Fire

This article is about the state of high temperature. For using inventory items to launch projectiles, see firing.

Fire is also the neutral god in the flame mage pantheon in SLASH'EM.

In addition to harming the player and monsters, fire in NetHack can damage items. Fire damage comes from the following sources:

• Fire rays
  • Zapped wand of fire
  • Blown fire horn
  • Fire breath of a red dragon, red naga, hell hound (pup), or the Chromatic Dragon
• Fireballs and fiery explosions
  • Broken wand of fire
  • Spell of fireball
  • Attempting to refill an oil lamp while it is lit
  • Frag grenades in SLASH'EM
  • Zapped or broken wand of fireball in SLASH'EM
• Towers of flame
  • Read scroll of fire (described as a tower of flame, but behaves like a 3x3 explosion)
  • The fire pillar monster spell
  • Fire traps
  • One effect of magic traps
  • One type of container trap
• Melee attacks of a fire ant, a fire elemental, or a salamander
• Explosion attack of a flaming sphere
• Passive attack of a red mold, a fire elemental, or a fire vortex
• Gaze attack of a pyrolisk
• Holding attack of a salamander
• Engulfing attack of a steam vortex or a fire vortex
• Bonus damage of the artifact Fire Brand
• Contact with lava
• A thrown or drunk lit potion of oil

Fire is also mentioned in the following places:

• The Plane of Fire is the third of the Elemental Planes.
• Accepted sacrifices on a neutral or chaotic altar explode in a "burst of flame". This fire is cosmetic and does not interact with you, so there is no damage to you or to your inventory.

Effects

Fire burns organic material and boils liquids. Fire attacks are likely to burn worn armor made of cloth, leather, or wood (such as shirts, cloaks, and shields), and destroy scrolls, spellbooks, and potions. The scroll of fire is an exception: it will never be destroyed by fire attacks.

Fire rays and explosions may boil away pools of water in the dungeon, leaving behind pits. This only applies to water in "pools"; "moats" and "water" tiles are unaffected. For more information on the distinction between these types of terrain, see Moat#Pool vs. moat vs. water.

Fire damage cures sliming by burning away the affected tissue. This will still cost hit points if you are not fire resistant, but will still cure you even if you are resistant.

Messages

One of your <color> potions <of type> boils and explodes!

You were struck by fire damage and one of your potions has boiled.

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.

Fire now lights candles, lamps and potions of oil. The Candelabrum of Invocation is not affected.

Fire protection

Damage to yourself or your inventory can be prevented or minimized by the following:

• Resistance: Intrinsic or extrinsic fire resistance prevents or reduces hit point loss from fire attacks. It does not prevent erosion of worn equipment or destruction of items in your main inventory.
• Reflection: Fire rays and breath attacks can be reflected, preventing damage to yourself and your items. Nondirectional attacks (melee, passive attacks, explosions) cannot.
• Containers: Items in containers are safe from fire damage.
• Fireproofing: Armor made of cloth, leather, or wood can be fireproofed, protecting it from damage from fire. Fireproof armor does not prevent fire damage to the player, except in one case. It is possible to get fireproof scrolls, potions, and spellbooks by wishing, but this is probably impractical.
• Magic cancellation: High MC can protect your inventory from melee fire attacks. It does not prevent damage from passive or engulfing fire attacks, or from explosions or ray attacks.

Trivia

Since fire attacks in NetHack are said to melt a glass golem, we can deduce that the temperature of fire is at least 1600 degrees C, or 2900 degrees F.

SLASH'EM

• features the new role of Flame Mage and the artifact athame named Firewall, which deals fire damage.
• The following SLASH'EM monsters have fire attacks: lava blobs, hellcats, hellrats, movanic devas, hellbats, fire vampires, wax golems, ruby golems, and crystal golems.

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