Kick

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Kick is a directional command performed by pressing ctrl + D or k if the number_pad option is on.

Kicking has a number of uses in NetHack, including exercising dexterity in most cases. Kicking anything while levitating will propel you in the opposite direction. Kicking while burdened or fumbling is much less likely to be effective. You can't kick if you are in a pit, web, bear trap or under water.

Monks and Samurai get a bonus to kicking because of their martial arts training.

If you are polymorphed into a sasquatch, you will get a bonus to kicking because of your 'bigfoot'. You cannot kick if you are polymorphed into a form that is too small or has no legs. If polymorphed into a monster that kicks as part of its attack sequence, you could use this command, if you so desire, to make a kicking attack without other attacks such as a pony's bite or a unicorn's headbutt.

Kicking objects

• Kicking anything at all (objects, monsters, walls or other dungeon features) makes noise and will wake up nearby monsters and attract pets.
• Kicking at a pile of objects will kick the top object off the pile. The object will fly in the direction you kicked, possibly hitting monsters in its path.
• Kicking empty space has a chance of abusing your strength and wounding your leg ("Dumb move! You strain a muscle.").
• Kicking immobile objects (due to being too heavy, up against a wall, or fixed in place) may wound your leg for a short time, making you unable to kick ("Your leg is in no shape for kicking.") and reducing your carrying capacity.
• Kicking a loadstone or other heavy object, even if it has room to move, will give the message "Thump!", unless you are very strong. Monks and Samurai may have a chance of moving the object anyway. This has a chance of doing damage to you as if you kicked a wall.
• Kicking a fragile object will destroy it. If it is a potion, you will inhale its vapors and experience their effects.
• Kicking a closed door can break it down, leaving an empty doorway. Breaking a shop door will anger the shopkeeper unless you immediately pay 400 zorkmids.
• Kicking down doors exercises dexterity and - in case of success - strength.
• Kicking a locked container can break the lock, but could also break fragile items like potions inside it ("You hear a muffled shatter.").
• Kicking an object that is actually a disguised mimic will reveal the mimic.
• Kicking a sink can summon a foocubus (always of the opposite gender), a black pudding, or a random ring. Only one of each can come from a given sink.
• Kicking an altar of your deity will immediately reduce your Wisdom by one. Kicking another god's altar will reduce your luck by one.
• Kicking a tree might knock down some fruit, or may summon some bees.
• Kicking a throne can knock loose some gold or gems (only once per throne) or send you to a lower dungeon level. If the throne has produced gems or gold already, kicking might just destroy it.
• If an item is embedded in a wall (for instance, a Xorn was killed while in a wall, dropping an object there), kicking it may release the object ("The item comes loose!") and deposit it on the floor where you are standing.
• Kicking an object at a monster can cause damage like a thrown item.
• Kicking a scroll of scare monster can move it without causing it to crumble.
• Kicking a cockatrice corpse without wearing boots will result in stoning.
• Kicking a wall will deal a small amount of damage to you ("Ouch! That hurts!").

Kicking monsters

• Kicking monsters can damage them:
  • The base kicking damage is based on your strength, constitution, dexterity and whether you are wearing kicking boots. More specifically, the exact formula is 1d[ (Str + Dex + Con) / 15 + 5 (if wearing kicking boots)]. Usually, this will come up to 1d7 - 1d8 with kicking boots or 1d2 - 1d3 without.
  • This base damage is cut in half if your kick is "clumsy"; this can happen if you are wearing bulky body armor (dragon scales and dragon scale mail are considered bulky, as is any form of body armor that weighs 350 or more; all other body armors are non-bulky), carrying a heavy load (more than 70% of your carrying capacity, with higher probability to be clumsy at 80%, and guaranteed at 90%), or are fumbling. (This is not quite the same thing as "Your clumsy kick does no damage", but related.)
  • If you are a monk or samurai, you get bonus damage from 0 to half your dexterity, and you exercise your martial arts skill. You do not, however, get bonus damage from your skill.
  • If you are wearing blessed boots, you deal an additional 1d4 damage against demons and undead creatures.
  • The enchantment of your boots is added to total damage, as well as any rings of increase damage you are wearing or have eaten.
• Even an unskilled kick attack enjoys a +1 to hit bonus, so it may be a useful strategy when you are having trouble hitting a monster (like a ghost).
• Thick-skinned monsters like dragons and mumakil take no damage from a kick.
• If you are not wearing blessed boots and you attempt to kick a shade, your foot will pass through it, causing no damage. Even with blessed boots, you will deal only 1d4 damage. However, you can kick a ghost.
• Kicking a cockatrice without wearing boots will result in stoning.
• Kicking monsters can displace them to a random point adjacent to you, even if they couldn't normally reach that spot: "The monster jumps (or swoops, slides, etc.), nimbly avoiding your kick." This is more likely to happen if you are fumbling (due to the gloves or boots) or burdened. It is also more likely to happen with flying monsters such as bats.
• Kicking a sleeping monster will wake it up. (As usual, kicking causes all nearby sleeping monsters to wake up anyway.)
• When levitating, kicking larger monsters will propel you farther, and very small monsters will be more difficult to hit.
• With the right training or equipment, you can sometimes send smaller monsters reeling back a square (into a trap, perhaps?).
• You can kick your steed while riding to make it gallop, but this will make it less tame. Kicking your little dog is just mean.

Kicking secret doors

If you are unlucky, you might have difficulty searching for secret doors. If you kick the location of a secret door, there is a chance that it will be revealed. "Crash! You kick open a secret door!" or "Crash! You uncover a secret door!" This is best when you are almost certain of the location of the door. For example, when there is a corridor on one side and a room on the other. This also works for secret passages.

Related in NetHack

• Kicking boots will increase the strength of the kick, but at the same time might make loadstones and similarly heavy objects movable (and thus somewhat harder to identify by kicking).
• Boots of any kind make cockatrices safe to kick.
• Blessed boots will do a little extra damage to demons and undead.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.