Ice box
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | ice box |
| Appearance | ice box |
| Base price | 42 zm |
| Weight | 900 |
| Material | plastic |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
An ice box is a type of tool that appears in NetHack. It is a container designed for corpse storage that is made of plastic.
Contents
Generation
Ice boxes make up 1⁄200 of all randomly-generated tools in the dungeon and Gehennom, and are always generated uncursed outside of bones (including fake "bones" on early traps). Randomly generated ice boxes may contain up to 20 random corpses, with the selection of corpses determined using normal monster generation[1] - all corpses are generated uncursed fresh, including corpses that otherwise correspond to undead.[2]
General shops and delicatessens can sell ice boxes - delis have a 3⁄100 chance of generating an ice box on a given square.[3]
Description
Ice boxes are waterproof and can store items like other containers, and is designed to keep corpses in particular fresh: any corpse or egg stored inside an ice box has its aging timer and any applicable revive timer paused until it is removed from the ice box - eggs do not have their hatching timer paused, so an egg will not ever hatch if it was in the ice box on the turn it would have hatched normally.
Corpses that are tipped out of an ice box are made unfit for sacrifice.
Strategy
Ice boxes are prohibitively heavy at 900 aum, making them impractical to carry around even while empty, but are superb for corpse preservation as well as general stash usage: gelatinous cubes (including characters polymorphed into cubs) cannot eat the plastic ice boxes and will at worst engulf them, leaving its contents unharmed, and corpses that are placed inside while they are fresh enough to eat and/or sacrifice will remain so.
Characters intent on moving an ice box from the spot it was discovered will always have to loot the corpses and then drop them, eat them or feed them to a pet if possible - this includes buying them from a shop if the ice box is generated in one. In addition to nutrition and sacrifice fodder, the corpses can be a useful source of intrinsics.
Some players that are about to ascend their character will bring an ice box containing booze and snacks for the demigod bar, typically done by wishing for the ice box just beforehand, along with the potions and food if desired.
History
The ice box first appears in Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, the Speleologist role (later known as the Archeologist) always starts with an ice box.[4] In these versions, the ice box is the only container available, but its weight and rarity generally makes using one or even moving it difficult, especially for a starting Archeologist.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, frozen food stores have a 9⁄10 chance of generating an ice box on a given square.[5]
Upgrading an ice box will produce a chest, and vice versa.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, an ice box is generated on the intact map for the last floor of the Ruins of Moria branch.
