Bell
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Name | bell |
Appearance | bell |
Base price | 50 zm |
Weight | 30 |
Material | copper |
Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A bell is a musical instrument. It does not play notes; its function is to ring.
Generation
Bells are often found on graves reading "Saved by the bell!"[1] All bells are generated uncursed.
Unlike horns, harps, and flutes, there are no randomly-generated magical bells. The only magical bell in the game is the Bell of Opening, which has the distinct appearance of "a silver bell".
Effects
Ringing a blessed or uncursed bell makes noise (waking nearby monsters) and calls pets. A cursed bell, however, has a 1⁄4 chance of summoning a nymph (she won't be carrying any items), assuming none of the nymphs are genocided or extinct. If a nymph is summoned, the bell has a 7% chance of breaking (the Bell of Opening never breaks). If the bell doesn't break, then with equal probability:
- there may be no effect;
- the summoned nymph may be fast; or
- the player may be paralyzed for 2 turns.[2]
Strategy
Bells have very little use in most games, and they are quite heavy, so they are rarely worth keeping.
History
Before NetHack 3.2.0, a cursed bell could be exploited to summon nymphs indefinitely[3] without respecting extinction. The nymphs would generate with their usual selection of items[4], allowing the player to accumulate large numbers of mirrors for polypiling as well as many potions of object detection for dilution, alchemy, or polypiling. Notably, if potions of object detection were smoky potions, this provided a very easy way to generate a large number of wishes.
See also
- Tin whistle – an item that can also wake monsters and call pets
References
- ↑ mklev.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1394
- ↑ apply.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 771
- ↑ apply.c in NetHack 3.1.0, line 1315
- ↑ See NetHack Code version 1.1, under the section "cursed bell".
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
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