Iron shoes
[ iron shoes 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | hard shoes |
| Slot | boots |
| AC | 2 |
| Special | (none) |
| Base price | 16 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | iron |
Iron shoes are a type of non-magical boots that appear in NetHack. They are naturally made of iron, and appear as hard shoes when unidentified. When worn, they grant 2 AC.
Generation
Dwarves have a 6⁄7 chance of generating with iron shoes, and Uruk-hai have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with them.[1][2]
Description
A pair of iron shoes grants 2 AC when worn. Worn iron shoes will protect you against a xan's leg-wounding scratch 2⁄5 of the time.[3]
Strategy
Iron shoes and high boots are the only kinds of boots to have a natural AC of 2; iron shoes are much easier to find, particularly in the Gnomish Mines, but weigh more and incur a small spellcasting penalty. They are additionally vulnerable to rusting, which among other things can make encounters with rust monsters annoying.
In the early phases of the game, melee roles with limited-to-no interest in spells and casters looking to prioritize AC will likely grab one of the many pairs of iron shoes they encounter in the Mines, and may swap them for lighter high boots if deemed necessary. The spellcasting penalty is low enough that it's usually possible to retain a comfortably low failure rate if no other metal armor is worn.
History
Iron shoes first appear in NetHack 3.0.0.
Variants
Some variants rename the hard shoes used by dwarves to dwarvish boots, and may additionally repurpose the iron shoes given to Uruk-Hai into orcish boots.
