Imperial elven armor

[   imperial elven armor
Appearance	runed plate mail
Slot	body armor
Base size	large
Body armor type	heavy
AC	6
DR	6
MC	3
Magical item?	yes
Future tech?	yes
Properties	can be enchanted to +7
Base price	9000 zm
Default weight	110
Base material	wood

[   imperial elven helm
Appearance	runed faceless helm
Slot	helm
Base size	medium
AC	2
DR	4
MC	2
Magical item?	yes
Future tech?	yes
Properties	can be enchanted to +7 covers the face entirely
Base price	9000 zm
Default weight	110
Base material	wood

[   imperial elven gauntlets
Appearance	runed gauntlets
Slot	gloves
Base size	medium
AC	2
DR	4
MC	1
Magical item?	yes
Future tech?	yes
Properties	can be enchanted to +7
Base price	900 zm
Default weight	15
Base material	wood

[   imperial elven boots
Appearance	runed armored boots
Slot	boots
Base size	medium
AC	2
DR	3
MC	1
Magical item?	yes
Future tech?	yes
Properties	can be enchanted to +7 stealth
Base price	900 zm
Default weight	25
Base material	wood

Imperial elven armor is a rare type of magical armor that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. They come in several forms, with one for each basic slot of armor minus the shield:

• Imperial elven armor, a suit of armor which appears as runed plate mail when unidentified. This is referred to as "imperial elven body armor" within the article in order to distinguish it from the other pieces of armor.
• Imperial elven helm, a helm which appears as a runed faceless helm when unidentified.
• Imperial elven gauntlets, a pair of gloves which appears as a pair of runed gauntlets when unidentified.
• Imperial elven boots, a pair of boots which appears as a pair of runed armored boots when unidentified.

All imperial elven armor has a base material of wood.

Generation

Imperial elven gear is only randomly generated in a few areas: the Anachrononaut quest, the Android quest, the Elf Madperson quest, and on specific monsters that are not randomly generated in the main dungeon. As future tech, only Tourists may wish for it normally.

Imperial elven armor can be rarely be made of mithril, silver, copper, gold or bone, with probabilities identical to normal, non-cloth elven gear.

Upgradeable gear

Imperial elven gear comes in two subtypes: upgradeable and non-upgradeable. Upgradeable armor pieces mostly occur in fixed locations in the game, and have story-line reasons why they were damaged and need repairs.

• For elven Madpeople specifically, there is a full set of thoroughly burnt and rotted imperial elven gear in a box within their quest. This set of armor is always bright green and made of wood, and is located directly on Lady Constance's square. The set begins with no upgrades applied.
• There is a full set of thoroughly rotted imperial elven gear on each lower filler level of the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest, with a small chance of extra pieces of gear being generated on the floor of those same levels. Those sets are random colors and have no upgrades already applied, but can be upgraded as normal by any Anachrononauts or Android with the capabilities. The armor can be any material possible with the usual odds, and thus will very often be made of wood.
• Star-emperors and empresses are found inside crystal skulls carried by some illithids. They both generate with a full set of gear, and unlike other sources of upgradeable gear these have some upgrades already applied:
  • The boots have the speed and kicking upgrades.
  • The gloves have the dexterity, strength, increased damage, and grappling upgrades.
  • The body armor has the flying, fast healing, sickness resistance, and medium armor upgrades.
  • The helm has the breathless and accuracy upgrades.
• Puppet-emperor Xeleth and Puppet-empress Xedalli each have a set of technically-upgradeable golden gear that already has all possible upgrades applied. However, this set is also self-cursing and infested with byakhee larvae: if the hero were to equip the full set of gear, they would take around 52 points of damage per turn from the biting and stinging larvae, and would likely be unable to quickly remove it due to its self-cursing behavior. These monsters are also exclusively found on the Planes for elven Madpeople, and therefore are out of reach for normal runs anyway.

Non-upgradeable gear

Non-upgradeable gear is found in the inventories of certain monsters, typically with upgrades already applied. Unlike upgradeable gear, this gear is missing features simply because it is less sophisticated, and cannot be upgraded any further no matter what the hero does.

• Star-elves have a full set of imperial elven gear, with a random material following the usual odds. The gloves have the dexterity upgrade, the body armor has the immunity to sickness upgrade, the helm has the breathless, blindness resistance and accuracy upgrades, and the boots have no upgrades.
• Carcosan courtiers in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest) have a ¹⁄₂₀ chance (5%) of generating with a golden set of imperial elven armor that has a smattering of upgrades. The boots have speed, the gloves strength, the helm the same as Star-elves, and flying, sickness resistance, and reflection on the body armor. These are useful intrinsics to have, but Anachrononauts are guaranteed upgradeable imperial elven gear as well, so better versions of this gear can be assembled if they so desire.

Description

All imperial elven armor can be safely enchanted from +5.

Each individual type of of imperial elven armor has the following qualities listed below.

Imperial elven armor

A suit of imperial elven armor grants 6 base AC, 6 base DR and MC3 while worn. Wearing or removing a suit of imperial elven armor takes 5 actions. Suits of imperial elven armor are heavy armor and do not grant any bonus from dexterity, though they can be upgraded to medium armor that grants the standard AC/DR bonus equal to (dexterity - 11)4 (rounded down).

Imperial elven helm

An imperial elven helm grants 2 base AC, 4 base DR and MC2 while worn, and covers the wearer's entire face. Wearing or removing an imperial elven helm takes no actions to perform.

Imperial elven gauntlets

Imperial elven gauntlets grant 2 base AC, 3 base DR and MC1 while worn. Wearing or removing an imperial elven helm takes 2 actions to perform.

Imperial elven boots

Imperial elven boots grant 2 base AC, 3 base DR and MC1 while worn, and also grant stealth. Wearing or removing imperial elven boots takes 2 actions to perform.

Upgrades

The main draws of imperial elven gear are their upgrade-able abilities: Each piece can be upgraded separately, using an upgrade kit in conjunction with a specific item to add a new property to that specific piece of gear. All upgrades are slot-specific, must be worn to apply their effects, and do not stack with the same upgrade or other sources of the same property (except where specified). Any upgrade kits or items spent are consumed upon applying the upgrade.

If any imperial elven gear is found in a bones level, it will have the same upgrades and up-gradable status as when that bones file was created.

For an upgrade kit to display the required prompt and enable upgrading imperial elven armor of any type, the hero must learn the ability from one of the following sources:

• Start the game as an Anachrononaut.
• Start the game as an elven Madperson and open their quest box.
• Bind the spirit Dantalion at any point, which permanently unlocks this knowledge.
• Start the game as a Tourist and encounter a Star-elf, Star-emperor or Star-empress.

The upgrade prompt will offer to "repair" a piece of imperial armor, and the armor must not be worn while upgrading. Upon choosing a piece of gear, it will ask which item to 'repair' the armor piece with—if no items in the open inventory are valid upgrade materials, this will abort the repair process with nothing consumed. The traits of items consumed to upgrade imperial elven armor pieces are not retained by the upgraded armor afterward. No upgrades are mutually exclusive, and with sufficient upgrade kits it is possible to have all upgrades at once.

Upgrade materials must be type-identified to be offered as choices, e.g. an unidentified ring of increase damage will not work with gauntlets, but will display as a possible option once they are identified. Some upgrades can take two or more items as possible materials: for example, invisibility on the armor can come from a cloak of invisibility, a ring of invisibility, or even a wand of make invisible—these upgrades can still only be applied once, even if the hero attempts to do so with the other possible materials. All upgrade materials only check the base item type and their identification status, so the upgrade will succeed even if it uses e.g. wands that have no charges or items with negative enchantments. Any upgrades that apply an enchantment-scaling bonus use the enchantment of the imperial elven armor piece, rather than the upgrade material consumed.

Four upgrades have the additional bonus of removing any metallic spellcasting penalties on the armor, if it was made of a metallic material (most likely mithril) in the first place: the telepathy upgrade for the helmet, the aura bolt upgrade for the gauntlets, the kicking upgrade for the boots, and the deflectors upgrade for the body armor. With any of those four upgrades active on the item, they will not inhibit spellcasting even if made of metal.

There is no way to know what upgrades result from which items in-game, which items can be used to upgrade gear, or even which properties a given piece of armor has (aside from the ones that have obvious effects when worn or inspected)—all possible upgrades for each piece of gear are summarized in the table below. Separate recipes for the same upgrade are included as separate entries for ease of sorting.

armor slot	property granted	upgrade material	in-game upgrade name
helm	breathlessness	amulet of magical breathing	life support subsystem
helm	see invisible	ring of see invisible	crystal eye
helm	telepathy	helm of telepathy	extrasensory perception subsystem
helm	telepathy	amulet of ESP	extrasensory perception subsystem
helm	teleport control	ring of teleport control	teleportation control subsystem
helm	protection from shape changers	ring of protection from shape changers	self-bored lens
helm	life sense (shows living monsters in line of sight, even if blind)	wand of draining	life-sign sensor
helm	suppress blindness (as with The Eye of the Overworld), protects vs. attacks to the eyes, enables protection vs. mind flayer attacks, and +1 AC and DR.	crystal helm	visor
helm	increased accuracy (+enchantment to accuracy)	ring of increase accuracy	targeting subsystem
body armor	flying	flying boots	moth wings
body armor	sustain ability	ring of sustain ability	stasis subsystem
body armor	fast healing (heals 1 HP/turn, stacks with regeneration, no hunger cost)	ring of regeneration	medical subsystem
body armor	fast healing (heals 1 HP/turn, stacks with regeneration, no hunger cost)	amulet of wound closure	medical subsystem
body armor	reflection	amulet of reflection	reflective chestplate
body armor	reflection	shield of reflection	reflective chestplate
body armor	reflection	jumpsuit	reflective chestplate
body armor	sickness resistance	healer uniform	sealed bodyglove
body armor	sickness resistance	amulet versus sickness	sealed bodyglove
body armor	sickness resistance	bodyglove	sealed bodyglove
body armor	sickness resistance	encounter exoskeleton	sealed bodyglove
body armor	half physical damage	cloak of protection	ballistic base layer
body armor	half spell damage	cloak of magic resistance	dispersive underlayer
body armor	half spell damage	orihalcyon gauntlets	dispersive underlayer
body armor	displacement	cloak of displacement	holographic projector
body armor	invisibility	cloak of invisibility	active camouflage system
body armor	invisibility	ring of invisibility	active camouflage system
body armor	invisibility	wand of make invisible	active camouflage system
body armor	bonus AC (+enchantment to AC specifically, stacks with normal AC/DR from enchantment)	ring of protection	deflectors
body armor	counts as medium armor, gaining 1/2 dex bonus (normally heavy armor, no dex bonus), also gives +1 AC and DR.	elven mithril coat	mithril articulation
gloves	swimming	water walking boots	swimming webs
gloves	25 strength when worn	gauntlets of power	power servos
gloves	bonus dexterity (+enchantment to dexterity)	gauntlets of dexterity	dexterity servos
gloves	bonus damage (+enchantment to damage)	ring of increase damage	microtargeting servos
gloves	ability to fire aura bolts from hands	wand of magic missile	missile projectors
gloves	grapples struck targets (only when struck by the gauntlets, not a melee weapon)	amulet of strangulation	grappling servos
boots	jumping	jumping boots	jump jets
boots	very fast speed	speed boots	speed boosters
boots	very fast speed	wand of speed monster	speed boosters
boots	very fast speed	ring of alacrity	speed boosters
boots	teleportitis	wand of teleportation	blink subsystem
boots	teleportitis	ring of teleportation	blink subsystem
boots	counts as kicking boots when kicking	kicking boots	concussive impactors

Strategy

Practical usage

In most cases, the practical limitations on your upgrades come from the number of upgrade kits in the game, rather than the materials to perform upgrades with. Quite a few can spawn in the Caves of Law and as the random tools in the Gnomish Mines, but besides those you would have to find them pretty much randomly. As such, it's important to ration your upgrade kits, and use them wisely on useful upgrades.

Notable upgrades include half physical damage and half spell damage on your armor for general purpose use, flying on your armor and very fast speed on your boots to free up an armor or ring slot (a must-have for most builds using a full set of imperial elven armor), and sustain ability on your armor to free up a ring slot. Equally powerful but more situational upgrades include 25 strength on your gauntlets for melee builds (nearly a must-have for them, mediocre otherwise), sickness resistance and fast healing on your body armor (helpful for nearly everybody, but less impactful some other upgrades), and breathlessness on your helm (again, helpful but less impactful).

Even partially upgraded imperial elven gear, assuming you manage to get the powerful upgrades at least, is likely better than the majority of other available armors out there - since this is balanced out by its extreme rarity. It is notably missing magic resistance, free action and possibly drain resistance, but otherwise can supplant nearly all of an ascension kit armor-wise. You still have a free cloak slot, most likely for a cloak of magic resistance if you don't have that slotlessly, plus a free shirt slot and two free ring slots for free action (chef's choice for the second ring). Imperial elven helms and boots are likely the most supplantable, since the helms don't provide any crucial intrinsics (and the boots only really necessitate a speed upgrade), so if you're running short on upgrade kits you can forgo those pieces in favor of another helm or pair of boots you already possess. Helms of drain resistance and boots of speed are practical alternatives, or helms of brilliance for would-be casters. No set bonus is granted for wearing all 4 items, after all.

Obtaining black-market copies

Practically speaking, the only way for heroes other than Anachrononauts and elven Madpeople to get imperial elven gear is by finding them in bones, or by killing a Star-elf, Star-emperor or Star-empress. Unfortunately, there is no way to force a Star-elf to generate in a way that includes its inventory aside from wishing for figurines, which only works for Tourists: non-Tourists will always have their figurines "warp strangely" and fail, and figurines of Star-emperors and empresses always "warp strangely" even for Tourists. Star-elves and their kin also cannot be created by a candle of invocation or reverse genocide.

There are only 2 possible ways for them to generate for the aforementioned heroes:

• Star-elves and their grown-up forms can be found very rarely (¹⁄₂₄ for Star-elves, ¹⁄₄₈ for Star-emperors, ¹⁄₄₈ for Star-empresses, ¹⁄₁₂ chance for any) in crystal skulls, and they will have their inventory.
• If a non-Madperson elven hero findes the Stranger in bones, the "yellow nasties" it spawns can include a dream-leech Star-elf with its inventory.

For sufficiently dedicated adventurers who checked all possible locations of crystal skulls, they have a ~45% chance to find a crystal skull containing a set of imperial elven armor, but only a ~25% chance to get useful and upgradeable armor. However, this is still of middling use considering it cannot be further upgraded without having Dantalion bound, or by a Tourists making prolonged eye contact with their summon. For sufficiently determined adventurers, it is nonetheless still technically possible and potentially strong, despite only being doable in under a quarter of games.

For extremely affluent Tourists with plenty of wishes available, wishing for imperial elven gear (most likely the body armor) is still an option. This requires at least one wish for each piece of gear, but does not solve the problem of your inability to upgrade them. You can wish for a figurine of a Star-elf to grant you the ability to upgrade it as well (if you don't already have Dantalion), but the armor they have is unupgradeable and therefore not worth your time. If this is your chosen route, wishing for mithril imperial elven armor is likely your best bet. Mithril grants an outstanding 9/9 base AC/DR, up from the 6/6 of wood, for only 146 weight (36 more). Furthermore, the body armor offers most of the majorly impactful upgrades. If you have the materials and upgrade kits available, this might actually even be worth your time and wishes.