Wand of digging
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | digging |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 5.5% |
| Base price | 150 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | ray |
| Maximum charges | 8 |
| Spell | dig |
| Monster use | May be used defensively by monsters. |
A wand of digging is a type of wand that appears in NetHack.
Generation
Monsters may be generated carrying a wand of digging as a defensive item. A fleeing monster with a wand of digging they may zap this wand downward to escape. Monsters that try to dig downward through an undiggable floor will simply fail to dig. They do not learn, though.
Minotaurs have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a wand of digging; the one generated upon entering the Plane of Earth is guaranteed to have one.
Description
Zapping a wand of digging in a given direction produces a ray that can dig open a corridor of several squares through solid rock and walls, destroying any doors in its path. Zapping the wand downward creates a hole and causes you to fall through it, unless you are levitating or else manage to escape the hole somehow; zapping the wand upward causes a rock to fall from the ceiling and bonk you on the head unless you are underwater.
Zapping the wand in a maze level will limit the ray's effect to one square; the ray has no effect on undiggable walls and rock, and zapping it downward on undiggable floors will create a pit instead. Zapping the wand while being engulfed by a solid monster sets the monster's current HP to 1 and expels you.[1] The ray has no effect on boulders.
Applying a wand of digging with non-zero charges to break it creates pits or holes on your square and the eight squares around you, with the exception of undiggable floors and stairs, boulders or traps.[2][3] This can also destroy altars and thrones.
Zapping the wand, seeing a monster zap it, or else engraving with the wand will auto-identify it.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Juiblex now only loses half of his HP when hit with digging magic from inside.Strategy
Any text engraved with a wand of digging is as durable as text engraved with a weapon or hard gem; this makes it as effective as an athame and slightly less effective than a wand of fire or wand of lightning for engraving Elbereth. In addition, the wand of digging is also an invaluable escape item.
Zapping the doors on the Astral Plane can save a lot of in searching for your high altar.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, wands of digging are no longer restricted to digging a single square on maze levels. Wands of digging are ineffective on the ice walls and crystal ice walls generated in Sheol, although other forms of digging are still effective.
Zapping a wand of digging to escape the engulfing of Juiblex will only halve his current HP, rather than reducing it to one.[4]
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, zapping a boulder with a wand of digging will vaporize it; doing this in Sokoban will incur a -1 Luck penalty. Rays from a wand of digging will also halve the current HP of many "stony" monsters, including xorns, earth elementals, statue gargoyles and stone golems; strangely, this does not include regular gargoyles.[5]
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.
