Ring of slow digestion
A ring of slow digestion is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a ring of slow digestion as one of the two random rings in their starting inventory.[1]
General stores and jewelers shops can stock rings of slow digestion.
Description
A hero that puts on the ring of slow digestion gains the slow digestion property, which nullifies the ordinary consumption of one nutrition point per turn that hero experiences: nutrition consumption from all other sources is unaffected, including ring hunger from the ring itself, and wearing two rings does not cause the effect to stack. Monsters will not wear this ring.
If a monster engulfs and tries to digest a hero wearing this ring, the hero will be expelled immediately (i.e. the ring slows their digestion), and putting on the ring while being digested will also cause that monster to spit the hero out.[2] Metallivores and gelatinous cubes (including a hero in the form of either monster) are incapable of consuming a ring of slow digestion, as it would similarly "digest slow".[3][4]
Dropping a ring of slow digestion onto a sink will not lose or bury the ring, and will prompt the player to type-name it if it is unidentified.[5]
Strategy
The ring of slow digestion is highly valued among most players, often to the point of being worth a wish once all other parts of a standard kit are accounted for: A non-spellcasting hero can go without food twenty times longer than normal, while a hero that casts regularly can do so without fear of emptying their stomach nearly as quickly. For Wizards in particular, the ring of slow digestion is such a major boon that many players consider start scumming until they begin a game with the ring. Players going for pacifist conduct and/or food-related conducts (such as vegan or foodless) will consider the ring a high-priority target, as will players engaging in strategies such as credit cloning or most forms of farming to a far heavier extent than normal.
Wearing the ring is also useful to prevent engulfing by purple worms and other digesting monsters—if a digestion attack pulls you off a steed, that pet will be in danger of instadeath should the monster attack them next (unless they are too large to be digested).
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 ef1eeed7, white dragon scales and white dragon scale mail also grant slow digestion while worn.Identification
The ring of slow digestion is somewhat difficult to informally identify: while you can identify a ring of slow digestion by its nutrition-cancelling property, its effects are not obvious like some other 200zm rings, and the process is further complicated if you are extensively testing several rings at once.
Since dropping the ring into a sink does not consume it and prints a distinct message, you can reliably type-identify such a ring and wear it immediately. The ring can also be formally identified by testing for it while inside a digesting monster, though this is much riskier. One method to test a non-cursed ring for slow digestion involves watching your nutrition level cross a visible threshold, i.e. the screen no longer shows you as satiated or you become hungry—once it does so, put on the ring being tested and eat or quaff something that provides low nutrition, such as a fortune cookie or potion of fruit juice. If you go a long time (e.g., as many as 800 turns for a fortune cookie) before crossing that threshold again, the ring is probably slow digestion.
Wearing multiple rings
Due to a bug, with two rings of slow digestion and good technique the player can go indefinitely long without losing any nutrition. The ring hunger for each hand is calculated on different turns, which is normally counterproductive due to the higher nutrition consumption from multiple rings combined with the inability to stack ring effects; however, ring hunger for your left hand is calculated turn 4 (mod 20), while right hand hunger is calculated on turn 12 (mod 20). The idea is to wear both rings, but removing one of the rings for the turn that its hunger is calculated. There are no known ascensions that have made use of this trick alone to ascend with the foodless conduct intact.
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 bf3697c1, ring hunger is randomized in order to fix this bug. A similar bug that involves using worn white dragon scale mail (post-commit ef1eeed, as described above) and a worn ring of slow digestion to prevent the hero from ever burning nutrition is fixed via commit e8374b36.History
The ring of slow digestion first appears in NetHack 3.3.0.
Messages
- You get regurgitated!
- Obviously <the monster> didn't like your taste.
- You were engulfed by a digesting monster, and got spit out due to a worn ring of slow digestion.
- The ring is regurgitated!
- You dropped a ring of slow digestion down a sink. If unidentified, this will prompt you to type-name it.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Flame Mages, Ice Mages, Necromancers, and Wizards may be given a ring of slow digestion as any of the random rings in their starting inventory.[6][7][8][9]
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Pirates and Wizards may be given a ring of slow digestion as any of the random rings in their starting inventory, as can Nobles that are not half-dragons. vampire Madpeople start each game with a worn and cursed slow ring of digestion.
A ring of slow digestion worn by a clockwork automaton or incantifier hero has no effect, since neither race eats food normally—incantifiers can still drain the ring's magic for energy as normal, as this does not involve physically consuming the ring.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, monsters will wear the ring of slow digestion, which prevents them from being digested and instantly killed.
The ring is much more valuable, as dragons and some shambling horrors are capable of digestion. Some of the stronger monsters in the game are generated with a ring of slow digestion to prevent them being killed easily by a digestion attack—this includes some player monsters on the Astral Plane, in order to weaken "purple rain" and other similar strategies for trivializing the level.
Kas, Vecna and Kathryn the Ice Queen are always generated with rings of slow digestion.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, Acid Mages, Corsairs, Electric Mages, Nobles, and Pirates may be given a ring of slow digestion as the random ring in their starting inventory.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, Vecna is always generated with a ring of slow digestion.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 165
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2027
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 888
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 837
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 410
- ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 69
- ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 99
- ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 136
- ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 245
