Mithril
Mithril is a material for items that appears in NetHack.
Mithril is a lightweight metal used in armor for dwarves and elves to produce armor. It is immune to erosion, but will hinder spellcasting.
Contents
Description
There are three items made of mithril:
Metallivores such as rock moles and xorns can eat any item made of mithril, save for the Amulet.
Strategy
Dwarvish and elven mithril-coats are the lightest such suits of body armor for the protection they provide (6 and 5 base AC, respectively, along with MC3).
The Amulet of Yendor's material prevents it from being damaged or destroyed, but has no other noticeable effects.
Origin
Mithril is a material derived from the Middle-earth setting created by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Variants
Some variants add new items made of mithril, and variants that implement an object materials system also make it possible for certain metallic items to be made of mithril.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the dark elven mithril-coat is a suit of body armor made from the material, and is functionally identical to a dwarvish mithril-coat.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, chunks of raw mithril ore can be found buried on the first level of the Ruins of Moria, but due to being unrefined they are considered stones (and thus made of mineral) rather than actual mithril. Their only purpose is to be sold at shops, where they are priced at more than twice the value of a dilithium crystal.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, mithril weighs half as much as iron. High-elven armor and weapons use mithril as their base object material.
Some artifacts are made of mithril:
- Soulmirror (neutral mithril plate mail)
- The Web of Lolth (chaotic silvered elven mithril-coat)
- The Armor of Khazad-dum (lawful dwarvish mithril-coat)
- It is possible to create a mithril Excalibur by dipping a mithril long sword, though these are usually difficult to find.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, mithril body armor always grants at least MC2.
Dwarvish and elven mithril-coats are replaced by racial ring mail - a dwarvish or elven ring mail made of mithril thus acts identically to a mithril-coat. Hobbits that are given an elven ring mail will always get a mithril set; dwarf lords and kings that get dwarvish ring mail have an increased chance of it being mithril.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, mithril gives a +2 damage bonus to slashing and piercing weapons, and is among one of the better materials for armor in particular. Mithril is inherently fixed, but is still subject to decay via the monster spell destroy armor.
Elves wearing mithril body armor are granted MC3, compared to MC2 for all other races. Orcish monsters are mithril-hating and take extra damage from mithril weapons: orcs wielding or wearing any mithril that make skin contact take damage from that action, and their HP regeneration is suppressed until the item is unwielded or taken off. Wielding such an item without gloves will also result in a -1 luck penalty.
Most objects with a base material of iron, steel, or wood have a low chance of being randomly generated as mithril, including non-cloth armor and weapons of dwarvish and elven make. Horns, most bows and reflection-granting objects also have a slightly higher chance of generating as mithril, and staves of matter use mithril as their base material. The artifact Dirge is a mithril long sword.
SlashTHEM
In addition to SLASH'EM changes, SlashTHEM features the mithril ring as a randomized ring appearance made of mithril.
Encyclopaedia entry
_Mithril_! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like
copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.
