Tinker

Tinker is a technique that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, and is used to improve certain items. All gnomes obtain the technique at experience level 7.

Description

To use the technique, you must not be blinded and wield an applicable object - see upgrading objects for a list of eligible items. When used, you will become occupied until you either complete the technique (which takes [150-technique level] turns) or you are interrupted; there is no specific cooldown afterward, though you will fail to upgrade the object if you are interrupted. The chances of actually upgrading an object after finishing the technique without interruption are dependent on Luck.

Using the tinker technique does not break any conduct, such as polypileless.

Strategy

The tinker technique grants gnomes in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM access to several common ascension kit items while preserving conducts and saving several wishes. Below is a list of common candidates and the items you can tinker with to obtain them:

• The cloak of magic resistance and oilskin cloak can be obtained by tinkering with a dwarvish or elven cloak, with an equal probability of each.
• Gauntlets of dexterity can be obtained with a ¹⁄₂ chance from upgrading leather gloves.
• A bag of holding can be obtained with a ¹⁄₅ chance from upgrading a sack, and the remainder of the time you will get an oilskin sack, which always becomes a bag of holding when upgraded.
• Upgrading an orcish helm or dwarvish iron helm will produce either a helm of brilliance or a helm of telepathy, with an equal probability for each.
• An ordinary robe can be upgraded into a robe of power with a ¹⁄₂ chance.

Ensure that you cannot be interrupted when using the tinker technique, e.g. by a hostile monster coming into view - you will generally want to lock yourself in a small room with a stockpile of food, since even with high Luck many of the above upgrades may require multiple attempts, whether to obtain a specific desired item or to complete a multi-step chain leading to one. An early ring of slow digestion is quite useful to this end if you happen to find one.

Gnomes with an early wish should take this technique into consideration when choosing what to wish for: the ability to 'guarantee' a cloak of magic resistance makes silver dragon scale mail a much better first wish for them.