Swap chest

(
Name	swap chest
Appearance	mysterious sapient pearwood container
Base price	16000 zm
Weight	6000
Material	wood
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

A swap chest is a special container that appears in The November NetHack Tournament. It allows players to exchange objects between games.

Generation

Swap chests are not randomly generated. There is one swap chest in Mines' End and a second swap chest in the Valley of the Dead.

For Mines' End, the swap chest location depends on the level layout. In Mimic of the Mines, the swap chest is located in a small cave in the lower right. In the Gnome King Wine Cellar, the swap chest is located near the fountain in the lower left. In the Catacombs, the swap chest is located in the small room in the upper right.

In Valley of the Dead, the swap chest is located in a nook in the upper right.

Description

You can do three different actions with a swap chest: you can PUT one object in; you can LOOK inside to see its contents; or you can TAKE one object.

Your first action with a swap chest must be a PUT. After your first PUT, you can do LOOK actions (an unlimited number) and more PUT actions (up to three total per swap chest). Eventually, you may choose to TAKE one object. After your TAKE, that swap chest is done with you, and you may not do any more actions with that swap chest: no more PUTs, no more LOOKs, and no more TAKEs.

As usual, an object is one or more identical objects that occupy one inventory slot. For example, a group of three blessed identify scrolls is one object (sometimes known as an "object stack"). There is no limit to the number of objects that can be together in one stack.

In TNNT, there are two swap chests per game, so a hero can do up to 6 PUT actions per game and up to 2 TAKE actions per game.

Objects inside a swap chest are fully identified and have names that acknowledge the object donors.

To prevent abuse, the LOOK action does not show objects that the hero themself has donated.

The TAKE is optional. In TNNT, not removing an object from a swap chest constitutes the swap-chestless conduct.

Sharing

Between swap chests on the same server

The two swap chests on a server draw from a common pool of objects. A donated object placed in any swap chest, if the object stays on the same server, can be removed from the same swap chest or any other swap chest.

Between swap chests on different servers

When a swap chest accepts a donated object, sometimes the swap chest transfers the object to the swap chest pool on a different TNNT server. The donor has no control over this and cannot even tell if it happened or where the object went. After some time for transit, the donated object will be available from any swap chest on the target server.

Restrictions

Swap chests cannot be locked, probed, polymorphed, or cancelled. You cannot successfully wish for a swap chest except in wizard mode; doing so creates a normal chest instead.

Gelatinous cubes and other monsters cannot eat the swap chest, and will be instantly killed if they attempt it. A hero polymorphed into a gelatinous cube cannot eat a swap chest either, but will not be instakilled. Swap chests cannot be picked up by heros due to their massive weight, nor can they be picked up by monsters, even nymphs. Kicking a swap chest before removing an object from it causes it to kick back, dealing 10-14 physical damage to you.

An object with special achievement-granting properties loses those special properties when put into a swap chest, and cannot be used to get the achievement in a second game. For example, if one hero puts a candy bar from Sokoban into a swap chest and a second hero in a different game removes the candy bar, the second hero does not earn the Chocoban achievement. The second hero can still use the object normally. As of October 2023, the affected objects are: lich athames, Nazgul rings, and Sokoban candy bars.

Eligible objects

The following objects can be placed into a swap chest:

• rings
  • All noncursed chargeable rings with +1 or higher charge.
  • All noncursed non-chargeable rings.
• wands
  • All wands with +1 or higher charge, except a wand of nothing or wand of wishing.
• amulets
  • All noncursed amulets, except an amulet of strangulation, an amulet of restful sleep, or a fake Amulet of Yendor.
• potions
  • All magical potions.
  • Potions of holy water and unholy water.
• tools
  • Stethoscopes, empty oilskin sacks, bugles, tooled horns, and leather drums.
  • Expensive cameras, tinning kits and magic markers with at least 10 charges.
  • Empty fire horns, frost horns, and drums of earthquake.
  • All other chargeable tools with at least one charge.
  • Empty bag of holding.
  • All other non-chargeable magical tools except magic lamps.
• weapons
  • Noncursed silver sabers, silver spears, and silver daggers.
  • Noncursed athames with enchantment no worse than -2.
  • All other noncursed weapons with enchantment +3 or higher.
• armor
  • All noncursed magical armor except dunce caps, fumble boots, and gauntlets of fumbling.
  • Noncursed dragon scales.
  • All other noncursed non-magical armor with enchantment +3 or higher.
• spellbooks
  • All noncursed magical spellbooks that allow at least 2 more readings.
• scrolls
  • All magical scrolls except scroll of amnesia and scroll of punishment.
• comestibles
  • Royal jelly, wolfsbane, and tins of spinach.

The following objects cannot be placed into a swap chest:

• The Amulet of Yendor, which cannot be placed into any container.
• Any invocation item, which cannot be placed into any container.
• Any artifact.
• Any cursed ring, amulet, weapon, armor, or spellbook.
• Any container that is non-empty.
• Gold.
• Any gem.
• Iron chains.

History

Swap chests appeared in the inaugural TNNT of 2018.

In 2022, swap chests were changed so that players cannot see or remove their own donated objects from the chest. Also in 2022, donated objects had a random chance of being sent to a different TNNT server. During the 2022 tournament, an exploit was fixed where cancelling a swap chest allowed repeated use of it.

In 2023, the distribution of objects between servers was adjusted so that objects are more likely to stay on their server of origin. Also in 2023, there were adjustments to the eligible object list.

Messages

The swap chest resists your attempt to rummage through it. You feel like it wants something from you.

You tried to look inside a swap chest before contributing to it.

The swap chest spits out your [object] disdainfully.

You tried to put in an object that is not eligible.

The swap chest refuses to impose further on your generosity, and encourages you to take something and be on your way.

You tried to put more than three objects in.

You hear a loud SPLAT!

A monster tried to eat a swap chest out of your sight.

"a token from [donor]"

Name of the first object to be placed into a swap chest.

"kindly donated by [donor]"

Name of the second object to be placed into a swap chest.

"generously bestowed by [donor]"

Name of the third object to be placed into a swap chest.