Glib
Glib is a property in NetHack that occurs as a result of a hero using certain items or eating certain comestibles, leaving them with slippery fingers.
Contents
Description
The hero's fingers can become slippery for 11-15 turns through any of the following actions:
- Eating any tin that contains fried monster (i.e., deep fried, french fried or stir fried).
- Applying a cursed towel or cursed can of grease.
- Applying or dipping a cursed potion of oil.
While a hero's fingers (or gloves if you are wearing them) are slippery, they will drop any items you are wielding, and non-cursed rings may slip from their fingers[1] - putting on or removing gloves does not affect this property. A hero cannot open tins or write with slippery fingers, and items dropped in a shop as a result of slippery fingers automatically become the property of the shopkeeper.
Slippery fingers can be cleaned by applying a non-cursed towel.
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.
Per commit fe39a2b0, a tethered aklys will not slip from the hero's hand.Strategy
Losing your weapon due to slippery fingers can range from a mild annoyance, to a major inconvenience in the case of shops and artifact weapons, to potentially fatal should it occur in the middle of combat. Be mindful of where and when you eat tins, and make sure to uncurse cans of grease and towels before using them - a non-cursed towel is worth keeping around for this purpose among others.
Variants
Some variants incorporate the Oily Corpses Patch by L, which gives certain corpses a chance of causing slippery fingers.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, wearing greased gloves grants slippery fingers as an extrinsic.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, eating the corpse of an amorphous or slithy monster that is not a snake, naga or mimic has a 1⁄5 chance of giving you slippery fingers.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, eating an amorphous or slithy monster functions as in UnNetHack with the same exceptions.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, you may become glib as a result of wearing a ring of disarming, or as one of the effects of eating rotten food.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, eating an amorphous or slithy monster functions as in UnNetHack with the same exceptions.
