# Talk:Fountain
how do I name or otherwise mark a fountain? -- PraetorFenix 03:42, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
--No direct way; although you can name a junk object and drop it in the fountain, or engrave next to it. 

On IBM graphics fountains are represented by ¶s like in this first image. However, if you turn IBM graphics off from the options screen, they look like {s like in this second image.  --ZeroOne 19:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

On my system the fountain glyph is neither a pilcrow nor a curly brace. Instead it looks like an upside down umbrella handle. I use the windows port of nethact with the following option set in my config file.

Use the IBM character set rather than just plain ascii characters for tty window-port.
OPTIONS=IBMGraphics

The glyph is obviously an extended ASCII character specific to the MS Windows system. I've attached a screenie for reference. .
This has a few implications

For maximum portability the NetHack code allows for a wide variety of glyphs to represent a single game object.
ergo, there is no standard character that identifies any given object.
it's going to be impossible to reference every possible character used to represent a game object on the object's wiki page.
we should decide on a 'standard' character set to id objects with.
or do away with the idea of specifying which character is supposed to represent a given object. Instead we should point players to the look and id commands that give the name of the game object. and they could search the wiki for that. so instead of looking for the char code to 

<wierd ascii="" char="">, they would simply search for fountain.
PraetorFenix 23:29, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

The pilcrow and the other one (which I believe is a "top half integral" (Unicode 2320)) probably deserve mentioning, but since only the { is actually an ASCII character (and the official Guidebook describes NetHack as having ASCII graphics by default), it should be the one used, all other things being equal. --Jayt 20:58, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I now added those alternatives. --ZeroOne 11:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Contents

1 The flow reduces to a trickle
2 You hear water falling on coins
3 can i get a wish if i drop 1 coin into a fountain?
4 Fountain strategy
5 Non-random magic fountain
6 Magic Fountain and Luck
7 Magic Fountains becoming Ordinary

The flow reduces to a trickle
Does this mean there's only one #dip left? It's not mentioned on the page

Not exactly.  On future dips, if getting the object wet changes it (rust, blanking, dilution) there is a 50% chance of the fountain drying up.  Otherwise, it is guaranteed to dry up.  Edited to make this clearer.  --Marcmagus 19:33, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
You hear water falling on coins
If you search for this message you are redirected to this page, but there is no indication about what the message (and other similar ones) mean. Even if they just let you know that there is a fountain on the page, it would be a good idea to have the messages on the page. 90.211.193.152 13:38, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Good idea, done. --Marcmagus 19:04, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
can i get a wish if i drop 1 coin into a fountain?
OT

No, but that's a recurring YANI. Maybe there is already a patch you can hunt down. -Tjr 10:57, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
Fountain strategy
It is obvious why early charactrs shouldn't drink from the fountains. But what about mid-game? Should I try drinking from fountains or this is a bad idea? 217.118.66.78 23:24, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

What do you hope to gain from fountain quaffing?  To quaff safely, you need (a subset of) good armor, a reliable way to uncurse stuff, a backup bag to avoid getting stuff cursed or stolen and used on you, and preferrably several powerful pets to kill the snakes. By the time you have all this, alchemy is ususally a far quicker, easier and safer way to up your stats. The wish is so rare it isn't worth it, and because wishes are so rare, most items you really would want to wish for can (due to game balance) be acquired or subsituted for by normal means, provided you know how. Curses are best supplied by blessed, confused remove curse. That leaves the slight chance of gold, gems, nymph inventory, enlightenment, see invisible, or bad breath as motivations to quaff fountains. None of those are particularily good trade-offs, in my score.
Of course, the situation changes if you are conduct-hampered or want to scare the Riders with fountain breath to brag about it. But in that case you are probably skilled and knowledgable enough to answer your own question.
Personally, I break a fountain near my main stash for non-magic pools and sometimes dip for Excalibur if I get a helmet of opposite alignment and a pet archon. (My favorite role cannot start lawful.) That's it. -Tjr 00:45, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
Let me tone down my reply. Once you are sure you can handle the snakes and you have a sack to protect items from curses, go ahead. I still think this is mostly relevant to speed runners, who have few items.Tjr 11:41, August 3, 2010 (UTC)
Non-random magic fountain
I recall reading somewhere that only randomly generated fountains can be magic fountains; anything specifically created like the castle fountain or minetown fountains will always be non-magical. Wizard mode testing seems to confirm this; over 100 minetown fountains through savescumming and not a single magic fountain. I do not have a sourceref for this though, as I have no idea how maps are generated. If this is the case, then the section on magic-fountain hunting in Minetown can be removed entirely as well. -- Qazmlpok 00:23, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes, done. --Tjr 09:36, 28 September 2011 (UTC)
Magic Fountain and Luck
Is it certain that magic fountains give the blessed gain ability at greater than 4 luck? I recently quaffed one after confirming "very lucky"(5-9) via enlightenment and only received the uncursed gain ability effect.

Yes. It compares u.uluck against 4. However this is not the same as Luck. A comment in the fountain source code says "natural luck", so it looks like the bonus from a luckstone is not included for the fountain bonus, but is in normal calls to rnl() or the englightenment message. -- Qazmlpok (talk) 23:02, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
Magic Fountains becoming Ordinary
The text doesn't make clear whether magic fountains become ordinary after increasing even one stat, or whether only after the high-luck effect of raising all stats.  --Mitlcl (talk) 00:43, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

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