Fire horn
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | fire horn |
| Appearance | horn |
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 18 |
| Material | bone |
| Monster use | May be used offensively by monsters. |
A fire horn is a type of magical tool that appears in NetHack. It is made of bone, and appears as a horn when unidentified.
The frost horn is a counterpart item with an affinity to cold.
Contents
Generation
Fire horns are rare and make up 1⁄500 of all tools randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock fire horns.
Fire horns are generated with 4–8 charges, and can hold a maximum of 20 charges.[1][2][3] They are normally generated uncursed with the exception of bones levels and trap "bones".
Description
A hero applying a fire horn will be prompted if they want to improvise, as with a standard tonal instrument, and the item's effects depend on the answer chosen by the player:[4][5]
- Choosing to improvise on a fire horn with charges will prompt for a cardinal direction, and the horn will emit a ray of fire in that direction, using up a charge and auto-identifying the item type.[6][7][8] The ray will always bounce off walls and can melt ice, destroy doors and webs, dry up pools and fountains, and burn up flammable objects on the floor.[9][10][11] A hero or monster that has reflection will cause the ray to rebound without being harmed.
- A hero or monster that is hit by the ray takes fire damage equal to a number of six-sided dice chosen from 6–11 (i.e. Xd6) unless they have fire resistance[12][13][14]—monsters that have cold resistance but not fire resistance take an additional 7 damage from the ray.[15] The ray can burn armor, destroy globs of green slime and affect other items in the victim's inventory, with a 1⁄3 chance of destroying scrolls and potions, and a 1⁄5 chance of destroying spellbooks;[16][17] a hero hit by the ray will be cured of sliming before inventory damage is applied.[18] Iron golems hit by the ray (including a hero polymorphed into one) will instead be healed for 6d6 HP, while flesh golems (not counting a polymorphed hero) will slow down.[19][20][21]
- A hero that applies the horn at themselves will take 12d6 damage unless they have fire resistance and auto-identify the horn, and the fire can burn armor, abort sliming and destroy scrolls, potions, spellbooks, and globs of green slime as above.[22][23][24][25][26] A hero polymorphed into an iron golem will instead be healed for 12d6 HP.[27][21]
- Choosing to improvise on a fire horn with no charges will treat the horn as an applied tooled horn, which can wake up nearby sleeping monsters and scare any that fail a roll against their MR score.[8][28][29][30][31][32]
- Choosing not to improvise will allow the hero to play specific notes from the horn without using up any charges, with the sound awakening nearby sleeping monsters.[33][34][35]
A hero cannot apply a fire horn if they are subjected to strangulation, if they are in the form of a sea monster, or if they are in the form of any monster that is tiny in size, unbreathing, cannot speak, lacks a head, or can only buzz.[36][37] They will also be prevented from applying a fire horn while underwater.[38]
Charging from an uncursed source adds 1d4 charges to a fire horn, while blessed charging adds 2d4 charges and cursed charging will instead strip away all charges[39][40][41][42]—fire horns can be recharged indefinitely, though the counter will not update after charging it more than 7 times.[43]
Beatitude has no effect on the outcome of playing a fire horn. Monsters can use this item with the same conditions, and hostile ones will apply it offensively in the hero's direction.
Strategy
Fire horns are incredibly powerful tools to encounter early, which also makes them very hazardous if a hero is unlucky enough for a monster to find one first and use it against them: the rays from a fire horn can deal upwards of 66 damage to a hero, and that number can run even higher from any subsequent inventory damage. Somewhat thankfully, its rarity makes it unlikely (but not impossible) that a hero will encounter one until long after they are capable of surviving a ray from one.
A hero that obtains a fire horn can utilize it as an offensive and defensive measure: it can be played to blast monsters at at a distance for a higher range of damage than a wand of fire (including monster vulnerability to fire), and once it runs out of charges the horn can scare monsters that cannot be as easily deterred by other means, e.g. engraving Elbereth. However, applying the horn for fire blasts can prove difficult in corridors that are tight or else poorly lit without risking a potentially deadly rebound. Additionally, note that the extra damage dealt to fire-vulnerable monsters is lower than that of the frost horn, likely to account for the extra damage done by burning inventory.
A hero with the The Platinum Yendorian Express Card is well-positioned to make long-term use of fire horns, especially for illiterate conduct play in any neutral role—Tourists that have obtained their quest artifact can invoke it for blessed charging instead of regular charging like most roles, and so are much more likely to benefit from it when maintaining a fire horn.
When testing for a possible fire horn, players should do so in an open space and be aware of potential rebound paths and whether or not any peaceful monsters are in close enough proximity to be hit by the rays. Additionally, the fire horn can be used as a tonal instrument for playing the passtune on the Castle level.
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 6e49372d, mindless monsters are immune to musical scaring.History
The fire horn first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 alongside the frost horn and tooled horn—from this version to NetHack 3.0.10, the fire horn only generates if the MUSIC compile-time option is enabled, and it is added to the default item list in NetHack 3.1.0.
Variants
In variants that import the advent calendar patch, a fire horn is among the various tools that may appear as the Christmas present on day 24.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, upgrading a tooled horn successfully has a 1⁄3 chance of producing a fire horn, and upgrading a fire horn successfully will produce a tooled horn. Dipping a fire horn in a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a tooled horn.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, rare instruments shops have a 3⁄100 chance of generating a fire horn on each square. UnNetHack also incorporates the advent calendar patch, and a fire horn may appear as the Christmas present for day 24.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the frost horn's appearance.
Music instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of a fire horn being generated on each square.
Dipping a fire horn into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a tooled horn, as in SLASH'EM.
Fire horns can be used as substitutes for tooled horns when playing songs via the musicalize spell skill. The Singing Sword can learn a 'fiery song' if the hero applies a charged fire horn with the artifact in their possession, and the fiery song causes the artifact to deal double damage against monsters that lack fire resistance and are not deaf or mindless.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, fire horns deal XLd6 damage with their rays, making them less powerful (but also less dangerous to a hero) in the early game.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a fire horn can be created at a furnace by combining a tooled horn and a wand of fire.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Infidels start each game with a fire horn.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, Musicians start each game with a fire horn.
Upgrading functions as it does in SLASH'EM, as does dipping a fire horn into a potion of amnesia.
Rare instruments shops have a 3⁄100 chance of generating a fire horn on each square, as in UnNetHack.
As in dNetHack and its derivatives, Bards start the game with knowledge of the fire horn's appearance, and fire horns can similarly be used as substitutes for tooled horns when playing songs via the musicalize spell skill.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, Infidels start each game with a fire horn as in EvilHack.
Rare instruments shops have a 3⁄100 chance of generating a fire horn on each square, as in UnNetHack and SlashTHEM.
Upgrading a fire horn successfully will produce a frost horn, and vice versa.
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 961
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 694
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 699
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3727
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 700
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 584
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 598
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 840: else only occurs if improvising
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4438
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4629
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4700
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 600
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3623
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3781
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3629
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3633
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3790
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3789
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3785
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1779
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1795
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 591
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2316
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2318
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2322
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2327
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2321
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 604
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 609: calls awaken_monsters()
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 61: awaken_monsters() function
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 70
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 78
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 707
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 714
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 769
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 693
- ↑ src/mondata.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 336: MS_BUZZ covers killer bees, queen bees, grid bugs, and xans
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 690
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 688
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 690
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 692
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 697
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 573: tools don't have a limit, but the counter used does
