Scroll of remove curse

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? Scroll.png
Name remove curse
Appearance random
Base price 80 zm
Weight 5
Ink to write 8-15
Monster use Will not be used by monsters.

Reading a scroll of remove curse will end punishment and can uncurse items.

Effects

If uncursed, reading this scroll uncurses cursed worn or wielded items, loadstones, leashes in use, and stackable weapons or ammunition in your quiver. If the scroll is blessed, it will instead uncurse all cursed items in your main inventory. If the scroll is cursed, it will not remove (or add) a curse from any items, but instead disintegrate; regardless of the scroll's beatitude, it will also end any punishment by destroying the chain and leaving the iron ball behind.

If read while confused, each of your affected uncursed items have a 25% chance of becoming blessed and a 25% chance of becoming cursed; blessed and cursed items retain their beatitude, and it has no effect on punishment. As with a non-confused reading, a confused reading of an uncursed scroll affects only your worn/wielded items, whereas a blessed scroll affects your entire main inventory; the chance is calculated independently for each stack of items (assigned to a single inventory letter). In addition, all affected items will have their beatitude hidden, which can be re-identified through the usual methods (e.g., dropping them on an altar or identifying them formally).[1]

Non-confused Confused
Cursed Unpunishes No effect
Uncursed Unpunishes, and uncurses all cursed equipped items and loadstones Unpunishes, removes BUC identification on all equipped items and loadstones, and randomly curses/blesses uncursed equipped items
Blessed Unpunishes, and uncurses all cursed items in open inventory Unpunishes, removes BUC identification on your entire open inventory, and randomly curses/blesses uncursed items in open inventory

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.

A non-cursed scroll of remove curse will now also affect a saddle you are riding on (uncurses it normally, or may bless or curse it if you are confused).

Messages

You feel like someone is helping you.
You read the scroll normally.
You feel like you need some help.
You read the scroll while confused.
You feel in touch with the Universal Oneness.
You read the scroll while hallucinating.
You feel the power of the Force against you!
You read the scroll while hallucinating and confused.
The scroll disintegrates.
This message will be appended to any of the above lines if the scroll being read is cursed.

Strategy

Uncursing

An uncursed scroll will uncurse only all worn and wielded items (and quivered projectiles), but if your weapon isn't cursed you can also use it to uncurse a miscellaneous item within your inventory. Simply wield the cursed item – you have to specify the inventory letter directly or press * to get the full list of your inventory, rather than the recommended weapons – and read the scroll. The item wielded will then be uncursed. If your stack of daggers, darts, knives, spears, arrows, crossbow bolts, or other stackable weapons/ammunition is cursed, you can quiver it to uncurse it at the same time.

Holy and unholy water

Blessed scrolls can also be used to create holy and unholy water without the use of altars or prayer. Simply adjust all of your potions of water until they are no longer stacked. Then drop all other items, or at least any items you don't want to randomly bless/curse, and read the blessed scroll while confused.

This will curse roughly 25% and bless roughly 25% of uncursed items in your inventory. Drop the potions or use the adjust command to re-stack them. The blessed clear potions are holy water and cursed clear potions are unholy. If you cannot altar-test, you can also pet-test for unholy water, and then dip a blessed, non-erodable object[2] into the remaining two stacks – only the uncursed water will wet it. Alternatively, dip the remaining two stacks into each other, or check with a shop, or simply guess that the larger stack is uncursed.

Mass blessing

Some players mainly use this scroll to mass-bless items of the ascension kit or certain types of polypile fodder. Since it will also curse items, it is recommended to learn the spell remove curse at a skilled level or to exploit the light blue aura boon when praying. On average, 12.25 items are blessed per scroll – this is one of the most resource-conserving way in the game to bless large quantities of non-stackable items. Only weapons, and weapon-tools can be blessed more efficiently: by praying on an altar while wielding them. (The other is using the Platinum Yendorian Express Card to repeatedly recharge a horn of plenty, dilute and bless the potions produced by applying the horn. This method consumes no depletable resources, but is very slow, especially if the character is not a Tourist).

Slash'EM Extended

Wielded non-weapons won't be uncursed by reading an uncursed scroll of remove curse in Slash'EM Extended.

References

  1. read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 941
  2. e.g. a wizard's starting quarterstaff

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.1. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-361}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.