Wand of sleep
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | sleep |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 5% |
| Base price | 175 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | ray |
| Maximum charges | 8 |
| Spell | sleep |
| Monster use | May be used offensively by monsters. |
A wand of sleep is a type of wand that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Healers start each game with a wand of sleep.[1] Wizards may be given a wand of sleep as the random wand in their starting inventory.[2]
Wands of sleep make up 1⁄20 (5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of sleep.
Randomly created intelligent monsters may be generated with a wand of sleep as a offensive item.[3]
Wands of sleep are created with 4 to 8 charges.
Description
Zapping a wand of sleep in a given direction will auto-identify the wand and emit a ray that puts any hero or monster it hits to sleep for 6d25 turns unless they have sleep resistance.[4][5] Like most other non-destructive rays, sleep rays from this wand will be absorbed by doors unless they are undiscovered secret doors. A hero zapping the wand at themselves will fall asleep for up to 50 turns unless they have sleep resistance.[6]
Breaking a charged wand of sleep 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 auto-identifies the wand if the hero is not blind[7][8][9]—the explosion puts the hero and monsters caught in the explosion to sleep for a number of turns equal to (x + 1)d12, where x is the number of charges that the broken wand had.[10]
Engraving with a wand of sleep gives a somewhat distinct message, which it shares with the wand of death.[11]
Strategy
Wands of sleep are an invaluable aid for heroes throughout most stages of the game, though like many such wands they are also incredibly dangerous when in the hands of a monster or else mishandled by an over-eager hero: rebounds from a hero's wand that causes bugs on the floor to stop moving risks either killing the hero themselves with a death ray or else putting them to sleep, leaving them at the mercy of nearby hostile monsters if they lack sleep resistance. An unidentified wand that produces the message associated with both wands when engraving and was not generated in a monster's inventory has 6:1 odds of being a wand of sleep.
A hero with a wand of sleep can use it to defeat or escape difficult non-resistant monsters, or else to simply buy time for quick item usage before resuming combat. Most monsters early in the game lack sleep resistance, save for zombies and elves—even unicorns can be immobilized with the wand for an easier kill in order to obtain their horn and a chance at poison resistance, though unicorns have an MR score of 80 that makes them very likely to resist. Even in the later stages of the game, wands of sleep can be useful against quest nemeses, covetous monsters and other strong hostiles that are not resistant such as air elementals, leocrottas and minotaurs, though the sleep spell is usually more reliable in the hands of a hero with high skill in enchantment spells.
Wands of sleep can be used when sacrificing on altars to park heavier non-resistant monsters on the altar square so you can save on time that would have been spent moving their corpses—be sure not to hit temple priests with the beam by accident!
History
The wand of sleep first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
Messages
- The bugs on the <floor> stop moving!
- You engraved with a wand of sleep.
- The sleep ray hits <the monster>.
- A monster was hit by a wand of sleep's ray.
- You don't feel sleepy.
- You were hit by a sleep ray, but you have sleep resistance.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, player monster healers always generate with wands of sleep.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, a hero applying a charged wand of sleep to break it will also create a sleeping gas trap on their square.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, shopkeepers are given wands of sleep in place of a wand of striking.
Player monster healers always generate with wands of sleep.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 65
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 164
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1607
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3656
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3811
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2418
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 404
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 410
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3353
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 408
- ↑ src/engrave.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 717
