Wand of digging
/ | |
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Name | digging |
Appearance | random |
Abundance | 5.5% |
Base price | 150 zm |
Weight | 7 |
Type | ray |
Maximum charges | 8 |
Spell | dig |
Monster use | May be used defensively by monsters. |
A wand of digging is a type of wand that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a wand of digging as the random wand in their starting inventory.[1]
Wands of digging make up 11⁄200 (5.5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of digging.
Minotaurs have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a wand of digging, and the minotaur generated upon entering the Plane of Earth is guaranteed to have one.[2] Other randomly generated monsters that are given a miscellaneous item may be given a wand of digging, except for floating eyes[3]—while this is intended to exclude shopkeepers, guards and temple priests, the code is bugged and gives them the item before their monster flags are set.
A wand of digging generates with 4 to 8 charges.
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 ad3aa545, monsters only have a 1⁄4 chance of receiving a wand of digging in Sokoban.Description
Zapping a wand of digging in a given direction produces a ray that can dig open a corridor of several squares through solid rock and walls, passing harmlessly through boulders and destroying any doors in its path. Zapping the wand upward causes a rock to fall from the ceiling and bonk the hero on the head unless they are underwater. Zapping the wand downward creates a hole, and doing this on an undiggable floor creates a pit - unless the hero are levitating, flying, or else randomly escapes, they will fall into the resulting trap. Zapping the wand and digging through the walls or doors of Minetown will anger the watch; zapping the wand down on a headstone always creates a pit on the square and unearths the contents of that grave, with appropriate penalties to alignment record.
Zapping the wand in a maze level will limit the ray's effect to one square, and the ray has no effect on undiggable walls and rock. Zapping the wand while being engulfed by a non-whirly monster sets the monster's current HP to 1 and expels the hero.[4]
Zapping the wand, seeing it zapped or engraving with the wand will auto-identify it, and engraving with the wand creates a semi-permanent engraving.
Applying a charged wand of digging (or wresting one last charge from an applied wand) will break it, causing an explosion that deals anywhere between 1 and (4×<charges>) damage and creates pits or holes on the hero's square and the eight squares around them[5]—undiggable floors, stairs, boulders, other traps, and altars are not affected, and any dungeon features on those squares (e.g. thrones) are destroyed.[6]
Monsters that are not shopkeepers, guards or temple priests can zap this wand, and will use it exclusively to escape from the hero when at low health, creating a hole for them to fall (or fly) through. A monster will not use the wand this way in Sokoban unless the puzzle on that floor is solved. This fails on an undiggable floor as normal, though the monster will continue zapping the wand regardless.
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 9ab6994e, Juiblex now only loses half of his HP from the hero zapping the wand while he is engulfing them.
Per commit a18859dd, fleeing monsters will create a pit when zapping the wand on an undiggable floor, causing them to fall into the resulting pit unless they are flying or levitating—per commit 23e6a054, they will also not zap the wand further if there is already a pit present. Per commit 9079250c, this includes Vlad the Impaler while he is still inside his own tower.
Per commit ab37888b the blast from an applied wand of digging can destroy regular altars&mddash;per commit 8764ae12 this will incur the anger of that altar's god, and shopkeepers will demand restitution for any destruction to their shops caused by breaking the wand.
Per commit 1282863f, breaking a wand of digging will affect adjacent squares with boulders on them, causing them to fill the resulting hole or pit, with the latter accounted for per commit 6c895ab6.Strategy
The wand of digging is an invaluable item that serves multiple purposes for any player, especially those doing speed ascensions - they can also be extremely annoying to snag from monsters without "losing" at least one charge, if not several. The most common use for a wand of digging is as an escape item to extract yourself from a hairy situation and gain some breathing room; it is also the only way you can dig at all while levitating. Any text engraved with a wand of digging is as durable as text engraved with a weapon or hard gem - this makes it as effective as an athame and slightly less effective than a wand of fire or wand of lightning for engraving Elbereth.
A wand of digging can be useful for the aspiring shoplifter; one of the best methods of doing so is to dig through the shop walls using the wand, then step outside of them and zap it downward.
Wands of digging can aid in clearing treasure zoos, throne rooms and other similar special rooms by zapping the wand to destroy the doors without creating noise.
The wand is a practically ubiquitous aid in navigating Gehennom - even with the above difficulty in obtaining one from a monster, a character is likely to have several spare wands by the time they reach the Valley of the Dead, and being able to consistently kill minotaurs can net them several more. Zapping a wand of digging diagonally at the Wizard's Tower allows a character to fire a wand of death or finger of death through the newly-created gap at the Wizard of Yendor, potentially killing him without giving him the chance to cast spells and leaving the Book of the Dead to be retrieved with relatively little trouble.
The wand of digging also proves valuable for ascension kits; navigating the Plane of Earth is easiest with this method, and zapping the doors on the Astral Plane can save a lot of time in searching for your high altar.
Digging for victory
While not always the primary tool in a "dig for victory", the wand of digging is likely to be essential, both for escaping a Big Room and for evading minotaurs as you near the Castle.
History
The wand of digging first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, altars can be destroyed by applying a wand of digging while charged (or by wresting one last charge from an applied wand).
Messages
- You dig a hole through the floor.
- You zapped a wand of digging downward.
- You fall through...
- You immediately fell through a hole made from zapping the wand downward.
- You dig a pit in the grave.
- As above, while on a grave.
- You dig a pit in the floor.
- You zapped a wand of digging downward on an undiggable level.
- Gravel flies up from the floor.
- You engraved with a wand of digging.
- You loosen a rock from the ceiling. It falls on your head!
- You zapped a wand of digging upward.
- The <wall/rock> glows then fades.
- You zapped a wand of digging at undiggable terrain.
- The floor is too hard to dig in here.
- A monster zapped the wand down at an undiggable floor.
- The door is razed!
- A door was destroyed by a ray from a wand of digging.
- You barely hear some noises.
- You zapped a wand of digging while underwater.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, zapping a boulder with a wand of digging will vaporize it, and doing so in Sokoban will incur a -1 luck penalty.
Rays from a wand of digging will halve the current HP of "stony" monsters, including xorns, earth elementals, statue gargoyles (but not regular gargoyles), and stone golems.[7]
GruntHack
In GruntHack, monsters can use the wand of digging on walls.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, wands of digging are no longer restricted to digging a single square on maze levels. Wands of digging are ineffective on the ice walls and crystal ice walls generated in Sheol, although other forms of digging are still effective.
Zapping a wand of digging to escape the engulfing of Juiblex will only halve his current HP, rather than reducing it to 1.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, The Rod of Lordly Might, The Rod of the Elvish Lords and The Sceptre of Lolth can each be invoked while in the form of a mace for effects similar to a wand of digging. The invoked artifact becomes a "ladder" that allows you to escape to the floor below if you invoke it while possessing the Amulet of Yendor; invoking this effect while being engulfed by a solid monster will severely damage them, reducing the current HP of unique monsters by 1⁄4 and setting the monster's HP to 1 otherwise. In all cases, these invoke effects are governed by timeout.
NetHack Fourk
NetHack Fourk incorporates the Wands Balance Patch, meaning that all wands are subject to skill level. Using a wand of digging with a higher skill level increases the amount of tiles that can be dug through.
FIQHack
FIQHack also incorporates the Wands Balance Patch, and the wand of digging functions as it does in Fourk. Additionally, a wand zapped at Master skill ignores maze restrictions.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, a wand of digging can be found on the home level of the Geek quest.
References
- Jump up ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 164
- Jump up ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 708
- Jump up ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1051
- Jump up ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1410
- Jump up ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3416
- Jump up ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 183:
dig_check
function - Jump up ↑ mondata.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 206