Kick (command)

Keyboard commands
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This article is about the command. For the attack type, see kick attack.

In NetHack, the hero can kick through the use of the accompanying command, which can be performed with Ctrl + d, k (if the number_pad option is on) or the #kick extended command.

Description

Using the kick command will prompt the player for a direction that they want the hero to kick in, assuming that the hero is currently grounded. Kicking in the direction of a peaceful or tame monster that the hero can see will prompt the player if they really want their hero to go through with the action. Kicking a monster will roll to determine if the kick succeeds, and a peaceful monster that the hero kicks at will always be angered. Similar to the kick attack type, damage calculations will account for factors such as the hero's ability scores, whether or not the hero is wearing boots and whether or not their worn boots are blessed. Kicking with the command will also train the bare hands and martial arts skills.

A hero in a role with the martial arts skill (i.e. Monks and Samurai) gains various bonuses to kicking, while a hero polymorphed into a sasquatch will gain bonuses to kicking due to being a "bigfoot". Kicking boots also grant various bonuses to kicking with this command, and ensures that such kicks always succeed.

Kicking can have various effects depending on the situation: kicking monsters, items or dungeon features will usually make noise that can awaken sleeping monsters, along with any monsters that were kicked directly, and kicking an object or dungeon feature can also disturb zombies whose corpses are buried in the ground nearby. Kicking at an empty square abuses dexterity and has a chance of causing the hero to "strain a muscle", which also abuses strength and causes a wounded for 5-10 turns—this includes a square with an opened or broken door, as well as a square with a stairway or a down ladder. Kicking objects that are immovable or too heavy can result in the hero taking physical damage and also suffering a wounded leg, and will abuse dexterity and strength regardless of whether wounded legs occur. ("Ouch! That hurts!")

The next section explains the requirements for a player to use the command, while the effects of kicking specific objects and monsters are further detailed in each of the sections below it.

Requirements and conditions

A hero cannot kick using the command under the following conditions:

• They are polymorphed, and their form is limbless, slithy, tiny in size, or belongs to the lizard monster class.
• They have at least one wounded leg.
• They are stressed or greater in encumbrance.
• They are currently caught in a a web or a bear trap, or else they are inside of a pit or a spiked pit and lack phasing.
• There is a boulder on the hero's square, and the hero lacks phasing.

A hero can still attempt a kick if they are currently engulfed, or else if they are in a pit (or spiked pit) and have phasing, though it will always have no effect in either case. Trying to attempt a kick while underwater has a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) chance of failing immediately. A hero that is fumbling has a ¹⁄₃ chance of their attempted kick outright missing the object or monster on the targeted square.

A hero that is riding a steed and attempts to kick will instead be prompted to kick their steed: doing so initiates galloping, which makes the steed move faster temporarily at the cost of reducing its tameness.

Levitation

Kicking while levitating or on the Plane of Air will have the hero attempt to kick off a monster, a wall or a dungeon feature that is large and sturdy enough if one is occupying the adjacent square in the direction chosen by the player, and kicking this way will cause the hero to hurtle in the opposite direction depending on what they kick, the size of the kicking target and how hard they do so. Kicking towards small monsters will not cause a levitating hero to hurtle, and also has a ¹⁄₃ chance of missing that monster completely.

If the hero attempts to kick towards an empty square while levitating, there is a ¹⁄₂ chance of them hurtling one square in the opposite direction. Kicking towards a closed door while levitating will always fail and inflict physical damage with a chance of wounding the hero's legs. Kicking in the direction of a sink, altar, throne, headstone, or fountain while levitating will always be treated as targeting an empty square.

Kicking objects

A hero kicking an object will have various results depending on the weight and nature of the object, as well as the hero's strength level and kicking abilities.

• A hero kicking a stack of multiple gold pieces that is not too heavy to move has a very high chance of scattering that gold randomly within a few squares of its location: monsters that are interested in gold can catch any gold that flies towards them, and nearby monsters that were sleeping will awaken due to the noise created regardless of whether they catch any gold that flies at them—gold that hits immobile monsters as a result of being kicked will do no damage to them.
  • A peaceful monster that is not a guard and hit by flying gold has a ¹⁄₄ chance of becoming hostile.
  • Monsters that catch gold pieces as a result of the hero kicking that gold will generally behave as though the gold was thrown directly at them, e.g. hostile mercenaries will react as though bribed, hostile shopkeepers that were robbed will calm down if the gold they picked up was enough to cover items stolen from their shop, and so on.
• A hero that kicks a fragile object other than crystal plate mail or a helm of brilliance will cause it to break immediately, and potions shattered this way will subject the hero and monsters on adjacent squares to their vapors. Mirrors broken this way incur a -2 penalty to luck, while eggs laid by the hero that are broken this way incur a -1 luck penalty per broken egg. Artifacts with base items that are normally fragile cannot be broken by kicking them.
• If a hero kicks a container with fragile items inside it, and the container is not a bag of holding, then those fragile items each have a ¹⁄₃ chance per stack of breaking, with luck penalties for mirrors and the hero's eggs applied as above. The following also occurs depending on the container type and its contents:
  • Kicking a container with a trap on it will trigger that trap as with opening the container or handling its lock.
  • A locked container has a ¹⁄₅ chance of the lock being broken open, which is increased to ¹⁄₂ if the hero has the martial arts skill.
  • If the hero has knowledge of a container's contents and breaks something inside that container by kicking it, they will no longer have that exact knowledge, though the player can usually infer what specific items were broken based on the messages produced.
• Kicking a statue trap will cause it to activate and bring the statue to life, animating the topmost statue if there are multiple statues on that square.
• Kicking the corpse of a chickatrice or cockatrice when the hero is not wearing boots will subject them to instant stoning if they do not have stoning resistance, while a hero that does so in the form of any golem will become a stone golem if they were not one already.
• If the hero kicks an object that is embedded in a wall or door, the object has a chance of coming loose dependent on the hero's dexterity, and otherwise there is a chance of the hero sustaining slight physical damage and possibly a wounded leg. An object that is kicked loose from being embedded in a wall will be placed on the hero's square.
• If a hero kicks any object that is too heavy, is fixed in place, or else is obstructed from moving (e.g. there is an adjacent wall in the chosen direction) then the object will not move—this prints a message and may result in the hero taking slight physical damage, with a further ¹⁄₃ chance of a wounded leg.
  • A boulder is always impossible to move by kicking, and the same applies to both a heavy iron ball that is chained to the hero and the iron chain keeping that ball attached.
  • Mjollnir is magically enchanted so that it will always be too heavy to move by kicking it.
• When kicking items that belong to a shop, the shopkeeper will attempt to catch any items that would fly out of the shop's boundaries, and breaking fragile items belonging to that shop will result in the hero being charged for them and the shopkeeper becoming hostile.
• Kicked items that ordinarily serve as ammunition can mulch upon hitting a monster as thrown projectiles do.

If the hero kicks at a pile of objects, only the top object of the pile will be affected. Items that are in a web cannot be kicked at all, and items that are in a pit or spiked pit cannot be kicked unless the hero has phasing.

Calculating distance

Objects that are moved by kicking will travel a number of squares from the player in the direction that it was kicked, with the distance equal to STR2 - w40, where w is the object's weight: a strength level of 18/01 to 18/31 is treated as 18 for this purpose, while a strength level of 18/32 to 19 is treated as 20, and a distance value of 1 or less from this equation means that the object will not move at all. The following traits and circumstances can also affect how far kicked objects travel:

• If a hero that either has the martial arts skill or is polymorphed into a sasquatch kicks an object, and that object moves as a result, its distance will be extended by 1 to 3 squares.
• If a hero kicks an object while they and the object are underwater, the object's movement distance is reduced to ^D⁄₃ + 1 (with a minimum of 1 if it is not too heavy to move), where D is the normal distance it would travel otherwise.
• A hero that is on the Plane of Air or in the air bubbles within the Plane of Water and moves an object by kicking it, its distance will be extended by 1 to 3 squares.
• A hero kicking an object that is sitting on ice increases its distance by 1 to 3 squares.
• A hero kicking an object that is greased increases its distance by 1 to 3 squares.

An object that is moved by kicking will travel until it has either reached the full distance or is stopped by an obstacle, such as a wall or monster—an object kicked in the direction of a hole or trap door has a chance of falling down that opening, and may also hit other items on that square with a chance of causing them to fall down the opening (with fragile items breaking rather than being placed on the destination level below).

Kicking dungeon features

Several dungeon features have different possible outcomes from a hero kicking them, which are explained in the table below:

Target	Effect
Wall	If an item is embedded in the wall, there is a dexterity-based chance of the item landing on the hero's square. Otherwise, the hero has a chance of taking minor physical damage with an added chance of wounding their leg, and taking damage abuses dexterity and strength.
Closed door	Exercises dexterity and strength with a chance of breaking the door down, leaving an empty doorway. If a watchman or watch captain in Minetown sees the hero kicking a door, they will issue a warning and the door will become trapped, and immediately doing so again after this warning will anger the entire watch. Kicking a shop door down will anger the shopkeeper unless you immediately pay 400 zorkmids. Successfully kicking down doors also exercises strength unless the door was trapped, in which case the resulting explosion abuses strength instead.
Secret door	May reveal the door, which exercises dexterity. ("Crash! You kick open a secret door!" / "Crash! You uncover a secret door!") Otherwise, the hero takes physical damage with an added chance of wounding their leg, and taking damage abuses dexterity, as well as abusing strength if a wounded leg occurs.
Secret corridor	May reveal the passage, which exercises dexterity. ("Crash! You kick open a secret passage!") Otherwise, the hero takes physical damage with an added chance of wounding their leg, and taking damage abuses dexterity, as well as abusing strength if a wounded leg occurs.
Throne	Has different possible outcomes depending on the hero's luck and whether or the throne has been 'looted': If the hero's luck is below 0 or the throne is already 'looted', then there is a 1⁄3 chance of exercising dexterity and destroying the throne, leaving behind up to 200 gold pieces. Otherwise, if the hero's luck is above 0 and the throne is not already looted, there is a 1⁄3 chance (effectively 2⁄9) that 300-500 gold pieces are knocked loose from the throne onto the hero's square, along with 1-6 gems that can consist of any type of valuable gem and/or worthless glass, and whose amount depends on the hero's luck. This can only occur once per throne, and the throne will be marked as 'looted' afterward. Otherwise, if the hero is current above the lowest dungeon level that they have explored, there is a 1⁄4 chance (effectively 1⁄9) that a trap door will spontaneously open on the hero's square—this behaves mostly like a normal trap door does, except that it will not persist after opening under the hero.
Altar	Has a 1⁄3 chance of the hero taking physical damage, with a further chance of wounding their leg, and otherwise the hero exercises dexterity. In either case, the altar's god will take offense: if the altar is co-aligned, the hero loses 1 point of wisdom, and incurs a -1 penalty to alignment record if it is currently greater than a random number between 0 and -3; if the altar is cross-aligned, then the hero takes a penalty to luck, with a chance of a 1- or 2-point penalty depending on how high their current luck is.
Fountain	Has a 1⁄3 chance of the hero taking physical damage, with a further chance of wounding their leg. Otherwise, dexterity is exercised and there is a 2⁄3 chance of the hero's worn boots becoming wet, which rusts any boots made of iron.
Headstone	There is a 3⁄4 chance of the hero taking physical damage, with a further chance of wounding their leg. Otherwise, there is a 1⁄2 chance (effectively 1⁄8) of generating a hostile ghoul, which can only occur once per grave no matter how the ghoul is summoned. Otherwise, there is a 1⁄8 chance of destroying the headstone and leaving a normal floor square and a stack of rocks in its place: this abuses wisdom, incurs a -1 penalty to alignment record for Archeologists, Samurai or any lawful hero with an alignment record above -10, and will not affect any contents buried on that square during the headstone's initial creation.
Iron bars	Causes the hero to take physical damage, with a further chance of wounding their leg.
Tree	Has three different possible outcomes, assuming that the tree has not produced fruit or monsters: There is a 2⁄3 chance of the hero taking physical damage with a further chance of wounding their leg. If the hero does not hurt their leg, then there is a 14⁄15 chance (effectively 14⁄45) of dropping (8−rnl(7)) fruits—this only occurs once per tree, exercises dexterity and wisdom, and has an equal probability of producing apples, oranges, pears, bananas, or eucalyptus leaves. If no fruit is produced, then there is a 1⁄45 chance that a swarm of (2+rnl(4)) hostile killer bees is generated around the tree's square, which can only occur once per tree and will print a message instead if killer bees are extinct or genocided.
Sink	Has a 4⁄5 chance of causing noise and exercising dexterity with no other effect. If not, then one of the following effects occurs, with each instance of monster/item generation limited to once per sink: There is a 1⁄3 chance (effectively 1⁄15) of a black pudding being generated on the sink's square unless black puddings are extinct or genocided, and dexterity is exercised. If the above roll is unsuccessful, then there is a 1⁄3 chance (effectively 2⁄45) of an amorous demon appearing on the sink's square unless amorous demons are extinct, and dexterity is exercised. The amorous demon's gender will always be the opposite of the hero's current one. If the above roll is unsuccessful, then there is a 1⁄3 chance (effectively 4⁄135) of the sink backing up and generating a random ring on its square, exercising dexterity and wisdom. If the above roll is unsuccessful, then the hero takes physical damage and has a chance of wounding their leg.

Kicking monsters

As described in previous sections, kicking a monster will roll to determine whether the kick succeeds, if it is blocked or otherwise evaded by the monster, and if it deals any damage to that monster. A peaceful monster that the player chooses to kick when prompted will always be angered, no matter the outcome of the actual kick attempt. Kicking a sleeping monster directly will wake them up, in addition to the usual noise waking up other sleeping monsters nearby. A Knight that kicks a sleeping, fleeing or otherwise immobile monster will incur caitiff penalties to alignment record. Kicking a pet is always considered abuse.

A kick performed via the kicking command is treated as a normal attack using the kick attack type: if the hero is polymorphed, then they gain a +1 to-hit bonus, and all of the kick attacks in the hero's routine occur upon selecting a monster target for the command (with a minimum of 1). If the hero is levitating and performs a kick against a monster that does not have flight and is small or tiny in physical size, they have a ¹⁄₃ chance of missing and abusing dexterity. Conversely, a kick towards a large monster will cause the hero to kick off that monster and hurtle in the opposite direction. A monster that is hiding in some manner (e.g. a cloaked mimic or a concealed cave spider) or otherwise not visible to the hero will be revealed (or have their location marked if they are not visible) even if the kick misses, and the monster's hiding will have no effect on to-hit rolls.

The base kicking damage for each strike is calculated using the hero's strength, constitution, dexterity, and a check for worn kicking boots—the exact formula used is

$1d(\frac{Str+Dex+Con}{15}+b)$

where $b$ is 5 if wearing kicking boots and 0 otherwise. The following factors also affect the damage dealt by kicking through the command:

• A 'clumsy' kick halves the base damage dealt, and is distinct from the message "Your clumsy kick does no damage" (though it can be related). Kicks that are clumsy can occur if any of the following apply:
  • The hero's inventory weighs at least ⁷⁄₁₀ (70%) of their carrying capacity, with the probability increasing alongside that weight up to the point of being guaranteed at ⁹⁄₁₀ (90%) or more of the hero's carrying capacity.
  • The hero is fumbling.
  • The hero is wearing a large shield, dragon scales, dragon scale mail, or any suit of armor that has a weight of 350 aum or more.
• Thick-skinned monsters like dragons and mumakil take a base damage of 0 from a kick, which is still increased by enchanted boots and rings of increase damage as described in the point above. Similarly, shades take no base damage from the kick command with the exception of the 1d4 damage from blessed boots.
• After the above calculations, if the base damage dealt is more than 0, then a kicking hero that either has the martial arts skill or is polymorphed into a sasquatch gains a random damage bonus to that kick equal to a value between 0 and half of their dexterity, and this bonus is not directly impacted by the hero's skill level in martial arts if they have any (although it still trains that skill if applicable). This will also exercise the hero's dexterity.
• The enchantment of the hero's boots is also added to the total damage amount, as are the enchantments of any rings of increase damage that the hero has put on or eaten, and blessed boots deal an additional 1d4 damage against major demons and undead creatures.

If a grounded hero that has martial arts skill, is wearing kicking boots and/or is polymorphed into a sasquatch lands a successful kick against a monster, and the monster is not restricted in movement and no more than medium in size, then the monster has a ¹⁄₃ chance of reeling from the blow and being moved one square away from the hero in the direction they were kicked—if the kick does not kill the monster, it is possible for them to reel into a trap that can take effect and may inflict enough damage to finish them.

A monster that is being kicked by the hero and is not impaired can block the kick with their hands, or else evade it by relocating to a random square adjacent to the hero, with a higher chance of blocking or evasion occuring if the kick is clumsy or the monster is capable of flight. Having a kick blocked or evaded nullifies any damage dealt. A kick fired while fumbling has a ¹⁄₃ chance of missing the monster outright. Kicking a monster and making contact (including having them block the kick) will cause passive attacks to trigger as normal, including instant stoning from kicking a chickatrice or cockatrice if the hero is not wearing boots (or transforming the hero into a stone golem if they are polymorphed into any other golem).

Strategy

The kick command is an overall useful tool for a player to have in the back pocket. One commonplace use of the command for early combat against hard-to-hit monsters, with an example being ghosts from a bones file or an attempt to quaff a milky potion: ghosts themselves are not particularly threatening even to lower-level heroes, but have an AC of -5 that is most likely difficult to push through for an early hero. Against monsters, base damage for kicks with the command will usually come up to 1d7-1d8 with kicking boots or 1d2-1d3 without.

Kicking various objects also serves a multitide of strategic purposes for players:

• Kicking a cursed scroll of scare monster can move it without causing it to crumble, which is a good way of relocating scrolls that have become cursed or are uncursed and set to crumble when picked up.
• Kicking gray stones is a common means of testing for loadstones, since their immense weight decreases their movement distance when kicked and they typically will not move at all, unless the hero is wearing gauntlets of power or else has sufficient kicking bonuses—even when such bonuses apply, the distance a loadstone travels will still be noticeably shorter than other gray stones. With that in mind, kicking a gray stone with as few strength-based or kicking enhancements as possible is preferred in order to minimize error.
• For a hero with low luck, kicking at suspected secret doors may be a faster way of revealing them compared to manually searching.
• Kicking cross-aligned altars is potentially useful when trying to avoid crowning as an alternative to keeping your alignment record under 20, as luckier characters have a higher chance of losing two points instead of one.

Messages

Your slow motion kick doesn't hit anything.

You attempted to kick while underwater, and it immediately failed with a ¹⁄₂ chance.

You kick <the monster>.

You attempted a kick against a monster.

There is <a monster/something hidden> here.

This precedes the above message if your kick reveals the monster or just its location.

Floating in the air, you miss wildly!

You failed to kick a monster while levitating due to their size.

<The monster> blocks your <clumsy> kick.

A monster blocked your kick attempt, with "clumsy" added if the kick was clumsy.

<The monster> <teleports/floats/swoops/slides/jumps>, <easily/nimbly> evading your <clumsy> kick.

A monster dodged your kick and moved to another square that was adjacent to you. The words used change depending on how the monster dodged and whether or not your kick was clumsy.

<The monster> reels from the blow.

A successful kick sent a monster reeling.

Variants

EvilHack

In EvilHack, some roles have their kicking abilities modified.

• Druids that use the kick command on live trees will "gently nudge" them instead to avoid hurting the tree, and will not suffer wounded legs when determining the outcome of that action.
• Monks can perform much more powerful kicks than other heroes using the command, with different messages given.