Candy bar

%
Name	candy bar
Base price	10 zm
Nutrition	100
Turns to eat	1
Weight	2
Conduct	vegetarian

A candy bar is a type of comestible that appears in NetHack. It can be eaten in one move, and is suitable for vegetarians but not vegans.

Generation

In addition to random generation, candy bars can be sold in health food shops and delis.

Applying a charged horn of plenty has a 1.3% chance of generating one or more candy bars.

Description

When eaten, a candy bar confers 100 nutrition.

Candy bars have labels that can be read, which naturally breaks illiterate conduct. The possible labels are:

• "Apollo"
• "Moon Crunchy"
• "Snacky Cake"
• "Chocolate Nuggie"
• "The Small Bar"
• "Crispy Yum Yum"
• "Nilla Crunchie"
• "Berry Bar"
• "Choco Nummer"
• "Om-nom"
• "Fruity Oaty"
• "Wonka Bar"

Strategy

Candy bars have a decent nutrition/weight ratio at 50, the same as a slime mold, and for non-vegan characters it might be worth saving for consumption until after they have exhausted their rations. Characters not interested in eating them can use them to tame domestic cats and dogs.

History

The candy bar first appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.

Origin

A candy bar is a type of candy that is in the shape of a bar, with the chocolate bar being one of the more common types; a chocolate bar is either made of chocolate by itself or combined with other ingredients, such as nuts, caramel, nougat, or wafers. Many varieties of candy bars exist and are mass-produced, with approximately 40,000 brands introduced between World War I and the middle of the 20th century. The NetHack candy bar is presumably made of chocolate and/or other ingredients that use milk, hence its non-vegan status.

The encyclopedia entry comes from 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where the titular child wins a trip to the chocolate factory owned by the eccentric recluse Willy Wonka - Wonka also lends his name to a real-life brand of chocolate and candy, which one of the NetHack candy bar's label references alongside a few fictional brands from other popular media.

Variants

UnNetHack

UnNetHack incorporates the advent calendar patch, which has a decently high chance of generating a candy bar as the treat behind each of the non-Christmas Eve doors.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, some candy bars may be randomly made of "rare candy" and increase your experience level by 1 when eaten. This is a reference to the Pokémon franchise, whose games include an item called the Rare Candy that acts as an instant level-up and halves the amount required to gain the next level, similar to a blessed potion of gain level.

The November NetHack Tournament

In The November NetHack Tournament, a candy bar is located in the snack area of The DevTeam Office.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, Hackers start the game with 5 candy bars.

Encyclopedia entry

Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever
 get to taste a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved up
 their money for that special occasion, and when the great
 day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small
 chocolate bar to eat all by himself. And each time he
 received it, on those marvelous birthday mornings, he would
 place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and
 treasure it as though it were a bar of solid gold; and for
 the next few days, he would allow himself only to look at it,
 but never to touch it. Then at last, when he could stand it
 no longer, he would peel back a tiny bit of the paper
 wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny bit of chocolate, and
 then he would take a tiny nibble - just enough to allow the
 lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his tongue. The
 next day, he would take another tiny nibble, and so on, and
 so on. And in this way, Charlie would make his ten-cent bar
 of birthday chocolate last him for more than a month.

[ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl ]