Ring of hunger
A ring of hunger is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards will never receive a ring of hunger as either of the two random rings in their starting inventory.[1][2]
9⁄10 of rings of hunger are generated cursed, and the rest are uncursed or blessed with equal probability. General stores and jewelers shops can sell rings of hunger.
Description
While worn, the ring of hunger grants the hunger extrinsic, which causes the hero to burn nutrition very quickly: their nutrition will be decremented every even-numbered turn, in addition to normal hunger and the ring hunger that is applied every 20 turns.[3]
Dropping the ring onto a sink may cause any other items on that sink's square to vanish as well:[4] this cannot get rid of a heavy iron ball chained to the hero, or the iron chain attaching it to them, and items have a 99⁄100 chance of resisting if they are artifacts or a 1⁄100 chance otherwise. Monsters will not wear this ring.
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.
As of commit 50084750, hunger prevents the hero from choking on food when oversatiated by making them vomit, similar to breathlessness—instead of draining 1000 nutrition, they are are left with 60 nutrition.Strategy
The ring of hunger is not an entirely useless ring, but is only actively worn in rare circumstances. A non-cursed ring of hunger can be used to make room for a meal consisting of several large corpses, such as those of various giants, if you do not have an amulet of magical breathing. Outside of this scenario, the ring is primarily used as polyfodder.
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.
The changes to the hunger property make the ring much more viable when eating several corpses for strength gain or other intrinsics.Identification
Dropping a ring of hunger into a sink while another item is present on that square produces a unique message and removes that item. It is recommended to have a junk item that you can place on the sink whenever testing rings for this reason.
History
The ring of hunger first appears in Hack 1.21, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
In NetHack 3.6.0 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, the ring of hunger can be worn to lower nutrition quicker while wearing a ring of sustain ability, followed by removing the latter ring once the hero is weak from hunger, then eating to raise strength by one point (since being weak from hunger would normally lower the hero's strength by 1). This is no longer possible in NetHack 3.6.1.
Messages
- Suddenly, <item> vanishes from the sink!
- You dropped a ring of hunger down a sink while another item was on its square.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, a cursed ring of hunger named 'free action' can be found within the Chamber of Junk in the Lawful Quest.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a ring of conflict can be created at a furnace by combining a ring of hunger and a ring of aggravate monster.
