Tin
A tin is a type of comestible that appears in NetHack. It is a metal object that acts as a form of permafood.
Contents
Generation
Tins comprise 7.5% of randomly generated comestibles, and are normally generated 90% uncursed, 5% cursed and 5% blessed.[1] Applying a tinning kit to a monster's intact corpse while on its square creates a tin of that monster with the same beatitude as the kit.
Tins that are randomly generated and those placed in a character's starting inventory have a 1⁄6 chance (16.7%) of containing spinach, while the rest will contain the meat or 'flesh' of a monster that can be randomly generated on the current level[2] - wraiths and non-undead corpseless monsters are excluded, and undead that are special cased to leave corpses use the meat of their base monster.[3] Tins containing the meat of genocided monsters are not randomly generated, and any tins of that monster's meat made before that genocide, or wished for after it, will be empty. Tins of unique monsters can only be made by applying a tinning kit to that monster's corpse, and cannot be wished for at all.
Tourists can start with identified tins among their initial stacks of food.[4]
General stores, delicatessens and health food stores can sell tins - health food stores will always sell tins with specific preparation methods that contain either spinach or a vegetarian monster, and if such a tin's initial contents are not vegetarian, it will be converted to spinach.[5]
Description
When attempting to eat a tin, the hero will first try to open it, with the method and amount of time occupied depending on their current form as well as their wielded weapon or tool (if any).[6] Characters cannot open tins to eat their contents if they are polymorphed into a form that is very small or has no limbs[7] - conversely, they can open it immediately if polymorphed into a metallivore.[8] Randomly generated tins that are cursed at the time of opening have a 1⁄8 chance (12.5%) to explode with the same effects as an exploding door, destroying the tin.
If none of the above applies, the tin's beatitude and the character's current wielded weapon or tool determines the amount of time taken to open the tin:
- If the tin is blessed, it takes 0-1 turns to open it, and will always take 0 turns if wielding or applying a blessed tin opener.
- A tin opener opening a non-blessed tin takes 0-1 turns if the tin opener is uncursed, and 0-2 turns if it cursed.
- A wielded knife, crysknife, stiletto, athame, or any kind of dagger will open a tin in 3 turns.
- A pick-axe or an axe (but not a battle-axe or dwarvish mattock) will open a tin in 6 turns.
Otherwise, the character will take between 10 and 10 + 500/(Str+Dex) turns to try and open the tin[9] - if the tin is not opened after 50 turns or more, or else the character is interrupted, they will stop the attempt.[10] If a character attempts to open a tin bare-handed while they have slippery fingers, the tin will slip from their grasp and land on their square.[11]
Appearance
An identified tin will have one of the following descriptions:
| Appearance | Notes |
|---|---|
| tin of foo meat | foo is a fleshy monster |
| tin of foo | foo is a monster suitable for vegetarians |
| tin of spinach | spinach is suitable for vegans |
| empty tin | the monster is genocided or extinct |
Eating a tin
Once a tin is successfully opened, a message is printed indicating what the contents smell like, followed by a prompt to eat or discard the contents; the tin is used up in either case, and the contents of tins in the same stack are auto-identified. If the tin is empty due to containing the meat or flesh of a monster type that is genocided or extinct, it is automatically discarded. If a tin is opened while hallucinating, the game will print the name of a random monster - the exception to this is footrice meat, which always "smells like chicken".[12] Opening a tin owned by a shop will incur a charge for the object regardless of its contents and whether or not you consume them.
Tins of a monster have the same probability to grant an intrinsic as the monster's corpse does, the contents of tins cannot be rotten in the same sense as other permafood, and tins of acidic and poisonous corpses are always safe to eat[13] - this does not prevent effects applied after consumption, such as stunning, stoning or hallucination.
Eating the contents of a tin takes one turn and reveals its preparation method, which defines its nutrition value:[14]
| Tin | Nutrition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spinach, blessed | 600[15] | Increases strength[17]; stocked by health food shops |
| Spinach, uncursed | 401-600[15] | Increases strength[17]; stocked by health food shops |
| Spinach, cursed | 201-600[15] | Decreases strength[17]; stocked by health food shops |
| Pureed | 500 | stocked by health food shops |
| Candied | 100 | stocked by health food shops |
| Sauteed | 95 | |
| Stir fried | 80 | Causes slippery fingers |
| Broiled | 80 | |
| Szechuan | 70 | stocked by health food shops |
| Deep fried | 60 | Causes slippery fingers |
| Dried | 55 | stocked by health food shops |
| Homemade | 50 | stocked by health food shops |
| Boiled | 50 | stocked by health food shops |
| Smoked | 50 | stocked by health food shops |
| Pickled | 40 | |
| French fried | 40 | Causes slippery fingers |
| Soup | 20 | stocked by health food shops |
| Empty | 0 | |
| Rotten | -20 | Gives 0 nutrition and causes nausea, which lowers nutrition by vomiting unless cured[18] |
For randomly generated tins, the preparation methods are determined as follows:[19]
- Cursed tins of lizard and lichen are always homemade, while other cursed tins are always rotten.
- Noncursed tins of lizard and lichen are never rotten, and have a 2⁄15 chance (13%) of being homemade and a 1⁄15 chance (6%) each of being another preparation method
- Other uncursed tins have a 1⁄15 chance (6%) of being each preparation method except rotten or homemade, a 6⁄105 chance (5%) of being homemade, and a 8⁄105 chance (7%) of being rotten.
- For tins made with a tinning kit, tins of lizard and lichen are always homemade, while tins of other monsters are rotten or homemade with a beatitude-dependent chance: blessed tins are always homemade, cursed tins are always rotten, and uncursed tins have a 1⁄7 chance of being rotten, with all others being homemade.
Since the type of preparation is determined only after you consume the tin, there is no way to know it in advance, and tins that stack may end up being of different styles.
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.
A homemade tin of a monster whose corpse provides less than 50 nutrition will only provide as much as the corpse would.
Per commit 7bf38881, tins of specific monsters can cost more based on the intrinsics they can provide.Strategy
Most non-spinach tins have low nutritional value save for tins of pureed monster, which have more than half the nutrition of a food ration. This means that you will want to open tins quickly if you want to gain more nutritional benefit - avoid eating tins if you are weak from hunger unless you have a tin opener or other means of opening them fairly quickly.
Additionally, it is unwise to eat a tin in a shop without first unwielding your weapon - losing your Excalibur to slippery fingers and having to steal it back can be painfully tedious at best. It is also wise not to consume any unknown tins whilst hallucinating: while you can still reliably identify tins of cockatrice or chickatrice meat by smell, there are other potentially harmful tins of meat such as chameleon or even a monster of your own race.
It is popular to tin large corpses such as those of dragons and giants, which confer intrinsics and strength increases without nearly as much risk of becoming heavily satiated or even choking.
Tins of nurse meat
Tins of nurse meat are a potent but complicated resource, and deserve special consideration. Like the corpse of a nurse, a tin of nurse meat will restore you to full hit points - this makes nurses an attractive target for tinning, with the following advantages and disadvantages relative to potions of full healing:
- First and foremost, consumption of nurse meat is cannibalism for human characters! Fortunately, tinning the corpse does not count as cannibalism--only eating the tin does. So it is possible to tin nurses against a future need, when you might prefer the penalties of cannibalism to death.
- Unlike potions, tins never explode or dilute, so they are always safe to carry in main inventory, even in such hostile environments as the Plane of Fire.
- On the other hand, even a blessed tin will take two turns to heal you (one to open and one to consume), which is slower than quaffing a potion in main inventory and no faster than retrieving a potion from a bag before quaffing. A (non-cursed) homemade tin will always provide 50 nutrition, and can cause you to choke to death if you are satiated; this is never the case with a potion.
- A full healing potion can only restore a maximum of 400 hit points; nurse meat always restores you to your maximum, however high that is. However, a non-cursed full healing potion can also raise your maximum HP if your current HP is maxed out by it, which the tin won't do.
- You may want to keep a nurse alive for nurse dancing to raise your maximum HP instead, which you presumably are going to do until the nurse disappears.
History
Tins from Hack 1.0 through NetHack 2.3e behave quite differently from the modern form. There is no tinning kit in these versions, and consequently there are no tinned monsters. Randomly generated tins can produce the following results:[20][21]
| Message | Nutrition |
|---|---|
| It contains spinach - this makes you feel like Popeye! | 600, increases strength |
| It contains salmon - not bad! | 60, causes slippery fingers |
| It contains first quality peaches - what a surprise! | 40 |
| It contains apple juice - perhaps not what you hoped for. | 20 |
| It contains some nondescript substance, tasting awfully. | 500 |
| It contains rotten meat. You vomit. | -50 |
| It turns out to be empty. | 0 |
Tins in their modern form first appear in NetHack 3.0.0, where a tin could be spinach or any of the following types of prepared monster:[22] deep fried, pickled, soup, pureed, and rotten. Applying a tinning kit will produce one of these non-spinach tins at random. NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the homemade tin and modifies the tinning kit to produce only this type when applied.[23] [24] The remaining preparation styles for tins are introduced in NetHack 3.3.0.[25]
The ability to open tins quicker with a knife or stiletto is added in NetHack 3.6.1.
Messages
- You cannot handle the tin properly to open it.
- You attempted to eat the tin while in the form of a monster that is very small or has no limbs.
- You easily open the tin.
- You opened a tin immediately with a tin opener.
- Using your <weapon/tool> you try to open the tin.
- You opened a tin using another applicable weapon or tool.
- It is not so easy to open this tin.
- You took a long time to open a tin.
- The tin slips from your hands.
- You attempted to open a tin with your bare hands while having slippery fingers.
- KABOOM!! The tin was booby-trapped!
- A cursed tin exploded when you opened it.
- It turns out to be empty.
- You opened an empty tin.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM will not reveal the exact contents of tins unless they are identified or the character has eaten that monster's corpse or meat previously, and will instead either give the monster class of the tinned monster or simply describe the smell as "unfamiliar." This makes eating tins much more risky: characters can accidentally commit cannibalism or lose vegetarian conduct without knowing, and in worst case scenarios may unwittingly eat footrice meat. Tins of spinach will always be identified correctly upon opening.
As tins only contain the corpses of monsters that can otherwise generate in the area, it is generally safe to eat unidentified tins on the first few levels, with the exceptions of player hobbits due to tins of hobbit meat being likely to generate.
Cursed tins have a 1⁄8 chance of exploding in a similar manner to a door, doing a level-dependent amount of damage and stunning the player.
There is a bug that causes tins of corpseless monsters such as clay golems, elementals, mummies, and zombies to generate, even though these tins cannot be wished for even in wizard mode. This is bug #667 - such tins can usually be eaten without crashing your game, and produce the standard effects for consuming that monster (i.e. via digestion).
UnNetHack
UnNetHack includes the Free Fortune Cookie Patch - there is a 1⁄2 chance of a tin of szechuan monster containing a free fortune cookie.
Encyclopedia entry
"You know salmon, Sarge," said Nobby.
"It is a fish of which I am aware, yes."
"You know they sell kind of slices of it in tins..."
"So I am given to understand, yes."
"Weell...how come all the tins are the same size? Salmon gets thinner at both ends."
"Interesting point, Nobby. I think-"
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 863
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 852
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 855
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 144
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1255
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1457: start_tin function
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1466
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1463
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1518
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1444
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1507
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1329
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1368: Eating a tin calls
cprefx, but noteatcorpseon line 1644, where stomach acid and the like are handled. - ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 127
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1422
- ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 195
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1419: calls gainstr in attrib.c[16]
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1374
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1278
- ↑ eat.c in NetHack 2.3e, line 40
- ↑ eat.c in NetHack 2.3e, line 70
- ↑ eat.c in NetHack 3.0.0, line 36
- ↑ eat.c in NetHack 3.1.0, line 118
- ↑ apply.c in NetHack 3.1.0, line 1771
- ↑ eat.c in NetHack 3.3.0, line 128
