Wand of stasis
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | stasis |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 4.5% |
| Base price | 150 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | non-directional |
| Maximum charges | 15 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of stasis is a type of wand that appears in NetHack. It is a magical non-directional wand that has a randomized appearance when unidentified—the default one associated with it is a "redwood wand".[1]
Generation
Wizards may be given a wand of stasis as the random wand in their starting inventory.[2]
Wands of stasis make up 9⁄200 (4.5%) of all wands that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. "Quality apparel and accessories" shops can also stock wands of stasis.
Wands of stasis are generated as blessed 1⁄34 of the time and cursed 1⁄34 of the time, and will otherwise be uncursed.[3] They are created with 3-6 charges, and can hold up to a maximum of 15 charges.[4][5]
Description
A hero zapping a wand of stasis will cause teleportation on the current dungeon level to be blocked for several turns[6]—this effect lasts for 10–30 turns, and is distinct from the effects of a no-teleport level in the following ways:
- The hero and any monsters cannot teleport or be teleported to another location on the level by any means, which includes covetous warping and applied magic whistles that are normally exempt from no-teleport restrictions.[7][8][9]
- Monsters also cannot be teleported by a reviving Rider, which is done to move them off the reviving corpse's current square and will instead cause the Rider to attempt reviving on a nearby square if stasis blocks this effect.[10]
Level teleportation and branchporting are not prevented by stasis. Items that are not buried and are outside of a hero or monster's inventory are unaffected by stasis. Monsters will not use this item.
Zapping a wand of stasis on a level where stasis is already in effect will keep the longer duration between the current one and the duration rolled by that zap.[11] In wizard mode, the #timeout extended command can display the exact duration of the effect.[12]
Engraving with a wand of stasis has the same effect as zapping it.[13]
Breaking a wand of stasis by applying it will have no effect.[14]
Strategy
The wand of stasis is a valuable tool for dealing with teleporting monsters of all sorts, from chasing down nymphs that steal items to pinning down covetous monsters in order to prevent them from escaping and healing. However, it also closes off teleportation as a means of escape for the hero, whether by relocating themselves or getting rid of nasty monsters.
Identification
The wand of stasis can be somewhat difficult to identify informally: it is one of two possible non-directional wands that give no message when engraving, with the other being a wand of nothing that behaves as non-directional in that game. Somewhat fortunately, it is also only one of a few wands that has a base cost of 150 zm and does not either auto-identify or print an easily-identified message when engraving—the wand of nothing's base cost is 100zm, and it can be trivially distinguished from a wand of light. If a wand has a base cost of 150 aum and does not prompt for a direction or auto-identify when zapped directly, then it is unambiguously a wand of stasis.
History
The wand of stasis first appears in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 07fc4904, with its effects when zapped repeatedly refined via commit 7ed50f6e.
References
- ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1460
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 170
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1125
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1118-L1121: stasis is deliberately given fewer initial charges than other non-directional wands
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 737-L740
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2559-L2568
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 529-L531
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 41-L44
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2269-L2273
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2258-L2264
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2565
- ↑ src/timeout.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2115-L2122
- ↑ src/engrave.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 592
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3991
