Chemistry set

(
Name	chemistry set
Appearance	box of obscure-looking glass devices
Base price	500 zm
Weight	20
Material	glass
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

The chemistry set is a tool in NetHack: The Next Generation, Slash'EM Extended, and SLASHTHEM, which provides a new way to get specific potions, in addition to existing alchemical schemes, that is analogous to making scrolls with the vanilla magic marker:

• Each chemistry set has a number of charges, which in-game represent its stock of potion ingredients, and are consumed when the set is used to make a potion. Each potion type in the game has a specific ingredient cost (see below).
• Like writing scrolls, making a potion requires a "blank" item—an empty bottle.
• You can make potions you have not discovered yet, with a small chance of success.

Unlike writing scrolls, making potions requires knowledge of chemistry.

Note that a chemistry set is made up of fragile glassware, which can shatter easily if thrown or kicked.

Spellbook of chemistry

spellbook of +   chemistry
Appearance	random
Base price	100 zm
Weight	50
Turns to read	10
Ink to write	5–9
Spell type	divination
Level	1
Power cost	5 Pw
Direction	non-directional

Before you can use a chemistry set with certainty, you need to be familiar with chemistry. This can be learned by successfully reading a spellbook of chemistry. As long as you have the chemistry "spell" in your repertoire, you can use chemistry sets. Note that this is not a functional spell, and attempting to cast it will only produce a funny message ("You call upon your chemical knowledge. Nothing happens.").

If you try to use a chemistry set without knowing the "chemistry" spell, you may get the message "Huh? You don't understand anything about such stuff!" and one charge on the chemistry set will be used up.

Trying to use a chemistry set without knowing chemistry will always fail in NHTNG. In Slash'EM Extended you have a 33% chance of being able to make a potion even if you don't know the spell; otherwise, you will get the same message and lose a charge.

• Slash'EM Extended objects.c line 2108

Bottle

(
Name	bottle
Appearance	bottle
Base price	5 zm
Weight	1
Material	glass
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

Before you can make a new potion, you must have an empty bottle to contain it. The first thing that happens when you use a chemistry set is that you will be prompted to select a container from your inventory.

Empty bottles can be found as randomly generated tools, but a much more common source of bottles is quaffing potions, which will sometimes leave behind the empty container. ("You are left with the empty bottle.") If the potion was taken from a stack, so a new inventory slot is needed for the bottle, but there is no room in your pack, the bottle will drop to the floor. Bottles acquired in this way are naturally uncursed, regardless of the BUC status of the original potion.

Also, if you quaff a milky potion but no ghost appears, presumably due to extinction, you get to keep the empty bottle.

Dipping an empty bottle in a fountain or moat fills it with water, making a potion of water.

Potion cost

Potion	Charges
extra healing	3
ESP	3
gain ability	3
gain energy	3
invisibility	3
recovery	3
see invisible	3
speed	3
cyanide	4
extreme power	4
gain level	4
full healing	5
gain health	5
invulnerability	10
heroism	20

All other potions cost 2 charges by default.

Failure

If the chemistry set doesn't have enough charges to make your desired potion, the bottle will explode ("You seem to have made a mistake!") dealing 10 damage, or 25 if the chemistry set was cursed. Getting killed by such an explosion will give the report that you were killed by an "alchemic blast".

If you attempt to make a potion you have not yet discovered, you have a luck-weighted chance of succeeding; otherwise, the bottle will explode.

• Slash'EM Extended objects.c line 1374, 1376
• Slash'EM Extended apply.c line 3680