Metallic

In NetHack, the following material types for objects are described as metallic:

• Iron, copper, silver, gold, platinum, or mithril
• Metal -- this is a special exotic metal, not to be confused with metallic materials in general

Description

Wearing a metallic helm protects against damage from falling objects and monsters, but wearing metallic armor of any kind makes spellcasting more difficult for the hero.

Any metallivore, including a hero polymorphed into one, can eat metallic items: a rust monster will specifically eat only objects made of rustable metallic materials.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (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.

non-metallic gloves protect worn rings from shock

Strategy

A hero should carefully consider their choice of armor: metallic armor often provides better armor class, whereas non-metallic armor facilitates spellcasting better:

• Body armor -- in the early game, trade-off between metallic dwarvish mithril-coat or elven mithril-coat or non-metallic leather armor, studded leather armor, or even crystal plate mail. Later on, dragon scale mail is the best of both worlds.
• Shield -- trade-off between a metallic shield of reflection, a non-metallic small shield, or no shield
• Gloves -- trade-off between metallic gauntlets of power and non-metallic gloves

Polymorphing into a metallivore is a key step in eating jewelry to gain intrinsics from them.

References

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