Object materials (SpliceHack)

SpliceHack and SpliceHack-Rewrite are among the many variants with an object materials system, allowing items of the same type to be made of many different materials - for example, skeleton keys can occur in iron, plastic and mithril forms among others.

Material properties

As with most object properties systems, the materials available to objects in SpliceHack have their weight and AC adjusted relative to already-existing materials such as iron, with bonuses and penalties to AC and damage depending on the material of the weapon or armor. Different materials are also subject to different types of erosion, while some are inherently proofed against erosion; some materials may be organic, metallic, or neither, and materials considered flimsy in vanilla NetHack remain unchanged in SpliceHack.

Some materials have a different name in-game than in the source code.

Id	Material	Name	Density	AC	Damage	Erosion Type	Category
0	undefined	mysterious	?	?		burn, rot	organic
1	liquid		10	0			organic
2	wax		15	1		burn, rot	organic
3	veggy	organic	10	1		burn, rot	organic
4	flesh		10	3		burn, rot	organic
5	paper		5	1	-2	burn, rot	organic
6	cloth		10	2		burn, rot	organic
7	leather		15	3		burn, rot	organic
8	wood		30	4	-1 for blades	burn, rot	organic
9	bone		25	4
10	dragon hide		20	10
11	iron		80	5		corrode, rust	metallic
12	metal		70	5			metallic
13	copper		85	4		corrode	metallic
14	silver		90	5			metallic
15	gold		120	3	+2 for blunt weapons		metallic
16	platinum		120	4	+2 for blunt weapons		metallic
17	adamantine		60	7	+3 for sharp weapons		metallic
18	cold iron		80	5		rust	metallic
19	mithril		50	6			metallic
20	orichalcum		90	6
21	plastic		20	3	-2	burn
22	slime	gelatinous	50	3	-4
23	glass		60	5	+3 for sharp weapons
24	gemstone	crystal	55	7	+3 for sharp weapons
25	shadow	shadeweave	1	3
26	mineral	stone	70	6	+1 for blunt weapons

Materials by percentage

The tables in this section show the probabilities of items being generated as a different material than normal.

The table immediately below applies to most weapons, weapon-tools and armor. Chests, large boxes and masks also count as "normally wooden", while skeleton keys, lock picks and tin openers count as "normally metal".

Material	Normally iron or metal	Normally wooden	Normally cloth	Normally leather
keep default	74.0
wax	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
paper	0.1	1.0	2.7	1.0
cloth			79.9	17.0
leather			10.0	74.7
wood	5.0	78.8
bone	1.0	3.0
iron	4.9	5.0
copper	3.0	1.0
silver	5.0	1.0
gold	1.0
adamantine	0.1
cold iron	0.1
mithril	3.0
orichalcum	0.1
plastic	0.8		7.0	6.9
slime	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
glass	1.0
gemstone	0.1
shadow	0.1		0.2	0.2
mineral	0.5	10.0

In the following table, "shiny" items include the shield of reflection, resonant shield, ornate mace, chakram, and most amulets. "Resonant" items are the bugle, lantern, oil lamp, magic lamp, magic whistle, flute, magic flute, harp, magic harp and lute.

Material	shiny	resonant
keep default		54.3
iron	12.0	5.0
metal	5.0
copper	22.0	25.0
silver	29.5	6.0
gold	10.0	3.0
platinum	1.8	1.0
adamantine	0.5	0.1
mithril	7.0	5.0
orichalcum	0.1	0.1
slime	0.1
glass	12.0
gemstone		0.5

The following table applies to all dwarven items and elven items except the elven helm (and lembas wafer).

Material	dwarven	elven
wood		79.9
iron	84.5
copper	2.0	10.0
silver	1.0	3.0
gold	1.0	2.0
platinum	0.9
adamantine	0.2
mithril	9.8	5.0
orichalcum	0.1
gemstone	0.5
shadow		0.1

The following table has a couple of exceptions for specific groups of items.

Material	firearms	horns	elven helm	bows
leather			70.0
wood		5.0	9.9	75.0
bone		68.5		4.0
iron	64.5			7.0
copper	12.5	10.0	20.0	4.0
silver	12.5	5.0		2.0
gold	1.0	1.5		1.0
platinum	1.0
adamantine	0.5	0.5
mithril	7.0	8.0		5.0
orichalcum	1.0	0.5
plastic				2.0
gemstone		0.5
shadow		0.5	0.1

Finally, the bullwhip, flaming lash and all items not categorized above are only generated in their base materials. This means all comestibles, potions, scrolls and spellbooks are only available in their base materials.

Material hatred

Certain monsters receive extra damage when attacked by specific materials.

Material	Extra damage	Monster
silver	d20	major demons, minor demons except the tengu, vampires (even when shapeshifted), werecreatures, infernal players
iron, cold iron	d20	elves, nymphs, minor demons, baobhan-sith
copper	d6	fungi, monsters with disease or sickness attacks

Changing materials

Items can change materials through contact with a transmuter or the reading of a scroll of change material.

New materials

Adamantine

Adamantine is a new material in SpliceHack. It is a metal with higher weight and armor class than mithril. Edged weapons made of adamantine have a +3 damage bonus. It is probably based on the "adamant" and "adamantine" materials mentioned in Greek mythology and in Paradise Lost.

Orichalcum

Orichalcum is a new material in SpliceHack. It offers the same armor class as mithril but is heavier. It is mentioned in some ancient Greek writings, and is often associated with the lost city of Atlantis. The ancient legends and the above materials percentages would suggest that orichalcum is a metal: however, it is internally treated as non-metallic.

Shadeweave

Shadeweave is a new material in SpliceHack. Shadeweave items are extremely lightweight.

Gelatinous

For the gelatinous cube monster, see gelatinous cube.

Gelatinous is a new material in SpliceHack, notable for having a -4 damage penalty when used for weapons.