Kicking boots
[        kicking boots | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | boots |
| AC | 1 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 8 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | iron |
Kicking boots are a type of boots that appear in NetHack. They are magical boots that are made of iron, and have a randomized appearance when unidentified; the default one associated with them is "a pair of buckled boots".[1]
Contents
Generation
In addition to random generation, general stores, used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can sell kicking boots.
Player monsters generated on the Astral Plane have an effective ~8.01% chance of generating with kicking boots.[2][3]
Description
While worn, kicking boots give a +5 bonus to kick attacks against monsters that are not thick-skinned, and kicking a monster while wearing these boots may also knock them backwards.[4] Kicking boots also increase the distance that kicked objects travel, and will guarantee success when kicking down doors.[5]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Per commit d1b5b39, wearing kicking boots prevents kick attacks from dealing no damage - other clumsy kick messages will still occur.Strategy
With kicks gaining +2.5 bonus damage on average, worn kicking boots can be a useful supplement for early-game characters, especially Monks and others observing weaponless conduct, or else characters lacking weapons (e.g. from losing them to a nymph). In the long term outside of the aforementioned conduct, they are usually superseded by other boots, such as speed boots. While kicking boots can be used to reliably reveal secret passages and hidden doors, this can also be provided by a stethoscope, searching aid or high Luck.
Identification
Kicking boots have several means of informal identification: they are the only boots with a randomized appearance that weigh 50 aum, and can be detected by an increase in the failure rate of spells or rubbing them on a touchstone. They also share the same base cost of 8zm as elven boots, so price identification can reveal kicking boots for characters that have intrinsic stealth (which prevents elven boots from auto-identifying).
You can also test for them by kicking rocks or other junk objects - of note is that you may be able to move an otherwise-immobile loadstone while wearing kicking boots. If all else fails, repeatedly kicking open secret passages and hidden doors on the first try can signify worn kicking boots, although this is less reliable if you are a Monk or Samurai.
History
Kicking boots first appear in SLASH 6, a variant based on NetHack 3.1.3. They make their vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
The weight of kicking boots is changed from 15 aum to 50 in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 8f758cce.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, kicking boots grant 1 base AC, 2 base DR and enhanced kicking while worn.
Xorn monks have a 1⁄24 chance of generating with kicking boots.
A pair of kicking boots can be used to repair the concussive impactors of imperial elven boots, giving them the same properties while kicking with a worn pair.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Croesus has a 1⁄2 chance of generating with gold kicking boots.
References
- ↑ src/objects.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 522
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 134:
specialis only set to true when generating player monsters on the Astral Plane - ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 294: this line requires
if (special)and selects boots from all available types listed in objects.c - ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 103
- ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 848
