Amulet of flying

"
Name	amulet of flying
Appearance	random
Base price	150 zm
Weight	20

An amulet of flying is a type of amulet that appears in NetHack.

Generation

The amulet of flying makes up ³⁄₅₀ (6%) of all amulets that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Jewelers shops can also stock amulets of flying.

Description

A hero that puts on an amulet of flying gains extrinsic flying, which is similar to levitation but has superior and more controlled effects (such as allowing the hero to still pick up items), while removing the amulet will cause the hero to land. A hero that does not have flying and gains it from putting on the amulet, or else loses the property from removing the amulet, will auto-identify it. Levitation will override flight if the hero has both properties.

Eating the amulet will have no effect.

Monsters will not wear this amulet.

Strategy

The amulet of flying is a valuable item for any player to have on hand, as flight is superior to levitation in almost all manners: a player with flying does not need to worry about terrain much at all, since they can usefully cross and interact with any sort of terrain. In addition, the amulet cannot be destroyed by an electric eel or removed by an incubus, making flight over water considerably safer than levitation over water with a ring. The only possible downside is not being able to use Newton's 3rd law (i.e. by throwing items while levitating) for a quick escape in some situations.

Wearing an amulet of flying removes the need for fountains when diluting potions, and is more convenient than water walking boots; it also removes the need to switch rings to levitate over pools and lava. The multitude of other positive effects means that for a careful player who already has most or all of the other possible effects that amulets can provide, this amulet is well worth considering as an amulet in an ascension kit. Some players may still prefer the amulet of life saving, but for those who don't, an amulet of flying may be just the thing.

History

The amulet of flying first appears in SLASH'EM, and makes its vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 4d52332d.

Messages

The following are only shown if you are not polymorphed into a form that can naturally fly:

You are now in flight.

You put on an amulet of flying.

You land.

You removed an amulet of flying.

Variants

NetHack variants created prior to NetHack 5.0.0 (such as SLASH'EM and UnNetHack) may implement the amulet of flying on their own.

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM is the earliest known appearance of the amulet of flying in NetHack or any of its variants—as intrinsic flight is not supported, eating an amulet of flying causes a bug that is fixed by giving the amulet the same treatment as eating an amulet of life saving or reflection (i.e. no effect).

The chest in the Lawful Quest guarded by the mind flayers (and possibly master mind flayers as well) has a ⁷⁄₁₀ chance of containing an amulet of flying.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the prize amulet for clearing Sokoban has a roughly ¹⁄₃ chance of being an amulet of flying.

NetHack Fourk

In NetHack Fourk, the amulet of flying may be one of the possible items behind the 24th door in the advent calendar branch.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, monsters can use the amulet of flying, and will put it on if they do not have flight either intrinsically or from another source. A monster that does not have flying may wish for an amulet of flying.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the chest guarded by the flayers on the Undertaker quest goal level will have a ¹⁄₅ chance of containing an amulet of flying, compared to the higher chance on the Lawful Quest that the map is copied from.