Jumping

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Revision as of 15:39, 12 May 2018 by Andrio Celos (talk | contribs) (You can't jump diagonally through a door any more.)
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Jumping is a property that allows a player to traverse multiple empty tiles in one movement. The ability to jump comes from three sources: being a Knight, wearing jumping boots, or reading a spellbook of jumping. To perform a jump, use the extended command #jump. If number_pad is set, you can also press j. Knight jumping and jumping from the boots are practically identical; the only difference is to which squares you can jump.

Before NetHack 3.6.1, the #jump command would not cast the jumping spell. To cast it, you must press Z and select jumping. The spell lets you jump farther, depending on your skill in escape spells.

Using any of the three sources to jump, you must be able to see your destination. The jump will consume d25 nutrition (plus the usual spellcasting hunger penalty, if you cast the spell), and you become immobile for the rest of the current turn (not simply one action) after landing.[1] (This penalty thus has no effect if you use it on the last action of a turn.) Players with speed can move farther in one turn by stepping as far as possible without advancing the turn counter, then jumping, see Speed#Strategy.

Note that you cannot jump over monsters. If you attempt to do so, you will bump into them, which will wake them up and anger them if they are peaceful.

You can jump to try to escape from a pit or lava. You can also jump out of a web, which will tear it apart. You can jump out of a bear trap, but it will cause 1d10 damage and can inflict a long-lasting leg wound. If you are stuck in the floor (because you were caught in cooling lava) and attempt to jump, you will remain stuck and wound your legs. Jumping out of shops counts as direct theft.

Range

Escape spells
Max Role
Basic
Skilled
Expert

In the following diagrams, tiles to which you can jump are marked by an 'x'.

Knight's jump

...........
...........
...........
....x.x....
...x...x...
.....@.....
...x...x...
....x.x....
...........
...........
...........

Jumping boots

...........
...........
.....x.....
...xxxxx...
...xxxxx...
..xxx@xxx..
...xxxxx...
...xxxxx...
.....x.....
...........
...........

Jumping spell
Unskilled

...........
...........
.....x.....
...xxxxx...
...xxxxx...
..xxx@xxx..
...xxxxx...
...xxxxx...
.....x.....
...........
...........

Basic

...........
...........
....xxx....
...xxxxx...
..xxxxxxx..
..xxx@xxx..
..xxxxxxx..
...xxxxx...
....xxx....
...........
...........

Skilled

...........
...........
...xxxxx...
..xxxxxxx..
..xxxxxxx..
..xxx@xxx..
..xxxxxxx..
..xxxxxxx..
...xxxxx...
...........
...........

Expert

...........
....xxx....
..xxxxxxx..
..xxxxxxx..
.xxxxxxxxx.
.xxxx@xxxx.
.xxxxxxxxx.
..xxxxxxx..
..xxxxxxx..
....xxx....
...........

Path

Once you select a destination, you will be moved towards it along a path determined by a version of Bresenham's line algorithm.[2] The path will be as close to a straight line as possible, but will tend to move you along the longer axis of your jump. It will never move you a greater proportion of the distance along the shorter axis than it has moved you along the longer axis.

The following diagrams should help illustrate some typical paths:

...........    ...........    ...........    ...........
...........    ...........    ...........    ...........
...........    ...........    ...........    ...........
....X......    ...........    ...........    ...........
.....*.....    ...........    ...........    .........X.
.....@.....    ...**@.....    .....@.....    .....@***..
...........    ..X........    .....*.....    ...........
...........    ...........    ....*......    ...........
...........    ...........    ...X.......    ...........
...........    ...........    ...........    ...........
...........    ...........    ...........    ...........

Being able to predict the path of your jump is important for maximizing jump distance, and to avoid angering peaceful monsters.

Restrictions

You cannot jump if:

In addition, if you are not casting the jumping spell, you cannot jump if:

  • You are polymorphed into something with no legs.
  • You are burdened to any degree.
  • You are hungrier than the halfway point between not hungry and weak.
  • You have less than six strength.

But you can surprisingly jump if:

  • You are stunned or confused (and you even land in the right place).
  • You are riding a paralysed steed.
  • You are riding a flying steed.

Strategy

Jumping is an excellent escape method. For this reason, a minority of seasoned players value jumping boots over speed boots.

If you want to eat a corpse for an intrinsic, but you are satiated and don't have an amulet of magical breathing, jumping can un-satiate you. This goes especially if you have hungerless casting.

Clearing a lane with a wand of teleportation, then jumping through it, is one of the better strategies for the Astral Plane. Since you need to be able to see your destination, many players carry the Candelabrum of Invocation to the Endgame.

See Speed#Strategy to learn the fastest way to move around the dungeon. But watch your nutrition intake, especially in the early game.

You can avoid traps by jumping over them, except fire traps, magic portals and Sokoban traps. Jumping over the vibrating square will still reveal it. Before NetHack 3.6.1, you could jump diagonally through open doors; this is no longer possible. [3] However, if you got inside a closed door by phasing, you can jump diagonally out of it without needing the power.

You can cross Medusa's Lair by jumping from island to island. However, you really want a levitation source for the Endgame anyway, so you might want to turn back and get one instead.

Origin

The Knight's odd set of jump targets – one square orthogonally, then one square diagonally away from the square of origin – is a reference to chess, in which the piece called the knight moves in the same way, jumping over any pieces between the starting and landing squares.

References


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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.1. Information on this page may be out of date.

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