Tinfoil hat (UnNetHack)
[ tinfoil hat 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | tinfoil hat |
| Slot | helm |
| AC | 0 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 1 zm |
| Weight | 0 |
| Material | metal |
- This article is about the item in UnNetHack and DynaHack. For the item in other variants, see tinfoil hat.
A tinfoil hat is a type of helm that appears in UnNetHack and DynaHack. It is made of metal.
Contents
Generation
Tinfoil hats are very rare, and make up 1⁄1000 (0.1%) of all helms that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock tinfoil hats.
A randomly-generated tinfoil hat has a 90.45% chance of being cursed and possibly negatively enchanted, a 1.45% chance of being blessed and possibly positively enchanted, and a 8.1% chance of being uncursed.
Description
While worn, a tinfoil hat grants no base AC, but it blocks telepathy and clairvoyance while having twice the spellcasting penalty compared to other worn metallic helms. It also fully protects the wearer from the psi bolt monster spell and blocks mind blasts from targeting the wearer or being used by the wearer—this includes a hero that is polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer and attempts to use mind blasts via the #monster extended command (which still expends 15 power).
A tinfoil hat has no weight, and takes only one action to wear or remove.
Strategy
Though the tinfoil hat does not take up much inventory space, its psychic protection is situational at best (though it does have an amusing niche use in nullifying the mind blasts of Cthulhu). As a result, the helm will often be of little use to most players, and at a base cost of 1zm it also has next to no resale value.
History
The tinfoil hat is added in version 3.5.1 via commit 2c4d08ab.
Origin
Tin foil hats are head coverings made from aluminum ("tin") foil, which (supposedly) protect against attempts (by government organizations, spies, extraterrestrials, etc.) to read or control the wearer's mind. The theory is that the foil functions as a Faraday cage, a device that prevents electromagnetic waves from entering a space, in this case the wearer's brain. In practice, however, foil wrapped around the head does not make an effective Faraday cage. (Real Faraday cages are made by sufficiently enclosing spaces with metal sheets or grids.)
Because of the questionable-at-best theories behind them, tin foil hats are stereotypically associated with conspiracy theories and paranoia, which gives the phrase "tin foil hat" a generally negative connotation. Some communities have "redeemed" the concept, though, with tongue-in-cheek tin foil hat design contests.
