Naming artifacts

For the method for creating artifacts, see Sting or Orcrist (and in SLASH'EM also Elfrist).

The naming artifacts trick was a bug exploit in NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions that let you identify certain item types.

The way NetHack keeps track of which items are artifacts is through their names; this saves memory and allows a flexible artifact set (i.e., multiple artifacts can be of the same item type). As a consequence of this mechanic, naming a long sword "Excalibur" would turn it into Excalibur, for example. So if you try to name a non-artifact with the name of an artifact of the same base type, the game will prevent you and you will mis-engrave. ("Your hand slips...")

For example, naming a helmet "The Mitre of Holiness" will fail if and only if the helmet is a helm of brilliance.

By this exploit, you could identify (or rule out) the following items:

Appearance	Item type	Artifact name
amulet	amulet of ESP	The Eye of the Aethiopica
gray stone	luckstone	The Heart of Ahriman
magic helmet*	helm of brilliance	The Mitre of Holiness

*: The appearances of magic helmets are: plumed helmet, etched helmet, crested helmet, and visored helmet.

Although this exploit never appeared on the official bug list, it was fixed in NetHack 3.6.0; naming any item in the the appropriate category, if you haven't identified its type, with the appropriate name, will mis-engrave whether or not the item's type is the artifact's base. Thus, attempting to name an unidentified gray stone "The Heart of Ahriman" will fail, regardless if it's a luckstone or touchstone, but if you've formally identified it as a touchstone you can name it successfully (and ineffectively).

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the artifact naming trick is even more effective due to the many new artifacts.

Appearance	Item type	Artifact name
bag	bag of holding	Wallet of Perseus
candle	magic candle	The Candle of Eternal Flame
amulet	amulet of ESP	The Eye of the Aethiopica
gray stone	luckstone	The Heart of Ahriman
magic boots	speed boots	Whisperfeet
magic cloak	cloak of displacement	Deluder
magic gloves	gauntlets of dexterity	Gauntlets of Defense
magic helmet	helm of brilliance	The Mitre of Holiness
magic helmet	helm of telepathy	The Crown of Saint Edward
whistle	magic whistle	The Storm Whistle
amulet	amulet of ESP	The Medallion of Shifters (defunct Doppelganger quest artifact)
white gem	diamond	The Arkenstone (defunct Dwarf quest artifact)
ring	ring of invisibility	The One Ring (defunct Hobbit quest artifact)

History

The origin of this feature is funny. It originates from nethack 3.0.0, which didn't have an artifact marker on items, but instead checked the name and object base type of an item to determine whether it's an artifact. That is why naming Sting or Orcrist worked, but the game had to forbid naming attempts that would create other artifacts.

In the code, see NetHack_3.0.0/do_name.c#line157 which causes your hand slip if you try – although with a different message. See NetHack_3.0.0/weapon.c#line58 for a call from the weapons code to the spec_abon function that determines the to-hit bonus of an artifact (or line143 or NetHack_3.0.0/mhitu.c#line674 for other similar calls); NetHack_3.0.0/artifact.c#line237 for the definition of spec_abon which calls the function get_artifact to determine whether an item is an artifact; and finally the implementation of get_artifact in line109 which simply compares the base type and name of the item to those in the artifact tables above.

References

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.

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