Tool
| Item classes | ||
|---|---|---|
| " Amulets | [ Armor | |
| % Comestibles | $ Coins | |
| * Gems | ! Potions | |
| = Rings | ? Scrolls | |
| + Spellbooks | ` Statues | |
| ( Tools | ` Boulders | |
| ) Weapons | / Wands | |
A tool, represented by (, is a type of item that appears in NetHack. Tools as object type are comprised of the miscellaneous items that do not fall into any other category, and include containers, light sources, and musical instruments. The hero can use most tools by applying them via a.
Contents
Generation
Tools compose 8% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon and 12% in Gehennom.
The Gnomish Mines have one guaranteed tool on each filler level, and the maps for Mines' End besides the Catacombs contain two random tools. Many maps of Minetown can be generated with shops that sell tools.
Lighting sources, cans of grease, crystal balls, and figurines can be generated as any beatitude - other tools created by normal random generation are always uncursed. Bones levels can have blessed or cursed tools in the former hero's pile of items, and the "fake bones" generated on early traps can include tools among their cursed items.
List of tools
| Name | Cost | Weight | Cost:weight ratio | Use (where not obvious) | Prob (‰) | Creation | Magic? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character accessories | ||||||||
| blindfold | 20 zm | 2 | 10 | Blinds you | 50 | No | ||
| lenses | 80 zm | 3 | 27 | Spellbook reading | 5 | No | ||
| The Eyes of the Overworld | 2500 zm | 3 | 833 | Enlightenment | 0 | Monk quest artifact | No | |
| towel | 50 zm | 2 | 25 | Blinds you, cleans face and hands | 50 | No | ||
| Pet accessories | ||||||||
| leash | 20 zm | 12 | 1.67 | Keeps pets nearby | 65 | No | ||
| saddle | 150 zm | 200 | .75 | Riding | 5 | No | ||
| Containers | ||||||||
| bag of holding | 100 zm | 15 | 5.67 | Makes items lighter | 20 | Contains 0-1 items | Yes | |
| chest | 16 zm | 600 | 0.027 | 35 | Contains 0-5 items | No | ||
| ice box | 42 zm | 900 | 0.047 | Keeps corpses fresh | 5 | Contains 0-20 corpses | No | |
| large box | 8 zm | 350 | 0.023 | 40 | Contains 0-3 items | No | ||
| oilskin sack | 100 zm | 15 | 5.67 | Prevents blanking | 5 | Contains 0-1 items | No | |
| sack | 2 zm | 15 | 0.133 | 35 | Contains 0-1 items | No | ||
| Tonal instruments | Passtune | |||||||
| bugle | 15 zm | 10 | 1.5 | Aggravates nearby soldiers | 4 | No | ||
| fire horn | 50 zm | 18 | 2.78 | Ray of fire | 2 | Yes | ||
| frost horn | 50 zm | 18 | 2.78 | Ray of frost | 2 | Yes | ||
| magic flute | 36 zm | 5 | 7.2 | Lulls monsters to sleep | 2 | Yes | ||
| magic harp | 50 zm | 30 | 1.67 | Tames monsters | 2 | Yes | ||
| tooled horn | 15 zm | 18 | 0.83 | Scares monsters | 5 | No | ||
| wooden flute | 12 zm | 5 | 2.4 | Pacifies snakes | 4 | No | ||
| wooden harp | 50 zm | 30 | 1.67 | Pacifies nymphs | 4 | No | ||
| Atonal instruments | ||||||||
| bell | 50 zm | 30 | 1.67 | Wakes monsters, summons nymphs | 2 | No | ||
| Bell of Opening | 5000 zm | 10 | 500 | Invocation | get from quest nemesis | Yes | ||
| drum of earthquake | 25 zm | 25 | 1 | Creates pits, scares monsters, angers peacefuls | 2 | Yes | ||
| leather drum | 25 zm | 25 | 1 | Wakes and scares monsters | 4 | No | ||
| magic whistle | 10 zm | 3 | 3.33 | Teleports pets to you | 30 | Yes | ||
| tin whistle | 10 zm | 3 | 3.33 | Calls pets | 100 | No | ||
| Light sources | ||||||||
| brass lantern | 20 zm | 30 | 0.67 | 30 | No | |||
| Candelabrum of Invocation | 5000 zm | 10 | 500 | Invocation | get from Vlad | Yes | ||
| magic lamp | 50 zm | 20 | 2.5 | Possible wish | 15 | Yes | ||
| oil lamp | 10 zm | 20 | 0.5 | 45 | No | |||
| tallow candle | 10 zm | 2 | 5 | Invocation | 20 | stack of 1 (4/7 prob.) or 2-7 (1/14 prob. each) | No | |
| wax candle | 20 zm | 2 | 10 | Invocation | 5 | stack of 1 (4/7 prob.) or 2-7 (1/14 prob. each) | No | |
| Traps | ||||||||
| beartrap | 60 zm | 200 | 0.3 | 0 | No | |||
| land mine | 180 zm | 300 | 0.6 | 0 | No | |||
| Unlocking tools | ||||||||
| credit card | 10 zm | 1 | 10 | 15 | No | |||
| The Platinum Yendorian Express Card | 7000 zm | 1 | 7000 | Charging | Tourist quest artifact | No | ||
| lock pick (osaku to Samurai) | 20 zm | 4 | 5 | 60 | No | |||
| skeleton key | 10 zm | 3 | 3.33 | 80 | No | |||
| The Master Key of Thievery | 3500 zm | 3 | 1166 | 0 | Rogue quest artifact | No | ||
| Weapon-tools | ||||||||
| grappling hook | 50 zm | 30 | 1.67 | 20 | No | |||
| pick-axe | 50 zm | 100 | 0.5 | Digging | 5 | No | ||
| unicorn horn | 100 zm | 20 | 5 | Cure status effects, various other | 0 | Yes | ||
| Miscellaneous | ||||||||
| bag of tricks | 100 zm | 15 | 6.67 | Summoning monsters | 20 | 1-20 charges | Yes | |
| can of grease | 20 zm | 20 | 1 | Protects against mind flayers, drowning attacks, and water damage | 15 | 1-25 charges | No | |
| crystal ball | 60 zm | 150 | .4 | 15 | 1-5 charges | Yes | ||
| The Orb of Detection | 2500 zm | 150 | 16.7 | Invisibility | 0 | Archeologist quest artifact | No | |
| The Orb of Fate | 2500 zm | 150 | 16.7 | Level teleport | 0 | Valkyrie quest artifact | No | |
| expensive camera | 200 zm | 12 | 16.7 | Scare monsters | 15 | No | ||
| figurine | 80 zm | 50 | 1.6 | Summons a monster | 25 | Yes | ||
| horn of plenty | 50 zm | 18 | 2.78 | Produces food or some potions | 2 | Yes | ||
| magic marker | 50 zm | 2 | 25 | Writes scrolls and spellbooks | 15 | 30-99 charges | Yes | |
| mirror | 10 zm | 13 | .77 | Nymph and foocubus control, Luck management, scare monsters | 45 | No | ||
| The Magic Mirror of Merlin | 1500 zm | 13 | 115.385 | 0 | Knight quest artifact | No | ||
| stethoscope | 75 zm | 4 | 18.3 | Get monster status information, detect secret doors/corridors | 25 | No | ||
| tin opener | 30 zm | 4 | 7.5 | 35 | No | |||
| tinning kit | 30 zm | 100 | .3 | Prevents troll resurrection, tins corpses for intrinsics | 15 | No | ||
Identification
Bags
A bag is either of the four: bag of tricks, sack, bag of holding, or oilskin bag.
If you see an unknown bag, first try to loot it, unless you are low on HP (say, HP<25). If it is a bag of tricks, it "develops a huge set of teeth and bites you!", causes 1-10 points of damage, and becomes identified. Otherwise, you loot it like any container.
If it is not a bag of tricks, it is either a sack (7/12 chance), a bag of holding (4/12 chance), or an oilskin bag (1/12 chance). (The chances are for randomly generated bag.)
Since sack costs 2, and all other bags cost 100, you can identify the sack with price identification.
To identify the bag of holding, pick up just enough stuff to be burdened, but if you drop a small object, you are not burdened anymore. Then put a lot of stuff into your bag. If you are not burdened anymore, it is a bag of holding.
Oilskin bags are rare, and can be identified by not belonging to other types.
If you found a bag in a 1*1 room at the last level of Sokoban, it is a bag of holding.
If you found a bag in a bones pile, it may well be a bag of holding, and has 80% chance of being cursed. When you open a bag of holding, each item has 1/13 chance of disappearing. You may want to uncurse the bag (wand of cancellation, holy water, scroll of remove curse) before looting it.
Lamp
Each lamp is either a magic lamp or an oil lamp. A newly generated lamp has 1/4 chance of being magic. Magic lamp costs 50, and oil lamp costs 10, so you can use price identification.
If a lamp "flickers", "flickers considerably", "seems about to go out", or "has gone out", or "has no oil", it is an oil lamp.
If an unknown lamp is blessed, and in case it is magic, you want to use it for a wish immediately, just try to rub it (don't forget to snuff it before) until you see a djinnie. If you rubbed it 20 times, and each time you got the message "Nothing happens", you have less than 1/320 (about 1 in 3.5 billion) chance it is a magic lamp.
Whistle
Just apply it. If you produce a "high whistling sound" or a "shrill whistling sound", it is a tin whistle. If you produce a "strange whistling sound", a "normal whistling sound", or a "high-pitched humming noise", it is a magic whistle.
However, if you found it in bone piles, it is probably cursed. Cursed magic whistle has a 50% chance of producing a high-pitched humming noise, in which case it may wake up nearby monsters, so use with caution. Newly generated whistles are always uncursed.
Price identification doesn't work for whistles, as both cost 10.
From randomly generated whistles, 3/13 are magic.
Horn
A horn is either a fire horn (5/11 chance), a frost horn, a tooled horn, or a horn of plenty (2/11 chance each).
Tooled horn costs 18, other horns cost 50, so you can use price identification to separate tooled horns from others.
You can identify a horn by applying it.
- If it produces food or water, it is a horn of plenty.
- If it asks "Improvise?", it is a tooled horn. You may play a tune, or improvise. In the latter case, you will wake up and scare nearby monsters.
- If it asks for direction, it is either a fire horn or a frost horn. Give a direction to determine which one is it. Unless you have reflection, stand at a big corridor or one end of a big room to not hurt yourself. Also be careful not to hurt your pets or peaceful monsters.
- Note that uncharged fire or frost horn would behave as a tooled horn.
Flute
It is either a magic flute or a wooden flute. 1/3 of randomly generated flutes are magic.
Magic flute costs 36, wooden flute costs 12, so price identification works.
When played, with wooden flute you either "trill" or "toot", and with magic flute you "produce soft music".
Uncharged magic flute behaves as a wooden flute.
Harp
It is either a magic harp or a wooden harp. 1/3 of randomly generated harps are magic.
Both cost 50, so price identification does not work.
When played, wooden harp priduces "lilting melody" or "twangs", while magic harp with charges "produce very attractive music".
Uncharged magic harp behaves as a wooden harp.
Drum
It is either a drum of earthquake or a leather drum. 1/3 of randomly generated drums are drums of earthquake.
Both cost 25, so price identification does not work.
When applied, a leather drum would "beat a deafening row!", awake and scare nearby monsters. A drum of earthquake would "produce a heavy, thunderous rolling!", awake and possibly scare all monsters on the level, and create pits around and possibly under you.
Uncharged drum of earthquake behaves as a leather drum.
While you can identify a drum by applying it, you may not want to do it, as the effects of the drum of earthquake are rather strong.
Candle
There are two kinds of these, a wax candle and a tallow candle. The only differences between wax and tallow candles are their lifespans, value, and that eating tallow candles breaks vegetarian conduct, so you probably don't need to identify a candle. If you still want to, use price identification. Tallow candle costs 10, and wax candle costs 20.
Tallow candles are much more common. 4/5 of all randomly generated candles, or stacks of candles, are tallow.
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