Potion

Potions are magical drinks. They are denoted by an exclamation mark, ! and weigh 20. Some of them are very useful, some can be deadly. The effects of potions can be carried by drinking them or breaking them onto somebody by throwing it at them. Some potions can also be mixed together to form new potions — that is called alchemy.

A Unicorn horn can be used to help in identifying potions.

Smoky and Milky Potions always have special effects.

Table of potions

Potion	Cost	Weight	Prob	Appearance
water (uncursed)	0	20	92	clear
booze	50	20	42	random
fruit juice	50	20	42	random
see invisible	50	20	42	random
sickness	50	20	42	random
confusion	100	20	42	random
extra healing	100	20	47	random
hallucination	100	20	40	random
healing	100	20	57	random
holy/unholy water	100	20	?	clear
restore ability	100	20	40	random
sleeping	100	20	42	random
blindness	150	20	40	random
gain energy	150	20	42	random
invisibility	150	20	40	random
monster detection	150	20	40	random
object detection	150	20	42	random
enlightenment	200	20	20	random
full healing	200	20	10	random
levitation	200	20	42	random
polymorph	200	20	10	random
speed	200	20	42	random
acid	250	20	10	random
oil	250	20	30	random
gain ability	300	20	42	random
gain level	300	20	20	random
paralysis	300	20	42	random

The table is divided into price groups. See price identification.

Hitting and Being Hit

Potions may be wielded or thrown in combat, by you or by monsters against you. A monster has an 80% chance of taking 1 HP of damage when hit (but will not be killed by this); you receive 1 to 2 HP, and, of course, you can be killed this way. If you want fair, go play checkers. If you don't see the potion hit the monster, you will get the message "Crash!" Whoever is hit by a potion will be affected by the potion, but generally to a lesser extent than from quaffing it. It is also possible for these effects to apply to creatures in adjacent squares, so wielding a potion hand-to-hand can be riskier than thowing it from a distance.

Pointless Ruminations

Potions, or rather the bottles they come in, are one of the more remarkable types of objects in the world of Nethack. Potion bottles are not watertight, because falling in water while carrying them dilutes them. And yet they don't ordinarily spill or leak, because you can carry them for tens of thousands of turns without any risk of this happening. The bottle, presumably, evaporates or shatters or otherwise is destroyed when the potion is drunk, or else it could be refilled at any fountain for a practically inexaustable supply of holy water. Perhaps it is the bottle that is magical, as much as or more than the colored liquid within.

External Links

• Potions and their direct effects in NetHack 3.4
• Potions, alchemy, and other miscellaneous properties in NetHack 3.4

Encyclopedia entry

POTABLE, n.  Suitable for drinking.  Water is said to be
potable; indeed, some declare it our natural beverage,
although even they find it palatable only when suffering
from the recurrent disorder known as thirst, for which it
is a medicine.  Upon nothing has so great and diligent
ingenuity been brought to bear in all ages and in all
countries, except the most uncivilized, as upon the
invention of substitutes for water.  To hold that this
general aversion to that liquid has no basis in the
preservative instinct of the race is to be unscientific --
and without science we are as the snakes and toads.
        [ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]