# Potion of speed

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Name

speed

Appearance

random

Base price

200 zm

Weight

20

Monster use

May be used by monsters as misc items.

A potion of speed is a potion that appears in NetHack.

Contents

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

6.1 SLASH'EM
6.2 xNetHack
6.3 SlashTHEM

7 See also
8 References

Generation
Randomly generated monsters may receive a potion of speed as a miscellaneous item, with a 5⁄6 chance of one appearing in a monster's starting inventory if a speed item is chosen.[1]

Effects
Quaffing a potion of speed temporarily grants very fast speed and heals wounded legs. The duration of higher speed depends on the potion's beatitude:

Blessed: 160–169 turns
Uncursed: 100–109 turns
Cursed: 40–49 turns
Quaffing the potion while already very fast adds the number of turns to the current duration if applicable. Inhaling vapors from a shattered potion gives you 1-5 turns of very fast speed and prompts you to type-name the potion.

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.

Quaffing a non-cursed potion of speed gives permanent intrinsic speed in addition to the temporary intrinsic. (commit 95972d71)
Strategy
Early in the game, a potion of speed allows you to outrun enemies you either aren't ready for or need separation from (e.g., Team Ant), or pummel enemies that have you trapped - even cursed potions are worth drinking in this regard.
If you find or decide to wish for speed boots later on, these potions become viable candidates for alchemy: they are typically preferred for upgrading healing potions to extra healing potions, and this also works for dipping a stack of them in a potion of healing. Even so, potions of speed can still serve uses in the endgame - if you decide to swap your speed boots for jumping boots on the Astral Plane, a potion of speed will allow you to remain very fast. This is particularly useful if you are also using a wand of teleportation, because it increases your chances of being able to jump through the path you have cleared before monsters can reoccupy it.

History
The potion of speed has been present in the game since Hack 1.21, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack.

Messages
You are suddenly moving much faster.
You gained very fast speed from quaffing the potion.
Your legs get new energy.
You extended the duration of very fast speed by quaffing the potion.
Your knees seem more flexible now.
You inhaled the vapors from a shattered or boiled potion of speed.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, two potions of speed can be found in the outside area of Grund's Stronghold, and four more are placed within the stronghold itself.

xNetHack
In xNetHack, the potion of speed gives intrinsic speed and a short duration of very fast speed, making it the replacement for the wand of speed monster (which grants temporary very fast speed) as an intrinsic speed source; potions of speed are also less likely to be used for alchemy as a result.

SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, brewing a potion of speed using a chemistry set uses up three charges.

See also
Steelypips.org's potion of speed spoilers for NetHack 3.4.3
References

↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2034