Boots
Boots are a form of armor worn on the feet.
List of boots
| Name | Cost | Weight | AC | Material | Effect | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low boots | 8 | 10 | 1 | leather | walking shoes | |
| high boots | 12 | 20 | 2 | leather | jackboots | |
| iron shoes | 16 | 50 | 2 | iron | hard shoes | |
| elven boots | 8 | 15 | 1 | leather | stealth | randomized |
| kicking boots | 8 | 50 | 1 | iron | enhanced kicking | randomized |
| fumble boots | 30 | 20 | 1 | leather | fumbling | randomized |
| levitation boots | 30 | 15 | 1 | leather | levitation | randomized |
| jumping boots | 50 | 20 | 1 | leather | jumping | randomized |
| speed boots | 50 | 20 | 1 | leather | speed | randomized |
| water walking boots | 50 | 15 | 1 | leather | water walking | randomized |
The randomized boots' unidentified descriptions are shuffled each game from the following list:
buckled boots combat boots hiking boots jungle boots riding boots snow boots mud boots
In addition to whatever magical effect they provide, riding boots give a bonus for saddling steeds, and snow boots give a bonus for walking on ice.
Identification
Speed boots, jumping boots and water walking boots have a base price of 50 zm; fumble boots and levitation boots have a base price of 30 zm; elven boots and kicking boots have a base price of 8 zm. (The most useful boots are also the most expensive ones.) Be aware, enchantment can confuse the issue.
Elven, levitation, and water walking boots weigh 15, kicking boots weigh 50, and the other randomized boots weigh 20. While this might be useful in some cases, it is somewhat tedious to attempt and cannot rule out the two pairs of boots which are likely to be cursed.
Do not wear boots without curse-testing them first. Cursed magic boots are very likely to be levitation boots or fumble boots, which have very annoying magical effects as well as possibly increasing your AC. You can still weight test, especially to distinguish levitation from fumble boots. Note that your god will consider cursed levitation boots to be a major trouble, but cursed fumble boots to only be a minor trouble. This means that any successful prayer will almost certainly uncurse levitation boots, but you will need a co-aligned altar to uncurse fumble boots through prayer.
Any boots you find in the statue of Perseus are guaranteed to be cursed levitation boots.
Speed boots and levitation boots will auto-identify when worn, except in the unusual case where you are already very fast or levitating. Elven boots will auto-identify when worn if you are not already stealthy (be aware that an elven cloak also grants stealth). You can deduce the appearance of elven boots by taking note of which boots are dropped by various elves throughout the dungeon.
Jumping boots can be identified by trying to jump (#jump command). Knights must actually try to make an "illegal move" for a chess knight - any other role will get the message "You can't jump very far" unless they are wearing jumping boots.
Fumble boots can be identified by wearing them for a while and seeing whether you fumble, or by zapping a wand of enlightenment while wearing them.
Kicking boots are the only magic boots to be metallic, and can therefore be identified by wearing them and seeing whether your spell failure rates increase, or by testing for "scritch, scritch" by rubbing them on a touchstone. You will also always succeed in kicking down doors while wearing kicking boots, although monks and samurai may find that difficult to test.
Water walking boots are tricky to identify, because walking on water to see whether you sink is dangerous! The danger can be reduced by dropping anything which is vulnerable to water damage (keep in mind that kicking boots tested in this way will rust). They can also be identified by zapping a wand of enlightenment. If you have some boots with a base price of 50 zm, and they grant neither speed nor jumping, then they must be water walking boots.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM uses steel boots as a randomized appearance for magical boots in place of buckled boots. This change is purely cosmetic: SLASH'EM does not introduce any new types of randomized boots. Despite the name, steel boots are not inherently metallic, as an object's material is dependent on its base type, not its randomized appearance (thus, steel boots will be metallic if they are kicking boots, as is true for any other randomized appearance).
SLASH'EM also regularizes the weights of the randomized boots, albeit not completely: speed, water walking, jumping, and fumble boots all weigh 20 aum, while kicking, levitation, and elven boots weigh 15.
While SLASH'EM does not introduce any new types of boots, it does introduce an artifact set of boots: Whisperfeet. These are neutral speed boots that are the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for tourists, and in addition to their usual effect act as a luckstone when carried and provide stealth when worn. The presence of Whisperfeet means that the artifact naming bug (which still works in SLASH'EM) can be used to distinguish speed boots. Conversely, a player who finds Whisperfeet will informally learn the appearance of speed boots.
Encyclopaedia entry
In Fantasyland these are remarkable in that they seldom or
never wear out and are suitable for riding or walking in
without the need of Socks. Boots never pinch, rub, or get
stones in them; nor do nails stick upwards into the feet from
the soles. They are customarily mid-calf length or knee-high,
slip on and off easily and never smell of feet. Unfortunately,
the formula for making this splendid footwear is a closely
guarded secret, possibly derived from nonhumans (see Dwarfs,
Elves, and Gnomes).
