Ring

Item classes
" Amulets	[ Armor
% Comestibles	$ Coins
* Gems	! Potions
= Rings	? Scrolls
+ Spellbooks	` Statues
( Tools	` Boulders
) Weapons	/ Wands

A ring, represented by =, is a type of magical item that appears in NetHack. Rings produce a variety of effects when worn, and each ring always has a randomized appearance.

Generation

Rings comprise 3% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 5% each in containers and on the Rogue level, and 8% in Gehennom. All types of rings are equally likely to be generated: this means a 0.179% chance each in containers and on the Rogue level, a 0.286% chance in Gehennom, and a 0.107% chance elsewhere.

Of the rings marked as 90% cursed below, the remaining 10% are uncursed. The beatitude of chargeable rings is determined by the following table:

	≥ +1	+0	≤ −1	Total
blessed	15.1%	0.4%	0.2%	15.7%
uncursed	33.3%	1.7%	6.3%	41.3%
cursed	1.6%	0.4%	40.9%	42.9%

All other rings are generated 10% cursed, 90% uncursed, and 0% blessed. Rings of invisibility carried by Nazgul are always cursed.

The initial enchantment of a chargeable ring has an exponentially-weighted probability, but tends to be in the range of −3 to +3.

Description

Rings are worn by using P to put them on, and removed using R; one ring can be worn on each hand. While there is no difference between the left or the right in terms of the ring's effects, a cursed wielded weapon may prevent access to the right finger.

All rings have a weight of 3, except for the meat ring (which has a weight of 1). All rings except for the ring of shock resistance have a 1-in-3 chance of exploding when subjected to shock damage.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

As of commit e4e8eea4, characters are not only right-handed, but may also be left-handed. The text above should be modified to refer to dominant and non-dominant hands, instead of right and left.

Ring hunger

Furthermore, with the exception of the meat ring and chargeable rings at +0 charge, worn rings cause an additional nutrition point to be deducted once every 20 turns. This is cumulative—a player wearing two rings will lose 2 additional hunger points every 20 turns. This sense of "ring hunger" is distinct from the additional hunger-causing effects of rings of regeneration, conflict, and hunger, all of which cause a nutrition point to be lost every other turn. The ring of slow digestion prevents ordinary nutrition consumption, but still causes ring hunger.

For a full list of hunger causes and amounts, see the articles on nutrition and foodless.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

A +0 ring of protection now causes ring hunger if it is your only source of extrinsic protection. If you are wearing two rings of protection and the one on your left hand is +0, ring hunger applies to it, even if the right ring is charged.

If you have slow digestion from a non-ring source (e.g. white dragon scale mail), you will still incur ring hunger, even if not wearing any rings or amulet.

The deductions due to ring hunger still occur on average every 20 turns, but the actual turn is randomized, so ring hunger can no longer be avoided by strategically removing rings.

Table of rings

Ring	Cost	Extrinsic granted	Notes
meat ring	5	None	symbolized by %; never randomly generated
ring of adornment	100	+n charisma	chargeable
ring of hunger	100	hunger	90% generated cursed
ring of protection	100	+n protection	chargeable
ring of protection from shape changers	100	protection from shape changers
ring of stealth	100	stealth
ring of sustain ability	100	sustain ability
ring of warning	100	warning
ring of aggravate monster	150	aggravate monster	90% generated cursed
ring of cold resistance	150	cold resistance
ring of gain constitution	150	+n constitution	chargeable
ring of gain strength	150	+n strength	chargeable
ring of increase accuracy	150	+n to-hit bonus	chargeable
ring of increase damage	150	+n damage bonus	chargeable
ring of invisibility	150	invisibility	cursed if from a Nazgul
ring of poison resistance	150	poison resistance
ring of see invisible	150	see invisible
ring of shock resistance	150	shock resistance
ring of fire resistance	200	fire resistance
ring of free action	200	free action
ring of levitation	200	levitation
ring of regeneration	200	regeneration
ring of searching	200	searching
ring of slow digestion	200	slow digestion
ring of teleportation	200	teleportitis	90% generated cursed
ring of conflict	300	conflict
ring of polymorph	300	polymorphitis	90% generated cursed
ring of polymorph control	300	polymorph control
ring of teleport control	300	teleport control

Charging

Chargeable rings modify one of your attributes by n, where n is the value of the ring's charge, which can be positive or negative. The enchantment of a chargeable ring (i.e., adornment, gain constitution, gain strength, increase accuracy, increase damage, or protection - may be altered by charging, for example with a scroll of charging or the PYEC.

In contrast to most chargeable items, a ring retains its enchantment much like weapons and armor. Blessed charging adds 1 to 3 points of enchantment; cursed charging removes 1 to 2 points; and uncursed charging always adds 1. When a ring with a positive enchantment is charged, it has an ^x⁄₇ chance of exploding (where x is the enchantment prior to charging); rings with enchantments of ≤ −5 or ≥ +7 will always explode when charged. Therefore, the highest possible enchantment is +9 by charging (and +10 by random generation).

Below are the odds of using blessed scrolls of charging to achieve the enchantment on the top row starting from the enchantment listed in the left column without the ring exploding.

	≥ +1	≥ +2	≥ +3	≥ +4	≥ +5	≥ +6	≥ +7	≥ +8	+9
From +0	100%	95%	83%	60%	43%	26%	11%	3.9%	0.8%
From +1	N/A	86%	78%	62%	38%	24%	12%	3.3%	0.7%
From +2	N/A	N/A	71%	61%	45%	22%	12%	4.2%	0.6%
From +3	N/A	N/A	N/A	57%	46%	31%	10%	4.3%	1.1%
From +4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	43%	33%	19%	2.9%	0.8%
From +5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	29%	20%	10%	0.5%
From +6	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	14%	9.5%	4.8%

Strategy

Rings have various applications beyond simply wearing them. For example, topaz, sapphire, ruby, steel, diamond, and emerald rings can be used to make slow but semi-permanent engravings. Since this is dependent on the appearance rather than the function of the ring, it can be done even if the ring isn't identified.

Eating rings

Eating rings is a way to permanently obtain the effects granted by wearing some rings - however, this is only possible for rings of metal or wood. See that article for more information.

Identification

When a ring is dropped on top of a sink, you will get a message that can help you identify the ring. Since the ring is usually lost in the process, this is best done with rings that you have multiples of. If you are on the brink of starvation and have several unidentified rings, you may consider giving up all of them to a sink - the ring of slow digestion is not lost when dropped down the drain.

FIQHack

In FIQHack monsters can wear rings. Also, you can retrieve rings from sinks by destroying the sink and digging a pit beneath it.

Encyclopedia entry

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

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

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

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