A major part of NetHack is identifying items. To make this more difficult, the appearances of scrolls, potions, rings, wands, spellbooks, and some armor are randomly shuffled at game start. In a few cases, an item's appearance affects its function beyond its identified type. This page lists the possible appearances.
Scrolls[]
Scrolls of mail and blank paper have fixed appearances; all others appear as one of the following:
ZELGO MER JUYED AWK YACC NR 9 XIXAXA XOXAXA XUXAXA PRATYAVAYAH DAIYEN FOOELS LEP GEX VEN ZEA PRIRUTSENIE ELBIB YLOH VERR YED HORRE VENZAR BORGAVVE THARR YUM YUM KERNOD WEL ELAM EBOW DUAM XNAHT ANDOVA BEGARIN KIRJE VE FORBRYDERNE HACKEM MUCHE VELOX NEB FOOBIE BLETCH TEMOV GARVEN DEH READ ME
For the meanings and origins of some of these, see scroll origins.
Potions[]
A potion of water is always a "clear potion". Other potions have one of these descriptions:
ruby pink orange yellow emerald dark green cyan sky blue brilliant blue magenta purple-red puce milky swirly bubbly smoky cloudy effervescent black golden brown fizzy dark white murky
Of these, the smoky potion and milky potion are special in all games regardless of their actual identity. A smoky potion may contain a djinni and a milky potion a ghost.
Spellbooks[]
The Book of the Dead and blank spellbook both have a fixed description. Regular spellbooks will appear as one of the following:
parchment vellum ragged dog eared mottled stained cloth leather white pink red orange yellow velvet light green dark green turquoise cyan light blue dark blue indigo magenta purple violet tan plaid light brown dark brown gray wrinkled dusty bronze copper silver gold glittering shining dull thin thick
The source code also contains appearances for the deferred spellbooks of flame sphere and freeze sphere, which are canvas and hardcover respectively. These will presumably be randomized if the spellbooks are enabled.
Rings[]
Rings (other than the meat ring) will randomly take one of the following appearances:
pearl iron twisted steel wire engagement shiny bronze brass copper silver gold wooden granite opal clay coral black onyx moonstone tiger eye jade agate topaz sapphire ruby diamond ivory emerald
Of these, topaz, sapphire, ruby, steel, diamond and emerald rings can be used to semi-permanently engrave something on the floor.
If you are wearing a silver ring, you will do extra damage to silver-hating monsters with bare-handed and martial arts attacks.
Pearl, iron, twisted, steel, wire, engagement, and shiny can be eaten by any metallivore (rock mole, xorn, or rust monster). Bronze, brass, copper, silver, and gold can be eaten by any metallivore not restricted to rustable metals (rock mole and xorn). Additionally, gelatinous cubes can eat wooden rings.
Amulets[]
Amulets, other than the Amulet of Yendor, and its imitation, have the following appearances:
circular spherical oval triangular pyramidal square concave hexagonal octagonal
Except for the Amulet of Yendor, and its imitation, they can all be eaten by metallivores; amulets of lifesaving and of reflection have no effect when eaten.
Wands[]
Wands take one of the following appearances:
aluminum balsa brass copper crystal curved ebony forked glass hexagonal iridium iron jeweled long maple marble oak pine platinum runed short silver spiked steel tin uranium zinc
Armor[]
Helms[]
Four helms are randomized: the helmet, helm of brilliance, helm of opposite alignment, and helm of telepathy Each has one of the following randomized appearances:
plumed helmet etched helmet crested helmet visored helmet
Of these, the visored helmet is always special. It protects against the blinding attack of ravens and the venom-spitting attack of cobras.
Cloaks[]
Four cloaks have random appearances: the cloak of displacement, cloak of invisibility, cloak of magic resistance and cloak of protection. They are chosen from the following:
tattered cape ornamental cope opera cloak piece of cloth
Cloaks of displacement and protection automatically identify themselves when worn, and cloaks of invisibility will too unless you are already invisible. Even a -3 cloak of protection, which grants no change in AC, is identified upon wearing. Otherwise, if you find yourself wearing any of those randomized appearance cloaks as-is, it is the cloak of magic resistance.
Gloves[]
Appearances of all gloves are randomized:
old gloves padded gloves riding gloves fencing gloves
Of these, the riding gloves are special, increasing the chance of successfully saddling a steed.
Boots[]
The appearance of the magical boots is randomized from the following set:
mud boots snow boots riding boots buckled boots hiking boots combat boots jungle boots
Of these, snow boots and riding boots are special. The former makes ice act like normal terrain and the latter increases the chance of successfully saddling a steed. However, this bonus is not cumulative with the riding gloves.
| This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:
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