Levitation boots
[        levitation boots | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | boots |
| AC | 1 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 30 zm |
| Weight | 15 |
| Material | leather |
A pair of levitation boots is a type of boots that appear in NetHack. They are magical boots that are made of leather, and have a randomized appearance when unidentified; the default one associated with it is "a pair of snow boots".[1]
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated levitation boots have a 9⁄10 chance of being cursed.[2]
General stores, used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can sell levitation boots.
The statue of Perseus on Medusa's Island has a chance of containing a +0 pair of levitation boots; the second 'titan' map has a 3⁄4 chance, while all other variants have a 1⁄4 chance.[3][4][5][6]
Description
While worn, levitation boots grant 1 base AC and extrinsic levitation, auto-identifying the boots if the wearer is not already levitating. Removing the boots will cause the wearer to float to the ground. A source of "levitation-at-will" allows a character to float to the floor on command, while floating over a sink will cause them to crash to the ground and pull them off their feet.
Strategy
For characters that are not in need of speed boots, or else have other sources of very fast speed (e.g. spell of haste self or potions of speed), non-cursed levitation boots are great for crossing large bodies of water like those found on the Healer quest and Medusa's Island. A ring of levitation is considered more convenient to free up the boots slot and maneuver down stairs - one advantage levitation boots have over the ring is that they cannot be destroyed by shock damage, e.g. from electric eel bites, although a water nymph or foocubus can charm them off.
The frequency of cursed levitation boots makes wearing boots of unknown beatitude that are either unidentified or known to be levitation boots a bad idea: cursed levitation boots will prevent characters from reaching the floor to grab items or travel down stairs, and any fragile items dropped while levitating may break. Knowing the locations of sinks in the dungeon is useful for removing cursed levitation boots, but be sure that the resulting damage is not lethal. Cursed levitation boots are also considered a major trouble, so successful prayer is a viable solution for removal as well.
Identification
Outside of auto-identification from wearing them, which carries the risks described above, levitation boots weigh the same as elven boots and water walking boots at 15 units, making them somewhat difficult to identify by weight - this is especially true if a character already has intrinsic stealth, since they cannot eliminate elven boots by wear-testing.
History
Levitation boots first appear in NetHack 3.0.0.
In NetHack 3.6.2 and previous versions, including some variants based on those versions, wearing levitation boots while standing on a sink can cause the game to crash - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.3.
Variants
FIQHack
In FIQHack, the statue of Perseus is guaranteed to contain a pair of levitation boots.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, levitation boots can be created at a furnace by combining a ring of levitation with a pair of either high boots or low boots.
