Alchemy smock

[   alchemy smock
Appearance	apron
Slot	cloak
AC	1
Special	MC1 acid resistance poison resistance
Base price	50 zm
Weight	10
Material	cloth

An alchemy smock is a type of cloak that appears in NetHack. It is a magical cloak that is made of cloth, and appears as an apron when unidentified.

Generation

The alchemy smock makes up 0.9% of all randomly generated armor.

Description

While worn, an alchemy smock provides 1 point of AC along with acid resistance, poison resistance and MC1. Due to limitations in how object extrinsics are defined, acid resistance from the alchemy smock is handled only in code for the player character wearing armor, and monsters wearing an alchemy smock will only obtain poison resistance. Despite the name, an alchemy smock has no actual effects on alchemy.

Reading an alchemy smock will print a message displaying the text on the smock, breaking illiterate conduct - the text can be one of many YAFMs, most of which are cooking-related.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Per this commit, monsters now gain acid resistance from a worn alchemy smock.

Strategy

An early alchemy smock is quite useful, allowing non-orcish characters to safely eat corpses of poisonous monsters such as killer bees and gain poison resistance as an intrinsic. Once you have poison resistance, the smock can be given to humanoid pets that lack the resistance.

The alchemy smock is also one of the few extrinsic sources of acid resistance, with the others being yellow dragon scales or the corresponding dragon scale mail. However, acid damage is infrequent and avoidable enough for players through other means that the alchemy smock is usually not required for this purpose, and pets cannot obtain acid resistance from it - it still has a few uses, such as a cloak for a mind flayer pet or polyform that prevents passive acid damage from piling up when attacking ochre jellies or spotted jellies.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Pets can now gain intrinsics from eating corpses, providing other methods for them to gain poison resistance. In addition, monsters can now gain acid resistance from worn alchemy smocks, making it a good choice of cloak for mind flayer pets.

History

The alchemy smock is introduced in NetHack 3.3.0.

The ability to read alchemy smocks is added in NetHack 3.6.0.

Messages

The possible messages displayed from reading an alchemy smock are:

• "Kiss the cook"
• "I'm making SCIENCE!"
• "Don't mess with the chef"
• "Don't make me poison you"
• "Gehennom's Kitchen"
• "Rat: The other white meat"
• "If you can't stand the heat, get out of Gehennom!"
• "If we weren't meant to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?"
• "If you don't like the food, I'll stab you"

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

A new quote is added that is similar to an already-existing T-shirt message: "I am an alchemist; if you see me running, try to catch up..." The messages are both references to The Sum of All Fears, with the one on the alchemy smock tailored to be closer to the original quote.

This is notably also the second possible message on an alchemy smock that is not related to cooking in some manner.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the alchemy smock is typically overlooked in favor of the lab coat, which provides the same properties but also grants MC3 - the presence of more powerful acidic monsters, such as giant shoggoths, also make it far more desirable to seek out. The alchemy smock and other sources of acid resistance also reduce the damage from alchemic blasts.

NetHack brass

In NetHack brass, the frilled apron also appears an apron when unidentified, though wearing a non-cursed apron can easily distinguish which of the two it is.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, the alchemy smock confers 0 AC, 1 DR and MC3 while worn.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, upgrading a poisonous cloak will produce an alchemy smock and vice versa. As in SLASH'EM, the alchemy smock and other sources of acid resistance reduce damage from alchemic blasts.