Kick (command)

Keyboard commands
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This article is about the command. For the attack type, see kick attack.

In NetHack, the hero can kick through the use of the accompanying command with Ctrl + d, as well as using k (if the number_pad option is on) or the #kick extended command.

Description

Using the kick command will prompt the player for a direction that they want the hero to kick in, assuming that the hero is currently grounded. Kicking in the direction of a peaceful or tame monster that the hero can see will prompt the player if they really want their hero to go through with the action. Kicking a monster will roll to determine whether the kick succeeds, if it is blocked or otherwise evaded by the monster, and if it deals any damage to that monster, and a peaceful monster that the player chooses to kick when prompted will be angered regardless of the outcome.

As with the kick attack type, damage calculations for the kick command account for whether or not the hero is wearing boots and whether or not they are blessed. Kicking boots grant various bonuses to kicking with this command and ensures that such kicks always succeed. Monks and Samurai also get various bonuses to kicking from their martial arts training, while a hero polymorphed into a sasquatch will also gain bonuses due to being a "bigfoot".

A hero cannot kick using the command under the following conditions:

• They are polymorphed, and their form is limbless, slithy, tiny in size, or belongs to the lizard monster class.
• They have at least one wounded leg.
• They are stressed or greater in encumbrance.
• They are currently caught in a a web or a bear trap, or else they are inside of a pit or a spiked pit and lack phasing.
• There is a boulder on the hero's square, and the hero lacks phasing.

A hero can still attempt a kick if they are currently engulfed, or else if they are in a pit (or spiked pit) and have phasing, though it will always have no effect in either case. Trying to kick while underwater has a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) chance of failing immediately.

Kicking while levitating or on the Plane of Air will instead have the hero attempt to kick off a monster or a wall on the square that is in the chosen direction, and this will cause them to hurtle in the opposite direction—if there is nothing to brace against, the kick attempt will be aborted. Kicking off objects while levitating will always fail when targeting squares with certain dungeon features that are not large enough, specifically a sink, altar, throne, headstone, or fountain.

A hero that is riding a steed and attempts to kick will instead be prompted to kick their steed: doing so initiates galloping, which makes the steed move faster temporarily at the cost of reducing its tameness.

Kicking objects

A hero kicking an object will have various results, depending on the nature of the object as well as the hero's strength level and kicking abilities.

• A hero kicking a stack of multiple gold pieces that is not too heavy to move has a very high chance of scattering that gold randomly within a few squares of its location: monsters that are interested in gold can catch any gold that flies towards them, and nearby monsters that were sleeping will awaken regardless of whether they catch any gold that flies at them—gold that hits immobile monsters as a result of being kicked will do no damage to them.
  • A peaceful monster that is not a guard and hit by flying gold has a ¹⁄₄ chance of becoming hostile.
  • Monsters that catch gold pieces as a result of the hero kicking that gold will generally behave as though the gold was thrown directly at them, e.g. hostile mercenaries will react as though bribed, hostile shopkeepers that were robbed will calm down if the gold they picked up was enough to cover their losses, and so on.
• A hero that kicks a fragile object other than crystal plate mail or a helm of brilliance will cause it to break immediately, and potions shattered this way will subject the hero and monsters on adjacent squares to their vapors. Mirrors broken this way incur a -2 penalty to luck, while eggs laid by the hero that are broken this way incur a -1 luck penalty per broken egg. Artifacts with base items that are normally fragile cannot be broken by kicking them.
• A hero that kicks a container with fragile items inside it other than a bag of holding may cause those fragile contents to break, with a ¹⁄₃ chance rolled per item and luck penalties applied as above. If the hero has knowledge of a container's contents and breaks something inside that container by kicking it, they will no longer have that exact knowledge, though the player can usually infer what specific items were broken based on the messages produced.
• Kicking a statue trap will cause it to activate and bring the statue to life (or the topmost statue, if it is part of a pile with multiple statues).
• Kicking the corpse of a chickatrice or cockatrice when the hero is not wearing boots will subject them to instant stoning if they do not have stoning resistance, while a hero that does so in the form of any golem will become a stone golem if they were not one already.
• If the hero kicks an object that is embedded in a wall or door, the object has a chance of coming loose dependent on the hero's dexterity, and otherwise there is a chance of the hero sustaining slight physical damage and possibly a wounded leg.
• If a hero kicks any object that is too heavy, is fixed in place, or else has a wall next to it in the direction that the hero kicks, then the object will not move—this prints a message and may result in the hero taking slight physical damage, with a further ¹⁄₃ chance of a wounded leg. The following objects are also unable to be moved by kicking:
  • A boulder is always impossible to move by kicking, and the same applies to both a heavy iron ball that is chained to the hero and the iron chain keeping that ball attached.
  • Mjollnir is magically enchanted so that it will always be too heavy to move by kicking it.

Kicking and breaking fragile items that belong to a shop will result in the hero being charged for them by the shopkeeper.

If the hero kicks at a pile of objects, only the top object of the pile will be affected as described above. Items that are in a web cannot be kicked, nor can items that are in a pit or spiked pit unless the hero has phasing.

The following traits and circumstances can also affect the hero's ability to kick objects and how far those objects travel:

• A hero that is fumbling has a ¹⁄₃ chance of missing their kick.
• If a hero that either has the martial arts skill or is polymorphed into a sasquatch kicks an object, and that object moves as a result, its distance will be extended by 1 to 3 squares.
• When a hero that is underwater kicks an object that is also underwater and the object is moved by the kick, its movement distance is reduced to ^D⁄₃ + 1 (with a minimum of 1) where D is the normal distance it would travel otherwise.
• A hero that is on the Plane of Air or in the air bubbles within the Plane of Water and moves an object by kicking it, its distance will be extended by 1 to 3 squares.
• A hero kicking an object that is on a square of ice increases its distance by 1 to 3 squares.
• A hero kicking an object that is greased increases its distance by 1 to 3 squares.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Continue detailing section using the commented table."

Kicking a cursed scroll of scare monster will not cause it to crumble, as picking it up would. This is one way to move scrolls that have become cursed.

Maximal distance

The distance the kicked object moves is S/2 - W/40, where S is the player's strength, W is the object's weight, with the following caveats:

• If the player's strength is 18/01 to 18/31, S=18
• If the player's strength is 18/32 to 19 inclusively, S is effectively 20
• Each of the following adds 1-3 to the kicking distance:
  • The object is in air (at Plane of Air) or on ice
  • The object is greased, and not underwater or in air
  • The player is a Samurai or Monk, wearing kicking boots, or polymorphed to a sasquatch.
• If the object is under water, the distance is D/3 + 1, where D is the distance it would move otherwise.

The distance is from the player, so a distance of 1 or less means that the object does not move at all. In this case it is considered too heavy: the player receives a "Thump!" message and possibly wounds their legs.

Otherwise, the object moves the distance unless stopped by an obstacle.

Kicking dungeon features

Target	Effect
Empty space	Has a chance of abusing strength and wounding your leg. ("Dumb move! You strain a muscle.")
Wall	Does a small amount of damage to you ("Ouch! That hurts!") with a chance of hurting your leg. Abuses strength and dexterity.
Closed door	May break the door, leaving an empty doorway. Breaking a shop door will anger the shopkeeper unless you immediately pay 400 zorkmids. The act of kicking exercises dexterity. Successfully breaking doors exercises strength.
Sink	May create a foocubus (always of the opposite gender), a black pudding, or a random ring. Only one of each can come from a given sink.
Fountain	With a 1⁄3 probability, hurts you as if you were kicking a wall. Otherwise, if wearing boots, a 2⁄3 probability to wet them, rusting them if applicable.
Altar	With a 1⁄3 probability, hurts you as if you were kicking a wall. If co-aligned, immediately reduces your wisdom by one point; if cross-aligned, reduces luck by one or two points. The latter is potentially useful when trying to avoid crowning, as an alternative to keeping your alignment record under 20. Luckier characters have a higher chance of losing two points instead of one.
Tree	May create some fruit (e.g. apples or pears), or a swarm of killer bees. Either event can only happen once per tree.
Throne	May knock loose some gold and gems (only once per throne) or send you to a lower dungeon level. If the throne has already produced gems and gold or your luck is negative, kicking may destroy it.
Secret door	May reveal the door. "Crash! You kick open a secret door!" or "Crash! You uncover a secret door!" If your luck is low, this may be a faster way to make a suspected secret door appear than searching.
Headstone	With a 3⁄4 probability, hurts you as if you were kicking a wall. Otherwise, the headstone topples over and breaks. A stack of rocks is created on the square, and the engraving is (obviously) removed. This abuses wisdom and makes Archeologists, Samurai and lawful characters lose one point of alignment record. Chaotic Archeologists and Samurai (normally only available by changing alignment) gain one point instead.

Kicking monsters

Kicking monsters can damage them.

The base kicking damage is based on your strength, constitution, dexterity and whether you are wearing kicking boots. The exact formula is

$1d(\frac{Str+Dex+Con}{15}+b)$

where $b$ is 5 if wearing kicking boots and 0 otherwise.

Usually, this will come up to 1d7 - 1d8 with kicking boots or 1d2 - 1d3 without.

• If your kick is 'clumsy', this base damage is halved. (This is not quite the same thing as "Your clumsy kick does no damage", but related.) Kicks can be clumsy if you are:
  • Wearing bulky body armor (dragon scales and dragon scale mail are considered bulky, as is any form of body armor that weighs 350 or more; all other body armors are non-bulky)
  • Wearing a large shield, which is also considered bulky
  • Carrying a heavy load (more than 70% of your carrying capacity, with higher probability to be clumsy at 80%, and guaranteed at 90%)
  • Fumbling.
• If you are a martial artist (monk or samurai), there is a random damage bonus between 0 and half your dexterity. This exercises the martial arts skill, but the skill level does not affect the amount of bonus damage.
• If you are wearing blessed boots, you deal an additional 1d4 damage against major demons and undead creatures.
• The enchantment of your boots is added to the total damage amount, plus the enchantment of any rings of increase damage you are wearing or have eaten.
• Thick-skinned monsters like dragons and mumakil take no base damage from a kick. Rings of increase damage, enchanted boots, and blessed boots will still cause their normal damage.
• If you attempt to kick a shade with unblessed boots, your foot will pass through it, doing no damage. You can only damage a shade by kicking if your boots are blessed, and even then the only damage comes from the 1d4 bonus versus undead.

If you are polymorphed into a sasquatch, you will get a bonus to kicking because you are (a) 'bigfoot'.

There is a +1 to-hit bonus to kicking, even if you are unskilled in martial arts, so it may be a useful strategy for fighting a monster you are having trouble hitting (like a ghost).

Kicking a sleeping monster will wake it up. (As usual, the noise from kicking wakes up all sleeping monsters nearby.)

When levitating, kicking larger monsters will propel you farther, and very small monsters will be more difficult to hit.

With the right training or equipment, you can sometimes send smaller monsters reeling back a square—perhaps into a trap.

Limitations to kicking monsters

Kicking monsters can displace them to a random point adjacent to you, even if they couldn't normally reach that spot: "The monster jumps (or swoops, slides, etc.), nimbly avoiding your kick." This is more likely to happen if you are fumbling or burdened. It is also more likely to happen with flying monsters such as bats.

Kicking a cockatrice without wearing boots will result in stoning.

Kicking a pet is considered abuse.

Messages

Your slow motion kick doesn't hit anything.

You attempted to kick while underwater, and it immediately failed with a ¹⁄₂ chance.

Variants

EvilHack

In EvilHack, some roles have their kicking abilities modified.

• Druids that use the kick command on live trees will "gently nudge" them instead to avoid hurting the tree, and will not suffer wounded legs when determining the outcome of that action.
• Monks can perform much more powerful kicks than other heroes using the command, with different messages given.