Randomized appearance
A major part of NetHack is identifying items. To make this more difficult, the appearances of scrolls, potions, rings, wands, spellbooks, and some armor are randomised. This page lists the possible appearances.
Contents
Scrolls
Scrolls of mail and blank paper have fixed appearances; all others appear as one of the following:
ZELGO MER JUYED AWK YACC NR 9 XIXAXA XOXAXA XUXAXA PRATYAVAYAH DAIYEN FOOELS LEP GEX VEN ZEA PRIRUTSENIE ELBIB YLOH VERR YED HORRE VENZAR BORGAVVE THARR YUM YUM KERNOD WEL ELAM EBOW DUAM XNAHT ANDOVA BEGARIN KIRJE VE FORBRYDERNE HACKEM MUCHE VELOX NEB FOOBIE BLETCH TEMOV GARVEN DEH READ ME
Potions
A potion of water is always a "clear potion". Other potions have one of these descriptions:
ruby pink orange yellow emerald dark green cyan sky blue brilliant blue magenta purple-red puce milky swirly bubbly smoky cloudy effervescent black golden brown fizzy dark white murky
Of these, the smoky potion and milky potion are special in all games regardless of their actual identity. A smoky potion may contain a djinni and a milky potion a ghost.
Spellbooks
The Book of the Dead and blank spellbook both have a fixed description. Regular spellbooks will appear as one of the following:
parchment vellum ragged dog eared mottled stained cloth leather white pink red orange yellow velvet light green dark green turquoise cyan light blue dark blue indigo magenta purple violet tan plaid light brown dark brown gray wrinkled dusty bronze copper silver gold glittering shining dull thin thick
The source code also contains appearances for the deferred spellbooks of flame sphere and freeze sphere, which are canvas
and hardcover
respectively. These will presumably be randomised once the spellbooks are enabled.
Rings
Rings (other than the meat ring) will randomly take one of the following appearances:
pearl iron twisted steel wire engagement shiny bronze brass copper silver gold wooden granite opal clay coral black onyx moonstone tiger eye jade agate topaz sapphire ruby diamond ivory emerald
Of these, topaz, sapphire, ruby, steel, diamond and emerald rings can be used to semi-permanently engrave something on the floor.
Pearl, iron, twisted, steel, wire, engagement, and shiny can be eaten by any metallivore (rock mole, xorn, or rust monster). Bronze, brass, copper, silver, and gold can be eaten by any metallivore not restricted to rustable metals (rock mole and xorn). Additionally, gelatinous cubes can eat wooden rings.
Wands
glass balsa crystal maple pine oak ebony marble tin brass copper silver platinum iridium zinc aluminum uranium iron steel hexagonal short runed long curved forked spiked jeweled
Armor
Helmets
The helmet, helm of brilliance, helm of opposite alignment, and helm of telepathy each have one of the following randomised appearances:
plumed helmet etched helmet crested helmet visored helmet
Of these, the visored helmet is always special. It protects against the blinding attack of ravens and the venom-spitting attack of cobras.
Cloaks
The cloak of displacement, cloak of invisibility, cloak of magic resistance and cloak of protection have a randomized appearance:
tattered cape ornamental cope opera cloak piece of cloth
Cloaks of displacement and protection automatically identify themselves when worn, and cloaks of invisibility too unless you are already invisible. Otherwise, if you find yourself wearing any of those randomized appearance cloaks as is, it is the cloak of magic resistance. Even a -3 cloak of protection is automatically identified.
Gloves
Appearances of all gloves are randomized:
old gloves padded gloves riding gloves fencing gloves
Of these, the riding gloves are special, increasing the chance of successfully saddling a steed.
Boots
The appearance of the magical boots is randomized from the following set:
mud boots snow boots riding boots buckled boots hiking boots combat boots jungle boots
Of these, snow boots and riding boots are special. The former makes ice act like normal terrain and the latter increases the chance of successfully saddling a steed. However, this bonus is not cumulative with the riding gloves.
This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:
Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
- Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.