Gems, stones, and luck in NetHack 3.4

gems-341.html Last edited 2003-06-26 for NetHack 3.4.1
Compiled for 3.2.2 by Kevin Hugo.
Updated for 3.4.1 by Dylan O'Donnell <psmith@spod-central.org>.
HTML Conversion by Kate Nepveu <knepveu@steelypips.org>.

Contents

• Table of gems
• Identifying stones
• Identifying gems
• Luck

Gems and stones are listed above by category, then by decreasing price. The COST field denotes the base price of each item. WGT specifies the weight (100 zorkmids weighs 1).

Gems comprise 8% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 18% in containers, 0% on the Rogue level, and 10% in hell. PROB is the relative probability of each subtype, except for those marked with an asterisk (valuable gems); the figures so marked instead represent the first level on which the gems can occur (this limitation only applying to the main dungeon, and these restrictions are only reviewed when creating a new level). Permissible valuable gems have roughly equal probabilities of being generated among themselves, always set such that the total for the category as a whole is 171.

Loadstones are always generated cursed (except potentially in containers), all others are uncursed. Rocks appear in piles of 6 to 11. Valuable gems, worthless gems, touchstones, and flint stones have a 1/6 chance of appearing in a pile of 2.

The ENGR field denotes how the gem appears when you attempt to engrave with it (see below). COLORS specifies the possible appearance of the gem. If more than one color is possible, then one will be randomly chosen for the appearance.

Identifying stones

There are five different types of non-gem stones, and four of them are indistinguishably gray.

rock

Rocks are immediately identified on examination, and pose little difficulty or challenge to the adventurer. They make a cheap and usually plentiful source of ammunition, should you lack or wish to conserve other ranged attacks. ("Good ol' rock. Nothing beats that." -- Bart Simpson)

touchstone

Touchstones are most readily distinguished by their effect when rubbed with something hard, such as an iron weapon; they will make a "scritch, scritch" sound. Their primary use is rubbing them with other gems and stones (and, once identified, this is all they _can_ be used for); if blessed (or also if uncursed, for Archeologists and gnomes), the object rubbed with will be identified. The complete table of results that distinguish them is as follows:

GRAY STONE	GEM	GLASS	HARD	RING
good touchstone	ID	ID	scritch	streak
bad touchstone	streak	scratch	scritch	streak
other gray stone	cscratch	cscratch	scratch	cscratch

where "streak" denotes coloured streaks, "scratch" uncoloured scratch marks, "cscratch" coloured scratch marks, and "scritch" the sound "scritch scritch".

Other types of object may produce coloured streaks or scratches, but will not provide any further useful information.

Note that being rubbed on a cursed touchstone may shatter gems or rocks (but not other gray stones).

luckstone

Luckstones can be identified by their effect (see "Luck" below) with the help of enlightenment, by their valuation by shopkeepers, or by the presence of the guaranteed luckstone at the top of a gems cache in the Gnome King's Wine Cellar version of the bottom level of the Gnomish Mines. (Or, indeed, by the Heart of Ahriman being one).

loadstone

As noted above, loadstones are almost always generated cursed; furthermore, they autocurse on being dropped or otherwise leaving the main inventory, and a cursed loadstone cannot be let go of. It is therefore best to identify them while they lie on the ground; kicking them will usually elicit a "Thump!" rather than movement across the floor, but being extremely strong (at least 22 strength; 18/** is not sufficient) while wearing kicking boots or being a Samurai or Monk may allow some movement (watch how far it goes).

flint stone

These exist primarily to make it hard to identify touchstones, loadstones and luckstones, and are best identified by elimination of the other three. They have few special properties, but do inflict somewhat more damage than other stones or gems when used as sling ammunition.

Identifying gems

(Quoted in part from the spoiler "gems" by Bryan Butler.)

"I shall, with cultured taste,
Distinguish gems from paste..."
-- Reginald Bunthorne, in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience"

There are now nine methods to identify gems: engraving, throwing at unicorns, killing glass golems, spell of stone to flesh, collecting a large number, scrolls or spells of identify, a touchstone, dipping an amethyst in potions of booze, and finding pre-placed gems.

1. Engraving with gems

   If a gem is listed as "hard" above, then you will see the following message when you attempt to (E)ngrave with the gem:

   "You engrave in the <floor> with the <gem>."

   where <gem> is the appearance of the gem. All hard gems are valuable, although some colors may have more than one possible identity.

   If the gem is "soft," you will see this message:

   "You write in the dust with the <gem>."

   Soft gems may be valuable or worthless, so you will need an additional method to identify these gems.

   In either case, you can abort the engraving process by pressing Escape. If you choose to write a message, it will take one turn per character to engrave. Not all types of floor can be engraved upon. You may choose to #name a gem once you know its hardness (e.g., "soft blue").

2. Throwing gems at unicorns

   Throwing a gem to a non-tame unicorn can change your luck in one of several ways, depending on whether the gem is worthless or valuable, whether you are the same alignment as the unicorn (white = lawful, gray = neutral, and black = chaotic), and whether the gem type is already identified or named.

   VALUE	ALIGN	KNOWN	ADVERB	LUCK CHANGE
   glass	other	unknown	graciously	0
   glass	other	named	(see below*)	0
   glass	other	identified	(see below*)	0
   glass	same	unknown	graciously	0
   glass	same	named	(see below*)	0
   glass	same	identified	(see below*)	0
   gem	other	unknown	hesitatingly	-1 to +1
   gem	other	named	hesitatingly	-1 to +1
   gem	other	identified	hesitatingly	-3 to +3
   gem	same	unknown	gratefully	+1
   gem	same	named	gratefully	+2
   gem	same	identified	gratefully	+5

   In most cases, the message sequence is as follows:

   "The <unicorn> neighs! The <unicorn> catches the <gem>."
   "The <unicorn> <ADVERB> accepts your gift."

   where the color of the unicorn and the color of the gem are appropriate for the situation. <ADVERB> comes from the table above, except where the column has a *, in which case there is a different message sequence:

   "The <unicorn> neighs!"
   "The <unicorn> catches the <glass>."
   "The <unicorn> is not interested in your junk."

   after which the unicorn will promptly drop the "gem".

3. Killing glass golems

   When a glass golem is destroyed, it leaves behind 2 to 8 worthless pieces of glass (each of which can be any of the colours), and never gems.

4. Spell of stone to flesh

   The spell of stone to flesh will turn gemstones into meatballs, but leave worthless pieces of glass intact; #name a gem 'valuable' or similar before zapping the spell at it (and rename it afterwards should it be proven untrue), since it won't be around to #name after.

5. Collecting a large number of gems

   If you wait long enough, you'll accumulate a large number of gems. Since the probabilities of getting worthless pieces of glass are so much higher than getting true gems, you'll acquire them much faster than other gems. So, if you just wait long enough, and look at all of the gems of a certain color that you have, more often than not the gem of which you have the most is the worthless piece of glass. This is a bit risky, and usually takes much more time than other methods.

6. Scrolls and spells of identify

   You can always use a scroll or spell of identify to determine whether a gem is valuable. You will then recognize all gems of that same type, although you can lose this knowledge from a scroll of amnesia or (master) mind flayer attack. Shopkeepers will buy identified gems based on their full price; this is a good way to get money.

7. Rubbing on a touchstone

   Being rubbed on a blessed touchstone (or also uncursed for Archeologists, who start with one, and gnomes) will immediately identify any gem, as detailed under "touchstones" above.

8. Dipping amethysts into potions of booze

   When you dip an amethyst into a potion(s) of booze, the potion will turn into fruit juice ("a-methyst" means not intoxicated). You can use this very special case to identify this type of soft violet gems.

9. Pre-placed gems

   Certain levels are guaranteed to be generated with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and amethysts in well-defined positions. Two versions of the bottom level of the Gnomish Mines (the Wine Cellar version and Mimic of the Mines version) contain concealed chambers with these four types of gems and a guaranteed luckstone, together with assorted other * to confuse identification; the third version's are randomly scattered across the level. The four corner rooms of Fort Ludios (if it is reachable in your game) each contain one of these four types of valuable gems. Other levels may also be generated with piles of gems, but their type is not guaranteed, so these levels are not helpful in determining the identity of gems.

Luck

Luck is included here because of luckstones.

Your luck affects many aspects of the game (too many to mention here), and is actually the sum of two components. Base luck changes with events in the game, and may slowly return to a "baseline" level. Bonus luck, on the other hand, is determined by what kind of luckstone (and certain artifacts) you are carrying. Only a rough idea of your luck is given in the enlightenment list; the meaning of the messages is as follows:

Your bonus luck -- and whether your base luck will return to its baseline level -- is controlled by luckstones and certain Quest Artifacts. The effect of these "luckitems" depends on the number in your main inventory that are blessed, uncursed, and cursed (see table below). Note that you can't do any better than one blessed luckitem, so you might as well keep any others in a bag (where they have no effect) as spares in case your main one is cursed.

When you are enlightened about your luck, you are also told if you have bonus luck and if good/bad luck will not time out.

Base luck is adjusted by each of the events described below. It cannot be reduced below -10 or increased above +10 beyond the baseline. In addition, every 600 turns (or 300 if you have the Amulet of Yendor or have angered your god), your luck will increase by one if it is less than your baseline luck and bad luck times out, and your luck will decrease by one if your luck is greater than your baseline luck and good luck times out. Your baseline luck is +1 if you started or restored the game during a full moon, -1 if started/restored on Friday the 13th, and 0 if neither or both.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Bruce Cox for proofreading the original version of this file.
Further corrections and clarifications provided by David Damerell, Rob Ellwood, Yair Friedman, David Grabiner, Adam Kao, Nick Number, and Donald Welsh.

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