Portable electrode - Revision history

Klepto: properly link research.

2026-01-27T03:25:32Z

properly link research.

Klepto: workbench align + link research.

2026-01-27T03:24:49Z

workbench align + link research.

Klepto: correction regarding chargeability.

2026-01-23T22:39:06Z

correction regarding chargeability.

Klepto: created page.

2026-01-21T02:33:49Z

created page.

New page

{{tool
|name=portable electrode
|appearance=ball-topped spike
|weight=15
|cost=300
|color=metal color
|material=iron
|tile=
}}

A '''portable electrode''' is a type of [[tool]] that appears in [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]]. It is a [[Item size (dNetHack)|small-sized]] [[charge]]able tool that has the [[Object materials (dNetHack)|base material]] of [[iron]]. It appears as a '''ball-topped spike''' when [[identification|unidentified]].

==Generation==
Portable electrodes do not randomly generate.<br>
[[Altar]]s that are aligned to [[the college]] have a {{frac|2}} chance of having a portable electrode generated on their square, containing a [[bell]] otherwise.<br>
A portable electrode is generated on the square where the [[Index wolf]] is killed, who is the [[nemesis]] of the [[Undead hunter]] quest.

==Description==
[[Apply]]ing a portable electrode on a square that contains a [[corpse]] will attempt to reanimate it. If your current [[energy]] is higher than 3 × [[Monster difficulty]], and the monster attempting to be reanimated has [[innards]], the monster will be revived as a [[Spark skeleton]] [[monster template|template]] monster (same as the skeleton monster template), marked as a permanently summoned, and your current energy will be reduced by the same amount. Otherwise, energy is set to 0, but nothing else happens. If more than 50 turns have passed since the monster was killed, or it is untamable, it will be revived hostile and is permanently [[crazed]]. Otherwise, it is made [[tame]]. If a [[hero]] who is a student of the [[reanimation]] philosophy revives a monster with a portable electrode, they will have their research counter incremented by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty'' + ''monster difficulty''. Reanimating a corpse that has previously already been reanimated instead only increases research by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty''.

Students of the philosophy of reanimation may also use the portable electrode to obtain reanimation upgrades. [[Undead Hunter]]s who apply the portable electrode over a [[workbench]] of their philosophy, and who have performed sufficient reanimation research, will then be prompted to advance along their research path by choosing an upgrade. Having a [[dissection kit]] in open inventory may substitute for the altar, allowing upgrades to be taken anywhere and by any role, so long as they can source one.

The reanimation research path has 11 upgrades that may be obtained in any order, with the exceptions of the 3 weapon attunement upgrades, which require the hero to already have obtained the "arcane forces" upgrade beforehand, and the "catoptrics of the silver rays" upgrade, which requires the hero to have made contact with [[The Silver Flame]]. Obtaining these upgrades counts towards making a "great [[breakthrough]]" and meeting the conditions for a [[score|full-scoring]] [[ascension]], which requires a minimum of 6 upgrades total. While characters of other roles may still perform undead hunter research, they cannot ascend under an undead hunter ascension.

Obtaining a reanimation upgrade will advance the hero in their research and grant an appropriate upgrade, while also reducing their current [[intelligence]] and [[wisdom]] scores by 1. Every third upgrade taken on the research path will also permanently reduce the maximum intelligence and wisdom possible for that character's race by 1. Fully advancing into the reanimation research path will thus reduce their intelligence and wisdom maximums by 3, superseded by [[helms of brilliance]] and the [[spirit]] [[Huginn and Munnin]] while it is bound.

==Strategy==
For lawful Undead Hunters, obtaining their portable electrode will be their priority during the early to mid-game. While they may still advance their reanimation research by [[research (dNetHack)|researching]] corpses on a workbench, they must first defeat the Index Wolf before being able to obtain any of their upgrades, or find a workbench to the college in the main dungeon that contains one otherwise. Since most reanimation Undead Hunters won't have 27 [[insight]] until after they have explored a bit of the [[Lethe Gorge|Lost Cities]], this isn't their biggest priority early on, but should likely be incorporated into the player's route so as not to lose out on the benefits of the upgrades.

The portable electrode fulfills a niche use for [[pet]] monger builds, and can be used to pad out their ranks with fodder monsters. As [[undead]] skeletons with natural resistance to slashing and piercing weapons, they are a bit sturdier when fighting against most weapon-wielding foes. Their natural resistance to [[cold]], [[sleep]] and [[poison]] may also be of good use, though they are also notably slower. As a source of pets, they are in many regards more reliable and far cheaper to use than other magical sources, with the caveat that the better higher difficulty monsters require large amounts of energy to reanimate. [[Incantifier]]s are notably exempt from this drawback, and can use it essentially as much as they want.

Other play styles do not particularly benefit from the portable electrode's reanimating properties; however, a character who wishes to benefit from the reanimation upgrades will still find themselves in need of this item, which necessitates spending a [[wish]] to obtain it.

==Messages==
{{message|You jolt the corpse, but nothing happens!|You applied a portable electrode to reanimate a corpse but didn't have enough energy.}}
{{message|You jolt the corpse, and its flesh burns away in great arcs of lightning!| You applied a portable electrode to reanimate a corpse. Counts towards reanimation research, if currently a student of the philosophy.}}
{{message|You have devised a new experiment into the great animating thoughts.|You reanimated a corpse while an active student of the reanimation philosophy.}}

{{variant-343}}
[[Category: dNetHack tools]]
[[Category: notdNetHack tools]]
[[Category: notnotdNetHack tools]]

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 ==Description==
-[[Apply]]ing a portable electrode on a square that contains a [[corpse]] will attempt to reanimate it. If your current [[energy]] is higher than 3 × [[Monster difficulty]], and the monster attempting to be reanimated has [[innards]], the monster will be revived as a [[Spark skeleton]] [[monster template|template]] monster (same as the skeleton monster template), marked as a permanently summoned, and your current energy will be reduced by the same amount. Otherwise, energy is set to 0, but nothing else happens. If more than 50 turns have passed since the monster was killed, or it is untamable, it will be revived hostile and is permanently [[crazed]]. Otherwise, it is made [[tame]]. If a [[hero]] who is a student of the [[reanimation]] philosophy revives a monster with a portable electrode, they will have their [[research]] counter incremented by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty'' + ''monster difficulty''. Reanimating a corpse that has previously already been reanimated instead only increases research by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty''.
+[[Apply]]ing a portable electrode on a square that contains a [[corpse]] will attempt to reanimate it. If your current [[energy]] is higher than 3 × [[Monster difficulty]], and the monster attempting to be reanimated has [[innards]], the monster will be revived as a [[Spark skeleton]] [[monster template|template]] monster (same as the skeleton monster template), marked as a permanently summoned, and your current energy will be reduced by the same amount. Otherwise, energy is set to 0, but nothing else happens. If more than 50 turns have passed since the monster was killed, or it is untamable, it will be revived hostile and is permanently [[crazed]]. Otherwise, it is made [[tame]]. If a [[hero]] who is a student of the [[reanimation]] philosophy revives a monster with a portable electrode, they will have their [[Research (dNetHack)|research]] counter incremented by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty'' + ''monster difficulty''. Reanimating a corpse that has previously already been reanimated instead only increases research by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty''.
 Students of the philosophy of reanimation may also use the portable electrode to obtain reanimation upgrades. [[Undead Hunter]]s who apply the portable electrode over a [[workbench]] to the College, and who have performed sufficient reanimation research, will then be prompted to advance along their research path by choosing an upgrade. Having a [[dissection kit]] in open inventory may substitute for the altar, allowing upgrades to be taken anywhere and by any role, so long as they can source one.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 ==Generation==
 Portable electrodes do not randomly generate.<br>
-[[Altar]]s that are aligned to [[the college]] have a {{frac|2}} chance of having a portable electrode generated on their square, containing a [[bell]] otherwise.<br>
+[[Altar]]s that are aligned to [[the College]] have a {{frac|2}} chance of having a portable electrode generated on their square, containing a [[bell]] otherwise.<br>
-A portable electrode is generated on the square where the [[Index wolf]] is killed, who is the [[nemesis]] of the [[Undead hunter]] quest.
+A portable electrode is generated on the square where the [[Index wolf]] is killed, who is the [[nemesis]] of the [[Undead Hunter]] quest.
 ==Description==
-[[Apply]]ing a portable electrode on a square that contains a [[corpse]] will attempt to reanimate it. If your current [[energy]] is higher than 3 × [[Monster difficulty]], and the monster attempting to be reanimated has [[innards]], the monster will be revived as a [[Spark skeleton]] [[monster template|template]] monster (same as the skeleton monster template), marked as a permanently summoned, and your current energy will be reduced by the same amount. Otherwise, energy is set to 0, but nothing else happens. If more than 50 turns have passed since the monster was killed, or it is untamable, it will be revived hostile and is permanently [[crazed]]. Otherwise, it is made [[tame]]. If a [[hero]] who is a student of the [[reanimation]] philosophy revives a monster with a portable electrode, they will have their research counter incremented by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty'' + ''monster difficulty''. Reanimating a corpse that has previously already been reanimated instead only increases research by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty''.
+[[Apply]]ing a portable electrode on a square that contains a [[corpse]] will attempt to reanimate it. If your current [[energy]] is higher than 3 × [[Monster difficulty]], and the monster attempting to be reanimated has [[innards]], the monster will be revived as a [[Spark skeleton]] [[monster template|template]] monster (same as the skeleton monster template), marked as a permanently summoned, and your current energy will be reduced by the same amount. Otherwise, energy is set to 0, but nothing else happens. If more than 50 turns have passed since the monster was killed, or it is untamable, it will be revived hostile and is permanently [[crazed]]. Otherwise, it is made [[tame]]. If a [[hero]] who is a student of the [[reanimation]] philosophy revives a monster with a portable electrode, they will have their [[research]] counter incremented by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty'' + ''monster difficulty''. Reanimating a corpse that has previously already been reanimated instead only increases research by a value between 1 and ''monster difficulty''.
-Students of the philosophy of reanimation may also use the portable electrode to obtain reanimation upgrades. [[Undead Hunter]]s who apply the portable electrode over a [[workbench]] of their philosophy, and who have performed sufficient reanimation research, will then be prompted to advance along their research path by choosing an upgrade. Having a [[dissection kit]] in open inventory may substitute for the altar, allowing upgrades to be taken anywhere and by any role, so long as they can source one.
+Students of the philosophy of reanimation may also use the portable electrode to obtain reanimation upgrades. [[Undead Hunter]]s who apply the portable electrode over a [[workbench]] to the College, and who have performed sufficient reanimation research, will then be prompted to advance along their research path by choosing an upgrade. Having a [[dissection kit]] in open inventory may substitute for the altar, allowing upgrades to be taken anywhere and by any role, so long as they can source one.
 The reanimation research path has 11 upgrades that may be obtained in any order, with the exceptions of the 3 weapon attunement upgrades, which require the hero to already have obtained the "arcane forces" upgrade beforehand, and the "catoptrics of the silver rays" upgrade, which requires the hero to have made contact with [[The Silver Flame]]. Obtaining these upgrades counts towards making a "great [[breakthrough]]" and meeting the conditions for a [[score|full-scoring]] [[ascension]], which requires a minimum of 6 upgrades total. While characters of other roles may still perform undead hunter research, they cannot ascend under an undead hunter ascension.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 }}
-A '''portable electrode''' is a type of [[tool]] that appears in [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]]. It is a [[Item size (dNetHack)|small-sized]] [[charge]]able tool that has the [[Object materials (dNetHack)|base material]] of [[iron]]. It appears as a '''ball-topped spike''' when [[identification|unidentified]].
+A '''portable electrode''' is a type of [[tool]] that appears in [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]]. It is a [[Item size (dNetHack)|small-sized]] tool that has the [[Object materials (dNetHack)|base material]] of [[iron]] that appears as a '''ball-topped spike''' when [[identification|unidentified]].
 ==Generation==