Amulet of Yendor
The Amulet of Yendor is a unique and indestructible amulet made of mithril, and the primary objective of every game of NetHack - as stated at the beginning of each game, you are tasked to find the Amulet, bring it to the Astral Plane and offering it to your god, resulting in ascension to immortality and demigod-hood.
Contents
Generation
The Amulet of Yendor is always held by the high priest of Moloch in Moloch's Sanctum within Gehennom. If the Amulet would be left in the bones of a dead player character, it is replaced with a cheap plastic imitation.
Cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor will also appear as "the Amulet of Yendor" rather than being auto-identified as duplicates, with the exception of the one found on the Rogue level.
Description
As with the items used for the Invocation, the Amulet will resist being put into any type of container. The technical reason is to prevented it from being destroyed along with the container for any reason, e.g. in a magical explosion involving a bag of holding.
The Amulet of Yendor has many various effects on both you and the Mazes of Menace's denizens while carried or worn, and wielding or wearing it confers additional effects.
Carrying the Amulet
Carrying the Amulet will confer extrinsic clairvoyance, unless it would be blocked by a cornuthaum; teleportation within the level is blocked 1⁄3 of the time, and level teleporting and branchporting are completely blocked.[1][2][3] Your Luck also times out more rapidly, unless you have a luckstone or an item that acts as one.
Your nutrition is decreased by 1 every 20 turns, in addition to normal amulet or ring hunger.[4] Spellcasting while carrying the Amulet will drain a random amount of additional energy up to twice the normal cost of the selected spell, roughly doubling average spell costs.[5] The energy drain is applied before the cost of the spell itself, and the spell will fail if the initial drain would leave you without enough power to cast it otherwise. The process is signified by the following message:
- You feel the Amulet draining your energy away.
Monster generation and behavior is altered while carrying the Amulet:
- Monster difficulty will depend on your deepest level reached, not your current dungeon level.[6]
- Nymphs, demon lords and princes, wumpuses, long worms, and eels are always generated awake.[7][8]
- Chaotic monsters will be generated hostile if you are chaotic and have the Amulet.[9]
- Follower monsters will follow you between levels even if they're fleeing.
If you are carrying the Amulet in Gehennom and try to go up a dungeon level while carrying the Amulet of Yendor, the mysterious force may work against you - see the linked article for details.
Finally, carrying the Amulet and climbing the up stair or quaffing a cursed potion of gain level while on dungeon level 1 grants you entrance to the Elemental Planes, taking you to the Plane of Earth.[10] From there, you can also make use of the one-way magic portals that lead to each of the Planes, culminating in the Astral Plane.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The stairs up from level 1 will be described as leading "to the Elemental Planes" if you have the real Amulet, or "out of the dungeon" otherwise.Wearing or wielding the Amulet
In addition to the above, wearing or wielding the Amulet confers a form of magic portal detection. Every game turn, there is a 1⁄15 chance that you will receive one of the following messages if you are near a magic portal:[11]
| Distance | Message |
|---|---|
| 3-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels hot!" |
| 8-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels very warm." |
| 12-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels warm." |
| Farther | No message |
Offering the Amulet
If you offer the Amulet of Yendor on the correct high altar on the Astral Plane, you ascend and win the game; this will not violate atheist conduct. Offering the Amulet on another god's high altar will also end the game; your current god is angered, but the altar's god allows you to escape in celestial disgrace. This is effectively an ascension, but is less prestigious because it removes the need to find the correct altar.
Attempting to offer the Amulet on a non-high altar will give one of the following messages:
- You feel homesick.
- You are hallucinating.
- You feel ashamed.
- The altar is cross-aligned.
- You feel an urge to return to the surface.
- The altar is coaligned.
Offering to Moloch
You may also offer the Amulet of Yendor to Moloch on the unaligned high altar in his Sanctum. This leads to instadeath, with the cause livelogged as "Moloch's indifference":
- Moloch shrugs and retains dominion over <your god>, then mercilessly snuffs out your life.
If you survive by wearing an amulet of life saving, you are revived, but the messages continue:
- Moloch snarls and tries again...
- You disintegrate into a pile of dust!
This happens even if you have disintegration resistance; the cause of death is livelogged as "the wrath of Moloch".
The only way to survive this is in explore or wizard mode, where you can decline to die–this results in the following message, and is treated as escaping the dungeon:
- A cloud of black smoke surrounds you...
Strategy
Much of the strategy regarding the Amulet of Yendor relies around preventing it from being stolen by the Wizard of Yendor, or else misplaced and confused with a fake Amulet.
Identifying the Amulet
Cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor occur at several places in the dungeon, and with one exception appear to the player as "the Amulet of Yendor". Offering a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet on a high altar carries a -1 penalty to Luck - offering an identified one carries a penalty of -3 Luck, -1 alignment and increasing your god's anger by 3.[12]
The primary danger of the fake Amulets is having the real one snatched from you without realizing it, which most often occurs if the Wizard of Yendor successfully steals it from you. Identifying the Amulet will reveal whether it is the real deal or a cheap imitation, and there are many other methods to prevent a fake Amulet from ruining your attempt to ascend:
- Many players will immediately name the Amulet of Yendor "REAL" or something similar immediately upon claiming it from the high priest of Moloch.
- Remember that Amulet of Yendor cannot be placed into a container, while a cheap plastic imination will go in as normal.
- Quaffing a cursed potion of gain level on dungeon level 1 if you do not have the real Amulet will print a message about "an uneasy feeling" and have no effect - if you have the real Amulet, you are taken to the Plane of Earth.
History
The Amulet of Yendor first appears in Hack 1.0 - in this version and Hack 1.0.1, it is found under an enourmous rock in a maze. In Hack 1.0.2, the Wizard of Yendor is introduced, and from this version to NetHack 3.0.10 the Amulet is found directly in his dwelling, within a small room enclosed by a moat at the center of a maze level.
In these earliest versions, it was possible to find the real Amulet left behind in the bones of a player's character - Hack 1.0.3 adds the cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor to the game and ensures this is no longer possible.
Starting in NetHack 3.1.0, the Amulet of Yendor is instead in the possession of the high priest of Moloch, with the Wizard of Yendor now guarding the Book of the Dead.
Origin
The Amulet of Yendor is based on the Rogue item of the same name, which is also used to end the game.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the Amulet is instead in the possession of Cthulhu.
Additionally, the Amulet has a chance of randomly teleporting within the level when dropped by you or a monster for any reason; this is in many ways balanced by the removal of the mysterious force. The probability depends on the Amulet's beatitude: the Amulet teleports half of the time if cursed, 1⁄4 of the time if uncursed, and 1⁄16 of the time if blessed.
Sacrificing the Amulet of Yendor breaks atheist conduct in UnNetHack, unlike in vanilla NetHack. The player is warned if the conduct would be broken this way. In order to complete the game, one must #invoke the Amulet on the corresponding altar instead.
Encyclopedia entry
This mysterious talisman is the object of your quest. It is said to possess powers which mere mortals can scarcely comprehend, let alone utilize. The gods will grant the gift of immortality to the adventurer who can deliver it from the depths of Moloch's Sanctum and offer it on the appropriate high altar on the Astral Plane.
References
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 505
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 792
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1567
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2835
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 948
- ↑ src/dungeon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1596
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1264
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1321
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2027
- ↑ src/dungeon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1176
- ↑ wizard.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 63
- ↑ pray.c in NetHack 3.6.2, line 1560
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.
