Amulet of Yendor

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" Amulet of Yendor.png
Name Amulet of Yendor
Appearance Amulet of Yendor
Base price 30000 zm
Weight 20

The ultimate goal of a game of NetHack is to find the Amulet of Yendor and offer it to your god to become immortal. The offering is done at the Astral Plane, topmost of the five elemental planes.

The Amulet is held by the high priest of Moloch in the Sanctum at the bottom of Gehennom. To reach it, however, the player needs three other items, known as the invocation artifacts.

Effects

The Amulet of Yendor will resist being put into any type of container; it must be carried in main inventory.

When carried

When you are carrying the Amulet of Yendor:

  • You get clairvoyance, if it is not blocked by a cornuthaum.
  • When casting spells, your energy is drained. See below.
  • Hunger is increased by 1 every 20 turns (in addition to normal amulet hunger).[1]
  • Your luck (bad or good) times out more rapidly.
  • Monster difficulty will depend on your deepest level reached, not your current dungeon level.[2]
  • Nymphs, named demons, wumpuses, long worms, and eels are always generated awake.[3][4]
  • When going up levels in Gehennom, you may be sent down 0 to 3 levels instead. See the table below.[5]
  • You cannot levelport or branchport.[6][7]
  • Teleportation within the level is blocked 13 of the time.[8]
  • The Wizard of Yendor can teleport or level teleport to find you.[9]
  • The Wizard will try to steal the Amulet (120 chance every time he hits you).[10]
  • Climbing the upstairs or quaffing a cursed potion of gain level in dungeon level 1 takes you to the Plane of Earth.[11]
  • You can activate the endgame portals.

While carrying the amulet, casting spells takes more Power than usual. The penalty is between 1 and 2n Power points, where n is the normal Power cost of the spell cast. This means spell costs will be doubled on average, and may use up to three times as much Power in the worst case.[12]

Mysterious force

If you try to go upstairs in Gehennom while carrying the Amulet of Yendor, the mysterious force may instead teleport you down (increase your dungeon level) by 0 to 3 levels. A level change of zero places you somewhere else in the level (teleport control does not apply). The chance depends on your alignment.

Level change Lawful Neutral Chaotic
−1 75.00% 75.00% 75.00%
0 6.25% 8.33% 12.50%
+1 11.45% 12.50% 12.50%
+2 5.20% 4.17% 0
+3 2.08% 0 0
Avg. change −0.470 −0.542 −0.625

When worn or wielded

When wearing or wielding the Amulet, you may get messages about the it getting "hotter" as you approach magic portals.

Every game turn, there is a 115 chance that you will receive a message if you are near a magic portal.[13]

Distance Message
3-square radius "The Amulet of Yendor feels hot!"
8-square radius "The Amulet of Yendor feels very warm."
12-square radius "The Amulet of Yendor feels warm."
Farther No message

Offering

If you offer the Amulet of Yendor on the correct high altar on the Astral Plane, you ascend and win the game. Offering the Amulet on another god's high altar will also end the game; your current god is angered, but the altar's god allows you to escape in celestial disgrace. This is effectively an ascension, but is less prestigious because it removes the need to find the correct altar.

Attempting to offer the Amulet on any other altar gives the message "You feel an urge to return to the surface." (If hallucinating, "You feel homesick.") There is no penalty for this, even if you attempt to do it at a cross-aligned or unaligned altar.

Offering to Moloch

As of NetHack 3.6.0, the player can offer the Amulet of Yendor to Moloch on the unaligned high altar in the Sanctum. This leads to instadeath:

Moloch shrugs and retains dominion over <your god>, then mercilessly snuffs out your life.

The cause of death is "Moloch's indifference". If you survive, by wearing an amulet of life saving, the message continues:

Moloch snarls and tries again...
You disintegrate into a pile of dust!

This happens even if you are disintegration resistant. The cause of death is then "the wrath of Moloch".

Should you somehow survive this, the following message will appear:

A cloud of black smoke surrounds you...

This will be treated as escaping the dungeon.

Messages

You feel the amulet draining your energy away.
You cast a spell while carrying the amulet. Between 1 and 2n extra Power points were used, where n equals to the Power originally needed to cast the spell. This Power drain is incurred before the normal Power used for the spell is calculated, resulting in spells occasionally being unable to be cast due to a lack of energy. Ideally, even with 0% spell failure, you will require 3n Power to ensure a spell always works.

Forgeries

It is possible to find cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor at several places in the Mazes of Menace. These generally appear to the player as "the Amulet of Yendor", but messing up and offering one of them to your god carries a penalty to luck, and possibly alignment and your god's anger (if you attempt to offer a known fake). But the real danger lies in becoming confused by the abundance of fakes and carrying one off instead of the real Amulet if, for instance, the Wizard steals it from you. There are several ways to avoid this fate. Many players will immediately name the real Amulet "REAL" or something similar immediately upon claiming it from the high priest. Another technique is to attempt to put the Amulet into a container; the real Amulet will resist, but a fake will go in. Also, quaffing a cursed potion of gain level on dungeon level 1 will make you "have an uneasy feeling" if you don't have the real Amulet, but take you to the Plane of Earth if you do.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the Amulet has a chance of randomly teleporting within the level when dropped for any reason. This is in many ways balanced by the removal of the mysterious force. The probability depends on the Amulet's beatitude: if cursed, the Amulet teleports half of the time; if uncursed, 14 of the time; and if blessed, 116 of the time. This also applies if it is dropped by a monster, e.g. Cthulhu who originally has the Amulet.

Sacrificing the Amulet of Yendor breaks atheist conduct in UnNetHack, unlike in vanilla NetHack. The player is warned if the conduct would be broken this way. In order to complete the game, one must invoke the Amulet on the corresponding altar instead.

Mythology

The Amulet of Yendor is based on the Rogue item of the same name, which is also used to end the game.

Encyclopedia entry

This mysterious talisman is the object of your quest. It is
said to possess powers which mere mortals can scarcely
comprehend, let alone utilize. The gods will grant the gift of
immortality to the adventurer who can deliver it from the
depths of Moloch's Sanctum and offer it on the appropriate high
altar on the Astral Plane.

References

External links

http://www.spod-central.org/~psmith/nh/amul-343.txt


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