Helm
A helm is a form of armor that appears in NetHack, and is one of seven armor slots available to the hero and certain monsters.
Description
Wearing a metallic helm reduces damage from falling objects and monsters, such as:
- falling rock traps
- boulders or rocks from a scroll of earth
- objects thrown upward by the hero
- falling piercers.
However, metallic helms also increase spellcasting failure rates, with the exception of the helm of brilliance.
A greased helm may block the intelligence drain damage type from a mind flayer or master mind flayer.[1] A noncursed greased helm always blocks such an attack; a cursed greased helm has only a 2⁄3 chance. After blocking such an attack, the grease has a 1⁄2 chance of wearing off.
Any helm (including a cursed greased helm that fails to provide grease protection) then has a 7⁄8 chance of blocking such an attack.
Use by monsters
Any monster that can wear armor can wear a helm.[2]
An aligned priest, a high priest, or a minion will not wear a helm of opposite alignment.[3]
A monster with horns can wear only a flimsy helm.[4] If the hero or a monster is polymorphed into a form with horns, any existing non-flimsy helm will be pushed off.[5]
List of helms
| Name | Cost | Weight | AC | Material | Appearance | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora | 1 | 3 | 0 | cloth | ||
| Dunce cap | 1 | 4 | 0 | cloth | conical hat | Autocursing. Sets Int and Wis to 6. |
| Cornuthaum | 80 | 4 | 0 | cloth | conical hat | MC1. Special benefits for wizards and penalties for non-wizards. |
| Elven leather helm | 8 | 3 | 1 | leather | leather hat | Can be enchanted to +7. |
| Orcish helm | 10 | 30 | 1 | iron | iron skull cap | |
| Dented pot | 8 | 10 | 1 | iron | ||
| Dwarvish iron helm | 20 | 40 | 2 | iron | hard hat | |
| Helmet (kabuto) | 10 | 30 | 1 | iron | (randomized) | |
| Helm of brilliance | 50 | 50 | 1 | iron | (randomized) | Enchantment adds to Int and Wis. No penalty to spellcasting. |
| Helm of opposite alignment | 50 | 50 | 1 | iron | (randomized) | Autocursing. Changes alignment of hero. No effect on a monster. |
| Helm of telepathy | 50 | 50 | 1 | iron | (randomized) | Grants telepathy. |
The helms with randomized appearances share four descriptions: "plumed helmet", "etched helmet", "crested helmet", and "visored helmet". Helms with the appearance of "visored helmet" protect against the blinding claw attack of ravens and the blinding venom of cobras.[6]
Strategy
Two types of helms are autocursing; even if they are noncursed, they become cursed when a hero puts them on. This makes it dangerous to wear an unidentified helm. You can use price identification to distinguish a dunce cap from a cornuthaum, but three of the four helms with randomized appearances have the same cost, weight, and armor class, making it impossible to tell them apart.
In the early game, any metallic helm will protect against falling rock traps. In the later game, a greased helm protects against intelligence drain attacks; although genociding mind flayers and master mind flayers provides absolute protection.
For the ascension kit, popular choices are:
- helm of telepathy for detecting hostile monsters
- helm of brilliance for spellcasting
- elven leather helm for lightness and +7 maximum enchantment
For a wizard, a cornuthaum provides clairvoyance and +7 maximum enchantment.
A helm of opposite alignment has a niche use for mitigating the mysterious force on the ascension run and a more popular use for reducing the number of altars to visit on the Astral Plane.
Upcoming
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The helm of brilliance now has an unidentified description of "crystal helm" and is made of glass material, which does not inhibit spellcasting. The helm of caution is a new helm that grants 1 AC and warning when worn.Variants
SporkHack
SporkHack adds three new helms in the gnomish helm, the helm of discovery and the helm of clarity, as well as three new appearances: "little red hat" (always used for gnomish helms), "viking helmet" (which is randomized and has no effect), and "tinfoil hat" (which is randomized and always blocks telepathy and psi bolts - this includes its own telepathy if it is the appearance for a helm of telepathy).
UnNetHack
UnNetHack adds a single new helm in the tinfoil hat, which is represented as its own item rather than a randomized appearance as in SporkHack.
