Sit
Sitting is a form of extended command that appears in NetHack, and is performed by either pressing # and entering #sit or by pressing alt + s.
An entire file within the source code, sit.c, handles much of the mechanics around sitting and its effects.
Contents
Description
Using this extended command makes the hero sit down, with different effects and messages depending on the top-most item or dungeon feature present on the hero's square.[1] The hero cannot sit if they are engulfed, being held, stuck to a monster, tethered to a buried heavy iron ball, stuck in lava, or buried in the ground (as a result of cooling lava while sinking into it). A hero that is riding or levitating will also be unable to sit.[2][3]
A hero that sits on any item at the top of a pile, other than a large box, a chest or a cloth item, will print a message about discomfort with no effect[4]—this includes the corpse of a cockatrice or chickatrice, suggesting that the hero implicitly wears pants. A hero that sits on a square with a pool or moat and is not submerged in it has a 1⁄10 chance of making their worn suit of armor wet, and has an independent 1⁄10 chance of making their worn boots wet unless they are water walking boots.[5][6]
A hero in the form of a monster that is hiding on the ceiling and sits will stop hiding and become visible on their current square.[7] A hero polymorphed into a dragon that sits on a square with gold will print a unique message that has no effect.[8]
Laying eggs
One of the primary uses of the command is for laying eggs:[9] a hero in the form of a female oviparous monster that has at least 80 nutrition (the same amount granted by eating an egg) can sit while there are no other objects on their square, which will produce an egg of that form's lowest growth stage—monsters hatched from a hero's eggs will always be tame. The two notable exceptions to the growth stage rule are the winged gargoyle and queen bee, whose eggs will hatch into gargoyles and killer bees (respectively) 76⁄77 of the time.[10][11]
A hero in the form of an oviparous sea monster can only lay eggs while they are underwater.[12][13]
Thrones
Another of the primary uses for sitting is to utilize a throne, which can have a variety of beneficial and detrimental effects. Each time the hero sits on a throne, it may "vanish in a puff of logic" after applying its effect. See the linked article for more information.
Altars
A hero sitting on a co-aligned altar takes penalties to alignment record and abuses wisdom, while a hero sitting on an altar of any other alignment with -4 or more luck has a luck-dependent chance of losing at least one point of luck, with a 1⁄20 chance of losing 2 points of luck.
Traps
Sitting on a trap may trigger the trap if the hero is not currently caught in that trap. Sitting on a trap while the hero is already caught in it abuses wisdom and may increase the duration that the hero is stuck for. Sitting while in a spiked pit abuses strength and does 1 point of damage, with a 1⁄2 chance of taking damage if the hero has half physical damage.
Sitting in a pool may rust your body armor. It appears to be intended to rust boots as well, but does not due to a bug.[14]
Strategy
You can repeatedly #sit on a magic trap to boost your charisma or uncurse items. Beware of other possible magic trap effects.
If you have just passed through a two-way magic portal, so that you are on a portal square when you arrive, you can #sit to activate the portal and return immediately. This can be useful if some particularly nasty monsters are around and you do not want to spend even two turns near them (as will often happen in SLASH'EM's Chaotic Quest). Be sure to engrave Elbereth on the portal (preferably permanently) to prevent monsters from following, unless you intend for things like wraiths to follow you.
History
NetHack 3.4.3 has a bug that lets you #sit in places you cannot reach. For example, a gnome dies in a pit and you want to loot the gnome, but you escape when you try to enter the pit. Trying to #sit gives you a message about the gnome corpse being uncomfortable to sit on, and you won't fall in the pit. Since NetHack 3.6.0, you can enter the pit with the > command.
References
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 68
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 41
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 51
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 79
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 64
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 127
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 45
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 74
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 289
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3889
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3914
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 301
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 320
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 129
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
