Rays are directional attacks produced by certain wands, spells, horns and monster attacks.
The ray attack is animated on screen, and a horn or wand will auto-identify if you are not blind. A standard ray will bounce if it hits a wall or a creature with reflection. Rays are halted by doors, although many will destroy the door in the process. The ray characteristics allow you to attack enemies without reply in the right situation. In the wrong situation you may be unable to use your powerful ray attacks for fear of shooting yourself.
Non-standard rays include digging and fireball. A wand of digging cuts through walls and doors to its maximum range, while fireballs explode on impact.
The following items and breath attacks allow you to use rays.
Wands[]
- Wand of cold
- Wand of death
- Wand of digging (Does not reflect)
- Wand of fire
- Wand of lightning
- Wand of magic missile
- Wand of sleep
Spells[]
- Spellbook of cone of cold
- Spellbook of dig (Does not reflect)
- Spellbook of finger of death
- Spellbook of fireball (Does not reflect)
- Spellbook of magic missile
- Spellbook of sleep
Horns[]
Breath attacks[]
- A Winter wolf's cold breath.
- A Hellhound's fire breath
- A Blue dragon's lightning breath
- A Black dragon's disintegration breath
- A Gray dragon's magic missile breath
- A Green dragon's poison breath
- An Orange dragon's sleep breath
- A Red dragon's fire breath
- A Silver or White dragon's cold breath
- A Yellow dragon's acid breath
Bouncing rays[]
Rays that intersect with a wall will bounce, if they have sufficient range to continue to affect squares.
Straight reflections[]
Hitting a wall straight on will cause the ray to always bounce straight back, useful to hit a monster twice with the effect of the ray. Just beware of it also hitting you! A diagram will help:
|...... |...... |...... |<--@.. <--.@.. -->.@.. |...... |...... |...... Initial ray Straight Ray headed direction bounce back at you
Angled reflections[]
If a ray hits a wall at an angle, the reflection is slightly different. Rather than reflecting immediately from the square containing the wall, the ray appears to "penetrate" the wall one square and reflect accordingly. Note that the penetration does not affect something on the other side of the wall but will hit something IN the wall (like a xorn):
|...... |...... |.../..
|..c... |..c... |..%...
|...... |./.... |./....
|b..... |%..... |%.....
|a..... \a..... |a.....
|\..... |\..... |......
|.\.... |...... |......
|..@... |..@... |..@...
Ray heading Ray hits Ray also will
up-left wall, misses hit c if able
a, hitting b
1/20 of the time, the ray will instead bounce straight back in the direction it came from. [1]
|...... |...... |......
|..c... |..c... |..c...
|...... |...... |......
|b..... |b..... |b.....
|a..... \a..... |a.....
|\..... |\..... |\.....
|.\.... |...... |.\....
|..@... |..@... |..\...
Ray heading Ray hits Ray hits you
up-left wall, turns
around
Corner reflections[]
If a ray hits a (90 degree) corner, there are two cases: Concave or convex corners. Concave (or "internal") corners will always reflect the ray back at the original direction.
┌---- \---- ┌----
|\... |\... |\...
|.\.. |.... |.\..
|..@. |..@. |..@.
Ray heading Hits wall Ray also will
up-left starts heading hit @ if able
down-right
If the ray hits a convex (or "external") corner, the ray reflects randomly between 3 cases: 1/20 of the time it reflects straight back (which acts like the concave reflection above), otherwise there is an equal chance it will reflect 90 degrees off to the left or 90 degrees to the right.[2] Examples:
Reflecting left
┌---- ┌----
|..a. |..a.
|.... |....
|.... |....
┌---┘.... ┌---\....
|....\... |../.\...
|.....\.. |./...\..
|b.....@. |%.....@.
Ray reflecting
90 degrees "left"
hitting b
Reflecting right
┌---- ┌----
|..a. |..%.
|.... |./..
|.... |/...
┌---┘.... ┌---\....
|....\... |....\...
|.....\.. |.....\..
|b.....@. |b.....@.
Ray reflecting
90 degrees "right"
hitting a
