Sacrifice

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Religion in NetHack
priests alignment alignment record altars atheism anger gods sacrifice prayer turn undead

In NetHack, sacrifice is an action performed at an altar that can reduce your prayer timeout, increase your luck, and allow you to gain powerful artifact weapons, among other positive and negative effects that depend on the sacrifice.

To sacrifice, you stand on an altar, use the #offer command, and select a fresh corpse from your inventory or one that is lying on the altar. Unsurprisingly, this breaks the atheist conduct. The greater the monster's difficulty, the more your god will appreciate it. If the corpse is a cockatrice and you are not wearing gloves , you will be stoned immediately.

Ordinary sacrifice

This applies to sacrifices made on your own god's altar that are not of your own race, not a pet, not a unicorn, and not made in the endgame.

If the creature is not an acid blob and is more than 50 turns old or more than 50 turns out of an icebox, it is rejected: "Nothing happens." (Acid blobs never expire for sacrifices, although they will eventually rot away.) Otherwise, the sacrifice is accepted and consumed.

Creatures have a particular sacrifice value usually equal to their difficulty plus 1. In some special cases, the value may be negative if the offering displeases your god; see below. Partly eaten corpses normally have their value decreased by roughly the percentage that's been eaten. For lawful or neutral characters, undead have an extra point of value, but this is only relevant to wraiths, since other undead corpses are automatically aged too much to sacrifice them.

If your god is angry at you:

Their anger is decreased by ¹⁄₈ the value of the sacrifice, or if you're chaotic, by ¹⁄₁₂ the value of the sacrifice (chaotic gods are harder to appease). The decrease in anger is always rounded down. High-difficulty monsters can be hard to find (and even harder to kill) early in the game. For non-chaotic players, a cross-aligned unicorn will also work. A simple rule of thumb is that non-chaotics must sacrifice a monster's corpse of difficulty 7 or greater, and chaotic players must sacrifice a corpse of 11 or greater.

If your god is not angry at you, but your alignment is negative:

Your alignment is increased by the least of three: by the value of the sacrifice, to zero, or by 24 points, and "You feel partially absolved."

If your god is not angry and your alignment is not negative, but your prayer timeout is greater than zero:

Your prayer timeout is decreased by 12.5 times the sacrifice's value (difficulty + 1) if you are lawful or neutral, or ¹²⁵⁄₆ (about 20.8) times its value if you're chaotic, to a minimum of zero.

If this decreases your prayer timeout to 0, then "You have a feeling of reconciliation" (if hallucinating, "Overall, there is a smell of fried onions") and your base Luck is increased to zero if negative.

If your prayer timeout is still not yet zero, "You have a hopeful feeling" (if hallucinating, "You realize the gods are not like you and I"), your base Luck is increased by one if negative, and it is not yet safe to pray.

If none of the above cases applied (i.e. your prayer timeout is zero, your god is not angry and your alignment record is positive):

If your base Luck is not negative and you are at least at experience level 3, you may receive a gift. The chance of a gift starts at ¹⁄₁₀ and decreases for each existing gift and artifact in the game.

If you did not receive a gift (or were not eligible for one at all), your base Luck will be increased by about a fifth of the sacrifice value (specifically, ⁵⁄₂₄), rounded down. If your base Luck is still negative after this, it will be set to 0. If your Luck was changed by this, you will see the message "You glimpse a four-leaf clover at your <feet>." ("You think something brushed your <feet>." if blind; "You see crabgrass at your <feet>. A funny thing in a dungeon." if hallucinating and not blind).

None of the possible effects will guarantee that you can safely pray; this is because they only affect base Luck, so a cursed luckstone may still cause your actual Luck to be negative.

Gifts

If your prayer timeout is 0, you have positive alignment, and your god is not angry, you generally have a chance of getting an artifact. Your experience level must be at least 3, and your base Luck must be nonnegative. If those conditions are met, the chances of your getting an artifact are 1 / (10 + 2 × Number of existing artifacts × Number of gifts granted by your god).

If you receive an artifact, you get the message "An object appears at your feet!", and your god will tell you to "use my gift wisely!" Your wisdom is exercised, your prayer timeout is set to rnz(300 + 50 × Number of existing artifacts), and your skill in using the artifact's type of weapon becomes unrestricted, allowing you to advance to Basic skill level if you could not before. The artifact will also be made erodeproof and set to at least +0; it will not be cursed.

Your first gift will be a co-aligned artifact that does not hate your current form, if any such artifacts are available. Some roles have a guaranteed first sacrifice gift, which is noted below; its alignment will be adjusted to your starting alignment at the beginning of the game if necessary. However, the requirement that the first gift be co-aligned (with your current alignment) takes precedence over the role-specific selection; so, for example, a Samurai that has converted to Chaotic will receive a chaotic artifact as the first sacrifice gift. Excalibur, quest artifacts, and cross-aligned artifacts cannot be gifted.

Once a co-aligned artifact has already been given, or if none were able to be given, then unaligned ones also become eligible.

Lawful gifts: Demonbane, Grayswandir, Snickersnee (Samurai), Sunsword

Neutral gifts: Cleaver (Barbarian), Giantslayer, Magicbane (Wizard), Mjollnir (Valkyrie), Vorpal Blade

Chaotic gifts: Grimtooth, Orcrist, Sting, Stormbringer

Unaligned gifts: Dragonbane, Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Ogresmasher, Trollsbane, Werebane

Sacrificing the Amulet of Yendor

The goal of the game is to offer the Amulet of Yendor on the co-aligned high altar on the Astral Plane. When you do, you ascend to demigod-hood ('Mortal, thou hast done well!'). This does not take into account whether, or by what means, you have converted your alignment, so a helm of opposite alignment can be used to quickly ascend at a cross-aligned altar. However, you get a score multiplier of 2× if you never converted and are still of your starting alignment, or 1.5× if you converted and used a helm to change back.

If you offer the Amulet on a cross-aligned high altar, that altar's god gains dominion over yours and allows you to escape in celestial disgrace. If you offer the Amulet on the high altar to Moloch in the Sanctum, Moloch 'mercilessly snuffs out your life', or if you have life saving, disintegrates you into a pile of dust, ignoring disintegration resistance. (If you somehow survive that, you again escape.)

Offering a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor on a high altar gives a penalty of -1 luck and no other effect. However, if the amulet was identified as a fake, the penalty is instead -3 luck, -1 alignment and your god getting angry by 3.

Offering a real or fake Amulet on a non-high altar does not end the game. If the altar is an unaligned altar in Gehennom, your god gets angry and Moloch smites you. Otherwise, if hallucinating, 'You feel homesick'; or if the altar is co-aligned, 'You feel an urge to return to the surface'; otherwise, 'You feel ashamed'.

Sacrificing creatures of your own race

If the creature you sacrifice is of your own race, you get good effects if you are chaotic and bad effects otherwise. The age of the corpse does not matter, so corpses left by zombies and mummies will work.

If you are chaotic:

You gain five points of alignment.

If the altar is chaotic, you gain two points of Luck, and if the altar is unaligned, you lose two points of Luck. Your Luck is unaffected if the altar is cross-aligned (but the altar will be converted as noted in the cross-aligned altars section below).

If you are non-chaotic:

Your wisdom is abused unless you are polymorphed into a demon. ("You'll regret this infamous offense!")

You lose five points of alignment.

Your god's anger increases by three.

Your Luck decreases by 5.

You lose one point of wisdom.

Outside of Gehennom, your god will punish you as for praying too much (depending on the level of anger).

If the altar is chaotic, you'll destroy it and anger any attendant priest.

Whether or not you are chaotic:

If the altar is chaotic or unaligned, a demon may be summoned. This will be a demon lord (Yeenoghu or Jubilex) if one of them hasn't been generated yet, or else a major demon (which will always be a foocubus outside Gehennom). The demon will be peaceful if you are chaotic and hostile otherwise. If a demon is summoned, you are paralyzed with fear for three turns; free action does not protect against this.

If you are polymorphed into a demon, "You find the idea very satisfying."; your wisdom is exercised.

If the altar is lawful or neutral, it will immediately be converted to chaotic (except on the Astral Plane), independent of your alignment; if there is a priest tending the altar, they will be angered.

The check for same race is done before the check for a former pet and ignores the check for age, so same-race corpses are always fit for sacrifice until they rot away completely. This is just about the only time an undead creature is a valid sacrifice.

Keep in mind that werecreatures are considered human, so sacrificing them if your character is human will have the consequences described above.

Sacrificing pets

Sacrificing creatures that died while tame will generally cause you to lose three points of alignment and gain the aggravate monster intrinsic "So this is how you repay loyalty?". The pet will have a sacrificial value of −1, so this will only result in the god of the altar being angered; the corpse will not be consumed. Former pets that have gone feral no longer count as pets, and may be killed and sacrificed as usual.

Cross-aligned altars

(Level + 2) / (Level + 8)

You can convert cross-aligned altars (but not high altars and not unaligned altars in Gehennom) by sacrificing at them. If you fail, you will lose 1 Luck and abuse wisdom. If you succeed then you gain 1 Luck and the altar becomes coaligned. The chances to convert an altar go up with character level. Converting an altar with a priest present will cause the priest to attack you.

The likelihood of converting an altar depends on your experience level; the probability is $\textstyle\frac{level + 2}{level + 8}$.

In any case, minions may be summoned to protect the altar.

When attempting to convert an altar, you will get the message "You sense a conflict between <your god> and <the god of the altar>." A successful conversion will produce the message "You feel the power of <your god> increase." A failed one will result in "Unluckily, you feel the power of <your god> decrease."

A sacrifice with negative value, such as a former pet, will not cause an attempted conversion. Instead, it will anger the altar's god, which will actually decrease your own god's anger by one. You will still suffer the usual effects of angering a god, including the loss of any divine protection and being smitten by the angry god. The pet corpse is not consumed, so you can cure as much anger as you like.

Attempting to convert an altar while your alignment is negative (or using a unicorn of your alignment; see below for details) may convert your alignment to that of the altar, take away 3 of your Luck and increase your prayer timeout by 300 ("You have a sudden sense of a new direction"). Changing your alignment by any means resets your alignment record to zero.^[1]

You can only permanently convert yourself once per game, and only with a non-unaligned altar; if this happens before you have been admitted to the quest, the game will be unwinnable.

If you try to convert yourself a second time, or you sacrifice on an unaligned altar (e.g., in Gehennom), your sacrifice is rejected, you hear the voice "Suffer, infidel!", get −5 to Luck, −5 to alignment score, −2 to wisdom, +3 to anger, and, unless in Gehennom, you are punished by your current deity.

If you sacrifice on cross-aligned high altar, you don't convert it or yourself. Instead, you are attacked by the altar's deity.

As with coaligned altars, if you get a message saying "Nothing happens", then the corpse was too old and, indeed, nothing happened.

Sacrificing unicorns

Sacrificing unicorns is complicated because the altar's alignment, your alignment, and the unicorn's alignment all factor into the outcome. A unicorn's alignment is represented by its color. The white is lawful, grey neutral, and black chaotic. The points to remember are:

• Never sacrifice a unicorn on an altar of its own alignment. You lose one point of wisdom and the altar's god becomes angry, with the same effect as angering that god through prayer. If the altar is not of your alignment, your god's anger is reduced by one.
• Never sacrifice a unicorn of your own alignment (certainly not before you have completed the Quest). This acts as above if the altar is also of your alignment. If the altar is cross-aligned, this will set your alignment score to −1, which makes your sacrifice convert you instead of the altar.
• Never sacrifice a unicorn on a high altar. On an altar of your own alignment, this is unnecessary. On an altar of another alignment, this will not convert you or the altar, but only angers the altar's god.

Each time you sacrifice a unicorn of a different alignment on your own altar, you get a +5 boost to your alignment and the message "You feel appropriately {lawful | neutral | chaotic}", or "You feel you are thoroughly on the right path" if alignment is at maximum.

The rest of the effects are summarized in the following table:

Your Alignment	Unicorn Alignment	Altar Alignment	Effect
X	Y	X	Good
X	Y	Z	Attempt to convert altar
X	X	Y	You become Y
X	X	X	Bad
X	Y	Y	Bad

If the above table is confusing, here is a complete list:

You	Unicorn	Altar	Effect
Lawful	White	Lawful	Bad
Lawful	White	Neutral	You become neutral
Lawful	White	Chaotic	You become chaotic
Lawful	Grey	Lawful	Good
Lawful	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Lawful	Grey	Chaotic	Attempt to convert altar
Lawful	Black	Lawful	Good
Lawful	Black	Neutral	Attempt to convert altar
Lawful	Black	Chaotic	Bad
Neutral	White	Lawful	Bad
Neutral	White	Neutral	Good
Neutral	White	Chaotic	Attempt to convert altar
Neutral	Grey	Lawful	You become lawful
Neutral	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Neutral	Grey	Chaotic	You become chaotic
Neutral	Black	Lawful	Attempt to convert altar
Neutral	Black	Neutral	Good
Neutral	Black	Chaotic	Bad
Chaotic	White	Lawful	Bad
Chaotic	White	Neutral	Attempt to convert altar
Chaotic	White	Chaotic	Good
Chaotic	Grey	Lawful	Attempt to convert altar
Chaotic	Grey	Neutral	Bad
Chaotic	Grey	Chaotic	Good
Chaotic	Black	Lawful	You become lawful
Chaotic	Black	Neutral	You become neutral
Chaotic	Black	Chaotic	Bad

Note: You will lose any intrinsic protection whenever your alignment changes.

Messages

Nothing happens.

The corpse was too old to be sacrificed.

Your sacrifice is consumed in a <flash of light/burst of flame>!

The standard message indicating a successful sacrifice. Lawful characters see a flash of light, others see a burst of flame. If it is not followed by any other message, it is safe to pray; otherwise, see below.

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.

Neutral characters see a "cloud of smoke".

Your sacrifice disappears!

As above, if lawful and blind.

Your sacrifice sprouts wings and a propeller and roars away!

Your sacrifice puffs up, swelling bigger and bigger, and pops!

Your sacrifice collapses into a cloud of dancing particles and fades away!

As above, if hallucinating. Which message you receive is randomly selected.

You feel appropriately <alignment>.

You feel you are thoroughly on the right path.

You sacrificed a cross-aligned unicorn on a coaligned altar, gaining 5 alignment record. The second message indicates you were already at maximum alignment record.

You sense a conflict between <your god> and <altar's god>.

then

You feel the power of <your god> increase. if not blind: The altar glows <color>.

You successfully converted an altar, and base Luck was increased by 1.

Unluckily, you feel the power of <your god> decrease.

You failed to convert an altar, and base Luck was reduced by 1.

The voice of <altar's god> booms: "Thou shalt pay for thine indiscretion!" if not blind: A <monster> of <god> appears before you.

The altar's (former) god sent a minion to punish your (attempted) conversion.

The altar is stained with <race> blood.

The altar has been converted to chaotic via same-race sacrifice.

You have a hopeful feeling.

Your prayer timeout has been reduced, but is still nonzero. Base luck, if negative, was increased by one. You may not pray.

You have a feeling of reconciliation.

Your prayer timeout has been reduced to zero. Base luck, if negative, was reset to zero. Unless you have a cursed luckstone, you may safely pray.

An object appears at your feet!

You have received a gift, and your prayer timeout has been increased. You may not safely pray.

You have a feeling of inadequacy.

Your god is angry at you, and your sacrifice has done nothing to reduce their anger. You may not safely pray.

<Deity> seems slightly mollified.

Your god's anger has been reduced, but is still nonzero. Base luck, if negative, was increased by one. You may not safely pray.

<Deity> seems mollified.

Your god's anger has been reduced to zero. Base luck, if negative, was reset to zero. Sacrifice again to see if it is safe to pray.

You feel partially absolved.

Your alignment was negative and has been increased by the level of the corpse, to a maximum of zero. Sacrifice again to see if it is safe to pray.

You glimpse a four-leaf clover at your feet.

Your base Luck has been increased and is nonnegative. Unless you have a cursed luckstone, you may safely pray.

You think something brushed your foot.

As above, while blind.

You see crabgrass at your feet. A funny thing in a dungeon.

As above, while hallucinating.

So this is how you repay loyalty?

You attempted to sacrifice a former pet, your alignment record was reduced by 3, and you gained aggravate monster. The corpse was not consumed.

You have a sudden sense of a new direction.

You have been permanently converted to a new alignment.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, in addition to the usual benefits of sacrifice, you may have wielded and worn items blessed by your god, or minions granted as pets. The blessing effect extends to any wielded or alternate-wielded item, not just weapons. Additionally, due to the many new artifacts in SLASH'EM, there is much more variation in the types of artifacts you may receive.

Sacrifice gifts in SLASH'EM

Lawful gifts: Demonbane, Firewall (Flame mage 1st gift), Grayswandir, Holy Spear of Light, Orcrist, Quick Blade, Reaper (Yeoman 2nd gift), Skullcrusher (Caveman 1st gift), Snickersnee (Samurai 1st gift), Sting, Sunsword, Sword of Justice (Yeoman 1st gift)

Neutral gifts: Cleaver (Barbarian 1st gift), Deluder (Wizard 2nd gift), Disrupter (Priest 1st gift), Gauntlets of Defense (Monk 1st gift), Giantkiller, Luckblade, Magicbane (Wizard 1st gift), Mirrorbright (Healer 1st gift), Mjollnir (Valkyrie 1st gift), Sword of Balance, Vorpal Blade, Whisperfeet (Tourist 1st gift)

Chaotic gifts: Bat from Hell (Rogue 1st gift), Deathsword (Barbarian 2nd gift), Deep Freeze (Ice Mage 1st gift), Doomblade, Elfrist, Grimtooth, Hellfire, Houchou, Plague, Serpent's Tongue (Necromancer 1st gift), Stormbringer

Unaligned gifts: Dragonbane, Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Ogresmasher, Trollsbane, Wallet of Perseus, Werebane

FIQHack

FIQHack uses a different mechanism called piety to determine when you receive gifts or crowning from altar sacrifice. In addition, only gifted artifacts affect the rate of future artifact gifts. Artifacts obtained via wishing are not included in the calculation.

History

Until NetHack 3.6.0, if the first sacrifice gift did not find any eligible artifacts, then no artifact gift would be given at all. This would most commonly happen with elven Priests or Rangers who named Sting and Orcrist in the hope of guaranteeing Stormbringer as their first gift, only to fail because Stormbringer had been generated in bones already. This would make it impossible to get any sacrifice gifts for the entire game unless they were to change their alignment.

Changing your alignment would give an alignment bonus if you were lawful or a penalty if you were chaotic, instead of resetting your alignment record to zero.

References

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.2. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-362}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.