Amulet
| Item classes | ||
|---|---|---|
| " Amulets | [ Armor | |
| % Comestibles | $ Coins | |
| * Gems | ! Potions | |
| = Rings | ? Scrolls | |
| + Spellbooks | ` Statues | |
| ( Tools | ` Boulders | |
| ) Weapons | / Wands | |
An amulet, also known as a medallion, is a type of item that appears in NetHack and is represented by a cyan double quotation mark, ".
There are two artifact amulets: The Eye of the Aethiopica and the Amulet of Yendor.
Contents
Generation
Amulets comprise 1% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 1% in containers, and 4% in Gehennom. The second column above is the relative probability of each subtype.
The ones generated 90.5% cursed are 9% uncursed and 0.5% blessed. All others are generated 5% cursed, 90% uncursed, 5% blessed.
The Amulet of Yendor is a unique item found only in Gehennom, with fake counterparts appearing on the Rogue level, in the inventories of certain high-level monsters, and in the bones files of people who had a real or fake Amulet themselves, where the real Amulet is replaced with a fake one.
Description
All amulets have a weight of 20, are made of iron, and have a base price of 150 zorkmids, with the exception of cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor (made of plastic and worth nothing) and artifact amulets.
Amulets are put on around the wearer's neck, and a hero wearing the amulet will burn an extra 1 point of nutrition every 20 turns.[1] Carrying the Amulet of Yendor consumes an additional 1 nutrition per 20 turns, regardless of whether the character is wearing it.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Wearing a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor no longer incurs amulet hunger.Table of amulets
| Amulet | Relative probability | When eaten | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| amulet of change | 13.0% | Changes gender | 90.5% generated cursed |
| amulet of ESP | 17.5% | Telepathy | |
| amulet of life saving | 7.5% | (no effect) | |
| amulet of magical breathing | 6.5% | Breathlessness | |
| amulet of reflection | 7.5% | (no effect) | |
| amulet of restful sleep | 13.5% | Restful sleep | 90.5% generated cursed |
| amulet of strangulation | 13.5% | Instantly choke | 90.5% generated cursed |
| amulet of unchanging | 4.5% | Revert to original form | |
| amulet versus poison | 16.5% | Poison resistance | |
| cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor | 0 | (inedible) | |
| Amulet of Yendor | 0 | (inedible) | Cannot be put in a container |
| The Eye of the Aethiopica | — | Telepathy | Wizard quest artifact |
Most amulets can be eaten by polymorphing into a metallivore. Eaten amulets have a 1⁄5 chance of applying their effect permanently, except for the amulet of strangulation, which has a 19⁄20 chance of choking you unless you are unbreathing.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
The following new amulets were added. Both auto-identify when worn, except the amulet of flying if you were already flying. The probabilities of other amulets have been adjusted: ESP to 12%; strangulation, restful sleep, versus poison, change to 11.5%; live saving, magical breathing to 7.5%; unchanging to 6%.| Amulet | Relative probability | When eaten | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| amulet of flying | 7.5% | (no effect) | |
| amulet of guarding | 6.0% | +2 protection (+2 AC, +2 MC) | May be worn by monsters. |
Identification
All amulets cost 150zm and weigh 20, so they cannot be distinguished using price identification. The appearance of the first 9 types of amulet in the table are randomized from the following descriptions:
circular spherical oval triangular pyramidal square concave hexagonal octagonal
Non-cursed amulets are safe to try on; the effect may become obvious after a while, such as for the amulet of ESP, and you can always remove it if it is strangulation or restful sleep. The only risk is a small chance of changing genders, which does not have an effect on gameplay for the most part. Once strangulation and restful sleep are ruled out, even cursed amulets can be worn safely and beneficially as long as you don't have another amulet you'd rather be wearing instead.
Amulets of change and strangulation always formally identify themselves when worn. Every other amulet (other than the real and fake Amulets of Yendor) adds a line to the enlightenment screen, although some lines can have other sources:
| Amulet of... | produces the line... | Other sources |
|---|---|---|
| ESP | "You are telepathic." | Helm of telepathy, some quest artifacts, intrinsic |
| life saving | "Your life will be saved." | none |
| magical breathing | "You can survive without air." | none |
| reflection | "You have reflection." | silver dragon scale mail, shield of reflection, wielded Longbow of Diana or wielded Dragonbane (3.6.1) |
| restful sleep | "You fall asleep." | none |
| unchanging | "You can not change from your current form." | none |
| versus poison | "You are poison resistant." | green dragon scale mail, ring of poison resistance, alchemy smock, intrinsic |
In addition, intelligent monsters will only pick up and put on life saving (if living) and reflection.
In NetHack 3.4.3, Amulets of ESP can be identified using the artifact naming trick, because they cannot be named "The Eye of the Aethiopica". In NetHack 3.6.0, no amulet can be named "The Eye of the Aethiopica", so this method is ineffective at identifying amulets of ESP. Note that it is exploiting a bug that may be fixed in variants—including NAO version of NetHack. Additionally it may be considered cheating.
The real Amulet of Yendor, unlike the fakes, cannot be placed in a container ("The Amulet of Yendor cannot be confined in such trappings.")
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
The new amulet appearances are pentagonal and cubical.Strategy
Amulets cannot be destroyed by electric shocks, so unless stolen by a nymph or monkey they are reliable at conferring their effect.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds some more amulets.
| Item | Symbol | Base type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amulet of flying | " | Randomized | Grants flight. |
| Amulet of drain resistance | " | Randomized | Grants level drain resistance. |
| Amulet versus stone | " | Randomized | Saves your life if you're turned to stone, then alters its BUC status or disintegrates. |
FIQHack
In FIQHack monsters can wear amulets.
Encyclopaedia entry
"The complete Amulet can keep off all the things that make people unhappy -- jealousy, bad temper, pride, disagreeableness, greediness, selfishness, laziness. Evil spirits, people called them when the Amulet was made. Don't you think it would be nice to have it?"
"Very," said the children, quite without enthusiasm.
"And it can give you strength and courage."
"That's better," said Cyril.
"And virtue."
"I suppose it's nice to have that," said Jane, but not with much interest.
"And it can give you your heart's desire."
"Now you're talking," said Robert.
References
This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:
Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
- Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.1. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-361}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
