Difference between revisions of "Loadstone"
(Clarify that most loadstones are generated cursed.) |
(Another way to get rid of a loadstone, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it) |
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* Read a noncursed [[scroll of remove curse]] and drop the stone | * Read a noncursed [[scroll of remove curse]] and drop the stone | ||
* Dip the stone in [[holy water]] and drop it | * Dip the stone in [[holy water]] and drop it | ||
| + | * Dip the stone in a [[potion of polymorph]] for a chance of transforming the stone into a valuable gem (or, failing that, something that can be dropped) | ||
* Allow a [[nymph]] or other item-stealing monster to take it | * Allow a [[nymph]] or other item-stealing monster to take it | ||
* Cast [[stone to flesh]] on yourself (drop everything lithic that you don't want to transform into meat first) | * Cast [[stone to flesh]] on yourself (drop everything lithic that you don't want to transform into meat first) | ||
Revision as of 06:24, 30 January 2015
* 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | loadstone |
| Appearance | gray stone |
| Damage vs. small | 1d3 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d3 |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | sling |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 1 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 500 |
| Material | mineral |
A loadstone is an undesirable gem to have on your person. It is extremely heavy and almost always generated cursed. Unlike most items you cannot drop it or place it into a container while it is cursed. You can get rid of it if you lift its curse somehow, e.g. by scroll, spell, holy water, or dipping it into a fountain. Prayer can work under certain circumstances; having a cursed loadstone counts as a minor trouble. You can also have it stolen by a nymph. The spell of stone to flesh will dispose of it. You can wield a loadstone, but you cannot uncurse it with a scroll of enchant weapon.
Loadstones autocurse when they are dropped or leave your main inventory in any other way. The only exception where you can see an uncursed loadstone is 1/11 of those generated inside containers, whereas the other 10/11 are generated cursed.
Loadstones are also one of the most easily picked-up items in NetHack. Any setting of the pickup_burden variable will be ignored if the character attempts to pick up a loadstone, and other inventory restrictions may be ignored as well -- in case a character's knapsack has already reached the 52-item limit, the loadstone's inventory letter will be a pound sign (#)!
For all its weight, a loadstone does not do any more damage than flint when thrown. However, in Slash'EM Extended, a loadstone fired with a sling does a whopping d40 damage if it hits.
Strategy
To test if a gray stone is a loadstone, kick it before you pick it up. Take off any items that add to your strength or kicking capabilities: remove gauntlets of power and kicking boots first, and make sure you are not a class that uses martial arts (samurai or monk) or polymorphed into a creature that has a bonus to kicking, such as a sasquatch.[1][2] Loadstones are heavy enough that they cannot be kicked under normal circumstances (unenhanced strength, not on ice, no kicking bonus from class/equipment/polyself).
If for any reason you cannot (or do not want to) prevent yourself from having kicking bonuses, you can compare kicking ranges. A loadstone should travel much less far than a harmless gray stone or any object of similar weight, e. g. a rock. Be careful though; some bonuses add a small random amount to the distance. Do not kick fragile objects.
Loadstones are normally generated cursed, so an unknown gray stone on the floor is a loadstone if a pet will only "reluctantly" move over it. This method still works on stones stuck next to undiggable walls, but beware of traps. A loadstone generated inside a container will have a significant weight, and you usually get a pickup_burden warning when indirectly lifting a loadstone.
If you need to read a noncursed scroll of remove curse for other reasons anyway, you might want to deliberately pick up a known loadstone and #name or formally identify it. You will then recognize any future ones. Beware amnesia (attacks), as you may forget the identification for the loadstone and pick one up, lulled in a false sense of security. (Check your discoveries to see whether you still know the loadstone.)
In order to get rid of a cursed loadstone, you can try the following strategies:
- Pray; having a cursed loadstone counts as a minor trouble
- Read a noncursed scroll of remove curse and drop the stone
- Dip the stone in holy water and drop it
- Dip the stone in a potion of polymorph for a chance of transforming the stone into a valuable gem (or, failing that, something that can be dropped)
- Allow a nymph or other item-stealing monster to take it
- Cast stone to flesh on yourself (drop everything lithic that you don't want to transform into meat first)
- In Slash'EM Extended, polymorph into a lithivore and eat the loadstone away
- In Slash'EM Extended, wield the loadstone and read a noncursed scroll of enchant weapon to remove the curse; beware that in this variant, cursed loadstones will weld themselves to your hand. Alternately, read enough cursed scrolls of enchant weapon to make the loadstone blow up (this is a huge waste of resources though).
Vulture
As you can see the weight of items, it is much easier to avoid picking up a loadstone. Drop a junk item on any suspect gray stone, this forces the pickup menu to appear since there are now several items. Gray stones weighing only 10 are harmless to pick up.
Origin
The name loadstone is a pun on the word lodestone, a naturally magnetic mineral.
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
