# Armor

Item classes

"&nbsp;Amulets

[&nbsp;Armor

%&nbsp;Comestibles

$&nbsp;Coins

*&nbsp;Gems

!&nbsp;Potions

=&nbsp;Rings

?&nbsp;Scrolls

+&nbsp;Spellbooks

`&nbsp;Statues

(&nbsp;Tools

`&nbsp;Boulders

)&nbsp;Weapons

/&nbsp;Wands

Armor is a common type of item that is worn to improve your armor class, making it one of the primary elements standing between your hero and death.
Some types of armor may also provide "magic cancellation" on top of their AC bonus, as shown in the table below. There are 7 slots for armor: helm, cloak, body armor, shirt, shield, gloves/gauntlets, and boots. Some armor items reduce your ability to cast spells successfully, particularly shields and metal suits.

Contents

1 Armor and beatitude

1.1 Generation

2 Monsters, pets, and armor
3 Table of armor and properties

3.1 Appearance
3.2 Effects

4 Modifying armor class
5 Strategy
6 Losing your armor

6.1 Changing shape

6.1.1 Polymorphing and prevention
6.1.2 Lycanthropy

6.2 Scrolls of destroy armor
6.3 Scrolls of enchant armor
6.4 Monster spells
6.5 Disintegration

7 Variants

7.1 UnNetHack
7.2 SporkHack
7.3 FIQHack

8 Encyclopedia entry
9 References

Armor and beatitude
If you put on cursed armor, or if it is cursed while you are wearing it, you will be unable to take it off; the item will be identified as cursed when you try to remove it. Cursed gloves will also prevent you from putting on or removing rings. A cursed suit of body armor prevents you from unequipping shirts, and a cursed cloak prevents you from unequipping suits and shirts. 
The inconvenience of cursed armor is amplified by the fact that armor generated cursed often also has negative enchantment. This is why it is a good idea to check the BUC of a piece of armor before wearing it.
The effects of blessed armor are minor. Blessed armor is more resistant to curses, because it must be made unblessed before it can become cursed. Blessed armor also has a chance of resisting some sources of erosion. Blessed gloves and boots will do 1d4 extra damage to undead and major demons when fighting bare-handed or kicking (this is mostly relevant for monks). Further, armor generated blessed has a higher chance of an enchantment.
Blessings and curses do not affect the magical abilities of most pieces of armor. A notable exception is a cursed oilskin cloak, which will only protect you from grabbing attacks 2/3 of the time. Similarly, any grease present on cursed armor will only prevent grabbing or mind-flaying attacks 2/3 of the time.

Generation
Four items - the helm of opposite alignment, gauntlets of fumbling, fumble boots, and levitation boots - use the following generation odds: 90.45% cursed, 8.6% uncursed, and 0.95% blessed.[1] These are negatively enchanted 90% of the time, and positively enchanted 1% of the time.
Other randomly generated armor is generated with the following odds: 12.31% cursed, 78.96% uncursed, and 8.72% blessed.[2] Below is a table describing the total probability of beatitude and enchantment:

+0
+1
+2
+3
+4
&gt;+4

Blessed
4.13%
3.06%
1.02%
0.34%
0.11%
0.06%

Uncursed
74.37%
3.06%
1.02%
0.34%
0.11%
0.06%

+0
-1
-2
-3
-4
&lt;-4

Cursed
4.13%
5.45%
1.82%
0.61%
0.20%
0.10%

Given the BUC status, the chance of enchantment is:

+0
+1
+2
+3
+4
&gt;+4

Blessed
47.37%
35.09%
11.70%
3.90%
1.30%
0.65%

Uncursed
94.19%
3.88%
1.29%
0.43%
0.14%
0.07%

+0
-1
-2
-3
-4
&lt;-4

Cursed
33.55%
44.30%
14.77%
4.92%
1.64%
0.82%

Monsters, pets, and armor
Some types of monsters can wear armor and profit from a subset of its magical capabilities.[3] Pets are of main interest here.

Resistances from dragon scale (mail) work as for you, but not acid resistance from an alchemy smock (poison resistance from a smock does apply for monsters).
If a monster is polymorphed while wearing dragon scale (mail), it will always turn into the appropriately colored dragon. Since monster polymorphing is permanent in NetHack, the armor is lost.
Extrinsic player-type magic resistance is also conveyed to monsters in addition to intrinsic monster magic resistance. Note its scope is smaller than intrinsic magic resistance, e.g. you can retame monsters in gray dragon scale mail.
Reflection works the same way for monsters as for you.
Magic cancellation works as for the player.
Speed boots make a monster only "fast", not "very fast", with the same effect as a wand of speed monster.
As of NetHack 3.6.1, gauntlets of power add 3-6 damage to the monster's weapon attacks.[4]  They have no effect for monsters that can't wield weapons.
Monster spellcasting does not seem to be penalized by shields and metal items, in contrast to player spellcasting.
A (master) mind flayer's attack will be deflected by helmets as for you.
Autocursing headgear does not become cursed on wearing.
Levitation and fumbling from worn items are not implemented.
Jumping boots are wasted, as monsters will not jump.
Monsters know armor enchantment and will switch to maximize total armor value, taking into account the base AC an item confers, the enchantment, and erosion, but not the BUC status.[5][6] Non-fast monsters will prefer speed boots to any other boots.[7]. However, tame monsters do not pick up any cursed objects.

Table of armor and properties
Source code reference: [8]

Item

Slot

Cost

Weight

AC

Weight per AC (+0)

Max AC[9]

Weight per max AC

Material

Effect

MC

Prob[10] (‰)

Magical

Appearance

Turns to (un)equip[11]

Hawaiian shirt
shirt
3
5
0
∞
5
1.0
cloth
Shop

8

—
0

T-shirt
shirt
2
5
0
∞
5
1.0
cloth
Shop

2

—
0

leather jacket
body armor
10
30
1
30
6
5.0
leather

12

—
0

leather armor
body armor
5
150
2
75
7
21
leather

1
82

—
3

orcish ring mail
body armor
80
250
2
125
7
36
iron

1
20

crude ring mail
5

studded leather armor
body armor
15
200
3
67
8
25
leather

1
72

—
3

ring mail
body armor
100
250
3
83
8
31
iron

1
72

—
5

scale mail
body armor
45
250
4
63
9
28
iron

1
72

—
5

orcish chain mail
body armor
75
300
4
75
9
33
iron

1
20

crude chain mail
5

chain mail
body armor
75
300
5
60
10
30
iron

1
72

—
5

elven mithril-coat
body armor
240
150
5
30
12
13
mithril

2
15

—
1

splint mail
body armor
80
400
6
67
11
36
iron

1
62

—
5

banded mail
body armor
90
350
6
58
11
32
iron

1
72

—
5

dwarvish mithril-coat
body armor
240
150
6
25
11
14
mithril

2
10

—
1

bronze plate mail
body armor
400
450
6
75
11
41
copper

1
25

—
5

plate mail (tanko)
body armor
600
450
7
64
12
38
iron

2
44

—
5

crystal plate mail
body armor
820
450
7
64
12
38
glass

2
10

—
5

dragon scales
body armor
500
40
3
13
8
5.0
dragon hide
Resist%

—

—
5

dragon scale mail
body armor
900
40
9
4.4
14
2.9
dragon hide
Resist%

—
Yes
—
5

mummy wrapping
cloak
2
3
0
∞
5
0.6
cloth
Vis
1
—

—
0

orcish cloak
cloak
40
10
0
∞
5
2.0
cloth

1
8

coarse mantelet
0

dwarvish cloak
cloak
50
10
0
∞
5
2.0
cloth

1
8

hooded cloak
0

leather cloak
cloak
40
15
1
15
6
2.5
leather

1
8

—
0

cloak of displacement
cloak
50
10
1
10
6
1.7
cloth
Displ
1
10
Yes
*piece of cloth
0

oilskin cloak
cloak
50
10
1
10
6
1.7
cloth
Water
2
8

slippery cloak
0

alchemy smock
cloak
50
10
1
10
6
1.7
cloth
Poi+Acd
1
9
Yes
apron
0

cloak of invisibility
cloak
60
10
1
10
6
1.7
cloth
Invis
1
10
Yes
*opera cloak
0

cloak of magic resistance
cloak
60
10
1
10
6
1.7
cloth
Magic
1
2
Yes
*ornamental cope
0

elven cloak
cloak
60
10
1
10
8
1.3
cloth
Stealth
1
8
Yes
faded pall
0

robe
cloak
50
15
2
7.5
7
2.1
cloth
Spell1
2
3
Yes
—
0

cloak of protection
cloak
50
10
3
3.3
8
1.3
cloth
Prot
3
9
Yes
*tattered cape
0

fedora
helm
1
3
0
∞
5
0.6
cloth

—

—
0

dunce cap
helm
1
4
0
∞
5
0.8
cloth
Stupid

3
Yes
conical hat
1

cornuthaum
helm
80
4
0
∞
7 Wizard,5 others
0.57 Wizard,0.80 others
cloth
Clair
1
3
Yes
conical hat
1

dented pot
helm
8
10
1
10
6
1.7
iron

2

—
0

elven leather helm
helm
8
3
1
3.0
8
0.38
leather

6

leather hat
1

helmet (kabuto)
helm
10
30
1
30
6
5.0
iron

10

*plumed helmet
1

orcish helm
helm
10
30
1
30
6
5.0
iron

6

iron skull cap
1

helm of brilliance
helm
50
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron
Int+Wis

6
Yes
*etched helmet
1

helm of opposite alignment
helm
50
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron
Align

6
Yes
*crested helmet
1

helm of telepathy
helm
50
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron
ESP

2
Yes
*visored helmet
1

dwarvish iron helm
helm
20
40
2
20
7
5.7
iron

6

hard hat
1

leather gloves (yugake)
gloves
8
10
1
10
6
1.7
leather

16

*old gloves
1

gauntlets of dexterity
gloves
50
10
1
10
6
1.7
leather
Dex

8
Yes
*padded gloves
1

gauntlets of fumbling
gloves
50
10
1
10
6
1.7
leather
Fumble

8
Yes
*riding gloves
1

gauntlets of power
gloves
50
30
1
30
6
5.0
iron
Str

8
Yes
*fencing gloves
1

small shield
shield
3
30
1
30
6
5.0
wood
Spell2

6

—
0

orcish shield
shield
7
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron

2

red-eyed shield
0

Uruk-hai shield
shield
7
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron

2

white-handed shield
0

elven shield
shield
7
40
2
20
9
4.4
wood

2

blue and green shield
0

dwarvish roundshield
shield
10
100
2
50
7
14
iron

4

large round shield
0

large shield
shield
10
100
2
50
7
14
iron

7

—
0

shield of reflection
shield
50
50
2
25
7
7.1
silver
Reflect

3
Yes
polished silver
0

low boots
boots
8
10
1
10
6
1.7
leather

25

walking shoes
2

elven boots
boots
8
15
1
15
8
1.9
leather
Stealth

12
Yes
*mud boots
2

kicking boots
boots
8
50
1
50
6
8.3
iron
Kick

12
Yes
*buckled boots
2

fumble boots
boots
30
20
1
20
6
3.3
leather
Fumble

12
Yes
*riding boots
2

levitation boots
boots
30
15
1
15
6
2.5
leather
Lev

12
Yes
*snow boots
2

jumping boots
boots
50
20
1
20
6
3.3
leather
Jump

12
Yes
*hiking boots
2

speed boots
boots
50
20
1
20
6
3.3
leather
Speed

12
Yes
*combat boots
2

water walking boots
boots
50
20
1
20
6
3.3
leather
WWalk

12
Yes
*jungle boots
2

high boots
boots
12
20
2
10
7
2.9
leather

15

jackboots
2

iron shoes
boots
16
50
2
25
7
7.1
iron

7

hard shoes
2

Appearance
Those listed with an asterisk (*) are randomized within their armor category.
Boots with the appearance "snow boots" prevent ice from causing you to fumble.
Gloves and boots with the appearance "riding gloves" and "riding boots" give a (non-cumulative) bonus to the chance of successfully saddling a steed.
Helmets with the appearance "visored helmet" provide defence against the blinding attack of ravens and the spitting attack of cobras.
Effects

Align
Changes your alignment, removes protection, and auto-curses.

Clair
A Wizard gets clairvoyance and +1 charisma; other characters have existing clairvoyance blocked and get −1 charisma.

Dex
Adds armor's enchantment to your dexterity.

Displ
Gives displacement.

ESP
Gives telepathy.

Fumble
You will occasionally fumble.

Int+Wis
Adds armor's enchantment to your intelligence and wisdom.

Invis
Gives invisibility.

Jump
Gives jumping at will. The special restrictions for Knights do not apply while this item is worn.

Kick
Kicking does additional damage, and grants martial arts bonuses.

Lev
Causes levitation. Does not prevent you being drowned by monsters.

Magic
Gives magic resistance. Does not affect magic cancellation.

Poi+Acd
Gives poison resistance and acid resistance.

Reflect
Gives reflection.

Resist%
Dragon scales provide an extrinsic according to the color of the dragon.
Red: fire resistance
White: cold resistance
Orange: sleep resistance
Blue: shock resistance
Green: poison resistance
Yellow: acid resistance
Black: disintegration resistance
Silver: reflection
Gray: magic resistance

Shop
If not covered by body armor or cloak, shopkeepers consider you a "sucker" and offer worse prices (see Price identification §&nbsp;Price derivation for details).

Speed
Gives you the speed extrinsic, the same as a potion of speed or the haste self spell.

Spell1
Player spellcasting is more likely to succeed, and reduces the penalty for metallic armor.

Spell2
Does not limit spellcasting as much as other shields.

Stealth
Gives stealth.

Str
Increases your strength to 25.

Stupid
Your intelligence and wisdom are fixed at 6; auto-curses; shopkeepers consider you a "sucker" and offer worse prices.

Vis
Suppresses invisibility.

Water
Protects metal body armor from rusting or corroding (1⁄3 chance of protection if cursed) and prevents grabbing attacks.

WWalk
Allows you to walk on water. Does not prevent you being drowned by monsters.

The "magical" property some armor has is only important to polypiling: non-magical armor will tend to stay non-magical, and vice-versa.

Modifying armor class
See also: Scroll of enchant armor; Erosion
Enchantment increases (or decreases) the effective armor class (AC) bonus from wearing armor.  Most armor will not be destroyed when enchanted beginning from +3.  If a blessed scroll of enchant armor is used, then the new enchantment may reach +5.  If only +4 is reached, the armor can be degraded to +3 with drain life magic or a disenchanter attack, and then an attempt made to enchant it again.  Elven armor may be safely enchanted from +5, reaching up to +7.  A wizard may also safely enchant a cornuthaum from +5.  Attempting to enchant from higher enchantments has a high chance of destroying the item.
Eroded only affects the base AC and armor will still keep the full AC bonus from enchantment.  Thus if enchantment scrolls are scarce, it is often better to use them to add enchantment than to erodeproof items, especially for items with low base AC.

Strategy
See also: Ascension kit
A careful selection of armor is part of the typical ascension kit. NetHack players may choose a combination of armor that conveys magic resistance, high magic cancellation, reflection, various intrinsics and bonuses, and, of course, high AC.

Helm of telepathy/brilliance or elven leather helm.
Cloak of magic resistance, displacement, or robe; oilskin cloak in sack. CoD is used if and only if you already have magic resistance from some other source.
Either gray or silver dragon scale mail.
Either shirt; no great difference.
Shield of reflection, possibly, if you don't wish to (or can't) two-weapon and don't mind the spell failure penalty.
Gauntlets of power or dexterity if you have them, otherwise leather gloves.
Speed boots or jumping boots; water walking boots in a bag.
Losing your armor
Since armor is neccessary for survival, and it takes lot of efforts to obtain a good armor, losing it can be very painful. There are several ways you can lose your armor.

Changing shape
If you change shape through any means into any form that is Large or bigger (Medium or bigger for non-humanoid forms), a winged gargoyle or marilith (wings and extra arms don't fit), your torso armor (body armor, a shirt and/or a cloak) will burst apart, destroying the items.
As an exception, if you polymorph into a dragon while wearing dragon scale mail (or dragon scales) of the same color, it will not burst apart.  Instead, it will merge into your scales. When you return to your original form, you will get it back. If enchanced above +3, it may evaporate when you return to your original form. Your shirt and cloak will tear as usual. See Dragon scale mail §&nbsp;Polymorph for more information.
If you polymorph into a whirly monster (all v's and air elemental), however, your torso armor will not tear, since all whirly monsters also lack a solid form.

Polymorphing and prevention
While potions and wands of polymorph can be dealt with through the usual methods of testing (e.g. engraving and dipping, avoiding quaffing randomly, etc.), polymorph traps are an obstacle to any player since they may step on one unexpectedly. In addition to the usual means of checking and avoiding traps, polymorph traps can be dealt with in the following manner:

Gray dragon scale mail, cloak of magic resistance, Magicbane, and some quest artifacts provide magic resistance, which protects you from polymorph traps.
Wearing an amulet of unchanging prevents you from changing your current form by polymorph or other means, and also protects you from being slimed.
Wearing a ring of polymorph control while stepping on a polymorph trap will prompt you to enter what monster you want to polymorph into. Enter the name of a monster who you know will not compromise body armor; gargoyles (not winged gargoyle) are a good choice. The usual polyself tips are also applicable.
As mentioned above, stepping on a polymorph trap while wearing dragon scale mail or dragon scales will polymorph the player into a same-color dragon, though the scales may evaporate upon reverting to normal form if they were enchanted; while they can be restored to mail using a scroll of enchant armor, this is usually less desirable overall since the player might not have a chance to remove their other body armor before hand.
Lycanthropy
Being bitten by a werecreature will give the player lycanthropy, which causes involuntary shapeshifting into that creature's form; if bitten by a werewolf, the transformation into a wolf will destroy body armor. This cannot be prevented with magic resistance.
The lycanthropy page goes into more detail for dealing with its adverse effects. Generally, players should pay attention while fighting a werewolf to see if it bites them, and take the appropriate measures available (e.g. prayer, wolfsbane, holy water, etc.)
Polymorph control and amulet of unchanging prevent the transformation as in the previous section.

Scrolls of destroy armor
Reading unidentified scrolls is generally a bad idea, since you may read a scroll of destroy armor and possibly lose a vital piece of protection as a result. Price identification can partly mitigate this by at least helping a player recognize the scroll's price range and avoiding it. If a player is determined to test a random scroll for some reason, they can simply remove any armor except for common "throwaway" items such as an orcish helm before reading it. Shirt and body armor can be protected by a "throwaway" cloak, since the scroll does not destroy other torso armor if the player is wearing a cloak.

Scrolls of enchant armor
The scroll of enchant armor has the potential to vaporize a piece of armor being worn if it is enchanted above +3; elven armor may safely be enchanted at +5 or lower, and this also applies to cornuthaums if the player is a wizard.

Monster spells
Monsters in lower levels of the dungeon may cast the destroy armor spell on the player, with the same effect as the scroll. This includes liches and golden nagas, who may be the first such examples a player encounters. There are several ways to prevent this:

Magic resistance (from gray dragon scale mail, cloak of magic resistance, and some quest artifacts) completely nullifies the spell effects.
Cancelling the offender will prevent them from casting any spells.
Liches are high on the list of genocide candidates, and thus are often removed as a threat as soon as possible.
If a monster is confused, the spell has lower chances to succeed (see monster spell for more information).
As with scrolls of destroy armor, wearing a "spare" cloak (such as a dwarvish cloak for non-dwarven characters) over your armor can protect it by giving the spell something else to target, though this is not as viable if the player cannot dispose of the monster quickly.
Disintegration
Black dragons can fire blasts of disintegration, as can the Chromatic Dragon, and a sufficiently angered god will attempt to smite a player with a wide-angle disintegration beam if the initial lightning bolt they use fails. Disintegration blasts from dragons will destroy worn shields, worn body armor including cloaks, and the player themselves (along with shirts and cloaks) in order of priority.[12][13]
Reflection and disintegration resistance can protect your shield, cloak, body armor and shirt from the former; worn pieces of armor that provides either extrinsically will be protected from both and, in the case of body armor or cloaks, protects shirts worn under them. Disintegration resistance can be acquired as an intrinsic by eating the corpse of a black dragon, and may also be granted with a ~17% by eating the corpse of the Chromatic Dragon for cavemen (though note that her corpse is poisonous). Black dragon scales or scale mail can provide extrinsic disintegration resistance.
For detailed advice on dealing with an angry god and how to avoid angering one in the first place, see the article section on smiting.

Variants
UnNetHack
UnNetHack&nbsp;adds new pieces of armor:

Striped shirt - starting armor for the Convict role, cursed. Shopkeepers will refuse to serve a player wearing this shirt, unless it is covered by other armor (as with the other shirts).
Tin foil hat - made of metal, protects against a mind flayer's psychic blast attack, but nullifies any form of telepathy.
Chromatic dragon scale mail - dropped by rare chromatic dragons, confers the extrinsic resistances of every color of dragon scale mail, including reflection and stone resistance, but not magic resistance.
The names, colors, and breath types of dragons other than chromatic dragons are randomized. Scales from "glowing dragons" act as a light source, in addition to whatever resistance they confer.
Racial armor tracking is implemented. The number of pieces of equipment worn that are associated with your starting race is tracked as a conduct. Also, every worn piece of racial armor gives an extra point of AC.

SporkHack
SporkHack&nbsp;adds, including:

tin foil hat
FIQHack
Armor generally weighs more in FIQHack than in vanilla.  However, wearing a piece of armor decreases its weight by half.
Dragon scale mail weighs 300 (150 if worn) instead of vanilla's 40.
If your outermost armor is greased, you can squeeze through tight diagonal spaces with twice as much inventory as in vanilla.

Encyclopedia entry

"The last spot on the school jousting team came down to another
boy and me.  He was poor, and his only armor was a blanket his
mother had made him from her hair.  I, on the other hand, had
a brand new suit of chain mail.  Just before our joust, I asked
him what he'd do if he made the team.  (I was hoping to be more
popular with the ladies.)  He said he would be able to save the
town from dragons and be able to afford some water for his 20
brothers and sisters.

Well, a sense of compassion came over me.  I insisted we swap
armor.  He was forced to accept, as it would have been an
insult not to do so.

On the battlefield, we charged at each other and we both connected
with our lances.

Lying there on the mud mortally wounded, I learned what true armor
class was that day."

[ When Help Collides, by J. D. Berry ] 

References

↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 993

↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1000

↑ update_mon_intrinsics in worn.c

↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 920

↑ worn.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 571

↑ hack.h in NetHack 3.6.0, line 396

↑ worn.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 939

↑ src/objects.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 310

↑ Maximum practical AC with enchantment, which is +5 for most armor and +7 for elven armor or a wizard-enchanted cornuthaum.  It is technically possible for armor to be enchanted further, but with a high risk of vaporization.

↑ Probability of the object appearing when generating a random armor item.  Mostly relevant for polypiling, since the majority of armor is generated as part of monster starting inventory, which does not respect these odds.  Some items, notably dragon armor,
 cannot be generated randomly at all.

↑ This is the number of actual turns that the turn counter will be incremented by while equipping the item, even if you are fast.  It will still take at least one player action to equip an item.  This is relevant for the 0-turn items, which will always take one action to equip, but might not increment the turn counter if you are fast.

↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 3593

↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 3450

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