Frost horn
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | frost horn |
| Appearance | horn |
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 18 |
| Material | bone |
| Monster use | May be used offensively by monsters. |
A frost horn is a type of magical tool that appears in NetHack. It is made of bone, and appears as a horn when unidentified.
The fire horn is a counterpart item with an affinity to fire.
Contents
Generation
Frost horns are rare and make up 1⁄500 (0.2%) of all tools randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock frost horns.
Frost 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 some found in bones levels and on trap "bones".
Description
A hero applying a frost 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 frost horn with charges will prompt for a cardinal direction, and the horn will emit a ray of cold 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 freeze moats and pools into ice, reinforce existing ice, destroy doors, and cool lava into solid rock floor, with any objects that are submerged in water or lava buried within the resulting ice.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Rays of cold from the horn are completely stopped by the water within the Plane of Water and will have no effect on it.[16] 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 cold damage equal to a number of six-sided dice ranging from 6–11 (i.e. Xd6) unless they have cold resistance[17][18][19]—monsters that have fire resistance but not cold resistance take an additional +Xd3 damage from the ray.[20] The ray has a 1⁄3 chance of freezing and shattering non-oil potions in the victim's inventory.[21][22] Flesh golems hit by the ray (not counting a polymorphed hero) will slow down.
- A hero that applies the horn at themselves will take 12d6 damage unless they have cold resistance, and the cold can shatter non-oil potions as above.[23][24][25][26][27]
- Choosing to improvise on a frost horn with no charges will treat it 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]
The usage fee for applying a charged frost horn in a shop is one quarter of the full price.[36]
A hero cannot apply a frost 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.[37][38] They will also be prevented from applying a frost horn while underwater.[39] Beatitude has no effect on the outcome of playing a frost horn.
Charging from an uncursed source adds 1d4 charges to a frost horn, while blessed charging adds 2d4 charges and cursed charging will instead strip away all charges[40][41][42][43]—frost horns can be recharged indefinitely, though the counter will not update after charging it more than 7 times.[44]
Monsters can use this item with the same conditions, and hostile ones will apply it offensively in the hero's direction.
Strategy
Frost 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 frost 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 frost 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 cold (including monster vulnerability to cold), 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 cold 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 cold-vulnerable monsters is higher than that of the fire horn, likely to account for the lower extra damage done by freezing potions.
A hero with the The Platinum Yendorian Express Card is well-positioned to make long-term use of frost 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 frost horn.
When testing for a possible frost 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 frost 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 frost horn first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 alongside the fire horn and tooled horn—from this version to NetHack 3.0.10, the frost 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 frost 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 frost horn, and upgrading a frost horn successfully will produce a tooled horn. Dipping a frost 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 frost horn on each square. UnNetHack also incorporates the advent calendar patch, and a frost horn may appear as the Christmas present for day 24.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the frost horn's appearance.
Music instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of a frost horn being generated on each square.
Dipping a frost horn into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a tooled horn, as in SLASH'EM.
Frost horns can be used as substitutes for tooled horns when playing songs via the musicalize spell skill. The Singing Sword can learn a 'chilling song' if the hero applies a charged frost horn with the artifact in their possession, and the chilling song causes the artifact to deal double damage against monsters that lack cold resistance and are not deaf or mindless.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, frost 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 frost horn can be created at a furnace by combining a tooled horn and a wand of cold.
notdNetHack
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Amon will always drop a frost horn upon death—this frost horn has a high chance of an object material other than the standard bone.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, upgrading functions as it does in SLASH'EM, as does dipping a frost horn into a potion of amnesia.
As in dNetHack and its derivatives, Bards start the game with knowledge of the frost horn's appearance, and frost horns can similarly be used as substitutes for tooled horns when playing songs via the musicalize spell skill.
Musicians start each game with a frost horn.
Rare instruments shops have a 3⁄100 chance of generating a frost horn on each square, as in UnNetHack.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, Ice Mages start each game with a blessed frost horn.
Rare instruments shops have a 3⁄100 chance of generating a frost horn on each square, as in UnNetHack and SlashTHEM.
Upgrading a frost horn successfully will produce a fire horn, and vice versa.
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 960
- ↑ 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 3726
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 700
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 585
- ↑ 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 4481
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4498
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4501
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4507
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4544
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4550
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4634
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4486
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 600
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3643
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3800
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3649
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3653
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3808
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 591
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2336
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2338
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2342
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2346
- ↑ 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/shk.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4541: usage fee for all charged magical instruments is ¼ of the full price
- ↑ 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 687
- ↑ 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
