Armor

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Item classes
" Amulets	[ Armor
% Comestibles	$ Coins
* Gems	! Potions
= Rings	? Scrolls
+ Spellbooks	` Statues
( Tools	` Boulders
) Weapons	/ Wands

Armor is a type of item that appears in NetHack. The hero and monsters can wear armor to improve their armor class. There are 7 slots for armor: helm, cloak, suit of body armor, shirt, shield, gloves, and boots.

Generation

Most randomly generated armor is created with the following odds of each beatitude: 12.31% cursed, 78.96% uncursed and 8.72% blessed. The helm of opposite alignment, gauntlets of fumbling, fumble boots, and levitation boots all instead generate as 90.45% cursed, 8.6% uncursed, and 0.95% blessed—these items will be negatively enchanted ⁹⁄₁₀ of the time, and are positively enchanted ¹⁄₁₀₀ of the time.

Below is a table describing the total probability of beatitude and enchantment:

	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	>+4
Blessed	4.13%	3.06%	1.02%	0.34%	0.11%	0.06%
Uncursed	74.37%	3.06%	1.02%	0.34%	0.11%	0.06%
	+0	-1	-2	-3	-4	<-4
Cursed	4.13%	5.45%	1.82%	0.61%	0.20%	0.10%

Given the beatitude status, the chance of each enchantment is:

	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	>+4
Blessed	47.37%	35.09%	11.70%	3.90%	1.30%	0.65%
Uncursed	94.19%	3.88%	1.29%	0.43%	0.14%	0.07%
	+0	-1	-2	-3	-4	<-4
Cursed	33.55%	44.30%	14.77%	4.92%	1.64%	0.82%

Description

Wearing a piece of armor lowers the wearer's armor class by a value equal to that armor's base AC. The armor's enchantment can increase or decrease the amount of AC gained from wearing it, and can increase or decrease the wearer's own AC accordingly. Erosion can lower the amount of base AC granted by worn armor, with a reduction of one point for each stage of erosion to a minimum of zero. Some types of armor may also provide effects, such as magic cancellation or a property, on top of their AC bonus. Taking off a piece of armor causes its effects to no longer apply—armor underneath a suit or cloak must have the armor over it taken off first.

Metallic gloves, boots, helms, suits of armor, and shields of any kind reduce the hero's ability to cast spells successfully while worn.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (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 d611da42, enlightenment will display whether or not the hero's spellcasting is impacted by their worn suit of armor and/or worn robe.

Armor and beatitude

A piece of armor's effectiveness can be partially determined by their beatitude:

• Blessed armor of all types has a low chance of resisting erosion.
• Blessed boots and gloves deal +1d4 damage to undead and major demons when kicking and fighting with bare hands or martial arts, respectively.
• Armor that is generated as blessed has a chance of positive enchantment and a higher chance of a high one, while armor generated as cursed has a chance of a negative enchantment.
• Blessed armor is also somewhat harder to curse, though this applies to all blessed items by virtue of the effect usually removing blessed status first before it can make an item cursed.
• Finally, a worn helm or piece of outer armor or that is cursed and greased will only protect from attacks targeting the head or body ²⁄₃ of the time—this also applies to a worn cursed oilskin cloak.

A hero cannot take off a worn piece of cursed armor normally, with its cursed status being identified if necessary when the hero attempts to take that armor off. Cursed armor will also prevent the hero from putting on, removing or taking off any items or armor underneath it: cursed gloves prevent the wearing or removal of rings, while a cursed suit of body armor prevents unequipping shirts, and a cursed cloak prevents the unequipping of suits and shirts.

Armor and magic

The scroll of enchant armor, scroll of destroy armor and destroy armor monster spell all target the hero's worn armor: these effects will initially target the outermost layer of armor covering the torso (i.e. cloak, suit or shirt), then applies a ¹⁄₄ chance per applicable slot of switching its target to worn armor in the helm, gloves, boots, or shield slots.

The precise odds of the aforementioned magical effects targeting a particular slot of armor is detailed in the table below, with the assumption that there is at least one piece of armor worn on the torso, and armor worn on every other possible non-torso slot:

Slot	Overall probability
Outermost torso armor	31.640625%
Helm	10.546875%
Gloves	14.0625%
Boots	18.75%
Shield	25%

Worn armor that is at an enchantment of at least +4 may evaporate and be destroyed when positively enchanted further, with a ¹⁄_X chance of surviving where X represents the armor's current enchantment —for example enchanting a +4 orcish helm has a ¹⁄₄ chance of the helm not being destroyed in the process. elven armor is considered "special" and must be enchanted from at least +6 to risk being destroyed, and the cornuthaum is similarly considered "special" and can be safely enchanted from +5 if the hero is a Wizard.

This means that the maximum enchantment a piece of armor can be safely enchanted from with a scroll of enchant armor is +5 for elven armor and +3 for other armor, with the sole exception of the cornuthaum for Wizards as noted prior—phrased alternately, special armor can be enchanted safely to +7 (specifically if using a blessed scroll). Enchanting armor beyond those thresholds also prints a message, which always occurs for "special armor" and occurs with a ¹⁄₇ chance for 'normal' armor.

Similarly, worn armor with a negative enchantment of -4 or lower may evaporate and be destroyed when negatively enchanted further with the cursed scroll: this uses the same probabilities and the absolute value of the armor's enchantment, i.e. a -4 orcish helm has a ¹⁄₄ chance of not evaporating if targeted by a cursed scroll.

Monsters and armor

Monsters that are intelligent, have hands, and are not tiny can wear armor. Mindless monsters can only wear armor if they are created with it on at the time of their generation, i.e. a mummy or skeleton. A monster that is polymorphed may retain some of its previous form's armor if it has the appropriate anatomy, even if its new form cannot put on or remove any armor.

A monster that wears magical armor can profit from a subset of its magical capabilities. Pets are of main interest here.

• Resistances from dragon scale (mail) work as for you, but not acid resistance from an alchemy smock (poison resistance from a smock does apply for monsters).

• If a monster is polymorphed while wearing dragon scale (mail), it will always turn into the appropriately colored dragon. Since monster polymorphing is permanent in NetHack, the armor is lost.

• Extrinsic player-type magic resistance is also conveyed to monsters in addition to intrinsic monster magic resistance. Note its scope is smaller than intrinsic magic resistance, e.g. you can retame monsters in gray dragon scale mail.
• Reflection works the same way for monsters as for you.
• Magic cancellation works as for the player.
• Speed boots make a monster only "fast", not "very fast", with the same effect as a wand of speed monster.
• As of NetHack 3.6.1, gauntlets of power add 3-6 damage to the monster's weapon attacks. They have no effect for monsters that can't wield weapons.
• Monster spellcasting does not seem to be penalized by shields and metal items, in contrast to player spellcasting.
• A (master) mind flayer's attack will be deflected by helmets as for you.
• Autocursing headgear does not become cursed on wearing.
• Levitation and fumbling from worn items are not implemented.
• Jumping boots are wasted, as monsters will not jump.

Monsters know armor enchantment and will switch to maximize total armor value, taking into account the base AC an item confers, the enchantment, and erosion, but not the BUC status. Non-fast monsters will prefer speed boots to any other boots.. However, tame monsters do not pick up any cursed objects.

List of armor

Source code reference:

Item	Slot	Cost	Weight	AC	Weight per AC (+0)	Max AC	Weight per max AC	Material	Effect	MC	Prob (‰)	Magical	Appearance	Turns to (un)equip
Hawaiian shirt	shirt	3	5	0	∞	5	1.0	cloth	Shop		8		—	0
T-shirt	shirt	2	5	0	∞	5	1.0	cloth	Shop		2		—	0
leather jacket	body armor	10	30	1	30	6	5.0	leather			12		—	0
leather armor	body armor	5	150	2	75	7	21	leather		1	82		—	3
orcish ring mail	body armor	80	250	2	125	7	36	iron		1	20		crude ring mail	5
studded leather armor	body armor	15	200	3	67	8	25	leather		1	72		—	3
ring mail	body armor	100	250	3	83	8	31	iron		1	72		—	5
scale mail	body armor	45	250	4	63	9	28	iron		1	72		—	5
orcish chain mail	body armor	75	300	4	75	9	33	iron		1	20		crude chain mail	5
chain mail	body armor	75	300	5	60	10	30	iron		1	72		—	5
elven mithril-coat	body armor	240	150	5	30	12	13	mithril		2	15		—	1
splint mail	body armor	80	400	6	67	11	36	iron		1	62		—	5
banded mail	body armor	90	350	6	58	11	32	iron		1	72		—	5
dwarvish mithril-coat	body armor	240	150	6	25	11	14	mithril		2	10		—	1
bronze plate mail	body armor	400	450	6	75	11	41	copper		1	25		—	5
plate mail (tanko)	body armor	600	450	7	64	12	38	iron		2	44		—	5
crystal plate mail	body armor	820	450	7	64	12	38	glass		2	10		—	5
dragon scales	body armor	500	40	3	13	8	5.0	dragon hide	Resist%		—		—	5
dragon scale mail	body armor	900	40	9	4.4	14	2.9	dragon hide	Resist%		—	Yes	—	5
mummy wrapping	cloak	2	3	0	∞	5	0.6	cloth	Vis	1	—		—	0
orcish cloak	cloak	40	10	0	∞	5	2.0	cloth		1	8		coarse mantelet	0
dwarvish cloak	cloak	50	10	0	∞	5	2.0	cloth		1	8		hooded cloak	0
leather cloak	cloak	40	15	1	15	6	2.5	leather		1	8		—	0
cloak of displacement	cloak	50	10	1	10	6	1.7	cloth	Displ	1	10	Yes	*piece of cloth	0
oilskin cloak	cloak	50	10	1	10	6	1.7	cloth	Water	2	8		slippery cloak	0
alchemy smock	cloak	50	10	1	10	6	1.7	cloth	Poi+Acd	1	9	Yes	apron	0
cloak of invisibility	cloak	60	10	1	10	6	1.7	cloth	Invis	1	10	Yes	*opera cloak	0
cloak of magic resistance	cloak	60	10	1	10	6	1.7	cloth	Magic	1	2	Yes	*ornamental cope	0
elven cloak	cloak	60	10	1	10	8	1.3	cloth	Stealth	1	8	Yes	faded pall	0
robe	cloak	50	15	2	7.5	7	2.1	cloth	Spell1	2	3	Yes	—	0
cloak of protection	cloak	50	10	3	3.3	8	1.3	cloth	Prot	3	9	Yes	*tattered cape	0
fedora	helm	1	3	0	∞	5	0.6	cloth			—		—	0
dunce cap	helm	1	4	0	∞	5	0.8	cloth	Stupid		3	Yes	conical hat	1
cornuthaum	helm	80	4	0	∞	7 Wizard, 5 others	0.57 Wizard, 0.80 others	cloth	Clair	1	3	Yes	conical hat	1
dented pot	helm	8	10	1	10	6	1.7	iron			2		—	0
elven leather helm	helm	8	3	1	3.0	8	0.38	leather			6		leather hat	1
helmet (kabuto)	helm	10	30	1	30	6	5.0	iron			10		*plumed helmet	1
orcish helm	helm	10	30	1	30	6	5.0	iron			6		iron skull cap	1
helm of brilliance	helm	50	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron	Int+Wis		6	Yes	*etched helmet	1
helm of opposite alignment	helm	50	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron	Align		6	Yes	*crested helmet	1
helm of telepathy	helm	50	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron	ESP		2	Yes	*visored helmet	1
dwarvish iron helm	helm	20	40	2	20	7	5.7	iron			6		hard hat	1
leather gloves (yugake)	gloves	8	10	1	10	6	1.7	leather			16		*old gloves	1
gauntlets of dexterity	gloves	50	10	1	10	6	1.7	leather	Dex		8	Yes	*padded gloves	1
gauntlets of fumbling	gloves	50	10	1	10	6	1.7	leather	Fumble		8	Yes	*riding gloves	1
gauntlets of power	gloves	50	30	1	30	6	5.0	iron	Str		8	Yes	*fencing gloves	1
small shield	shield	3	30	1	30	6	5.0	wood	Spell2		6		—	0
orcish shield	shield	7	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron			2		red-eyed shield	0
Uruk-hai shield	shield	7	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron			2		white-handed shield	0
elven shield	shield	7	40	2	20	9	4.4	wood			2		blue and green shield	0
dwarvish roundshield	shield	10	100	2	50	7	14	iron			4		large round shield	0
large shield	shield	10	100	2	50	7	14	iron			7		—	0
shield of reflection	shield	50	50	2	25	7	7.1	silver	Reflect		3	Yes	polished silver	0
low boots	boots	8	10	1	10	6	1.7	leather			25		walking shoes	2
elven boots	boots	8	15	1	15	8	1.9	leather	Stealth		12	Yes	*mud boots	2
kicking boots	boots	8	50	1	50	6	8.3	iron	Kick		12	Yes	*buckled boots	2
fumble boots	boots	30	20	1	20	6	3.3	leather	Fumble		12	Yes	*riding boots	2
levitation boots	boots	30	15	1	15	6	2.5	leather	Lev		12	Yes	*snow boots	2
jumping boots	boots	50	20	1	20	6	3.3	leather	Jump		12	Yes	*hiking boots	2
speed boots	boots	50	20	1	20	6	3.3	leather	Speed		12	Yes	*combat boots	2
water walking boots	boots	50	20	1	20	6	3.3	leather	WWalk		12	Yes	*jungle boots	2
high boots	boots	12	20	2	10	7	2.9	leather			15		jackboots	2
iron shoes	boots	16	50	2	25	7	7.1	iron			7		hard shoes	2

Appearance

Those listed with an asterisk (*) are randomized within their armor category.

Boots with the appearance "snow boots" prevent ice from causing you to fumble.

Gloves and boots with the appearance "riding gloves" and "riding boots" give a (non-cumulative) bonus to the chance of successfully saddling a steed.

Helmets with the appearance "visored helmet" provide defence against the blinding attack of ravens and the spitting attack of cobras.

Effects

Align	Changes your alignment, removes protection, and auto-curses.
Clair	A Wizard gets clairvoyance and +1 charisma; other characters have existing clairvoyance blocked and get −1 charisma.
Dex	Adds armor's enchantment to your dexterity.
Displ	Gives displacement.
ESP	Gives telepathy.
Fumble	You will occasionally fumble.
Int+Wis	Adds armor's enchantment to your intelligence and wisdom.
Invis	Gives invisibility.
Jump	Gives jumping at will. The special restrictions for Knights do not apply while this item is worn.
Kick	Kicking does additional damage, and grants martial arts bonuses.
Lev	Causes levitation. Does not prevent you being drowned by monsters.
Magic	Gives magic resistance. Does not affect magic cancellation.
Poi+Acd	Gives poison resistance and acid resistance.
Reflect	Gives reflection.
Resist%	Dragon scales provide an extrinsic according to the color of the dragon. Red: fire resistance White: cold resistance Orange: sleep resistance Blue: shock resistance Green: poison resistance Yellow: acid resistance Black: disintegration resistance Silver: reflection Gray: magic resistance
Shop	If not covered by body armor or cloak, shopkeepers consider you a "sucker" and offer worse prices (see Price identification § Price derivation for details).
Speed	Gives you the speed extrinsic, the same as a potion of speed or the haste self spell.
Spell1	Player spellcasting is more likely to succeed, and reduces the penalty for metallic armor.
Spell2	Does not limit spellcasting as much as other shields.
Stealth	Gives stealth.
Str	Increases your strength to 25.
Stupid	Your intelligence and wisdom are fixed at 6; auto-curses; shopkeepers consider you a "sucker" and offer worse prices.
Vis	Suppresses invisibility.
Water	Protects metal body armor from rusting or corroding (1⁄3 chance of protection if cursed) and prevents grabbing attacks.
WWalk	Allows you to walk on water. Does not prevent you being drowned by monsters.

The "magical" property some armor has is only important to polypiling: non-magical armor will tend to stay non-magical, and vice-versa.

Strategy

Armor class is one of the primary elements standing between your hero and death throughout all stages of the game, and a careful selection of armor is part of the typical ascension kit. Players may choose a combination of armor that conveys magic resistance, high magic cancellation, reflection, various intrinsics and bonuses, and, of course, high AC.

Common ascension kit candidates include:

• Helm of telepathy/brilliance or elven leather helm.
• Cloak of magic resistance, displacement, or robe; oilskin cloak in sack. CoD is used if and only if you already have magic resistance from some other source.
• Either gray or silver dragon scale mail.
• Either shirt; no great difference.
• Shield of reflection, possibly, if you don't wish to (or can't) two-weapon and don't mind the spell failure penalty.
• Gauntlets of power or dexterity if you have them, otherwise leather gloves.
• Speed boots or jumping boots; water walking boots in a bag.

Losing your armor

Since armor is neccessary for survival, and it takes lot of efforts to obtain a good armor, losing it can be very painful. There are several ways you can lose your armor.

Changing shape

If you change shape through any means into any form that is Large or bigger (Medium or bigger for non-humanoid forms), a winged gargoyle or marilith (wings and extra arms don't fit), your torso armor (body armor, a shirt and/or a cloak) will burst apart, destroying the items.

As an exception, if you polymorph into a dragon while wearing dragon scale mail (or dragon scales) of the same color, it will not burst apart. Instead, it will merge into your scales. When you return to your original form, you will get it back. If enchanced above +3, it may evaporate when you return to your original form. Your shirt and cloak will tear as usual. See Dragon scale mail § Polymorph for more information.

If you polymorph into a whirly monster (all v's and air elemental), however, your torso armor will not tear, since all whirly monsters also lack a solid form.

Polymorphing and prevention

While potions and wands of polymorph can be dealt with through the usual methods of testing (e.g. engraving and dipping, avoiding quaffing randomly, etc.), polymorph traps are an obstacle to any player since they may step on one unexpectedly. In addition to the usual means of checking and avoiding traps, polymorph traps can be dealt with in the following manner:

• Gray dragon scale mail, cloak of magic resistance, Magicbane, and some quest artifacts provide magic resistance, which protects you from polymorph traps.
• Wearing an amulet of unchanging prevents you from changing your current form by polymorph or other means, and also protects you from being slimed.
• Wearing a ring of polymorph control while stepping on a polymorph trap will prompt you to enter what monster you want to polymorph into. Enter the name of a monster who you know will not compromise body armor; gargoyles (not winged gargoyle) are a good choice. The usual polyself tips are also applicable.
• As mentioned above, stepping on a polymorph trap while wearing dragon scale mail or dragon scales will polymorph the player into a same-color dragon, though the scales may evaporate upon reverting to normal form if they were enchanted; while they can be restored to mail using a scroll of enchant armor, this is usually less desirable overall since the player might not have a chance to remove their other body armor before hand.

Lycanthropy

Being bitten by a werecreature will give the player lycanthropy, which causes involuntary shapeshifting into that creature's form; if bitten by a werewolf, the transformation into a wolf will destroy body armor. This cannot be prevented with magic resistance.

The lycanthropy page goes into more detail for dealing with its adverse effects. Generally, players should pay attention while fighting a werewolf to see if it bites them, and take the appropriate measures available (e.g. prayer, wolfsbane, holy water, etc.)

Polymorph control and amulet of unchanging prevent the transformation as in the previous section.

Scrolls of destroy armor

Reading unidentified scrolls is generally a bad idea, since you may read a scroll of destroy armor and possibly lose a vital piece of protection as a result. Price identification can partly mitigate this by at least helping a player recognize the scroll's price range and avoiding it. If a player is determined to test a random scroll for some reason, they can simply remove any armor except for common "throwaway" items such as an orcish helm before reading it. Shirt and body armor can be protected by a "throwaway" cloak, since the scroll does not destroy other torso armor if the player is wearing a cloak.

Scrolls of enchant armor

The scroll of enchant armor has the potential to vaporize a piece of armor being worn if it is enchanted above +3; elven armor may safely be enchanted at +5 or lower, and this also applies to cornuthaums if the player is a wizard.

Monster spells

Monsters in lower levels of the dungeon may cast the destroy armor spell on the player, with the same effect as the scroll. This includes liches and golden nagas, who may be the first such examples a player encounters. There are several ways to prevent this:

• Magic resistance (from gray dragon scale mail, cloak of magic resistance, and some quest artifacts) completely nullifies the spell effects.
• Cancelling the offender will prevent them from casting any spells.
• Liches are high on the list of genocide candidates, and thus are often removed as a threat as soon as possible.
• If a monster is confused, the spell has lower chances to succeed (see monster spell for more information).
• As with scrolls of destroy armor, wearing a "spare" cloak (such as a dwarvish cloak for non-dwarven characters) over your armor can protect it by giving the spell something else to target, though this is not as viable if the player cannot dispose of the monster quickly.

Disintegration

Black dragons can fire blasts of disintegration, as can the Chromatic Dragon, and a sufficiently angered god will attempt to smite a player with a wide-angle disintegration beam if the initial lightning bolt they use fails. Disintegration blasts from dragons will destroy worn shields, worn body armor including cloaks, and the player themselves (along with shirts and cloaks) in order of priority.

Reflection and disintegration resistance can protect your shield, cloak, body armor and shirt from the former; worn pieces of armor that provides either extrinsically will be protected from both and, in the case of body armor or cloaks, protects shirts worn under them. Disintegration resistance can be acquired as an intrinsic by eating the corpse of a black dragon, and may also be granted with a ~17% by eating the corpse of the Chromatic Dragon for cavemen (though note that her corpse is poisonous). Black dragon scales or scale mail can provide extrinsic disintegration resistance.

For detailed advice on dealing with an angry god and how to avoid angering one in the first place, see the article section on smiting.

Variants

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds new pieces of armor:

• Striped shirt - starting armor for the Convict role, cursed. Shopkeepers will refuse to serve a player wearing this shirt, unless it is covered by other armor (as with the other shirts).
• Tin foil hat - made of metal, protects against a mind flayer's psychic blast attack, but nullifies any form of telepathy.
• chromatic dragon scale mail - dropped by rare chromatic dragons, confers the extrinsic resistances of every color of dragon scale mail, including reflection and stone resistance, but not magic resistance.

The names, colors, and breath types of dragons other than chromatic dragons are randomized. Scales from "glowing dragons" act as a light source, in addition to whatever resistance they confer.

Racial armor tracking is implemented. The number of pieces of equipment worn that are associated with your starting race is tracked as a conduct. Also, every worn piece of racial armor gives an extra point of AC.

SporkHack

SporkHack adds several new items, including:

• tin foil hat

FIQHack

Armor generally weighs more in FIQHack than in vanilla. However, wearing a piece of armor decreases its weight by half.

Dragon scale mail weighs 300 (150 if worn) instead of vanilla's 40.

If your outermost armor is greased, you can squeeze through tight diagonal spaces with twice as much inventory as in vanilla.

Encyclopedia entry

"The last spot on the school jousting team came down to another boy and me. He was poor, and his only armor was a blanket his mother had made him from her hair. I, on the other hand, had a brand new suit of chain mail. Just before our joust, I asked him what he'd do if he made the team. (I was hoping to be more popular with the ladies.) He said he would be able to save the town from dragons and be able to afford some water for his 20 brothers and sisters.

Well, a sense of compassion came over me. I insisted we swap armor. He was forced to accept, as it would have been an insult not to do so.

On the battlefield, we charged at each other and we both connected with our lances.

Lying there on the mud mortally wounded, I learned what true armor class was that day."

[ When Help Collides, by J. D. Berry ]

References

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

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