A Practical Guide to Nethack: The Whole Dungeon Catalog: Monsters Version 3 by R2 Last updated 11-28-07 ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Contents Section I: About This Guide Section II: Guide Layout Section III: Creature List Section IV: Quest Creatures Section V: Monster Magic Section VI: Eating for Intrinsics Section VII: EoD/Copyright Notice ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section I: About This Guide So you're going into the Dungeons of Doom to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. Good for you! But you're not the only one in this dungeon, bucko. There are a whole lot of other critters crawling, flying, oozing and swimming around down there, and most of them want to kill you. If you know your enemies, you have a slightly better chance to survive. Just slightly. This guide assumes you're already familiar with Nethack. Namely, the use of basic and extended commands; the symbols that denote the presence of a monster onscreen; and hunger, nutrition, and starvation are all concepts I assume you understand already. In this guide, when I'm talking about specific commands, I'll wrap the keystrokes in square brackets. For instance, [t] means to press the "t" key (to throw an item). [T] means to hold Shift and press the "t" key, just like you were typing a capital letter (to Take off armor). There are some long commands that are preceded by pound signs in the game, and will be transcribed as such. If I say to #offer something, that means to sacrifice a corpse at an altar. If I say to offer a tripe ration to a hostile dog, that doesn't involve the #offer command. This is written for NetHack 3.4 for Windows. If you're hardcore enough to use Unix, you're probably hardcore enough to figure out what, from this guide, applies to you and what does not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The creatures in this guide are organized by difficulty -- as far as the game ranks them -- then by the symbols used to represent them onscreen. This means creatures further down the list make better #offer sacrifices than those close to the top. This also means that if you (or your pet) get polymorphed into something near the top, you're in trouble; if you get polymorphed into something near the bottom, go nuts. Quest leaders, guardians, and nemeses get their own section at the end of this guide, since you'll only have to worry about one of them each playthrough. Creatures are generated either hostile or nonhostile/peaceful. If hostile, the creature will hunt you down and try to kill you (and only you, it ignores other dungeon dwellers). If peaceful, the creature will go about its business and ignore you unless you attack it or make it angry. There is a third category, tame, that is never generated -- you have to feed a domestic animal (see below) or read a Scroll of Taming to have a creature act on your behalf and fight other creatures for you. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section II: Guide Layout Creatures are described as follows: Creature Name: What the creature is called. Symbol: The character representing the critter onscreen. Also here is a note on the creature's size. All creatures (except long worms) take up only one space on the map, but there is a difference in size that affects some aspects of the game (whether armor fits, for instance). A dragon is logically bigger than a kitten anyway, right? The scale goes from tiny to small to medium to large to huge to gigantic. Humans are medium. Attributes: Special characteristics of the monster, as below. Generation: How the monster is created, described below. Nutrition: A numerical value that denotes how much hunger is assuaged by eating the critter. The higher the number, the better. Additional descriptors are given below. Notes: An unlabeled section that describes how the monster behaves and what you can expect out of it in combat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attributes are as follows: Humanoid: The creature has a head, arms ending in hands, and legs ending in feet, unless otherwise noted. This is important if you are polymorphed into the monster and need to know if your helmet, gloves, and boots will still fit. Flying: The creature flies to get around. It's not affected by water, lava, pits, holes, or trap triggers on the ground. No Hands: The creature doesn't have hands to carry or wield items, or to execute some commands (like opening doors). No Feet: The monster doesn't have feet, so it probably flies above the ground, oozes about like a slime or blob, swims, or is sessile. Creatures without feet can't wear boots. No Head: The monster can't be decapitated by the Vorpal Blade and is probably immune to a Mind Flayer's brain-eating attack. No Eyes: The monster doesn't have eyes. It's immune to gaze attacks and is always blind, relying on other senses or intrinsics to detect when other creatures are nearby. No Mind: The monster is a plant, construct, or mindless undead. It can't be located with telepathy, among other minor effects. Doesn't breathe: The creature can't drown and is immune to gas effects and spells like stinking cloud. Gender: Whether the creature is always genderless, always male, or always female. Not particularly important, but eh. Infravision: The creature has infravision, the ability to detect most other creatures (but not walls, traps, or other dungeon features) in the dark by sensing heat. Not every creature gives off heat, though, meaning the monster must rely on normal vision (assuming it has eyes) to see those. Undead: The creature is one of the living dead. It may be #turned by a Cleric or Knight and any corpse it leaves will be old enough to give you food poisoning if you eat it. Amphibious: The creature doesn't drown when exposed to water; it can swim when submerged. Aquatic: Aquatic creatures live in the water exclusively. If for whatever reason find themselves on land, they immediately become scared and can't attack. They'll move to seek water, but will lose hit points every turn they remain on land. Lays Eggs: Females examples of the creature may use the #sit command to lay eggs. The eggs you lay may be eaten or thrown (although both actions carry a luck penalty), or you can carry them around until they hatch to get a free pet. Domestic: The creature may be tamed by feeding it something it likes. Dogs and cats eat meat; horses eat vegetables. Carnivorous: The creature will eat meat -- meaty food and corpses. Herbivorous: The creature will eat only things that fit the vegetarian dietary restriction, mostly fruits and vegetables. Since this is a dungeon full of dangerous creatures that want to kill and eat you, few things will be herbivorous. Omnivorous: The creature eats both meat and vegetables. If it has hands, it might be carrying a food item or two in its inventory. Metallivorous: The creature eats metal items, like weapons and armor. It might also eat stone items. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Generation aspects are as follows: Random: Take your character level and add the dungeon level you're on. Divide the sum by two. If a creature's difficulty is less than or equal to this number, it's eligible to be generated. It typically appears somewhere out of your direct line of sight. Special: The creature only appears in certain circumstances detailed its notes section. Never: The creature is never randomly generated. It only exists when specific dungeon levels call for it to be created on that level. All ; creatures fall in this category -- once you destroy all the aquatic monsters on a level, no more will be generated. Unique: The monster is a unique being, usually with a name. All creatures with a name -- Medusa, Demogorgon, Croesus and many more -- are unique monsters. They're never randomly generated; where they appear is outlined in their notes. Once you get rid of the only one, they're gone forever. There are also some situational modifiers: Small Groups: The creature is rarely found alone; it often has a few other creatures of the same kind with it. Large Groups: The creature appears in groups of five or more at a time. Only in Gehennom: Typically possessed by fiery creatures and demons, these creatures will only appear in dungeon levels lower than the Gateway to Gehennom. Never in Gehennom: Typically possessed by icy creatures and angels, these creatures will never appear in Gehennom levels or in any branches of the dungeon that start in Gehennom. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can eat corpses, but make sure they're recently dead before you do. Eating a corpse that is too old will give you food poisoning and probably kill you. You can pick corpses up and carry them with you, but they tend to be very heavy and will still rot away. Leave your corpses on icy floors to slow their decay, or stash them in an ice box to stop it entirely. Nutrition aspects are as follows: Vegetarian: The corpse is vegetarian-friendly. Monks must follow a vegetarian diet, which greatly narrows their choices of food. Eating non-vegetarian food carries a luck penalty for monks. The only monsters to be considered vegetarian are gray oozes, brown puddings, and green slimes. Vegan: All vegan foods are also vegetarian, but not every vegetarian food is vegan. This is a stricter dietary restriction than vegetarianism, because the food may not contain eggs, milk, gelatin, or any other animal product. Therefore, the only creatures to fit vegan conduct are plants and molds. No race or role is required to follow a vegan conduct, but some players try it anyway for the extra challenge. Poisonous: Eating a poisonous creature has an 80% chance of doing 1-15 poison damage to you and reducing your Strength by 1-4 points. Tins of poisonous creatures do not have this effect. Naturally, poison-resistant characters don't have anything to worry about. Acidic: Eating something acidic will do 1-15 acid damage to you. But if you're suffering from slow petrification (from a hissing cockatrice), it will cure that condition. Hallucination: When you eat a yellow mold, violet fungus, or an abbot (huh?), some chemical compound left in the creature's body makes you hallucinate for several rounds. Undead: Undead creatures leave corpses of their base race: kobold zombies leave kobold corpses, gnome mummies leave gnome corpses, and so on (there are monster entries in the game for generic "human", "elf", "giant" and so on that are never generated because they only appear as corpses of zombies and mummies). But these are always old corpses that are certain to give you food poisoning. Never, ever eat them. Domestic: Eating tamable dogs and cats is bad for you: unless your race is Orc or your role is Caveman, eating a domestic creature will give you the Aggravate Monster intrinsic. Cannibalism: If you eat a member of your own race, you lose 2-5 points of luck and get the Aggravate Monster intrinsic. Corpses are listed with the name of the race that considers it cannibalistic to eat them: human, elf, dwarf, gnome, or orc. Orcs and Cavemen don't have the social pressure to not eat one another; they do not suffer such penalties. Intrinsics: Eating some corpses will give you intrinsic resistance to fire damage, cold damage, electricity damage, acid damage, poison damage and statistic loss, disintegration effects, or sleep effects. The chance of getting the intrinsic is also listed. If a corpse gives more than one intrinsic, which one you get is determined randomly. Other notes: Some corpses give intrinsics other than those above and some corpses boost your statistics. Miscellaneous notes are listed after the general ones. Some creatures never leave corpses: - All A, L, v, and y (angels, liches, vortices, yellow and black lights) - All e except for floating eyes - All E except for stalkers - All W except for wraiths - All ' except for flesh golems - All & except the endgame riders (Death, Famine, Pestilence) - Ghosts, shades, imps, lemures, ghouls, skeletons, and grid bugs - Some named creatures like Vlad the Impaler If it doesn't leave a corpse, you can't eat it, so these creatures have "never leaves corpse" in their nutrition line. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section III: Creature List -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 1 Creatures: Jackal Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 250 Jackals bite for 1 or 2 damage. Sometimes werejackals summon them. Fox Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 250 Slightly faster and stronger than jackals, but not by much. They can bite for 1-3 damage. Lichen Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Nutrition: 200; vegan Possibly the most pathetically weak monster in the game. They're slow as molasses and can't do any damage when they hit you, but might stick to you and keep you from moving when they hit. Ooh, scary. Lichen corpses never grow old and never decompose, although they will get too old to #offer. Since they appear so early in the game and are generally harmless, it's not a bad idea to stock up on lichen corpses in the early levels of the dungeon until you can find a stash of better food. Kobold Symbol: k (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poisonous Kobolds strike with whatever weapon they've got, generally darts, for 1-4 damage. Goblin Symbol: o (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 100; orc Goblins and Kobolds are virtually identical: goblins also strike with weapons for 1-4 damage. Goblins don't have a kobold's poison resistance, though. Half of them come with orcish helms and they generally carry orcish daggers. Sewer Rat Symbol: r (tiny) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 12 Sewer Rats can bite for 1-3 damage. Grid Bug Symbol: x (tiny) Generation: Random (small groups) Resist: Poison; electricity Nutrition: Never leaves corpse If there are any iconic NetHack monsters, then the Grid Bug is one. The only monster in the game to be inspired by Tron (the novel by Brian Daley, not the movie), Grid Bugs can only move and attack horizontally and vertically, never diagonally. They zap for a single point of electrical damage when they bite. Consider them the chess pawns of NetHack. Kobold Zombie Symbol: Z (small) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 100; poisonous; undead Kobold zombies are about as dangerous as their living kin. They attack with their claws for 1-4 damage. Zombie monsters have a habit of carrying a dagger, short sword, or leather armor. Newt Symbol: : (tiny) Attributes: Amphibious; no hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 20. Eating a newt corpse might restore a few points of energy, or if your energy is full, increase your maximum energy by one. Eye of newt, get it? Newts bite for 1-2 points of damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 2 Monsters Acid Blob Symbol: b (tiny) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison; acid; petrification Nutrition: 10; vegan; acidic. Acid blobs can do up to eight points of acid damage with an attack, but they'll never go out of their way to hit you. They just splash you with acid as a counterattack when you hit them. Take them out from a distance with spells, thrown items, or missile weapons. Bat Symbol: B (tiny) Attributes: Flying; no hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 20. Eating a bat will stun you for 30 turns. While they're pretty fast for a low-level monster, bats can only bite for 1-4 damage. Coyote Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 250 Coyotes bite for 1-4 damage. If you examine one with [/], you'll find that each individual has a name based off the old Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoons. Gas Spore Symbol: e (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Nutrition: Never leaves corpse While they can't attack you directly, gas spores will explode when slain for 4-24 damage to the eight squares adjacent to them. Keep yourself and your pets away while you throw things at them or shoot them. Brown Mold Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; poison Nutrition: 30; vegan; poison resistance 3%; cold resistance 3% Immobile and nearly helpless, brown molds counterattack with a weak cold attack when struck. Attack from a distance, let your pet handle them, return with Cold Resistance, or just ignore them. Yellow Mold Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 30; vegan; poisonous; hallucination; poison resistance 7% The counterattack spores from a yellow mold will stun you for a few turns. Otherwise they're identical to their brown cousins. Green Mold Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Acid; petrification Nutrition: 30; vegan; acidic. Green molds counterattack with a weak acid splash when struck. Red Mold Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; poison Nutrition: 30; vegan; fire resistance 3%; poison resistance 3% The color-coded molds end with the red mold, which counterattacks with fire. Shrieker Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; vegan; poison resistance 20% Shriekers are sedentary fungi, like molds. They don't even counterattack. But when hit, they might scream, which has all the effects that loud noises in the dungeon typically do -- it'll wake up sleeping monsters and many critters will start heading your way to investigate the sound. There is a one in ten chance that a Shrieker shriek will create a random monster somewhere on the level. There is a one in thirteen chance this monster is a Purple Worm specifically, because Purple Worms like to eat Shriekers. Examining the Shrieker will give you the quote from the story that inspires this odd predator-prey relationship. Hobbit Symbol: h (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200. Eating a hobbit isn't cannibalism for any race, so chow down. Now what you need are a few good 'taters... About as threatening as you'd expect. 1-6 damage on their attacks and quite fond of throwing daggers and slinging rocks at you. Lawful characters will often find them nonhostile. Sometimes they wear elven mithril-coats or dwarfish cloaks to make combat with them slightly more difficult. Large Kobold Symbol: k (small -- like a regular kobold. Weird.) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 150; poisonous. Large Kobolds are like kobolds, only they tend to wield bigger weapons that can do up to six damage. Giant Rat Symbol: r (tiny) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 30 Giant rats bite for up to 3 damage. Gnome Zombie Symbol: Z (small) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; infravision; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 100; gnome; undead Unlike living gnomes, zombies will attack even if you're a gnome or dwarf yourself. Gecko Symbol: : (tiny) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 20. Geckos are not exactly considered dangerous man-eating predators. As such, they do 1-3 damage, and that's all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 3 Monsters Giant Bat Symbol: B (small) Attributes: Flying; no hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 30. Eating a giant bat will stun you for 60 turns. Giant Bats are fast and do 1-6 damage, but are not terribly dangerous otherwise. Little Dog Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivore; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 150; domestic. Little dogs are fast, but by the time you encounter them as enemies, you're probably strong enough to take them down. They bite for 1-6 damage. There's a 50% or so chance each game that you start with a tame little dog as a pet. Eventually it will grow into a dog, then a large dog. If you find a little dog roaming around the dungeon, you can feed and tame it by [t]hrowing a piece of meat at it. Corpses count as meat. When you start the game, you will be notified if there is a full moon out (it depends on the date and phase of the moon in real life). If the full moon is out, dogs are cagier than usual: throwing a piece of meat will only tame a dog one time out of six during a full moon. Werejackal Symbol: d, @ Resist: Poison Nutrition: 400; poisonous; human. Eating a werejackal corpse will give you lycanthropy just as if it'd bitten you. Werejackals are lycanthropes, so they shift from d (jackal) to @ (human) form and back again, with all the attributes of the form they're in. They bite for 1-4 damage in jackal form and strike with weapons for 2-8 damage in human form. If you feel feverish after their bite attack, you've contracted lycanthropy yourself and it's only a matter of time before you change into a jackal. To cure lycanthrope, [e]at a sprig of wolfsbane, [q]uaff some Holy Water, or #pray and hope your god likes you. Floating Eye Symbol: e (small) Attributes: Flying; amphibious; no arms, legs, or head; genderless Generation: Random Nutrition: 10. When you eat a floating eye, you get intrinsic Telepathy. Floating eyes, creepy as they are, can't kill you. They don't attack and do no damage when they counterattack. However, their counterattack is a gaze that will paralyze you for up to 70 turns. That's long enough for even a lowly grid bug to sneak up behind you and zap you to death, so take floating eyes out from a distance. Floating eyes cannot harm you if either you or the eye is blind. The eye also can't counterattack if it is invisible. A mirror will paralyze the eye and prevent it from moving, but won't stop its counterattack gaze. Kitten Symbol: f (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivore; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 150; domestic. Generally interchangeable with the little dog, the kitten is the other 50% of your starting pet likelihood. These will grow into housecats, then large cats. You can tame cats by throwing meat at them, but the phase of the moon has no effect on the chances of success. Gnome Symbol: G (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 100; gnome Gnomes attack with weapons for 1-6 damage. If you're a gnome or dwarf, they probably won't attack at all. Manes Symbol: i (small) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random; large groups Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse. Manes are from Roman myth, the spirits of departed humans who haven't yet left the world of the living. They're not particularly dangerous or malicious, just kind of there. But that's just the origin myth. In NetHack, manes are one of the first creatures you'll encounter that get more than one attack in a round. Their first two claw attacks deal only 1-3 damage and the bite 1-4. You'll probably wipe them out in one hit, but don't get overwhelmed. Homonculus Symbol: i (tiny) Attributes: Flying; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 100; poisonous; poison resistance 7%; sleep resistance 7% Homonculi do only 1-3 damage with their attacks, but might put you to sleep with a successful strike. Kobold Lord Symbol: k (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous; always male Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 200; poisonous The greatest of all kobolds still isn't that great. They do a measly 2-8 damage with their weapons. Yawn. Keystone Kop Symbol: K (large) Attributes: Humanoid; always male Generation: Special Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 200; human Kops of all shapes and sizes are generated when you try to leave a shop without paying for your goods. While generally weak, they have a little magic resistance and you do have to fight your way through a whole lot of them. Kops wield rubber hoses and clubs as weapons and have the habit of throwing cream pies around to blind you. Nyak nyak nyak! When you steal from a store, the shopkeeper will call for a number of Kops. This number is anywhere from your current dungeon level to the dungeon level plus five. If you teleport away from the store or otherwise move far across the dungeon when you leave the shop, the shopkeeper will summon about double the number of Kops to find you than if you had simply stepped out the door. Hobgoblin Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200; orc Hobgoblins and large kobolds are virtually identical: they're both larger versions of weak creatures that strike with weapons for 1-4 damage. Hobgoblins use orcish daggers or scimitars to hit you, and like other low-level orcish creatures protect their heads first -- hobgoblins are often naked save for an orcish helm. Wererat Symbol: r, @ Nutrition: 400; human; poisonous. Eating a wererat corpse will afflict you with lycanthropy. As lycanthropes, Wererats will change from r to @ (r-@, r-at, rat, haha), taking on the attributes of each form when they do. They do 1-4 damage in rat form and 2-8 damage in humanoid form. Like werejackals, wererats spreaders of lycanthropy in animal form. You don't want to go through half your life as a rat, so kill them at range if possible. Cave Spider Symbol: s (tiny) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Poison Nutrition: 50; poison resistance 7% Cave spiders like to crawl under items and hide, springing out to attack when prey draws near. In combat, cave spiders can be hard to nail down, but they only do 1-2 damage with their bites. While resistant to poison, they are not poisonous themselves. Garter Snake Symbol: S (tiny) Attributes: No arms or legs; amphibious; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random; large groups Nutrition: 60. If eating snakes is good enough for Big Boss, it's good enough for you. Snakes... Why did it have to be snakes? Garter snakes will swarm you, but they only bite for 1-2 damage. Orc Zombie Symbol: Z (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 150; orc; undead. Does 1-6 damage with its claws. Not a threat unless you try to eat one. Dwarf Zombie Symbol: Z (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 300; dwarf; undead Does 1-6 damage with its claws. Not a threat unless you try to eat one. Iguana Symbol: : (tiny) Attributes: Animal; no hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 30. Iguanas bite for 1-4 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 4 Monsters Giant Ant Symbol: a (tiny) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 20 Giant ants are quite fast and attack in swarms. While they only do 1-4 damage with each bite, there are more NetHack deaths attributed to ant monsters than any other. So you be careful, hear? Gnome Lord Symbol: G (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; always male; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 4% Nutrition: 120; gnome Nothing special, Gnome Lords strike with weapons for up to eight damage. If regular gnomes won't attack you, neither will gnome lords. Dwarf Symbol: h (small) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300; dwarf Slow but strong, dwarves are usually content to simply play holy hell with the dungeon layout by smashing every wall they see with their mattocks. In the event they attack, they do 1-8 damage. Dwarves pick up all the gold and gems they find in the walls while they work, and tend to leave behind a whole bunch of rocks. They use and carry dwarfish equipment. Imp Symbol: i (tiny) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 10 Imps can regenerate their hit points, but otherwise aren't terribly dangerous with their 1-4 damage claw attacks. Imps are chatty combatants, often taunting you with quips like "Hast thou been drinking, or art thou always so clumsy?" or "Wait! I shall polymorph into a grid bug to give thee a fighting chance!" Kobold Shaman Symbol: k (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 150; poisonous These kobolds have learned to cast spells, and will try to kill you with them. They're still not hard, though -- their spells often fail. Kop Sergeant Symbol: K (small) Attributes: Humanoid; always male Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 200; human Kop Sergeants do a smidge more damage than regular Kops, but generally behave the same way. When the Keystone Kops are summoned by a shopkeeper, you get one Sergeant automatically, plus one more Sergeant for every three regular Kops that answer the call. Leprechaun Symbol: l (tiny) Attributes: Humanoid Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 30. There's a fifty-fifty chance that eating a leprechaun corpse will give you teleportitis. Somewhat less threatening than the horror movie character from the 90s, leprechauns are usually asleep when encountered (unless some loud noise elsewhere in the dungeon woke them up). Their most annoying point: if you have money in your inventory when a leprechaun hits you, it'll steal some or all of that money and teleport elsewhere. If you [d]rop all your money or stash it into a box or bag, the leprechaun won't steal it and teleport anywhere. That's your chance to smash his face in and take HIS gold instead -- he's always got some. Every once in a while you'll stumble across a leprechaun hall, which is a room full of sleeping leprechauns and their gold. It's a great chance to make some money if you can manage to keep quiet while you kill them all. But don't go into a Leprechaun Hall if you have Conflict -- the little buggers will attack and steal from each other, then teleport, scattering them all over the level. Kobold Mummy Symbol: M (small) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 100; poisonous; undead Kobold mummies are pathetically weak in melee, doing only 1-4 damage with their claws. Red Naga Hatchling Symbol: N (large) Attributes: No arms; no legs; omnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Fire; poison Nutrition: 100; fire resistance 10%; poison resistance 10% The first of the baby nagas, color-coded for convenience. All naga hatchlings bite for 1-4 damage and have no special attacks, so they're no problem to deal with. Naga hatchlings of any color don't show up in the Dungeons of Doom -- only in branches and other levels that are predisposed to generating monsters of a certain alignment (the Gnomish Mines, Sokoban, Oracle, and Vlad's Tower). They also hatch from any naga eggs you might find or lay. Black Naga Hatchling Symbol: N (large) Attributes: No arms; no legs; omnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Acid; poison; petrification Nutrition: 100; acidic; poison resistance 20% Bites for 1-4 damage. Golden Naga Hatchling Symbol: N (large) Attributes: No arms; no legs; omnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poison resistance 20% Bites for 1-4 damage. Guardian Naga Hatchling Symbol: N (large) Attributes: No arms; no legs; omnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poison resistance 20% Bites for (surprise!) 1-4 damage. Hill Orc Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random; large groups Nutrition: 150; orc Virtually the same as lesser o creatures, Hill Orcs tend to have slightly better equipment on them than the standard orcish helm and scimitar to improve their AC and damage. Rock Piercer Symbol: p (small) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, head; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200 Piercers hang from the ceiling, virtually invisible, and drop onto creatures who tread into their space. They can almost be treated like traps, really. They do 2-12 damage on their first attack attempt, but are nigh-helpless after that. Piercers are revealed to you before they attack if you have Warning, active Telepathy, or some method of locating creatures other than sight. Gray Ooze Symbol: P (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Fire; cold; poison; acid; petrification Nutrition: 250; vegetarian; acidic; fire resistance 7%; cold resistance 7%; poison resistance 7% Gray oozes do 2-16 damage with each touch, and can rot cloth, leather, and wooden items that come in contact with them. Attack them with metal weapons for best results. Gray oozes can flow under doorways without opening them. Rothe Symbol: q (small) Attributes: No hands; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 100 According to the game description, it's pronounced roth-AY. Apparently that's important. Rothes are shaggy quadrupeds that attack three times in a round: 1-3 damage, 1-3 damage, and 1-8 damage. The description you get by examining one says they have an aversion to light, but lamps, light spells and wands, and the Sunsword don't seem to have any special effect. Rabid Rat Symbol: r (tiny) Attributes: No hands; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 5; poisonous Rabid rats bite for 2-8 damage, and might sap your Constitution when they do. I guess that's how the game approximates being sick with rabies. Rock Mole Symbol: r (small) Attributes: No hands; metallivore Generation: Random Nutrition: 30 Rock moles are burrowing creatures that can smash their way through dungeon walls, creating passages where none existed before. They are metallivorous, meaning that if you happen to leave behind a stash of metal items somewhere, they might get eaten while your attention is diverted elsewhere. Rock moles claw for 1-6 damage when pressed into combat. Woodchuck Symbol: r (small) Attributes: No hands; amphibious; herbivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 30 Woodchucks are never generated, ever. They exist only in the game for an obscure joke regarding the Oracle. If you want to see one, you'll have to read a cursed Scroll of Genocide to send some in. Monsters can polymorph into them, but after years of Hacking, I've only seen that happen once. I killed it and tinned the corpse for posterity. Centipede Symbol: s (tiny) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 50; poison resistance 13% Centipedes like to hide under items, like cave spiders. Slow but a little tough to hit, centipedes might poison you with their otherwise weak bites. They're resistant to poison. Centipedes don't leave mushrooms behind when they die, although that's about what you'd expect from NetHack. Pony Symbol: u (medium) Attributes: No hands; domestic; herbivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 250 You might want to give him a lozenge, because he's a little horse! Har har! Um, anyway. Ponies are fast and get two attacks: a kick for 1-6 damage and a weak bite for 1-2 damage. Knights start with a tame saddled pony as a pet, which will eventually grow into a horse, then a war horse. If you find a pony in the dungeon, throw it a piece of fruit or a vegetable -- apples and carrots are preferred, but I've used wolfsbane just fine -- to tame it. Eating a horse corpse doesn't give you Aggravate Monster like eating a cat or dog does. Living horses are noble and loyal companions. Dead horses are rations. Tame horses have a bizarre hostility toward shopkeepers. If you have shopping to do, lock your horse outside. Even the mighty warhorse is no match for a shopkeeper. Fog Cloud Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse. What would it be, dew? These misty monsters are slow, but have a frustratingly low armor class. They'll engulf your character to attack, dealing 1-6 damage each turn. Unlike other vortices, the damage dealt by a fog cloud is not elemental in nature. Monkey Symbol: Y (small) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 50 Monkeys won't hurt you much, but they will try to snatch items out of your inventory and run off with them. Hunt them down and slay them to reclaim your lost gear. If you happen to have a pet monkey or ape for whatever reason (scroll of taming, a figurine, or polymorphing another pet), then bananas are treats for this otherwise carnivorous creature. Elf Zombie Symbol: Z (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 350; elf; undead; sleep resistance 67%. While you might get sleep resistance, you might also get food poisoning and die. Hold off until you find a fresher corpse. Elf zombies will seek to close into melee range and hit you, but only do 1-7 damage with their claws. Baby Crocodile Symbol: : (medium) Attributes: No hands; amphibious; carnivorous Generation: Special Nutrition: 500 It's a baby, but that doesn't mean it's cute. Thankfully, that also means it's not particularly strong or fast. Baby crocs bite for 1-4 damage, but that's all. Like naga hatchlings, baby crocodiles are only randomly generated in the Gnomish Mines, Sokoban, Oracle level, and Vlad's Tower. A more reliable way to see one is to hatch any crocodile eggs you find. Straw Golem Symbol: ' Attributes: Humanoid; mindless (if they only had a brain...); doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Stick for a body! Head full of straw! Give me a scarecrow, rah rah RAH! The weakest of the golem breeds, straw men deal 1-2 damage with each of two attacks in a round. Paper Golem Symbol: ' Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Paper golems do only 1-3 damage with the one attack they get each round. Paper golems never leave corpses, but will always drop blank scrolls of varying b/u/c status when defeated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 5 Monsters Killer Bee Symbol: a (tiny) Attributes: Flying; no hands; always female Generation: Random; large groups Resist: Poison Nutrition: 5; poisonous; poison resistance 30% Fast and hard to hit, killer bees might give you some problems. Their stings do only 1-3 damage, but are poisonous and might drain your Strength. Once in a while you might find a beehive, a room full of sleeping killer bees and royal jelly. Royal jelly is one of the best food items in the game, so it's worth fighting the bees for. Dingo Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200 Dingoes bite for 1-6 damage. Just don't let them eat your baby. Dog Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; domestic; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200; domestic Little dog pets grow into these with time, or they appear in the dungeon to kill you. Like little dogs, you can tame them by [t]hrowing a piece of meat at them (with normal effects for the phase of the moon). Their attacks do 1-6 damage in combat. This is no more than a little dog, but grown dogs have more HP and better armor class. Housecat Symbol: f (small) Attributes: No hands; domestic; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 200; domestic If you have a kitten pet, it will eventually grow into a housecat. They're virtually the same as dogs, including the ability to tame them with meat, except that the phase of the moon doesn't matter. Violet Fungus Symbol: F (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; vegan; hallucination Violet fungi can hit for 1-4 damage and might stick to you like a lichen. Gnomish Wizard Symbol: G (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 120; gnome Like other gnomes, only they're capable of some magic, as their names might have led you to believe. Bugbear Symbol: h (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 250 Bugbears will try to hit you in melee for 2-8 damage. Lemure Symbol: i (medium) Attributes: Infravision; genderless Generation: Random; only in Gehennom; large groups Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Lemures are the least of all demons -- so much less than their kin that they're i creatures instead of & creatures. Anyway, lemures can regenerate hit points, but do only 1-3 damage with their claws. By the time you're in Gehennom, a horde of creatures that do less than 4 damage with their attacks should be no problem, serving only to take up space and keep other, more dangerous creatures from closing to melee range. They're almost helpful if you look at it that way! Blue Jelly Symbol: j (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; poison Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 20; vegan; cold resistance 13%; poison resistance 13% The blue jelly will counterattack every melee strike with a blast of cold. When they counterattack, they absorb some of your "body heat" to restore their own HP. When their own HP reaches a certain margin, the Jelly will split in two, doubling your problems. Good news is, Blue Jellies never move. They're completely sessile. This means you can stand back and throw things, zap wands, or simply avoid them until you can come back with cold resistance. Kop Lieutenant Symbol: K (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; always male Generation: Special Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 200; human A little more dangerous than other Kops you've seen so far, but not by much. When the Kops are called in, one Lieutenant shows up for every six regular Kops that appear. Gnome Mummy Symbol: M (small) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 100; gnome; undead. Gnome mummies attack for 1-6 damage with their claws. Wood Nymph, Water Nymph, and Mountain Nymph Symbol: n (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; always female Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 300. Eating a nymph corpse of any type has a 30% chance to give you teleportitis, so they're better off left cooling on the dungeon floor. The three flavors of nymphs are more or less identical, although water nymphs are amphibious in addition to the attributes above. They're usually asleep when they appear in the dungeon, but if disturbed, they attack. While they do no damage with their attacks, nymphs will steal items and teleport away. [a]pply a mirror in their direction them and they'll steal that instead. Nymphs can steal items even if they're cursed. If you have a piece of armor or a Loadstone you need to shed, drop your gear as soon as a nymph gets close. She'll abscond with your cursed item. Nymphs tend to carry Potions of Object Detection. If you kill a lot of nymphs and keep finding the same kind of potion, you won't have to blow an Identify scroll to figure out what kind of potion that is. Mordor Orc Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random; large groups Nutrition: 200; orc The shock troopers of Sauron aren't anything to write home about. They attack with weapons for 1-6 damage and like to throw potions or shoot poisoned arrows at you. They tend to have decent equipment, but nothing special (it's all of orcish make anyway), and tend to collect gold and gems they find as they wander around. Uruk-Hai Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random; large groups Nutrition: 300; orc Slightly bigger and tougher versions of the Mordor Orc (which makes sense, given their original context in Lord of the Rings). They tend to do a little more damage and wear slightly better armor. Orc Shaman Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 300; orc Like other shamans, the Orc Shaman prefers casting spells, zapping wands, and reading scrolls to melee combat. Yellow Light Symbol: y (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; disintegration; sleep; poison; acid; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Yellow light means caution! When a yellow light draws near, it will explode to blind you for 10-20 rounds. This means you don't have to deal with the yellow light anymore, but it also means you can't see, either. If you have a controlled way to blind yourself (such as a blindfold), don it to nullify the Light's attack. Human Zombie Symbol: Z (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 400; human; undead Human zombies claw for 1-8 damage. And that's it. Ghoul Symbol: Z (small) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Ghouls don't do much damage (1-2 and 1-3), but can paralyze you with their attacks. Jellyfish Symbol: ; (small) Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic Generation: Never Nutrition: 20; poisonous; poison resistance 20% Jellyfish do 3-9 damage striking from the water, and might drain Strength with their poisonous stings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 6 Monsters: Soldier Ant Symbol: a (tiny) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Poison Nutrition: 5; poisonous; poison resistance 20% Fast, poisonous, and attacking in swarms, soldier ants can kill you dead. They do 2-8 damage with their bites, and can sting for an additional 3-12 damage plus Strength drain from poison. These, rather than giant ants, are why there are more deaths attributed to ants than any other NetHack creature. Take care. Fire Ant Symbol: a (tiny) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Fire Nutrition: 10; fire resistance 20% Only lightly less terrifying than soldier ants, fire ants hurt somewhat less with their secondary attack, which does fire instead of physical damage and isn't poisonous. Giant Beetle Symbol: a (large) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 10; poisonous; poison resistance 33% A generally lackluster beast; giant beetles can dish out 3-18 points of damage with their bites. Quivering Blob Symbol: b (small) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: 100; vegan; poison resistance 33% They quiver, and that's about it. These slimy creatures hit for 1-8 damage. Raven Symbol: B (small) Attributes: No hands; flying; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 20 Ravens are quick and can blind you by clawing at your eyes. If your eyes are covered, you cannot be blinded. A blindfold or towel works, but a way that doesn't blind you anyway would be preferable: lenses are great, as are whatever helmet in your game is described as "visored" before it's identified. Plains Centaur Symbol: C (large) Attributes: Humanoid (more or less); omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 500 Plains centaurs are pretty fast, but are nothing special in the damage dealing department: they do 1-6 damage with a weapon and buck for 1-6 damage more. They tend to have some reasonably good stuff in their inventories, though, especially if you're a fan of bows and arrows or crossbows and bolts. Wolf Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 250 Bigger and meaner than previous d monsters, doing 2-8 damage with their bites, wolves again attack in packs. Werewolf Symbol: d, @ Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 400; human; poisonous. Eating a werewolf corpse will afflict any character with lycanthropy. Another lycanthrope, werewolves shift from werewolf (d) form and human (@) form. They hit with weapons in human form and bite in wolf form; the bite can afflict you with lycanthropy. Jaguar Symbol: f (large) Attributes: No hands; domestic; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 Jaguars get three attacks per round for 1-4, 1-4, and 1-8 damage. Gnome King Symbol: G (small) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 150; gnome Gnome kings behave like lesser gnomes, only they do 2-12 damage with their weapons. Dwarf Lord Symbol: h (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous; always male Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 300; dwarf If he has a mattock or pickaxe in his inventory, a dwarf lord is usually content to smash the dungeon walls apart and leave you alone. If hostile, they attack with weapons twice a round for 2-8 damage or so. Spotted Jelly Symbol: j (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Resist: Acid; petrification Nutrition: 20; vegan; acidic Spotted jellies won't attack you, but will counterattack with acid splashes when struck in melee. Kop Kaptain Symbol: K (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; always male Generation: Special Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 200; human Another Kop, this time dealing up to 12 damage with an attack. When the Kops are called, one Kaptain appears for every nine regular Kops that show up. Orc Mummy Symbol: M (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 150; orc; undead Orc mummies do 1-6 damage with their attacks. Dwarf Mummy Symbol: M (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 300; dwarf; undead Dwarf mummies both do 1-6 damage with their attacks. Dwarves and orcs might hate one another, but their undead are virtually identical. Iron Piercer Symbol: p (medium) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 The iron piercer does 3-18 damage in its initial drop, but is otherwise similar to the rock piercer. Brown Pudding Symbol: P (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; electricity; poison; acid; petrification Nutrition: 250; vegetarian; acidic; cold resistance 11%; shock resistance 11%; poison resistance 11% Mysterious and acidic, the brown pudding will rot organic materials with a touch, and tends to split into smaller puddings when attacked. Snake Symbol: S (small) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 80; poisonous; poison resistance 27% Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones/ protect me from their venomous drug/ that springs from needles of fangs... that's right, you've been attacked by snakes. They're fast, and can poison you with their 1-6 damage bites. White Unicorn, Gray Unicorn, Black Unicorn Symbol: u (large) Attributes: No arms; herbivore Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 70% Nutrition: 300; poison resistance 27% The three colors of unicorn differ only in alignment: whites are Lawful, grays are Neutral, and blacks are Chaotic. All of them are infuriatingly fast and will do their best to avoid you. If pressed into melee, they'll gore with their horns and bite for 1-12 and 1-6 damage. Killing a unicorn that has the same alignment you do carries a luck penalty. Killing a unicorn leaves behind its horn (a powerful magical tool) and its corpse. Whether that corpse makes a good #offering depends on its color; sacrificing a unicorn of your alignment is never a good idea. If you can line up a shot, try throwing gems at unicorns and you might get a few extra points of luck. There are a few factors to consider -- if you know what the gem is or have named it, whether it's worthless glass or something valuable, and whether the unicorn is the same alignment you do -- that determine how much luck you get. Throwing an identified valuable gem at a co-aligned unicorn is worth +5 luck, so give it a shot! Dust Vortex Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Dust vortexes are pretty fast. They seek to engulf you, and while they do no damage, you'll be blinded for several turns when dust gets in your eyes. Ape Symbol: Y (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 500 Thankfully lacking the kleptomaniacal tendencies of their smaller cousins, apes appear in groups and strike three times a turn (1-3, 1-3, and 1-6 damage). If you find yourself beset by a shrewdness of apes, you'll want to call your pet to help or back into a hallway where you only have to deal with one at a time. Should you have an ape for a pet, bananas are treats for this otherwise carnivorous creature. Lizard Symbol: : (tiny) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Petrification Nutrition: 40. Lizard corpses never rot and are always fresh enough to eat. Furthermore, if you're suffering from the slow petrification from a cockatrice's hiss, eating a lizard corpse will stop the process. Lizards bite for 1-6 damage. Piranha Symbol: ; (small) Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Aquatic Nutrition: 30 Piranhas bite for 2-12 points of damage. Rope Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Rope golems strike for 1-4 damage twice, then attempt to grab and choke you for 6 damage a turn. Needless to say, you don't want them to do that. Gold Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Acid; sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The march of different-material golems continues. Gold golems smack you for 3-6 damage twice in a turn. Gold golems leave a pile of gold pieces behind when it dies in lieu of a corpse. Woodland-Elf Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Sleep Nutrition: 350; elf; sleep resistance 27% Another set of humanoids whose statistics are based on their inventory, which is mostly "Elven" armor and weapons. Woodland elves tend to shoot arrows and throw things at you from a distance before closing to melee. Elves can see invisible creatures, so don't let your guard down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 7 Monsters: Vampire Bat Symbol: B (small) Attributes: No hands; flying; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: 20; poisonous Vampire bats are fast and can regenerate hit points. They hit for only 1-6 damage but might poison you and drain your Strength. Being vampires in name only, they can't drain levels. Chickatrice Symbol: c (tiny) Attributes: No hands; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 10, poison resistance 27%. But eating a chickatrice corpse will petrify you solid, so don't eat it unless you're polymorphed into something that's immune to petrification effects. An immature cockatrice, the chickatrice still has the ability to hiss at you, petrifying your character over the course of several rounds. If you have some way to assure that you won't get turned to stone, they are not otherwise difficult. Large Dog Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivore; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 250; domestic Large dogs are the result of care, compassion, regular feeding, and lots of time with a regular dog. They do 2-8 damage with a bite, are a little faster than smaller dogs, and may be tamed the same way little dogs and dogs can if you find one hostile (with the normal moon effects). Winter Wolf Cub Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold Nutrition: 200; cold resistance 33% Basically like wolves, but these might breathe a line of frost at you for 1-8 cold damage. Lynx Symbol: f (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 The human incarnation of FATE, Lynx is actually Wazuki, Serge's eternal antagonist and f-- oh, sorry. Wrong game. These lynxes are just big cats that get three attacks per round for 1-4, 1-4, and 1-10 damage. Panther Symbol: f (large) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 Slightly more dangerous than a lynx, a panther's attack pattern does 1-6, 1-6, and 1-10 damage. Large Cat Symbol: f (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivore; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 250; domestic The feline counterpart to the large dog, with all the strengths and shortcomings you'd expect. Quasit Symbol: i (small) Attributes: Infravision; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 200; poison resistance 20% Quasits are quite fast and attack three times in a round. While they don't do much damage, they might drain your Dexterity away. Tengu Symbol: i (small) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 200. Eating a tengu might give you poison resistance (13% chance), teleport control (17% chance) or teleportitis (20% chance). A tengu's attacks do less than 8 damage. They're extremely hard to pin down, however, given their tendency to teleport around and use Wands of Digging to escape to the next dungeon level. Elf Mummy Symbol: M (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 350; elf; undead; sleep resistance 67% Elf mummies only do a measly 2-8 damage with an attack. Human Mummy Symbol: M (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 400; human; undead. As the elf mummy, but it gets two attacks per round instead of one. Orc Captain Symbol: o (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 350; orc Orc captains are just the next step of bigger and stronger orcs. They attack twice with their weapons, usually for 2-8 damage. Ogre Symbol: O (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 500 Ogre smash puny hu-man for 2-10 damage. They occasionally have a battle-axe you can pick off their corpse if you're into that kind of thing. Mumak Symbol: q (large) Attributes: No hands; herbivore Generation: Random Nutrition: 500 Mumakil have the biggest damage potential (and oddest nonstandard plural) of any monster you've seen yet. Their initial headbutt attack does a whopping 4-48 damage, and their secondary bite does 2-12. Like all q creatures, they have a lot of hit points for their challenge level. Giant Spider Symbol: s (large) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poisonous; poison resistance 33% Giant spiders might poison you when they bite for 2-8 damage. They are too giant to hide under items like Cave Spiders do. Water Moccasin Symbol: S (small) Attributes: Animal; no arms or legs; amphibious; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Poison Nutrition: 80; poisonous; poison resistance 27% Virtually identical to the Snake, the water moccasin is only generated when you screw around with fountains. Every once in a while, an "endless stream of snakes" issues from the fountain when you try to [q]uaff from it or #dip into it. When this happens, two to six hostile water moccasins appear around you. Horse Symbol: u (large) Attributes: No hands; herbivorous; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 Ponies grow into this, and except for the extra speed and damage, they may be treated as ponies: tamed with vegetables, saddled and #ridden, and so on. Ice Vortex Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Another engulfing vortex, this time cold-elemental. They suck you in and do 1-6 cold damage every turn. Barrow Wight Symbol: W (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 5% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse While their natural attack is weak, for 1-4 damage, Barrow Wights also have an attack that can drain experience levels out of your character. At range, they will try to kill you with magic spells instead. Certainly not something you want to deal with. Barrow wights always carry a knife and a long sword with them. Black Light Symbol: y (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; acid; sleep; disintegration; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Weary of being used in shocking exposés of all the terrible things that happen in hotel rooms, the Black Light has grown explosively violent. When they explode near you, you'll hallucinate for 10-120 rounds, possibly about nasty stains on the sheets. If you're blind, this attack has no effect -- don a blindfold or towel for a turn when the Light draws near. Owlbear Symbol: Y (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 700 SOMEBODY better give a hoot, dammit! Owlbears have the heads of owls and the bodies of bears, hence the name. If owlbears manage to hit with their claw attacks (1-6 damage each), they might grab you in a bone-crushing bear hug for an additional 2-16 points of damage each round. Yeti Symbol: Y (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Cold Nutrition: 700; cold resistance 33% Life on the frozen peaks of the Himalayas has given the yeti resistance to cold and a nasty disposition. They attack for 1-6, 1-6, and 1-4 damage. Ettin Zombie Symbol: Z (huge) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 500; undead Another bigger zombie. Their two attacks do 1-10 damage each. Chameleon Symbol: : (tiny) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 100. Eating a chameleon corpse will polymorph you once. You'll encounter chameleons and not even know it until you see the corpse. Chameleons often polymorph themselves into other monsters. If found in their native form, they do only 4-8 damage. Chameleons are treated just like any other monster they change form into. You can even tame them by throwing them meat when they take the form of a dog or cat! But pet chameleons, with their ever-shapechanging nature, don't last long -- ever had a pet rock piercer? Unlike most other corpses with odd effects, pets will still snarf down chameleon corpses. So if you suddenly find you have a pet xorn or something, it might be because your doggy ate a chameleon corpse. Crocodile Symbol: : (large) Attributes: Animal; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 400 Crocs will do 4-8 damage with their first attack and 1-12 with the second. If you polymorph a crocodile corpse, it turns into a pair of fireproof low boots. Giant Eel Symbol: ; (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 250 Giant eels are rough. They lurk underwater, out of sight. Unless you have some nonvisual way of discerning their presence, you may not notice they're around until it's too late. When they attack, they do 3-18 points of damage and try to wrap their bodies around you, dragging you into the water and drowning you. Special precautions may be taken to avoid drowning, but stay on your toes when you go near the water. Leather Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Leather golems smack you twice for 1-6 damage. When leather golems are destroyed, they drop a lot of leather armor suits of varying enchantment and b/u/c status instead of a corpse. Green Elf Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 350; elf; sleep resistance 33% I'm assuming these are named green elves because of the color of their skins or their habitats, not because they vote for Nader. Anyway, they behave like other elfy enemies, carry elfy gear, and can see invisible creatures. Ninja Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid Generation: Never Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 400; human Ninja are only called for in the Samurai quest. They attack with projectile or melee weapons for about 1-8 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 8 Monsters Gelatinous Cube Symbol: b (large) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; acid; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: 150; vegan; acidic; fire resistance 10%; cold resistance 10%; shock resistance 10%; sleep resistance 10%; Tasty! As D&D players say, there's always a 10-foot by 10-foot room for Jell-O! Yes, the gelatinous cube is exactly that: a perfect six-sided polyhedron of ooey, gooey, caustic goodness. Their attacks and counterattacks do little damage, but will paralyze you. Furthermore, gelatinous cubes eat any organic material. Leather, cloth, wood, and other such items are digested by the cube as it passes over them. It can't digest metal items, but will often pick them up as it moves around. Destroying a cube often results in a pile of metal items and coins on the corpse. I wouldn't be the first to compare them to deadly mall fountains, but it's a fitting description. Cockatrice Symbol: c (small) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 30; poison resistance 33%. Like a chickatrice, eating a cockatrice will petrify you solid instantly, so it's probably a bad idea. Ah, the cockatrice. Another iconic NetHack monster. If you get a description of them with [/], you get a few hints to their nature: touching them will ruin your day, and they can petrify you with a hissing attack. Cockatrices can bite for 1-3 damage or attempt to petrify you. You'll get some warning as your limbs stiffen and your body gets numb; eat an acidic or lizard corpse, cast stone to flesh on yourself, or start #praying before you turn to solid stone and die. Even if you live, you'll lose any intrinsic speed you had. Once a cockatrice dies, anything that touches the corpse will be petrified. You can walk over it (if you have Autopickup turned off), but if you add it to your inventory and you're not wearing gloves, you're turned to stone instantly. Once it's safely in your inventory, though, you can hit monsters with the corpse by [w]ielding it or [t]hrowing it -- NetHack aficionados call this use the "rubber chicken". You can petrify enemies into statues until the corpse rots away. If you're burdened enough to fall down the stairs when you descend, and you're wielding a rubber chicken, you'll tumble into it as you fall and be petrified. Tripping over something or wearing Boots of Fumbling will have the same effect. If you find yourself polymorphed into a cockatrice and your character is female, use the #sit command to lay some eggs. For god's sake don't EAT them, you'll get turned to stone. No no, you want to [t]hrow these lovely eggs at enemies to petrify them (be warned: both eating and throwing your own eggs carries a luck penalty). Alternately, wait for them to hatch for a free horde of pet chickatrices that will eventually grow into cockatrices themselves. If you have a cockatrice corpse and [t]hrow it upward (with [<]), it will land on your head. If you're not wearing any headgear, this will petrify you -- your tombstone will read "petrified by elementary physics". Pyrolisk Symbol: c (small) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 30; fire resistance 20%; poison resistance 20% Essentially a fiery cockatrice, the pyrolisk lacks the hissing petrification attack of its lesser cousins. Instead, its gaze brings burning death to its target. The gaze of a pyrolisk will do 2-12 fire damage and may cause equipment to smolder and potions to explode. If either you or the pyrolisk is blind, the burning gaze is ineffective. Unlike cockatrices, pyrolisks are safe to eat. Forest Centaur Symbol: C (large) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 600 Forest centaurs prefer to empty their inventory of thrown or missile weapons -- which they always have -- before closing to melee range. They do 1-8 damage with their weapons and kick for 1-6 damage more. Warg Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 350 The d creatures just keep getting bigger; wargs bite for 2-12 damage. Flaming Sphere Symbol: e (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse A step up from the gas spore, the flaming sphere will float around the dungeon, looking for prey to explode at. When they explode, they do 4-24 fire damage. Freezing Sphere Symbol: e (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse As the flaming sphere, but does cold damage instead. Shocking Sphere Symbol: e (small) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Electricity; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse As the flaming sphere, but does electricity damage instead. Tiger Symbol: f (large) Attributes: No hands; carnivore Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 Tigers claw, claw and bite for 2-8, 2-8, and 1-10 damage. Gremlin Symbol: g (small) Attributes: Humanoid Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 25% Nutrition: 20; poisonous; poison resistance 33% Don't expose them to sunlight. Don't get them wet. And never, ever feed them after midnight. Well, there's no sunlight in NetHack, and these little buggers have apparently had an early-morning snack already. But sure enough, they'll seek out sources of water and take a dip, creating more gremlins. Gremlins do 1-6, 1-6, and 1-4 damage with their attack array. If it's nighttime (between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM in real life) there's a one-in-ten chance the Gremlin might steal an intrinsic from you. If this attack hits and the chance is confirmed, the game chooses from fire resistance, cold resistance, poison resistance, invisibility, see invisible, speed, stealth, telepathy, teleportitis, or divine protection. If you have the intrinsic the game chooses, you lose it. If a gremlin steals an intrinsic from another creature, that creature is cancelled as though they had been zapped by a Wand of Cancellation. All told, gremlins are extremely unlikely to take intrinsics from you. The fourth attack in their array has to hit you, then a random one-in-ten chance has to confirm, then the game has to choose an intrinsic you have. On the other hand, it's about the only way to get rid of that nasty teleportitis... Gargoyle Symbol: g (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Petrification Nutrition: 200 Gargoyles are typically considered stony or rocky creatures, but casting Stone to Flesh on them doesn't do anything. And yet, they can't be petrified. Huh. Anyway, Gargoyles get three attacks, for 2-12, 2-12, and 2-8 damage. Dwarf King Symbol: h (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous; always male Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 300; dwarf Dwarf kings act like lesser dwarves. Their two attacks do 2-12 damage each. The only scary thing about the Dwarf King is that he shares a symbol with the far more dangerous Mind Flayer: a purple lowercase h. Stone Giant Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Nutrition: 750. Eating any giant corpse will boost your Strength. Stone giants attack for 2-20 damage in melee. All H creatures except Ettins are often generated with boulders, which they are strong enough to carry around and throw at you for 1-20 damage, and some gems or rocks, which they generally keep to themselves. Ochre Jelly Symbol: j (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resists: Acid; petrification Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 20; vegan; acidic Ochre jellies will seek to engulf you and digest you for 3-18 points of damage. If attacked in melee, they'll splash acid for an additional 3-18 points of damage. Small Mimic Symbol: m once revealed (medium) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; doesn't breathe; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid Nutrition: 200. If you eat a mimic corpse, you will mimic a pile of gold for several turns or until you're attacked. If you're hallucinating, you mimic an orange instead. Unless you have some way of discerning its nature other than sight, a mimic will appear to be an item of some kind until you approach it, at which point it will attack for 3-12 damage and try to adhere itself to you. Mimics of all sizes are infuriatingly common in shops, especially the abandoned shops in Orcus's level of Gehennom. To check a shop for mimics, [t]hrow a single gold piece across the shop. It will fly over items, but hit mimics, and when the piece lands, you get store credit for it. Just don't piss off the shopkeeper by hitting him with the coin, genius. Ettin Mummy Symbol: M (huge) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 500; undead. Like other mummies, the ettin mummy is slightly better than the zombie of the same race, but not by much. Both attacks you can expect in a round do 2-12 damage. Red Naga Symbol: N (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Fire; poison Nutrition: 400; fire resistance 20%; poison resistance 20% Resistant to fire and poison, red nagas have a breath weapon that does 2-12 fire damage. In melee, their bites do only 2-8 damage. Green Slime Symbol: P (large) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Cold; electricity; acid; poison; petrification Nutrition: 150; vegetarian; poisonous; acidic. It's acidic enough to counter slow petrification, but after eating it you'll get slimed to death in a few turns. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh? Be careful with this stuff. While its attacks do only 1-4 damage, there's always the chance that you start turning to slime yourself. And being slimed to death is just nasty. If you start turning to slime, apply a fiery attack to yourself (getting caught in a fireball, targeting yourself with a wand of fire, or reading a scroll of fire) to burn off the slime. #prayer can fix sliming, probably won't work because Green Slimes are only generated in Gehennom and #prayer there only gets you into worse trouble. If a Green Slime happens to show up elsewhere (because it's summoned by another monster, for instance), #prayer is an option. Leocrotta Symbol: q (large) Attributes: No hands; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 What the hell's a leocrotta? Well, it's the hybridized child of a mythical beast and a lion. In practical terms, the leocrotta gets three attacks a round for 2-12 damage each. According to legend, the leocrotta is an expert at mimicking sounds. If you're playing Nethack with sound options on, you will hear orcs grunt and animals roar and so on. The leocrotta will emit any of the other monsters' noises as it approaches and fights you. Rust Monster Symbol: R (medium) Attributes: No hands; amphibious; metallivore Generation: Random Nutrition: 250 Springing from the fertile mind of Gary Gygax, the rust monster is a bane to warriors everywhere. A metallivore, the rust monster eats metal items. To make its steely dinner more palatable, its touch corrodes and rusts its potential dinner. You go into a fight with a gleaming +3 longsword, and come out with a dull, rusty +3 iron bar. Ugh! Of course, if your character has no metal items -- robes, wooden shield, leather boots, and a staff or club -- or if the metal items you've got are labeled "rustproof", then the rust monster isn't much of a threat. Wearing a cloak will help to protect metal armor, but the rust monster might strike at an exposed piece of armor anyway, so it doesn't always work. If possible, take the rust monster out from a distance with expendable items like daggers and arrows. If you can't, at least #dip your metal weapon into a potion of oil first to give it a protective rustproof coating for a few rounds. If you are punished, a Rust Monster will happily eat the iron ball, freeing you. Scorpion Symbol: s (small) Attributes: No hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poisonous; poison resistance 50% Scorpions tend to hide under items in the dungeon, and attack when you draw near to the innocuous treasure in question. They attack for only 1-2, 1-2, and 1-4 damage, but the last sting carries poison. Python Symbol: S (large) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; amphibious; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 100 Pythons might entangle you in a crushing attack after they bite. If they're in the water, they'll drag you under and drown you given half a chance. So do be careful. Wraith Symbol: W (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; flying; doesn't breathe; mindless Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; petrification Generation: Random Magic Resist: 15% Nutrition: 0 One of the most sought-after creatures in NetHack. Its attacks do little damage, but might drain experience levels away. So why do people hunt wraiths mercilessly? Eating a wraith corpse lets you gain an experience level instantly. Under normal circumstances, a wraith leaves a corpse 50% of the time. The best place to find a group of wraiths is in a graveyard. But sadly, wraiths only leave a corpse one time out of nine on levels with a graveyard when you kill them (if something else kills them -- a trap or another monster -- the chance is one in three). The Castle and all levels of the Priest quest are graveyard levels, even if they don't have graveyards in them. So what do you do? Well, you can give it a shot with your one-in-nine chance. But consider instead the practice of "wraith luring". A wraith will, if properly led, follow you up and down stairs if you climb or descend while the wraith is next to you. Dispose of the wraith on a non- graveyard level and you're back up to the 50% chance of a free experience level. Then you can return to the graveyard, awaken another wraith, and lure that one back to another dungeon level to reap its rewards. Wraith corpses rot and vanish very quickly. If you don't eat it immediately, or if something interrupts your meal, it'll probably disintegrate before you can finish your meal. Carnivorous Ape Symbol: Y (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous (duh) Generation: Random Nutrition: 550 Carnivorous apes act like owlbears: two hits for 1-4 damage, then an attempt to crush you for an extra 1-8. Wood Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Nutrition: Never leaves corpse A golem made of lengths of wood does 3-12 damage with its attacks. Axes and battle-axes do extra damage to wood golems. When destroyed, these leave several quarterstaves of varying enchantment and b/u/c status behind instead of a corpse. Grey-elf Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 350; elf; sleep resistance 40% Grey elves are the next evolution of elves. They can see invisible creatures and their weapons do 2-8 points of damage. They, like other elves, tend to wear armor and carry equipment of elven make. Soldier Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups; special Nutrition: 400; human Soldiers can be generated randomly, but you're most likely to find them hanging out in barracks; there are a couple dozen in the Castle level and more in Fort Ludios. They always have weapons and armor in their equipment and often try to zap you with wands or throw potions. Since they attack in swarms, they often hit each other with these attacks. Their weapons typically deal 1-8 damage. You can bribe Soldiers to leave you alone by throwing gold at them with a two-in-three chance of success. The gold needed for this is (150 + (current gold + (your experience level * X)) / your charisma score, where X is a random number between 1 and 5 inclusive. Soldiers generally carry polearms, spears, or shortswords and enough armor to drop their AC to about 3. If you find a soldier-class monster wearing a ring, there's a fair chance it's a ring of protection to make up for any missing armor. Many soldier-class monsters also carry C-Rations or K-Rations as well. Watchman Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 400; human These are the city watch in the Minetown level; there are only as many as are spawned when Minetown is created; no more will be generated. They are generally nonhostile, but if you break down doors or walls, attack a watchman or watch captain, dry up a fountain, or otherwise disturb the status quo in town, you'll soon have every watchman on your tail, at which point they act like soldiers. You can usually use a credit card, lockpick, or key to unlock a door in Minetown without upsetting the guard. But if they see you do it, you might get a warning (which adds a trap to the door) or make every Watchman and Watch Captain in town hostile. Watchmen often carry polearms, spears, or shortswords and a complement of armor to drop their AC to about 3. Succubus and Incubus Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 70% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Two sides of the same coin, succubus and incubus are the same thing with different genders: succubi are female, incubi are male. NetHack fans usually refer to both of them as "foocubus", because their behavior is virtually identical, changing only depending on whether they're the same gender as your character or not. If you come across a foocubus of the opposite gender as your character, it will forego its melee attacks to seduce you. If this fails, the foocubus will "pretend to be friendly". If a female character is carrying a Ring of Adornment when seduced by an incubus, the incubus will attempt to put the ring on her. A succubus will try to take a Ring of Adornment from a male character. There is an X in 20 chance that you are asked first and may decline, where X is your Charisma score. Then the foocubus will attempt to undress you, removing one piece of armor after another (there is an X in 20 chance that you are asked first and may decline, again, X is your Charisma score). If you leave your suit of armor or shirt on, the foocubus will flatter you and leave, ending the encounter. After that, "time stands still as you and the lie in each others' arms"... for one turn. You have an X in 35 chance of a good effect, where X is the sum of your Intelligence and Charisma plus 1. If you get a good effect, you might gain a level, get +1 to Wisdom or Constitution, recover all lost hit points, or add 1-5 to your maximum energy and restore all energy. If you don't get a good effect, you might have one level drained, take -1 ability damage to your Wisdom or Constitution, take 10-16 damage, or reduce your maximum energy by 1-10 and set current energy to 0. After this, the foocubus will attempt to steal some or all of your gold in payment. There's an X-in-20-where-X-is-your-Charisma-again chance that you get away for free. In summary, if your Charisma is at least 20 and the sum of your Charisma plus your Intelligence is at least 34, you have control over the foocubus encounter and may mercilessly exploit the positive effects for free. Even after you reach level 30, the "level up" bonus from a foocubus will increase your maximum hit points and energy. Nice! Finally, the foocubus will teleport away. If you had a good effect from the encounter, the foocubus will "act like he/she has a headache" for up to 100 turns, preventing another encounter for that time. There's a 4% chance after any encounter that the foocubus actually gets a severe headache, effectively canceling the creature and preventing any other intimate encounters forever. Chaotic characters who are seduced by a foocubus get +1 alignment. Other characters suffer no penalty. If you find a foocubus of the same gender as your character, it will just attack for 1-3 damage and maybe drain a few experience levels. Djinni Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying Resist: Poison; petrification Generation: Never Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Spawned by #rubbing a magic lamp or by [q]uaffing a smoky potion, the djinni may grant you a wish, become tame, leave in peace, wander around the dungeon nonhostile, or attack you, depending on his mood. There's an 80% chance you get a wish if the potion or lamp was blessed, an 80% chance of it being hostile if the item was cursed, and even chances all around if uncursed. If a djinni attacks, it does 2-16 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 9 Creatures Mountain Centaur Symbol: C (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 The biggest and baddest of centaurs, mountain centaurs behave like their lesser cousins. Mountain centaurs will shoot arrows or bolts at a distance but do 1-10, 1-6, and 1-6 damage with a melee attack array. Winter Wolf Symbol: d (large) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 300; cold resistance 47% The bigger version of the winter wolf pup, these do 2-12 damage with a bite or breathe frost for 2-12 cold damage. Hell Hound Pup Symbol: d (small) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 200; fire resistance 47% Puppy hellhounds are as dangerous as full-grown winter wolves! They do the same damage, only hellhounds breathe fire instead of cold. Stalker Symbol: E (large) Attributes: Flying Generation: Random Nutrition: 400. Eating a stalker will stun you for 60 rounds and make you invisible for 50-150 rounds. If you're already invisible when you eat it, you become invisible permanently and gain the See Invisible intrinsic. Stalkers are nearly always invisible. They hit for 4-16 damage and can see invisible creatures. Large Mimic Symbol: m (large) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; doesn't breathe; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 400. Eating a large mimic corpse will have you in the form of money (or an orange) for longer than it would a small mimic. They're bigger and meaner than small mimics, but behave the same way. Large mimics can disguise themselves as larger items, including boulders, doors, fountains, or even stairways. They hit for 3-12 damage and might stick to you when they do it. Ogre Lord Symbol: O (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous; always male Generation: Random Nutrition: 700 Good little ogres grow up into ogre lords one day. They do 2-12 damage with their weapons, often a battle-axe. Glass Piercer Symbol: p (medium) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid Nutrition: 300 Glass piercers do 4-24 damage with their initial strike. They're otherwise similar to other piercers. Wumpus Symbol: q (large) Attributes: No hands; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 A nod from one old computer game to another, the wumpus is a beast inspired by the hide-and-seek computer game Hunt the Wumpus. In the Nethack incarnation, they're big quadrupeds that hit for 3-18 damage and might cling to the ceiling undetectable by vision (like a piercer). The middle level of the Ranger quest is "the Cave of the Wumpus". It's laid out in a matter reminiscent of the maze of twisty passages making up the game Hunt the Wumpus. And sure enough, there's always a Wumpus sleeping on the stairs down to the next level. Quantum Mechanic Symbol: Q (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 20; poisonous. Eating a quantum mechanic corpse toggles your speed: if you already have the Speed intrinsic, you lose it. If you don't have it, you get it. Quantum mechanics do only 1-4 damage with each hit, but have a chance of teleporting you elsewhere when they strike. There's a chance that a Quantum Mechanic is carrying a box. When you open the box, you'll either find a living or dead housecat inside, named Schroedinger's Cat. Pit Viper Symbol: S (medium) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; amphibious; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 60; poisonous; poison resistance 60% The pit viper attacks twice with poisonous bites for 1-4 damage. Troll Symbol: T (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 350 One of the most annoying monster classes in NetHack, trolls regenerate hit points every round, even after they die. A troll corpse will eventually rise as a living troll, no matter how many times you kill it. The only way to be permanently rid of a troll is to destroy the corpse: push it into lava or water, tin it, polymorph it, or -- in a pinch -- feed it to your pet or eat it yourself. Particularly creative players might lure a troll onto the Rogue level (where nothing ever leaves a corpse), bury the troll by dropping its corpse into a pit and filling the pit with a boulder, petrifying the troll with a rubber chicken, or letting a troll stand between the player and a black dragon when the black dragon uses its breath weapon. Trolls do 4-8, 4-8, and 2-12 damage with their attacks. Warhorse Symbol: u (large) Attributes: No hands; herbivore; domestic Generation: Random Nutrition: 350 The biggest horse you can find. It does 1-10 and 1-4 damage with its attacks and is quite fast, but is otherwise like a pony or horse. Energy Vortex Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Electricity; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Like other vortices, the energy vortex will engulf you. This does 1-6 electrical damage each turn until you escape. Steam Vortex Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Another vortex, another elemental damage type. These do 1-8 fire damage when they engulf you. Baby Long Worm Symbol: w (large) Attributes: No hands or legs; carnivorous Generation: Special Nutrition: 250 It's a little creepy-crawly creature that does 1-6 damage when it bites. As a baby creature, it can only be randomly generated in the Gnomish Mines, Sokoban, Oracle, and Vlad's Tower. Baby Purple Worm Symbol: w (large) Attributes: No hands or legs; carnivorous Generation: Special Nutrition: 250 Until they grow up, purple worms and long worms are virtually the same, right down to the 1-6 damage they do and where they appear. Long Worm Symbol: w (tail sections are ~) (gigantic) Attributes: No hands or legs; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 500 At full size, a long worm takes up several spaces in the dungeon. If you attack any part of the worm other than its head, you'll sever the tail from the body. Usually, the severed tail sections die, but sometimes they'll grow a new head and you'll have another Long Worm to deal with. A long worm will bite for 1-4 damage from the head, but the body segments are helpless. The longer a long worm is, the more hit points it has. As the name implies, long worms can get really, really, REALLY long. If there's any limit, I haven't found it. By carefully cultivating a specimen in the Big Room, I counted over 200 segments to a single worm. According to the stethoscope, it had precisely 500 hit points. Xan Symbol: x (tiny) Attributes: No hands; flying Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 300; poisonous; poison resistance 47% Xan is the name of a mosquito from the Mayan scripture book Popul Vuh. The xan in NetHack is very, very small (granting him a -4 armor class) and can only attack your legs with his attacks (if you're levitating, a xan can't reach you at all). However, while his attacks do only 1-4 damage, they might wound your legs. Wounded legs decrease your carrying capacity, ability to jump or mount a steed, and general mobility. Wearing boots helps: iron shoes and low boots protect against this wounding attack half the time, other footwear will null the attack four times out of five ("The xan scratches your [left/right] boot!") Sasquatch Symbol: Y (large) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 750 Another heavy bruiser, the sasquatch does 1-6, 1-6, and 1-8 damage with his attacks and can see invisible creatures. Giant Zombie Symbol: Z (huge) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; mindless; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Nutrition: 750; undead. Grants a boost to Strength like any other giant corpse, but you won't live long to enjoy it afterward because of the food poisoning. The last of many zombies, the giant zombie hits twice for 2-16 damage. Shark Symbol: ; (large) Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 350 Sharks are aquatic predators that do 5-30 points of damage with a single bite. Jumping a shark carries no particular penalty to your game. Horned Devil Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The horned devil is the least of the proper devils, and it has an armor class of -5, good magic resistance, and four attacks a round for 1-4, 1-4, 2-6, and 1-3 damage each. They tend to carry tridents (maybe it reminds them of themselves) or bullwhips. It only gets worse from here, folks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 10 Creatures Air Elemental Symbol: E (huge) Attributes: Flying; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The fastest creature in Nethack, air elementals usually get three turns to your one. They will engulf you to batter you with debris for 1-10 damage once a turn, but again: three turns to your one. They cannot be genocided and are immune to petrification, so not even that rubber chicken can save you. Several stronger-than-usual Air Elementals are guaranteed to appear on the Plane of Air. You'll often be engulfed and pummeled by one, expelled, and engulfed by another before you can react. Conflict helps (as they will waste time trying to engulf one another), as does any ability to scare or repel monsters. Fire Elemental Symbol: E (huge) Attributes: Flying; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Fire elementals attack with fire -- when they hit you, it's for 3-18 fire damage. When you hit them, they automatically counter with fire damage. If you're fire resistant, they can't hurt you at all. Needless to say there are many of these on the Plane of Fire. Earth Elemental Symbol: E (huge) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; cold; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Earth elementals slam you for 4-24 damage each turn and can freely move through dirt and stone walls. They swarm all over the Plane of Earth. Water Elemental Symbol: E (huge) Attributes: Flying; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; amphibious; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Water elementals smack you for 5-30 damage each turn. Not surprisingly, they're quite common on the Plane of Water. Hill Giant Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 700. Eating any giant corpse will boost your Strength. Hill giants hit for 2-16 damage in melee and throw boulders. Giant Mummy Symbol: M (huge) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; infravision; mindless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 700; undead. You'll get a boost to Strength just before you die of food poisoning. Lucky you! Giant mummies hit twice for 3-12 damage. Thankfully the last of the many mummy breeds in the game. Black Naga Symbol: N (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 400; acidic; poison resistance 53% Black nagas bite for 2-12 damage and spit acid at a distance. Cobra Symbol: S (medium) Attributes: Animal; no arms or legs; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 100; poisonous; poison resistance 60% Cobras like to hide under objects lying around the dungeon floor, then spring out with a poisonous bite for 2-8 damage. They can also spit blinding venom -- if you don't have eye protection, you can guess what the result is. Use the #wipe command to wipe the venom out of your eyes. Fire Vortex Symbol: v (huge) Attributes: Flying; doesn't breathe; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; mindless; genderless Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire, sleep, poison, petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse This one does 1-10 fire damage when it engulfs you. It will also counterattack with a blast of fire when struck. Electric Eel Symbol: ; (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Aquatic Resist: Electricity Nutrition: 250, shock resistance 47% Electric eels do 4-24 electrical damage with their attacks, and can still pull you into the water to drown you. Flesh Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire, cold, electricity, sleep, poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 600; fire resistance 12%; cold resistance 12%; shock resistance 12%; sleep resistance 12%; poison resistance 12% Flesh golems hit for 2-16 damage twice a round. Zapping them with electrical attacks will heal them. Flesh golems are the only golems to leave a corpse instead of items of the same stuff they're made of. Oddly enough, even those you're essentially eating a reanimated corpse (imagine eating Frankenstein's monster), it's not automatically old, rotten, or likely to give you food poisoning. Sergeant Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Magic Resist: 5% Nutrition: 400; human Ah, so many monsters are just powered-up versions of other monsters. The Sergeant is the bigger brother to the Soldier, and attacks like him. In melee, they do 2-12 damage. You can bribe Sergeants to leave you alone by throwing gold at them with a two-in-three chance of success. The gold needed for this is (250 + (current gold + (your experience level * X)) / your charisma score, where X is a random number between 1 and 5 inclusive. Sergeants are fond of flails and maces, and usually wear enough armor to drop their AC to 0. In addition to the normal chance of carrying a C-Ration or K-Ration, Sergeants and their superiors may also carry a bugle to sound if they're in trouble. Erinys Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; always female Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Erinys strike with poisoned weapons for 2-8 damage. There are never more than three of them in any game; once you wipe out those three, they're gone forever. Barbed Devil Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The barbed devil attacks thrice: 2-8, 2-8, and 3-12 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 11 Monsters Couatl Symbol: A (large) Attributes: Flying; infravision Generation: Random; small groups; never in Gehennom Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The feathered boa of Aztec myth. When they attack, they use a poisonous bite for 2-8 damage, then try to entangle you in their coils for further damage and suffocation. If you happen to encounter them near water, they will try to drown you. If you are of Lawful alignment and your alignment score is high enough, most A creatures (including Coatls) you meet will be peaceful. Winged Gargoyle Symbol: g (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; lays eggs Generation: Random Resist: Petrification Nutrition: 300 With a -2 armor class, these big brothers to the gargoyle are somewhat more dangerous. They do 3-18, 3-18, and 3-12 damage with their attacks. Fire Giant Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Fire Magic Resist: 5% Nutrition: 750; fire resistance 30%. Eating a giant corpse will boost your Strength. At home in lava-ridden and fiery landscapes, Fire Giants are more or less like other giants, striking with boulders and weapons for about 2-20 damage. Giant Mimic Symbol: m (large) Attributes: No eyes, head, arms, or legs; doesn't breathe; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 500. You'll mimic a pile of gold or an orange for 50 rounds after eating it, just like if you ate a smaller mimic corpse. The largest of mimics behave like their smaller counterparts but strike with sticky tendrils twice a round for 3-18 damage. Ogre King Symbol: O (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous; always male Generation: Random Magic Resist: 60% Nutrition: 750 They behave like ogres but hit for 3-15 damage. They generally carry battle-axes, like their ogrish kin. Xorn Symbol: X (medium) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; metallivore Generation: Random Resist: Fire, cold, petrification Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 700 Xorn attack for 1-3, 1-3, 1-3, and 4-24 damage during their turns and can walk through soil and stone as though it were empty air. Zruty Symbol: z (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 600 The only creature represented by the symbol z, zruty are massive creatures that hit for 3-12, 3-12, and 3-18 damage each turn. And not much else to say, really. Monk Symbol: @ Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Magic Resist: 2% Nutrition: 400; human The player roles mostly show up as corpses, especially in Gehennom. A handful of them will appear -- living and hostile -- on the Astral Plane under various names, or if you read a cursed Scroll of Genocide while confused. They're usually generated with some equipment that dictates their armor class, damage, and behavior, so it's anybody's guess what they'll hit you with. Elf-lord Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Infravision; always male Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 350; elf; sleep resistance 53% The Elf Lord does 2-8 damage with its attacks, and can see invisible creatures. Most of its armor, as can be expected, is elven. Elvenking Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous; always male Generation: Random Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 25% Nutrition: 350; elf; sleep resistance 60% The biggest and baddest elf you're likely to meet, the Elvenking strikes with a weapon for 2-8 damage twice a round. They tend to attack by themselves, but otherwise behave like other elves (including the ability to see invisible creatures). In addition to his requisite elf-crafted equipment, he has a good chance of carrying a pick-axe for some reason. Doppelganger Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 400; human. Anything that eats a doppelganger corpse polymorphs into another random creature. Doppelgangers are shapeshifters, so they'll polymorph into other creatures (generally nasty creatures or player races) to gain their statistics and intrinsics. Like a chameleon, you might not know you're fighting a doppelganger until you examine the corpse; they revert to their natural forms upon death. Should you encounter a doppelganger in its natural form, it strikes with a weapon for 1-12 damage. Your pets will happily snack on any doppelganger corpses they come across, and the polymorph effect works on them, too. You'll have a different pet when they're done with their meal. Marilith Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; always female Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Mariliths fight like demons, and rightly so (because that's what they are). Their armor class is -6 and they get six attacks a round for 2-8 damage each. They can see you even if you're invisible. Vrock Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse These demons attack five times a turn: 1-4, 1-4, 1-8, 1-8, and 1-6 damage. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up! Water Demon Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Infravision Generation: Special Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse These sometimes appear when you mess around in fountains, either [q]uaffing from them or #dipping things into them. They have a -4 armor class and strike for 1-3 damage three times a round. You can #chat with them if they don't seem hostile; sometimes they'll grant you a wish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 12 Creatures Ghost Symbol: (blank space) (medium) Attributes: Undead; flying; doesn't breathe; mindless; genderless Generation: Special Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; disintegration; petrification Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse. They're incorporeal undead, what would they leave behind? While their armor class of -5 makes them difficult to hit and their ability to pass through walls makes them difficult to track down, ghosts aren't dangerous: they do only a single point of damage with their touch attacks. Ghosts are only generated in a few levels or special circumstances. There's always a ghost named after one of the original NetHack developers on the Rogue level. There are lots of ghosts in graveyards, especially in the myriad graveyards that make up the Gateway to Gehennom. And finally, if you leave a bones file when you die, you or another player might fight your character's ghost when the bones level is played later. Ghosts of developers in the Rogue level have a few items and a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor. Ghosts from bones files have an inventory or a nearby treasure stash of the fallen character's possessions. In both cases, the majority of items are cursed, so you might want to #name anything you pick up from near a ghostly battle. Queen Bee Symbol: a (tiny) Attributes: No hands; flying; lays eggs; always female Generation: Special Resist: Poison Nutrition: 5; poisonous; poison resistance 60%. Eat the royal jelly instead. Queen bees only appear in beehives, special rooms that are filled with sleeping killer bees and royal jelly. If you find yourself face-to-face with a queen bee, you've already fought your way through a hive of killer bees. She's fast, tough to hit (-4 AC), and capable of poisoning you with her 1-8 damage sting attack. Aleax Symbol: A (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold; electricity; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The Aleax will occasionally appear when you try to convert an altar or do some other god-angering activity. They're occasionally randomly generated in the dungeon and tend to show up in the elemental and astral planes. When they attack, they do 1-6 weapon damage twice and attempt to kick for 1-4 damage. Black Pudding Symbol: P (large) Attributes: Doesn't breathe; no eyes, legs, arms, head; mindless; omnivorous; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Cold; electricity; acid; poison; petrification Nutrition: 250; acidic; cold resistance 22%; shock resistance 22%; poison resistance 22% Black puddings can be problematic. Like the lesser brown puddings, they will rot your organic gear with their attacks (in addition to the corrosive 3-24 damage). They'll also rot weapons you use to hit them, if you use something nonmetallic. And like brown puddings, they divide when struck. Lurker Above Symbol: t (huge) Attributes: Flying; no eyes, arms, legs, or head; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 350 Something of a cross between the piercer and vortex monster types, the lurker above remains hidden, crawling along the ceiling, until draw near. When you get close, it will drop from the ceiling and attempt to engulf you, dealing 1-8 damage a round until you are expelled or the lurker above is dead. Ice Troll Symbol: T (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 300; cold resistance 30%. And you get rid of the corpse. Ugh, more trolls. These strike for 2-12 weapon, 2-12 cold, and 2-12 bite damage each turn. Corpse disposal should be treated like regular trolls. Rock Troll Symbol: T (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 300 You can't stop the rock! Because yes, like other trolls, they'll die, regenerate, get up, and keep attacking. They do even more damage than ice trolls to make up for their lesser defensive capabilities: 3-18, 2-16, and 2-12 damage with each attack. Umber Hulk Symbol: U (large) Attributes: Humanoid; carnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 25% Nutrition: 500 Umber hulks are subterranean-dwelling creatures that attack for 3-12, 3-12, and 2-10 damage each turn. They also have a gaze attack that's capable of confusing you. Furthermore, they might ambush you by walking through walls and other solid objects. Vampire Symbol: V (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; flying; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 25% Nutrition: 400; human; undead. Vampires are pretty nasty. They regenerate hit points (although once you kill them, they stay dead -- they're not like trolls). They claw for 1-6 damage and bite for 1-6 damage more, but their biggest threat isn't damage, either. When they bite, there's a chance that they drain experience levels from your character. That's bad! Salamander Symbol: : (medium) Attributes: Humanoid Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; sleep Nutrition: 400; poisonous; fire resistance 53% With a -1 armor class, salamanders can be tough to take down. Furthermore, they strike with weapons for 2-16 damage and their bodies for 1-6 fire damage. If they manage to entangle you, expect to take 2-12 weapon damage and 3-18 fire damage instead. Clay Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 40% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Acting like any other golem would, the clay golem will smash you with its giant fists for 3-30 damage a round. If you have a Wand of Cancellation, zapping it at a clay golem will destroy the golem instantly. Clay golems leave behind a big pile of rocks when they die. Lieutenant Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 15% Nutrition: 400; human Lieutenants behave like soldiers, although there's usually about a 5:1 ratio of lieutenants to soldiers when they're generated. They hit twice a round for 3-12 damage. You can bribe Lieutenants to leave you alone by throwing gold at them with a two-in-three chance of success. The gold needed for this is (750 + (current gold + (your experience level * X)) / your charisma score, where X is a random number between 1 and 5 inclusive. Lieutenants generally carry around broadswords or longswords to kill you with and enough armor to drop their AC to -2. Watch Captain Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Never Magic Resist: 15% Nutrition: 400; human Just like regular watchmen are differently-flavored soldiers, watch captains are a different flavor of lieutenant. They're virtually identical, from the damage they do to their behavior. The only difference is that there is a set number of watch captains in Minetown, and no more, ever. Watch Captains carry longswords or silver sabers and armor to drop their AC to -2. Archeologist Barbarian Caveman/Cavewoman Healer Knight Priest Ranger Rogue Samurai Tourist Valkyrie Wizard Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Special Resist: Healer and Barbarian resist poison; Valkyrie resists cold Magic Resist: From 0% (Caveman) to 3% (Wizard) Nutrition: 400; human The player roles mostly show up as corpses, especially in Gehennom. A handful of them will appear -- living and hostile -- on the Astral Plane under various names, or if you read a cursed Scroll of Genocide while confused. They're usually generated with some equipment that dictates their armor class, damage, and behavior, so it's anybody's guess what they'll hit you with. Hezrou Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire, poison Magic Resist: 55% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Hezrou claw, claw and bite for 1-3, 1-3, and 4-16 damage, but don't have any special abilities to worry about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 13 Creatures Baby Red Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Fire Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 All the little baby dragons are more or less the same. While they have the same resistances as an adult dragon, they lack the breath weapon. All they can do is bite for 2-12 damage. As babies, they only appear in certain levels: Gnomish Mines, Sokoban, Oracle, and Vlad's Tower. Because they're such high difficulty, the only one of these they're likely to appear in is Vlad's Tower; you're probably done with the other levels before they're available to be generated. As always, they might hatch from dragon eggs. Baby White Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance. Baby Orange Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance. Baby Black Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Disintegration Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance. Baby Blue Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Electricity Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500 Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance. Baby Green Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500; poisonous Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance and nutrition. Baby Yellow Dragon Symbol: D (huge) Attributes: Flying; no hands Generation: Special Resist: Acid; petrification Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 500; acidic Just like the baby red dragon, except for the resistance Mind Flayer Symbol: h (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: 400. There's a 50% chance that eating a mind flayer corpse gives you a bonus to your Intelligence. If you don't get Intelligence, you gain the Telepathy intrinsic. If you "sense a faint wave of psychic energy" while exploring the level, there's a Mind Flayer somewhere nearby. I hope you're wearing protective headgear (or polymorphed into a creature without a head), because these guys want to feast on your spicy brains. They're not particularly strong or tough, but their damage output is not their most threatening as