Wand of cancellation
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | cancellation |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 4.5% |
| Base price | 200 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | beam |
| Maximum charges | 8 |
| Spell | cancellation |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of cancellation is a type of wand that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a wand of cancellation as the random wand in their starting inventory.[1]
Wands of cancellation make up 9⁄200 (4.5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of cancellation.
The game will attempt to avoid creating a wand of cancellation while generating contents for a randomly-created bag of holding.[2]
Wands of cancellation are created with 4 to 8 charges.
Description
A hero zapping a wand of cancellation in a given direction fires a beam in that direction which cancels any monsters and items that it hits and uncloaks disguised mimics, with each affected monster rolling against their MR score to resist the cancellation beam.[3][4] Certain items are partly immune to the wand of cancellation: other wands of cancellation will not lose any charges;[5] magic lamps and the Candelabrum of Invocation do not lose their light;[6] novels, spellbooks of cancellation and the Book of the Dead will not become spellbooks of blank paper;[7] and all mentioned items have their beatitude set to uncursed as normal.[8] Monsters will not use this wand.
A hero zapping themselves with a wand of cancellation will cancel all items in their open inventory, and return to normal form if they are polymorphed and do not have unchanging[9][10]—a hero in clay golem form that cancels their polymorph this way will die if they have unchanging, and otherwise will return to normal form.[11]
Putting a wand of cancellation that has charges or any bag containing the charged wand into a bag of holding will cause a magical explosion that destroys the wand, along with the bag of holding and its contents, as well as the bag being inserted and its contents[12][13]—the odds of explosion are much lower for a deeply-nested bag of holding.[14] Zapping a bag of holding will only set its beatitude to uncursed, since the magical properties are only applied within the bag.
Breaking a charged wand of cancellation by applying it, or wresting one last charge from an applied wand, will cause an explosion that deals anywhere between 1 and (4×<charges>) damage, and cancels monsters and items (including the hero and their inventory) caught in the explosion.[15][16]
Engraving with a wand of cancellation will always remove the engraving on the current square unless it is on a headstone.[17][18]
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.
Per commit c7229627, zapping a wand of cancellation at magical traps such as magic traps, level teleporters and anti-magic fields will destroy them and create a 3x3 magical explosion.
Per commit 71754910, exploding bags of holding scatter their contents rather than destroying them outright: fragile items are destroyed, and if caused by a wand of cancellation, the wand is still lost along with the bag itself. Per commit 6fd51c29, 1⁄13 of the bag's contents are lost (not counting fragile items that are destroyed after), and per commit ce1f4788, monsters hit by scattered items are angered.Strategy
The wand of cancellation is one of the more dangerous items in the game, even for experienced players: while the loss of a bag of holding can technically be recovered from, and some players have even ascended characters following a "BoHsplosion", the amount of items lost in the average bag explosion and the time it often takes to rebuild a kit (especially in the late game) is enough that most players prefer to quit rather than continue on.
Most players prefer to avoid picking up wands of cancellation if they do not need one, even if they currently do not have a bag of holding: monsters are unlikely to pick it up, and those that do will not use it. Even with "ideal" NetHack technique where a player carefully reads text, slows down and thinks before they type, and generally remains aware of what they are doing at all times, the most attentive players are still human and thus prone to occasional error.
With the above in mind, those that do keep a wand of cancellation should usually place it in a sack or oilskin sack when not in use, using menucolors to name the wand and/or sack something that displays in an eye-catching warning color. Cancellation wands can also be handy for dealing with bones piles for heroes willing to move items they do not want cancelled (e.g., scrolls, potions, wands, and desired weapons/armor with suspected enchantments) into a separate pile or a container before zapping the remaining items—in particular, the wand may be employed to uncurse bones containers and avoid losing any items in a bag of holding. A wand of cancellation is also a useful tool for intentional mass blanking of unwanted items such as spare potions and scrolls in order to make holy water or unholy water and produce blank scrolls for use with a magic marker.
Learning the ins and outs of navigating the loot menu can reduce the occurrence of wand accidents: remember that if you are playing using tty or curses interfaces, you can use keys corresponding to item types (e.g. ! for potions, / for wands, ? for scrolls, - to deselect all, and so on) to select or deselect groups of items, making gameplay faster and item-handling less error prone. Some players use packorder in order to somewhat mitigate item loss from bag explosions if they do happen: placing a wand of cancellation inside of a bag of holding will destroy the bag, its contents, and everything you put in before the wand that turn, and by adjusting inventory letters, they can ensure that a wand of cancellation is the first item in and that no further items from their open inventory are lost with it.
Identification
Engraving over existing writing on the floor gives a message about the writing "vanishing", which can indicate a wand of cancellation, make invisible or teleportation; a wand of cold will also produce this message if used to write on a square with a burnt engraving. Do not zap yourself with an unidentified wand that makes an engraving disappear if you have not conclusively identified it, informally or otherwise.
One good means to test a suspected cancellation wand is to zap it at a monster that is hostile and lacks a special attack—floating eyes are among the best monsters to test on, and pets can also be sufficient, provided you can see invisible and they do not have a special attack themselves. If the zapped monster does not disappear from view, relocate to a much further square within your vision, or turn transparent (which reveals a wand of make invisible if you can see invisible), then the wand is likely to be cancellation; you can use a stethoscope to confirm. Since monsters have a chance of resisting cancellation, do not rely on the above test to zap it at yourself.
You can also test the suspected wand on 'junk' items that can be canceled as listed above, such as a scroll or potion: if it vanishes, then the wand is teleportation; if it remains unchanged, then the wand is make invisible; otherwise, it is cancellation, and will likely be blanked or turned into water respectively. Good test items include useless or unwanted non-blank scrolls, known blessed or cursed objects, unwanted potions other than water, and less-important weapons and armor with known enchantments.
History
The wand of cancellation first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
Variants
Many NetHack variants give monsters the ability to zap the wand of cancellation.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, monsters may zap the wand of cancellation offensively at at the hero, with different effects from the hero zapping the wand at themselves: every item in the hero's open inventory has a 1⁄24 chance of being canceled, and if the hero is polymorphed and does not have unchanging, they will return to their base form and lose current and maximum HP equal to the monster level of the form they were in[19]—this will kill the hero if their HP drops below zero, or if they are in the form of a clay golem with unchanging, and a hero that survives dying this way (e.g. due to an amulet of life saving) will have their max HP set to 1.[20] This effect can be prevented with magic resistance.
Remember that wands which explode from shock damage, over-charging or being zapped while cursed will behave as if they were applied, cancelling all items in the holder's open inventory—this makes the wand especially dangerous to carry in the open. Fortunately, identifying this wand is somewhat easier, owing to the addition of invisible items: zapping any junk item with a wand that makes engravings vanish can unambiguously identify the wand, since a wand of make invisible will make the item invisible, teleportation will teleport it, and cancellation will leave it visibly unchanged.
Messages
- You are covered in sparkling lights!
- You feel a strange sense of loss.
- You were zapped by a wand of cancellation, with the second line occurring if it has canceled at least one item in your inventory.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, monsters will zap wands of cancellation offensively at the hero, randomly cancelling items in their open inventory with no means to resist the effects.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, monsters may use a wand of cancellation offensively against the hero, with the same effects as in SLASH'EM.
AceHack
In AceHack, placing a wand of cancellation in a bag of holding will cancel the wand, rather than destroying the bag, making such accidents much less immediately game-ruining.
NetHack 4
In NetHack 4, a wand of cancellation placed in a bag of holding is cancelled as in AceHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, monsters can zap wands of cancellation at the hero, reducing the hero's energy by 10d10 and their maximum energy by 10.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, monsters will zap wands of cancellation at the hero to try and cancel them. A hero or monster that has player-style magic resistance and is zapped by the wand has a chance of resisting dependent on the user's wand skill—at Unskilled level, the wand is completely blocked by magic resistance, while Basic and higher skill has a chance of ignoring it: Basic usage has a 1⁄5 chance of ignoring the property, Skilled usage has a 1⁄3 chance of ignoring the property, Expert usage has a 1⁄2 chance of ignoring the property, and Master usage has a 2⁄3 chance of ignoring the property.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, monsters will zap wands of cancellation offensively at the hero as in GruntHack, which can be partially blocked with magic resistance and/or half spell damage, and dragon-scaled armor made with gray dragon scales has a 14⁄15 chance of blocking all cancellation effects.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 164
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 346
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 289
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1985
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1056
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1057-L1058
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1068-L1072
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1069
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2369
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2771
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2764
- ↑ src/pickup.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2081
- ↑ src/pickup.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2086
- ↑ src/pickup.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2091
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3353
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3388
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2963
- ↑ src/engrave.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 731
- ↑ zap.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2726
- ↑ zap.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2747
