Container

A container usually means one of the following items: large box, chest, ice box, sack, oilskin sack or bag of holding. Each can store an unlimited number of items, but may become too heavy to lift as a consequence. You can open an unlocked container by using the #loot command. Note that even though the bag of tricks is defined with the CONTAINER-macro in objects.c, you cannot put items in it.

A statue can also function as a container; this causes messages like, "The statue of the Foo is empty." The contents correspond to the inventory of that monster before it was stoned. Some statues are generated with spellbooks inside.

Not all containers fit into other containers. Large boxes, ice boxes and chests are too big to fit into any other container.

All of the containers except ice boxes can be eaten by gelatinous cubes; the contents will be engulfed but unharmed.

If a container (other than a bag of holding) is kicked, thrown, or dropped from a height, fragile contents (glass items, other than worthless glass, and eggs) may be destroyed. Kicking a locked large box or chest may also break it open.

The unique items cannot be placed into containers. The cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor can, however; this may be used to tell it from the real thing.

Generation
Containers are generated uncursed, with the contents as described below. Containers will not be generated containing tools, weapons, armour or rocks. Containers in your initial inventory will be empty. If the container can be locked, then there is an 80% chance that it will be generated locked and, independently, a 10% chance that it will be trapped.

Tools can be generated in the main dungeon (8% of all objects) and Gehennom (12% of all objects). Each tool has the given probability of being a container.

Quantum mechanics may carry a large box containing a housecat named Schrödinger's cat.

Items generated in a container (other than an ice box) will each be one of the following types:

Weapons, armor and tools (including other containers) will never be generated in a container. Gold generated in containers will be 2.5 times the usual amount. Gemstones, glass, luckstones and loadstones can all be generated, but flint stones, touchstones, and rocks cannot. A wand of cancellation will never be generated in a bag of holding.

Unlocking
To unlock a chest or large box, you can:
 * Apply some unlocking tool to it.
 * Zap a wand of opening at it.
 * Kick it. Because this often destroys some of the items (e.g. potions) inside, it's not the best method.
 * #force the lock with a weapon. Using a blunt weapon (such as a war hammer or mace) will exercise strength but risks destroying the container and/or its contents. Using a sharp weapon (such as a dagger or sword) will exercise dexterity but risks destroying the weapon.
 * Cast knock at it

Large box
Large boxes are waterproof, and an excellent stash container - they are slightly more common than chests and lighter for transporting to a convenient altar.

Chest
Chests are waterproof.

Encyclopaedia 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 ]

Ice box
An ice box is a very heavy container, the main use of which is to keep corpses fresh. Corpses in an ice box will not age and will remain fit to eat or sacrifice indefinitely. They will continue decaying where they left off when removed from the box, and will be tainted if they were before being placed in the box.

Ice boxes are rare, but are occasionally randomly generated in the dungeons and can also appear in general stores, delicatessens, and hardware stores. An ice box can have up to 20 corpses in it, and some might be too heavy to remove. This has the effect of making the box absolutely immovable--the corpses will not rot away, and there is no way to manipulate them (eat them, use a tinning kit, etc.) while they are in the container.

Some players bring an ice box containing booze and snacks for the demigod bar when they ascend. Because ice boxes are heavy, this is a challenge (unless they are wished for just before ascending).

Ice boxes are waterproof. They have no locks.

In Slash'EM, there is a new type of shop, the frozen food store, which contains mainly ice boxes.

Sack
A sack is the simplest kind of container. It merely stores items; its main function is to avoid the 52-item inventory limit, though it also protects its contents from being destroyed by fire, cold or lightning. Therefore, it is extremely cheap.

When non-greased sacks get wet, their contents may get wet. Greasing the sack protects against this, but the grease may wear off. Sacks should be upgraded to oilskin sacks or preferably bags of holding as soon as possible.

Attempting to place a sack into itself yields the message "that would be an interesting topological exercise."

Encyclopaedia entry
"Now, this third handkerchief," Mein Herr proceeded, "has also four edges, which you can trace continuously round and round: all you need do is to join its four edges to the four edges of the opening. The Purse is then complete, and its outer surface--" "I see!" Lady Muriel eagerly interrupted. "Its outer surface will be continuous with its inner surface! But it will take time. I'll sew it up after tea." She laid aside the bag, and resumed her cup of tea. "But why do you call it Fortunatus's Purse, Mein Herr?" The dear old man beamed upon her, with a jolly smile, looking more exactly like the Professor than ever. "Don't you see, my child--I should say Miladi? Whatever is inside that Purse, is outside it; and whatever is outside it, is inside it.  So you have all the wealth of the world in that leetle Purse!" [ Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, by Lewis Carroll ]

Bag of holding
A bag of holding is one of the most coveted items in NetHack. Placing items into a bag of holding makes them weigh less; the effect is that you can carry more items.

Bags of holding, oilskin sacks and bags of tricks cost 100, while normal sacks cost 2. (Make sure there is nothing in the bag when you check the price.) Bags of tricks are easily identifiable (better to #loot in a shop than to pay a usage fee!), and if your encumbrance changes if you put something in the bag, it's a bag of holding and not an oilskin sack. At the end of Sokoban there's a 50% chance of being a bag of holding (the other 50% there's an Amulet of reflection).

The weight of a bag of holding (wgt) - including the 15 for the bag itself - depends on the weight of its contents (cwgt) and its BUC: blessed:  wgt = 15 + (cwgt/4 + 1) uncursed: wgt = 15 + (cwgt/2 + 1) cursed:   wgt = 15 + cwgt*2

Roughly speaking, bags of holding halve the weight of the objects contained, blessed bags divide it by four, and cursed bags double it. You may also lose items when you use a cursed bag of holding; each item in the bag has a 1/13 chance of disappearing each time you apply or loot the bag.

Some items should not be held in a bag of holding and may make the bag explode. These items are: The first two are straightforward; the wand can be trickier. To be safe, do not put any unidentified wands inside the bag that make engravings disappear (this includes cancellation, teleportation, and make invisible).
 * other bags of holding
 * bags of tricks with non-zero charges remaining
 * wands of cancellation with non-zero charges remaining

It is sometimes possible to put one of these items into nested sacks and/or oilskin sacks and then place them safely inside a bag of holding. The chance of an explosion occurring then depends on the amount of nesting: sacks: 0    1    2    3    4     5     6      7      8       n  odds:  1/1  2/2  3/4  4/8  5/16  6/32  7/64  8/128  9/128  (n+1)/128 ~%: 100  100   75   50    31    19    11   6.25   7.03 When non-greased bags of holding get wet, their contents may get wet. Greasing the bag protects against this, but the grease may wear off.

Strategy
Many players name a plain sack something like "Cancel" or "Don't ever put this in BoH!" and keep what could be wands of cancellation in that sack as a safety measure.

Some players either consider the 6.25% chance of explosion to be an acceptable risk or assume from a test in wizard mode that it is safe. If you are confident you can withstand the explosion, you can risk it before you leave the main dungeon in order to increase your score or bring specific items to the ascension bar.

Bag of tricks
A bag of tricks looks like an ordinary bag, but contains nasty surprises for prospective #looters.

When a bag of tricks is #looted, it will bite you (1 to 10 hit points damage) and become identified. If you (a)pply it and it has charges left, it will create one monster (22/23 chance), or create 2 to 8 monsters (1/23 chance). "Nothing happens" when you apply a bag with zero charges. Bags of tricks are generated with 1 to 20 charges. If the bag has more than 10 charges, a blessed scroll of charging will add 6 to 10 charges, otherwise it will add 6 to 15 charges; an uncursed scroll will always add 1 to 5 charges. It cannot be charged higher than 50 charges.

Placing a bag of tricks with nonzero charges into a bag of holding will cause a magical explosion, destroying both bags and all their contents.

Strategy
If carrying a bag of holding, bags of tricks should be treated with the same caution as a wand of cancellation. Unless you need to create some monsters (for food, sacrifice or experience), they are often best left alone. A magical explosion can be a game-ending mistake.

If you only want the bag to polypile with, apply it until it runs out of charges. Make sure you can deal with the generated monsters! You know the bag is empty when "nothing happens" when you apply it. An uncharged bag of tricks is "safe", and if it polymorphs into another charged tool, the new tool's charges will be independent of the number of charges the bag had.

Oilskin sack
The oilskin sack behaves exactly as the regular sack, with the exception that a blessed or uncursed oilskin sack will protect the items it contains from becoming wet. A cursed oilskin sack only protects its contents two-thirds of the time.

Encyclopaedia entry
Summer passed all too quickly. On the last day of camp, Mr. Brickle called his counselors together and paid them what he owed them. Louis received one hundred dollars - the first money he had ever earned. He had no wallet and no pockets, so Mr. Brickle placed the money in a waterproof bag that had a drawstring. He hung this moneybag around Louis' neck, along with the trumpet, the slate, the chalk pencil, and the lifesaving medal. [ The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White ]