Object materials (dNetHack)

dNetHack is one of several variants with an object materials system, which allows most weapons and armor to generate with varying materials. Armor is also differentiated by size and body plan, requiring even more consideration for what a given player should seek out. Like other variants, the material of an item determines its weight, ability to erode, and any bonus damage or effects against certain creatures.

Material generation

The majority of items use a pool of possible materials when spawned, based on base material or categories. This only affects the initial material they spawn as, and does not prevent the items from being changed due to the (rare) influence of other effects after they've been created. However, some items and almost every single artifact will only ever spawn as their default material. Typically, items with fixed materials are items that include the material in their name, like elven mithril-coats and studded leather armor. Most shirts and cloth body armor, such as robes, also have fixed materials. For an indication whether or not a specific item has a randomized material, please visit that item's page.

Items can be wished for as any material they have a chance to normally spawn as. This means that you could wish for a silver or glass long sword, since both materials are possible materials for naturally spawned longswords, which use the generic iron/metal base material table. However, you cannot wish for a dragontooth long sword, since it's not a possible random base material for that item. Despite this, there are various objects generated in certain special levels or in certain monsters' inventories that break these rules, like the dragontooth long swords that intoners can spawn with or the ceramic armor generated in the Arcadia shops.

For wishing, common recommendations are to wish for mithril, glass, or bone for metallic armor if possible, dragonhide for leather or cloth armor, and glass, gold, or silver for weapons.

Mithril offers some of the best protection possible for armor at minimal weight, but is metallic and therefore blocks spellcasting. Glass offers barely less protection for more weight, but does not interfere with spells, and bone is a lighter weight but less protective version of glass. However, since most useful armor pieces with varying materials are not body armor, the loss in defenses is rarely more than a single point of AC or DR. Gemstone can be considered for certain items for protection at the cost of weight, but since very few items can naturally spawn as gemstone this is rarely relevant. Note that when wishing, a specific gem subtype must be specified to get the right material. For cloth or leather cloaks or armor, dragonhide is almost always the best option for the huge defensive increase.

For weapons, glass offers lesser weight compared to iron while providing a minor damage buff. Gold and silver offer damage bonuses relevant to the majority of monsters near the end of the game, but are noticeably (for silver) and substantially (for gold) heavier than iron or metal, and significantly heavier than glass. With weight to spare, they'll typically significantly outperform glass, but are more restrictive otherwise. Platinum is rarely worth using over gold, and mithril is lighter weight even than glass but has no other benefits for weapons. Green-steel and dragonhide are theoretically strong, but in practice are so restricted to weapon types not really worth wishing for.

Artifacts generated are always generated with their specific material if they have one, otherwise the base material of the base object type they possess. Certain artifacts are 'malleable', including all nameable artifacts and some others (Excalibur, most notably). Malleable artifacts can be any size and material, and can be wished as any material or created from a base item with an material. This can be particularly powerful with certain combinations, such as an Orcrist created out of the guaranteed large silver wrathful elven broadsword in the Mordor Ruins Quest.

The collection of tables below lists the various pools of possible materials with their probabilities. Racial material lists apply for their category of gear. Shiny materials are used for amulets, circlets, and shields of reflection. Resonant materials are used for most instruments other than horns, firearms, lamps & lanterns. The generic material lists are exclusively used for weapons, armor, and some tools not previously covered by another list, and make up the majority of equipment found in the dungeon. In addition to any items with fixed materials, items that generate with categories and materials not listed in these tables, such as silver sabers or crystal swords, always spawn as their default material.

Dwarvish materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Iron	80.0%
Mithril	10.0%
Copper	5.0%
Silver	2.0%
Gold	1.5%
Platinum	1.0%
Gemstone	0.5%

Elven materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	90.0%
Mithril	5.0%
Silver	2.5%
Copper	1.5%
Gold	0.5%
Bone	0.5%

High elven materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Mithril	90.0%
Silver	6.0%
Gold	3.0%
Gemstone	1.0%

Droven materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	90.0%
Mithril	4.5%
Silver	4.5%
Shadowsteel	1.0%

Orcish materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	54.9%
Iron	25.0%
Bone	16.0%
Lead	2.0%
Gold	1.5%
Obsidian	0.5%
Green-steel	0.1%

Shiny materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	95.0%
Silver	1.5%
Copper	1.1%
Gold	0.6%
Iron	0.6%
Glass	0.5%
Mithril	0.3%
Metal	0.3%
Platinum	0.1%

Resonant materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	70.0%
Copper	10.0%
Silver	6.0%
Iron	5.0%
Mithril	5.0%
Gold	3.0%
Platinum	1.0%

Horn materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Bone	70.0%
Copper	10.0%
Mithril	7.0%
Silver	5.0%
Wood	5.0%
Gold	2.0%
Dragonhide (dragonbone)	1.0%

Bow materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Wood	97.5%
Iron	0.7%
Mithril	0.5%
Copper	0.4%
Bone	0.4%
Silver	0.2%
Metal	0.2%
Gold	0.1%

Iron/metal materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Base material	97.5%
Iron	0.5%
Wood	0.5%
Silver	0.5%
Copper	0.3%
Mithril	0.3%
Gold	0.1%
Platinum	0.1%
Bone	0.1%
Glass	0.1%

Wood materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Wood	98.0%
Mineral	1.0%
Iron	0.5%
Bone	0.3%
Copper	0.1%
Silver	0.1%

Cloth materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Cloth	80.0%
Leather	19.9%
Dragonhide	0.1%

Leather materials
Material	Probability (percentage)
Leather	75.0%
Cloth	24.0%
Dragonhide	1.0%

List of materials

This table lists all materials and their core attributes, including weight, cost, and defense adjustments, erosion, and various other attributes considered a key part of the material. Damage adjustment, as well as special effects, are included in a separate table.

The weight, cost, and defense multipliers are only defined relative to specific materials, and are not applied to any items that are normally that base type. For example, an dwarvish mithril-coat is typically made of mithril, costs 240 zorkmids, weighs 48 aum, and has 4 base AC and 3 base DR. This is not modified again by the effects of the mithril material, since any effects are considered to be incorporated into the item's statistics already. However, an iron dwarvish mithril coat will be adjusted to cost only 48 zorkmids, weigh 80 aum, and provide only 3 AC due to the material conversion.

All multipliers are applied directly and before other modifications - the result is always equal to the base weight, cost, or relevant defense multiplied by the ratio of the previous and current multiplier, ^new⁄_old. These multipliers are applied before effects like enchantment on cost and defenses. Unlike most other calculations in NetHack, the result always rounds up for the final AC or DR. As a result, for many armor pieces the resulting AC & DR is very similar to the original material, since the defense multipliers are too close to have much of an effect on items without very high base defenses.

Gemstone items have varying names, costs, and colors, depending on the item in question. When created, they assign a random valuable gem as their subtype, taking description, item color and cost from the gem chosen. The color is set to match the gem, and the cost multiplier is increased by ¹⁄₁₀ of the gem's base cost - for example, a diamond adds 400 to the cost multiplier. For gems worth less than 500 (fluorite), this has no effect, and the cost multiplier is capped at 500 regardless. If unidentified, this cost multiplier doesn't take effect - the shopkeepers will always sell as if the cost multiplier was 250 or higher, and buy as if it was 100. All gemstone subtypes have the same chance to generate, with the exception of obsidian, which will never occur. None of the possible subtypes affect defenses.

Certain materials also have different appearances based on the item type. In the table, the more common alternate names are listed - these are functionally the same materials with no difference. Most of these name changes are for specific items - such as plant matter as straw for sedge hats, or cloth as silk for gentleman's suits. Some names specific to singular items or artifacts were not listed, view the page of the item or artifact in question for their base materials.

Dragonhide items are notable in that they change description based on item class and base item material - items with hard base materials become 'dragonbone', or 'dragontooth' for weapons, and soft materials become 'dragonhide'. Items with a base material for dragonhide show up as "dragonscale".

Material	Default color	Weight multiplier (density)	Cost multiplier	Defense multiplier	Organic/Metallic	Hard	Flammable	Rottable	Rustprone	Corrodeable	Shatterable
Liquid	Brown	1.0	1	1	Organic	No	No	No	No	No	No
Wax	White	1.5	1	1	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Veggy (straw, flower-woven, organic material, plant matter)	Brown	1.0	1	1	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Flesh	Red	1.0	3	3	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Paper	White	1.0	2	1	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Cloth (wool, silk)	Brown	1.0	3	2	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Leather	Brown	1.5	5	3	Organic	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Wood	Brown	3.0	8	4	Organic	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Bone	White	2.5	20	4	Organic	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Chitin	Green	2.5	20	4	Organic	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Shell	White	2.5	30	5	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Dragonhide (dragonbone, dragontooth)	White (variable)	3.5	200	8	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Iron (steel)	Cyan	8.0	10	5	Metallic	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Green-steel	Bright green	7.0	10	6	Metallic	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Metal	Cyan	7.0	1	5	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Copper (bronze, brass)	Yellow	8.0	1	5	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Silver	Gray	9.0	30	5	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Gold	Yellow	12.0	60	3	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Platinum	White	12.0	80	4	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Lead	Black	12.0	5	3	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Mithril	Gray	4.0	50	6	Metallic	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Plastic	White	2.0	10	3	Neither	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Glass (crystal)	Bright cyan	6.0	20	5	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Gemstone	Red (variable)	5.5	100	7	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Mineral (stone, ceramic, marble, enamel)	Gray	5.0	15	6	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Obsidian	Black	6.0	20	4	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Salt	White	6.0	15	4	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Shadowsteel (corporeal darkness)	Black	3.0	50	6	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Mercurial (chaos stuff)	Gray	10.0	150	5	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Firmament (glittering dark ceramic)	Black	5.0	300	10	Neither	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

Material effects

Certain materials have various special effects and other interactions. For visual clarity, a table with these effects is presented separately from the base material attributes. For materials that adjust base weapon damage, this only applies if the original item was not this material - otherwise, it is considered already included in the base item damage.

Material	Effects
Liquid	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage, to a minimum of base damage of 1d2. For example, 1d8 becomes 1d6. This reduction is applied after all other damage dice adjustments, including from size. This reduction is also only applied to the first size of dice rolled for weapons with multiple, like
Wax	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Veggy (plant matter)	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Flesh	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Paper	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Cloth	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Leather	Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage.
Wood	Weapons made of wood can be carved.
Dragonhide	Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for piercing weapons.
Iron	Deals an extra 1d(defender's level) bonus damage when used against iron-hating targets (mostly elves and fey).
Green-steel	Deals an extra 1d(defender's level) bonus damage when used against iron-hating targets. Deals an extra 2d9 unholy damage to unholy-hating targets, even when not cursed, stacking with any other unholy damage. Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for piercing or slashing weapons.
Silver	Deals an extra 1d20 bonus damage when used against silver-hating targets (mostly demons and vampires).
Gold	Increases the holy damage of blessed items when used against holy-hating targets to 1d20, from the typical 1d4. Increases the unholy damage of cursed items when used against unholy-hating targets, doubling the number of dice rolled without affecting die size. Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for bludgeoning weapons.
Platinum	Deals an extra 1d5 damage to lawful-hating monsters, including all chaotic monsters, doubled for divine minions or demons. Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for bludgeoning weapons.
Lead	Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for bludgeoning weapons. Applies a penalty of -2 to die size for weapon base damage for piercing or slashing weapons. This bonus can cancel itself out, but the penalties for piercing and slashing weapons do not stack.
Glass	Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for piercing or slashing weapons. Is the only non-opaque material, and can be seen through. Non-base material faceless items that are not made of glass cannot be seen through, and while worn will act as a blindfold.
Gemstone	Gemstone items with the jade subtype specifically deal an extra 1d20 bonus damage when used against silver-hating targets (mostly demons and vampires). This does not stack with silver damage from droven holy symbol or silvered artifacts, but does stack with silver poison.
Obsidian	Applies a bonus of +2 to die size for weapon base damage for piercing or slashing weapons.
Shadowsteel	Applies a bonus of +2 die sizes to weapon base damage for piercing or slashing weapons. On any item, begins to evaporate (a special form of erosion) if exposed to light. This process degrades the item by one step per turn, and will completely destroy the item if left unchecked. This applies only when standing in lit squares, and is blocked by a worn cloak with decent MC. The chance to degrade is always at MC0, around 34⁄50 (68%) at MC1, around 18⁄50 (36%) at MC2, and 1⁄50 at MC3 (2%). Only cloaks contribute to this calculation. Fixed items will recover from this damage when in darkness, one level per turn as long as the object is in a dark location or inside a container. Invisibility will prevent these items from degrading or repairing.
Mercurial	Applies a myriad of assorted effects, scaling with sanity and insight, for certain characters. Takes differing forms, appearing as 'streaming', 'chained', or 'kinstealing' depending on sanity. For more information, see Mercurial.