Closet
In NetHack, a closet, also known as a niche, is a single square that is often located behind a door or wall.[1]
Description
Closets are only created in ordinary rooms that are generated as part of a room-and-corridors map at level creation. They always appear on the top or bottom edge of a room, never at the sides.[2] Monsters can be generated inside closets just like on any other square.
6⁄7 of closets will have a door leading into them, with 4⁄5 of doors created this way being secret doors. If a closet is created with no door, there is a 1⁄5 chance that the wall blocking the closet is replaced with iron bars, and a separate 2⁄3 chance of a @ corpse being generated in the closet[3][4] - the closet will also have a scroll of teleportation if it is not generated on a no-teleport level, and has a 1⁄3 chance of containing an additional random item.[5][6] The scroll is present to ensure that a character teleported into such a closet can escape if they lack any other means of doing so, though it is also possible to dig into or out of them unless the level is undiggable; the closet may also be connected to a corridor, allowing normal access.
Some closets can be generated with a teleportation trap that points to a vault, and others can have a level teleporter or a trap door - the former two closet types will have a faded engraving of ad aerarium (from the Latin "to the treasure") in the dust outside, while the latter will have a faded engraving of Vlad was here instead. The presence of a level teleporter in an "ad aerarium" closet is a pun on a supposed secondary meaning of "aerarium" as sky.[7]
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.
Themed rooms that do not get filled with random room contents are ineligible to generate closets.Strategy
Lockable closets can be used as a "safe area" to test certain items or rest via . to recover HP. They can also be used for various other purposes, e.g. farming for dragon scales to create dragon scale mail.
Variants
SporkHack
In SporkHack, a skull may be generated inside an inaccessible closet instead of a corpse.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, if a thiefstone steals an item from you but there is no chest available on the level, it will find an accessible closet to teleport itself and the item to.
References
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 451: "place_niche"
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 457
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 529
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 531
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 536
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 539
- ↑ This does not appear to be an actual secondary meaning - it may be an error on the part of the DevTeam, which could be due to confusion between the prefixes aes- relating to money, from which 'aerarium' derives, and aer-, which relates to air/sky/flight.
