Ring of sustain ability
A ring of sustain ability is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Description
While worn, the ring confers the sustain ability property, which prevents the character's base attributes from being changed by exercise, abuse or any method except polymorphing into their own race. Eating the ring has no effect.
Strategy
The ring of sustain ability is generally used to prevent stat loss from sustained stat abuse, usually resulting from deliberate actions (e.g. constant satiation combined with a ring of slow digestion to save food). It can also be quite beneficial in short-term scenarios: characters that lack poison resistance but have the ring identified can wear it to eat poisonous corpses and avoid strength loss, and can safely remove the ring once they have the property. The ring can also prevent the intelligence drain from a mind flayer's attacks, but it does not prevent amnesia, and brainlessness will still occur if their attacks eat the character's brain at 3 Int regardless of sustain ability.
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.
Mind flayers can no longer inflict amnesia, making the ring an effective mitigation against brain-sucking.Identification
Like most rings, the ring of sustain ability gives a unique message when dropped down a sink, and its property is trivial to identify via enlightenment. Characters wear-testing rings can put a suspected ring on and do something that would alter their attributes, e.g. sitting on a coaligned altar.
History
The ring of sustain ability first appears in NetHack 3.3.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.0, a bug allows characters to increase strength using the ring: wearing the ring prevents the strength loss associated with becoming weak from hunger, and removing the ring and raising their nutrition status to Hungry or better increases strength. This can be farmed or abused to raise the character's strength to their racial maximum, and is especially productive for low-strength characters such as Healers, who start with the stone to flesh spell and frequently have low strength.
The farming is done by putting on the ring before their hunger status becomes Weak, removing the ring upon reaching that status, eating enough meatballs to become Hungry, and then wearing the ring again, repeating the process as necessary. A ring of hunger, conflict, or regeneration will speed up the process due to how they acceleration nutrition burn, though non-cursed rings should be used if at all possible.
Messages
- The water flow seems fixed.
- You dropped a ring of sustain ability into a sink - this will prompt you to type-name the ring.
- You have fixed abilities.
- You have sustain ability as viewed via enlightenment.
