Blue dragon scales
[ blue dragon scales 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | blue dragon scales |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 3 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 500 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Blue dragon scales are a type of body armor that appear in NetHack. They are made of dragon hide like all dragon scales.
Contents
Generation
Blue dragon scales are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
A blue dragon that leaves a corpse behind on death (i.e. always, unless killed by disintegration) has a 1⁄3 chance of leaving behind dragon scales, while a dragon revived by the wand of undead turning or spell of turn undead only has a 1⁄20 chance to leave behind scales.[1] Blue dragon scales dropped this way are always generated +0 and uncursed.[2]
Description
While worn, blue dragon scales confer 3 base AC and shock resistance. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn blue dragon scales will convert them into blue dragon scale mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing blue dragon scales will turn the wearer into a blue dragon, and doing so while wearing the scale mail will additionally revert them to scales.[3][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 9942b65d, extrinsic sources of an elemental resistance now has a 99⁄100 chance of protecting your inventory from that type of damage. Per commit ef1eeed7, both the scales and scale mail also provide slow digestion.Strategy
Blue dragon scales are rarely used by most characters: reflection can protect against the wand of lightning and the lightning monster spell, and ranged attacks or another source of shock resistance can help avoid or protect from many of the rest. Puddings and gelatinous cubes in particular may confer shock resistance to a character before they encounter a monster that deals non-reflectable shock damage, and other sources of the property (e.g. the ring of shock resistance) will often be encountered before blue dragons or their scales.
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.
Blue dragon scales are more likely to be considered for characters due to providing extrinsic shock resistance and speed: extrinsic resistances are much more valuable, and a source of speed can potentially free up the boots slot for other options.History
Blue dragon scales first appear with most other colors of dragon scales in NetHack 3.1.0.
Variants
In some variants, dragon scale mail is phased out in favor of dragon-scaled armor, whose implementation is based on a proposal by dtsund. Instead of being made into mail of its own, dragon scales are treated as a cloak, and reading a scroll of enchant armor melds them onto a worn set of body armor, generally augmenting that armor by adding its AC and conferred extrinsic properties to it. Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM.
Several variants also give blue dragon scales additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of white dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make blue dragon scales and other colors more worthwhile.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, worn blue dragon scales additionally confer extrinsic speed.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dragon scales and dragon scale mail have randomized powers and appearances in each game - to wish for dragon armor or scales by its corresponding power, either type of armor must be formally identified first, e.g. by using a scroll of identify on dropped dragon scales (which identifies the matching scale mail along with it) or by witnessing the dragon use its breath weapon.
Blue dragon scales are effectively replaced by electric dragon scales, which confer only 1 base AC like all dragon scales in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn blue dragon scales additionally confer extrinsic speed.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn white dragon scales additionally confer extrinsic speed and protects against sources of slowing. They also weigh 300 aum like all dragon scales in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).
