Dwarvish mithril-coat

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[   dwarvish mithril-coat   Dwarvish mithril-coat.png
Appearance dwarvish mithril-coat
Slot body armor
AC 6
Special
Base price 240 zm
Weight 150
Material mithril

A dwarvish mithril-coat is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of mithril.

Generation

In addition to random generation, armor shops and general stores can stock dwarvish mithril-coats.

Live dwarves that are generated with a dwarvish short sword and dwarvish iron helm have a 13 chance of generating with a dwarvish mithril-coat.[1]

Player monster barbarians, knights, priests, and valkyries have an effective 162 chance (roughly ~1.61%) of forcing a dwarvish mithril-coat in place of their initial body armor.[2][3][4][5]

Description

When worn, a dwarvish mithril-coat confers 6 base AC and MC2 and hinders spellcasting. Wearing or removing a dwarvish mithril-coat takes only 1 turn.[6]

Strategy

Dwarvish-mithril coats are among the best available body armor after dragon scale mail - obtaining one is often a major goal for early game characters due to its high AC and low weight, and it often provides as much AC as the rest of their armor combined. The low weight is also ideal for early characters with low strength and no bag of holding. Even characters in spellcasting roles (such as Wizards) will occasionally make use of a mithril-coat to boost AC, only removing it to cast as needed. The dwarvish mithril-coat has one more point of base AC than an elven mithril-coat, though the elven coat can be enchanted safely from +5 unlike non-elven armor.

Barring a wish, a dwarvish mithril-coat can easily last as a character's primary armor throughout the mid-game or until their desired set of dragon scales becomes available, whichever occurs first. The coat's material protects it from erosion, though it will still break if a polymorph trap turns you into a large enough monster - both this and the general tendency to swap to dragon scale mail often deters players from using any scroll of enchant armor on it.

History

The dwarvish mithril-coat first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including variants based on those versions, the dwarvish mithril-coat grants MC3.

Variants

Variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions may retain the MC3 granted by wearing a dwarvish mithril-coat, while variants that employ object materials may replace the dwarvish mithril-coat with a similar item that can be made of mithril.

Some variants may give dwarves an AC bonus for wearing a dwarvish mithril-coat or equivalent armor, including dwarven player characters.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the dwarvish mithril-coat grants MC3 while worn. SLASH'EM also adds the dark elven mithril-coat, which has stats identical to the dwarven mithril coat.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the dwarvish mithril-coat grants a +1 AC bonus to dwarves that wear them, including player dwarves.

Several dwarvish mithril-coats can be found in the Ruins of Moria branch: 2-4 cursed mithril-coats are generated buried around the second floor at level creation, and 2-8 blessed and positively-enchanted mithril-coats are generated scattered around the fourth floor at level creation.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, the dwarvish mithril-coat grants 3 AC, 3 DR and MC3 when worn - its weight is lowered to 40 aum, the same as dragon scale mail in NetHack.

The Armor of Khazad-dum is a lawful, intelligent artifact dwarvish mithril-coat that is the first sacrifice gift for dwarf Nobles and favors them. It grants magic resistance and +4 AC while worn, and can be enchanted to +7.

The November NetHack Tournament

In The November NetHack Tournament, all Devteam members have a 12 chance of being generated with a dwarvish mithril-coat.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, dwarvish mithril-coats are replaced with dwarvish ring mail, which has a base material of iron and grants 4 base AC - a mithril set of dwarven ring mail behaves identically to a dwarven mithril-coat, since mithril body armor will always grant at least MC2. Dwarf leaders and dwarf rulers that generate with dwarvish ring mail have an increased chance of it being made of mithril.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, dwarvish mithril-coats are also replaced with dwarvish ring mail, similar to xNetHack.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, dwarvish mithril-coats are replaced with dwarvish chain mail. Dwarvish chain mail grants 6 AC when worn and has a base material of iron, and grants a +1 AC bonus to dwarves that wear them, including player dwarves - when made of mithril, it behaves similarly to an improved dwarvish mithril-coat, and grants one more point of base AC and MC2.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, dwarvish mithril-coats are also replaced with dwarvish chain mail, as in EvilHack.

Encyclopedia entry

_Mithril_! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like
copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.

[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]

References

  1. src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 383: default dwarvish armor
  2. src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 174: 12 for barbarians and other mentioned roles to get random body armor within the range of objects from plate mail to chain mail in objects.c, using normal generation odds
  3. src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 201: see previous citation
  4. src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 215: see previous citation
  5. src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 242: see previous citation
  6. src/objects.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 417