Mithril

Mithril is a form of material that occurs in NetHack.

Description

Mithril is a non-organic and rigid material that is completely immune to erosion, including by means such as reading a scroll of destroy armor or having the destroy armor monster spell cast at a hero wearing mithril armor.

As a metallic material, wearing mithril armor increases a hero's spellcasting failure rates–with the exceptions of Knights wearing iron armor while casting clerical spells–but tends to offer more protection in terms of AC compared to common non-metallic armor such as leather armor.

Mithril cannot be eaten under normal circumstances, but rock moles and xorns are metallivores that are capable of eating mithril objects, though they will never attempt to eat unique items made of mithril. This also applies to a hero that polymorphs into either type of metallivore.

List of mithril items

There are three items made of mithril:

• dwarvish mithril-coat
• elven mithril-coat
• Amulet of Yendor

Strategy

Dwarven and elven mithril-coats are the lightest such suits of body armor for the protection they provide: a dwarven mithril-coat grants 6 base AC, while an elven mithril-coat grants 5 base AC, and both suits also grant MC2 and weigh 150 aum.

The Amulet of Yendor's material prevents it from being damaged or destroyed by any means, but has no other noticeable effects on the Amulet itself.

History

Mithril items technically first appear in NetHack 3.0.0, though the material is not formally defined until NetHack 3.0.10. From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, mithril-coats grants MC3 while worn. NetHack 3.6.0 changes the magic cancellation of mithril-coats and several other pieces of armor via commit 5bd6ba0d, reducing it to its current value.

In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7, mithril armor is just as vulnerable to armor-destroying magic as any other material. NetHack 5.0.0 revamps the effects of armor-destroying magic via commit 619de1ec so that armor made of naturally erosion-proofed material is ignored.

Origin

Mithril is a material derived from the Middle-earth setting created by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Variants

NetHack variants often 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. The artifact Dirge is a mithril long sword.

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: orcish heroes wielding or wearing any mithril take damage from that action if the mithril makes skin contact, 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 any 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.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM changes, SlashTHEM adds the "mithril ring" as a randomized appearance for rings that is made of mithril.

GnollHack

In GnollHack, mithril as a material has half the weight of iron, and has the following effect on weapons and armor:

• Mithril weapons have their damage dice size increased by 2 (e.g. 1d6 -> 1d8).
• Mithril armor can be safely enchanted from ⁴⁄₃ of the usual limit (e.g., a dwarven mithril-coat can be safely enchanted from +4 rather than +3). The armor also gains different boons depending on whether it is a suit or a different type of armor.
  • Body armor: 3 extra AC, +MC3, bisection resistance, spellcasting penalty is multiplied by 0.9 and reduced by another 30%
  • Other armor: 2 extra AC, +MC1, spellcasting penalty is multiplied by 0.9

Encyclopedia 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.

[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]