Amulet of strangulation
An amulet of strangulation is a type of amulet that appears in NetHack.
quickly strangles you to death, unless you are headless or both breathless and mindless, in six turns.[1]
Generation
13.5% of randomly-generated amulets will be an amulet of strangulation. The amulet is generated cursed 90.5% of the time, uncursed 9% of the time, and blessed 0.5% of the time.
An amulet of strangulation is always generated in a chest on the middle floor of Vlad's Tower outside of bones files.
Description
When worn, the amulet immediately begins constricting your throat, beginning a delayed instadeath and auto-identifying the amulet: Unless you are in a form that either lacks a head or is both breathless and mindless, you are strangled to death in six turns.[2][3] While subjected to strangulation, your strength is abused, and you cannot operate whistles or other similar instruments, cannot spellcast, and additionally cannot read scrolls if you are currently blind.[4][5] Removing the amulet aborts strangulation.
Eating the amulet has a 19⁄20 chance of choking you to death immediately unless you are breathless.
Strategy
The amulet of strangulation is a dangerous item and one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, that a player should avoid putting on unidentified amulets, especially without at least determining their beatitude. While removing the amulet is enough to save you, most amulets of strangulation are generated cursed. Thankfully, any worn amulet of strangulation is considered a major trouble for prayer - praying successfully will destroy the amulet, and the timer for strangulation is paused during the three turns of invulnerability.
Most methods of curse removal that do not rely on spells (e.g. remove curse) or reading scrolls blind can uncurse an amulet and allow you to remove it. A wand of cancellation is a last resort in this regard - if you have turns to spare and no other means of uncursing the amulet, you can drop everything else that you do not want cancelled, then zap yourself with the wand and safely remove it.
History
The amulet of strangulation first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, the amulet can strangle you regardless of your current form, though having breathlessness will save you from choking while eating the amulet.
The inability to cast spells while wearing an amulet of strangulation is introduced in NetHack 3.6.1.
Messages
The messages in the Alt. message column occur when you are breathless, and 1⁄50 of the time otherwise.[6]
| Message | Alt. message | Turns left to live |
|---|---|---|
| "It constricts your throat!" | "It constricts your throat!" | 5 |
| "You find it hard to breathe." | "Your neck is becoming constricted." | 4 |
| "You're gasping for air." | "Your blood is having trouble reaching your brain." | 3 |
| "You can no longer breathe." | "The pressure on your neck increases." | 2 |
| "You're turning blue." | "Your consciousness is fading." | 1 |
| "You suffocate." | "You suffocate." | 0 |
References
- ↑ do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 733
- ↑ src/mondata.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 362:
can_be_strangledfunction - ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 777
- ↑ src/mondata.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 336:
can_be_strangledfunction - ↑ src/mondata.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 350:
can_be_strangledfunction - ↑ src/timeout.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 257
