Zap

Keyboard commands
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This article is about the ability to use wands. For the effects of electric attacks, see shock.

For "zapping" or casting spells, see spellcasting.

In NetHack, the hero and some monsters are capable of using wands by zapping them. The player can have the hero perform this command by pressing z or using the #zap extended command. This is distinct from spellcasting, which is carried out via the shift + Z command and is sometimes referred to as "zapping" spells.

Description

When a hero zaps a wand, they will be prompted to select a wand from their open inventory. The hero must have hands in their current form and must not be currently overtaxed to zap wands, although having both of their hands welded to a cursed item(s) does not affect the hero's ability to zap wands.

Selecting a wand with charges to zap will immediately use a charge from that wand, with further effects depending on the wand type:

• A non-directional wand, such as wand of light or the wand of wishing, will immediately take effect.
• A directional wand, like the wand of striking, will prompt the player for a direction to zap the wand in—if the player declines or any input other than a direction is provided, then nothing else happens and the used charge is wasted.
• A cursed wand with charges has a ¹⁄₁₀₀ chance of exploding when zapped instead of performing its effects. This abuses strength, uses up a turn and deals 2d6 damage to the hero plus +d6 for each charge that was remaining in the wand, and the damage can be reduced with the half physical damage property.

If the selected wand is cancelled (x:-1), then it will have no effect when zapped and will immediately be destroyed by turning to dust afterward. Otherwise, if a wand has no charges (x:0), then each attempt to zap it has a chance of wresting one final charge from the wand: this will cause the wand to behave as it does above, including prompting the player for a direction if necessary, and then turn to dust—if a final charge is not wrested on a zapping attempt, then nothing happens and the wand is not used up.

Zapping a wand will identify it if the hero can see its effects, as will seeing a monster zap a wand (whether at themselves or the hero). Zapping a wand that belongs to a shop will incur a usage fee from the shopkeeper.

Monster usage

An intelligent monster that has hands can zap wands in their inventory, and will use certain ones as they deem necessary: monsters will use some wands on themselves, while hostile monsters will use some other wands to attack the hero with. A monster will typically only zap wands when the hero is within a certain distance, and they will not attempt to zap a wand with no charges. Monsters can use the following wands:

• wand of digging
• wand of magic missile
• wand of make invisible
• wand of speed monster
• wand of striking
• wand of undead turning
• wand of cold
• wand of fire
• wand of lightning
• wand of sleep
• wand of create monster
• wand of polymorph
• wand of teleportation
• wand of death

Messages

What do you want to zap?

You used the zap command, and are prompted for a wand to zap.

You don't have anything to zap.

As above, but you have no wands.

<The monster> zaps a <wand>!

You saw a monster zap a wand.

You hear a zap.

A monster zapped a wand while outside of your line of sight.

Variants

Some NetHack variants enable the zap command to apply to items besides wands, while other variants may give monsters the ability to zap a wider variety of wands.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the following non-wand items and artifacts can also be zapped:

• rod of force
• Star-Emperor's Ring
• imperial elven gauntlets that have been upgraded using a wand of magic missile