Dunce cap
[ dunce cap 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | conical hat |
| Slot | helm |
| AC | 0 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 1 zm |
| Weight | 4 |
| Material | cloth |
A dunce cap is a type of magical helm that appears in NetHack. It is made of cloth and appears as a conical hat when unidentified, an appearance that it shares with the cornuthaum.
Contents
Generation
Dunce caps are rare and make up 3⁄1000 of all helms randomly generated on the floor, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock dunce caps.
Description
While worn, the dunce cap sets a hero's intelligence and wisdom to 6 each and autocurses, auto-identifying the dunce cap, and will prevent any further changes to intelligence or wisdom.[1] Taking off or removing the dunce cap will restore the hero's intelligence and wisdom to their original values.
For a hero shopping while wearing a dunce cap, shopkeepers will add an additional 1⁄3 markup to the price of each item when buying, and will only give the hero 1⁄3 of the base price in gold (or 9⁄10 of the preceding value in credit) when selling items.[2][3] This does not stack with the penalty for being a low-level Tourist or having a visible shirt.[4][5]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit edefa148, Tourists are the only role capable of reading a conical hat, and only 1⁄3 of such items will have any lettering to read—reading a dunce cap with lettering will show the word "DUNCE", breaking illiterate conduct and prompting the player to type-name the hat afterward.Strategy
The dunce cap primarily exists to entrap careless heroes looking for a cornuthaum: the fixed intelligence and wisdom will almost always be lower than their actual stats, resulting in devastating spikes for spellcasting failure rates and potentially removing the remove curse spell as an option to uncurse or remove the hat. Furthermore, as the cornuthaum is only useful for Wizards or pets, other roles can choose to freely ignore unidentified conical hats and completely avoid the risk of donning a dunce cap.
One marginal use of the dunce cap is that it prevents instadeath from a mind flayer's intelligence drain—it does not prevent amnesia from the same attack, however. Beyond this, its best use is as fodder for polypiling into other magical armor.
Identification
As the dunce cap and the cornuthaum are both conical hats, picking up and wearing a conical hat at random is a Bad Idea. They can easily be distinguished by price identification, with the dunce cap having a base cost of only 1 zorkmid.
History
The dunce cap first appears in NetHack 3.2.0 alongside the cornuthaum.
Origin
The dunce cap is a conical paper hat with the word "dunce" or just a "D" written on it. It served as a form of punishment for schools in the English-speaking world, where a student seen as misbehaving, stupid or lazy was made to wear it in front of the classroom for a set amount of time.
The notion of a "thinking cap" such as the cornuthaum may derive from ceremonial conical hats or even true thinking hats - in this context, the dunce cap is an "anti-thinking cap".
Messages
- You feel like sitting in a corner.
- You put on a dunce cap.
- Your cap constricts briefly, then relaxes again.
- Your wisdom or intelligence would have changed, but a worn dunce cap prevented this.
Variants
Some variants of NetHack give dunce cap additional and sometimes-niche uses.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, upgrading a cornuthaum produces a dunce cap and vice versa.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, a dunce cap is one of the best defenses against the intelligence-draining powers of an ancient of thought.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a tinfoil hat can be created at a furnace by combining a dunce cap and a dented pot.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, upgrading a cornuthaum will produce a dunce cap and vice versa, as in SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's
cap, or dunce's hat, is a tall conical hat. In popular
culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with
a D, and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment for
being stupid or lazy. While this is now a rare practice,
it is frequently depicted in popular culture such as
children's cartoons.
References
- ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 125
- ↑ src/shk.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2128
- ↑ src/shk.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2332
- ↑ src/shk.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2130: price hike for Tourists is separated by an else if
- ↑ src/shk.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2334: short selling for Tourists is separated by an else if
