Shirt
There are two types of shirt in NetHack: the T-shirt and the Hawaiian shirt. Both are the innermost piece of armor and are mostly identical.
Contents
T-shirt
A T-shirt is the first of the two shirts. T-shirts can be read. If you go shopping when wearing a T-shirt and the shopkeeper sees it (i.e., there is no body armor or cloak over it), he will charge an extra 1/3 markup and buy things for 1/3 of the base price.
Reading T-shirts
Reading a T-shirt will display a message. The message is dependent on the item's object ID, so it should remain consistent for any one T-shirt.[1] If the shirt is eroded, some of the text might be altered, just as an engraving would be.[2]
Reading a T-shirt breaks the illiterate conduct.
The possible messages are:[3]
- "I explored the Dungeons of Doom and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!"
- "Is that Mjollnir in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
- "It's not the size of your sword, it's how #enhance'd you are with it."
- "Madame Elvira's House O' Succubi Lifetime Customer"
- "Madame Elvira's House O' Succubi Employee of the Month"
- "Ludios Vault Guards Do It In Small, Dark Rooms"
- "Yendor Military Soldiers Do It In Large Groups"
- "I survived Yendor Military Boot Camp"
- "Ludios Accounting School Intra-Mural Lacrosse Team"
- "Oracle(TM) Fountains 10th Annual Wet T-Shirt Contest"
- "Hey, black dragon! Disintegrate THIS!"
- "I'm With Stupid -->"
- "Don't blame me, I voted for Izchak!"
- "Don't Panic"
- "Furinkan High School Athletic Dept."
- "Hel-LOOO, Nurse!"
History
The extra T-shirt messages were added in NetHack 3.4.0 from a patch by Scott Bigham. Previously, the only messages were:[4]
- "I explored the Dungeons of Doom, and never did any laundry..."
- if hallucinating and currently wearing the T-shirt
- "I explored the Dungeons of Doom, and couldn't find my way out"
- if hallucinating and not currently wearing the T-shirt
- "I explored the Dungeons of Doom, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt"
- otherwise
Hawaiian shirt
[ Hawaiian shirt 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Hawaiian shirt |
| Slot | shirt |
| AC | 0 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 3 zm |
| Weight | 5 |
| Material | cloth |
All Tourists start with a +0 Hawaiian shirt.
If you go shopping when wearing a Hawaiian shirt and the shopkeeper sees it (i.e., there is no body armor or cloak over it), he will charge an extra 1/3 markup and buy things for 1/3 of the base price.
Generation
T-shirts comprise 0.2% of all randomly generated armor items, while Hawaiian shirts are 0.8%.
Strategy
| Confidence | Base Chance | 25% | 50% | 75% | 95% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polymorphs | 1 in 100 | 28.62 | 68.97 | 137.94 | 298.07 |
| Armors needed (blessed) | — | 3.59 | 8.66 | 17.32 | 37.41 |
| Armors needed (uncursed) | — | 5.51 | 13.29 | 26.58 | 57.42 |
Neither shirt confers any AC bonus unless enchanted, but since each can be safely enchanted up to +5 (reading a blessed scroll of enchant armor with the shirt at +3), there is no disadvantage to wearing them, and hence they are excellent ascension kit items.
Since they are comparatively rare, a shirt may even be worth wishing for, simply for something to hang the extra +5 AC bonus on. Those not averse to polypiling should also note that a shirt is non-magical and as such are fairly easy to obtain by polymorphing a large pile of armor objects (try The Castle or Fort Ludios). Many players are even known to ascend with a +7 t-shirt through polymorphing elven armor.[1]
The armor store in the Castle level, which has fourteen randomly selected armors, makes for a significant 13.13% chance of having either a Hawaiian or normal t-shirt. The forty general store items in Orcus Town, assuming there are no mimics, also has nontrivial ~8% chance of having a shirt spawned.
A Hawaiian shirt in a bones pile is a strong indicator that the deceased was a Tourist.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, if the Guild of Disgruntled Adventurers is generated (50%), then it has a guaranteed two Hawaiian shirts, from the two guaranteed tourists.
Convict Patch
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Amnesia potions will make the shopkeaper forget?"
The Convict Role patch and variants that incorporate it (UnNetHack, dNetHack, DynaHack, Slash'EM Extended and SLASHTHEM) add a striped shirt that represents a stereotypical prison uniform. Convicts start the game wearing a striped shirt, which is cursed to make it difficult to remove. Shopkeepers will bar entry to their shop if they see a striped shirt uncovered by armor or cloak ("I don't sell to your kind here."). Once a particular shopkeeper bars entry to a shop, he/she will remember the player and continue to refuse admission even if the player no longer wears a visible striped shirt. An exception to this is in the Black market, where the convict will be offered reduced prices instead.
Noble
The Noble role, introduced in dNetHack and incorporated into Slash'EM Extended and SLASHTHEM, features new gender-specific starting shirts for Nobles: the ruffled shirt for Noblemen and Victorian underwear for Noblewomen.
The exact behaviour of these new shirts differs between variants.
dNetHack
dNetHack implements the striped shirt as part of the Convict Patch.
dNetHack is the first variant to include the Noble role, with its gender-specific starting shirts.
In dNetHack, the ruffled shirt grants a +1 bonus to charisma and can be enchanted to raise AC like any other shirt. Victorian underwear grants a charisma bonus of +2 and MC 3 (maximum magic cancellation), at the cost of a -2 penalty to AC and reduction of the AC bonus from dexterity.
DynaHack
DynaHack implements the striped shirt as part of the Convict Patch.
Slash'EM Extended
Slash'EM Extended implements the striped shirt as part of the Convict Patch. It also incorporates a version of the Noble role with its associated starting shirts.
In versions v45 and later, a cursed ruffled shirt or Victorian underwear grants a 25% chance of life saving on death.
SLASHTHEM
SLASHTHEM implements the striped shirt as part of the Convict Patch. It also incorporates a version of the Noble role with its associated starting shirts.
In SLASHTHEM, the ruffled shirt behaves as an ordinary shirt, with no unusual bonuses or penalties. The Victorian underwear grants MC3--making it the "shirt" with the highest MC in the game--at the cost of an AC penalty.
SLASHTHEM also reintroduces the expensive suit, a "shirt" originally from the obsolete variant NetHack--. It grants MC2 and a +2 charisma bonus, making it possibly the best "shirt" in the game.
UnNetHack
UnNetHack implements the striped shirt as part of the Convict Patch.
