Tin whistle
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | tin whistle |
| Appearance | whistle |
| Base price | 10 zm |
| Weight | 3 |
| Material | metal |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A tin whistle is a tool that appears in NetHack. It is a simple, nonmagical whistle.
Effects
You can apply a tin whistle to wake nearby monsters from sleep;[1] if your pet is close enough to hear the noise, then for the next few turns it will try to approach you more closely.[2][3] Its BUC has no bearing on either effect.
Despite what tin whistles are in real life, in NetHack it is not a tonal instrument, and cannot be used to play the passtune.
Because there is no specific material for tin, the game considers tin whistles to be made of generic metal.
Generation
Watchmen have a 2/3 chance generated with a tin whistle. As of NetHack 3.6.2, vault guards will also carry cursed tin whistles, providing a source for the shrill whistling sound a player will hear while escaping them (see the section on messages below).
Strategy
The tin whistle is incredibly easy to identify. In addition to the above means of generation, you can apply any unidentified whistle; if you produce a strange noise of any kind, then you have a magic whistle. See the messages below for further reference.
The best use of tin whistles is for attracting pets by applying one repeatedly until your pet(s) comes to you; this can sometimes help you take pets through stairs or out of shops. The effect of a tin whistle lasts for 5 turns,[4] provided the pet was near enough to hear it in the first place; once you find a magic whistle, however, you can safely stash the tin whistle elsewhere.
Knights can apply tin whistles to wake sleeping monsters before attacking them in order to avoid violating their code of conduct.
Range
The range of a tin whistle is sqrt(xlvl*20)[5]. This results in a radius of about 4 squares at XL 1, 16 squares at XL 14, and a maximum of 24 squares at XL 30. This is important for situations involving waking up faraway monsters; one such scenario is the final level of the Rogue quest.
This level is no-teleport and undiggable, and features multiple sections which are completely isolated from one another - the quest nemesis, the Master Assassin, cannot be accessed from the section containing the stairs. Some Rogues polymorph into a phasing monster to tackle this problem, while others prepare a cursed potion of gain level from their supply in order to return after jumping through holes or trapdoors in the level above, hoping to land in the correct section once before their stock of potions is exhausted. Occasionally, a fortunate Rogue will find a drum - both the drum of earthquake and the plain leather drum can both wake the Master Assassin readily from a position inside the stair-containing area if the Rogue is at least XL 13 (and they must be at least XL 14 to enter the quest anyway).
Tin whistles, however, are evidently not as loud as drums - in fact, according to the source code's math, they are only half as loud - and magic whistles don't wake up monsters at all unless they are cursed.[6] In order for a tin whistle to wake the quest nemesis from the same rightmost tile where a drum does the job, a Rogue would have to be at least XL 25 - at XL 26, a tin whistle finally matches the cacophony of a leather drum played by an XL 13 character.
SLASH'EM
Although tin whistles are not themselves changed in SLASH'EM, they can be upgraded into magic whistles. This is useful to everyone, but in particular to conduct players, since upgrading objects breaks no conducts.
Messages
- You produce a high whistling sound.
- You applied a non-cursed or blessed tin whistle.
- You produce a shrill whistling sound.
- You applied a cursed tin whistle.
- You feel rushing air tickle your nose.
- You applied a tin whistle while deaf.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
