Ring of slow digestion

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Name	slow digestion
Appearance	random
Base price	200 zm
Weight	3

A ring of slow digestion is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.

Generation

Wizards may be given a ring of slow digestion as one of the two random rings in their starting inventory.

General stores and jewelers shops can sell rings of slow digestion.

Description

Putting on the ring grants the slow digestion property, which nullifies the ordinary consumption of one nutrition point per turn that hero experiences: nutrition consumption from all other sources is unaffected, including ring hunger from the ring itself, and wearing two rings does not cause the effect to stack.

If a monster engulfs and tries to digest a hero wearing this ring, the hero will be expelled immediately (i.e. the ring slows their digestion), and putting on the ring while being digested will also cause that monster to spit the hero out. Metallivores and gelatinous cubes (including a hero in the form of either monster) are incapable of consuming a ring of slow digestion, as it would similarly "digest slow".

Dropping the ring onto a sink will not lose or bury the ring, and will prompt the player to type-name it. Monsters will not wear this ring.

Strategy

The ring of slow digestion is highly valued among most players, to the point of being worth a wish once all other parts of a standard kit are accounted for: A non-spellcasting hero can go without food twenty times longer than normal, while a character that casts regularly can do so without fear of emptying their stomach as quickly. For Wizards in particular, the ring of slow digestion is such a major boon that many players consider start scumming until they begin a game with the ring. Players going for pacifist conduct and/or food-related conducts (such as vegan or foodless) will consider the ring a high-priority target, as will players engaging in strategies such as credit cloning or most forms of farming to a heavier extent than normal.

Wearing the ring is also useful to prevent engulfing by purple worms and other digesting monsters, though if a digestion attack pulls you off a steed, that pet will be in danger of instadeath should the monster attack them next (unless they are too large to be digested).

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.

White dragon scales and white dragon scale mail also provide slow digestion.

Identification

The ring of slow digestion is somewhat difficult to informally identify, as its effects are not obvious like some other 200zm rings; while you can identify a ring of slow digestion by its nutrition-cancelling property, the process is complicated slightly if you are extensively testing rings. Since dropping the ring into a sink does not consume it and prints a distinct message, you can reliably type-identify such a ring and wear it immediately. The ring can also be formally identified by testing for it while inside a digesting monster, though this is much riskier.

One method to test a non-cursed ring for slow digestion involves watching your nutrition level cross a visible threshold, i.e. the screen no longer shows you as satiated or you become hungry—once it does so, put on the ring being tested and eat or quaff something that provides low nutrition, such as a fortune cookie or potion of fruit juice. If you go a long time (e.g., as many as 800 turns for a fortune cookie) before crossing that threshold again, the ring is probably slow digestion.

Wearing multiple rings

Due to a bug, with two rings of slow digestion and good technique the player can go indefinitely long without losing any nutrition. The ring hunger for each hand is calculated on different turns, which is normally counterproductive due to the higher nutrition consumption from multiple rings combined with the inability to stack ring effects; however, ring hunger for your left hand is calculated turn 4 (mod 20), while right hand hunger is calculated on turn 12 (mod 20). The idea is to wear both rings, but removing one of the rings for the turn that its hunger is calculated. There are no known ascensions that have made use of this trick alone to ascend with the foodless conduct intact.

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.

The dual ring of slow digestion trick no longer works, as ring hunger is now random.

History

The ring of slow digestion first appears in NetHack 3.3.0.

Messages

You get regurgitated!

Obviously <the monster> didn't like your taste.

You were engulfed by a digesting monster, and got spit out due to a worn ring of slow digestion.

The ring is regurgitated!

You dropped a ring of slow digestion down a sink. If unidentified, this will prompt you to name it.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Flame Mages, Ice Mages and Necromancers may be given a ring of slow digestion as the random ring in their starting inventory.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the ring of slow digestion has no effect while worn by clockwork automaton or incantifier heroes since both do not eat food normally like other heroes, though the latter can still drain the ring for energy as normal.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, monsters will wear the ring of slow digestion, which prevents them from being digested and instantly killed.

The ring is much more valuable, as dragons and some shambling horrors are capable of digestion. Some of the stronger monsters in the game, such as Kas, Vecna and Kathryn the Ice Queen, are generated with a ring of slow digestion; some player monsters on the Astral Plane are also given the ring in order to weaken "purple rain" and other similar strategies for trivializing the level.