Wand of wishing
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | wishing |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 0.5% |
| Base price | 500 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | non-directional |
| Maximum charges | 3 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of wishing is a type of wand that appears in NetHack, and is one of the most sought-after wands in the game.
Contents
Generation
A wand of wishing will never be generated for the random wand of a hero that starts the game with one (i.e. Wizards).[1] A game started in explore mode will start every hero with an uncursed wand of wishing that has 3 charges.[2][3]
Wands of wishing are among the rarest wand types, and make up 1⁄200 (0.5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of wishing.
A wand of wishing is always generated in a chest within one of the turrets of the Castle at level creation.
Wishing for a wand of wishing has a 9⁄10 chance of creating a pre-charged and cancelled wand of wishing, and will otherwise generate a pre-charged wand with zero charges.
Normally-created wands of wishing are always generated with 1-3 charges.[4]
Description
Zapping or engraving with a wand of wishing will grant a wish for a hero that has at least zero luck, which will auto-identify the wand and increase prayer time out even if the hero does not wish for anything.[5][6] Zapping the wand with negative luck has a chance of wasting the charge with no effect, with the chance increasing by 1⁄5 for each point of negative luck.[7]
A wand of wishing can only have up to 3 charges at most and can only be recharged once, exploding for a minimum of 2d12 damage if a second recharge is attempted or else a recharge would set its charges above 3.[8][9][10]
Strategy
If you come across a wand with a base cost of 500 in a shop, it is either a wand of wishing or a wand of death, both of which are well worth purchasing even if you must take the time for credit cloning or gathering junk. If you have no pet or are otherwise unable to do this, you may choose instead to wish for gold. See the wish article's section on early wands of wishing for detailed instructions.
Charging
Your first wish from this wand should be a source of charging if you do not already have one, with the wish typically being 2 blessed scrolls of charging for most roles—while the other source of charging is the Platinum Yendorian Express Card, a non-Tourist should not wish for it unless they are maintaining illiterate conduct. Tourists naturally cannot wish for the artifact and are the only role that can perform blessed charging with it, so they may choose to not wish for scrolls of charging and delay using the wand's second set of wishes until they can complete their quest.
A player should always maximize the amount of wishes they get from the Castle wand or a randomly-found wand if at all possible: use blessed recharging when the wand is at 0:0 to get another 3 wishes, and once those are used, zap the wand repeatedly to wrest the last charge, for a total of 5-7 wishes. To that end, they should always make sure that the wand is not cursed and the hero's luck is at least positive, since there are few worse feelings than wasted wishes.[11] Identifying the wand is highly convenient and prudent in order to minimize the very rare chance of accidentally wresting the last charge from a wand you meant to recharge.
Variants
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"Add and update sections beyond dNetHack."
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, wands of wishing are generated in a pre-charged state (1:x) and thus cannot be recharged. This reduces the amount of wishes that can be obtained from the wand to 1-4, counting the potential to wrest a last wish—wands with zero charges in UnNetHack can only be zapped once before they turn to dust, but in exchange they have a higher chance of successfully wresting a final charge: 1⁄5 for blessed wands, 1⁄6 for uncursed wands and 1⁄7 for cursed wands.
Additionally, wands of wishing are the only source available for wishes that can create magical items; of note is that the shield of reflection is made non-magical so that wishes from other sources can also create them.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, wands of wishing have been removed and replaced with rings of wishes and candles of invocation.
NetHack Fourk
In NetHack Fourk, similar to UnNetHack, wands of wishing come precharged, but still spawn with the usual 1–3 charges, and not wresting immediately will not make the wand turn to dust. Wresting was made easier in Fourk. To compensate for this, Fourk adds a guranteed scroll of wishing to Orcus, Vlad's Tower's top floor, and Wizard's Tower's top floor.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, wands of wishing cannot be recharged, though their state is displayed as (0:x) rather than (1:x). When they reach 0 charges, they immediately turn to dust, so wresting them is impossible.
They are no longer generated randomly; instead, statically-placed wands of wishing are found in the Castle, the top floor of Vlad's Tower, the Fake Wizard's Tower that lacks the magic portal, the top floor of the real Wizard's Tower, and the northeastern room of Moloch's Sanctum. All of these are generated with 1 charge, except the Castle's, which has 2.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, wands of wishing are handled the same as in xNetHack, with several individual wands scattered across Gehennom, although the wand found in Vlad's Tower is cursed.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, wands of wishing are very rare to find randomly, and all wands are always generated as charged once already (1:x).
As of version 0.9.0, there are three guaranteed wands of wishing in the game:
- The Castle wand is the first wand, and has a fixed two charges (1:2).
- The second wand is obtained by destroying Vecna, and appears in a similar manner to The Eye of Vecna or The Hand of Vecna—its number of charges will be random (1:x), and it will always generate as erosion-proof in case Vecna is destroyed over lava.
- The third and final wand can be found in the crystal chest in the top level of the Wizard's tower, and the chest is placed where the Wizard of Yendor himself is generated at level creation. This wand always has a singular charge (1:1).
References
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 998
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 194
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 871
- Jump up ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1020
- Jump up ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2175
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2181
- Jump up ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2177
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 478
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 501
- Jump up ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 521
- Jump up ↑ RGRN post: Why paranoia is not a bad thing via Google Groups
