Gold (material)

Gold is a material that appears in NetHack. It is an inherently erosion-proofed type of metal.

Gold pieces are the currency used for zorkmids, and other gold items include rings with the randomized appearance of "gold ring" and the Candelabrum of Invocation; metallivores can eat any gold item minus the Candelabrum. Gold golems are generated randomly in the dungeon, and may be created as the result of polypiling enough gold items.

A noncursed scroll of gold detection will reveal all gold pieces and gold golems on the level; a blessed scroll will additionally detect items made of gold.

Strategy

Eating gold tends to occur in the form of rock moles eating any gold they encounter while tunneling through the dungeon, and later xorns doing the same while phasing; while eating gold coins has no real application, eating gold rings can be a factor in eating jewelry while polymorphed into a metallivore.

Variants

Variants often add other items made of gold, and the object materials system used in many of them incorporates gold as a potential material for metallic objects. Leprechauns in some of these variants can also steal items made of gold as well as the player's money. Croesus is often given a set of gold armor, and sometimes a gold weapon as well.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, gold armor will have a -2 penalty to base AC, with a minimum of 0.