# Speed boots

[   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;speed boots

Appearance

random

Slot

boots

AC

1

Special

speed

Base price

50 zm

Weight

20

Material

leather

Speed boots (also dubbed boots of speed) are a type of magical boots that appear in NetHack.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Description
3 Strategy
4 History
5 Messages
6 Variants

6.1 SLASH'EM
6.2 NetHack brass
6.3 GruntHack
6.4 UnNetHack
6.5 dNetHack
6.6 SlashTHEM
6.7 The November NetHack Tournament
6.8 EvilHack

7 References

Generation
Player monsters on the Astral Plane have a 7⁄8 of generating with boots, and a 12⁄131 chance of those boots being speed boots - roughly a cumulative probability of ~8.01%.[1]

Description
When worn, speed boots grant extrinsic very fast speed and auto-identify themselves.
Speed boots give a player an extra six movement points per turn, plus a 1/3 chance of an additional six movement points. This boosts the normal movement rate from 12 to 18 (150% normal speed, or 3 moves every 2 turns), with a 1/3 chance per turn of movement rate being 24 (200% normal speed, or 2 full moves per turn). On average, the player will thus get 20 movement points per turn (167% normal speed, or 5 moves every 3 turns). Speed boots have no effect on your steed's movemetn speed while riding.
Monsters can also wear speed boots, with the same effect as a wand of speed monster, potion of speed or the haste self monster spell.

Strategy
Speed boots are the only source of extrinsic speed that doesn't time out, making them popular choice for an ascension kit. Very fast speed is a huge basic advantage for any character, moreso than even intrinsic fast speed - with more actions per turn, you can deal more damage with weapons and spells, more easily flee from combat or employ hit and run tactics) and slip through gaps in hostile monsters before being surrounded. Blessed fixed +2 or +3 speed boots are a common early wish, though gray or silver dragon scale mail is arguably a preferable option, depending on your circumstances.
Speed boots are of little use to humanoid pets that can wear them - most such pets can pick up and use the wand or potion, and some spellcasting pets can make themselves fast easily. Extrinsic speed is typically not necessary for dedicated riders, who prefer other types of boots - wearing jumping boots allow your steed to jump and can cover more distance than speed boots, while water walking boots can save your life if you're dismounted over water. Bear in mind that no steed is immortal, and you should be prepared to continue on foot if necessary in case you lose them to an accident or unfortunate circumstance.
Speed boots are a valuable item in turncount speedrunning, due to their ability to give the player multiple actions without advancing the turn counter. An air elemental polyself is even faster than this, though you cannot wear boots in this form.

History
Speed boots are introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.

Messages
You feel yourself speed up.
You put on a pair of speed boots while at normal speed.
You feel yourself speed up a bit more.
You put them on while already at fast speed.
Your quickness feels 

<more less=""> natural.
You either gained or lost intrinsic speed while wearing the boots.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the black market shopkeeper, One-Eyed Sam, is always generated wearing an enchanted pair of speed boots; a pair of speed boots also appears in The Spider Caves. Whisperfeet is an artifact pair of speed boots that acts as a luckstone and confers stealth when worn - they are the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for Tourists. 
Due to the new create pool spell that monsters will cast at you, non-flying players may prefer water walking boots to speed boots as their primary boots of choice in the late game.

NetHack brass
In NetHack brass, speed boots provide a boost to speed that can stack with other sources of speed, rather than setting your speed to very fast.

GruntHack
In GruntHack, armor can have the speed property, including non-speed boots, providing more sources of extrinsic speed.

UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the black market and One-Eyed Sam re-appear, and Sam is generated with an enchanted pair of speed boots as in SLASH'EM.

dNetHack
In dNetHack, Quicksilver is an unaligned silver flail that can be invoked to gain extrinsic speed, as with speed boots - the speed can be toggled on or off this way. 

SlashTHEM
In addition to SLASH'EM additions above, Duri generates with a pair of speed boots among other enchanted armor.

The November NetHack Tournament
In The November NetHack Tournament, the deathmatch opponent generates with a pair of blessed fireproof speedboots; it can be at either +4 or +5 like all their other armor, and defeating them successfully lets you select one of their items to take as their own.

EvilHack
EvilHack adds the helm of speed, which also provides extrinsic speed - the helm is an alternative for centaurs and tortles, who cannot wear speed boots or any kind of footwear.

References

↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 295: mk_mplayer_armor selects boots from all available types listed in objects.c

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