Fountain

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Dungeon features
Air	_ Altar
# Corridor	# Cloud
#. Drawbridge	+-| Door
. Doorway	{ Fountain
| Headstone	.  Floor
>< Ladder	. Ice
# Iron bars	} Lava
} Moat	# Sink
Solid rock	>< Staircase
\ Throne	^" Trap
# Tree	- | Wall
~ Vibrating square

The fountain is a dungeon feature in NetHack, represented primarily by a { (left curly bracket). They are found randomly scattered throughout the dungeon, usually in rooms that do not have any other dungeon feature (i.e. chests, sinks) in them. You can use a fountain by dipping items into it, quaffing its water, and by digging down on it.

Fountains on non-special levels have a ¹⁄₇ (14%) chance of being magic, an attribute that cannot be determined before use. Fountains created by digging on a sink are non-magical.

Glyphs and tiles

See also: IBMgraphics

While often seen as a blue left curly bracket, fountains may also possibly be represented by a ¶ (pilcrow), ⌠ (top half integral) or a Ї (Cyrillic capital letter YI), depending on your operating system and options.

The representation of a fountain as a pilcrow, "¶", is probably not intentional. The top-half integral, "⌠" (some fonts may not have this character), looks vaguely like a fountain and is probably what the DevTeam had in mind. The problem is that PC character sets vary from one country to another: The symbol "⌠" occurs at code point 0xF4 in the PC code page 437, which is used in the United States. Most of Europe, however, uses either code page 850 (Western Europe), 852 (Eastern Europe using the Latin alphabet) or 866 (Russia). Code page 850 has "¶" at position 0xF4, code page 852 has "˘" and codepage 866 has "Ї".

There is no good fix for 3.6.0, yet, but for Nethack 3.4.3, you can use Unicode to get the proper fountain symbol:

:OPTIONS=UTF8graphics
:SYMBOL='fountain':U+2320

For Windows users, the following script may provide a workaround. Call it, say, RUN-NH.BAT, drop it in the same directory as the NetHack.exe binary, and link the desktop icon to it:

:chcp 437
:NetHack

In the default set of tiles, fountains appear as .

Quaffing

You can drink from a fountain by quaffing its water while standing over it. Upon doing so you get a message indicating the results.

Magic fountains

A magic fountain produces one of the two following effects, as long as your natural Luck is non-negative:

Probability	Message	Effect
3⁄10	"The cool draught refreshes you."	You gain a small amount of nutrition.
7⁄10	"Wow! This makes you feel great!" "A wisp of vapor escapes the fountain..."	Your wisdom is exercised, and all your attributes are restored to their maximum (same effect as a blessed potion of restore ability). One attribute is increased by 1 (uncursed potion of gain ability effect); if your natural Luck is 4 or higher, this last effect will increase all your attributes by 1 (blessed potion effect). The fountain is no longer magic.

"Natural Luck" refers to your Luck without the bonus from carrying a non-cursed luckstone.

In either case, the fountain will not dry up.

Non-magic fountains

Quaffing from a non-magic fountain, or magic with negative Luck:

Probability	Message	Effect
9⁄30	"The cool draught refreshes you."	You gain a small amount of nutrition.
9⁄30	"This tepid water is tasteless."	No effect.
1⁄30	"You feel self-knowledgeable..." "The feeling subsides..."	You see your attributes and exercise your wisdom (as with a wand or uncursed potion of enlightenment).
1⁄30	"The water is foul! You gag and vomit."	You vomit and lose some nutrition.
1⁄30	"The water is contaminated!"	You lose d10 HP and d4+2 strength, and your constitution is abused. (if you are not poison resistant)
	"Perhaps it is runoff from the nearby <fruit> farm."	You lose d4 HP (if you are poison resistant)
1⁄30	"An endless stream of snakes pour forth!" "You hear something hissing!" (if blind) "The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (if moccasins genocided)	d5+1 water moccasins are created.
1⁄30	"You unleash a water demon!" "You feel the presence of evil." (blind) "Grateful for his/her release, he/she grants you a wish!" (peaceful) "The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (summoning failed)	A water demon is summoned. It has an (80+DL)/100 chance of being hostile (100% if you have the Amulet of Yendor); if not hostile, the demon grants one wish and then vanish.
1⁄30	"You attract a water nymph!" "You hear a seductive voice." (blind) "A large bubble rises to the surface and pops." (unblind, water nymphs genocided or extinct) "You hear a loud pop." (blind, water nymphs genocided or extinct)	A water nymph is summoned.
1⁄30	"This water's no good!"	Each item in your inventory has 1⁄5 chance of being cursed outright, you lose some nutrition, and your constitution is abused. Magicbane does not protect against this cursing, nor do intelligent artifacts resist.
1⁄30	"You see an image of someone stalking you. But it disappears." "You feel transparent." (blind, invisible) "You feel very self-conscious. Then it passes." (blind, not invisible)	You gain see invisible and your wisdom is exercised.
1⁄30	"You sense the presence of monsters." "You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes." (no monsters, beginner, not hallucinating) "You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes."(no monsters, beginner, hallucinating) "You feel threatened." (no monsters, not hallucinating) "You get the heebie jeebies." (no monsters, hallucinating)	You briefly see monsters on that level and exercise your wisdom. If there are no monsters on the level (other than you), no visible effect.
1⁄30	"You spot a gem in the sparkling waters!" (unblind) "You feel a gem here!" (blind)	You find a random valuable gem or piece of worthless glass, and your wisdom is exercised. If you have already acquired gems or gold from this fountain, a nymph is summoned instead (as above).
1⁄30	"This water gives you bad breath!"	Monsters on the level flee from you for a while.
1⁄30	"Water gushes forth from the overflowing fountain!" (pool created) "Your thirst is quenched." (no pools created)	A number of pools may be created in your vicinity just as if you had dug into the fountain. Items lying near you may end up at the bottom of a pool.

Finally, the fountain has a ¹⁄₃ chance of drying up (except in Minetown, where you'll always get one warning).

Dipping

If you #dip a single ordinary long sword in a fountain, are at least experience level 5, and Excalibur doesn't already exist in your game, then there is a ¹⁄₆ chance of something special happening to your long sword. If you are lawful, the long sword is converted into the blessed, uneroded, erodeproof Excalibur, and you exercise your wisdom. If you are neutral or chaotic, your long sword is cursed, loses its rustproofing, and may lose an enchantment, and you abuse your wisdom. The fountain then disappears. If you were dipping in Minetown, this will anger the Minetown Watch whether you've been warned or not.

In any other case, the dipping is handled normally. First, the object gets wet and does the appropriate things (scrolls and spellbooks blank, potions dilute, iron objects rust, lit objects go out, grease washes off, objects in a dipped non-oilskin container also get wet). Then special effects can happen (only 50% chance if wetting object already caused an effect):

Probability	Message	Effect
18⁄30	"A strange tingling runs up your arm." (1⁄18 chance) "You feel a sudden chill." (1⁄18 chance) No message (16⁄18 chance)	No effect.
4⁄30	"The water glows for a moment." (uncursed, unblind) "A feeling of loss comes over you." (item not cursed)	The dipped item is uncursed if cursed.
1⁄30	No message.	The dipped item is cursed outright.
1⁄30	"An endless stream of snakes pour forth!" "You hear something hissing!" (if blind) "The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (if moccasins genocided)	d5+1 water moccasins are created.
1⁄30	"You unleash a water demon!" "You feel the presence of evil." (blind) "Grateful for his/her release, he/she grants you a wish!" (peaceful) "The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (summoning failed)	A water demon is summoned. It has an (80+DL)/100 chance of being hostile (100% if you have the Amulet of Yendor); if not hostile, the demon grants one wish and then vanishes.
1⁄30	"You attract a water nymph!" You hear a seductive voice." (blind) "A large bubble rises to the surface and pops." (unblind, water nymphs genocided or extinct) "You hear a loud pop." (blind, water nymphs genocided or extinct)	A water nymph is summoned.
1⁄30	"Water gushes forth from the overflowing fountain!" (pool created) "Water sprays all over you." (no pools created)	A number of pools may be created in your vicinity. (Never two orthogonally adjacent, never on your square, the more likely the closer to you.) Items in your inventory are not at risk of getting wet.
1⁄30	"You spot a gem in the sparkling waters!" (unblind) "You feel a gem here!" (blind)	You find a random valuable gem or piece of worthless glass and your wisdom is exercised. If you have already acquired gems or gold from this fountain, pools may be created instead (as above).
1⁄30	"An urge to take a bath overwhelms you." "You lost some of your gold in the fountain!"	You lose some gold and your wisdom is abused. The amount you lose depends on the amount (GP) you have, as follows: GP ≤ 10: 0 zorkmids 11 ≤ GP ≤ 100: GP/10 zorkmids 101 ≤ GP ≤ 10000: d(GP)/10 zorkmids GP > 10000: d(10000)/10 zorkmids Gems and gold can now be found in this fountain again. Your inventory will not rust or be blanked.
1⁄30	"Far below you, you see coins glistening in the water."	You find (2 × d(height + 1)) + 5 zorkmids, where "height" is your height above the bottom level of the current dungeon branch; your wisdom is exercised. If you have already acquired a gem or gold from this fountain, there is no effect.

After each of the effects in the above table, the fountain has a ¹⁄₃ chance of drying up (except in Minetown, where you'll always get one warning).

If wetting the object causes an effect, there is a 50% that no special effect happens. Therefore dipping a non-water potion in a fountain has only a ¹⁄₆ chance of drying up the fountain because wetting the potion has the effect of diluting the potion, whereas dipping a rock in a fountain has a ¹⁄₃ chance of drying up the fountain because wetting the rock has no effect on the rock.

If you dip until it dries up or gives the desired result, you have 31.6% chance of an uncurse or 9.4% chance each of a curse / demon / nymph per fountain.

Other fountain effects

Digging down in a fountain square will probably create pools in your vicinity. Eligible spaces are those within 7 spaces of you, arranged in a checkerboard fashion (which may either have potential pool spaces orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to the fountain). To become a pool, a space must be in a room, in line of sight, not have a boulder on it, and not be adjacent to an exit to the room (even an undetected secret door). It is more likely that spaces nearer you will become pools, but the fountain itself never will.</ref>

It is quite likely that digging a fountain in a very small room will produce no pools, and it is always possible to get no pools, but very unlikely in large rooms.

The fountain is destroyed.

• "Water gushes forth from the overflowing fountain!" (pool created)
• "Water sprays all over you." (no pools created)

The pools created can drown a pet or damage non-waterproof objects. This does not break pacifist conduct or anger your god. However, the usual penalties apply.

Kicking a fountain has a ²⁄₃ chance of exercising dexterity, and a ¹⁄₃ chance of wetting your boots. This can be used to identify kicking boots. Otherwise, like a sink, it produces the message, "Ouch! That hurts!" You lose up to 5 hit points, abuse dexterity and strength, and possibly end up with a wounded leg.

Gremlins may multiply in a fountain. You can use the #monster command to do so if you are polymorphed into one. This has the usual ¹⁄₃ chance of drying up the fountain.

You cannot engrave on a fountain square.

Dropping coins (or objects) on a fountain has no effect.

Probability of getting a wish

Below is a table that gives the probability that a fountain on a given level will yield at least one wish before drying up when repeatedly dipped into or quaffed from.

Dungeon level	Probability of getting a wish
1	1.9%
2	1.8%
3	1.7%
4	1.6%
5	1.5%
6	1.4%
7	1.3%
8	1.2%
9	1.1%
10	1.0%
11	0.9%
12	0.8%
13	0.7%
14	0.6%
15	0.5%
16	0.4%
17	0.3%
18	0.2%
19	0.1%
20	0.0%

Below is the justification for these numbers.

The probability that a fountain on dungeon level $l$ will not yield a wish on a single quaff or dip is

$\frac{29}{30}+\left(\frac{1}{30}\times\frac{80+l}{100}\right)$.

The probability that a fountain on dungeon level $l$ will dry up before yielding any wishes is then

$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \left(\frac{29}{30}+\left(\frac{1}{30}\times\frac{80+l}{100}\right)\right)^{n}\times\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)^{n-1}\times\frac{1}{3} = \frac{l+2980}{3040-2l}$

The probability that a fountain on dungeon level $l$ will yield at least one wish is then $1-\frac{l+2980}{3040-2l}$.

Minetown

The first time each fountain in Minetown would otherwise dry up through quaffing or dipping, you will instead get a warning:

The <watchman> yells: "Hey, stop using that fountain!"

A watchman or watch captain can see you, and you would have dried up the fountain.

The flow reduces to a trickle.

You are not in view of the watch, but you would have dried up the fountain.

The fountain will dry up the next time you quaff from or dip an object in this fountain (half the time if wetting the object caused an effect). This angers the Minetown watch, regardless of whether any of them can see you.

Minetown fountains always dry up without warning when digging to create pools, or when the special effect from dipping a long sword into the fountain occurs. This also angers the watch.

Messages

You hear bubbling water.

You hear water falling on coins.

You hear the splashing of a naiad.

There is a fountain somewhere on the level.

You hear a soda fountain!

As above, but you are hallucinating.

Strategy

Fountain quaffing

Fountain quaffing is the specific practice of immediately quaffing from every fountain you find, in the hope of releasing a water demon and getting an early wish. In a lesser form, most inexperienced players will unintentionally engage in this behavior; this is unfortunate as most fountain quaffers die after a few hundred turns, but those with experience don't mind because they can just start again. This is a form of metagaming considered fairly low. It is the reason why water moccasins rank so highly on the list of top deaths on nethack.alt.org, and perhaps the explanation why quaffing from fountains in general is a leading cause of death there (along with deaths to Team Ant). Wizards who start with a scroll of taming, a tooled horn or leather drum, or a spellbook of charm monster are slightly safer in this practice.

Magic fountain hunting

Some players prefer to go hunting for magic fountains for their blessed gain ability effect. This is typically an early-midgame strategy performed after the player is confident they have 4+ Luck and can deal with any of the negative fountain effects they might encounter from a normal fountain. It is a good idea to protect your inventory from curses with a sack. The approach is simple: repeatedly quaff from each randomly-placed fountain until something other than "The cool draught refreshes you." happens. If the fountain is magic, the something else will be the magic effect; if not, the random fountain effect will indicate a non-magic fountain - if you should happen to get a wish in the process, so much the better. Don't bother quaffing in Minetown, Mines' End, the center of the Oracle room, the Big Room, the Castle, or Juiblex's swamp—those are never magic.

You don't lose any expected wishes by doing so, but because the consequences of quaffing are worse than those of dipping, once you know a fountain is non-magical, if you want to try to get wishes from it it is best to do so by dipping objects not quaffing them.

The expected number of items cursed per gain ability effect is ⁱ⁄₂₀, where i is the number of items you have in your inventory while quaffing. If you drop items (perhaps because you have no sack) it's worth noting that quaffing can put pools on nearby map squares, but not on the square of the fountain itself. You can drop items you really don't want cursed, such as your luckstone, unicorn horn, or bag of holding, right on the fountain or in a nearby doorway while you quaff, to keep them from ending up at the bottom of a pool.

Dipping for Excalibur

An obvious strategy for lawful characters, especially valkyries and knights who start the game with a longsword. As soon as they reach level 5, they start dipping their longsword into every (non-Minetown) fountain they can find until they receive Excalibur. At level 5, these combat-strong characters may even stand a decent chance against the more dangerous fountain effects, and the hoped-for eventual conversion of the thoroughly rusted, possibly now cursed longsword fixes these issues.

Making holy water

A potion of holy water (blessed potion of water) is useful for uncursing and blessing items as well as curing lycanthropy and illness. Potions could be converted into potions of water by dipping into a fountain twice, and then blessed on an altar as described in the holy water article. Unfortunately, the fountain has a chance of drying up before you have converted all of your potions. The same applies to blanking scrolls and spellbooks.

The solution is to stand on a fountain and dig down. The fountain will be destroyed with a large chance of making several pools of water. Potions can then be dipped in them without using up your water supply. Unburden yourself, carry only items you want blanked, rusted or converted to potions of water, and jump into the pool. You will crawl out (and get a scary message). Alternatively, water walking boots or flying let you #dip while standing on the water without getting yourself wet. Beware that potions of acid might explode, although not always. If you jump into pools, they will never deal damage, identify, or convert to water, but they might survive.

Removing curses

Once your character becomes powerful enough to withstand the bad fountain results (water demons, nymphs, and mocassins are the main ones to watch out for), dipping items (especially items that take no water damage) into fountains is one of the more readily-available means to uncurse them. This is most useful for cursed unicorn horns found in bones, and magic lamps that happen to generate cursed (uncursing them via fountain means you need less holy water to eventually bless them). It can also be useful for cursed equipment; for instance levitation boots often generate cursed, provide an important extrinsic, and are usable even if rotted or burnt. (However, levitation boots cannot be dipped into a fountain while worn, so you need to uncurse them in advance.) You should not rely on being able to uncurse items this way, as the fountain will frequently dry up first, but it is frequently worth trying before resorting to consumables like scrolls of remove curse or potions of holy water.

Obtaining curses

Some items are more useful cursed. If you don't find any bones piles, the next safest conduct-proof way to make unholy water is to dip a potion of water into fountains until it becomes cursed. Prepare for the hazards! This works best if the game shows the potion's BUC status because you won't get a message, but you can also keep testing if the potion still stacks with known-uncursed water. Once you have it, unholy water can be replicated just like holy water.

If you want to kill e.g. 120 skeletons, you might want to curse (and polymorph) many unicorn horns. You can curse a very large number of items at once by quaffing. Carry only those items plus the means to defend yourself against snakes, water demons, nymphs. Quaff from fountains until you get the message "This water's no good!" If you run out of fountains, use spellcasting monsters. You will likely need to uncurse your armor when you are finished.

Of course, reading a blessed scroll of remove curse while confused provides a much safer way to make unholy water.

Small swamps

In very small rooms, a swamp may generate with just one water pool, easily mistaken for a fountain. Be careful not to accidentally fall into pools.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM changes the chance of getting a wish from the water demon to (8 − DL) / 20. Thus, on earlier levels the chance is considerably higher (on DL 1 the probability of getting a wish from a single fountain is 3.42%), but it never happens below DL 7.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, only lawful Knights can dip for Excalibur.

Encyclopedia entry

Rest! This little Fountain runs
Thus for aye: -- It never stays
For the look of summer suns,
Nor the cold of winter days.
Whose'er shall wander near,
When the Syrian heat is worst,
Let him hither come, nor fear
Lest he may not slake his thirst:
He will find this little river
Running still, as bright as ever.
Let him drink, and onward hie,
Bearing but in thought, that I,
Erotas, bade the Naiad fall,
And thank the great god Pan for all!

[ For a Fountain, by Bryan Waller Procter ]

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
2. Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.

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