Wand of nothing
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | nothing |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 2.5% |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | random |
| Maximum charges | 8 or 15 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of nothing is a type of wand that appears in NetHack. It is the only wand that is not a magical item.
Contents
Generation
Wizards will never receive a wand of nothing as the random wand in their starting inventory.[1][2]
Wands of nothing make up 1⁄40 (2.5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of nothing.
A master lich has an effective 1⁄91 chance of being generated with a wand of nothing.[3]
A wand of nothing can be either directional or non-directional, and all wands of nothing in a given game are of the same type—directional wands of nothing are generated with 4 to 8 charges for, while non-directional wands are generated with 11 to 15 charges.
Description
As its name indicates, a wand of nothing has no effect and prints no message when zapped, applied or used to engrave—they possess charges like any other wand, and directional wands of nothing will prompt for a direction to zap as normal. As a non-magical wand, cancellation has no effect on its charges.
Strategy
The only real use for a wand of nothing is as polyfodder, since it will always turn into a magical wand%mdash;non-directional wands of nothing are more ideal due to having more charges (which are carried over when polymorphing wands).
The wand of nothing's (lack of) properties tend to interfere with identifying other wands, though identifying the wand itself is somewhat trivial via price identification: only the wand of nothing and wand of light share the same base price of 100zm, and wands of light auto-identify when zapped or used to engrave. Price identification can also be used to eliminate all other wands that produce no message when engraving.
History
The wand of nothing first appears in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, all wands of nothing are directional.
Variants
xNetHack
In xNetHack, wielding a wand of nothing gives a +5 bonus to the hero's effective intelligence score when calculating the energy cost for spellcasting—this does not stack with the bonus from wearing a robe or wielding a quarterstaff, and these effects do not stack.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a wand of nothing can be created at a furnace by combining a wand of opening and wand of locking, and can be combined with a wnad of polymorph to make a wand of create monster.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the wand of nothing's base price is raised to 500zm, making it trickier to identify potential wands of death or wands of wishing generated randomly in the dungeon.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the wand of nothing's base price 500zm as in EvilHack, and shopkeepers will only pay 50zm for the wand. Wands of nothing only have a 1⁄100 chance of becoming a magical wand when polymorphed.
