Potion of object detection

From NetHackWiki
Revision as of 20:40, 20 February 2018 by Fyr (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
! Pink potion.png
Name object detection
Appearance random
Base price 150 zm
Weight 20
Monster use Will not be used by monsters.

The potion of object detection, when quaffed, shows you all objects on the current level. Nymphs often carry one.

The spell of detect treasure at unskilled or basic level has the same effect as an uncursed potion of object detection, and a blessed potion of object detection at skilled or expert.

Quaffing effects

Case Effect
uncursed You exercise your wisdom.

You "detect objects": every item sitting on the ground on your level is drawn on your screen. This tells you the type of every item but it does NOT tell you exactly what each item is. In other words: the potion tells you "There's a scroll here!" but it does NOT tell you "The scroll is VELOX NEB!" or "The scroll is enchant armor!" The glyphs are colored, so you can distinguish between some items by color, even without being explicitly told their appearance.
Items carried by monsters are also detected, but you will only see one item per monster.
E.g., if you see a "?" on your screen after quaffing an uncursed potion, it is either a scroll lying on the ground or one being carried by a monster, but you don't know what kind of scroll it is.

blessed You exercise your wisdom.

You learn the appearance of every item on the ground on your level, except those in the inventories of monsters. While an uncursed potion will only tell you "There's a scroll here!" a blessed potion will tell you "The scroll is VELOX NEB!" or "The scroll is enchant armor!". In other words, you get exactly as much information as you would get if you had stood on the same square as the object without being blind.
You also learn the appearance of every item in your inventory, which is significant if you are blind.
You do NOT learn the appearance of the items carried by monsters, but you do detect those items just like with an uncursed potion.
E.g., if you see a "?" on your screen after quaffing a blessed potion, and farlooking the object produces "? a scroll (scroll)" then you know that that is a scroll that is being carried by a monster. If farlooking the object produces the message "? a scroll (scroll labeled VELOX NEB)" then you know that that scroll is lying on the ground.

cursed You exercise your wisdom.

Works just like an uncursed potion, except that mimics are detected too, and drawn on screen as if they were items (the class of item is selected randomly).
E.g., if you see a "?" on your screen after quaffing a cursed potion it MAY be a scroll lying on the ground, or one being carried by a monster, but it could also be a mimic.

Treasures detected are always real. If the gold/gem symbol suddenly disappears when you get to the marked spot, it means that the items are buried in the floor. Just dig a pit (apply a pickaxe down) and you'll find the stuff. Furthermore, treasures buried in the wall or on top of the floor may obscure further treasures buried in the floor.

N.B. Your wisdom is exercised if the only objects on the level are in your inventory, but not if there are no objects at all.

Note that because tiles ports show unique tiles for unique object descriptions, you can determine the appearance of an object in tiles mode using an uncursed potion; once you've detected it, compare the tile to a list to see what appearance it has.

Messages

You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes.
No objects on the level.
You are a beginner and not hallucinating.
You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes.
No objects on the level.
You are a beginner and hallucinating.
You feel a lack of something.
There was remembered, now gone, objects.
You sense objects nearby.
The only objects detected are on your square.
You are not hallucinating.
You sense something nearby.
The only objects detected are on your square.
You are hallucinating.
You sense the presence of objects.
Objects detected.
You are not hallucinating.
You sense the presence of something.
Objects detected.
You are hallucinating.
You sense the absence of objects.
No objects detected.
There was no remembered objects.

Identification

A potion of object detection is always present in The Gnome King's Wine Cellar, one of the Mines' End variants. They are generated in the inventories of 50% of all nymphs [1], meaning you can be fairly sure a potion found when killing a nymph is object detection after observing just a few nymphs.

The potion is safe to drink regardless of BUC status.

Strategy

$$
$$

Although hardly useless, potions of object detection are normally saved up and diluted en masse for holy water production. Other uses include the remote detection of vaults - they show up as four gold coins (provided they haven't been looted by you, or eaten by a rock mole):

Potions of object detection are also sometimes saved for the Castle, as an easy way to detect where the chest containing a wand of wishing is.

Potions of object detection can be very useful in Gehennom. By using magic mapping and object detection together with digging you can quickly pass through Gehennom, locating all the staircases and acquiring all the best loot without having to walk through the mazes. One tip: if you're using blessed object detection and you see "/ a wand (wand)" chances are very good it's just a wand of digging being carried by a minotaur.

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
  2. Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.

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.