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misc-343.txt Last edited 2004-10-26 for NetHack 3.4.3
Miscellaneous objects in NetHack 3.4
Compiled for 3.2.2 by Kevin Hugo.
Updated for 3.4.3 by Dylan O'Donnell <psmith@spod-central.org>.
ITEM COST WGT PROB SYM DAMAGE NUTR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ : ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~
gold piece : $ 1 0.01 1000 : $ 0 0.01
boulder : 0 6000 100 : ' d20 2000
statue : 0 vary 900 : ' d20 2500
heavy iron ball : 10 480* 0 : 0 d25* 480*
iron chain : 0 120 0 : _ d4+1 120
acid venom : 0 1 0 : . 2d6 0
blinding venom : 0 1 0 : . 0 0
Items are listed here by inventory category. Venom is generated only
by spitting monsters and cannot be picked up. The COST field denotes
the base price of each item. WGT specifies the weight. If the item
can be randomly generated, then PROB is the relative probability of
the item within that category. All of these items are generated
uncursed. SYM is the object symbol. Damage to small and large
monsters is the DAMAGE field. An additional +d(x*4) of damage is
added to iron balls for each x times the ball has been made heavier
(cursed scrolls of punishment count double), up to a total damage of
25. If an object can be eaten, its nutrition value is NUTR.
Iron balls start out at a weight and nutrition of 480; each time you
are further punished, any ball you are chained to has these increased
by 160 (320 in the case of a cursed scroll of punishment).
Finding spellbooks in statues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Adapted in part from the spoiler "statues" by Bryan Butler and
Boudewijn Waijers.)
Randomly created statues may contain one random spellbook. The chance
of a spellbook in a statue depends upon the dungeon level on which the
statue was created (if you are visiting a level for the first time while
carrying the Amulet, then the depth of the Sanctum will be used instead):
Level 1-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 20-21 30-31 n*2-(n*2)+1
Prob 0 1/12 2/13 3/14 4/15 5/16 9/20 14/25 (n-1)/(n+10)
Statues of tiny monsters never contain spellbooks.
Note that the Oracle is located somewhere between levels 5 and 9, so
the average chance on that level that a statue contains a spellbook is
about (1/12 + 2*2/13 + 2*3/14) / 5 = (1790/2184) / 5 = 16.4%.
Since there are always eight centaur statues on that level, the chance
of finding no spellbook there is about 26%. The chance of finding
just one is about 35%, of two about 24%, of three about 11%. The
chances of finding more rapidly approach zero.
Note that the player-monster statues (other than Perseus) on the
Medusa level will always be empty; the seven or eight monster statues
may contain the appropriate monster's starting inventory. Perseus'
statue has a 50% chance of containing a blessed +2 scimitar and a 50%
chance of containing a sack. If the version of the level is the one
with the central island, there is also a 25% chance of +0 levitation
boots and 75% chance of a cursed +0 shield of reflection; on the
version with a titan, these two chances are reversed.
Statues created by stoning a monster contain only the items in the
monster's inventory. You can break a statue with a pick axe, dwarvish
mattock, wand of striking, or spell of force bolt. Breaking or animating
historic statues (the centaur statues of Delphi, the statue of Perseus,
the gnome king statue in the Grotto Town version of Minetown, or petrified
unique monsters) carries a -1 alignment penalty for Archeologists.
What to do with iron chains
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iron chains are the least useful items in the game since they perform no
function as individual objects, have no value to sell to shopkeepers,
aren't heavy enough to be a decent weapon, and will always polypile into
another chain. Here are several somewhat trivial uses for these objects:
* Throw or kick them as missiles.
* Food for rock moles (a pet or polyself).
* Leave them in the path of hostile metallivores as a distraction.
* Polypile enough of them to make another iron golem. Turn it into
your pet or polymorph it into a monster worthy of sacrificing.
* Polypile enough of them to get another iron golem. Tame it and watch it
get killed by a rust monster. Get an amusing message.
* Use them to mark the vibrating square.
* Carry them in your main inventory to lower the chance that something
"good" will be cursed/stolen.
* Leave a bones file that will annoy others (using ASCII):
"Darn, that's not an altar."
Acknowledgements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to Bruce Cox for proofreading the original version of this file.
Further corrections and clarifications provided by Aero, Kevin Costello,
Philipp Lucas, and Pat Rankin.