Amulet of Yendor
The Amulet of Yendor, sometimes abbreviated as AoY, is a unique amulet made of mithril, and the primary objective of every game of NetHack - as stated in the introductory text at the beginning of each game, Moloch has stolen the Amulet of Yendor from Marduk the Creator, gaining dominion over the other gods, and has hidden it within the depths of Gehennom, where he lurks and bides his time. You are tasked to find the Amulet, bring it to the Astral Plane and offering it to your god, resulting in ascension to immortality and demigod-hood.
Contents
Generation
The Amulet of Yendor is always held by the high priest of Moloch in Moloch's Sanctum within Gehennom. If the Amulet would be left in the bones of a dead player character, it is replaced with a cheap plastic imitation.
Cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor will also appear as "the Amulet of Yendor" rather than being auto-identified as duplicates, with the exception of the one found on the Rogue level. A wish for the real Amulet outside of wizard mode will simply generate a cheap plastic imitation instead.
Description
As with the items used for the Invocation, the Amulet is required to win the game and is thus completely indestructible: it will resist being put into any type of container, and will not be eaten by metallivores (who are capable of consuming other mithril items). However, it can be left in an area that is later rendered inaccessible - if the Amulet is in the Quest branch if you are expelled by your quest leader, your game will become unwinnable, though this is very unlikely to occur by accident.
The Amulet of Yendor has various effects on both you and the Mazes of Menace's denizens while carried or worn, and wielding or wearing it confers additional effects.
Carrying the Amulet
Carrying the Amulet will confer extrinsic clairvoyance, unless it would be blocked by a cornuthaum. Teleportation within the level is blocked 1⁄3 of the time, and level teleporting and branchporting are completely blocked[1][2][3]—this does not include the effects of quaffing a cursed potion of gain level. Your Luck also times out more rapidly, unless you have a luckstone or an item that acts as one.
Your nutrition is decreased by 1 every 20 turns, in addition to normal amulet or ring hunger.[4] Spellcasting while carrying the Amulet will drain a random amount of additional energy up to twice the normal cost of the selected spell, roughly doubling average spell costs.[5] The energy drain is applied before the cost of the spell itself, and the spell will fail if the initial drain would leave you without enough power to cast it otherwise. The process is signified by the following message:
- You feel the Amulet draining your energy away.
Monster generation and behavior is altered while carrying the Amulet:
- Monster difficulty will depend on your deepest level reached, not your current dungeon level.[6]
- Nymphs, demon lords and princes, wumpuses, long worms, jabberwocks, and eels are always generated awake.[7][8]
- All giant spiders generated on level creation will have a web placed underneath them, as opposed to 1⁄3 of giant spiders normally.[9]
- If a demon prince is carrying the Amulet of Yendor when they demand a bribe from you, they will ask for more gold than you have, ensuring they will not disappear from the game with the Amulet.[10][11]
- Chaotic monsters will not have the usual random chance of being peaceful to coaligned characters.[12]
- Follower monsters will follow you between levels even if they're fleeing.
- Hostile covetous monsters that want the Amulet of Yendor—i.e., the Wizard of Yendor and the various named demon lords and princes—can steal it from you with their melee attacks, and will also attack anyone else who possesses the Amulet. If the Amulet is on the ground and any such monster is on the same level, they will pick it up.
If you are carrying the Amulet in Gehennom and try to go up a dungeon level while carrying the Amulet of Yendor, the mysterious force may work against you—see the linked article for details.
Finally, carrying the Amulet and climbing the up stair or quaffing a cursed potion of gain level while on dungeon level 1 grants you entrance to the Elemental Planes, taking you to the Plane of Earth.[13] From there, you can also make use of the one-way magic portals that lead to each of the Planes, culminating in the Astral Plane.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The stairs up from level 1 will be described as leading "to the Elemental Planes" if you have the real Amulet, or "out of the dungeon" otherwise.Wearing or wielding the Amulet
In addition to the above, wearing or wielding the Amulet confers a form of magic portal detection. Every game turn, there is a 1⁄15 chance that you will receive one of the following messages if you are near a magic portal:[14]
| Distance | Message |
|---|---|
| 3-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels hot!" |
| 8-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels very warm." |
| 12-square radius | "The Amulet of Yendor feels warm." |
| Farther | No message |
Offering the Amulet
If you offer the Amulet of Yendor on the correct high altar on the Astral Plane, you ascend and win the game; this will not violate atheist conduct. Offering the Amulet on another god's high altar will also end the game; your current god is angered, but the altar's god allows you to escape in celestial disgrace. This is effectively an ascension, but is less prestigious because it removes the need to find the correct altar.
Attempting to offer the Amulet on a non-high altar will give one of the following messages:
- You feel an urge to return to the surface.
- The altar is coaligned.
- You feel ashamed.
- The altar is cross-aligned.
- You feel homesick.
- You are hallucinating.
Offering to Moloch
You may also offer the Amulet of Yendor to Moloch on the unaligned high altar in his Sanctum. This leads to instadeath, with the cause livelogged as "Moloch's indifference":
- Moloch shrugs and retains dominion over <your god>, then mercilessly snuffs out your life.
If you survive by wearing an amulet of life saving, you are revived, but the messages continue:
- Moloch snarls and tries again...
You disintegrate into a pile of dust!
This happens even if you have disintegration resistance; the cause of death is livelogged as "the wrath of Moloch".
The only way to survive this is in explore or wizard mode, where you can decline to die–this results in the following message, and is treated as escaping the dungeon:
- A cloud of black smoke surrounds you...
Strategy
Much of the strategy regarding the Amulet of Yendor relies around preventing it from being stolen by the Wizard of Yendor, or else misplaced and confused with a fake Amulet.
Identifying the Amulet
Cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor occur at several places in the dungeon, and with one exception appear to the player as "the Amulet of Yendor". Offering a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor on a high altar carries a -1 Luck penalty unless it was identified as a fake[15] - offering a known fake Amulet results in a -3 Luck penalty, a -1 alignment penalty, and that god's anger increasing by 3.[16] Offering a fake Amulet on a regular altar will print a message with no other effect.[17]
The primary danger of the fake Amulets is having the real one snatched from you without realizing it, which most often occurs if the Wizard of Yendor successfully steals it from you: his Double Trouble spell can create a clone of himself that has a 1⁄2 chance of being created with an unidentified cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor.[18] This will never occur if you have the real Amulet, which introduces the danger of him stealing said Amulet from you before casting Double Trouble.
Identifying the Amulet will reveal whether it is the real deal or a cheap imitation, and there are many other methods to prevent a fake Amulet from ruining your attempt to ascend:
- Many players will immediately name the Amulet of Yendor "REAL" or something similar immediately upon claiming it from the high priest of Moloch.
- Remember that Amulet of Yendor cannot be placed into a container, while a cheap plastic imination will go in as normal.
- Quaffing a cursed potion of gain level on dungeon level 1 if you do not have the real Amulet will print a message about "an uneasy feeling" and have no effect - if you have the real Amulet, you are taken to the Plane of Earth.
History
The Amulet of Yendor first appears in Hack 1.0 - in this version and Hack 1.0.1, it is found under an enormous rock in a maze level. In Hack 1.0.2, the Wizard of Yendor is introduced, and from this version to NetHack 3.0.10 the Amulet is found directly in his dwelling, within a small room enclosed by a moat at the center of a maze level.
In these earliest versions, it was possible to find the real Amulet left behind in the bones of a player's character - Hack 1.0.3 adds the cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor to the game and ensures this is no longer possible.
Starting in NetHack 3.1.0, the setting's current mythology is established, including the introduction of Moloch - from this version on, the Amulet of Yendor is in the possession of his high priest, with the Wizard of Yendor guarding the Book of the Dead.
Origin
The Amulet of Yendor is based on the Rogue item of the same name, which is also used to end the game.
Variants
The base gameplay goal of retrieving the Amulet of Yendor and offering it to your god on the Astral Plane remains a constant in variants of NetHack - there are variants that make additional changes around that goal, with some based on either a conduct or a newly-added role(s).
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the Amulet is instead in the possession of Cthulhu.
Additionally, the Amulet has a chance of randomly teleporting within the level when dropped by you or a monster for any reason; this is in many ways balanced by the removal of the mysterious force. The probability depends on the Amulet's beatitude: the Amulet teleports half of the time if cursed, 1⁄4 of the time if uncursed, and 1⁄16 of the time if blessed.
Sacrificing the Amulet of Yendor breaks atheist conduct in UnNetHack, unlike in NetHack - the player is warned if the conduct would be broken this way, and completing the game while maintaining atheist conduct requires you to #invoke the Amulet on the corresponding altar instead.
TNNT (the game)
In TNNT (the game), you cannot enter the deathmatch portal while carrying the Amulet of Yendor.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack and SpliceHack-Rewrite, the Amulet of Yendor blocks normal teleportation as well while carried.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, there are significant changes to both the Amulet of Yendor and (primarily) to mechanics dependent on the Amulet:
- The psionic wave abilities of illithids do not count as a spell for purposes of the Amulet's energy drain effect.
- Lucifer will appear in the Sanctum after you obtain the Amulet of Yendor, and must be defeated to gain access to Purgatory and escape the Sanctum - from there, leaving Purgatory will allow you to begin the ascension run.
- The monster generation rate increases to 8× that of normal. While making your way back out of the dungeon, hostile monsters will also generate on and near each level's up stair.
- Similar to UnNetHack, the Amulet of Yendor may teleport to another location on the current level if dropped anywhere outside of the Sanctum. How often this occurs depends on its beatitude: a 2⁄3 chance if cursed, a 1⁄4 chance if uncursed, and a 1⁄16 chance if blessed. This behavior is suppressed only in the Sanctum. If the Amulet is dropped on a level with open air and gravity is in effect, the Amulet may teleport to a square of open air and fall away - it will re-appear somewhere on the third demon ruler level in Gehennom.
- Player monsters all covet the Amulet of Yendor and can steal it with a 1⁄20 chance when attacking you in melee.
- If any monster on the Astral Plane obtains the Amulet, they will try to sacrifice it on the high altar of their corresponding god, ending your game if they succeed.
- Attempting to offer the Amulet to a different deity while using a helm of opposite alignment has a 1⁄3 chance of your original god noticing the deception, incurring many severe penalties: your original god is angered, you take a −5 penalty to alignment and Luck, and the helm is destroyed.[19][20]
Finally, the Infidel role includes a significant change to the actual plot of the game: Each Infidel begins the game with the real Amulet of Yendor, and their primary mission is to travel down to the Sanctum, obtaining their quest artifact The Idol of Moloch along the way. Once at the Sanctum, they must sacrifice the Amulet to Moloch on his high altar with the Idol in open inventory - Moloch will imbue the Idol with the power of the Amulet. The Infidel must then begin their own ascension run to reach the Astral Plane and invoke the Idol on one of the three high altars; this information can be obtained from both the high priest of Moloch and your quest leader. Invoking the imbued Idol on the correct altar will give Moloch dominion over heaven and the other three aligned gods, winning the game.
Encyclopedia entry
This mysterious talisman is the object of your quest. It is said to possess powers which mere mortals can scarcely comprehend, let alone utilize. The gods will grant the gift of immortality to the adventurer who can deliver it from the depths of Moloch's Sanctum and offer it on the appropriate high altar on the Astral Plane.
References
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 505
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 792
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1567
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2835
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 948
- ↑ src/dungeon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1596
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1264
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1321
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 810
- ↑ minion.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 183
- ↑ mongone in mon.c
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2027
- ↑ src/dungeon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1176
- ↑ wizard.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 63
- ↑ src/pray.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1574
- ↑ src/pray.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1580
- ↑ src/pray.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1573
- ↑ src/wizard.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 504
- ↑ EvilHack 0.7.1 src/pray.c, line 1848
- ↑ EvilHack commit 0401bf2 - "Offering the Amulet of Yendor while wearing a helm of opposite alignment"
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