Tile (dNetHack)

A tile is an item class present in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack that is represented by the a minus sign -. It encompasses three types of items: disks, slabs, and shards.

Description

Disks

Aphanactonan disks are heavy tile items that impart knowledge of various items' identified appearance when read. There are two types of disks

• Aphanactonan record: Appears as an 'inscribed golden-red disk' when unidentified. Cannot be read before having pierced the veil. Reading an aphanactonan record identifies 2–8 random item appearances and grants an amount of experience ranging from 2d100 to 8d100. The first read aphanactonan record or archive always increases insight by 1; subsequent readings only have a 1disks read chance. It has a base price of 0 and weighs 80 aum. Normally made of gold. Does not randomly generate and cannot be wished for.
• Aphanactonan archive: Appears as an 'inscribed golden-red disk' when unidentified. Damages sanity for 8d8 when read, which can only be done after piercing the veil. Reading an aphanactonan record identifies 4–16 random item appearances and grants an amount of experience ranging from 4d100 to 16d100. Has a chance of increasing insight by 1d8 points, each with a 1disks read chance. The first point of insight is guaranteed if no archive or disk has been read yet. Grants 1d4 special effects, each with an equal probability of ¹⁄₄ of being chosen: teaches 1d4 spells and grants 1d200 experience for each learnt spell, teaches 1d8 random spirit seals, teaches 2d4 wards, or increases your intrinsic to-hit, AC and damage bonus by 1d2 each and grants 1000 experience. Aphanactonan archives have a base price of 0 and weigh 800 aum. Normally made of gold. Does not randomly generate and cannot be wished for.

Shards

There are two types of items which have shards as their base item: the syllables, encountered exclusively in Mithardir, and the thoughts, which are also sometimes called "glyphs" or "runes". Syllables are mineral shards that grant a temporary bonus and a permanent bonus when read, with the temporary bonus' duration determined by their beautitude. To read a syllable, you must first type-identify it first, and it grants a temporary bonus of 10 turns if the syllable is uncursed, of 15 turns if it is blessed or of 40 turns if it is cursed, but it does not grant any permanent bonus if so. Thoughts, meanwhile, are bone shards that must be read to memorize them, granting a permanent bonus until removed.

There are a total of 6 types of syllables:

• syllable of strength: Aesh. Temporarily increases melee damage by 10. Permanently increases your intrinsic melee damage bonus by ¹⁄₃ of a point. So after the third Aesh, all attacks will deal +1 damage. If the total number of Aesh tiles read is not divisible by three, there is a remainder-in-three chance of dealing an extra +1 damage on each attack.
• syllable of power: Krau. Temporarily increases spell damage by 50%, as well as some artifacts' spell-like effects. Permanently increases your intrinsic spell damage bonus by ¹⁄₃ of a point. If the total number of Krau tiles read is not divisible by three, there is a remainder-in-three chance of dealing an extra +1 damage on each spell.
• syllable of life: Hoon. Temporarily increases hit-point regeneration by 10 hp per turn. Permanently increases your natural healing rate by 1, in the same manner as gaining another experience level would.
• syllable of grace: Uur. Temporarily increases your to-hit and AC by 10, and grants a speed bonus of 6, or half an action. Permanently increases your AC by ¹⁄₂ of a point. If an even number of Uur tiles have been read, the full bonus is applied to the character's base AC, defending them against all attacks. If an odd number of non-cursed tiles have been read, the final +1 AC is applied to the character's armor-based AC, which is bypassed by some attacks.
• syllable of thought: Naen. Temporarily increases your energy regeneration by 10 pw per turn, and increases spell success rate to 100% for all spells. Permanently increases your energy regeneration rate by 1-per-30 turns, in the same manner as gaining another experience level would.
• syllable of spirit: Vaul. Temporary bonus: Half damage (stacks with half physical or spell damage) on all attacks that hit you, as well as displacement. Permanently increases the DR of one of your slots by 1, or a ¹⁄₅ of total DR. DR gain is applied to the head slot first, with successive DR increases rotating through remaining slots in the order of upper torso, arms, lower torso, and legs.

There are a total of 31 distinct glyphs:

• anti-clockwise metamorphosis glyph: Grants +30% maxhp.
• clockwise metamorphosis glyph: Grants +3 speed (+25% of normal speed), applied after all other speed bonuses.
• sparkling lake glyph: Grants intrinsic magic resistance.
• fading lake glyph: Grants intrinsic shock resistance.
• smoking lake glyph: Grants intrinsic fire resistance.
• frosted lake glyph: Grants intrinsic cold resistance.
• rapturous eye glyph: Heal 30 hp on sneak attacks.
• clawmark glyph: Grants +30% total damage of sneak attacks.
• clear sea glyph: Grants intrinsic poison resistance.
• deep sea glyph: Grants +3 DR to all slots.
• hidden sea glyph: +30 to sanity regeneration (sanity will regenerate to 100% in most cases).
• communion glyph: Grants +25% carrying capacity.
• corruption glyph: Grants fast healing (+1 HP per turn) when injured below 30% hp.
• eye glyph: 2x death drop frequency.
• formless voice glyph: Grants +30% max power.
• guidance glyph: heal when attacking those that hurt you.
• impurity glyph: Grants +3 DR to all slots for all pets.
• moon glyph: +30% XP gain.
• writhe glyph: sneak attacks restore 30 energy.
• radiance glyph: +30% healing from any healing effect.
• beast's embrace glyph: The glyph is carried by ¹⁄₄ of werewolves in the Lost Cities. Wielding a bestial claw in your main hand with the thought active allows a hero to perform a sneak attack with it. Also allows two-weaponing a bestial claw with an empty off-hand, with the off-hand attacks being converted into powerful claw attacks.
• defilement glyph: Is required for defilement research. Increases natural healing rate to +1 hp every 3 turns below 30% hp, +2 every 3 turns below 20% and +1 every turn below 10%. Increases pet's AC and DR by 3 each or (^impurity⁄₃ - 3) when paired with the impurity glyph. Sneak attacks restore 10 hp. Increases the odds of chrysalises generating.
• weed glyph: Is required for parasitology research. Increases carrying capacity by 6.4% death drop frequency by 33%. Allows for parasites to generate from undissected corpses. Increases the odds of chrysalises generating.
• vacuous glyph: Is required for reanimation research. Increases the chances of monsters generating with offensive items by 25%. Increases XP gain by 10%, max hp by 5% and energy regeneration rate by +10 per 90 turns and sanity regeneration by 10. Increases the odds of chrysalises generating.
• rot glyph.
• orrery glyph: Grants +30% base attack bonus, plus an additional +1d20 to-hit vs. targets you can see.

Slabs

Slabs are a special type of item that is used exclusively for four unique items called words, or words of creation, three of which are found in the Mithardir chaos quest, with the other granted as a gift to devout cultists of the Black Mother, after claiming "her Knowledge" as a major boon. While there is a fifth word of creation, the last word, it isn't learned through reading a tile and is instead taught to the hero while they are bound to Tenebrous.

The First Word:

• Appears as a 'slab bearing a blinding glyph' when unidentified. Has a base price of 3000 and weighs 300 aum. Normally made of metal. Does not randomly generate and cannot be wished for.
• Passive bonus: Intrinsic flying.
• Activated power: The First Word is an AoE effect centered on you that illuminates the area around you, dealing damage to monsters caught in the light. The base damage is (lvl/2)d3 damage, but the die size is incremented by 3 if the monster fulfils certain restrictions.

The Dividing Word:

• Appears as a 'slab bearing a cerulean glyph' when unidentified. Has a base price of 3000 and weighs 300 aum. Normally made of metal. Does not randomly generate and cannot be wished for.
• Passive bonus: Intrinsic waterproofing.
• Activated power: The Dividing Word fires a beam in a chosen direction that will remove water (leaving a pit, or just floor for shallow water) and damage monsters caught in the beam. The base damage is (lvl/2)d3, and this will also throw monsters to the side. There's a 5% chance of just bisecting a monster, though (instantly killing it). This is often not terribly useful, but it can be used by ranged characters to create space/delay oncoming enemies, and there's often no downside to using it early in a fight on the off chance the bisection effect triggers.

The Nurturing Word:

• Appears as a 'slab bearing a verdant glyph' when unidentified. Has a base price of 3000 and weighs 300 aum. Normally made of metal. Does not randomly generate and cannot be wished for.
• Passive bonus: Intrinsic hungerless regeneration for all pets.
• Activated power: The Nurturing Word creates grass around you, in addition to heavily damaging aspects of the Silence, elementals, undead, and manufactured golems (clay, flesh, stone). The damage is (lvl/2)d12. If this damage kills the monster, a tree will be created on its square, and the items it drops will be buried underneath.

Table of tiles

Glyphs

glyph	merchant	related thought	minimum insight	maximum sanity
anti-clockwise metamorphosis glyph	ethereal dervish	Grants +3 movement points per turn	20	100
clockwise metamorphosis glyph	bestial dervish	Increases your hp cap by 30% of your base hp, which doesn't include maximum hp gained from potions and similar effects. Also increases the maximum amount of hp that you can reach by 30%. Does not increase your current hp.	20	100
sparkling lake glyph	sparkling lake	Grants extrinsinc magic resistance	18	100
fading lake glyph	flashing lake	Grants extrinsic shock resistance	16	100
smoking lake glyph	smoldering lake	Grants extrinsic fire resistance	11	100
frosted lake glyph	frosted lake	Grants extrinsic cold resistance	12	100
rapturous eye glyph	blood shower	Heal 30 hit points when performing a sneak attack. Cannot increase your maximum hit points.	14	90
clawmark glyph	many-taloned thing	Increases your attack's damage total by 30% when performing a sneak attack	16	90
clear sea glyph	deep blue cube	Grants extrinsic poison resistance	10	100
deep sea glyph	pitch black cube	Grants +3 magical DR, increasing the DR of all slots by 3. DR is only subject to being rolled above 14 instead of 11 while the thought is slotted.	22	100
hidden sea glyph	perfectly clear cube	Increases the hero's sanity regeneration threshold by 30. For a veiled hero of many roles of, this more or less doubles their sanity threshold.	30	100
communion glyph	prayerful thing	Increases total carrying capacity by 25%.	25	100
corruption glyph	hemorrhagic thing	Heal an additional hit point per turn while below 30% of your maximum hp. Stacks with regeneretaion.	15	80
eye glyph	many-eyed seeker	Doubles chance of death-drops generating, and of corpses leaving behind columnar crystals, parasites and chrysalises. Triples the odds of columnar crystals and parasites with the rotten eyes glyph active as well; triples the odds of chrysalises with the defilement glyph active as well.	17	100
formless voice glyph	voice in the dark	Increases your energy cap by 30% of your base energy, which doesn't include maximum energy gained from potions and similar effects. Also increases the maximum amount of energy that you can reach by 30%. Does not increase your current energy.	19	100
guidance glyph	tiny being of light	Retaliating against monsters heals you for 20% of your weapon's base damage. Only counts for melee attacks. The Holy Moonlight Sword and church blades heal you for an additional amount.	13	100
impurity glyph	man-faced millipede	Grants 3 magical DR to all tame monsters, increasing the DR of all their slots by 3. With the defilement glyph active as well also adds an additional point of magic DR for every 3 points of sum impurity above 9 that the hero has.	5	80
moon glyph	mirrored moonflower	Increases experience gained by 30%.	10	100
writhe glyph	crimson writher	Gain 30 energy when performing a sneak attack. Cannot increase your maximum energy.	14	90
radiance glyph	radiant pyramid	Increases the amount of hit points restored by all healing effects. Does not increase the amount of extra hp gained when healing at full health.	12	100
beast's embrace glyph	-	Bestial claws can now be two-weaponed with an empty offhand, and gains the quick expert trait while the hero has less than 15 insight, and the lunge expert trait while they have less than 30.	0	99
defilement glyph	-		27	100
weed glyph	-		27	100
vacuous glyph	-		27	100
rot glyph	-		0	100
orrery glyph	grotesque peeper		16	100

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