Fire horn
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | fire horn |
| Appearance | horn |
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 18 |
| Material | bone |
| Monster use | May be used offensively by monsters. |
The fire horn is a rare magical tool that appears in NetHack. It is one of the four horns.
Contents
Generation
Fire horns can be found anywhere a random tool can be generated, and start with 4 to 8 charges. Fire horns will always be generated uncursed unless found on a bones level; since 3.6.1, they can also be found among the cursed items in the "bones" generated on some traps.
Effects
When applied with charges left, if you answer yes to the prompt to improvise, the game will ask the player for a direction; the fire horn will emit a ray of fire in the selected direction, akin to the wand. This auto-identifies the fire horn. An uncharged fire horn behaves the same as a tooled horn; answering no to the "Improvise?" prompt also lets you play the horn as a musical instrument without using up any charges.
The fire horn can be recharged an unlimited number of times, but can only hold up to 20 charges at once, and can deal more damage than a wand of fire (up to 66 damage depending on the circumstances).
Strategy
The fire horn can double as an offensive and defensive measure; it can be played as a tooled horn to drive off enemy monsters, who can then be picked off at a distance through creative use of the rays of fire. It does far more potential damage than a wand of fire, and can be used to scare monsters in lieu of engraving Elbereth with the wand; this has the added advantage of scaring monsters that would not respect Elbereth otherwise.
As such, it should be identified preferably as soon as possible; like with all rays, however, be careful not to aim in the wrong direction and cause a potentially deadly rebound, whether you are identifying the horn or using it against monsters. This also makes it somewhat difficult to use in tight corridors.
See also
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
