Wand of darkness
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | darkness |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 1.0% |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | non-directional |
| Maximum charges | 15 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of darkness is a type of wand that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is made of obsidian and always appears as an obsidian wand when unidentified.
Generation
Female drow Nobles and drow Priests and Wizards of both genders start each game with a wand of darkness.
Wands of darkness make up 1⁄100 (1%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of darkness.
Wands of darkness are created with 8 to 15 charges.
Description
A hero zapping a wand of darkness will darken the area within a 5-square radius around them, as displayed below:
...xxxxx...
..xxxxxxx..
.xxxxxxxxx.
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xxxxx@xxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx
.xxxxxxxxx.
..xxxxxxx..
...xxxxx...
The area remains dark indefinitely or until it is subjected to lighting (e.g. from reading a non-cursed scroll of light). Monsters will not use this wand.
Engraving with a wand of darkness will darken the surrounding area and auto-identify the wand, as with zapping it normally.
Breaking a charged wand of light by applying it–or else wresting one last charge from an applied wand–will cause an explosion that deals anywhere between 1 and (4×<charges>) damage, and darkens the same area as zapping the wand. This auto-identifies the wand.
Strategy
A wand of darkness is generally useful in the early game for drow heroes to make lit areas rooms much easier to navigate and see in—though they can innately spread darkness using the #monster extended command, the wand is very useful as a means to save the hero's energy and/or use of other similar items such as the shadowlander's torch.
Binders of all starting races may consider using a wand of darkness around shopkeepers in order to better disguise marks from certain spirits (such as Andrealphus, Andromalius and Eurynome) that would get them barred from that shop. The wand can also generate the darkness required to address the seal of Tenebrous and disguise its marks as well.
Identification
Identifying the wand of darkness is incredibly trivial even without the wand auto-identifying or always having the same appearance unlike most wands: for price identification, only the wand of nothing, wand of light and wand of darkness share their base price of 100zm.
