Potion of unholy water
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| |
|---|---|
| Name | unholy water |
| Appearance | cursed clear potion |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A potion of unholy water is a type of potion that appears in NetHack. It is a cursed potion of water, and appears as a "cursed clear potion" when unidentified.[1]
Contents
Generation
1⁄8 of all potions of water will be generated cursed, so potions of unholy water make up 23⁄1000 (2.3%) of all randomly generated potions. General stores, liquor emporiums and delicatessens can sell potions of unholy water.
Dipping uncursed potions of water into unholy water will convert the dipped potions into unholy water, using up the potion that was dipped into.
Successful prayer while standing on an altar belonging to a deity other than the hero's deity will curse any potions of water currently on that altar's square.
Applying a charged and cursed horn of plenty has a 31⁄1000 chance (3.1%) of generating 1-2 potions of unholy water.[2]
Description
Quaffing a potion of unholy water polymorphs a hero with lycanthropy into their animal form, and also heals the hero for 2d6 HP and exercises constitution if they are chaotic or else polymorphed into a demon or undead monster—lawful heroes instead take 2d6 damage from quaffing the potion and abuse constitution, while neutral heroes abuse constitution with no other effects. Quaffing the potion will prompt the player to type-name it.
Dipping an item or stack of items into unholy water will unbless them if they are blessed or curse them otherwise, using up the potion and prompting the player to type-name it—dipping an already-cursed object into holy water will not use up the potion.
Monsters hit with a potion of unholy water are healed for 2d6 damage if they are a demon, undead or werecreature, and werecreatures additionally shift to their animal form. Inhaling vapors from a potion of holy water shifts a hero with lycanthropy into their animal form if applicable. Monsters will not use this potion.
Strategy
Unholy water is not as high in demand as holy water, but is still sought out by many heroes since cursed items can have useful applications when employed deliberately. As with holy water, when cursing objects, always be sure to #adjust them into a single stack first, and use #name to un-name objects if necessary.
Obtaining water
The article linked above describes how you can obtain potions of uncursed water, and below is a non-exhaustive list describes ways to make existing water into unholy water:
- As mentioned above, you can dip a stack of uncursed water into a single potion of unholy water—though this uses up the potion being dipped into, it does not violate conducts and ensures you can maintain a stock with just one potion.
- Similarly, praying successfully on another god's altar curses any potions of water or holy water on that altar. This is reliant on prayer timeout and breaks atheist conduct, and additionally angers your god into smiting you and removing intrinsic protection, so it is much riskier than praying to your god for holy water—while like water prayer, it also does not require any other resources, you will generally want to pacify your god as soon as possible.
- Reading a blessed scroll of remove curse while confused can alter the beatitude of each item or item stack in your main inventory:[3] each item has a 1⁄4 chance of being blessed, a 1⁄4 chance of being cursed, or a 1⁄2 chance of being unchanged, and all items in inventory have their beatitude unidentified. There is a high chance of obtaining at least one potion of unholy water from 10 non-stacked uncursed potions of water.
- This method is often used to create both holy and unholy water, and requires the hero to drop and/or stash their uncursed inventory, including any armor, weapons, jewelry, and most tools. Once done, you can use the #adjust command to stack each of the potions and re-identify their beatitude by using an altar, pet testing them and/or dip-testing.
- For atheist conducts, this is one of the most reliable ways to obtain unholy water if needed, since they cannot use an altar in any way.
- The creation of bones levels often curses much of the former hero's open inventory, including any water they were carrying—this is especially likely for bones levels left by Priests and Priestesses.
- Dipping an item in a fountain has a 1⁄30 chance of cursing it, which can be used to deliberately curse water and may produce a potion of unholy water when diluting other potions in a fountain. Be prepared to deal with monsters that can generate from fountain dipping!
Identification
In shops, a hero can easily price-identify unholy water, since uncursed potions of water have a base price of 0 and are sold for 5zm before adjustments, and holy and unholy water have a base price of 100—a pet can easily reveal the beatitude of a 100zm clear potion.
Conserving holy water
As with unholy water, which items should be cursed depends heavily on the player and their approach. The following items are among the most common targets for cursing with potions of unholy water:
- Cursed scrolls of teleportation allow a hero to level teleport, which is often more useful than normal teleportation and does not risk overriding teleport control unlike level teleportation from reading non-cursed scrolls while confused.
- Cursed scrolls of genocide allow the hero to "reverse genocide", generating several monsters of a species for various purposes.
- Cursed scrolls of destroy armor can be used to erosion-proof armor by reading them while confused—this does not repair damage like confused readings of a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor, but can be used in place of those scrolls for undamaged armor, and the scroll is cheaper to write with a magic marker.
- Cursed scrolls of gold detection can detect traps and magic portals, though their glyphs will be marked as gold pieces—a confused reading of a non-cursed scroll will display and mark traps directly.
- Cursed potions of gain level will warp the drink to the dungeon level above, which can be used to ascend levels quickly during the ascension run.
- Cursed potions of acid do more damage when thrown.
- Cursed potions of invisibility wake up all monsters on the level, including meditating monsters like quest nemeses (e.g. the Master Assassin) and demon lords and princes. It is common practice to do so on the upstair so that covetous opponents cannot escape as easily.
- Cursed scrolls of create monster will create multiple monsters, which can be useful for sacrifice if the hero is able to teleport outside of the crowd.
- Cursed scrolls of confuse monster will confuse the hero. Combined with a non-cursed scroll of gold detection, this is a safe way to detect magic portals in the Elemental Planes.
- A cursed unicorn horn is an unlimited (albeit dangerous) source of confusion for illiterate and polyselfless conduct, particularly during speed ascensions—forgotten spells are better for everyone else.
- The cursed Book of the Dead can be used for wraith farming to level up pet purple worms.
History
The potion of unholy water first appears in NetHack 3.0.0: from NetHack 1.3d to NetHack 2.3e, the potion of holy water is present as a separate item, and has a randomized appearance like other potions—NetHack 3.0.0 introduces uncursed and unholy water and ties all three potions to the same appearance.
Messages
- This burns like acid!
- You quaffed a potion of unholy water, and are lawful.
- You feel full of dread.
- You quaffed a potion of unholy water, and are neutral.
- You feel quite proud of yourself.
- You quaffed a potion of unholy water, and are chaotic.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the amount of HP lost or healed from quaffing unholy water is increased to 6d6, making it somewhat useful for early-game chaotic heroes to heal with in a pinch.
There are additional methods to obtain unholy water aside from those described above:
- A potion of amnesia dilutes immediately into a potion of water when dipped into any water source, and retains its beatitude, allowing unholy water to be created from cursed potions of amnesia.
- Some shops offer an uncursing service, with a base price of 150 zm before modifiers. If you are confused, you will accidentally ask for the item to be cursed—this is best done with an on-demand source of confusion, as well as a unicorn horn to cure the confusion after.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, The Lost Tomb generates four potions of holy water within the treasure piles in the eastern-most room at level creation.
Shopkeeper services in these variants can be used as described in SLASH'EM to obtain holy water.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Infidels start the game with 3 potions of unholy water, and it has the same effects on them as on chaotic heroes. Player monster infidels also generate with 3 potions of unholy water.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 src/objects.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 820
- Jump up ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2212: chooses a random potion, discarding magical potions; rnd_class(POT_BOOZE, POT_WATER) chooses from all non-magical potions in objects.c[1]
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1323
