Cold

This article is about the element sometimes known as frost. For other uses of the term, see Frost (disambiguation).

Cold, also referred to as frost, is a damage type that occurs in NetHack, and is capable of freezing targets and vulnerable items.

Description

Cold damage destroys potions in the open inventory of a hero or monster subjected to it, dealing extra damage for each shattered potion.

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.

Item destruction caused by cold damage is dependent on the amount of damage dealt, with the amount of items in open inventory that are affected being equal to ¹⁄₅ of the cold damage inflicted.

Cold damage sources

Cold damage can occur from various sources:

• Cold rays from a zapped wand of cold, an applied frost horn, the cone of cold spell at Basic skill or lower, the cone of cold monster spell, or a cold breath weapon
• Cold explosions created by the cone of cold spell cast at Skilled of higher, or by an applied wand of cold
• The cone of cold monster spell cast at melee range
• The damage inflicted by the artifact Frost Brand

Cold rays and explosions can destroy doors and can turn pools and moats of water that they pass over into ice, while lava affected by cold rays or explosions will cool and solidify into normal rock floor. Ice formed this way is likely to be temporary, melting back into water after 50-2000 turns. Water on the Plane of Water cannot be turned to ice by any means.

Various monsters also have cold-element attacks, which use the AD_COLD damage type flag:

• The breath weapon used by winter wolf cubs, winter wolves, white dragons, silver dragons, and randomly by the Chromatic Dragon
• The claw attack of an ice troll
• The cone of cold monster spell used by Asmodeus
• The engulfing attack of an ice vortex
• The explosion attack of a freezing sphere
• The passive attack of a brown mold or blue jelly, which also allows them to divide
• The sting attack of an ice devil
• The touch attack of an ice vortex or lich

Magic cancellation can block the effects of melee cold attacks that do not engulf, and cancellation disables the frosty effects of those attacks.

Flesh golems subjected to cold damage will become slower.

Resistance and vulnerability

Cold resistance is a property that protects a hero or monster from cold damage by reducing or nullifying the amount of damage dealt, though it does not necessarily protect their items from cold damage.

Monsters that have fire resistance but do not have cold resistance are considered to have a vulnerability to cold, taking roughly 57% more damage from cold rays (+1d3 for each 1d6), as well as double damage from frosty explosions—this does not apply to a hero that polymorphs into a monster vulnerable to cold.

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 b98a70e3, dwarvish cloaks protect items in open inventory from cold damage ⁹⁄₁₀ of the time.

Per commit 9942b65d, extrinsic cold resistance protects items in open inventory from freezing and shattering ⁹⁹⁄₁₀₀ of the time, with a separate roll for each item that would be destroyed.

Strategy

A hero can prevent cold damage from destroying their potions by stashing them in a bag or other container, and cold rays and breath weapons can be deflected by any source of reflection.

While cold resistance is not as immediate a concern for a hero as various other properties like reflection or even poison resistance, it is still very useful to have since cold-based hostiles can appear early in the game, and winter wolves and their cubs can make short work of an unfortunate hero.

History

Cold as a damage type is present in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is also present in Hack 1.0.

In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on those versions, ice created by cold rays and explosions lasts indefinitely.

Messages

The water freezes.

A pool of water was frozen by a cold ray or explosion.

The moat is bridged with ice!

A moat of water was frozen by a cold ray or explosion.

You hear a crackling sound.

As above, while outside of your sight.

The door freezes and shatters!

A door was destroyed by cold.

You feel cold.

As above, while outside of your sight.

The <bolt of cold/blast of frost> whizzes by you!

A cold bolt or breath weapon missed you while passing through your square.

You don't feel cold.

You were hit by a ray of cold, but have cold resistance.

You imitate a popsicle!

You zapped yourself with a ray of cold.

You feel a little chill.

As above, while cold resistant.

Your <potion> freezes and shatters!

A potion in your open inventory was frozen by cold damage.

<One/Some/All> of your <potions> freeze(s) and shatter(s)!

A stack of potions in your open inventory was partly or completely frozen by cold damage.

You're covered in frost!

You were hit by a cold melee attack.

The frost doesn't seem cold!

As above, but you have cold resistance.

You are freezing to death!

You were engulfed by an ice vortex.

You are suddenly very cold!

You were hit by a passive cold attack.

You feel mildly chilly.

You were engulfed by an ice vortex or hit by a cold passive attack while you have cold resistance.

The water freezes for a moment.

A cold ray or explosion affected water squares on the Plane of Water.

You hear a soft crackling.

As above, while outside of your sight.

Variants

Variants of NetHack that add object property systems include cold as a potential object property for weapons and sometimes armor.

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM adds the Ice Mage, a role that specializes in mastery of cold, and includes more sources of cold damage:

• The artifact Deep Freeze deals cold damage on each hit against monsters without fire resistance.
• More monsters have attacks that inflict cold damage, such as steel golems, snow ants and mist wolves.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, "frost" is one of many object properties available for weapons.

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds the cold trap, which is primarily found in Sheol, and deals cold damage in a manner similar to a fire trap.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack, notnotdNetHack, the freezing, frosted and crystalline object properties grant cold damage to weapons and certain types of armor.

Randomized gaze attacks often include cold as one of the possible damage types.

The eldritch knightly style can be used to add cold damage to wielded weapons at the cost of some power.

Cold Soul is a lawful intelligent artifact whose base item is a large ranseur with a ¹⁄₄ chance of causing cold explosions centered on a target monster upon each hit.

DynaHack

In DynaHack, "frost" is one of many object properties available for weapons.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, "frost" is one of many object properties available for weapons.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the "frost" object property grants cold damage to weapons with the property, while armor with the "frost" object property grants cold resistance.

The Hand of Vecna and Dichotomy are artifacts that can inflict cold damage.

Worn dragon-scaled armor made using white dragon scales grants the wearer a passive cold attack.

Vulnerability to cold can be inflicted with the vulnerability monster spell by clerical casters.

A hero in the Ice Queen's Realm that does not have full cold resistance will take partial cold damage each turn.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, the "frost" object property behaves as in EvilHack, as does the vulnerability monster spell.