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.

Generation

Monsters may be generated carrying a wand of digging as a defensive item, with the exception of floating eyes.

Minotaurs have a ¹⁄₃ chance of being generated with a wand of digging; the one generated upon entering the Plane of Earth is guaranteed to have one.

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, destroying any doors in its path. Zapping the wand downward creates a hole and causes you to fall through it, unless you are levitating or else manage to escape the hole somehow; zapping the wand upward causes a rock to fall from the ceiling and bonk you on the head unless you are underwater. The ray has no effect on boulders.

Zapping the wand in a maze level will limit the ray's effect to one square; the ray has no effect on undiggable walls and rock, and zapping it downward on undiggable floors will create a pit instead. Zapping the wand while being engulfed by a non-whirly monster sets the monster's current HP to 1 and expels you. Razing the walls and/or doors of Minetown will anger the watch.

Applying a wand of digging with charges will break it and create pits or holes on your square and the eight squares around you, with the exception of undiggable floors and stairs, boulders or traps. This can also destroy altars and thrones.

A fleeing monster with a wand of digging may zap it wand downward to escape; monsters that try this on an undiggable floor will simply fail to dig, though this does not stop them making repeated attempts. Shopkeepers, guards, and temple priests will not use a wand of digging, though they can still receive them.

Zapping the wand, seeing a monster zap it, or engraving with the wand will auto-identify it.

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.

Juiblex now only loses half of his HP when hit with digging magic from inside.

Strategy

The wand of digging is an invaluable escape item for any player, though they are extremely annoying to snag from monsters without them using up at least one charge, if not several. A wand of digging is also vital 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 also aid in clearing treasure zoos, throne rooms and other similar special rooms without waking the inhabitants, especially since destroying a door this way does not create noise.

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.

Zapping the doors on the Astral Plane can save a lot of in searching for your high altar.

Variants

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 one.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, zapping a boulder with a wand of digging will vaporize it; doing this in Sokoban will incur a -1 Luck penalty. Rays from a wand of digging will also halve the current HP of many "stony" monsters, including xorns, earth elementals, statue gargoyles and stone golems; strangely, this does not include regular gargoyles.