Can of grease
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | can of grease |
| Appearance | can of grease |
| Base price | 20 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Material | iron |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A can of grease is a type of tool that appears in NetHack. The can of grease is a chargeable item that can used to grease items for various purposes (with the oilskin cloak and oilskin sack behaving as "permanently greased" objects), and is made of iron.
Generation
Cans of grease make up 3⁄200 (1.5%) of all tools that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock cans of grease. A randomly-generated can of grease is created with 5-25 charges, and cans of grease have a 9⁄10 chance (90%) of generating as uncursed, a 1⁄20 chance (5%) of generating as blessed, and a 1⁄20 chance (5%) of generating as cursed.[1]
Randomly-generated objects that can be subjected to erosion and are created outside of bones files have a 1⁄1000 chance of being greased.[2] Player monsters created on the Astral Plane have an effective 1⁄3 chance of generating with a greased weapon.[3]
Description
A hero applying a can of grease can slather any item in the open inventory that they can reach in a thick layer of grease:[4][5] this includes the hero's hands (selected via -) but excludes their wallet's contents, as well as excluding any worn armor that is underneath another layer of armor or any rings that are underneath a worn pair of gloves.[6] Successfully greasing an item or the hero's hands will use up one charge.[7] Greasing the hero's hands will give them slippery fingers for 5-15 (more) turns.[8]
Applying a can of grease that is cursed or else trying to apply one while fumbling only has a 1⁄2 chance (50%) of success, and the can will otherwise slip from the hero's grasp and drop to the ground on their square, using up a charge[9]—applying a cursed can of grease to successfully grease an item will also give the hero slippery fingers for 10-15 (more) turns.[10]
A charged can of grease can be applied to untrap a squeaky board, with a lower chance of success if the can is cursed, and successfully untrapping the board will remove it and use up a charge of grease in the process.[11][12]
Cans of grease can hold a maximum of 50 charges:[13] uncursed charging adds 1-5 charges, while blessed charging adds 6-15 charges if there are fewer than 10 charges left and 5-10 charges otherwise.
Reading a can of grease will have no effect beyond printing a message.[14]
Cans of grease are immune to rust and corrosion if they have at least one charge.[15]
Greased items
Greased objects are protected from rust, corrosion, water damage, and acid damage, but have no protection against burning and rotting.[16][17][18][19][20][21] Attacks that can cause the erosion of armor, including passive attacks that trigger against the hero or a weapon used by the hero, will also check them for grease under similar conditions,.[22][23][24][25][26][27] After grease successfully protects an item from damage, it has a 1⁄2 chance of wearing off, and if the item is a potion of acid subjected to water damage it will explode upon the grease wearing off.[28][29]
Greased armor on the outermost layer (e.g. usually a cloak or helm) can protect against attacks that target body parts covered by that armor:[30][31] cursed armor that is greased only has a 2⁄3 chance of protection applying, and otherwise the grease will always protect that armored portion, and the grease has a 1⁄2 chance of wearing off after protecting the wearer.[32][33] Greased armor worn on the outermost layer of the torso (e.g. a shirt, suit or cloak that is not covered by other armor) protects against holding attacks, while a greased helm protects against the intelligence drain of a mind flayer or master mind flayer, but has no effect on engulfing attacks.[34]
A greased weapon has no additional protection from a bullwhip being used to disarm its wielder.[35][36] Greased items are not any more difficult to steal than other items for monsters that are covetous, have theft attacks or have charm attacks.[37][38][39][40]
Greased items may slip when thrown in a manner similar to cursed projectiles, but this will not un-weld cursed weapons or other applicable tools. A greased object will also slide further along the floor than normal when kicked.
Strategy
Greasing your cloak and helmet is fairly standard strategy for most players: it protects against grabbing from owlbears and sea monsters among other monsters, and mind flayers and master mind flayers cannot attach their tentacles to a greased helmet. It is also common to grease non-oilskin sacks and containers, particularly a bag of holding, in order to protect their contents. Greasing other objects such as weapons is fine as long as you do not intend to throw them, while greasing your hands or most other items is typically unnecessary; for illiterate conduct play, grease is one of the few options you have to protect weapons and armor against erosion.
It is common to request an item as greased when wishing—though this seems most useful for body armor and cloaks, potions and scrolls are also worth wishing for as greased, which adds a layer of protection in the event any mishaps occur between obtaining them and their use case coming into play.
While a can of grease is commonly used in preparing ascension kits, it may or may not be part of one itself: this depends on how many charges are left in the can and how frequently applied grease ends up wearing off, as well as the availability of wishes (since the wished item will usually be greased as above).
History
The can of grease first appears in NetHack 3.1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, cans of grease can generate with anywhere from 1 to 25 charges.[41] NetHack 5.0.0 increases the minimum charges for a can of grease via commit 28fb6fc6, as well as some other chargeable items.
Messages
- You cover your <item> with a thick layer of grease.
- You applied the can to an item.
- You coat your fingers with grease.
- You applied the can to your hands by specifying "-" at the prompt.
- The <monster> grabs you, but cannot hold onto your greased <armor>!
- You were protected from a grabbing attack.
- The grease wears off.
- A piece of armor is no longer greased.
- Some of the grease gets all over your hands.
- You greased an item with a cursed can of grease, and your fingers are now slippery.
- The can of grease slips from your fingers.
- The can of grease fell to the ground, either from applying the can while it was cursed or the hero was fumbling.
Variants
GruntHack
In GruntHack, wearing greased gloves grants slippery fingers as an extrinsic.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the iron golem that can appear in the forest on the Ruins of Moria's fifth floor has a 1⁄5 chance of generating with a can of grease in its inventory.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, cans of grease have a base material of plastic rather than iron.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, greased items are more difficult for monsters to steal using charming and item theft attacks.
The oilskin object property for armor causes it to be treated as permanently greased, and can only occur on items made of cloth.
Encyclopedia entry
ANOINT, v.t. To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1028-L1031
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 217-L220
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 260-L263
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2583-L2601: grease_ok() function
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4282-L4284
- ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3338-L3400: inaccessible_equipment() function
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2603-L2654: grease_ok() function
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2642-L2645
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2618-L2625
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2637-L2641
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5612-L5613
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5628-L5660
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 958-L975
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 491-L493
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4728-L4729
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 111
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 183
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 208: burning ignores grease
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 208: rotting ignores grease
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 246-L248
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4633-L4634: Grease and acid
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 125-L185: erode_armor()
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5898-L5903: burning from passive attacks against hero
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5925-L5930: acid damage from passive attacks against hero
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5961-L5966: rust from passive attacks against hero
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5972-L5977: corrosion from passive attacks against hero
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 6157-L6178: effects of passives on objects - note that AD_FIRE case does not check for grease
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 356-L386: Grease dissolving after protection from rust/corrosion
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4736-L4750: Grease dissolving after contact water
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1045-L1085: u_slip_free() function
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2053-L2093: m_slips_free() function
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1063-L1083
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2072-L2092
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1053-L1061
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2549-L2615: monster bullwhip usage does not check for greased status
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2549-L2615: monster bullwhip usage does not check for greased status
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4569-L4589: Covetous theft attacks do not check for grease
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4621-L4748: theft attacks do not check for greased status
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4750-L4779: seduction that does not initiate encounter runs through the same code as theft and charming do
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4798-L4799: theft and charming run through the same code
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 938
