Prayer - Revision history

Phol ende wodan: /* Water prayer */ did not see this 5.0 feature documented anywhere: you can revive pets by praying on an altar with their corpse

2026-06-09T21:29:39Z

‎Water prayer: did not see this 5.0 feature documented anywhere: you can revive pets by praying on an altar with their corpse

Josinalvo: Simplify a bit the reading of case 1

2025-08-02T01:36:17Z

Simplify a bit the reading of case 1

Cathartes: /* Description */ helpless for 3 turns

2024-12-11T05:42:37Z

‎Description: helpless for 3 turns

Umbire the Phantom: /* Unsuccessful prayers */ clarify and reorder things a bit

2024-11-07T06:03:54Z

‎Unsuccessful prayers: clarify and reorder things a bit

Grabiner: /* Unsuccessful prayers */ praying on another god's altar

2024-11-05T04:05:58Z

‎Unsuccessful prayers: praying on another god's altar

Thidwick: /* Strategy */ Early HP increase strategy

2024-07-14T04:07:47Z

‎Strategy: Early HP increase strategy

Umbire the Phantom: languages + lede + spacing + etc.

2024-02-18T16:26:54Z

languages + lede + spacing + etc.

Umbire the Phantom: pothole

2024-02-11T14:17:10Z

pothole

Gorgor: Clarifying that successful prayer bonuses need co-aligned altars/priests

2022-11-30T14:55:22Z

Clarifying that successful prayer bonuses need **co-aligned** altars/priests

Phol ende wodan: Separate the facts from the strategy advice; update refs to 3.6.6; toss out some 3.4.3 era advice

2022-08-15T03:05:15Z

Separate the facts from the strategy advice; update refs to 3.6.6; toss out some 3.4.3 era advice

Show changes

@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 ===Water prayer===
 Praying while standing on an altar on which there are [[potion of water|potions of water]] will bless or curse these, turning them into [[holy water]] or [[unholy water]]. Which one you get is dependent on the alignments of you and the altar. If you are standing on a coaligned altar and your prayer is successful, the water will be blessed and you will also receive any other benefits of the prayer. If you are standing on another god's altar, the water will become cursed (unholy). Note that making a water prayer on another god's altar will [[anger]] ''your'' god (it technically counts as an unsuccessful prayer), so this should be done with extreme caution.
 ===Favors===

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 If your prayer is successful, your god may do one or more beneficial things for you. The following algorithm shows what your god decides you are worthy of receiving.
-* If your alignment is at least 14, and you have no major or minor problems, the result is always 5.
+* If your alignment is at least 14, and you have no major or minor problems, the result is always 5 (i.e: you just get a [[favor]])
 * If your alignment is less than 4, but still positive, the result is always 1.
 * If your alignment is 0, there is a chance based on [[Luck]] (''!rnl(2)'') that the result will be 1, otherwise it is 0.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 The purpose of praying is to ask your god for help, and you must not do so too often. The player has a [[prayer timeout]], a counter which is raised when praying, and decrements one turn at a time. Only when this counter reaches zero may the player pray safely again (exceptions exist, see below). Thus prayer is usually reserved for one of a few things: saving the player from almost certain doom, performing some action the player cannot yet do (removing cursed items, getting out of walls, etc.), or creating [[holy water]]. For those players who like a challenge, avoiding any interaction with gods, altars and other religious concepts in the game will satisfy the [[atheist]] conduct.
-Inexperienced players often treat prayer as an [[escape item]] reserved for emergencies. However, it is not 100% reliable due to the long maximum [[prayer timeout]], and conventional escape items can drastically reduce the need for emergency prayers.
+Inexperienced players often treat prayer as an [[escape item]] reserved for emergencies. However, it is not 100% reliable due to the long maximum [[prayer timeout]]. Conventional escape items can drastically reduce the need for emergency prayers.
-During the course of a successful prayer, you are [[invulnerability|protected from all harm]] (except from psychic blasts by [[mind flayer]]s, from a [[poison cloud]] or from [[boulder trap]]s). During this protection, the timer for the Wizard's periodic harassment of the player does not advance.
+Praying takes 3 turns, during which the hero is [[helpless]].{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1868|nethack=3.6.7}}  A successful prayer also [[invulnerability|protects from all harm]] (except from psychic blasts by [[mind flayer]]s, from a [[poison cloud]] or from [[boulder trap]]s) during the prayer. During this protection, the timer for the Wizard's periodic harassment of the hero does not advance.
 ==Safe and unsafe prayer==

@@ Line 134: / Line 134: @@
 |-
 |Alignment or luck is negative, or your god is angry with you
-|Your god [[Anger#Smiting|smites]] you.  (If you are on the altar of a god of opposite alignment, the sign of your alignment is reversed, so this god will smite you if your alignment is positive.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1812|nethack=3.6.7}})
+|If praying on your god's altar, your god [[Anger#Smiting|smites]] you. If praying on another god's altar, one of the two outcomes below occurs depending on if you are performing a water prayer.
 |-
 |Standing on a different god's altar and praying for unholy water
 |Your god's [[anger]] is incremented by one, you lose 3 luck, your prayer timeout is increased, and your god [[Anger#Smiting|smites]] you.
 |-
 |Praying in [[Gehennom]]

@@ Line 134: / Line 134: @@
 |-
 |Alignment or luck is negative, or your god is angry with you
-|Your god [[Anger#Smiting|smites]] you.
+|Your god [[Anger#Smiting|smites]] you.  (If you are on the altar of a god of opposite alignment, the sign of your alignment is reversed, so this god will smite you if your alignment is positive.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1812|nethack=3.6.7}})
 |-
 |Standing on a different god's altar and praying for unholy water
@@ Line 140: / Line 140: @@
 |-
 |Standing on a different god's altar and praying as normal
-|Your god (may?) become [[angry]] and/or [[smite]] you. You lose all divine protection.
+|The god may claim to be pleased (the message is based on half your alignment if you or the god is neutral, and the negative of your alignment if you and the god are oppositely aligned), but you lose one alignment and nothing else happens.  Your prayer timeout is not reset.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|938|nethack=3.6.7}}
 |-
 |Praying in [[Gehennom]]

@@ Line 148: / Line 148: @@
 ==Strategy==
 Given its ability to fix a wide variety of [[trouble]]s, prayer is a very helpful tool for escaping a tough situation, but the mechanics of prayer timeout mean that it can't be used twice in quick succession.
 The successful prayer algorithm has the following implications:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{religion}}
-'''Prayer''', invoked with the #pray [[extended command]], is an action used to communicate with the player's [[god]]. The purpose of praying is to ask your god for help, and you must not do so too often. The player has a [[prayer timeout]], a counter which is raised when praying, and decrements one turn at a time. Only when this counter reaches zero may the player pray safely again (exceptions exist, see below). Thus prayer is usually reserved for one of a few things: saving the player from almost certain doom, performing some action the player cannot yet do (removing cursed items, getting out of walls, etc.), or creating [[holy water]]. For those players who like a challenge, avoiding any interaction with gods, altars and other religious concepts in the game will satisfy the [[atheist]] conduct.
+In ''[[NetHack]]'', '''prayer''' is an action used to communicate with the player's [[god]], and is performed with the '''#pray''' [[extended command]].
 Inexperienced players often treat prayer as an [[escape item]] reserved for emergencies. However, it is not 100% reliable due to the long maximum [[prayer timeout]], and conventional escape items can drastically reduce the need for emergency prayers.
@@ Line 6: / Line 10: @@
 During the course of a successful prayer, you are [[invulnerability|protected from all harm]] (except from psychic blasts by [[mind flayer]]s, from a [[poison cloud]] or from [[boulder trap]]s). During this protection, the timer for the Wizard's periodic harassment of the player does not advance.
-== Safe and unsafe prayer ==
+==Safe and unsafe prayer==
 The following conditions make it unsafe to pray. Praying when it is unsafe may end up with the prayer being [[#Unsuccessful prayers|unsuccessful]], with various negative effects.
@@ Line 22: / Line 26: @@
 ==Successful prayers==
 If your prayer is successful, your god may do one or more beneficial things for you. The following algorithm shows what your god decides you are worthy of receiving.
@@ Line 125: / Line 128: @@
 |-
 |Polymorphed into an [[undead]] creature and attempting to pray to a lawful god (or a neutral god, 10% of the time)
-|If lawful, receive "Vile creature, thou durst call upon me?".  If neutral, receive  "Walk no more, perversion of nature!".  Both then receive "You feel like you are falling apart."  You return to natural form (even if wearing an [[amulet of unchanging]]), take 1d20 damage, and abuse your constitution.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1890|nethack=3.6.6}}
+|If lawful, receive "Vile creature, thou durst call upon me?".  If neutral, receive  "Walk no more, perversion of nature!".  Both then receive "You feel like you are falling apart."  You return to natural form (even if wearing an [[amulet of unchanging]]), take 1d20 damage, and abuse your constitution.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1890|nethack=3.6.7}}
 |-
 |Prayer timeout is too high
@@ Line 140: / Line 143: @@
 |-
 |Praying in [[Gehennom]]
-|Your god won't help you and may be angered.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1902|nethack=3.6.6}}
+|Your god won't help you and may be angered.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1902|nethack=3.6.7}}
 |}
 ==Strategy==
 Given its ability to fix a wide variety of [[trouble]]s, prayer is a very helpful tool for escaping a tough situation, but the mechanics of prayer timeout mean that it can't be used twice in quick succession.
@@ Line 160: / Line 162: @@
 ==Encyclopedia entry==
 {{encyclopedia|
 Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle.  Every
@@ Line 170: / Line 171: @@
 ==References==
 <references/>
 {{nethack-366}}
 [[Category:Religion]]
 [[Category:Extended commands]]

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 * You are standing on another god's [[altar]], and both your [[alignment record]] and your [[luck]] are OK.
-If you are polymorphed into a [[demon]] and are attempting to pray to a non-chaotic god, it is ''impossible'' to pray; you merely receive a message "The very idea of praying to a <non-chaotic> god is repugnant to you." and no prayer occurs.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1804|nethack=3.6.6}}
+If you are polymorphed into a [[major demon]] and are attempting to pray to a non-chaotic god, it is ''impossible'' to pray; you merely receive a message "The very idea of praying to a <non-chaotic> god is repugnant to you." and no prayer occurs.{{refsrc|src/pray.c|1804|nethack=3.6.6}}
 If none of the above apply, it is safe to pray. If you're not sure, [[enlightenment]] will tell you whether or not you can safely pray.

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 * If your alignment is 0, there is a chance based on [[Luck]] (''!rnl(2)'') that the result will be 1, otherwise it is 0.
 * If none of the above apply, the result is generated by 1d(Luck+''x''), where ''x'' is:{{refsrc|src/pray.c|979|nethack=3.6.6}}
-** 4 if you are on an altar in a temple with a priest,
+** 4 if you are on a co-aligned altar in a temple with a priest,
-** 3 if you are on an altar not in a temple (or the priest is missing), or
+** 3 if you are on a co-aligned altar not in a temple (or the priest is missing), or
 ** 2 if you are not on an altar (which also caps the end result of the whole expression at 3).