Acid resistance
Acid resistance is a form of resistance property that appears in NetHack.
Description
Acid resistance protects a hero or monster against acid damage from monster attacks, acidic breath weapons, and the effects of a thrown potion of acid. A hero with acid resistance is also protected from the damage dealt by quaffing a potion of acid or consuming the corpse of an acidic monster.
Acid resistance does not prevent weapons and armor made of iron or other metallic materials from being subjected to corrosion as a result of acidic attacks, though erosion-proofing of any type will prevent corrosion. It also does not protect scrolls from being made into blank paper by acidic damage.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 9942b65d, extrinsic acid resistance protects items in open inventory from corrosion and acid damage 99⁄100 of the time.Sources
Acid resistance can be obtained as an extrinsic from the following items:
- Wearing yellow dragon scales
- Wearing yellow dragon scale mail
- Wearing an alchemy smock (for the hero only)
Acid resistance can only be obtained as an intrinsic by polymorphing into a monster that has the intrinsic.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 0891ef4e, monsters can gain acid resistance from a worn alchemy smock.
Per commit 071d79dc, commit e96d4ea9 and commit 05cf9480, a hero eating the corpse or tin of an acidic monster can grant temporary acid resistance for 3-18 turns—this will not happen if the hero gains temporary stoning resistance from that meal, and acid resistance gained this way will be extended if the hero is eating an acidic corpse, lasting until the end of that meal. The monsters whose corpse or tin grant temporary acid resistance are the acid blob, spotted jelly, ochre jelly, yellow dragon, green mold, black naga, green slime, and the Chromatic Dragon.List of monsters
The following monsters possess intrinsic acid resistance:
- b acid blob
- b gelatinous cube
- j spotted jelly
- j ochre jelly
- m mimics
- p glass piercer
- y lights
- D baby yellow dragon
- D yellow dragon
- F green mold
- N black naga hatchling
- N black naga
- every P pudding or ooze
- ' gold golem
- ' glass golem
- & Juiblex
- D Chromatic Dragon
Of the listed monsters, Juiblex and the Chromatic Dragon are not valid polymorph forms.
Strategy
Sources of acid damage are as uncommon as acid resistance itself—even in scenarios where it can do significant damage, you can often easily avoid it by other methods, e.g. ranged attacks for acidic passives, and reflection for acid breath. Yellow dragon scales may still be worthwhile for pets and polyforms with multiple hit dice, particularly mind flayers.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds a new source of acid resistance in the lab coat, which replaces the alchemy smock from NetHack.
Monsters such as the giant shoggoth can inflict severe acid damage, making this property more desirable for an ascension kit—while not strictly necessary, it has more defensive applications and is a worthwhile form of coverage for a hero that has magic resistance, reflection, drain resistance, and magic cancellation covered through other means.
UnNetHack
UnNetHack adds chromatic dragon scales and chromatic dragon scale mail as sources of acid resistance (among numerous other extrinsics).
FIQHack
In FIQHack, extrinsic acid resistance protects the hero's items from corrosion.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Dragonbane is changed from its vanilla incarnation to a pair of dragonhide gauntlets that provide acid resistance, and it is a highly sought-after artifact for this property as well as its reflection and warning of dragons.
Due to the presence of monsters such as acid spheres and buffs to existing acidic monsters along with the addition of the highly-damaging acid blast monster spell, sources of acid resistance such as Dragonbane and yellow dragon-scaled armor are far more valuable.
