Silver dragon scales
[ silver dragon scales 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | silver dragon scales |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 3 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 700 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Silver dragon scales are a type of body armor that appear in NetHack. They are made of dragon hide like all dragon scales.
Contents
Generation
Silver dragon scales are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
A silver dragon that leaves a corpse behind on death (i.e. always, unless killed by disintegration) have a 1⁄3 chance of leaving behind dragon scales, while a dragon revived by the wand of undead turning or spell of turn undead only has a 1⁄20 chance to leave behind scales.[1] Silver dragon scales dropped this way are always generated +0 and uncursed.[2]
Description
While worn, silver dragon scales confer 3 base AC and reflection. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn silver dragon scales will convert them into silver dragon scale mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing silver dragon scales will turn the wearer into a silver dragon, and doing so while wearing the scale mail will additionally revert them to scales.[3][4][5]
Strategy
Silver dragon scales are one of the two most coveted types, with the other being gray dragon scales, and both are used to create what is generally considered the best form of body armor available. Most characters will prefer either type for their dragon mail, though there are other instances where another color may be sought out - for details on what makes silver the most preferable color for a given character, see the strategy section of the article on silver dragon scale mail.
History
Silver dragon scales first appear in SLASH 6, and make their vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
Variants
In some variants, dragon scale mail is phased out in favor of dragon-scaled armor, whose implementation is based on a proposal by dtsund. Instead of being made into mail of its own, dragon scales are treated as a cloak, and reading a scroll of enchant armor melds them onto a worn set of body armor, generally augmenting that armor by adding its AC and conferred extrinsic properties to it. Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM.
Some variants also give silver dragon scales additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of gray dragon scale armor - due to already being a powerful item, they may be less commonly given properties compared to other colors. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make other colors more worthwhile.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, gnomish characters can use their tinker technique to turn various cloaks into a cloak of magic resistance with enough time, food and patience, which may make silver dragon scales more favorable for them to seek out.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, silver dragon scales are one of the few sets of dragon scales to not confer additional properties while worn.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dragon scales and dragon scale mail have randomized powers and appearances in each game - to wish for dragon armor or scales by its corresponding power, either type of armor must be formally identified first, e.g. by using a scroll of identify on dropped dragon scales (which identifies the matching scale mail along with it) or by witnessing the dragon use its breath weapon.
Silver dragon scales are effectively replaced by reflecting dragon scales, which confer only 1 base AC like all dragon scales in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn silver dragon scales do not confer any additional properties, but its reflection additionally affects dragon breath as in NetHack, which most sources of reflection in dNetHack cannot do. Dragon scales also weigh 150 aum.
The Platinum Dragon Plate is an unaligned artifact set of silver dragon scale mail that can be cancelled to return them to scale form (e.g. to form them into a scale shield).
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn silver dragon scales confer no additional properties, but provide reflection that affects dragonbreath and rays from wands used at Skilled or higher. They also weigh 300 aum like all dragon scales in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).
