Boots
Boots are a form of armor worn on the feet.
List of boots
| Name | Cost | Weight | AC | Material | Effect | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low boots | 8 | 10 | 1 | leather | walking shoes | |
| high boots | 12 | 20 | 2 | leather | jackboots | |
| iron shoes | 16 | 50 | 2 | iron | hard shoes | |
| elven boots | 8 | 15 | 1 | leather | stealth | ** |
| kicking boots | 8 | 50 | 1 | iron | enhanced kicking | ** |
| fumble boots | 30 | 20 | 1 | leather | fumbling | ** |
| levitation boots | 30 | 15 | 1 | leather | levitation | ** |
| jumping boots | 50 | 20 | 1 | leather | jumping | ** |
| speed boots | 50 | 20 | 1 | leather | speed | ** |
| water walking boots | 50 | 20 | 1 | leather | water walking | ** |
Kicking boots had their weight increased in NetHack 3.6.0 from 15 to 50.
** The appearance of these pairs of boots is randomized each game from the following descriptions:
buckled combat hiking jungle riding snow mud
In addition to whatever magical effect they provide, riding boots give a bonus for saddling steeds, and snow boots give a bonus for walking on ice.
Identifying boots
Speed boots, jumping boots and water walking boots have a base price of 50 zm; fumble boots and levitation boots have a base price of 30 zm; elven boots and kicking boots have a base price of 8 zm. (The most useful boots are also the most expensive ones.) Be aware, enchantment can confuse the issue.
Elven boots, kicking boots and levitation weigh 15, while the other types all weigh 20. While this might be useful in some cases (for example to identify base-cost 30 boots), it is somewhat tedious to use and cannot rule out the two pairs of boots which are likely to be cursed.
Do not wear unidentified magic boots without curse-testing them first. Cursed boots are very likely to be levitation boots or fumble boots, which have very annoying magical effects as well as possibly increasing your AC. You can still weight test, especially to distinguish levitation from fumble boots (both 30 zm).
Speed boots and levitation boots will auto-identify when worn, except in the unusual case where you are already very fast or levitating. Elven boots will auto-identify when worn if you are not already stealthy (be aware that an elven cloak also grants stealth). You can deduce the appearance of elven boots by taking note of which boots are dropped by various elves throughout the dungeon.
Jumping boots can be identified by trying to jump (#jump command). Knights must actually try to make an "illegal move" for a chess knight - any other role will get the message "You can't jump very far" unless they are wearing jumping boots.
Fumble boots can be identified by wearing them for a while and seeing whether you fumble, or by zapping a wand of enlightenment while wearing them.
Kicking boots are the only magic boots to be metallic, and can therefore be identified by wearing them and seeing whether your spell failure rates increase, or by testing for "scritch, scritch" by rubbing them on a touchstone. You will also always succeed in kicking down doors while wearing kicking boots, although monks and samurai may find that difficult to test.
Water walking boots are tricky to identify, because walking on water to see whether you sink is dangerous! The danger can be reduced by dropping anything which is vulnerable to water damage (keep in mind that kicking boots tested in this way will rust). They can also be identified by zapping a wand of enlightenment. If you have some boots with a base price of 50 zm, and they grant neither speed nor jumping, then they must be water walking boots.
SLASH'EM
You may find steel boots in SLASH'EM. SLASH'EM uses steel boots as a randomized appearance for magical boots, in place of buckled boots. The actual identities of magical boots in SLASH'EM are all the same, just for some reason one of the randomized appearances is different. Steel boots are not actually metal, but rather are the appearance associated with kicking boots (which are metal) in the source code. That doesn't mean that steel boots will be kicking boots any more often than any other type of boot; it's just a thing in the source code.
Encyclopaedia entry
In Fantasyland these are remarkable in that they seldom or
never wear out and are suitable for riding or walking in
without the need of Socks. Boots never pinch, rub, or get
stones in them; nor do nails stick upwards into the feet from
the soles. They are customarily mid-calf length or knee-high,
slip on and off easily and never smell of feet. Unfortunately,
the formula for making this splendid footwear is a closely
guarded secret, possibly derived from nonhumans (see Dwarfs,
Elves, and Gnomes).
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