# Wand of digging

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Name

digging

Appearance

random

Abundance

5.5%

Base price

150 zm

Weight

7

Type

ray

Maximum charges

8  

Spell

dig

Monster use

May be used defensively by monsters.

A wand of digging is a type of wand that appears in NetHack.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Description
3 Strategy

3.1 Digging for victory

4 History
5 Messages
6 Variants

6.1 UnNetHack
6.2 SLASH'EM
6.3 SlashTHEM
6.4 NetHack Fourk
6.5 FIQHack

7 References

Generation
Monsters may be generated carrying a wand of digging as a defensive item, with the exception of floating eyes.[1]
Minotaurs have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a wand of digging; the one generated upon entering the Plane of Earth is guaranteed to have one.

Description
Zapping a wand of digging in a given direction produces a ray that can dig open a corridor of several squares through solid rock and walls, destroying any doors in its path; the ray has no effect on boulders. Zapping the wand upward causes a rock to fall from the ceiling and bonk you on the head unless you are underwater.
Zapping the wand downward creates a hole, and doing this on an undiggable floor creates a pit. Unless you are levitating, flying, or else happen to escape, you will fall in. Doing so on a headstone always creates a pit on the square and unearths the contents of that grave (with appropriate alignment penalties).
Zapping the wand in a maze level will limit the ray's effect to one square; the ray has no effect on undiggable walls and rock. Zapping the wand while being engulfed by a non-whirly monster sets the monster's current HP to 1 and expels you.[2] Razing the walls and/or doors of Minetown will anger the watch.
Applying a charged wand of digging or wresting one last charge from applying an empty wand will break the wand and create pits or holes on your square and the eight squares around you, with the exception of undiggable floors and stairs, boulders or traps.[3][4] This can also destroy altars and thrones.
A fleeing monster with a wand of digging may zap it wand downward to escape; monsters that try this on an undiggable floor will simply fail to dig, though this does not stop them making repeated attempts. Shopkeepers, guards, and temple priests will not use a wand of digging, though they can still receive them.[5][6][7][8]
Zapping the wand, seeing a monster zap it, or engraving with the wand will auto-identify it.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Juiblex now only loses half of his HP when hit with digging magic from inside.
Strategy
The wand of digging is an invaluable item that serves multiple purposes for any player, especially those doing speed ascensions; they can also be extremely annoying to snag from monsters without "losing" at least one charge, if not several. The most common use for a wand of digging is as an escape item to extract yourself from a hairy situation and gain some breathing room - of note is that it is the only way you can dig at all while levitating. Any text engraved with a wand of digging is as durable as text engraved with a weapon or hard gem - this makes it as effective as an athame and slightly less effective than a wand of fire or wand of lightning for engraving Elbereth. 
A wand of digging can be useful for the aspiring shoplifter; one of the best methods of doing so is to dig through the shop walls using the wand, then step outside of them and zap it downward.
Wands of digging can aid in clearing treasure zoos, throne rooms and other similar special rooms without waking the inhabitants, especially since destroying a door this way does not create noise.
The wand is a practically ubiquitous aid in navigating Gehennom - even with the above difficulty in obtaining one from a monster, the player is likely to have several spare wands by the time they reach the Valley of the Dead. You can zap a wand of digging diagonally at the Wizard's Tower without waking the Wizard of Yendor up, then shoot a death ray from that position through the newly-created gap, killing him without giving him the chance to cast spells at you if it hits. You can then pick up the Book of the Dead with relatively little trouble.
The wand of digging also proves valuable for ascension kits; navigating the Plane of Earth is easiest with this method, and zapping the doors on the Astral Plane can save a lot of time in searching for your high altar.

Digging for victory
Main article: Digging for victory
While not always the primary tool in a "dig for victory", the wand of digging is likely to be essential, both for escaping a Big Room and for evading minotaurs as you near the Castle.

History
The wand of digging has appeared in the game since Hack121, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack.

Messages
You barely hear some noises.
You zapped a wand of digging while underwater.
The 

<wall rock=""> glows then fades.
You zapped a wand of digging at undiggable terrain.
The floor is too hard to dig in here.
A wand was zapped at an undiggable floor.
The door is razed!
A door was destroyed by a ray from a wand of digging.
Variants
See also: Wands Balance Patch
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, wands of digging are no longer restricted to digging a single square on maze levels. Wands of digging are ineffective on the ice walls and crystal ice walls generated in Sheol, although other forms of digging are still effective.
Zapping a wand of digging to escape the engulfing of Juiblex will only halve his current HP, rather than reducing it to one.[9]

SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM and its variant, zapping a boulder with a wand of digging will vaporize it; doing this in Sokoban will incur a -1 Luck penalty. Rays from a wand of digging will also halve the current HP of "stony" monsters, including xorns, earth elementals, statue gargoyles and stone golems; strangely, this does not include regular gargoyles.[10]

SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, the wand of digging retains its SLASH'EM traits. One can be found on the home level of the Geek quest.

NetHack Fourk
In NetHack Fourk, all wands are subject to skill level; using a wand of digging with a higher skill level increases the amount of tiles that can be dug through.

FIQHack
In FIQHack, the wand of digging functions as it does in Fourk. Additionally, a wand zapped at Master skill ignores maze restrictions.

References

↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 536

↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1410

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 3414

↑ dig_check in dig.c

↑ src/shknam.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 655

↑ src/vault.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 387

↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 239

↑ While none of them are supposed to receive a wand of digging, mtmp-&gt;{isshk,isgd,ispriest} are only set after makemon() is called.

↑ src/dig.c in UnNetHack revision 1406, line 1219

↑ mondata.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 206

</wall>