lock, with a little luck. A key will open locks of the same shape as the key. A skeleton key will open any lock, regardless of shape.
If cursed, the effectiveness of these objects diminishes.
As of V3.1, all keys are skeleton keys - the "lock shape" is irrelevant, and appears to have disappeared from the game entirely.
Your luck value is initially zero, or one during a full moon, and varies from -10 to +10 points, or from -9 to +11 during a full moon. In addition, you can obtain a luck bonus or penalty of three points if you are carrying a luckstone - a penalty if the luckstone is curse, a bonus otherwise.
If your luck is very bad then kicking a throne may destroy it. Very good luck, on the other hand, may dislodge gold and gems from a throne when it is kicked.
If your luck is extremely good then you may be able to use a mirror to divine the location of Medusa or the Wizard of Yendor.
The chances of found items being cursed increases as your luck gets worse. The chances of found items being blessed increases as your luck improves. Similarly, projectiles which you find are more likely to be pre-poisoned if your luck is good.
Your luck affects your chances of managing to kick open closed or locked doors, finding secret doors, passageways and traps when searching, the chances of a chest or door being trapped (as well as the severity of any effects should it prove to be trapped after all) and even the probability of your managing to open a closed door.
Your luck also determines the chances of your receiving a wish when zapping a wand of wishing or sitting on a throne, the severity of any harmful effects which arise from sitting on a throne, the probability of your hitting a monster (directly or with a thrown projectile) and the likelihood of your potions and scrolls being damaged on stepping into water (if you survive by teleporting out or by having previously polymorphed into a monster which can swim, that is).
The chances of successfully casting a spell depend on your luck, your intelligence and the level of the spell being attempted.
Your chances of successfully writing a spell on a blank scroll using a magic marker depend entirely on your luck, as do the chances of a thrown boomerang being destroyed, and the chances of your weapon being affected by rust when you are subjected to a rust attack or trigger a rust trap.
Good luck does not time out if you're carrying a blessed luckstone. Bad luck does not time out if you're carrying a cursed luckstone. Neither times out if your luckstone is neither cursed nor blessed. See the section entitled Gemstones, Luckstones and Loadstones for details.
Breaking a mirror will decrease your luck by two points. Kicking or attempting to destroy your deity's altar will cause your wisdom to decrease by one point. Doing the same to another deity's altar will decrease your luck by one point.
Attacking a blind floating eye carries a one in five hundred chance that your luck will decrease by one. Killing a peaceful or tame monster will decrease your luck by one point. If that monster was a unicorn of your own alignment, your luck will decrease by a further five points. Killing a guard, a human (note: "human" monster, not merely a generic human), an oracle, a shopkeeper, a temple priest or a temple priestess will both decrease your luck by two points and cause you to lose intrinsic telepathy, if you had it.
During a full moon, your luck is automatically increased by one. If your luck is very bad then there is a small chance that it will increase by one point if you sit on a throne. Praying while you have bad luck may restore your luck points to zero, if your prayer is successful (a fact which depends on both your luck and the strength of your alignment).
Throwing a gem to a unicorn will affect your luck. If the gem is not known to be either valuable or worthless then your luck will be increased by one point. If the gem is known to be worthless then your luck will not be affected. If the gem is known to be valuable then your luck will be increased by five points if he unicorn is of your own alignment, or will be randomly either increase or decreased by one to three points if the unicorn is not of your alignment.
Praying to your deity too soon after a previous prayer will decrease your luck by three points. Note that at least two hundred turns should pass between prayers - at least four hundred if the trouble you are in is of a serious nature. Sacrificing a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor on your deity's altar will anger your deity and decrease your luck by three points.
Sacrificing a human corpse on an altar will summon a demon lord and increase your luck by two points if you are of chaotic alignment, or anger your deity and decrease your luck by five points if you are not. Sacrificing at an altar other than your own deity's while your deity is angry may be taken as a conversion to a new deity, which costs you three luck points. If the action is not taken as a conversion then your luck will decrease by five points and your deity will be angered. If the sacrifice is made while your deity is pleased with you then the altar itself may be converted to your god and your luck increased by one point.
The chances of the altar being converted depend on your experience level - if the altar is not converted then your luck will decrease by one. Note that your deity takes your luck bonus, if any, into account when deciding whether to reward or to punish you, but not necessarily when on the severity of a particular reward or punishment.
A straightforward sacrifice on your deity's altar will increase your luck by at least one point.
See the section entitled Gemstones, Luckstones and Loadstones
See the section entitled Polymorphing and Lycanthropy
Magic Cancellation is not the same as magic resistance. A high degree of magic cancellation is provided by mithril coats and by oilskin cloaks (see the section entitled Body Armour).
Magic Cancellation makes a variety of "special" monster attacks less likely to succeed. Specifically, Magic Cancellation affects attacks, from monsters (as opposed to from wands or spells), which are based on heat, cold, electric shocks, sleep, poison, paralysis, energy drain, level draining, lycanthrope bites ("You feel feverish"), teleportation and the loss of the Speed intrinsic. It also assists in escaping from a monster which has attached itself to you ("sticking" attacks).
Specifically, magic cancellation is conferred by the following armour (higher values are better):
- Magic Cancellation of 1 is provided by splint mail, chain mail, orcish chain mail, studded leather armor, orcish ring mail and a mummy wrapping; With this level of protection, a "successful" attack will be cancelled one third of the time.
- Magic Cancellation of 2 is supplied by plate mail, crystal plate mail, an orcish cloak, a dwarvish cloak, a cloak of invisibility and a cloak of displacement; With this level of protection, a "successful" attack will be cancelled two thirds of the time.
- Magic Cancellation of 3 is provided by a dwarvish mithril-coat, an elven mithril-coat, an elven cloak, an oilskin cloak, a cloak of protection and a cloak of magic resistance; With this level of protection, a "successful" attack will be cancelled 98% of the time.
See also the section entitled Magic Resistance
See the section entitled Musical Instruments
See the section entitled Musical Instruments
See the section entitled Lamp and Magic Lamp
Allows a spell to be written on a scroll of blank paper, by entering the name of the desired spell. Different spells use up different amounts of ink from the magic marker, the amount of ink depending on the power of the spell, like so:
8 units are used in writing scrolls of light, gold detection, food detection, magic mapping, amnesia or fire.
10 units are used in writing scrolls of destroy armour, create monster or punishment.
12 units are used in writing a scroll of confuse monster.
14 units are used in writing a scroll of identify.
16 units are used in writing scrolls of enchant weapon, remove curse, enchant weapon or a scroll of charging.
20 units are needed to write a scroll of scare monster, a scroll of taming or a scroll of teleportation.
A scroll of genocide requires 30 units of ink to write.
Writing any spell book require up to 10 units of ink for each level of the spell. Thus, a 6th level spellbook requires up to 60 units of ink to write.
The values above refer to the "base cost" of writing a scroll or spellbook. The actual cost will be a random value of between half the base cost and (the base cost minus 1) (this, a scroll of destroy armour will use up between 5 and 9 charges of your magic marker).
A scroll can be more easily written by a wizard than by any other character class, particularly if you have not yet encountered a scroll of this type before in this game. If the scroll is unknown then there is only a one in fifteen chance that it will be able to be written - or one in three if you are a wizard.
The eventual blessed/uncursed/cursed status of the scroll or spellbook produced depends on the status of both the scroll/spellbook and the magic marker. A blessed magic marker will increase the b/u/c status of the scroll/spellbook by one, while a cursed magic marker will decrease it by one.
Thus, a blessed magic marker will produce a blessed scroll from a blessed or uncursed one, or an uncursed scroll from a cursed on. Similarly, a cursed marker will produce a cursed scroll or spellbook from a cursed or uncursed one, or an uncursed scroll from a blessed one. An uncursed scroll will not affect the blessed/uncursed/cursed status of the scroll or spellbook on which it writes.
Magic Resistance is not the same as magic cancellation. A high degree of magic resistance is provided by the cloak of magic resistance and grey dragon dragon scale mail (see the section entitled Body Armour). As of V3.1, magic resistance can also be obtained via various artifacts, such as Magicbane, the Orb of Detection, the Sceptre of Might, the Magic Mirror of Merlin, the Platinum Yendorian Express Card and the Eye of the Aethiopica.
Magic resistance protects you against polymorph and teleportation attacks (including traps), magic traps and the touch of death attack, so favoured by liches, the Wizard of Yendor and various other magic-using creatures.
See also the section entitled Magic Cancellation
See the section entitled Musical Instruments
If a mind flayer is nearby, you may sense a "wave of psychic energy". Mindflayers may lock onto your telepathy, if you have that ability, and use it to track you down.
If a Mind Flayer succeeds in making its "mind suck" attack then you may have your intelligence reduced by one and you will forget up to 25% of the dungeon level maps and spells you have learned. Provided that you are wearing a helmet (other than a Dunce's Cap), that is. If the attack succeeds when you are not wearing adequate head protection then you will die. Permanently. An amulet of lifesaving, if you have one, will not help.
Eating the corpse of a mind flayer carries a 50% chance of increasing your intelligence by one.
Mind flayers are often a first choice of monsters to genocide. In the Slash'Em variant, there is the added difficulty of Master Mind Flayers.
A mirror can be applied to reflect a creature's gaze attack back at it, paralysing a floating eye, confusing an umber hulk or turning a medusa to stone.
In fact, reflecting Medusa's gaze - by applying a mirror in her direction, while being careful to wear a blindfold in order to avoid being turned to stone yourself - is the only reasonable way of defeating her.
If you break a mirror - by, for example, throwing or kicking it - then your luck will get worse.
A cursed mirror is clouded over and ineffective.
This section refers specifically to the Monk character class, which is only available in the Slash'Em variant.
In Slash'Em, a Monk can eat any non-"meaty" corpses, all of which are listed below, without attracting an alignment penalty. Eating any other corpses (even tins of other corpses) causes your deity to get progressively more and more annoyed with you. This is signalled by the message "You feel guilty" on eating the taboo corpse or tin.
NB/ Some of these creatures may rarely, if ever, leave corpses (yellow lights and fog clouds spring to mind), while others (such as violet fungi) are generally Bad Things To Eat in any case. Moreover, many others are poisonous. The only criterion for a corpse being listed is that eating it carries no alignment penalty for a Monk in Slash'Em, as of version 4E8.
- fog cloud
- Juiblex
- all blobs:
- acid blob
- quivering blob
- gelatinous cube
- jiggling blob
- lava blob
- static blob
- all jellies:
- blue jelly
- spotted jelly
- clear jelly
- ochre jelly
- yellow jelly
- orange jelly
- rancid jelly
- all fungi:
- brown mold
- yellow mold
- green mold
- red mold
- shrieker
- violet fungus
- disgusting mold
- black mold
- all mimics:
- small mimic
- large mimic
- giant mimic
- all lights:
- yellow light
- black light
- all puddings:
- grey ooze
- brown pudding
- moldy pudding
- black pudding
- green slime
I have to say that I was surprised that it 's apparently safe for monks to eat mimic corpses. The idea, apparently, is to consider the shape-shifter character, Odo, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (he (it?) has to "regenerate" in liquid form).
The following list is incomplete when it comes to V3.2.2 monster attacks, though the attacks which are mentioned are still valid.
You can be infected with sickness by Demogorgon and Juiblex only (as of V3.1, you can add Pestilence to this list).
You can be turned to stone only by a cockatrice or Medusa (in the Slash'Em variant, you can add Basilisks, chicatrice and asphynx (a type of snake) to this list)
Attributes curse is cast only by gremlins, and only at night.
Your possessions will be cursed at random only by a barrow wight, Demogorgon, Dispater, a gnomish wizard, a golden naga, a kobold shaman, Lichs, a nalfeshnee, an orc shaman, Orcus, a temple priest, a temple priestess, a titan and the Wizard of Yendor. And only if that monster is not cancelled.
Rust attacks are only made by a black pudding, a grey ooze and a rust monster. Corrosion attacks are only made by a brown pudding.
Gold is stolen only by a leprechaun. The Amulet of Yendor is stolen only by the Wizard of Yendor. Other items are stolen only by Nymphs. This list is much expanded as of V3.1 - the Wizard of Yendor showing a particular fondness for Quest artifacts.
Active acid attacks are only made by a black naga, a Juiblex, an ochre jelly and a yellow dragon. Passive acid attacks are only made by an acid blob, a green mold and a spotted jelly.
Disintegration attacks are only made by a black dragon. Fire attacks are made by a fire ant, a fire elemental, a fire vortex, a hell hound, a hell hound pup, a red dragon, a red mold, a red naga and a steam vortex only.
Cold attacks are only made by Asmodeus, a blue jelly, a brown mold, a freezing sphere, an ice devil, an ice vortex, an ice troll, Liches, a white dragon and a winter wolf.
Electric shock attacks are only made by a blue dragon, an electric eel, an energy vortex and a grid bug.
Magic missile attacks are only made by a grey dragon, the oracle and Yeenoghu.
Sleep attacks are only made by a homunculus, Nazgul and an orange dragon.
You can be confused only by an an umber hulk or Yeenoghu. Stun attacks are only made by Baalzebub and a yellow mold.
Paralysis attacks are only made by a floating eye, a gelatinous cube, a guardian naga and Yeenoghu.
Only the xan will wound your legs in an attack.
A level can be drained from you by a barrow wight, Demogorgon, Nazgul, a vampire or a wraith only - though succubi and incubi may increase or decrease your experience level when you sleep with them.
Drain strength attacks are made by Baalzebub, a bone devil, a cobra, an erinyes, Geryon, a giant spider, a green dragon, a guardian naga, an iron golem, a killer bee, Medusa, Orcus, a pit viper, a python, a queen bee, a scorpion, a snake, soldier ant, a vampire bat and a water mocassin only Drain dexterity attacks are only made by a quasit. Drain constitution attacks are only made by a rabid rat. Drain magical energy attacks are only made by energy vortex and mad scientist.
Crushing hugs are only given by a carnivorous ape, a guardian naga, a kraken, an owlbear, a pit fiend, a python and a rope golem. Only a giant mimic, a large mimic and a violet fungus will stick to you when it attacks. Only an Eel or a python will wrap itself around you.
Only an air elemental, a dust vortex, an energy vortex, a fire vortex, a fog cloud, an ice vortex, a lurker above, an ochre jelly, a purple worm, a trapper, a steam vortex and Juiblex will attempt to engulf you. Only a lurker above, a purple worm and a trapper will attempt to digest you after engulfing you.
Only a quantum mechanic will teleport you when it attacks.
Only a nurse will heal your wounds while it is attacking you.
Lycanthropes can transmit lycanthropy in their bite, but only when they are in their animal form.
Nymphs may attempt to seduce you, but only succubi/incubi will sleep with you.
Only a freezing sphere and a yellow light explode when they approach you.
As of V3.1, Famine will attack you using its Hunger attack.
Shriekers have a special "shriek" attack, which is active only if you are standing on the square beside the shrieker. That attack may (10% of the time) summon another monster to the current level, and the monster summoned may (a further one chance in thirteen) be a purple worm.
Most musical instruments may be used to produce a sequence of notes to activate the drawbridge on the Stronghold level. In addition, each has its own particular attributes.
A whistle may wake up monsters on the current level. An uncursed magic whistle, indistinguishable at first glance from a whistle, will, in addition, teleport all tame monsters on the current level to the vicinity of the player.
A flute can be used, depending on your dexterity, to charm snakes in the vicinity - though note that the snakes, while rendered peaceful, are not tamed. A magic flute, indistinguishable at first glance from a flute, may put monsters to sleep - depending on your experience level.
A horn will awaken monsters, and may scare them - the area of effect depends on the player's experience level. A fire horn and frost horn, indistinguishable at first glance both fom each other and from a horn, operate as a wand of fire or cold, respectively. The Slash'Em variant also adds a "horn of plenty", applying which produces a variety of foodstuffs.
A bugle will awaken soldiers on the current level, though the area of effect is dependant on the player's experience level.
A harp can, depending on the player's dexterity, be used to calm nymphs. A magic harp, indistinguishable at first sight from a harp, can be used to charm monsters - though, again, the area of effect is dependant on the player's experience level.
A drum will awaken monsters, and may scare them - the area of effect depends on the player's experience level. A drum of earthquake, indistinguishable at first sight from a drum, will initiate an earthquake - the intensity of which depends on the player's experience level - thus creating pits at random throughout the current level.
A great many artifacts (named weapons) were introduced in V3.1, and the behaviour of some existing ones altered from that described below. Specifically, some weapons (such as Excalibur) are now rather more particular about their wielder's alignment. Thus, the notes below largely apply only to named weapons in V3.0j, and are not necessarily transferrable to later versions.
The reader is advised to refer to other documentation for details.
The following specific weapons may be found by or given to the player:-
- Cleaver is a chaotic axe with a +3 attack bonus and a +12 defensive bonus.
- Demonbane is a lawful long sword with a +5 attack bonus against demons.
- Dragonbane is a neutral broadsword with a +5 attack bonus against dragons.
- Excalibur is a lawful long sword with a +5 attack bonus and a +10 defensive bonus. In addition, Excalibur provides assistance with searching, confers complete protection against monsters draining an experience level from its wielder and is loathed by all demons. Excalibur can be obtained by being given by a lawful deity or by #dip'ping a long sword into a fountain (lawful characters only, as of V3,1), and is particularly associated with knights.
- Fire Brand is neutral long sword which makes a +5 attack of fire on a monster. Frost Brand also confers complete protection from fire attacks.
- Frost Brand is neutral long sword which makes a +5 attack of cold on a monster. Frost Brand also confers complete protection from cold attacks.
- Giantslayer is a neutral long sword with a +5 attack bonus against giant humanoids.
- Grimtooth is a chaotic Orcish dagger with a +2 attack bonus and a +6 defensive bonus.
- Mjollnir is a lawful war hammer which makes a +5 electric shock attack on a monster. Mjollnir also provides a +24 defence against electric shocks. Mjollnir is particularly associated with Valkerie.
- Ogresmasher is a lawful war hammer with a +5 attack bonus against ogres.
- Orcrist is a lawful two-handed sword which provides a +5 attack bonus against orcs. Orcrist is particularly associated with elves.
- Snickersnee is a lawful katana with a +8 defensive bonus. Snickersnee is particularly associated with Samurai warriors.
- Sting is lawful eleven dagger with a +5 attack bonus against orcs. Sting's blade provides warning of danger.
- Stormbringer is a chaotic broadsword with a +5 attack bonus and a +2 defensive bonus. Stormbringer drains an experience level from its opponent, and also confers complete protection against level draining.
- Sunsword is a lawful long sword with a +5 attack bonus against the undead.
- Trollsbane is a lawful morning star with a +5 attack bonus against trolls.
- Werebane is a lawful long sword with a +5 attack bonus against lycanthropes.
Objects Associated with Monsters
This section is complete for V3.0j, but significant expansion took place in more recent versions of the game.
Dwarfs carry a pickaxe.
Nymphs carry a mirror and a potion of object detection.
If a shopkeeper is carrying a key, then that key is a skeleton key.
Priests and priestesses generally wear either a cloak of magic resistance or a cloak of protection.
Minotaurs carry a wand of digging.
Orcus carries a wand of death. Asmodeus carries a wand of cold. Dispater carries a wand of striking. Note that all objects carried by demons are cursed.
The base armour class of humans, including soldiers of Yendor, is 10. This is reduced by their armour to the value shown by applying a stethoscope or probing, with the difference being made up by their ring of protection. Thus, the value of a soldier's ring of protection tends to be higher if the soldier is wearing little armour.
See the section entitled Disease and Injury
See the section entitled Taming Pets
A pick-axe is used to carve through rock walls, dig pits and trapdoors, smash down doors and destroy statues and boulders. A pick-axe can also be used, though relatively ineffectually, as a weapon. Note that spellbooks are sometimes concealed inside statues.
The simplest and mostwidespread source of pick-axes is dwarfs.
A cursed pick-axe will tend to hit the user.
Poison resistance may be conveyed by a magical item - such as a ring of poison resistance or an amulet versus poison - or may be intrinsic. In either event, it constitutes the ability to withstand poison attacks.
To obtain intrinsic poison resistance, you should eat a quivering blob corpse, a quasit corpse, a tengu corpse, a blue jelly corpse, a cave spider corpse, any unicorn or naga corpse, a grey ooze corpse, a brown pudding corpse, a black pudding corpse, a barrow wight corpse, a wraith corpse, a nazgul corpse, a flesh golem corpse, a nurse corpse or a Wizard of Yendor corpse.
If none of the above corpses are available, poison resistance may be more riskily obtained by eating one of the following corpses which, though they usually convey intrinsic poison resistance, do not always do so - and, since they are poisonous in themselves, the risk of poisoning is real: a soldier ant corpse, a giant beetle corpse, a killer bee corpse, a queen bee corpse, a scorpion corpse, a homunculus corpse, a giant spider corpse, a xan corpse, a green dragon corpse or any snake corpse except a garter snake corpse.
The gaining of poison resistance is indicated by the message, "You feel healthy."
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
Barbarians and healers start off with intrinsic poison resistance, while tourists acquire it on attaining experience level 20.
Other objects/monsters may be polymorphed by zapping a wand of polymorph or casting a polymorph spell in their direction. In the case of objects, this will change items into others of the same class. Thus, polymorphing a pile of wands will change each into a different type of wand, polymorphing a pile of corpses will change each into a different type of food, and so on. Note that when wands are polymorphed, their charges are unaffected - the only way to recharge a wand is to read a scroll of charging. (As of V3.1, polymorphing objects carries two risks - firstly, that the object may disintegrate; and, secondly, that groups of objects may "combine" to form a golem; In the Slash'Em variant, objects may also "unpolymorph", reverting to their original form. This can be embarrassing if your new shield of reflection suddenly reverts to being a pair of iron boots in mid-combat. A note in the Miscellaneous Notes section explains how this can be avoided).
The only known exceptions to the above concern worm teeth and crocodile corpses. When a worm tooth is polymorphed, it metamorphoses into a Crys Knife. A crocodile corpse, when polymorphed, becomes a pair of low boots. (In V3.0j, when a dragon corpse was polymorphed, it became a suit of dragon scale mail armour. Dragon corpse polymorph does not work in V3.2, however - you need to Wear a suit of Dragon Scales and Enchant Armour to get a Dragon Scale Mail now).
Polymorphing yourself ("polyself") can be achieved by eating a chameleon corpse, zapping a wand of polymorph, or casting a polymorph spell on yourself, quaffing from a sink (1 in 30 chance) or making use of a ring of polymorph. Note that the only known method of controlling what you metamorphose into is by using a ring of polymorph control.
An amulet of change will perform a limited polyself, insofar as it will change you into another human of the opposite sex to your current sex, while contracting lycanthropy - for example, by eating a lycanthrope corpse - will intermittently change you from a human into a rat, wolf or jackal - depending on the nature of the lycanthropy.
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
Note that, if you lack polymorph control, it is entirely possible to be killed by an "unsuccessful polymorph," should your adjusted, post- polymorph, hit points end up as less than or equal than zero. Even if you survive that, the lower your constitution, the more chance that polymorphing yourself will result in a "system shock," which may cost up to 30 hit points - and thus may well be fatal. A system shock will not result if you are a lycanthrope, a vampire or a vampire bat before polymorphing, or if you polymorph into a dragon while wearing dragon scale mail - see below.
Polymorphing can be used as a cure for petrification or sickness; see the section entitled Disease and Injury for details.
One useful method of gaining intrinsics is to eat the appropriate rings after polymorphing yourself into a creature which is capable of eating the material from which the ring is made. This approach will work approximately 33% of the time. For example, if the ring of teleport control happens to be made out of granite then polymorphing into a Xorn (or some other lithovore) and eating the ring carries a one-in-three chance of acquiring intrinsic teleport control.
If you polymorph into another human, the new human's experience level will be your experience level, plus or minus one or two.
Giants can pick up and throw boulders, and so can you if you polymorph into a giant a frost giant, a stone giant, a fire giant or a titan.
Polymorphing into another monster may provide you with an additional skill - such as biting, spitting poison, breathing fire, and so on - via the command ALT-M. After a time limit, which depends on your experience level, or when your hit points as a monster reach zero, then you will be automatically restored to your original human form, with the same stats.
Be very careful when polymorphing into a non-human form, as your armour may be destroyed if the new body is larger than your old, human one.
Polymorphing into a dragon while wearing dragon scale mail armour will cause that armour to be absorbed into your skin, becoming part of your natural armour.
If you polymorph into a nymph, the command ALT-M can be used to remove your iron ball, should you be undergoing punishment.
If you polymorph into a spider, ALT-M is used to spin a web. If a web is spun on top of a squeaky board trap, a pit or a trapdoor then that particular trap will be destroyed.
If you polymorph into an umber hulk, ALT-M is used to cast a gaze to confuse your enemies.
If you polymorph into any of the following monsters, the "Sit" command, ALT-S, is used to lay eggs, from which will hatch tame offspring (As of V3.1, your character must polymorph into a female monster in order to lay eggs):
Giant Ant, Soldier Ant, Fire Ant, Cockatrice, Cave Spider, Giant Spider, Scorpion, Long Worm, Purple Worm, Crocodile, Queen Bee, all Dragons, all Nagas, all Snakes, all Eels
If you polymorph into an iron golem or a flesh golem then you acquire the ability to recover rapidly from electric shock and/or fire attacks, with the iron golem being the marginally better protected of the two. Note, however, than an iron golem can be rehumanised by rusting - that is, by coming into contact with water or undergoing a rust attack.
If you polymorph yourself into a gremlin and touch water then you will multiply. That is, your hit points will be reduced by half and a "clone" gremlin will appear which has the same stats as you, and is tame.
Only very small monsters can squeeze past a boulder, and so can you, if you polymorph into a giant ant, a fire ant, a soldier ant, a killer bee, a queen bee, an acid blob, a homunculus, an imp, a leprechaun, a sewer rat, a giant rat, a rabid rat, a cave spider, a grid bug, a xan, a bat, a vampire bat, a garter snake, a newt, a gecko, an iguana or a lizard.
You are not able to polymorph into a wolfwere, a werewolf, a ratwere, a wererat, a jackalwere, a werejackal, a long worm, Vlad the Impaler, a nurse, a shopkeeper, a guard, the Oracle, a temple priest, a temple priestess, an unarmoured soldier, a soldier, a sergeant, a lieutenant, a captain, Medusa, the Wizard of Yendor, a ghost, Juiblex, Yeenoghu, Orcus, Geryon, Dispater, Baalzebub, Asmodeus, Demogorgon, a djinni, a giant eel, an electric eel, a kraken, a chameleon or another character class.
If you contract lycanthropy then the command ALT-M is used to summon assistance in the form of a pack of tame jackals, wolves or rats - the species depending on the name of your affliction.
Lycanthropy can be cured by quaffing a vial of holy water, eating a clove of garlic, polymorphing into a new human form or praying to your deity.
A potion can be quaffed, with effects as described below. The same effect can sometimes be had from a randomly-chosen potion when quaffing from a sink (See the section entitled Sinks and Fountains).
Potions may be thrown at monsters (or thrown at you by monsters). If they break on the target's head then the target will suffer some of the effects as if he/she/it had quaffed the potion. This provides a simple way to heal your pet, increase its experience level (with a potion of gain level) or paralyse an opponent.
Some potions also have dramatic effects when items are dipped into them usign the ALT-D command. If a projectile weapon (a shuriken, dart, arrow) is dipped into a potion of sickness then that projectile will be poisoned, and thus inflict an additional poison damage when used against a monster.
Dipping a poisoned projectile weapon into a potion of healing or a potion of extra healing will neutralise the poison.
Potions can be dipped into other potions, to produce a new potion from the mixture. If the potion being dipped is cursed, or is a potion of acid, then the mixture will expode, and both potions lost. Otherwise, there still remains a 10% chance that the potions will explode. If the mixture does not explode then the following combinations produce the results described in the table below:
| Potion 1 | Potion 2 | Produces |
| Confusion | Gain Level or Gain Energy | Booze or Enlightment |
| Enlightenment | Levitation | Gain Level or Booze |
| Enlightenment | Booze | Confusion |
| Extra healing | Gain Level or Gain Energy | Gain Ability |
| Fruit Juice | Gain Level or Gain Energy | See Invisible |
| Fruit Juice | Sickness | Sickness |
| Fruit Juice | Speed or Enlightenment | Booze |
| Healing | Speed, Gain Level or Gain Energy | Extra Healing |
Any other combination of potions can be mixed, but with unpredictable effects (1 chance in 8 of producing water; one in four of producing a potion of sickness; one chance in eight of creating a random potion; one chance in two of the potions simply exploding, as described above).
If an object is cursed, the curse can be removed by dipping it into a potion of holy water. If an object is blessed, the blessing can be removed by dipping it into a potion of unholy water.
Dipping an uncursed object into a potion of holy water will confer a blessing on the object. Dipping an uncursed object into a potion of unholy water will curse that object.
If dipped into a potion of sickness, confusion, blindness or hallucination, the unicorn horn will neutralise the potion, transforming it into a potion of clear water.
If you attacked by a fireball then, even if you have fire resistance, it is likely that many - if not all - of your potions will boil, and possibly explode.
To tell which colour potion has which properties, you could attempt to quaff the potion or - if you are in a shop - you could narrow down the possibilities by comparing the potions according to their prices. Bear in mind that the potion of water is always the clear potion.
The cheapest potions are the potion of sickness, the potion of fruit juice, the potion of booze and the potion of see invisible.
Second cheapest are the potion of healing, the potion of restore ability, the potion of confusion, the potion of hallucination, the potion of extra healing and the potion of water.
Third cheapest potions are the potion of monster detection, the potion of object detection, the potion of invisibility, the potion of blindness and the potion of gain energy.
The second dearest potions are the potion of speed, the potion of levitation and the potion of enlightenment.
And the most expensive potions are the potion of gain ability, the potion of paralysis and the potion of gain level.
Note that a "smoky potion" will sometimes turn out to be imprisoning a ghost and a "glowing potion" will sometimes turn out to be imprisoning a djinni.
- Potion of blindness
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of booze
- The potion of booze stuns or confuses you for a short while, but basically makes you feel better afterwards.
- Potion of confusion
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of enlightenment
- The potion of enlightenment provides a complete listing of the abilities which you currently have, intrinsically or by virtue of your possessions.
- Potion of extra healing
- The potion of extra healing will restore your hit points to their maximum value and then increase that maximum. If the potion is not cursed, then the potion will cure blindness. If the potion is positively blessed then sickness will also be cured. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of extra healing.
- Potion of fruit juice
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Potion of gain ability
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of gain energy
- The potion of gain energy adds to your magical power, or subtracts from it if the potion is cursed.
- Potion of gain level
- See also the section entitled Experience Level.
A cursed potion of gain level will merely levitate you to the level above the one you are currently on. If you are on level 1 then you will be levitated, by a curse potion of gain level, only if you have the Amulet of Yendor. A blessed potion of gain level will not only raise your experience level by one, but will also set your experience points so as to place you halfway towards the next experience level.
- Potion of hallucination
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of healing
- The potion of healing will restore your hit points to their maximum value. If the potion is not cursed, then the potion will cure blindness. If the potion is positively blessed then sickness will also be cured. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of healing.
- Potion of invisibility
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Potion of levitation
- See the section entitled Levitation
- Potion of monster detection
- A potion of monster detection briefly shows the position and class of every monster on the current level. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of detect monsters.
- Potion of object detection
- A potion of object detection briefly shows the position of every object on the current level.
- Potion of oil
- Introduced with V3.1, this potion may be applied and thrown as a Molotov Cocktail (fire bomb), drank (to little real effect, bar identifying the potion), used to refill your lamps (dip the lamp into the potion) or used to repair rusty weapons. See the section entitled Rustproofing and Fireproofing
- Potion of paralysis
- A potion of paralysis freezes you to the spot for a short time.
- Potion of restore ability
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of see invisible
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Potion of sickness
- See the section entitled Adjusting Your Attributes
- Potion of speed
- See the section entitled Speed
- Potion of water
- A potion of water is merely a drink of water. If the potion is blessed, it becomes "holy water." If it is cursed, it becomes "unholy water." See the section entitled Blessings and Curses
See the section entitled Unicorns and Theology
For information about Priests and Priestesses as a character class, see the sections entitled Experience Level and Blessings and Curses
Punishment can be caused by reading a scroll of punishment or by severely offending your deity.
Punishment may be cured by polymorphing into a nymph and then using the ALT-M command to remove the iron ball. If that option is unavailable, a nymph may steal your iron ball. Alternatively, #praying to your deity may result in your forgiveness.
Alternatively, stepping onto a magic trap when bereft of magic resistance carries a one in twenty chance that your punishment will be revoked, along with the removal of curses from any items worn and a loadstone, if you are carrying one.
The first-sight descriptions of all rings are mutable, but the properties conveyed are as given in the following listing. To identify which ring performs which task, the ring can be tried out (though beware of cursed rings), identified using a scroll or spell of identify or a sink may be utilised - for which, see the section entitled Sinks and Fountains.
There is another, very rough, method of narrowing down the possibilities of which ring is which when in a shop. Rings fall into three broad price bands, as follows:
The cheapest rings are the ring of adornment, the ring of protection, the ring of stealth, the ring of hunger, the ring of warning and the ring of protection from shape changers.
The second cheapest rings are the ring of poison resistance, the ring of aggravate monster, the ring of gain strength, the ring of increase damage, the ring of cold resistance and the ring of shock resistance.
The second dearest rings are the ring of regeneration, the ring of searching, the ring of levitation, the ring of fire resistance and the ring of teleportation.
The most expensive rings are the ring of conflict, the ring of teleport control, the ring of polymorph and the ring of polymorph control.
Note that rings cannot be put on or taken off if you are wearing a pair of cursed gloves or wielding a cursed weapon. Rings may also be jammed on if you polymorph while wearing them.
Note also that rings use up food rapidly when they are being worn.
- Ring of adornment
- A ring of adornment makes you attractive to the opposite sex, facilitating the seduction of succubi (if you are male) or incubi (if you are female), and increasing your charm rating - which assists you in getting a better deal with shopkeepers. For more details of why you would want to seduce succubi, see the section entitled Experience Level. A ring of adornment is very attractive to nymphs, who tend to steal it on a regular basis.
- Ring of aggravate monster
- See the section entitled Aggravate Monster
- Ring of cold resistance
- See the section entitled Cold Resistance
- Ring of conflict
- See the section entitled Aggravate Monster
- Ring of fire resistance
- See the section entitled Fire Resistance
- Ring of gain strength
- See the section entitled Adjusting your Attributes
- Ring of hunger
- A ring of hunger further increases the rate of food usage.
- Ring of increase damage
- When worn, this ring will ensure that your attacks do more damage to your opponents than they ordinarily would have done.
- Ring of invisibility
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Ring of levitation
- See the section entitled Levitation
- Ring of poison resistance
- See the section entitled Poison Resistance
- Ring of polymorph
- See the section entitled Polymorphing and Lycanthropy
- Ring of polymorph control
- See the section entitled Polymorphing and Lycanthropy
- Ring of protection
- A ring of protection enhances your armour class.
- Ring of protection from shape changers
- When this ring is worn, mimics and chameleons appear in their true, rather than their disguised, form. This ring conveys no protection against lycanthropes or lycanthropy.
- Ring of regeneration
- A ring of regeneration regenerates one extra hit point for every turn that it is worn.
- Ring of searching
- See the section entitled Searching
- Ring of see invisible
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Ring of shock resistance
- See the section entitled Shock Resistance
- Ring of stealth
- See the section entitled Stealth
- Ring of teleportation
- See the section entitled Teleportation
- Ring of teleport control
- See the section entitled Teleportation
- Ring of warning
- See the section entitled Warning
Note that, with V3.1, a great many additional special levels were added, including the Gnomish mines (which branch out from the main dungeon at a very early point) and Fort Ludios (the magic portal to which can be found in a Magic Memory Vault somewhere between level 10 and Medusa's level, though there is a chance it will not be present in every dungeon), as well as the Quest levels.
Many existing special levels - particularly the Endgame, the Medusa and Oracle levels - were also revamped, and the Wizard given his own castle. Oh, and a new level, containing Moloch's Temple and the Amulet of Yendor, was added below the final Gehennom (Hell) level. These new levels are not, by and large, covered in the noted below, since numerous other spoiler archives go into them in some detail.
- Beehives
- Beehives are populated with killer bees and a single queen. They contain many lumps of royal jelly.
- Morgues
- Morgues are populated with demons, vampires, ghosts, wraiths and zombies. They contain many boxes and chests, possibly filled with useful objects.
Levels containing a morgue are called "graveyard levels." Undead creatures, including wraiths, have a lower chance of leaving a corpse on such levels. Hence the use of the term "wraith luring", which involves moving the the staircase of a graveyard level and waiting until a wraith stands immediately next to you before going up or down the stairs. The wraith will often follow you onto the new level, where killing it is more likely to result in a corpse, which can be eaten in the usual manner (in order to gain an experience level).
Wraith luring is generally considered to be an abuse of the game, and is frowned upon in some circles.
- Swamps
- Swamps are populated by eels and fungi. They are full of pools of water.
- The Temple of Delphi (enhanced as of V3.1)
- The Temple of Delphi contains the Oracle, a fountain and various statues of centaurs.
- Throne Rooms
- Throne rooms contain dragons, giants, trolls, centaurs, orcs, gnomes, kobolds, bugbears and hobgoblins, along with a sovereign. The sovereign can be a dwarf king, gnome king, ogre king, Elvenking. They usually contain a lot of gold, and always contain at least one treasure chest.
- Barracks
- Barracks are populated with Soldiers of Yendor of various ranks. They contain many boxes and chests, possibly filled with useful objects.
- David's Zoo
- Zoos contain dragons, giants, trolls, centaurs, orcs, gnomes, kobolds, bugbears and hobgoblins. They usually contain a lot of gold.
- Shops
- Many shops may be found on the mall level in the Mines as of V3.1
A tame monster can be used to steal from shops, by letting it loose in the shop and then leaving yourself. When the monster rejoins you, it may have picked up an item - which is now available to you for free. If a tame dog is previously trained - by your throwing and object and then rewarding the dog with food when it returns the item to you, until the dog learns to fetch - then this technique will work better.
It may be possible to use a wand of polymorph on the shopkeeper.
The square immediately inside the shop's door is treated as "outside the shop." This can be useful if you wish to kick items onto that square - they then become available for free. (as of V3.1, such items must be paid for)
- Ghost Levels
- If you are killed on the Medusa Level, the Rogue Level, the Stronghold Level, the Endgame Level or on any level of Vlad's Castle then no bones file will be created (this statement is no longer valid, as of V3.1).
The lower the number of the dungeon level, the less likely it is that a bones file will be created for that level.
If a bones file is created then in future games there is a one in three chance that a player, on reaching that level, will find your ghost there already.
If your ghost is present on the level then your items and pets will be also, though the pets will not be tame for the new player and many of the items will be cursed. For this reason, it is a good idea, when raiding a stack of items which belonged to a ghost, to check them for curses (for example, by dropping them onto an altar) before use.
If you were killed by petrification then the resulting ghost level will contain a statue of you along with your belongings.
There are some circumstances in which a "ghost level" will not contain a ghost, but will instead contain some undead creature.
If you were killed by a wraith then your corpse will rise from the dead as a wraith to stalk the bones level. Similarly, if you were killed by a vampire then your corpse will rise as a vampire. Finally, if you were killed by a mummy then your corpse, freshly shrouded, will rise from the dead as a human mummy (or, if your character class was elf, as an elf mummy);
- Rogue Levels
- Rogue levels are a touch of nostalgia for Rogue, the original game which is the remote ancestor of Nethack.
The graphics used on a Rogue Level are the simplistic graphics used for the original Rogue - and the default graphics for Nethack. They are crude, and constrast sharply with the graphics generally used for Nethack on the Atari ST.
Rogue levels are structured 3 by 3, with each section containing a room or an intersection. There will be at least one room on the level, but there will be no "special" rooms, such as shops or beehives. There will also be no fountains, sinks, chests, altars or statues on a Rogue Level - they didn't exist in the earlier game.
A Rogue Level will always contain a "ghost" of a past Rogue player, whose possessions can include a bow and 10 to 25 arrows, a mace or a two handed sword, a ring mail or a plate mail, a food ration and, maybe, a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor.
The only traps which can appear on a Rogue Level are those which appeared in the original game, Rogue. That is: a bear trap, an arrow trap, a dart trap, a trapdoor, a pit, a sleeping gas trap or a rust trap.
Monsters on a Rogue Level cannot carry objects, and only monsters which use an upper-case letter as their symbol on-screen can be created on a Rogue Level.
- The Medusa Level
- As of V3.1, there are now two alterative Medusa level layouts. The notes below still apply, but there is now a 50% a chance of finding a shield of reflection inside one of the statues on Medusa's level.
Medusa will turn you to stone the instant that you see her. It is important, then, not to look at her.
The most effective way to deal with Medusa is to use a mirror to direct her gaze back at herself, thus turning her to stone. In order to avoid looking at Medusa, you should wear a blindfold - and acquire telepathy so as to enable you to see where the monsters are whilst you are blindfolded.
The most obvious indication that you are on Medusa's level is that there will be a large number of statues - her previous victims - scattered all over the level, several of which will bear the names of players from the high score table. Medusa's statues do not contain spellbooks.
If your luck is extremely good then you may be able to use a mirror to divine the location of Medusa or the Wizard of Yendor. Otherwise, a crystal ball can be used to perform the same task, provided that your intelligence is sufficiently high. But note that a cursed crystal ball should never be used under any circumstances.
- Maze Levels
- A maze level consists of a labyrinth, patrolled by a minotaur who carries a wand of digging and - sometimes - a broadsword.
All Hell levels are maze levels. Maze levels can also sometimes be found between the Medusa level and the Stronghold level. As of V3.1, many Hell levels are special levels, the homes of the demon lords.
- The Stronghold Level
- The Stronghold is the level immediately above the Hell levels. Indeed, a corridor to the far right of the Stronghold itself contains a sequence of trapdoors which are the only non-teleportation means to enter Hell.
Teleportation is not permitted on the Stronghold Level.
The Stronghold is a castle. The only ways in are through the front gate, which is protected by a drawbridge, or through the back door, which is locked and which gives onto the passage containing the trapdoors mentioned above.
Thus, to enter the Stronghold proper you need to lower the drawbridge or to have access to a levitation spell - via a spell, potion, ring or boots of levitation - if you are going to be able to avoid the traps in the rear corridor. If you decide to enter by the back door, you will also require either levitatin or water walking in order to cross the moat which surrounds the Stronghold castle.
The drawbridge can be lowered by playing a tune on any musical instrument - the precise tune changing from game to game, but available as a gift from a satisfied deity. If your deity does not give you the tune then you will have to indulge in a mastermind-style game of playing notes and noting which affect the drawbridge and which do not, until you manage to piece the entire tune together in that fashion. Alternatively, you could blast the drawbridge, and the water in front of it, with fire, to evaporate the water and incinerate the drawbridge, or cold, to shatter the drawbridge and freeze the water into a bridge across the moat. Or a wand or spell of knock or opening would also suffice to open the drawbridge.
In the stronghold are a courtyard with a fountain, just inside the drawbridge, beyond which is a short corridor which opens into the throne room. The monsters in the throne room are many, varied and deadly.
Off the throne room are two rooms of little consequence, a secret door which opens onto the short corridor mentioned above, which is filled with trapdoors leading to Hell, and two long corridors, which run the entire length of the Stronghold castle. The latter two corridors lead to the four watchtowers - one on each corner of the castle.
The short corridor between the throne room and the back door contains two secret doors roughly halfway along its length - you will need levitation in order to reach them. These doors each open onto two very short corridors, initially occupied by two dragons each. Once you are past the dragons, the storerooms of the Stronghold can be looted.
There are four storerooms, each filled with a different type of item: food, weapons, armour and gems. A wide variety of each is available.
Each watchtower is guarded by several Soldiers of Yendor. In one of the watchtowers - which one changes from game to game - a wand of wishing can be found.
- Hell Levels
- Hell is known as Gehennom as of V3.1, and incorporates a great any more Special Levels, homes of various demon lords, than it did when the notes below were written.
The Hell levels consist of all levels below the Stronghold level. If you enter Hell without fire resistance, or if you lose fire resistance while in Hell, then you will be burned to a crisp. It is, therefore, essential to acquire intrinsic fire resistance before entering Hell - and be careful around gremlins in Hell if it is dark outside, as their attributes curse, cast only at night, is the only way for you to lose intrinsic fire resistance. As of V3.1, fire resistance is not a requirement for entering Gehennom (Hell), but is still strongly recommended.
Every Hell level is a maze level - and therefore contains a minotaur.
Since every Hell level has only a staircase leading up as its single exit, it is impossible to descend further into Hell by any means other than by level teleportation. It is important, then, that you acquire both a means of achieving level teleportation and learn to control your teleports before entering Hell. The most portable means of level teleportation consists of a stock of cursed scrolls of teleportation. Alternatively, uncursed scrolls of teleportation will cause you to level teleport if you read them while in a confused state.
Items found in Hell tend to be cursed more often than those found elsewhere.
Somewhere in Hell - exactly where varies from game to game - are the three Vlad's Castle levels and the Wizard of Yendor's level. The Wizard of Yendor is the keeper of the Amulet of Yendor, which can be found in a small tower, surrounded by a moat, in the centre of the level. The Amulet - and the Wizard - will be in the central square of the tower, all four surrounding squares will consist of squeaky board traps, the Wizard's companion will be a Hell hound, and the moat will contain a kraken.
Beware, however, since a similar scenario can be found on other levels in Hell - but, in those cases, the "Amulet" in the tower is a cheap plastic imitation and the Wizard's place is taken by a Demon Prince. For this reason, you should make sure that you have telepathy and a blindfold before entering Hell, in order to ascertain the identity of the occupant of the tower before you enter it.
As of V3.1, the Wizard of Yendor has his own castle, though entrance is via a magic portal, located below the Wizard's castle and in a location such as that described above. In addition, the Wizard no longer has the Amulet of Yendor, but carries the Book of the Dead, which is an artifact which is required in order to obtain the Amulet of Yendor.
- Vlad's Castle
- As of V3.1, Vlad's castle consists of three levels branching out from Hell - all else seems unchanged, however.
Vlad's Castle takes up three levels in Hell - which three levels varies from game to game. The bottom level of Vlad's tower is the only place through which entry can be gained to the upper levels.
On the top two levels of the castle, a number of small rooms can be found. In each room is a valuable item or a chest of items, each one guarded by a monster. Many such monsters are demons, vampires or - especially on the top level - vampire lords. One of the items is always a pair of boots of water walking - which are almost essential if you are to obtain the Amulet from the Wizard of Yendor.
On the top level of Vlad's Castle you will find Vlad the Impaler himself, in a small throne room too small for the usual horde of monsters found in other throne rooms.
Teleportation is not permitted on any of the three Vlad's castle levels.
- The Endgame Level
- The Endgame Level has been entirely revamped as of V3.1 - these notes are no longer applicable to the new Endgame, which now consists of five separate Elemental Plains - Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Astral. The three temples referred to below now appear on the Astral Plain, guarded by hoards of Priest(esse)s and Angelic beings, along with Death, Famine and Pestilence (the player is War, naturally)
The Endgame level is the level which you will reach if you go up the staircase on level 1 while carrying the Amulet of Yendor. There is no way back down.
Teleportation is not permitted on the Endgame Level.
The Endgame level consists of a maze, which leads to a large building. Inside the building are nine rooms, each of which is filled with a single class of monster - lichs in one, golems in another, dragons in another, nagas in another, and so on.
One past the monsters, there are three temples - one dedicated to a god of each alignment. Which temple is dedicated to which deity changes from game to game. The idea is to sacrifice the Amulet on the altar of your own deity in order to successfully complete your game of Nethack.
The Endgame level is a ridiculously difficult level to complete, unless you have the ability to both polymorph and to control what you will polymorph into.
The simplest way to proceed is to polymorph yourself into a monster which can pass through walls - a Xorn, for example - and simply walk straight past the central building and on to the three temples, thus avoiding the conflict with the vast number of high-level monsters which the main building contains.
Once on the left of the Endgame Level, you can quickly and easily identify which is the correct altar, and sacrifice the Amulet. Note, however, that you must ensure that the Amulet you sacrifice is the true Amulet of Yendor, and not a cheap plastic imitation. Otherwise, your deity will be most displeased.
When exposed to water, non-rustproofed iron items may become rusty, then very rusty, then thoroughly rusty (the level of rust increases with each exposure). Similarly, when exposed to fire, non-fireproofed items may become damaged, then very damaged, then thoroughly damaged; and non-corrode-proofed bronze may become corroded, very corroded and then thoroughly corroded.
Each type of item is susceptible to only one form of damage (rust, fire or corrosion) - thus, proofing that item against one type of damage is sufficient to protect it.
Each level of damage effectively reduces the item's enchantment by one until the damage is repaired. Thus, a very rusty +3 long sword will be equally as effective as a non-rusty +1 long sword.
Dipping a weapon into a potion of oil will repair a single level of rust on that weapon (taking it from "thoroughly" to only "very" rusty, for instance). Note that this approach will not work when it comes to repairing armour.
The simplest method of damageproofing any item is to read a scroll of enchantment while confused. Note that no advantage is gained by that scroll being blessed, though using a cursed scroll here will remove the damage-proofing from that object.
For example, reading a blessed or uncursed scroll of enchant weapon while both confused and wielding a thoroughly rusty long sword will rustproof that weapon, and will also repair all prior damage to that long sword. Similarly, reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armour while confused will rustproof (or fireproof, or corrodeproof, depending on the type of armour) a random piece of armour which you are wearing at that time, and simultaneously repair any existing damage it may have had. In this case, you are advised to wear only those pieces of armour which you wish to damageproof - in order to ensure that the scroll does not go to waste, by damageproofing an item which is already damageproof.
There is another method for damageproofing armour. If you read a cursed scroll of destroy armour then a random piece of your armour will be damageproofed. A blessed scroll of destory armour will, if you are confused while reading it, remove the damageproofing from a piece of armour. In the case of this scroll, however, any existing damage to the armour will not be repaired, so it is possible to end up with "very damaged fireproof speed boots", for example.
Items which are susceptible to water damage (including rust) may be protected by a layer of grease (apply a can of grease directly to the item). In the case of items stored in a sack, a layer of grease may be applied to the sack itself, in order to help protect its contents.
A more reliable approach in this instance, however, is to wear an oilskin cloak over your non-rustproof body armour, and/or to place your susceptible items inside an oilskin sack in order to protect them against water damage.
Scrolls are single-shot spells. Once they have been read, they vanish.
If you attacked by a fireball then, even if you have fire resistance, it is likely that many - if not all - of your scrolls will be burned up.
To tell which scroll has which properties, you could attempt to read it or - if you are in a shop - you could narrow down the possibilities by comparing the scrolls according to their prices.
The cheapest scroll is the scroll of identify.
The second cheapest scroll is the scroll of light.
The third cheapest scrolls are the scroll of enchant weapon and the scroll of blank paper.
The fourth cheapest scrolls are the scroll of remove curse and the scroll of enchant armour.
The third most expensive scrolls are the scroll of teleportation, the scroll of gold detection, the scroll of food detection, the scroll of destroy armour, the scroll of confuse monster, the scroll of scare monster, the scroll of magic mapping and the scroll of fire.
The second most expensive scrolls are the scroll of amnesia, the scroll of create monster and the scroll of taming.
The most expensive scrolls are the scroll of genocide, the scroll of punishment and the scroll of charging.
- Scroll of amnesia
- Reading a scroll of amnesia makes you forget much of what you have learned so far - including the map of the current level and many, if not all, of the spells you had memorised.
- Scroll of blank paper
- See the section entitled Magic Marker
- Scroll of charging
- Reading a scroll of charging allows you to add an extra charge to a wand, magic lamp, frost horn, fire horn, bag of tricks or any other item which can be charged. Note that a wand of wishing and a magic marker may be recharged once only. All other wands may be charged any number of times. It is a bad idea to attempt to recharge an item using a cursed scroll.
- Scroll of confuse monster
- Reading a scroll of confuse monster causes your hands to glow red. Any monsters which you touch while your hands are glowing will become confused. If the scroll is cursed, then you will become confused on reading it. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of confuse monster.
- Scroll of create monster
- Reading a scroll of create monster will create a random creature. If you are confused when casting create monster, you will create only acid blobs (!?). The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of create monster, zapping a wand of create monster, or by the application of a bag of tricks.
- Scroll of destroy armour
- Reading a scroll of destroy armour will disintegrate at least one item of armour which you are wearing. See also the section entitled Rustproofing and Fireproofing.
- Scroll of enchant armour
- If you are confused when reading this scroll then its target will be made rustproof or fireproof, and any existing rust/fire damage repaired. See also the sections entitled Blessings and Curses and Rustproofing and Fireproofing.
- Scroll of enchant weapon
- If you are confused when reading this scroll then its target will be made rustproof or fireproof, and any existing rust/fire damage repaired. See the section entitled Blessings and Curses and Rustproofing and Fireproofing.
- Scroll of fire
- Reading a scroll of fire causes a fireball to attack you. The same effect can be had by casting a spell of fireball on yourself, or by zapping yourself with a wand of fire. Note that the fireball is likely to burn up any scrolls or wooden objects you may have, and cause potions to boil over and explode, regardless of whether you have fire resistance or not.
- Scroll of food detection
- Reading a scroll of food detection shows the position of every edible object on the current level. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of detect food.
- Scroll of genocide
- Reading a scroll of genocide allows you to select a species of monster which is to be completely eliminated from the game. A blessed scroll will genocide an entire class of creatures, while a cursed scroll of genocide will summon a horde of the creatures which you were attempting to genocide. My suggestion would be to genocide Liches and nymphs, since those creatures are the mose difficult to defend against (as of V3.1, I would also add Mind Flayers to this list). The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of genocide, or - from time to time - by sitting on a throne.
- Scroll of gold detection
- Reading a scroll of gold detection shows the position of every gold piece on the current level. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of detect treasure. If you are confused when reading this scroll then you will instead be shown the position of every trap on the current level, their location being marked by a "gold" symbol.
- Scroll of identify
- Reading a scroll of identify allows you to identify a specific object in your inventory. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of identify. If the scroll is blessed then several objects may be identified (one in five chance of either 1,2,3,4 or all of your objects being identified, if scroll is blessed; in addition, if your luck is positive then a blessed scroll will always identify at least two items).
- Scroll of light
- Reading a scroll of light lights up a darkened room. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of light, zapping a wand of light or by the application of a lamp. If the scroll is cursed then the room will become dark.
- Scroll of magic mapping
- Reading a scroll of magic mapping produces a full map of the whole of the current level. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of magic mapping. If the scroll is cursed then the map will be patchy and incoherent.
- Scroll of punishment
- See the section entitled Punishment
- Scroll of remove curse
- See the section entitled Blessings and Curses
- Scroll of scare monster
- Reading a scroll of scare monster will scare any nearby monsters into running away. If the scroll is cursed then you will be scared. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of cause fear. Monsters, other than humans and Elves, will tend not to step on a scroll of scare monster - in this respect, it behaves analagously to an engraving of "Elbereth" (See the section entitled Engraving).
- Scroll of taming
- See the section entitled Taming Pets
- Scroll of teleportation
- See the section entitled Teleportation
See also the section entitled Magic Marker
The searching ability assists you in locating secret doors, secret corridors and traps by automatically searching all the time.
Searching can be intrinsic, or be gained by wearing a ring of searching - though, in that case, the effect lasts for only as long as the ring is being worn. The only known way of obtaining intrinsic searching is as a gift from your deity.
Intrinsic searching is automatically obtained by archeologists, rogues and tourists on reaching experience level 10. The gain is signalled by the message, "You feel perceptive." Note that elves start off with this ability as intrinsic.
See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
For more details and more general information about armour, see the section entitled Armour.
- A "polished silver shield" (shield of reflection) is AC 8.
Reflects ranged non-material attacks back towards the creature who made the attack. Like the amulet of reflection, the shield of reflection can repel flames, bolt of colds, lightning bolts, magic missiles and paralysing gazes. No protection is provided against the umber hulk's confusing look, nor the Medusa's petrifying one. The shield of protection is the only rust-proof shield.
- A "blue and green shield" (elven shield) is AC 8.
- A "large round shield" (dwarvish roundshield) is AC 8.
- A large shield is AC 8.
- A "white-handed shield" (Uruk-Hai shield) is AC 9.
- A "red-eyed shield" (orcish shield) is AC 9.
- A small shield is AC 9.
See the section entitled Body Armour
A shock attack not only causes physical damage, but can also destroy your wands, causing them to explode.
Intrinsic shock resistance - which protects against electric shocks given by, for example, electric eels - can be acquired by eating a gelatinous cube corpse, a blue dragon corpse, a baby blue dragon corpse, a brown pudding corpse, a black pudding corpse, a flesh golem corpse, a temple priest corpse, a temple priestess corpse or an electric eel corpse. The gain is signalled by the message, "Your health currently feels amplified."
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
See the section entitled Boots and Shoes
Shops are always tended by shopkeepers - who will refuse entry to anybody who is wielding or carrying a pickaxe, and refuse exit to anybody who has not paid their bill. If you do manage to leave without paying your bill (by teleporting out, killing the shopkeeper or digging through the walls using a wand of digging), then the shopkeeper - if he/she is still alive - will summon the Keystone Kops as well as chasing you him/herself.
The Keystone Kops will appear in two or three main groups - one near the shopkeeper and another near the stairs - and will vanish only if the shopkeeper's bill is paid. When a Kop is killed, there is two in five chance that it will simply reincarnate somewhere else on the current level.
The prices of items in shops tend to be higher if the shopkeeper is angry, if you are a tourist, if you are wearing a Hawaiian shirt with nothing to conceal it, if you are wearing a Dunce's Cap, or if your charisma is less than 11. Prices tend to be lower if your charisma is more than 15.
A bag of tricks, a wand, a crystal ball, a lamp or any musical intrument (even magical instruments) can be used in a shop at a cost of one quarter the sale price per use of the item. A magic lamp and a magic marker are more expensive to try before your buy than they cost to buy outright.
Foods cost more - and are bought for more - the hungrier you are.
Standing on an item in a shop and #chat'ting (ALT-C) will, as of V3.1, inform you of the quoted price for that object. Warning - shopkeepers may now lie about the prices of unidentified gems.
See the section entitled Disease and Injury
If you drink from a fountain, there is a one in thirty chance that you will receive a full accounting of your current abilities. The same chance exists that you will be forced to vomit, that the water will be poisoned or that you will be attacked by water snakes, a water demon or a water nymph, will see a vision of the monsters on the current level, find a gem in the waters, scare away all monsters in the room or flood the room.
There is also a one in thirty chance that a random object of yours will be cursed, the fact being signalled by the message "The water is no good." Similarly, it is one in thirty that you will gain the intrinsic ability to see invisible, that gain being signalled by the message that "you see an image of someone stalking you. But it disappears."
Dipping a long sword into a fountain carries a one in six chance that the object will be transformed, by the Lady of the Lake, into Excalibur, a blessed, rust-proof long sword. For more information on Excalibur, see the section entitled Named Weapons.
NOTE - In later versions of Nethack, Excalibur may only be granted to Lawfully-aligned characters - attempts by Neutral or Chaotic characters to gain Excalibur in this way will be penalised.
Dipping any item into a fountain carries a one in thirty chance that the item will be cursed, along with one in thirty chances each of attack by water snakes, a water demon or a water nymph, a one in thirty risk of the fountain flooding and the same risk of losing some gold while indulging an overwhelming urge to take a bath.
However, there is also a four in thirty chance that a cursed object dipped into a fountain will have the curse removed as a result, along with one in thirty chances that you will discover a gem or some gold in the fountain. If gold is found, then fountains nearer the surface will contain more than those lower down.
Drinking from a sink carries one in thirty chances that you will drink "scalding hot water," be attacked by a sewer rat or a water elemental, be made to vomit, subjected to a randomly-selected potion, flood the room or undergo a forced polymorph.
However, drinking from a sink also offers one in thirty chances that you will find a ring in the sink or gain an experience level, the latter being signalled by the message "Yuk, this water tastes awful."
Kicking a sink may create a black pudding, an incubus or succubus or a ring, which ring being chosen at random.
Dropping a ring into a sink will reveal its nature by way of a cryptic clue, but the action also carries with it a 95% chance of losing the ring altogether.
If "the sink quivers upward for a moment" then the ring was a ring of levitation. If "you smell rotten slime mold" (or the fruit chosen using the fruit option) then the ring was a ring of poison resistance. A ring of aggravate monster causes "several flies" to "buzz angrily around the sink," while if "static electricity surrounds the sink" then yours was a ring of shock resistance. If you "hear loud noises coming from the drain" then you had a ring of conflict, whereas a fing of gain strength causes "the water flow" to seem "weaker" or "stronger," depending on whether the ring was rated negatively or positively. Similarly, "the water's force seems smaller now" or "greater now" if the ring was a ring of increase damage, depending on its rating.
All other effects require sight, and so are available only if you are not blinded.
"The sink looks as good as new" after ingesting a ring of regeneration. If "you don't see anything happen to the sink" then you can be sure that your ring was a ring of invisibility, but if "you see some air in the sink" then it was a ring of see invisible. If "the sink seems to blend into the floor for a moment" then the ring was a ring of stealth. A ring of hunger will "Suddenly" vanish "from the sink!"
A ring of fire resistance causes "the hot water faucet" to flash "brightly for a moment," while a ring of cold resistance performs the same action on "the cold faucet" and a ring of adornment causes "the faucets" to "flash brightly for a moment." If you are informed that "The sink looks nothing like a fountain" then your ring was a ring of protection from shape-changers.
Alternatively, you may see that "the sink glows <some colour> for a moment." If that colour is black or silver, then your ring was a ring of protection - black for negative, silver for positive. A white glow comes from a ring of warning (though colours will, of course, be confused if you are hallucinating).
"The sink momentarily vanishes" after ingesting a ring of teleportation, and "looks like it is being beamed aboard somewhere" on encountering a ring of teleport control. On the other hand, it "momentarily looks like a fountain" on coming into contact with a ring of polymorph, but "momentarily looks like a regularly erupting geyser" if a ring of polymorph control is dropped into it.
See the section entitled Lock Pick, Credit Card, Key and Skeleton Key
Sleep resistance provides blanket protection from all forms of sleeping ray or sleeping gas - whether from a trap or an attack by a monster.
Sleep resistance is intrinsic to elves, but can be acquired by eating an acid blob corpse, a gelatinous cube corpse, a homunculus corpse, a lemure corpse, any orange dragon corpse or any elf corpse, the gain being signalled by the message, "You feel wide awake."
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
Speed has essentially two settings, low and high. Initially, your speed is low - unless you are an archeologist, an elf or a samurai warrior. Your intrinsic speed may be toggled between low and high by eating a quantum mechanic corpse.
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
You may also temporarily increase your speed to high by quaffing a potion of speed, zapping yourself with a wand of speed monster, casting a spell of haste self, or by wearing a pair of speed boots - the effect of the latter lasting for as long as the boots are worn.
You may slow yourself or other monsters down by casting a spell of slow monster or zapping them with a wand of slow monster. Note that slowing down a monster which has swallowed you will result in it expelling you.
Intrinsic high speed is automatically obtained by barbarians, knights and valkerie on reaching experience level 7. The gain is signalled by the message, "You feel quick." Note that archeologists, elves and samurai start off with this ability as intrinsic.
The speed conferred by quaffing a potion of speed is faster than that conferred by wearing speed boots, which is in turn faster than that conferred by intrinsically having high speed.
As of V3.1, spellcasting has been somewhat modified. The following notes still apply, but with these additions and corrections:
- Spellbooks are no longer "used up" with a single reading, but their words will eventually vanish (turning them blank)
- Each character class now has a minimum spell failure rate, thus some classes (notably the barbarian) are inordinately bad at casting spells. Each class also has a specific spell, or class of spells, which comes easier to that class of characters. The base spellcasting ability (the lower the better) and class-specific spells are as follows (a character gains a -4 bonus to its base ability when attempting their "special" spell):
- Archeologists (5) tend to be good at Magic Mapping spells
- Barbarians (14) tend to be good at Haste Self spells
- Cavemen and Cavewomen (12) tend to be good at Digging spells
- Elves (5) tend to be good at Detect Unseen spells
- Healers (3) tend to be good at Cure Sickness spells
- Knights (8) tend to be good at Turn Undead spells
- Priests and Priestesses (3) tend to be good at Remove Curse spells
- Rogues (8) tend to be good at Detect Treasure spells
- Samurai (10) tend to be good at Clairvoyance spells
- Tourists (5) tend to be good at Charm Monster spells
- Valkyrie (10) tend to be good at Cone of Cold spells
- Wizards (1) tend to be particularly good at Magic Missile spells (according to the source code, it's "their party trick")
- The spellcasting ability of characters is based on the character's Intelligence except for Healers, Knights, Priests, Priestesses and Valkyrie, for which their ability is based on their Wisdom.
- Metallic armour (helmets, gauntlets, shields, body armour and boots) now interferes with spellcasting. Thus, the removal of metallic armour may decrease the likelihood of a spell failing. Specifically, metallic armour adds a penalty of between 8 and 10 to the spellcasting ability of the character (the warrior classes, such as Barbarians, receive the lower penalty). In addition, wearing a small shield will penalise your spellcasting by 1 or 2, unless you are a Wizard (penalty of 3) or a Barbarian, Knight, Samurai or Valkyrie (no penalty for shields).
- When casting healing spells, Healers receive a -3 bonus; Knights, Priests and Valkyrie receive a -2 bonus; and Tourists get a +1 penalty (remember, the lower the final value, the more likely the character is to be able to successfully cast the spell).
- You will eventually forget how to cast a given spell.
- Attempting to cast a spell which has "burned out" (been forgotten or over-used) will confuse you. This can be extremely useful in game terms, and it has been suggested that future versions of the game will remove this facility. So use it while you still can.
When a spell book is studied, the spell it contains is added to your knowledge, allowing the spell to be cast at any time by using the 'Z' command, and the spellbook is used up. Each study session will confer between two and ten uses of the spell - the maximum number depending also on the level of the spell itself, the higher the level, the fewer number of uses granted. The highest level spells, then, can be used only two or three times per study session.
Any spellbooks which are not used up can be burned by fire attacks.
Reading a cursed spell book, or one with mystic runes beyond your experience level, can be dangerous - teleporting you, blinding you, aggravtaing monsters on the level (signalled by the message, "You feel threatened"), causing some or all of your gold to vanish, making you confused, exploding in your face, randomly cursing some of your possessions, poisoning you with contact poison or - if you are wearing metallic gauntlets which are not rustproof - corroding them.
A spell can also backfire when you cast it. If you attempt to cast a spell well above your experience level, or cast it at a time when your luck is particularly bad, you can end up wasting both the energy and the time required in casting. Each time you cast a spell, your familiarity with it will dwindle, until you eventually forget the details completely and must relearn it by locating another spell book.
Note that a spell is counted as being "cast" when you attempt to cast it, even if you do not have sufficient magical power or are too hungry to successfully cast the spell. Casting a spell while carrying or wearing the Amulet of Yendor multiplies the amount of magical energy required to cast the spell by up to six times.
If you are confused then a spell may still be successfully cast, though the likelihood increases the higher your intelligence, the better your luck, and the lower the level of the spell you are attempting to cast.
Spells may be forgotten entirely if you should read a scroll of amnesia.
- Spellbook of cancellation
- Spell level 7
The spell of cancellation is identical in effect to the wand of cancellation. - Spellbook of cause fear
- Spell level 3
The spell of cause fear is identical in effect to the scroll of scare monster. - Spellbook of charm monster
- Spell level 3
See the section entitled Taming Pets - Spellbook of clairvoyance
- Spell level 3
The spell of clairvoyance will show a full map of the immediate vicinity of the spell-caster. - Spellbook of cone of cold
- Spell level 5
The spell of cone of cold is identical in effect to both the wand of cold and the frost horn. - Spellbook of confuse monster
- Spell level 2
The spell of confuse monster is identical in effect to the scroll of confuse monster. - Spellbook of create familiar
- Spell level 6
The spell of create familiar is identical in effect to the application of a figurine. - Spellbook of create monster
- Spell level 2
The spell of create monster is identical in effect to both the scroll of create monster and the bag of tricks - Spellbook of cure blindness
- Spell level 2
See the section entitled Diseases and Injuries - Spellbook of cure sickness
- Spell level 3
See the section entitled Diseases and Injuries - Spellbook of detect food
- Spell level 2
The spell of detect food is identical in effect to the scroll of food detection. - Spellbook of detect monsters
- Spell level 1
The spell of detect monsters is identical in effect to the scroll of monster detection. - Spellbook of detect treasure
- Spell level 4
The spell of detect treasure is identical in effect to the scroll of gold detection. - Spellbook of detect unseen
- Spell level 3
The spell of detect unseen is identical in effect to the wand of secret door detection. - Spellbook of dig
- Spell level 5
The spell of dig is identical in effect to the wand of digging. - Spellbook of extra healing
- Spell level 3
The spell of extra healing is identical in effect to quaffing a potion of extra healing. - Spellbook of finger of death
- Spell level 7
The spell of finger of death is identical in effect to the wand of death. - Spellbook of fireball
- Spell level 4
The spell of fireball is identical in effect to both the wand of fire and the fire horn. - Spellbook of force bolt
- Spell level 1
The spell of force bolt is identical in effect to the wand of striking. - Spellbook of genocide
- Spell level 7
The spell of genocide is identical in effect to the scroll of genocide. - Spellbook of haste self
- Spell level 3
See the section entitled Speed - Spellbook of healing
- Spell level 1
The spell of healing is identical in effect to the potion of healing. - Spellbook of identify
- Spell level 5
The spell of identify is identical in effect to the scroll of identify. - Spellbook of invisibility
- Spell level 4
See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement - Spellbook of knock
- Spell level 1
Casting a spell of knock at a closed door, a closed chest or box or a closed drawbridge will open the door, chest, box or drawbridge. - Spellbook of levitation
- Spell level 4
See the section entitled Levitation - Spellbook of light
- Spell level 1
The spell of light is identical in effect to both the wand of light and the scroll of light and the application of a lamp. - Spellbook of magic mapping
- Spell level 5
The spell of magic mapping is identical in effect to the scroll of magic mapping. - Spellbook of magic missile
- Spell level 2
The spell of magic missile is identical in effect to the wand of magic missile. - Spellbook of polymorph
- Spell level 6
See the section entitled Polymorphing and Lycanthropy - Spellbook of remove curse
- Spell level 5
See the section entitled Blessings and Curses - Spellbook of restore ability
- Spell level 4
See the section entitled Adjusting your Attributes - Spellbook of sleep
- Spell level 1
The spell of sleep is identical in effect to the wand of sleep. - Spellbook of slow monster
- Spell level 2
See the section entitled Speed - Spellbook of teleport away
- Spell level 6
See the section entitled Teleportation - Spellbook of turn undead
- Spell level 6
The spell of turn undead is identical in effect to the wand of undead turning. - Spellbook of wizard lock
- Spell level 2
Casting a spell of wizard lock at a open door, an open chest or box or an open drawbridge will close and lock the door, chest, box or drawbridge. Casting a spell of wizard lock at a broken down door will cause the broken door to reconstitute itself into a closed and locked door.
See also the section entitled Magic Marker
Statues, which may be shattered by use of a pick-axe, sometimes contain spellbooks. Some statues also come to life when touched.
If there are a lot of statues on a level, it may be a sign that Medusa is somewhere on that level - particularly if some of the statues bear the name of characters from the high score table.
A stethoscope can be used to distinguish statue traps (which come to life when triggered) from statues - a statue trap is in "extraordinary health for a statue", while ordinary statues are merely in "excellent health for a statue."
Stealth ensures that you move more quietly, and therefore wake up and/or attract fewer monsters.
Stealth can be intrinsic, or can be obtained by wearing a pair of elven boots or a ring of stealth, the latter two lasting only while the item is being worn. The only known way of obtaining intrinsic stealth is as a gift from your deity.
Intrinsic stealth is automatically obtained by cavemen and cavewomen on reaching experience level 7 and by barbarians and samurai on reaching experience level 15. The gain is signalled by the message, "You feel stealthy." Note that archeologists, rogues and valkeries start off with this ability as intrinsic.
A stethoscope, when applied to a monster in an adjacent square, will list that monsters vital statistics - name, alignment, armour class, experience level, maximum and remaining hit points, quantity of gold carried and whether or not it is tamed. Zapping a wand of probing at a monster will have the same effect, but can be done at a greater range.
When applied to a wall, a stethoscope can be used to detect secret doors and secret corridors.
A stethoscope can be used to distinguish statue traps (which come to life when triggered) from statues - a statue trap is in "extraordinary health for a statue", while ordinary statues are merely in "excellent health for a statue."
A cursed stethoscope will only operate 50% of the time. Since the use of a stethoscope uses no game time, however, this is a minor inconvenience.
As of V3.1, only the first use of a stethoscope in a given turn uses no game time. Thus, cursed stethoscopes can be a major inconvenience.
See the section entitled Disease and Injury
Throwing an item of food - preferably a pancake, an egg, a tripe ration or a small corpse such as a dead lizard - at canine or feline monsters (those which use the symbol 'd' or 'f') will tame them.
Reading a scroll of taming or casting a spell of charm monster will attempt to tame all monsters in squares immediately adjacent to your position. All monsters which do not manage to resist will be tamed.
If you are confused when you cast the spell or read the scroll then your chances of success are necessarily reduced. The rewards of success, however, are drastically improved, since the range of the taming scroll or charming spell is extended to include monsters within five squares of yours - rather than just those in adjacent squares - if you are confused when the spell is activated.
Stepping onto a magic trap without magic resistance - that is, while not wearing a cloak of magic resistance or a suit of grey dragon dragon scale mail - carries a one in twenty chance that a taming spell will be cast on all monsters in adjacent squares. This method is, however, necessarily hit-and-miss.
A tame monster will follow you around, and may be put on a leash.
Tame monsters will not follow you from level to level unless they are either on a leash or on a square adjacent to you when you go up or down stairs or a ladder.
If you teleport within a level or level teleport, leashed monsters will teleport with you.
If you blow a magic whistle, all tame monsters on the current level will teleport to your position.
This enables you to see the location and type of every monster on the level, wherever those monsters may be, when you are blinded for whatever reason - which includes the wearing of a blindfold.
Telepathy can be acquired by wearing a Helm of ESP - the effect lasting for as long as the helmet is worn - or may be acquired intrinsically by eating a floating eye corpse or being bestowed by your deity.
In more recent versions of Nethack, you will find that only monsters which have minds can be detected telepathically. As of Nethack V3.2.2, the "mindless" creatures are as follows. As you can see, there are quite a few of them.
- All Blobs
- Acid Blob
- Quivering Blob
- Gelatinous Cube
- Freezing Sphere
- All Jellies
- Blue Jelly
- Spotted Jelly
- Ochre Jelly
- All Lights
- Yellow Light
- Black Light
- All Elementals
- Air Elemental
- Fire Elemental
- Earth Elemental
- Water Elemental
- All Fungi
- Brown Mold
- Yellow Mold
- Green Mold
- Red Mold
- Shrieker
- Violet Fungus
- All Golems
- Straw Golem
- Rope Golem
- Leather Golem
- Wood Golem
- Flesh Golem
- Clay Golem
- Stone Golem
- Iron Golem
- All Mummies
- Kobold Mummy
- Gnome Mummy
- Orc Mummy
- Elf Mummy
- Human Mummy
- Ettin Mummy
- Giant Mummy
- All Puddings
- grey Ooze
- Brown Pudding
- Black Pudding
- All Vortices
- Fog Cloud
- Dust Vortex
- Ice Vortex
- Energy Vortex
- Steam Vortex
- Fire Vortex
- All Zombies
- Kobold Zombie
- Gnome Zombie
- Orc Zombie
- Elf Zombie
- Human Zombie
- Ettin Zombie
- Giant Zombie
- Skeleton
Note, when doing battle with a floating eye, that its gaze - which causes paralysis - can be reflected by an amulet of reflection and that its gaze cannot be used offensively if you cannot see the floating eye (for example, if it is rendered invisible or if you are blinded).
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
Teleportation involves moving instantaneously from one point to another, possibly specified, point on the same level.
If teleport control is available, the point to which you wish to teleport yourself is specified by moving a cursor to it. Provided that the new location is not occupied by a wall, a trap, a monster or a closed or locked door, the teleportation will be successful. Otherwise, or if teleport control is unavailable, you will be teleported to a spot on the current level, chosen at random.
Level teleportation involves moving instantaneously from your current level to another, possibly specified, level.
If teleport control is available, the new level is specified by typing its number. Otherwise, you are teleported to another level at random.
Teleportation can be performed on demand by reading an uncursed scroll of teleportation, zapping yourself with a wand of teleportation, casting a spell of teleport away on yourself, by stepping onto a teleportation trap with no magical protection or by using the CONTROL-T command while either wearing a ring of teleportation or in possession of the intrinsic ability to teleport. Note that, in the latter two cases, teleportation will also be triggered automatically at random intervals.
Level teleportation can be performed on demand by reading a cursed scroll of teleportation or by stepping onto a level teleportation trap with no magical protection.
Teleportation is not permitted on certain dungeon levels - specifically, the Stronghold level, the Endgame level and the three levels which go to make up Vlad's Castle.
Level teleportation is not permitted while carrying or wearing the Amulet of Yendor.
The intrinsic ability to teleport can be gained by eating a leprechaun corpse, a nymph corpse, a quantum mechanic corpse, a tengu corpse or a Wizard of Yendor Corpse. The gaining of the ability is signalled by the message, "You feel jumpy."
The intrinsic ability to control teleport can be gained by eating a tengu corpse or a Wizard of Yendor corpse after you have already gained the intrinsic ability to teleport. The gaining of the ability is signalled by the message, "You feel in control of yourself."
Note that corpses sometimes have at least the potential for more than one effect, so be careful when eating them. See the section entitled Corpses for details.
Intrinsic teleport control is automatically obtained by wizards on reaching experience level 17. The gain is signalled by the message, "You feel controlled."
Note that eating a Wizard of Yendor corpse will also have the unfortunate side-effect of providing you with the intrinsic liability of aggravating monsters. If you are human, such cannibalism is also likely to seriously offend your deity.
Other creatures and objects can be teleported only by zapping them with a wand of teleportation or by casting the teleport away spell on them.
See the section entitled Unicorns and Theology
Whenever you sit on a throne, there is one chance in three that nothing will happen at all (signalled by the message that "You feel somehow out of place...") and two chances in three that some action will occur. After the action, or inaction, there is a further one chance in three that the throne will "vanish in a puff of logic."
There are several possible actions on sitting on a throne, and which actions occurs is chosen entirely at random - your clothing and your standing with respect to your deity plays no part in the choice of action, though your luck may have some effect.
You may lose up to four points from any one of your attributes (this action is more likely than the others); you may receive an electric shock; your gold could be stolen; you could be confused; up to ten monsters may be created; you may be blinded (or, if your luck is bad, random possessions may be cursed); or the monsters on the current level may be aggravated (or, if your luck is better, you could be teleported).
On the other hand, you may be comprehensively cured - that is, cured of blindness, sickness and wounded legs, and have your maximum hit points increased and your hit points set to the new maximum value. That cure is the most dramatic available in the game, and is only available elsewhere by quaffing a blessed potion of extra healing or being assisted by an extraordinarily helpful deity.
Your luck may be improved (signalled by the message, "You feel your luck is changing," or - if your luck was already fairly good - you may be granted a wish; for details of which, see the section entitled Wishing.
You may be able to genocide a species of monster - the same spell as provided elsewhere by reading a scroll of genocide or casting a spell of genocide.
You may be allowed to identify up to five of your possessions - as when you read a blessed scroll of identify.
Finally, you may receive the intrinsic ability to see invisible objects (for details of which, see the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement) or - if your luck is bad, or you already have that intrinsic ability, you may be provided with a map of the current level.
Kicking a throne will, if you are lucky, knock some treasure loose from it.
Time and the Phases of the Moon
As well as keeping track of game time - in terms of the number of actions made by the player and the number of game time units those actions have taken - Nethack also keeps track of time in the real world by examining the computer's internal clock.
More specifically, Nethack calculates whether it is night or day in the real world, and what phase of the moon it is, and fine-tunes the behaviour of the game accordingly.
When a new moon is in the sky, you will be warned to take care. Take care, particularly, when it comes to cockatrices. For hearing a cockatrice hiss will be fatal - always, and first time - if it is new moon in the real world, unless you are carrying a dead lizard.
On the night of a full moon, canine monsters will howl at the moon and be much harder to tame. You will feel lucky, however, for a full moon carries with it a one point luck bonus.
Lycanthropes are more likely to change at nighttime, particularly during a night of a full moon - when they slip into their animal form more easily and more often. If you are a lycanthrope, then you are subject to the same thing.
Undead monsters do extra damage (the equivalent of twice their usual number of attacks) if they attack between midnight and 1am.
Gremlins have an extra form of attack at night - the attributes curse, for details of which see the Gremlins entry. If you are polymorphed into the form of a gremlin, your attributes curse attack can be used to kill golems, but only during the night.
A tinning kit allows monster corpses to be converted into tinned meat, and thus be preserved for long periods. This can be a valuable method of obtaining intrinsic properties, since poisoned corpses will not poison your player if they are first tinned.
When wielded, a tin opener permits tins to be opened more easily.
Look under the name of the individual tool.
A wide variety of traps are scattered through the dungeons. Some are simple and straightforward, such as a hiding piercer (just another monster if you're wearing a helmet), a statue that comes to life, a pit, a pit with poisoned spikes at the bottom (just a pit if you have poison resistance), a bear trap, a trap to fire arrows or darts at you, a squeaky board trap which wakes up sleeping monsters and alerts them to your position, a polymorph trap which will polymorph you unless you have magic resistance, a web to catch you (though gauntlets of power allow you to sweep webs aside), a sleeping gas trap (which can be ignored if you have sleep resistance), a land mine to wound your legs, the anti- magic field which drains magical energy unless you have magic resistance, and the two types of teleportation traps - one to teleport you within the current level, and a level teleporter trap.
As of V3.1, should you come across a "trapped" hostile monster (such as a naga in a pit), it may be possible to make the monster peaceful (or even tame) by attempting to #untrap it.
For further details of avoiding the harmful effects of those traps, or curing their harmful effects, see the sections entitled Hats and Helmets, Poison Resistance, Polymorphing and Lycanthropy, Sleep Resistance, Disease and Injury and Teleportation.
A stethoscope can be used to distinguish statue traps (which come to life when triggered) from statues - a statue trap is in "extraordinary health for a statue", while ordinary statues are merely in "excellent health for a statue."
All traps can, of course, be levitated over, though Gehennom's fire traps may trigger nonetheless; See the section entitled Levitation.
Which leaves just three traps to examine: the trapdoor, the rust trap and the magic trap.
A trapdoor will drop you through to the dungeon level immediately below you, unless your leashed pet is not standing next to you - in which case it will hold you back, preventing you from falling in. Trapdoors, along with pits, can be filled in by pushing a boulder into them. On maze levels, however, trapdoors have a very different nature. Instead of dropping you down to a lower level, trapdoors in mazes simply drop rocks on your head - not a problem if you're wearing a helmet.
A rust trap spurts out a gush of water, which will hit you. If you have polymorphed yourself into an iron golem, this will cover you with so much rust that you will revert to your human shape. If you have polymorphed into a gremlin then you will multiply - that is, your hit points will be reduced by half and a (tame) clone of yourself will be created.
The gust of water will hit you on a random point and rust whatever it hits, if that item is capable of rusting. Thus, your helmet may rust, your shield and gauntlets may rust, your weapon and gauntlets may rust, or your outermost armour - cloak, body armour or shirt - may rust. If you are wielding a two-handed weapon, then a single hit may rust your weapon, your shield and your gauntlets - though usually, with a two- handed weapon, you will not be able to use a shield.
All tools are rustproof, except the lock pick, tinning kit, key, skeleton key, tin opener, whistle, magic whistle, horn, fire horn, frost horn, harp and magic harp.
All non-iron weapons are rustproof, of course, which include the silver arrows, clubs, rubber hoses, quarterstaffs, bullwhips, bows, elven bows, orcish bows, crossbows, slings.
All armour is susceptible to rust except the fedora, elven leather helm, dragon scale mails, crystal plate mail, copper plate mail, mithril- coats, leather and studded leather armour, mummy wrappings, cloaks, hawaiian shirt and the shield of reflection.
Of the gauntlets and boots, only the gauntlets of power and the "hard shoes" (iron shoes) are susceptible to rust.
If the item risking rust in a rust trap is blessed, there is one chance in four that it will not be rusted. Dipping a long a sword in a fountain may confer on it rust-proofing. Excalibur is rust-proof. For further details, see the sections entitled Sinks and Fountains. Named Weapons and Rustproofing and Fireproofing.
The magic trap will take effect only if you trigger it without magic resistance - that is, without wearing either a cloak of magic resistance or a suit of grey dragon dragon scale mail armour.
If triggered, there is one chance in thirty that the magic trap will simply explode, causing up to ten hit points of damage but increasing your maximum magical power by two and setting you magical power to the new maximum. If the magic trap does not explode, there is now a fifty- fifty chance that it will simply create up to four monsters, blinding you in the process.
If it does not create monsters, the magic trap has several other possible actions. It is possible - indeed, it is likely - that, if it does not explode or create monsters, it will do nothing at all. The messages "A shiver runs up and down your spine!" and "You hear distant howling" and "You suddenly year for your distant homeland" and "Your pack shakes violently!" and "You smell charred flesh" are all signals which mask the fact that nothing has happened.
A tower of flame may erupt - a problem only if you do not possess fire resistance - or something good may happen: when you step onto a magic trap, there is roughly a fifty six percent chance that something bad will happen, a thirty four percent chance that nothing at all will happen and a ten percent chance that something good will happen.
The "something good" can take one of two forms, each equally likely. Either all monsters in adjacent squares will be tamed (as when you read a scroll of taming or cast a spell of charm monster), or - with the message "You feel like someone is helping you" - the trap will remove the curses from any objects which you are wearing and a cursed loadstone, if you are carrying one, and will remove your punishment, if you are being punished.
The #untrap (ALT-U) command may be used to disarm bear traps and land mines, which may then be 'a'pplied later on, to re-arm them.
See the section dealing with Unicorns and Theology
Unicorns are found in three flavours, each having their own distinct alignment: white unicorns are lawful, grey are neutral and black are chaotic. You must never kill a unicorn of your own alignment.
When a unicorn dies, it always leaves a corpse, and usually a unicorn horn.
A unicorn horn may be applied to cure sickness, blindness, hallucination, vomiting, confusion or stun. If dipped into a potion of sickness, confusion, blindness or hallucination, the unicorn horn will neutralise the potion, transforming it into a potion of clear water.
A unicorn corpse is an extraordinarily useful item to sacrifice on an altar, but it is advisable to be extremely careful when doing so: If the unicorn being sacrificed is of the same alignment as the altar on which it is being sacrificed, the altar will be defiled and the deity whose altar it is will be offended in the extreme. So long as the alignment concerned is not your own, then the altar may be rededicated to your deity - otherwise you will be attacked by your own deity. In either event, your own deity will need to be placated.
Praying to your deity can help you out: if you are running low on hit points, they can be restored to their maximum; if you are stuck in a wall, you can be freed; if you are punished, the ball and chain can be disconnected; if you are wearing or wielding any cursed items, the curses can be removed; if you are hungry, your stomach can be contented; and if you are undergoing petrification, suffering from lycanthropy, strangling, blind, poisoned, stunned, confused, sick, hallucinating or have wounded legs, you can be cured.
If you are in no difficulties when you pray to your deity then you may be rewarded by having your weapon blessed, being given the combination of notes required to lower the drawbridge of the Stronghold, or being given of the following intrinsic abilities: telepathy, high speed, stealth or protection. Gifts of spellbooks may also be conveyed by your deity.
In exceptional circumstances, praying to your deity may result in your being made the Hand of Elbereth and given the long sword, Excalibur. The Hand of Elbereth brings with it the intrinsic abilities to see invisible things, and to resist fire, cold and poison. If you are of chaotic alignment then the equivalent honour is to take souls for Arioch and being given the broadsword, Stormbringer. As of V3.1, being "crowned" by your deity (as this is called) will only provide Excalibur to a lawful character if s/he is already wielding a non-artifact long sword, which can be changed into Excalibur. Neutral characters now receive the "Vorpal Blade" and are named the "Envoy of Balance" when crowned. If the specified artifact weapon already exists in the current game then a different, non-artifact, weapon will be provided.
No bonuses, bar the fixing of troubles, are possible unless you pray while on the altar of your deity (this restriction no longer applies in V3.2). If you pray while on the altar of another deity then your own deity will be displeased. Similarly, if you make a sacrifice on an altar not of your alignment, your own deity may be offended - perhaps severely.
Your deity may be mollified, and a reconciliation achieved, by sacrificing corpses (not human corpses or unicorns of your own alignment) on one of your deity's altars. Such sacrifices may result in your being granted a gift of a magical weapon. The most advantageous sacrifice to make is of a unicorn not of your alignment, other corpse sacrifices being rated according to their notional food value.
Note that being on good terms with your deity is likely to ensure that your luck is good, while an offended deity is likely to result in your having bad luck - see the section entitled Luck
Dropping any item on an altar will reveal its cursed or blessed status.
If you are in a temple which is tended by a priest or priestess then you should not attack the priest or priestess - even if you win, you will seriously anger at least one deity.
If the priest or priestess is of your own alignment, then talking to him/her, using the ALTERNATE-c command, is a good idea - but only if you have a reasonably large quantity of gold which you are willing to donate to the temple. On no account should you refuse to donate gold to the temple.
A donation should be at least two hundred time your experience level gold pieces and at least half your total amount of gold pieces in order to gain any favour from the priest. If the donation is between two hundred and four hundred times your experience level gold pieces then you will gain a blessing, plus the bonus of temporary clairvoyance.
A donation of between four and six hundred times your experience level gold pieces will gain you a blessing plus intrinsic protection. A donation of more than this will, so long as it constitutes more than half your total amount of gold, result in your being completely absolved from all sins (that is, your deity forgives all sins and will grant future prayers so long as you do not stray from the path again). (Further donations to the temple may now further increase your intrinsic protection; such donations are no longer, in more recent versions of Nethack, dependant on your player being of the same alignment as the priest(ess)).
Note that your deity, unless you are of chaotic alignment, is unable to help you if you are on a Hell level (that is, any level below the Stronghold).
It is possible to convert a non-coaligned altar to your own alignment by sacrificing on that altar while you are in good favour with your own deity and of a sufficiently high experience level (The actual calculation is that a random number is generated between zero and eight plus your experience level. The conversion is successful if that number is greater than 5. Hence, with an experience level of 12, you have a 25% chance of successfully converting an altar, provided that your god is happy with you at the time, naturally). Be warned, however, that if the conversion attempt fails, for example if your god is angry with you at the time, then you may be converted to the god of the altar you were attempting to convert.
Changing your alignment can be expensive - it carries with it a luck penalty of -3, your new god will be less helpful than the old (there's a prayer timeout increase of 300) and may make your game unwinnable, should you convert before undertaking the Quest. Note that it is not possible to convert to Moloch, and attempting to do so is dangerous and may be costly.
Sacrificing a human corpse (a mad scientist corpse, or any monster using the '@' symbol, bar elves) on any altar will also result in an automatic conversion of both yourself and the altar to chaotic alignment - which carries the 'advantage' of being able to summon demons and demon lords who may (or may not) do your bidding whenever a human sacrifice is performed on a chaotic altar.
As of V3.1, potions of water are not automatically blessed/cursed when dropped onto an altar. Instead, the player must perform a "water prayer" (drop the potions of water then pray while on the altar), which may or may not succeed. If the altar is co-aligned (the same alignment as your character), the water will be blessed (made holy), otherwise the water will be cursed (made unholy) and your god will become angry (incurring an additional luck penalty of -3).
As of V3.1, every game is guaranteed to contain altars with attendant peaceful priests (not necessarily co-aligned) in the Mine Town (in the Gnomish Mines branch level) and in the Valley of the Dead (the altar of Moloch - this priest is peaceful in standard Nethack, but not in the Slash'Em variant). There is also a non-attended altar in Orcus' "Ghost town" in Gehennom. In addition, there are the "high altar" of Moloch, in Moloch's Sanctum (attended by the hostile priest who has the Amulet of Yendor), and the three "high altars", on the Astral Plane (the final level of the Endgame, above dungeon level one). The Quests for some character classes also contain guaranteed altars. Other altars may be randomly generated throughout the main dungeon (i.e. not in Gehennom or in the Mines levels).
The vast majority of wands need to be zapped in a particular direction, but a small number - the wand of light, the wand of secret door detection, the wand of create monster and the wand of wishing - simply cast what is effectively a general magic spell.
Any wand can be recharged using a scroll of charging. Just because a wand's charge is exhausted does not mean that it is necessarily useless. An exhausted wand can be made to give up one final spell, with a little effort: Whenever an exhausted wand is zapped, there is one chance in one hundred and twenty (121:1) that it will produce a final spell and then disintegrate.
If a wand is cursed, then zapping it carries a one percent chance that it will explode in your face.
Applying a wand will break that wand, causing its effect to be spread over yourself and your immediate area. This can be extremely dangerous.
To tell which wand has which properties, you could attempt to zap it or you could attempt to use the wand to engrave a message on the floor - for more details of which, see the section entitled Engraving. Or - if you are in a shop - you could narrow down the possibilities by comparing the wands according to their prices.
The cheapest wands are the wand of light and the wand of nothing.
The second cheapest wands - and the vast majority of wands fall into this category - are the wand of secret door detection, the wand of striking, the wand of make invisible, the wand of slow monster, the wand of speed monster, the wand of undead turning, the wand of opening, the wand of locking, the wand of probing, the wand of digging and the wand of magic missile.
The third cheapest wands are the wand of fire, the wand of sleep, the wand of cold and the wand of lightning.
The second dearest wands are the wand of create monster, the wand of polymorph, the wand of cancellation and the wand of teleportation.
The most expensive wands are the wand of wishing and the wand of death.
- Wand of light
- Zapping a wand of light will light up a darkened room. The same effect can be produced by reading a scroll of light, casting a spell of light or by the application of a lamp.
- Wand of secret door detection
- Zapping a wand of secret door detection will reveal any secret doors there may be in the current room. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of detect unseen.
- Wand of create monster
- Zapping a wand of create monster will cause between one and eight creatures to appear. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of create monster, reading a scroll of create monster or by the application of a bag of tricks.
- Wand of wishing
- See the section entitled Wishing
- Wand of striking
- Zapping a monster with a wand of striking produces a purely physical attack, equivalent to throwing a projectile at the creature. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of force bolt.
- Wand of nothing
- Zapping a wand of nothing has no effect whatsoever on anything.
- Wand of make invisible
- See the section entitled Invisibility, See Invisible and Displacement
- Wand of slow monster
- See the section entitled Speed
- Wand of speed monster
- See the section entitled Speed
- Wand of undead turning
- Zapping an undead creature with a wand of undead turning will cause the undead to become terrified and flee, while zapping a corpse with the wand of undead turning will resurrect the corpse, possibly as a zombie. Note that the corpse will not necessarily be tame - in fact, it will probably be hostile, and angry. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of turn undead.
- Wand of polymorph
- See the section entitled Polymorphing and Lycanthropy
- Wand of cancellation
- Zapping a wand of cancellation on a chargable object - such as a wand, a magical horn or a lamp - will cause that object to lose its charge entirely. Zapping a wand of cancellation at a scroll will cause that scroll to be transformed into a blank scroll. Zapping a wand of cancellation at a monster will cause that monster to lose its non-physical attacks abilities - provided that the creature does not manage to resist the wand's effects. A "cancelled" monster is unable to cast magical or clerical spells, spit venom, use a breath weapon or inflict acid, rust, corrosion, rotting, cold, fire, sickness, poison or sleep damage attacks. Zapping a wand of cancellation at a golem will - unless the golem manages to successfully resist - kill the golem.
- Wand of teleportation
- See the section entitled Teleportation
- Wand of opening
- Zapping a wand of opening at a closed door, a closed chest or box or a closed drawbridge will open the door, chest, box or drawbridge. Zapping a wand of opening at a monster which has swallowed you will cause that creature to open its mouth and expel you.
- Wand of locking
- Zapping a wand of locking at a door, chest, box or drawbridge will close and lock that door, box, chest or drawbridge.
- Wand of probing
- Zapping a wand of probing at a monster will produce a full listing of all of that monsters vital statistics - name, alignment, armour class, experience level, maximum and remaining hit points, quantity of gold carried and whether or not it is tamed. Applying a stethoscope at a monster in an adjacent square will have the same effect.
- Wand of digging
- Zapping a wand of digging at a wall or door will dig a corridor of between 8 and 26 squares in length, provided that the material is capable of being dug through - some walls, such as those which make up the Stronghold and Vlad's Castle, are not. Zapping a wand of digging at a monster which has swallowed you will almost-kill that monster. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of dig.
- Wand of magic missile
- Zapping a wand of magic missile at a monster will shower that creature with a hail of magic missiles. These will cause severe damage, unless the monster possesses resistance to magic - in which case the missiles may have no effect at all. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of magic missile. Note that magic missiles can ricochet around a room, and may hit you.
- Wand of fire
- Zapping a wand of fire at a monster will hurl a fire ball at the creature, causing fire damage to it - unless it resists fire. Note that a fireball can evaporate water, creating a dry path through it, or burn up a door - which, if you are in a shop, may have to be paid for. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of fireball. Note that fire balls can ricochet around a room and may hit you.
- Wand of sleep
- Zapping a wand of sleep at a monster will hurl a blast of sleep at the creature, causing it to fall asleep - unless it resists sleep. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of sleep. Note that a blast of sleep can ricochet around a room and may hit you.
- Wand of cold
- Zapping a wand of cold at a monster will hurl a bolt of cold at the creature, causing cold damage to it - unless it resists cold. Note that a bold of cold can freeze water, creating a bridge of ice across it, or cause a door to freeze and shatter - which, if you are in a shop, may have to be paid for. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of cone of cold. Note that a bolt of cold can ricochet around a room and may hit you.
- Wand of death
- Zapping a wand of death at a monster will hurl a blast of death at the creature, causing it severe damage - unless it possesses magic resistance. The same effect can be produced by casting a spell of finger of death. Note that a blast of death can ricochet around a room and may hit you.
- Wand of lightning
- Zapping a wand of lightning at a monster will hurl a lighning bolt at the creature, causing it severe damage. Note that a lightning bolt can ricochet around a room and may hit you.
Warning may reside in a magical artifact, such as a ring of warning or the elven dagger, Sting, or may be intrinsic, which is achieved by cavemen, cavewomen, healers, priests and wizards on reaching experience level 15. In the former case, the item itself glows, while in the latter case, your fingertips will glow, the colour of the glow indicating the strength of the warning.
A white glow is fairly safe, a black glow indicates impending peril. The full spectrum being: white, pink, red, ruby, purple and then black.
Items which are susceptible to water damage (including rust) may be protected by a layer of grease (apply a can of grease directly to the item). In the case of items stored in a sack, a layer of grease may be applied to the sack itself, in order to help protect its contents.
A more reliable approach in this instance, however, is to wear an oilskin cloak over your non-rustproof body armour, and/or to place your susceptible items inside an oilskin sack in order to protect them against water damage. As of V3.1, a new amulet was introduced to the game:
- Amulet of Magical Breathing
- When worn, this amulet permits the player to breath while underwater, thus enabling you to retrieve objects lost in pools or moats. Note that the water may damage your equipment (rusting non-rustproof iron, blanking scrolls and spellbooks and diluting potions) unless you have taken steps to protect them.
See also the sections entitled Blessings and Curses, Rustproofing and Fireproofing, Sinks and Fountains and Water Walking
Water walking allows you to walk over water without drowning, or showing any ill-effects at all. It is important to ensure that leashed animals who are to be taken across water can, in fact, swim, float or fly.
Water walking is available only via water walking boots, and lasts for only so long as the boots are worn.
Post-V3.0, Nethack introduced weapon skills, and a number of new weapons, neither of which are covered in the notes below. Basically, the entire comparitive weapons part of this section is now out of date, and there are so many other weapons spoilers available on the internet that I'm not too likely to put the work into updating it. Sorry.
A large range of possible weapons are available to the player, including projectile weapons, spears, daggers, swords, blunt weapons, polearms, bows and others.
Projectile weapons can be coated with poison by dipping them into a potion of sickness, or have a coat of poison neutralised by dipping them into a potion of healing or a potion of extra healing.
Missiles are projectile weapons which are intended to be fired from a bow. The most damaging missiles are elven arrows, closely followed by arrows and silver arrows. Next most damaging are orcish arrows, and least damaging are crossbow bolts.
Bows (or, more generally, missile launchers) range from the extraordinarily powerful "runed bow" (elven bow) and crossbow, through the standard bow and the "black bow" (orcish bow), down to the humble sling - which, though not nearly as effective as the others, is nonetheless the only one which is capable to hurling arrows, crossbow bolts and stones.
When it comes to other projectiles, darts are less damaging than any missiles, while "throwing stars" (shuriken) are more damaging than any missile, and a boomerang is more damaging than any of them.
Spears, too, come in a wide range of forms. Of all these, the "shiny spear" (dwarvish spear) is by far the most deadly, closely followed by the "runed spear" (eleven spear). Far less deadly are the spear, the "black spear" (orcish spear) and the "throwing spear" (javelin). Note that the least dangerous spears - the trident and the lance - are also the heaviest.
When it comes to small, edged weapons, the deadliest by far is the crysknife - created by polymorphing a worm tooth. The worm tooth, incidentally, is by far the most ineffective small, edged weapon. Note that dropping a crysknife will re-transform it into a worm tooth.
Of the other small, edged weapons, the axe is the best, followed by the "large black knife" (orcish dagger), the "large runed knife" (elven dagger), the dagger, the scalpel, the athame and then the knife.
Note that an athame is, basically, a scalpel which never blunts - making it essential for engraving messages; See the section entitled Engraving
Of the swords available, the "samurai sword" (katana) is the most effective, with the long sword coming a fairly close second. Note, however, that many long swords have special powers, or can have such powers granted to them; See the sections entitled Named Weapons, Sinks and Fountains and Unicorns and Theology.
Of the other swords, the "huge shiny sword" (dwarvish mattock) is by far the best, followed by the two-handed sword and then the "curved sword" (scimitar) and the "short runed sword" (eleven short sword), with are each equally effective. Next most effective are the "short shiny sword" (dwarvsh short sword), followed by the "short sword" and then the "short black sword" (orcish short sword).
Oddly, the two broadswords - the "wide runed sword" (elven broadsword) and the "wide sword" (broadsword) - are the least effective swords.
Turning now to blunt weapons, the "staff" (quarterstaff) and the mace are the most effective, with the morning star coming a (fairly) close second. The others - the war hammer, the club, the rubber hose, the "thonged club" (aklys), the flail and the bullwhip - are all fairly ineffective.
Note, however, that the flail and bullwhip are effective as dispersing vaporous creatures, such as fog clouds.
The most effective polearm is the "angled poleaxe" (halberd), followed by the "single-edged polearm" (glaive) and the "hooked polearm" (bill- guisarme). Far less effective as the "beaked polearm" (bec de corbin), the "pole sickle" (fauchard), the "forked polearm" (spetum), the "pruning hook" (guisarme), the "vulgar polearm" (partisan), the "pronged polearm" (lucern hammer), the "long poleaxe" (bardiche), the "pole cleaver" (voulge) - and the "hilted polearm" (ranseur) is the least effective polearm of all.
Overall, the swords are the most effective weapons, with the polearms coming a reasonably close second place. The only really effective distance weapons, however, are the missiles - which, for maximum efficiency, should be launched with an appropriate launcher.
The perfect armoury, then, would consist of one of the better swords - an enchanted (not merely blessed) long sword or a katana for preference - along with an athame, for engraving messages, plus an elven bow and elven arrows, for distance work. And, possibly, a flail to handle attacks on the less corporeal creatures, such as fog clouds.
All non-iron weapons are rustproof, of course, which include the silver arrows, clubs, rubber hoses, quarterstaffs, bullwhips, bows, elven bows, orcish bows, crossbows, slings.
If the item risking rust in a rust trap is blessed, there is one chance in four that it will not be rusted. Dipping a long a sword in a fountain may confer on it rust-proofing. Excalibur is rust-proof. For further details, see the sections entitled Sinks and Fountains and Named Weapons.
Wishing for objects - via a wand of wishing or a wish granted by a Djinni or (a one in twelve chance) by sitting on a throne - requires you to state, very precisely, the name of the desired item.
Note that a zapping a wand of wishing might not result in a wish - it all depends on you current luck. The worse your luck, the less likely it is that a wish will be granted. It is, then, a good idea to improve your luck before zapping the wand - See the section entitled Luck
Note that wishing for a wand of wishing will use up one wish and merely produce a wand of wishing with a single charge. However, note also that a wand with a single charge can be zapped twice before it disintegrates - though the second zap, with a wand of wishing, is likely to result in the wished-for item being a cursed object.
A wand of wishing is concealed in one of the four towers - which one is selected at random - on the Stronghold level.
The Wizard of Yendor is arguably the most powerful monster in the dungeon. He has one major motivation: to obtain and keep possession of the Amulet of Yendor. Since the Amulet of Yendor is located somewhere in the Hell levels (that is, somewhere below the Stronghold level), that is where you will almost certainly first encounter the Wizard of Yendor, jealously guarding the Amulet - probably in human form. As of V3.1, the Wizard of Yendor (also known as Rodney - "Yendor" spelled backwards) no longer carries the Amulet of Yendor, but instead has the Book of the Dead, which is an artifact you will need (along with the Candelabrum from Vlad and the Bell of Opening from your Quest nemesis) in order to access Moloch's temple, at the bottom of Gehennom, where you can find the Amulet.
The Wizard has an experience level of 30, an excellent base armour class, of -8, and an extraordinary base resistance to magic, the figure being 100. By comparison, consider that the most powerful demon lord, Demogorgon, has a base resistance to magic level of 95.
The Wizard also has a wide repertoire of spells and abilities at his command. He can fly; he is resistant to poison and fire; he has intrinsic regeneration - meaning that he regenerates one hit point every turn, no matter what else is going on; he can see invisible items, and turn himself invisible at will; he has both teleport and teleport control; he has incredible strength and he's hostile and nasty.
When the Wizard of Yendor attacks, he can do up to twenty four hit points of damage with a swipe of his claw, cast a spell against you and steal the Amulet of Yendor (if you have it), all in a single round.
Oh, and the Wizard of Yendor also has a tendency to collect magical items - which he may use, along with his extensive standard repertoire of spells, against you.
"Double Trouble!" One of the Wizard of Yendor's favourite spells is to clone himself. Both he and his clones can appear in the form of a water demon, a vampire, a red dragon, a troll, an umber hulk, a xorn, a xan, a cockatrice, a floating eye, a guardian naga or a trapper, as well as in human form. Since the clones each carry a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor, it is important to mark the genuine Amulet of Yendor as soon as you encounter it.
Another favourite spell of the Wizard of Yendor is his create monster spell, with which he can create a cockatrice, an ettin, an invisible stalker, a minotaur, a red dragon, a green dragon, an owlbear, a purple worm, a rock troll, a xan, a gremlin, an umber hulk, a vampire lord, a xorn, a zruty and/or a captain in the army of Yendor - all of which are perfectly willing to attack you simultaneously.
The Wizard of Yendor's other spells include destroy armour, cast psi bolt, stun, drain strength and the touch of death - all of which are easily defended against by a cloak of magic resistance or a grey dragon dragon scale mail.
More serious of the Wizard's "minor" spells are the aggravating of all monsters on the level, haste self (as if he wasn't speedy enough) and the cursing of one or more of your objects at random. This last, at least, makes wearing a blindfold a risky occupation.
Even if you do manage to seriously injure the Wizard, he will teleport away to a safe spot. It would be wise to follow him quickly, as he tends to squat, blocking the stairway leading to the next level in order to prevent you from escaping, and casting healing spells on himself, ready for the next battle. He often casts his create monster spell in an attempt at distracting you while he (perhaps in a non-human form) sneaks away to recharge his hit points.
Should you manage to escape the level with the Amulet of Yendor, the Wizard of Yendor - if he is still alive - will immediately follow you on to the next level (and note that you cannot perform a level teleportation when carrying or wearing the Amulet of Yendor).
And even killing the Wizard of Yendor is far from being the end of the story.
When the Wizard has been killed, you will achieve the status of demigod (largely honorary). From now on, you will intermittently experience a back-spell of the wizard's - you objects will be cursed at random, or a group of the Wizard's pets will appear around you, ready to attack, or all monsters on the level will suddenly wake up and go for you.
And then, about 50 to 250 turns after the Wizard's death, he will be reincarnated - but at a higher experience level, and consequently with even more hit points.
All is not doom and gloom so far as the Wizard of Yendor is concerned, however: a close examination of his abilities will reveal that, so long as you are wearing some form of protection against magic (a cloak of magic resistance or a grey dragon dragon scale mail), the only one of the Wizard's spells you need to be concerned about is the random cursing of your possessions - and even that will be okay so long as you do not get stuck with a blindfold welded to your eyes.
And even that would be okay, so long as you have ESP - whether intrinsic or via a helm of ESP - with which to keep track of monsters, since the Amulet provides a clairvoyant map of your immediate surroundings. After all, as soon as you get out of the Hell levels, a prayer to your deity should remove any particularly inconvenient curses. It may be advisable to stock up on holy water and/or remove curse spells/scrolls, however).
A Charm Monster spell will assist against the Wizard's create monster spells, and you will find both teleportation and teleport control invaluable in speeding your way across the levels.
So, how to kill the Wizard of Yendor when magic is almost useless? Well, he is not resistant to cold, or to being turned to stone. Thus, attacks using cold - bolts of cold or a weapon, such as Frost Brand, which makes attacks of cold, and so on - will be efficacious. Better, though, to exploit the other weakness. Wield a cockatrice corpse or egg against the Wizard of Yendor - ensuring, of course, that you are protected by gauntlets - or polymorph yourself into a cockatrice. Turn him to stone. Then simply pick up the Amulet and run off with it. You probably won't get away with this more than once, of course, so lay in those attacks of cold and remember: speed is of the essence in escaping with the Amulet.
Oh, and do remember not to be still wielding the cockatrice corpse when you go up the staircase, or an accident may well create one statue too many to decorate the dungeon. Who wants to end up as a garden ornament?
See the section entitled Disease and Injury
Slash'Em Unpolymorphing - Objects polymorphed in the Slash'Em variant may revert, at a later, random, time, to their previous form. In order to prevent this happening, #dip the polymorphed item into a potion of restore ability. If the object was destined to revert, its form will now be fixed, and the potion used up. If the object was not destined to unpolymorph then your potion will not be used up.
Barbarians, cavemen, cavewomen, knights and valkyrie start off at experience level 3; Tourists and wizards start off at experience level 1; All other character classes start off at experience level 2. (This no longer applies - in recent versions of Nethack, all PCs start at experience level 1).
Eating a tin of deep-fried food makes your fingers slippery, and your rings and weapon will drop from your hands. Note that even cursed items will drop. Thus, this is the only way of removing cursed rings and unwelding cursed weapons without removing the curse or having the items stolen by a nymph.
When you're carrying the Amulet of Yendor, Nymphs will never be sleeping and all monsters you meet will tend to be hostile and of the highest possible level for their class.
The only practical effect of achieving Demigodhood or receiving the Hand of Elbereth, aside from the immediate gifts that the latter entails, is that an additional wait of up to one thousand turns per title (i.e. up to 1000 turns if you have one, up to 2000 if you have both) is then required, on top of the usual wait of up to 350 turns, between prayers for help to your deity.
If you polymorph into the form of a stalker or any species of bat then you will be stunned, and will remain stunned for as long as you are in that form.
Attacking an oracle will cause your deity to hurl magic missiles at you.
A troll will resurrect if its corpse is not destroyed.
Your chance of successfully hitting a monster, directly or with a projectile, is dependant on your luck, your dexterity and the monster's armour class. Your chances are also increased if the monster is asleep or paralysed or if you are an elf and your opponent is an orc. If hurling a projectile, your chances of hitting increase if you are wielding an appropriate launching weapon (a bow if you are throwing arrows, a crossbow for crossbow bolts or a sling for darts, gems and rocks). Heavy iron ball or boulders are more likely to hit than are smaller projectiles. If you are being swallowed by your target then you literally cannot miss. You also cannot miss when throwing a gem to a unicorn.
If you step into a pool you will drown, unless you are able to teleport out of the water or have previously polymorphed yourself into a monster which is able to swim. if you survive, however, then your potions may be diluted to become potions of water and the ink may run on your scrolls, turning them into blank scrolls. The likelihood of this happening depends entirely on your luck.
Reading a scroll of enchantment when confused will make the target (weapon or armour) rustproof.
Dropping a potion of unholy water (cursed potion of water) onto an altar which is dedicated to a lawful deity will transform the unholy water into holy water (blessed potion of water), regardless of your own alignment. (No longer works in V3.2)
Temple priests and temple priestesses, like any peaceful monsters, will be angered by being attacked or by having magic directed against them. They will also be angered if you desecrate their altar by carrying out a human sacrifice on it. Note, however, that the anger is related to the descration of the altar, not to the conversion per se. Thus, converting an altar by sacrificing an appropriate unicorn on it will not necessarily anger the temple priest(ess).
A cursed scroll of genocide will create a group of the monsters which you have specified to be genocided.
A blessed potion of enlightenment may act like a potion of gain ability in addition to its other properties.
Dipping a scroll or potion into a potion of water (note, not a potion of holy or unholy water) will convert the scroll into a blank scroll or the dipped potion into a potion of water. Note, however, that this cannot be used to obtain lots of potions of water as the act of dipping uses up the potion of water which the item is being dipped into.
Top of Page