Potion
Potions are single-use drinkable items represented by a bright-green ! in Omega 0.90.4. Their effects range from detection and temporary movement powers to permanent attribute changes, while cursed copies often reverse the useful effect.
Every potion weighs 20, has fragility 5, and belongs to the common rarity class.
Potion types
| Potion | Base value (Au) | Item level | Cursed name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft:Potion of quenching thirst | 0 | 0 | Antinomy! |
| Draft:Potion of healing | 40 | 2 | Potion of disruption |
| Draft:Potion of object detection | 10 | 1 | Potion of object detection |
| Draft:Potion of monster detection | 10 | 1 | Potion of monster detection |
| Draft:Potion of neutralize poison | 20 | 2 | Potion of poison |
| Draft:Potion of alertness | 100 | 0 | Potion of sleep |
| Draft:Potion of speed | 40 | 1 | Potion of slowness |
| Draft:Potion of restoration | 50 | 3 | Potion of debilitation |
| Draft:Azoth | 1,500 | 7 | Mercury |
| Draft:Potion of regeneration | 100 | 4 | Potion of great disruption |
| Draft:Potion of invisibility | 100 | 2 | Potion of aggravation |
| Draft:Potion of breathing | 30 | 2 | Potion of choking |
| Draft:Potion of augmentation | 200 | 5 | Potion of debilitation |
| Draft:Potion of banishing fear | 50 | 2 | Potion of fear |
| Draft:Potion of chaos | 100 | 3 | Antinomy! |
| Draft:Potion of accuracy | 200 | 3 | Potion of fuzziness |
| Draft:Potion of levitation | 50 | 1 | Potion of levitation |
| Draft:Potion of curing | 50 | 1 | Potion of disease |
The base value is the definition's value before identification, plus, and BUC adjustments. A positive plus raises value; a negative plus divides it. A blessed item is worth twice its otherwise adjusted value. The pawn shop does not stock items whose recognized value is zero, so quenching-thirst potions are excluded by that shop's stock loop.
Finding potions
Potions can appear among random dungeon-floor and monster treasure. The pawn shop can stock potions with positive recognized value, and a scroll of acquirement can produce a random potion or, when blessed, a chosen potion.
Random treasure first chooses the potion class with 10 outcomes out of 135, then chooses uniformly from the eighteen potion definitions. The candidate must pass the same source-level filter used by other objects: an item below the source level always qualifies, one at the same level qualifies about two-thirds of the time, one level above about one-third, and an item at least two levels above only on the one-percent exception. Rejected candidates restart the whole item-class roll.
Ordinary random potions copy an uncursed definition and receive a nonnegative plus from repeated coin flips. Azoth is the exception: it also begins uncursed, but its definition has `plus=-1`, and the potion constructor leaves that nonzero plus unchanged.
Several monsters begin with fixed potions: tse-tse flies and torpor beasts carry alertness; floating eyes carry levitation; transparent nasties carry invisibility; tasmanian devils carry speed; and denebian slime devils carry curing.
Unidentified appearances
At the start of a new game, twenty container descriptions are shuffled. The eighteen potions receive the first eighteen shuffled descriptions, while two artifact drinkables use the remaining two assignments. An appearance learned in one game therefore does not identify the same potion in another.
| No. | Appearance | No. | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | vial of dewy liquid | 11 | keg of bubbly golden fluid |
| 2 | jug of tarry black substance | 12 | tube of minty paste |
| 3 | flask of cold smoking froth | 13 | pitcher of aromatic liquid |
| 4 | phial of glowing fluid | 14 | pot of rancid grease |
| 5 | bottle of sickening slime | 15 | thermos of hot black liquid |
| 6 | sac of greenish gel | 16 | magnum of deep red liquid |
| 7 | wineskin of odorous goo | 17 | vase full of ichor |
| 8 | canteen of sweet sap | 18 | container of white cream |
| 9 | urn of clear fluid | 19 | syringe of clear fluid |
| 10 | clotted grey ooze | 20 | can of volatile essence |
Quaffing and identification
The quaff command accepts only potion objects. Cancelling the inventory selection consumes nothing. Once a potion is selected, the game prints “You drink it down....”, dispatches the effect, and consumes one potion even when the effect does nothing.
Effect-based identification is not uniform. Many noncursed potions identify their type, accuracy and levitation identify in every BUC state, and some effects such as chaos, curing, Azoth, and quenching thirst do not identify themselves at all. Consult the individual page rather than assuming that an obvious message updates object knowledge.
Effects and interactions
Potions do not have a separate throw, splash, dip, or mixing use path in this source revision. Their common direct use is quaffing. A potion can instead be destroyed by the general item-damage paths.
Fragility 5 means the general damage check proceeds when `random_range(30)` is 6 through 29, an intended 80% trigger rate. A positive plus absorbs a successful check by decreasing by one before the potion can shatter; sufficiently blessed or deeply cursed higher-level copies can also resist. Acid immunity prevents an acid trap from applying this possession-damage path.
Strategy
Identify both type and BUC before drinking when possible. Detection potions are safe when uncursed but lie about positions when cursed; several cursed restorative potions cause direct damage, poison, disease, fear, or stat loss. Keep noncursed breathing, speed, invisibility, and regeneration for situations where their duration matters, and avoid spending a blessing where the code gives no blessed improvement.
Treat Azoth separately from the ordinary pool: a naturally generated copy is uncursed but has negative plus, which sends it to the poison branch. It must have both positive plus and positive blessing to reach its beneficial branch. Potion of accuracy also has a version-specific state-index defect and should not be relied on for its advertised combat benefit.
Trivial
The container pool mixes conventional potion vessels with deliberately incongruous packaging such as a wineskin, thermos, tube, and syringe. No reliable creator statement explaining the individual choices was found.
References
- WinOmega source at the documented revision
- NetHackWiki Potion article (table and article-organization reference; Omega mechanics come from WinOmega)