Large box

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Name	large box
Appearance	large box
Base price	8 zm
Weight	350
Material	wood
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

A large box is a type of tool that appears in NetHack. The large box is a lockable container that is made of wood, and it is similar to the chest.

Generation

Large boxes make up ¹⁄₂₅ (4%) of all tools that are randomly generated on the floor (in the dungeon and Gehennom), in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock large boxes, and any boxes generated normally in shops will also have their contents generated as normal. Large boxes are always generated as uncursed outside of bones levels and trap "bones".

Each level of the Dungeons of Doom has a chance of placing a single large box in a room that is dependent on the number of rooms created on that floor, with a roughly ¹⁄₅ chance (20%) of placing at least one large box per level. Graveyards have an effective ¹⁄₁₅ chance of placing a large box on each square. Barracks have a ¹⁄₃₀ chance of placing a large box on each square.

Each level above the the Oracle level, other than the floor with the stair to the Gnomish Mines, has an effective ²⁄₉ chance of generating a single large box in a room during level creation: this large box will act as a "supply container" and contain some useful items.

• The large box has a ⁵⁄₆ chance of being locked.
• Each item inside has a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of being a potion of healing, with a further roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of a stack of two healing potions—otherwise, the item will be one of a potion of extra healing, speed or gain energy, a scroll of enchant weapon, enchant armor, confuse monster, or scare monster, a wand of digging, or a spellbook of healing.
• Once an item is generated in the supply container, another item will be placed if that previous item was cursed or with a ¹⁄₅ chance (20%) otherwise—this continues until either an item fails to generate or 50 total items have been generated, though this latter outcome has incredibly low odds.
• After all items above are placed, there is a ²⁄₃ chance of an additional non-tool item being placed, with a slight bias towards lower-level spellbooks.

Other normally-created large boxes have a ⁴⁄₅ chance of generating as locked and a separate ¹⁄₁₀ chance of generating with a container trap, and a trapped large box has a ¹⁄₁₀₀ chance of generating as "obviously" trapped, i.e. the hero will know its trapped status upon seeing it. Large boxes other than the supply container that are created locked can generate with up to 5 random items inside, and otherwise can generate with up to 3 random items inside.

Schrodinger's Cat

A quantum mechanic has a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of being generated with a large box: the large box has a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating a peaceful housecat with the name "Schroedinger's Cat" if there is room to place it on the level, and will otherwise contain a housecat corpse named "Schroedinger's Cat". The state of the cat within the box is not determined until the box is opened—see the article on Schroedinger's Cat for more specific information.

Description

Large boxes store items like other containers, and cannot be placed into other containers themselves. A large box prevents its contents from being subjected to external damage by fire, cold or shock, and the box will also protect them from becoming wet unless it is cursed, which reduces the chance of protection to ²⁄₃. A large box will gradually rot away if buried underground, and a buried box that fully rots away will leave its contents buried (and thus susceptible to rot).

A hero can use a large box by looting it or using the open command while standing on its square, or else by applying it while it is in their inventory. A locked large box must be unlocked or have its lock forced open and broken before a hero can store items within it, and a broken lock can be repaired with the wand of locking, the wand of opening, the spell of wizard lock, or the spell of knock. Forcing a large box's lock open with an edged weapon has a chance of breaking the weapon, while using a blunt weapon has a chance of destroying the large box, and destroying a large box with a blunt weapon may destroy some of its former contents in the process. Kicking or throwing a large box has a chance of destroying some of its contents, including fragile items—kicking a locked large box also has a chance of breaking open the lock.

Monsters can pick up large boxes: monsters that are intelligent and have hands will rummage through a large box if it has contents that interest them, and an intelligent monster with hands and an unlocking tool will be able to unlock a locked large box—monsters will avoid large boxes that are on the same square as a scroll of scare monster. A gelatinous cube will instead eat large boxes that they move across, avoiding ones with a scroll of scare monster on their square as normal: if a cube eats a large box and engulfs its contents, it will silently use a move to digest one organic item from its freshly-gained inventory on each of its subsequent moves, and it remains motionless as it eats unless the hero is in melee range of it. A tame gelatinous cube will behave similarly when coming across a large box, considering it "acceptable" food, and will prefer eating items over dropping them (e.g., when eating a large box and engulfing its contents). Heroes that are polymorphed into gelatinous cubes cannot eat large boxes unless they are empty.

Strategy

Untrapping large boxes that you come across is generally wise to avoid YASD, especially in the early game, but you can leave a trap that you discover on a box for later if you are not confident in successfully disarming it. Large boxes can serve as stash locations, and can provide a means of dealing with troll corpses by locking them inside to prevent them from reviving. Large boxes are lighter in weight than chests, making them the more practical of the two to carry for keeping their inventory somewhat shielded in games where a hero is unable to find even a sack. Random large boxes are also somewhat more commonplace while containing fewer items on average.

Securing a stash kept within a large box by locking it and placing it on a square with a boulder and/or a scroll of scare monster is important if a player plans to spend a long time on a stash's level where a gelatinous cube has a chance of generating—in a worst-case scenario where a cube has gotten to a stash box and eaten it, it is imperative to kill the cube quickly before too many of the former contents are digested. This is especially true for heroes opting to keep a pet cube, since if it drops its inventory due to carrying capacity limitations and then moves back over the pile, it will engulf and attempt to eat the organic objects in the resulting pile all at once.

History

The large box first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the large box has been subject to several bug fixes and other code adjustments.

• In versions up to NetHack 3.1.3:
  • A common strategy for identifying worthless pieces of glass is to gather a large collection of gems, naming them all "fake blue" or whichever color they desired, placing them in a large box or other container, and then repeatedly kicking the container to break any worthless glass within until the game stopped printing messages about gems shattering—the surviving gems are confirmed to be valuable. This tactic was nicknamed "kickboxing", and NetHack 3.2.0 fixes this by making worthless pieces of glass non-fragile.
• In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7:
  • Monsters are capable of picking up large boxes, but will not attempt to remove their contents or unlock one if it is locked. NetHack 5.0.0 gives monsters the ability to open containers and unlock locked containers via commit b12ea03d, and fixes a regression via commit 4b270099 that causes them to ignore a scroll of scare monster on the same square as a container that interests them.
  • Hostile gelatinous cubes will always eat large boxes that they move across, engulfing the contents afterward without also eating them—tame gelatinous cubes will instead drop the contents of the box immediately, introducing the risk of the cube moving back over the pile soon after and consuming all organic contents within it. This behavior is changed for NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 2108abd3 and commit dafd8549 so that cubes will eat items one at a time regardless of whether they are hostile.
  • A bug prevents the hero from using the open command to open a large box if they are in a pit or spiked pit, even if the box is also in that pit. This is fixed for NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 4e6d3aba.
  • Large boxes remain completely waterproof, even if they are cursed. This is changed for NetHack 5.0.0 via commit f90bb4fb so that a cursed large box does not always prevent water damage to its contents.
• NetHack 5.0.0 makes the following changes to large boxes:
  • Supply containers are added to the early floors of the dungeon via commit ae3e5d28.

Messages

You succeed in unlocking the <container>.

You successfully unlocked a locked large box with an unlocking tool.

Klick!

You unlocked a locked large box with the spell of knock or a wand of opening.

You break open the lock!

You kicked a locked large box open.

THUD!

As above, but the large box was not opened.

THUD! The lid slams open, then falls shut.

As above, but the large box is not locked.

You hear a muffled shatter.

You kicked or threw a large box and broke at least one item inside it.

You hear a muffled cracking.

As above, and at least one egg inside was destroyed.

Variants

Some NetHack variants may change how large boxes function—a common quality-of-life addition is to allow placing a container on an altar to identify the beatitude of both the box and its contents. Variants that implement object materials may alter a large box's properties based on its material.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, upgrading a large box will produce a chest.

Five large boxes are placed on the southern end of the Yeoman quest home level during level creation.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, the large box's maximum capacity is set to 3000 aum.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, some large boxes are flagged to behave as "coffins" that generate a vampire monster upon opening them—these replace the chests on the top floor of Vlad's Tower and the large boxes normally found in graveyards.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the item is known simply as a "box", as objects can generate in particular sizes (e.g. "a small box" or "a large long sword") and can also have their sizes changed. Pirates know the box as a foot locker.

The top floor of the Windowless Tower features boxes flavored as coffins in place of the chests from NetHack, which contain vampire monsters that will awaken upon opening them.

Maids that pick up boxes with broken locks will mend those locks.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, large boxes in xNetHack have special behaviors based on their material:

• Large boxes made of mineral (or "stone") have no lock and cannot be made locked by any means, although they may still be trapped like other chests.
• Large boxes made of iron, metal or any similar metallic material cannot be kicked open or have their locked forced by blunt weapons, and edged weapons used to force their locks are more likely to break.
• Large boxes made of glass (or "crystal") will always be generated as locked—they cannot be forced open, and can only be un-locked or re-locked by magical means. "Crystal" large boxes are also transparent: a hero that walks over one for the first time will automatically look at its contents, and can do so at any time by using the near look command while on its square. Crystal large boxes that are generated with random contents will contain 1 additional random item in comparison to chests made of other materials.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, Cartomancers know the large box as a deck box.

Encyclopedia entry

Dantes rapidly cleared away the earth around the chest. Soon the center lock appeared, then the handles at each end, all delicately wrought in the manner of that period when art made precious even the basest of metals. He took the chest by the two handles and tried to lift it, but it was impossible. He tried to open it; it was locked. He inserted the sharp end of his pickaxe between the chest and the lid and pushed down on the handle. The lid creaked, then flew open.
Dantes was seized with a sort of giddy fever. He cocked his gun and placed it beside him. The he closed his eyes like a child, opened them and stood dumbfounded.
The chest was divided into three compartments. In the first were shining gold coins. In the second, unpolished gold ingots packed in orderly stacks. From the third compartment, which was half full, Dantes picked up handfuls of diamonds, pearls and rubies. As they fell through his fingers in a glittering cascade, they gave forth the sound of hail beating against the windowpanes.

[ The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas ]