Difference between revisions of "Speed"
m (→Property: copyedit) |
(→Strategy: using punishment goes even faster, mention the theoretical applications of life saving, warn against actually trying any of this) |
||
| Line 40: | Line 40: | ||
[[Jumping]] can be done on any of the movements turns, but it always advances to the next turn and resets your movement counter. Hence, if you're hasted, you should move as far as your hasted self can before advancing the turn counter, then, with your last movement, execute the jump. To accomplish this you will have to carefully watch the turn counter and know where you are in the cycle. Using this strategy as an air elemental will allow you to move up to seven squares in a single turn. | [[Jumping]] can be done on any of the movements turns, but it always advances to the next turn and resets your movement counter. Hence, if you're hasted, you should move as far as your hasted self can before advancing the turn counter, then, with your last movement, execute the jump. To accomplish this you will have to carefully watch the turn counter and know where you are in the cycle. Using this strategy as an air elemental will allow you to move up to seven squares in a single turn. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The theoretically fastest method of movement, without using [[life saving]], is to be polymorphed into a [[punishment|punished]] monster with a speed of 24, combined with a very fast speed; this gives two actions per turn, plus up to one from the speed, which can be used to throw the [[heavy iron ball]], pick it up again, then (hopefully) jump on the third action, which is slightly faster than moving three times and jumping as an air elemental. However, this is likely too unwieldy to be of much use in practice. (Life saving can be used to reduce helplessness/immobility/paralysis to one turn, allowing [[hurtling]] to be the theoretically fastest form of movement, but this is incredibly wasteful of resources, and very difficult to arrange a death at the right moment.) | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 16:57, 23 September 2011
Speed is both a monster property in NetHack (also referred to internally as movement rate), and an intrinsic/extrinsic related to that property.
Contents
Property
For every turn that passes a monster will gain its movement rate in "movement points"; if the monster has 12 or more movement points (defined as NORMAL_SPEED[1]) in a turn it gets a move that turn (and more than one if it has another 12 points remaining after this, etc.) Thus a monster with a speed of 12 gets one move per turn, a monster with a speed of 1 gets one move every 12 turns, and a monster with a speed of 18 gets 3 moves every 2 turns. Monsters with a speed of 0 are sessile and never get a move. They may have passive attacks however.
Being encumbered reduces the player's effective movement rate after adjustments. A burdened player has three quarters their normal movement rate, a stressed player one half, a strained player one quarter, and an overtaxed player one eighth[2].
Multi-turn actions (e.g. entering in "10s" to search ten times) consume one move per command issued plus whatever additional time is required for these moves. In contrast, certain actions will render the player immobile for a certain number of turns; during those turns the player's movement points are simply drained as though the player was executing moves during that time, but without actually allowing the player an action. Fainting, being paralysed, engraving a long sentence, etc. are examples of actions that cause this.
Extrinsic Speed (very fast)
A player with the speed extrinsic (obtained through speed boots, a potion of speed, or the haste self spell), also known as a very fast player, gains a guaranteed six extra movement points per turn, and a 1 in 3 chance of another six extra movement points[3]. The player has an effective movement rate of 20, or five thirds normal, giving an average of five moves every three turns.
Intrinsic Speed (fast)
In the absence of extrinsic speed, a player with intrinsic speed (obtained through wands of speed monster, quantum mechanic corpses, etc.), otherwise known as a fast player, gains a 2 in 3 chance of six movement points each turn.[4]. The player has an effective movement rate of 16, or four thirds normal, giving an average of four moves every three turns.
The extrinsic overrides the intrinsic.
Monsters
A monster with intrinsic speed (gained by e.g. a wand of speed monster) or extrinsic speed (speed boots) has four thirds their normal movement rate[5]. A slowed monster (e.g. by means of a wand of slow monster) has two thirds their normal movement rate[6].
In normal pet-versus-nonpet combat, regardless of its speed, no monster can attack another monster more than once per turn[7]. For pets, this means that speed beyond 12 only makes it easier for them to keep up with you. It does not allow them to deal more damage over time, as it does for monsters fighting you. On a related note, the retaliatory attack against pets always has a 75% chance of occurring (unless the monster already attacked on that turn), again regardless of the monster's speed.
Monsters fighting because of conflict or confusion may attack or retaliate once per movement. For them, the speed system works almost like for you.
Strategy
You can couple jumping, speed and polymorph-self to move through the dungeon as fast as possible.
Starting with polymorph-self, the air elemental is the fastest creature with 36 movement points. As an air elemental, you'll get three movements in every turn. However, being an air elemental has serious drawbacks. You have relatively weak attacks, you can't open, close, engrave, wear any armor or wield any tools. You can't put on or take off rings, though any ring you're wearing when you polymorph will still be worn. Strangely, you can put on and take off amulets, zap wands and spells, read scrolls and quaff potions. Because of this, Air Elementals make great travel forms, but terrible fighting forms.
A less fast form, but still fast, is the Titan with 18 movement points. The Titan has the obvious advantage of being able to fight well while still being fast.
Your speed affects all forms equally, meaning you can get up to four movements in one turn as an air elemental, or three movements as a Titan.
Another alternative is to be riding, as a swift steed like a warhorse or unicorn can have up to 24 movement points, and intrinsic speed can make it even faster. Kicking or whipping a steed can make it gallop for 20-30 turns, which on average increases its movement to 1.5 times normal,[8] but this decreases tameness and risks being dismounted.
Jumping can be done on any of the movements turns, but it always advances to the next turn and resets your movement counter. Hence, if you're hasted, you should move as far as your hasted self can before advancing the turn counter, then, with your last movement, execute the jump. To accomplish this you will have to carefully watch the turn counter and know where you are in the cycle. Using this strategy as an air elemental will allow you to move up to seven squares in a single turn.
The theoretically fastest method of movement, without using life saving, is to be polymorphed into a punished monster with a speed of 24, combined with a very fast speed; this gives two actions per turn, plus up to one from the speed, which can be used to throw the heavy iron ball, pick it up again, then (hopefully) jump on the third action, which is slightly faster than moving three times and jumping as an air elemental. However, this is likely too unwieldy to be of much use in practice. (Life saving can be used to reduce helplessness/immobility/paralysis to one turn, allowing hurtling to be the theoretically fastest form of movement, but this is incredibly wasteful of resources, and very difficult to arrange a death at the right moment.)
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.
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.
