Reflection

Reflection is a property in NetHack that causes magical rays and certain gaze attacks to bounce back from whatever they hit.

Description

A ray of any type hits a hero or monster with reflection will have no effect and be rebounded back in the direction it originated from—the only exception is a ray of lightning, which will still blind the reflecting hero or monster. Lightning from an angry god that is actively smiting the hero will also be reflected with no effect, though this will prompt that god to attempt a wide-angle disintegration beam instead. Reflection does not protect against beams of any kind.

Reflection also protects against a floating eye's passive paralysis gaze and Medusa's stoning gaze: Medusa is also special-cased so that if she can see a hero or monster with reflection, her gaze will turn her to stone instead, as she otherwise possesses stoning resistance.

Reflection can be obtained as an extrinsic from the following items:

• Amulet of reflection
• Shield of reflection
• Silver dragon scales or silver dragon scale mail
• Wielding the Longbow of Diana, the Ranger quest artifact
• Wielding Dragonbane

The only way to obtain intrinsic reflection is to polymorph into a silver dragon.

An item having the reflection property is independent of whether that item is itself normally reflective, i.e. crystal plate mail and mirrors cannot grant reflection (though a mirror can be applied for similar purposes).

If a hero has multiple sources of reflection, only one of them will be triggered when a ray hits them: in order of priority, rays will reflect first from a shield, then from a wielded artifact weapon, then from an amulet, then from body armor, and finally from the hero's scales while they are polymorphed into a silver dragon.

Strategy

Reflection is a high priority in the early game, since it stops damage from dangerous ray-based wands that otherwise-weak monsters may come across or generate with, and is especially important for dealing with breath weapons, e.g. from winter wolf cubs. Later in the game, reflection's protective uses against rays are somewhat superseded with enough elemental resistances and magic resistance, but remains critical to prevent inventory damage from those rays, especially wands and rings, and works particularly well against ones such as the black dragon's breath attack that lack a commonplace resistance property and can result in instadeath otherwise—while disintegration resistance also offers protection against black dragon breath specifically, it is very difficult to obtain without killing a black dragon first.

Heroes who get a singular wish from a magic lamp or some other early source often use it for a reflection source. The preferred items for the property are usually an amulet of reflection or silver dragon scale mail (SDSM), though some heroes will also use a shield of reflection:

• Silver dragon scale mail (and dragon scale mail in general) grants a high amount of AC and does not interfere with spellcasting, while also leaving the cloak slot open for the desired cloak of choice. This is most ideal for Wizards in particular, as they generally have magic resistance from their starting cloak of magic resistance or Magicbane). See GDSM versus SDSM for more details on the merits of silver versus gray dragon scale mail.
• An amulet of reflection grants no AC, but it is also the lightest source of reflection, does not interfere with spellcasting and leaves the suit and shield slots open for other items. The amulet is most favorable for roles such as Monks that do not plan to wear body armor or shields, or other roles with gray dragon scale mail that want to perform two weapon combat. Frequent spellcasters that want to maintain their casting ability and maximize their AC will prefer the amulet and wear a small shield.
• A shield of reflection hinders spellcasting, and prevents two-weapon combat and use of two-handed weapons, but also offers 2 AC alongside its reflection, and is lighter than every other 2 AC shield minus the elven shield. This makes it the preferred wish for roles that cannot or do not want to use two weapon combat and/or do not seek to cast frequently in combat (e.g. a Caveman, Priest or Ranger), and the shield is typically paired with gray dragon scale mail in such cases.

The top level of Sokoban has a ¹⁄₂ chance of containing an uncursed amulet of reflection, and Medusa's Island contains the statue of Perseus, which has a ¹⁄₄ chance of containing a cursed +0 shield of reflection on the map that generates a titan, and has a ³⁄₄ chance on other maps. These are generally the most common sources outside of wishes.

While multiple worn sources of reflection are almost always redundant, the order that reflection sources activate in when reflecting rays may become relevant if you are trying to identify the amulet of reflection.

History

Reflection first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 with the amulet and shield of reflection.

Dragonbane's reflection property is added in NetHack 3.6.1.

Messages

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"This doesn't list all reflection messages yet."

But it reflects from your <item>!

A ray hitting you was reflected.

For some reason you are not affected.

As above, while you are blind.

But it reflects from <monster>'s <item>!

A ray hitting a monster was reflected.

It reflects from your <item>!

A lightning bolt from an angry god was reflected.

For some reason you're unaffected.

As above, while you are blind.

<Monster>'s gaze is reflected by your <item>.

A reflectable gaze attack used against you was reflected.

Medusa doesn't seem to notice that her gaze was reflected.

Medusa's reflected gaze attack had no effect because she can't see the reflection.

The gaze is reflected away by <its> <item>!

A reflectable gaze attack used against a monster was reflected.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Nighthorn grants reflection while wielded.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, reflection only partially deflects damage from reflected rays, with the remaining damage subject to the relevant resistance for that ray's damage type - this also means that reflection does not always prevent inventory damage from rays.

SporkHack also introduces a spellbook of reflection.

dNetHack

In dNetHack and notdNetHack, normal reflection does not reflect the breath weapons of dragons, as well as those of half-dragon monsters that have an experience level or monster level of at least 14 - the exception is the black dragon, whose breath is a disintegration beam. Dragon armor and some artifacts confer "dragonbreath reflection" that additionally reflects these breath weapons, and functions the same as reflection normally does in NetHack.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, dragon breath weapons and rays from wands used at Skilled or higher ignore most sources of reflection with the exception of dragon armor.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, reflection functions as it does in SporkHack, and the spellbook of reflection is also available. Reflection is also available to monsters as a monster spell.