Sacrifice

Religion in NetHack
priests alignment alignment record altars atheism anger gods sacrifice prayer turn undead

Sacrifice is a means whereby you can reduce your prayer timeout, increase your luck, and gain powerful artifact weapons. Alternatively, you can also change your alignment by sacrificing to another god when you have negative luck. To sacrifice, you stand on an altar, use the #offer command, and select a fresh corpse from your inventory or one that is lying on the altar. Unsurprisingly, this breaks the atheist conduct. The greater the monster's difficulty, the more your god will appreciate it.

If the corpse is a cockatrice and your hands are bare, you suffer the effects of touching it, even if it wasn't in your inventory.

Further effects depend on the details of the sacrifice.

Ordinary sacrifice

This applies to sacrifices made on your own god's altar that are not of your own race, not a pet, not a unicorn, and not made in the endgame.

If the creature is not an acid blob and is more than 50 turns old or more than 50 turns out of an icebox, it is rejected: "Nothing happens." (Acid blobs never expire for sacrifices, although they do rot.) Otherwise, the sacrifice is accepted and you get "Your sacrifice is consumed in a burst of flame" if neutral or chaotic, and "Your sacrifice is consumed in a flash of light" if lawful. If you are blind you will instead get the message "Your sacrifice disappears" and if you are hallucinating you get one of the following messages: "Your sacrifice sprouts wings and a propeller and roars away!", "Your sacrifice puffs up, swelling bigger and bigger, and pops!", or "Your sacrifice collapses into a cloud of dancing particles and fades away!"

Creatures have a particular sacrifice value depending generally on their toughness. In some special cases, the value may be negative if the offering displeases your god; see below. Partially-eaten corpses normally have their value decreased by roughly the percentage that's been eaten. But NetHack rounds down, often to zero. For lawful or neutral characters, undead have an extra point of value, but this is only relevant to wraiths, since other undead corpses are automatically aged too much to sacrifice them.

If your god is angry at you:

His anger is decreased by 1/8 the value of the sacrifice, or if you're chaotic by 1/12 the value of the sacrifice (chaotic gods are harder to appease), the decrease in anger is always rounded down. High-difficulty monsters can be hard to find early in the game, but a black pudding from a sink will work.

If this reduces your god's anger to zero, you'll receive the message that he "seems mollified" (if hallucinating, "seems astral (not a new fact)"), and your luck will be increased to zero if negative.

If anger is reduced but not to zero, your god "seems slightly mollified" ("seems groovy" if hallucinating), and your luck will be increased by one point if negative.

If anger has not been reduced at all, "You have a feeling of inadequacy" (if hallucinating, "The gods seem tall").

If your god is not angry at you, but your alignment is negative:

Your alignment is increased by the value of the sacrifice, up to a maximum of 0 alignment, and "You feel partially absolved."

If your god is not angry and your alignment is positive but your prayer timeout is greater than zero:

Your prayer timeout is decreased by 12.5 times the sacrifice's value if you are lawful or neutral, or 125/6 (about 20.8) times its value if you're chaotic, to a minimum of zero.

If this decreases your prayer timeout to 0, then "You have a feeling of reconciliation" (if hallucinating, "Overall, there is a smell of fried onions"), your luck is increased to zero if negative, and it's safe to pray.

If your prayer timeout is not yet zero, "You have a hopeful feeling" (if hallucinating, "You realize the gods are not like you and I"), your luck is increased by one if negative, and it is not yet safe to pray.

Gifts

If you can pray, have positive alignment, and your god is not angry, you generally have a chance of getting an artifact. Your level must be greater than 2, and your luck must be nonnegative. If those conditions are met, the chances of your getting an artifact are 1 / (10 + 2 × Number of existing artifacts × Number of gifts granted by your god).

If you receive an artifact, you get the message "An object appears at your feet!", and your god will tell you to "use my gift wisely!" Your wisdom is exercised, your prayer timeout is set to rnz(300 + 50 × Number of existing artifacts), and your skill in using the artifact's type of weapon becomes unrestricted. The artifact will also be made erodeproof.

Whether or not you get the artifact, your luck increases by 5/24 (about 20.8%) the value of the sacrifice and is set to 0 if still negative. You receive the message "You glimpse a four-leaf clover at your feet" (if hallucinating, "You see crabgrass at your feet. A funny thing in a dungeon"). This luck bonus occurs even if you're below level 3 or have negative luck, but not if you had an angry god, negative alignment, or nonzero prayer timeout.

Your first gift will be a co-aligned artifact that does not hate your current form. Some roles have a guaranteed first sacrifice gift, which is noted below; its alignment will be adjusted to your starting alignment if necessary. Excalibur, quest artifacts, and cross-aligned artifacts cannot be gifted.

Once a co-aligned artifact has already been given, then unaligned ones also become eligible.

Lawful gifts: Demonbane, Grayswandir, Snickersnee (Samurai), Sunsword

Neutral gifts: Cleaver (Barbarian), Giantslayer, Magicbane (Wizard), Mjollnir (Valkyrie), Vorpal Blade

Chaotic gifts: Grimtooth, Orcrist, Sting, Stormbringer

Unaligned gifts: Dragonbane, Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Ogresmasher, Trollsbane, Werebane

Sacrificing creatures of own race

If the creature you sacrifice is of your own race, you get good effects if you're chaotic and bad effects otherwise.

If you are chaotic:

• You gain five alignment.
• If you are a demon, you exercise your wisdom.
• If the altar is chaotic, you gain two luck, and if the altar is unaligned, you lose two luck. Your luck is unaffected if the altar is cross-aligned (but the altar will be converted as noted in the cross-aligned altars section below).

If you are non-chaotic:

• Whatever alignment the altar is, you abuse your wisdom.
• You lose 5 alignment.
• Your god's anger increases by three.
• Your luck decreases by 5.
• Outside of Gehennom, your god will punish you as for praying too much (depending on the level of anger).
• Finally, if the altar is chaotic, you'll destroy it and anger any attendant priest.
• If the altar is lawful or neutral, it will be immediately converted to chaotic – independently of the hero's alignment (except on the Astral Plane). This will anger any priests but apparently not suffer the other effects of conversion.

Whether or not you are chaotic, if the altar is chaotic or unaligned, a demon may be summoned. The demon will be peaceful if you are chaotic and hostile otherwise. The first two demons will be Juiblex and Yeenoghu in any order, followed by foocubi.

The check for same race is done before the check for a former pet and ignores the check for age, so same-race corpses are always fit for sacrifice until they rot away completely. This is just about the only time an undead creature is a valid sacrifice.

Keep in mind that werecreatures are considered human, so sacrificing them if you're human will have the consequences described above.

Sacrificing pets

Sacrificing creatures that died while tame will generally cause you to lose three alignment and gain the aggravate monster intrinsic. The pet will have a sacrificial value of -1. It proceeds as an ordinary sacrifice. Former pets that have gone feral no longer count as pets, and may be killed and sacrificed as usual.

Cross-aligned altars

(Level + 2) / (Level + 8)

You can convert cross-aligned altars by sacrificing at them if they're not in Gehennom. If you fail, you will lose 1 Luck and possibly have monsters sent in to defend the altar. If you succeed then you gain 1 Luck and the altar becomes coaligned. The chances to convert an altar go up with character level. Converting an altar with a priest present will cause the priest to attack you.

The probability to convert an altar is (YourLevel + 2) / (YourLevel + 8).

When attempting to convert an altar, you will get the message "You sense a conflict between <your god> and <the god of the altar>." A successful conversion will produce the message "You feel the power of <your god> increase." A failed one will result in "Unluckily, you feel the power of <your god> decrease."

A sacrifice with negative value, such as a former pet, will not cause an attempted conversion. Instead, it will anger the altar's god, which will actually decrease your own god's anger by one. You will still suffer the usual effects of angering a god, including the loss of any divine protection and being smitten by the angry god. The pet corpse is not consumed, so you can cure as much anger as you like.

Attempting to convert an altar while your alignment is negative may convert your alignment to that of the altar, take away 3 of your luck and increase your prayer timeout to 300 ("You have a sudden sense of a new direction"). If this happens before you have been admitted to the quest, the game will be unwinnable.

As with coaligned altars, if you get a message saying "Nothing happens", then the corpse was too old and, indeed, nothing happened.

Sacrificing unicorns

Sacrificing unicorns is complicated because the altar's alignment, your alignment, and the unicorn's alignment all factor into the outcome. A unicorn's alignment is represented by its color. The white is lawful, grey neutral, and black chaotic. The points to remember are:

• Never sacrifice a unicorn on an altar of its own alignment. You lose one point of wisdom and the altar's god becomes angry, with the same effect as angering that god through prayer. If the altar is not of your alignment, your god's anger is reduced by one.
• Never sacrifice a unicorn of your own alignment. This increases your god's anger by one and acts as above if the altar is also of your alignment. If the altar is cross-aligned, this will set your alignment score to -1, which makes your sacrifice convert you instead of the altar.
• If you have already been converted once before then an attempted conversion sacrifice will be rejected by the altar's deity (-5 to luck and alignment score, -2 to wisdom) and you will anger and be punished by your current deity.

Each time you sacrifice a unicorn of a different alignment on your own altar, you get a +5 boost to your alignment and the message "You feel appropriately {lawful | neutral | chaotic}", or "You feel you are thoroughly on the right path" if alignment is at maximum.

The rest of the effects are summarized in the following table:

You	Unicorn	Altar	Effect
Lawful	White	Lawful	Bad
Lawful	White	Neutral	You become neutral
Lawful	White	Chaotic	You become chaotic
Lawful	Grey	Lawful	Good
Lawful	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Lawful	Grey	Chaotic	Attempt to convert altar
Lawful	Black	Lawful	Good
Lawful	Black	Neutral	Attempt to convert altar
Lawful	Black	Chaotic	Bad
Neutral	White	Lawful	Bad
Neutral	White	Neutral	Good
Neutral	White	Chaotic	Attempt to convert altar
Neutral	Grey	Lawful	You become lawful
Neutral	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Neutral	Grey	Chaotic	You become chaotic
Neutral	Black	Lawful	Attempt to convert altar
Neutral	Black	Neutral	Good
Neutral	Black	Chaotic	Bad
Chaotic	White	Lawful	Bad
Chaotic	White	Neutral	Attempt to convert altar
Chaotic	White	Chaotic	Good
Chaotic	Grey	Lawful	Attempt to convert altar
Chaotic	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Chaotic	Grey	Chaotic	Good
Chaotic	Black	Lawful	You become lawful
Chaotic	Black	Neutral	You become neutral
Chaotic	Black	Chaotic	Bad

Note: You will lose any intrinsic protection whenever your alignment changes.

Messages

You have a hopeful feeling.

You may not pray yet because your prayer timeout hasn't expired.

You have a feeling of reconciliation.

Your sacrifice reduced your prayer timeout to zero. Unless you have a cursed luckstone, you may pray.

An object appears at your feet!

You may not pray because you received a gift and your prayer timeout has been increased.

You have a feeling of inadequacy.

You may not pray. Your god is still angry at you; your sacrifice did nothing to reduce his anger.

<Deity> seems slightly mollified.

You may not pray. Your god's anger has been reduced but it is not yet zero.

<Deity> seems mollified.

Your god's anger has been reduced to zero. Sacrifice again to to find if it's safe to pray.

You feel partially absolved.

You may not pray because your alignment was negative, and has been increased by the level of the corpse, to a maximum of zero. Sacrifice again to find if it's safe to pray.

You glimpse a four-leaf clover at your feet.

Your base Luck was increased and is at least 0. Unless you have a cursed luckstone, you may pray.

You think something brushed your foot.

As above, while blind..

You see crabgrass at your feet. A funny thing in a dungeon.

As above, while hallucinating.

Your sacrifice is consumed...

If not followed by another message, you may pray.

You have a sudden sense of a new direction.

You have been permanently converted to a new alignment.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, in addition to the usual benefits of sacrifice, you may have wielded and worn items blessed by your god, or minions granted as pets. Additionally, due to the many new artifacts in SLASH'EM, there is much more variation in the types of artifacts you may receive.

Sacrifice gifts in SLASH'EM

Lawful gifts: Demonbane, Firewall (Flame mage 1st gift), Grayswandir, Holy Spear of Light, Orcrist, Quick Blade, Reaper (Yeoman 2nd gift), Skullcrusher (Caveman 1st gift), Snickersnee (Samurai 1st gift), Sting, Sunsword, Sword of Justice (Yeoman 1st gift)

Neutral gifts: Cleaver (Barbarian 1st gift), Deluder (Wizard 2nd gift), Disrupter (Priest 1st gift), Gauntlets of Defense (Monk 1st gift), Giantkiller, Luckblade, Magicbane (Wizard 1st gift), Mirrorbright (Healer 1st gift), Mjollnir (Valkyrie 1st gift), Sword of Balance, Vorpal Blade, Whisperfeet (Tourist 1st gift)

Chaotic gifts: Bat from Hell (Rogue 1st gift), Deathsword (Barbarian 2nd gift), Deep Freeze (Ice Mage 1st gift), Doomblade, Elfrist, Grimtooth, Hellfire, Houchou, Plague, Serpent's Tongue (Necromancer 1st gift), Stormbringer

Unaligned gifts: Dragonbane, Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Ogresmasher, Trollsbane, Wallet of Perseus, Werebane