Hat

A hat is a subtype of helm in NetHack that is not made of a rigid material.

Description

Hats are generally non-rigid helms: they do not protect against damage from falling objects such as rocks and boulders, but a hero that polymorphs into a form with a horned head will not cause a hat to come off their head—monsters that polymorph into horned forms while wearing a hat will similarly not force the hat off their head. A worn hat lowers the amount of damage taken from hitting the ceiling when a hero quaffs a cursed potion of levitation.

The following helms are referred to as hats in certain messages:

• cornuthaum
• dunce cap
• elven leather helm (known as a "leather hat" when unidentified)
• fedora

The dwarvish iron helm appears as a hard hat when unidentified, but otherwise is always referred to as a "helm" in the same messages.

History

The distinction between hats and helmets is first made in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 7672a2c6, which fixes bug C343-28 from NetHack 3.4.3.

Variants

Variants of NetHack may add new types of helm that are considered to be hats, and may also grant such helms additional characteristics. Additionally, elven leather helms in variants that implement object materials systems may simply appear as "hats" when unidentified.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, hats can be worn by a monster or a polymorphed hero even if they lack a head.

The following helms are considered hats, in addition to the standard hats from NetHack:

• sedge hat
• wide hat
• gnomish pointy hat
• leather helm ("split" from the elven leather helm)
• witch hat
• war hat
• shemagh
• golden circlet