A Practical Guide to Nethack: The Whole Dungeon Catalog: Monsters Version 4 by R2 Last updated 8-7-09 ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Contents Section I: About This Guide Section II: Guide Layout Section III: Creature List Section IV: Quest Creatures Section V: Monster Magic Section VI: 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 and sleeping gas traps. 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 generally can't attack (sometimes they'll desperately lash out with an attack array anyway, so be careful). 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. 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, but not necessarily far away. 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. (But you don't want to eat a green slime anyway.) 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. Poison-resistant characters do not suffer this effect, of course. 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 a little dog, dog, large dog, kitten, housecat, or large cat will give you the aggravate monster intrinsic. Orcs and Cavemen do not suffer this effect. 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, 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, 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, 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 in melee. 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 cold attack when struck. Attack from a distance, 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 an 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 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 let your god fix it. 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. Homunculus Symbol: i (tiny) Attributes: Flying; infravision Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 100; poisonous; poison resistance 7%; sleep resistance 7% Homunculi 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. 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. If you pay off your debt or otherwise calm the shopkeeper who summoned the Kops, they will immediately but dejectedly leave. 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 otherwise 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 where Leppy can't reach 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. Dropping your gold onto the floor at your feet is often enough to keep it from getting stolen, but sometimes the leprechaun will snatch it off the floor and teleport away anyway. 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 the conflict intrinsic -- 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 playing, 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. But since they smother you to death, an amulet of magical breathing will render them unable to harm you. 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. Thankfully, unlike nymphs, they are unable to teleport. 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. And they're sick of being used as debate tactics, too! 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 may 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 when it explodes. 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". 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. Being royalty, you can be assured that the weapons they carry will be enchanted to at least +1, and their armor will not be lower than +0. Might still be cursed, though. 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 often 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 array 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. Unfortunately, black lights are by nature invisible, so if you can't see invisible creatures, you'll never see the explosion coming. If you can see a black light draw near, don a blindfold or towel; blindness protects you. 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, with few restrictions on what they can polymorph into. I've been attacked by a master lich on dungeon level 6, because a chameleon happened to get a lucky shapechange! If forced into their native form by a ring of protection vs. shape changers, 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 Those who catch a tiger by the tail should endeavor to avoid their claws and fangs, which do 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. 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. As royalty, their weapons are at least +1 and their armor no lower than +0. 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 each row or column of goods. The gold 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, but 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. Even if you start eating the turn after you kill the Wraith, there's a good chance of going "Blecch! Rotten food!" for long enough that the corpse vanishes. Tres frustrating. 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. Since keys take the least time to use, you're less likely for the watch to notice if you use one of those instead of a lock pick or credit card. 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 (replacing a ring she is already wearing if need be; this can be bad if e.g. an incubus meets you while you're levitating over water or lava). 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 (s)he 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 an experience level or two. 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, either a peaceful housecat named Schroedinger's Cat will appear beside you as you let it out, or you'll find that the box contains a housecat corpse of the same name. 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. T creatures of all flavors tend to carry polearms, allowing them to attack from two panels away if they so desire. 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. Electrical attacks heal them. (It's alive! It's aliiive!) Flesh golems are the only golems to leave a corpse instead of items of the same stuff they're made of. Oddly enough, even though you're essentially eating a reanimated corpse, 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. Being royalty, said axes are at least at +1 enchantment, and their armor isn't under negative enchantment. 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 (which, as royalty, means +1 or higher weapons and +0 or better armor), 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 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. Their swords, should you slay the aleax and claim them for yourself, tend to be blessed, rustproof, and occasionally magical. They sometimes wear shields of reflection as well. 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. 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. If the psychic energy locks onto you, the mind flayer will strike with a psychic jolt no matter where it is. 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 aspect. With each strike, they might suck part of your brain out of your head and eat it, causing intelligence damage and amnesia. If your intelligence drops to 0, you're dead. Wearing a helmet, especially a greased helmet, helps you resist having your brains sucked out. Mind flayers have telepathy active (even though they can see normally) and can see invisible creatures. Frost Giant Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 750; cold resistance 33%. Like other giants, eating a frost giant will boost your strength. Frost giants are the next step up the giant line, striking and throwing boulders for 2-24 damage. Ettin Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid, infravision, carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 500 They lack the cold and magic resistance of frost giants but are stuck at the same difficulty level, so ettins do more damage to make up for it: they attack twice a round for 2-16 and 3-18 damage. Ettins generally carry a club. Ettins are hard to sneak up on: if they're asleep, there is a 90% chance each turn that they wake up as you approach. Golden Naga Symbol: N (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 70% Nutrition: 400; poison resistance 67% A golden naga will bite for 2-12 damage or use magic spells at a distance. There's a chance that a golden naga attack will surround you in a black aura, which means that some of your gear, chosen at random, has become cursed or has lost its blessed status. If you succumb to a golden naga attack and feel like you "need some help", your stuff is cursed. Major bummer. Titanothere Symbol: q (large) Attributes: No hands; herbivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 650. Titanothere is Greek for "giant creature", so you can expect this prehistoric quadruped to have... well, better stats than it does. This huge rhinoceros-like creature gores with its huge horn for 2-16 damage. Pretty lackluster, huh? They do have a whole damn lot of hit points, but that's all that's in their favor. Water Troll Symbol: T (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; amphibious; carnivorous Generation: Aquatic Magic Resist: 40% Nutrition: 350 Another flavor of troll, another round of corpse-ridding frustration. Water trolls have the additional disadvantage of not drowning in water, so dropping them into lakes and moats won't hold them down for long. Water trolls strike with weapons, claw, and bite for 2-16, 2-16, and 2-12 damage. Because they use aquatic creatures' generation, water trolls are blessedly rare. They're never generated randomly and only appear on levels that have them preprogrammed in, and the only level that calls for water trolls is one variation of Medusa's level. So hooray for that. Nurse Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Nutrition: 400; human; poison resistance 73%. Eating a nurse heals all your hit points. The nurse is a little odd. If you #chat with her, she'll tell you to take off your armor or put away your weapon. Take off all your armor and sheathe your weapon, and when the nurse attacks, she heals damage instead of inflicting it; you'll regain 2-12 HP each round a nurse hits. The attack also helps with some afflictions up to and including food poisoning. If you're at maximum hit points, your hit point maximum might go up instead. The nurse will then teleport away. "Nurse Dancing" is the practice of finding a dungeon level that disallows teleporting, finding a small room with a lockable door, and shutting yourself in with one or more nurses. Since they can't teleport away or leave the room, the nurse will repeatedly heal your character up to maximum hit points, then slowly increase your hit point maximum to staggeringly huge levels. Locking yourself in a room, reading a cursed scroll of genocide, and asking to genocide nurses makes the process a whole lot quicker. The Castle, with its many small rooms, lockable doors, and no-teleport rule, is a fine choice for nurse dancing. Oracle Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous; always female Generation: Unique Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400; human. The Oracle is partly influenced by the famed diviner at Delphi of Greek myth and partly influenced by the Usenet Oracle. The whole reason there are woodchucks in NetHack is for an Oracle joke. (The Usenet Oracle answers questions people send in. In the early days, there was an annoying glut questions regarding how much lumber that a particular rodent would be capable of throwing, were these creatures capable of such activity. If you're hallucinating, one of the level sounds indicating the Oracle is nearby is that you hear someone shouting "No more woodchucks!", or "You hear a loud 'ZOT!'", which was the typical answer to such a query. I never said it was a particularly funny joke...) The Oracle gets her own level, where a room full of centaur statues has a room full of fountains within it. And in the middle of those fountains sits the Oracle herself. The Oracle is intended to be a way for players to learn about the game, although in practice most players read guides and spoilers instead. If you #chat with her, she'll ask if you want a minor consultation for a small fee. If you say no, she'll ask if you'd rather have a major consultation for a larger fee instead. Everything the Oracle will tell you is true, but it's often quite oblique. If you agree to a consultation but don't have the money to pay for it, the Oracle will baffle you with a true but nigh-incomprehensible statement. If you attack the Oracle, you'll get blasted by magic missiles that form from the air around you. If you survive long enough to kill her, you can reclaim the money you gave her for your consultations and do whatever terrible things you have in mind with her corpse. Bone Devil Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; small groups; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire, poison Magic Resist: 60% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Bone devils strike with a weapon for 3-12 damage and have a poisonous sting for another 2-8 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 14 Creatures Shade Symbol: (blank space) (medium) Attributes: Undead; flying; doesn't breathe; mindless; genderless Generation: Never Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; disintegration; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Shades are basically buffed-up ghosts, with all the abilities thereof. Their initial attack does 2-12 damage and can paralyze you, while their secondary attack does 1-6 damage and can slow you down. A shade is immune to base weapon damage if the weapon is not made of silver, although other aspects (such as if the weapon is blessed) might still hurt it. Shades are never randomly generated and are rarely called for a specific level. Orcus keeps a couple close at hand, but you'll be hard-pressed to find shades anywhere else. Hell Hound Symbol: d (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 300; fire resistance 80% The most powerful of all the d monsters, hell hounds can bite for 3-18 damage or breathe a blast of fire for 3-8 damage at range. Lich Symbol: L (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; undead; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse A sorcerer so mighty he gave up life for the hellish torment of undeath to increase his own power. Clearly not someone you'd want to meet in a dark alley at night. Or in a well-lit avenue at any time, really. Liches do 1-10 damage with their melee attacks, but the danger is the effect that accompanies those attacks -- if you're surrounded by a black aura (or feel like "you need some help"), some of the items in your inventory have been cursed or had their blessed status removed. Liches are inherently magical creatures, and are capable of healing or hasting itself, turning invisible, stunning you, draining your strength, and destroying your armor in addition to its curse effect. A few very powerful liches can also cast aggravate monster, assuring that every other creature on the level is awake and pissed off at you. Disenchanter Symbol: R (large) Attributes: Carnivorous Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Nutrition: 200 What could possibly be even more annoying than a rust monster? The disenchanter! Instead of rusting or rotting your gear, the disenchanter will remove the numeric enchantments from your armor when it hits (and do 4-16 damage). Assuming you can hit its -10 armor class, it will also dispel enchantments from the weapon you use to hit it. Oddly enough, attack magic is probably the best way to deal with them. Zapping with a wand of cancellation is a fine idea, as a cancelled disenchanter can't disenchant. Trapper Symbol: t (huge) Attributes: No eyes, arms, legs, or head; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 350 Trappers are the next evolution of the "stealthy creature" type, taking the place of piercers, lurkers above, and the occasional wumpus. Trappers are flat creatures with mottled, stony hides, allowing them to wander around the dungeon disguised... as the floor. They're more or less invisible to those without telepathy or a similar method of locating creatures, until they attack. When they attack, they wrap their flat bodies around their victim to engulf and digest them for 1-10 damage a round. Vampire Lord Symbol: V (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; flying; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400; human; undead Vampire lords behave like lesser vampires, but do 1-8 damage with their attacks. Skeleton Symbol: Z (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; infravision; doesn't breathe; mindless; genderless Generation: Never Resist: Cold; sleep; poison; petrification Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Skellingtons will strike for 2-12 weapon damage and attempt to slow you down with a 1-6 damage touch attack. Skeletons are never randomly generated, and only appear when specifically called for by a certain level or if you try to polymorph a large stack of items made of bone, like unicorn horns. Guard Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Special Magic Resist: 40% Nutrition: 400; human This is a vault guard. If you wander around a level of the dungeon and hear the footsteps of a guard on patrol or someone counting money, there's a vault full of gold somewhere on the level. A potion of object detection or some method of discovering the location of hidden gold will show you where the vault is; it will be four piles of gold in a 2x2 square. If you can manage to break into the vault by teleporting or digging in, the gold is yours to take, but be quick! A guard will be by shortly, and if he catches you, he'll ask your name. If you reply "Croesus" (and haven't killed the real Croesus yet), he'll leave you alone, but lawful characters will suffer an alignment penalty for lying. If you give any other name, he'll demand that you drop all your gold (even what you brought in with you) and follow him on a path out of the vault. If you follow him, the walls around the vault will snap shut again after you leave. If you fight the guard, he strikes for 4-40 damage with his weapon and tends to have a couple potions or wands at his disposal. Killing him is probably murder and will carry an alignment penalty for non-chaotic characters. Killing him while in the passage back to the dungeon is a really awful idea, since the tunnel will snap shut anyway and trap you in solid rock. Prisoner Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 400; human Prisoners occasionally show up in some quests. They're usually locked up, of course. They generally don't attack you (and you get an alignment boost for releasing them), but if one happens to turn hostile, they do a wimpy 1-6 damage with weapon strikes. Captain Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 15% Nutrition: 400; human Captains act like any other soldier-class monster, but strike twice a round for 4-16 damage. You can bribe captains 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. Captains generally carry longswords or silver sabers and a slew of armor to drop their AC down to -3, plus the usual complement of C- or K-rations and a bugle. Ice Devil Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; cold; poison Magic Resist: 55% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Ice devils claw and bite for 1-4, 1-4, and 2-8 damage, then finish the array with a sting for 3-12 cold damage. If you need a spear, they often carry one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 15 Creatures Baluchitherium Symbol: q (large) Attributes: No hands; herbivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 800 A name like a mouthful of pebbles has to be some sort of prehistoric creature, and sure enough, baluchitherium is another ancestor of the rhinoceros (like the titanothere). And like the titanothere, this critter has more hit points than you can shake an oversized muzzle horn at. They attack twice a round for 5-20 damage. Stone Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Stone golems will wallop you for 3-24 damage with their big, stony fists. If you try to petrify another kind of golem, it might turn into a stone golem instead. When destroyed, stone golems simply stop moving, leaving a statue (if not a pile of rocks). Shopkeeper Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Special Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400, human. If you have the balls to open a store down in the depths of the Dungeons of Doom, you're going to need to be pretty damn tough to make a living with it. Here's the deal: Shops are only generated after the layout for the level is created. If there's a room with one door and no stairs, and there are enough rooms in the dungeon level, there's a chance that room will become a shop. The shop has merchandise scattered all over the floor and a shopkeeper inside. If there isn't a shopkeeper, you're told the shop is abandoned when you enter; all the goods inside are free to take. There is almost always a shop on the second or third dungeon level (or both); shops become less likely after that, and aren't generated after the Medusa level. There are always shops in Minetown (and Minetown is the only place you'll find a lighting store) and two abandoned shops on Orcus' level of Gehennom. Shopkeepers are generated nonhostile. When you enter, they'll welcome you with open arms unless you're invisible, carrying a tool that lets you smash through walls, or riding a mount. In that case, they'll tell you what the problem is and block the door. Once inside the shop, the keeper will tend to stay near the door. When you pick up an item and haven't [p]aid for it, they'll move to block the door until you either drop the item or pay your bill. If you don't have any unpaid items but the shopkeeper is standing in front of the door, move around (or wait by pressing [.]) until he decides to go stand somewhere else. Shopkeepers are pretty smart when it comes to stealing. If you eat food, read a scroll, zap a wand, read a spellbook, or otherwise use or break the goods they have in their store, they'll either charge you full cost for the item (if it's consumed) or a usage charge (if charges remain). If you try to throw something out of the store, they'll charge you for that item. If you [d]rop an item inside a store, a shopkeeper might offer you gold for it if it's the same kind of item he stocks in his store (any item for a general store). Just answer yes or no to whether you want to sell the item for the price offered. If you say no, you'll still drop the item, but may pick it up without having to pay for it. If you say yes, the item now belongs to the shop, and you gotta pay if you want it back. Note that anything else that hits the floor in a shop -- the corpse or inventory of a monster that attacks you, or thrown weapons from monsters outside the shop -- are claimed by the shopkeeper as his own. You'll have to pay for them if you want them. If you leave the store without paying for an item -- via a wand of digging aimed at the floor, a teleport ability, or just managing to get past the shopkeeper -- the shopkeeper will become hostile and call a gaggle of Keystone Kops to help while he attacks you. Stealing might have other repercussions on your alignment and conduct, too. Shopkeepers also become hostile when you attack them (like any creature) but don't call the Kops unless you try to leave the store without paying for an item. Shopkeepers always have a stash of gold (which is depleted as you sell items to him), usually have a skeleton key, and often carry healing potions and a wand of striking or magic missiles. Their stats are generally like that of a captain, and they strike twice with their weapons for 4-16 damage after expending the charges on their wands. Shopkeepers have a blind spot, though: pets. They keep their eyes on you, but ignore what your pet does. A pet can walk into the shop, eat all the food, and steal all the items without the shopkeeper noticing. If you can convince your pet to leave the store with the items it picks up inside, they're yours! The single panel just inside the shop door counts as "outside the shop" for this purpose. If you drop your gold in a shop, the shopkeeper will offer you credit for it. If a monster or pet then picks up the gold and carries it outside, you get to keep your credit even if you reclaim the gold. Shopkeepers are difficulty 15 monsters, so once your pets are strong enough to take on monsters of that difficulty, they'll attack shopkeepers directly whether you like it or not. This can be a pain if you have a load of items you want to sell -- but if the shopkeeper dies, all his gold is yours to take anyway! If you are killed by a shopkeeper or die in his shop, he will inherit all of your possessions -- meaning that if you leave a bones file, your gravesite will be empty and all your gear will be in the shopkeeper's personal inventory instead. Aligned Priest Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Generation: Special Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400; human You'll find aligned priests inside the occasional temple. They're called aligned to designate them from the Priest player role and the High Priest of Moloch -- in the game, they're simply called "priest of" whatever deity they worship. All that's in a temple is a priest and an altar; the altar functions normally. A surefire way to anger a priest is to convert the altar in his temple. Talking to him while he's somehow outside his temple or restricted from moving will also anger him. If you #chat with an aligned priest, he'll ask for a donation (or give you up to two zorkminds if you're broke). How much you give to reap a benefit from the priest depends on your experience level and what percentage of your gold you gave him. Since shops are so rare, donating to priests is a fine way to spend money instead of lugging around all those heavy gold pieces. If you give nothing, you get -1 to alignment if the priest matches your alignment. There's no penalty for being miserly to priests that don't match your alignment. If you give up to 200 times your experience level and the amount is more than one-third of the gold you have on you, you exercise your wisdom. If you give between 200 and 400 times your experience level and it's more than one-third your gold, you get clairvoyance for 500-1000 turns. If your alignment is really bad and you're giving to a priest that matches your alignment, it improves a little. If you give between 400 and 600 times your experience level, you might get a permanent protection bonus to your armor class. Otherwise, it's as if you gave more than 600 times your experience level. This protection lasts as long as the priest who awarded it to you lives, so keep your pets away if they're strong enough to attack the priest. If you give more than 600 times your experience level to a priest that matches your alignment, and the amount was more than one-third your current gold, then you get +2 to alignment. If your alignment was negative, it's changed to 0 instead. A priest only considers how much gold you have on you, visible, when asking for a donation. Drop some of your money on the ground or stash it in a container before #chatting with the priest and you can make several donations, reaping the benefits several times. Killing an aligned priest is probably murder, carries an alignment penalty if he's of the same alignment as your character, and removes any divine protection you got from donating to that priest. Killing priests of different alignments (or priests of Moloch) carries alignment boosts if you can manage it, but they're tough customers. All priests do 4-40 damage with their weapons and kick for 1-4 damage more, or cast spells at you. Furthermore, attacking a priest inside his own temple will get you zapped by divine lightning as you piss off that temple's god. Nalfeshnee Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 65% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Nalfeshnee... try saying THAT five times fast. Anyway, nalfeshnee claw and bite for 1-4, 1-4, and 2-8 damage. They can use magic, too. Sandestin Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Petrification Magic Resist: 60% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse You'll never meet a sandestin in its own form -- like the chameleon and doppelganger before it, the sandestin will shapeshift into other creatures (specifically nasties, see the "Monster Magic" section for details) to attack. You probably won't know you've defeated a sandestin until you complete the game or die and get a list of creatures vanquished. The only indications come if the sandestin changes form in the middle of combat, or after you defeat a creature that normally leaves a corpse -- sandestins, being demons, never leave one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 16 Creatures Guardian Naga Symbol: N (huge) Attributes: No arms or legs; lays eggs; omnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400; poisonous; poison resistance 80% Guardian nagas can be rough: their bites do 1-6 damage, might paralyze you, and set you up for a constriction attack for 2-8 damage more. At range, they spit gobs of poisonous bile to sap your strength. Olog-Hai Symbol: T (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 400 The good news is, olog-hai are the last troll breed you'll meet. The bad news is, they're tough! They have a -4 armor class and strike for 3-18, 2-16, and 2-12 damage with their weapon/claw/bite array. And like any other troll, they regenerate even after they're dead. Pit Fiend Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 65% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Pit fiends aren't the worst demons around, but they're a good second place. They strike for 4-8 damage with their weapons, then try to crush you for 2-8 damage with a constriction attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 17 Creatures Minotaur Symbol: H (large) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Never Nutrition: 700 As far as this burly bovine is concerned, you're what's for dinner! The minotaur only appears in certain areas of the game -- typically the mazelike portions of the lower levels and in the Plane of Earth. You'll likely meet your first one in the Castle level; there's always one there. In melee, the minotaur claws twice for 3-30 damage and follows with a butt with its massive horns for 2-16 more. If you can put some distance between you and him and sling arrows or spells, do so. Minotaurs often carry wands of digging. They ignore Elbereth. Purple Worm Symbol: w (tail sections are ~) (gigantic) Attributes: No hands or legs; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 700 Purple worms bite for 2-16 damage and will attempt to engulf you and digest you alive. If you're in a purple worm's gullet, its digestive juices do 1-10 damage. As is always the case when engulfed, [z]apping a wand of digging downward will rend the creature asunder, allowing you to escape and leaving the creature at your mercy with 1 HP. Purple worms make popular pets because they will engulf and destroy monsters on your behalf. This prevents you from looting the creature's inventory upon its death, but is a quick and easy way to get a hostile critter off your back. Purple worms like to eat shriekers, and will always engulf them should they attack one. Nazgul Symbol: W (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; always male Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 25% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The wraiths from Middle-Earth wander the dungeons looking for... well, you don't see many hobbits down this low, do you? Nazgul will stab you for 1-4 damage (which drains experience levels like a vampire), or use their breath weapon to put you to sleep for up to 50 rounds. Nazgul are generated randomly, but there are only nine of them. If you find and destroy all nine, you won't have to worry about finding any more. Nazgul tend to carry inventories, but nearly every item therein is cursed. #name everything you get from a Nazgul's corpse so you don't accidentally put anything on before you can uncurse it. Nazguls always carry cursed rings of invisibility. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 18 Creatures Jabberwock Symbol: J (large) Attributes: Flying; carnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 600 The jabberwock is a pretty nasty beast, but not because of any special properties. It just claws and bites twice a round each, for a total of four attacks at 2-20 damage a pop. If you have the Vorpal Sword, it will kill a jabberwock in a single hit. Demilich Symbol: L (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; undead; doesn't breathe Generation: Random Resist: Cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse "Demi" means "half", but a demilich is even more powerful than a plain ol' regular lich. In Dungeons & Dragons, a demilich is a powerful undead sorcerer like the lich, but has no body -- it's just a floating, soul-stealing, magically-charged evil skull. But Nethack isn't D&D, so demiliches do 3-12 damage with their melee attacks, and those attacks carry the same black aura used by lesser liches. Demiliches are capable of all the magical mischief of lesser liches, and the ability to aggravate monsters comes standard. Particularly powerful demiliches can also summon nasties. Vlad the Impaler Symbol: V (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; flying; doesn't breathe; always male Generation: Unique Resist: Sleep; poison Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse As far as "boss" creatures go, Vlad is kind of... well, lackluster. He holds the Candelabrum of Invocation, so you have to track him down and kill him, but he's just a buffed-up vampire lord. Some players take a horrible weapon -- say, a tin opener -- debuff it down to negative enchantment and corrode it to nigh-uselessness, then use it to destroy Vlad just to show what a wimp he is. Nonetheless he gets his own dungeon branch; the entrance to Vlad's Tower is found in Gehennom. Vlad patiently waits on his throne until he sees you or you attack him. His armor class is -3, and he attacks with a weapon for 1-10 damage before biting for another 1-10. This bite can drain levels like any other vampire bite attack. Being a Romanian noble, he gets the royalty bonus for his equipment: his weapon is at least +1, his armor non-negative. If for some reason you have the Candelabrum of Invocation before you fight Vlad, he'll steal it from you during the battle with him. Glass Golem Symbol: ' (large) Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Acid; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Glass golems are magical constructs made of stained glass. They seek to close into melee combat and smack you around with their fists for 2-16 damage twice a round. Glass golems do not leave corpses, just differently-colored shards of worthless glass. This makes gem identification easier -- anything you pick up from a fallen glass golem isn't valuable, so you know that any of the same gems you're carrying are fakes -- but isn't useful for much else. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 19 Creatures Angel Symbol: A (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Cold; electricity; poison; sleep Magic Resist: 55% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Angels strike with weapons twice a round for 1-6 damage, then claw for 1-4. Alternately, they might pummel you with magic missiles for 2-12 damage. Angels are somewhat rare because of their high difficulty (often by the time you're ready to take on difficulty 19 creatures, you're in Gehennom). There are always plenty on the Astral Plane, though, and if you reach the Astral Plane with sufficient alignment score and without conflict, you get a tame Angel for free to assist with your final trials. Angels usually carry a blessed rustproof longsword (often with a magic enchantment), this has a 5% chance of being the artifact weapon Sunsword or Demonbane if those don't exist yet. They also tend to carry rustproof shields or shields of reflection. Master Mind Flayer Symbol: h (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision; omnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: 400. You gain extra intelligence or telepathy as you would eating a regular mind flayer. As if regular mind flayers weren't bad enough! When master mind flayers attack, they get no less than five chances to drain your intelligence away by sucking your brain out of your skull. Master mind flayers, like lesser mind flayers, have telepathy active even though they can see normally and can see invisible creatures. Storm Giant Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random; small groups Resist: Electricity Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 750; shock resistance 50%. Eating a giant corpse will boost your Strength. Storm giants resist electrical damage, but otherwise behave like other giants. They do 2-24 damage with weapons and throw boulders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 20 Creatures Gray Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500 Here be dragons! Dragons come in nine different colors, each with their own elemental attribute or special power. But all of them have some things in common: they all have an armor class of -1, and are slightly slow due to their bulk. In melee, they bite for 3-24 damage and claw twice for 1-4 damage each. They all have their own breath weapon, too; in the case of the gray dragon, it's a line of magic missiles that deals 4-24 damage. Dragons are tough opponents, but you're well rewarded when you defeat them. Their corpses almost always give an intrinsic when eaten (although the gray dragon does not) and dragons often leave behind a set of dragon scales. These scales may be fashioned into the awesome dragon scale mail by [W]earing them and reading a scroll of enchant armor. Gray dragon scale mail is coveted by many players for its magic-resistant properties and is often the object of a player's first wish. Silver Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500 A silver dragon's breath weapon is a line of frost that does 4-24 cold damage. Silver dragons do not give an intrinsic when eaten, but silver dragon scales grant magic reflection, making them as coveted as gray dragon scales. Red Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying, no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Fire Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, fire resistance 100% A red dragon's breath weapon is a line of fire that does 6-36 points of fire damage. White Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying, no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Cold Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, cold resistance 100% The white dragon's breath weapon is a line of frost that does 4-24 cold damage. Orange Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Sleep Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, sleep resistance 100% An orange dragon's breath weapon is a line of sleeping gas that puts you to sleep for 4-100 rounds. Black Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Disintegration Nutrition: 1500, disintegration resistance 100% A black dragon's breath weapon deals 4-40 damage and might disintegrate you on the spot. Blue Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Electricity Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, shock resistance 100% A blue dragon's breath weapon is a blast of lightning that deals 4-24 electricity damage. Green Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Poison Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, poisonous, poison resistance 100% A green dragon's breath weapon is a blast of poison gas that deals 4-24 poison damage and might drain your dexterity away. Yellow Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Random Resist: Acid; petrification Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1500, acidic. You'd think it'd grant acid or petrification resistance, but alas, this is not the case. A yellow dragon's breath weapon is a stream of corrosive fluid that deals 4-24 acid damage. Titan Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Generation: Random Magic Resist: 70% Nutrition: 900 Titans are capable of using magic to supplement their weapon strikes, but otherwise behave like other giants. They like to summon other creatures with their spells, though, so be careful about crowd control. Balrog Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 75% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Wings or no wings, balrogs are the mightiest of demons, bowing only to those mighty hellspawn that are wholly unique. A balrog that closes to melee range will slash with its sword for 8-32 damage, then snap with its whip for 4-24 damage. They can see invisible creatures. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 21 Creatures Ki-Rin Symbol: A (large) Attributes: Flying; infravision Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Ki-rin are good-aligned creatures (they're basically east-Asian unicorns), and only appear in the upper planes. Forced into combat, they will kick twice for 2-8 damage and stab with their horns for 3-18 more. They can also use magic. Ki-rin make excellent mounts, if you can tame one or find a figurine. Characters with skill in riding and a wish to blow might wish for a blessed ki-rin figurine for this purpose. Master Lich Symbol: L (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; undead; doesn't breathe Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; cold; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The march of powerful undead proceeds with this son-of-a-lich, who basically behaves like lesser liches. But his touch attack deals 3-18 cold damage and might curse your items. The master lich has all the spellcasting prowess of the demilich, but each and every master lich can summon monsters to harass you. They'll also teleport to and from your location just to make things more difficult. If a master lich happens to find the Book of the Dead lying around for whatever reason, he'll pick it up and carry it off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 22 Creatures Mastodon Symbol: q Attributes: No hands; herbivorous Generation: Random Nutrition: 800 The biggest quadruped you'll ever meet, the mastodon has no elemental, status, or magic resistance, can't cast spells or use items, and has an armor class of 5. Doesn't sound too threatening, I'll admit, but it can attack twice in a round for 4-32 damage each time. And it has so many hit points you just won't be able to take it down easily -- even hit-and-run tactics with ranged weapons will have you scurrying all over the dungeon before the mastodon finally falls to your assault. Kraken Symbol: ; Attributes: No arms or legs; aquatic; lays eggs; carnivorous Generation: Aquatic Nutrition: 1000 The kraken is as big as sea-creatures get. It whips with tentacles for 2-8 damage twice a round, follows that with a 5-20 damage bite, then tries to crush you in its grip for 2-12 damage and a chance of drowning. Being aquatic, krakens quickly dry out and die if they leave the water. For this reason, people with cursed scrolls of genocide occasionally wish for krakens to be sent in while they stand in the middle of dry dungeon rooms. By leaving the krakens to their own devices for a few rounds, they dehydrate down to a single hit point, making them easy pickings worth tons of experience to a low-level character. Iron Golem Symbol: ' Attributes: Humanoid; mindless; doesn't breathe; genderless Generation: Random Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 60% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The mightiest of golems, this animated statue will knock you around with its steely fists for 4-40 damage or emit a cloud of noxious poison gas that will drain your strength. Electrical attacks slow them and fiery attacks heal them. If a rust monster attacks an iron golem, the iron golem dies immediately. Iron golems don't leave corpses, just a pile of iron chains. The better the golem, the less useful the item it leaves, eh? Croesus Symbol: @ Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous; always male Generation: Unique Magic Resist: 40% Nutrition: 400; human. Remember back when we were discussing the vault guards, and how I mentioned that you can answer "Croesus" to get them to leave you alone when they ask who you are? Well, that's because Croesus -- the last king of Lydia and generally mind-bogglingly wealthy dude -- actually exists in-game. There's a chance in some vaults that one of the panels holds a teleporter to Fort Ludios, where Croesus hangs out. As soon as you get to Fort Ludios, an alarm sounds, waking up every single creature on the map. Argh! Assuming you fight your way through the initial passages, courtyard, barracks, and zoo (which are filled with the typical complement of dragons, various soldiers, and aquatic creatures in the moat), Croesus waits for you in an opulent throne room, surrounded by more random monsters. If Croesus closes to melee range, he uses a +1-or-better two-handed sword for 4-40 damage. He's royalty, so his armor is at +0 or better. Croesus can see invisible creatures, even if his countless minions can't. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty 25+ Creatures Medusa (difficulty 25) Symbol: @ (large) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; amphibious; always female Generation: Unique Resist: Poison; petrification Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 400; poisonous; poison resistance 100%. Eating Medusa will instantly petrify you if you aren't polymorphed into some form that's resistant to petrification. Medusa waits for you to approach before attacking. This attack is usually a simple gaze attack that petrifies you instantly -- none of that slow-petrification that you'd expect from a cockatrice. You look at Medusa, you die. Game over. That's it. If you have the sense to approach Medusa while blind (and bearing telepathy or some other way of sensing her presence, I assume) or bearing reflection, she closes to melee and strikes with weapons for 2-8 damage, claws for 1-8 damage, and uses a poisonous bite for 1-6 more. The easiest way to defeat Medusa is to [a]pply a mirror in her direction, turning her gaze back onto her and petrifying her instead. If you have reflection, Medusa will likewise catch her own gaze unless you're invisible. She resists other attempts to petrify her. Archon (difficulty 26) Symbol: A (large) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Random; never in Gehennom Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; sleep; petrification Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse With a whopping -6 armor class and no fewer than four attacks in a round, archons are pretty nasty. They strike twice with a weapon for 2-8 damage, claw for 1-8 more, and have a gaze attack that might blind and stun you for several rounds. They can also zap you with magic or any items they might have in their inventories. A favorite tactic is to summon a horde of other creatures, including more archons, who in turn will blind and stun you before summoning another horde. Thankfully, archons are so powerful that you probably won't encounter any until you have the Amulet, at which point you should have enough gear in your possession to counter or safeguard against most of their attacks. If Sunsword and Demonbane don't exist yet, any given archon might carry one or the other. They also tend to carry shields of reflection, so keep your ray attacks to yourself. Archons, being angels, are often generated peaceful for lawful characters of appropriately high alignment. Archons are so awesome, they make just about the best pet you can wish for. If you wanted to wish for a blessed archon figurine just so you can have your own, you wouldn't be the first. (The only creature more difficult than the archon that isn't unique is the arch-lich. Those make crummy pets because pets can't cast attack spells and arch-lich physical attacks are less impressive than an archon's.) Juiblex (difficulty 26) Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Flying; amphibious; no head; infravision; always male Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; poison; acid; petrification Magic Resist: 65% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse More like gooey-blex, amirite? Juiblex is a giant pile of slime, an ooze demon the likes of which you've never encountered before. He always gets his own stage of the game: his dungeon level is a giant marsh, an odd contrast to the usual fire-and-brimstone decor of Gehennom. Since he can see in the dark and his level is wide-open, Juiblex will teleport to your side to attack within a few turns of your arrival. When he attacks, he seeks you engulf you whole for 4-40 damage and will probably make you fatally ill. At range, he can hock a corrosive loogie at you for 3-18 acid damage. Juiblex can also summon other creatures to help him in battle. Every once in a great while he'll summon other chaotically-aligned major demons. There's even a chance he brings in Yeenoghu, Orcus, or Demogorgon. Juiblex's armor class is -7, but you'll spend most of combat with him in his slimy gullet getting digested. But the easiest way to defeat Juiblex is the same for any engulfing creature: zap a wand of digging downward while you're being digested, and simply leave his digestive tract through the massive hemorrhage that creates. Juiblex will have only a single hit point remaining if you do this, so press your advantage before he gets away. Juiblex will steal the Amulet of Yendor or Book of the Dead from you if you have either item in your possession during the fight. Arch-Lich (difficulty 29) Symbol: L (medium) Attributes: Undead; humanoid; doesn't breathe; infravision Generation: Random; only in Gehennom Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; poison; sleep Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse The nastiest undead creature in the game (and the nastiest nonunique creature period), the arch-lich is capable of freezing you with its touch, cursing your items, and zapping you with magic like any other liches. But he's got more hit points, a -6 armor class, and the ability to use a touch of death to make your life even more miserable. Arch-liches are often generated with athames, which are hard to find any other way. They even have a remote chance of carrying Magicbane if it doesn't exist yet. High Priest (difficulty 30) Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; electricity; sleep; poison Magic Resist: 70% Nutrition: 400; human. There are four high priests in the game: three are on the Astral Plane, tending to the high altars there. In this instance there is one of each alignment, worshipping each of the three gods in your pantheon. These high priests are always peaceful unless you try to kill them. The last high priest -- or the first, since you encounter him before the others -- is the high priest of Moloch. He resides in Moloch's sanctum, the lowest level of the dungeon, hidden away behind hordes of creatures and undead, various traps, secret doors, and the Vibrating Square. The high priest carries the Amulet of Yendor -- the whole reason you're in this damned dungeon to begin with -- on his person. While his stats aren't particularly great, attacking the high priest of Moloch provokes the wrath of Moloch himself, who will often throw a lightning bolt into the battle. The priest himself isn't particularly dangerous for any warrior capable of making it through Gehennom and all the dangers that implies. He smacks with weapons for 4-40 damage, claws and steals from you for 2-16 damage, and casts magic spells. If you need a replacement mace, robe, or shield for whatever reason after you defeat him, his equipment gets the royalty minimum of +1 weapon/+0 armor. Yeenoghu (difficulty 31) Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Flying; infravision; always male Generation: Never Resist: Fire, poison Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Yeenoghu has no dungeon level; he must be summoned in by Orcus or Juiblex. In combat, he strikes with his flail for 3-18 damage, utilizes a confusing gaze attack, and strikes with paralyzing claws for 1-6 damage. Clearly it's not the damage he does, but the status attacks that make him dangerous. He's capable of hurling magic missiles at distant targets. Yeenoghu, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him (including other chaotic demons inluding Orcus or Juiblex, whichever one didn't summon him in the first place), and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. Death (difficulty 34) Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 100% Nutrition: Eating Death will kill you instantly. The first of the three riders that inhabit the Astral Plane. All three of the riders -- Death, Pestilence, and Famine -- have some things in common: - After a rider is slain, it will eventually get back up. After twelve turns have passed, there is a chance each turn that the rider revives and attacks again. - Teleporting a rider to get it away from you will instead teleport it into an adjacent square. - Riders are not disintegration-resistant in that disintegration attacks work against them. Unfortunately, they immediately re-integrate and continue to attack. - Eating a rider corpse kills you. Tinning, teleporting, or otherwise molesting the corpse will cause it to instantly revive. - All riders can see invisible creatures and regenerate any missing hit points. Where's the fourth rider, War? That's you, bucko. #chat at Death ("Who do you think you are, War?"), tin a rider corpse ("War does not preserve its enemies.") or read the source code, where it unambiguously says that the player, at this point, is the final rider. Anyway, Death has a special deadly touch attack that drains your maximum hit points away and can kill you outright if you somehow got to this point without magic resistance. Death is restored to full hit points if hit with a wand of death or finger of death spell. Pestilence (difficulty 34) Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 100% Nutrition: Eating Pestilence will kill you instantly. The second of the riders. Pestilence's touch attacks will make you deathly ill, killing you after a short time instead of instantly. How nice. If Pestilence successfully touches you twice in a round, the second attack will stun you instead, which might cost you precious turns you should be using removing the disease from yourself. Potions of sickness will heal Pestilence, while potions of healing of all varieties will hurt him. Famine (difficulty 34) Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 100% Nutrition: Eating Famine is not only a paradox, it kills you instantly. The third of the riders. Famine's touch attacks will shrivel your body, starving you to death before you know it. -- From here on out, all of the monsters are "royalty", which (as -- -- you've read a dozen times by now) means their weapons are at -- -- least +1 and their armor is at least +0. -- Wizard of Yendor (some folks call him "Rodney") (difficulty 34) Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; doesn't breathe; omnivorous; always male Generation: Unique but recurring Nutrition: 400; human; fire resistance 25%, poison resistance 25%. Furthermore, there's a 25% chance you get teleport control and another 25% you get teleportitis. The Wizard of Yendor is probably the nastiest creature you'll ever face in NetHack. And because he has the Book of the Dead you need to enter Moloch's Sanctum, you can't just avoid him. Argh! In combat, the Wizard will use all manner of annoying spells. He can zap you with just about any spell effect you can imagine, and even curse your equipment like a lich. What's worse, he has a "double trouble" spell that makes a copy of him, meaning you now have to fight two Wizards at once. Argh! The Wizard's claw attack will steal your quest artifact or the Amulet of Yendor. Furthermore, the Wizard and all of his double trouble clones tend to carry fake plastic amulets that you might confuse for the real thing. Argh! Rodney can teleport anywhere he likes at will, can see invisible creatures, and regenerates hit points. Argh! Once you kill the Wizard, your problems aren't over. After that, you'll be struck with all sorts of nasty effects, from random curse items, aggravate, or summon nasties spells (see the Monster Magic section for details) to the Wizard himself showing up, revived and one level higher, to harass you further. He always shows up as soon as you enter the Plane of Earth, but he usually carries a spellbook or wand that you can use to burrow around the level. Argh, except it's kind of helpful. The Wizard will not reappear after you reach the Astral Plane, but you'll still get hit by the random curse items, aggravate, or summon nasties spells. Orcus (difficulty 36) Symbol: & (huge) Attributes: Flying; infravision; always male Generation: Unique Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 85% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Orcus is the Prince of Undead, and his stage is an abandoned town on the right half of the map in one level of Gehennom. This town is, as you might expect, crammed full of zombies, mummies, vampires, and incorporeal undead, and Orcus himself sits on the downstair to the next level of Gehennom surrounded by more vampires and shades. Orcus is just nasty in combat. He can cast magic spells, and in melee strikes with weapons (3-18 damage), claws (3-12 damage, twice), and a poisonous sting (2-8 damage). And unfortunately for you, Orcus always carries a wand of death, and he has a habit of expending most or all of its charges -- on you -- before his defeat. While you should have the requisite magic resistance and reflection to stave off the instant death effect, what good is a burned-out Wand of Death? Orcus, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him, and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. When summoning monsters, he can bring in other chaotically-aligned demons, including the mighty demon lords and princes like Juiblex, Yeenoghu, and Demogorgon. Geryon (difficulty 36) Symbol: & (huge) Attributes: Flying; infravision; always male Generation: Never Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 75% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Geryon doesn't have his own dungeon level; he only appears when summoned by Asmodeus or Baalzebub. When he appears, if you have money and are not carrying Excalibur, he will ask for a bribe. If you give it to him, he will leave you alone. In combat, he strikes with both claws for 3-18 damage, then stings for 2-8 poison damage. Geryon, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him (including other lawful demons, including Dispater, Baalzebub, and Asmodeus), and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. Dispater (difficulty 40) Symbol: & (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision; always male Generation: Never Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Dispater is another demon prince who must be summoned in by Asmodeus or Baalzebub; he does not get his own level. A powerful spellcaster, Dispater will often try to zap you with magic (or his wand of striking) instead of closing to melee. In melee, he does 4-24 damage with his weapon. Dispater, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him (including other lawful demons, including Geryon, Baalzebub, and Asmodeus), and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. Baalzebub (difficulty 45) Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Flying; infravision; always male Generation: Unique Resist: Fire, poison Magic Resist: 85% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Baalzebub gets his own stage covering the right half of the map in a level of Gehennom. Baalzebub's lair is made up of three unconnected corridors running east to west -- the north and south corridors are just hallways, while the center one has secret doors and such leading to Baalzebub's rectangular sanctum. If you have some gold and are not carrying Excalibur, Baalzebub will ask for a bribe. If you give it to him, he will leave you alone. If you refuse, he attacks. In combat, Baalzebub strikes with a poisonous bite for 2-12 damage, then attempts to stun you with a gaze attack so that he and all his minions can crush you while you're reeling. But since his damage output is a bit on the low side, you should have enough time to [a]pply a unicorn horn. Baalzebub, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him, and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. When summoning monsters, Baalzebub might bring in other lawful demon princes, including Geryon, Dispater, or Asmodeus. Asmodeus (difficulty 53) Symbol: & (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision; always male Generation: Unique Resist: Fire, cold, poison Magic Resist: 90% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Rock me, Asmodeus! This demon lord waits for you in his dungeon level. There's a large rectangular hallway leading to the short maze where Asmodeus awaits you, so you'll know when the typical Gehennom mazes give way that you're getting close. If you have some gold but not Excalibur, Asmodeus will ask for a bribe. If you pay up, he'll leave you alone. Otherwise, he attacks. In combat, Asmodeus will strike with his claws for 4-16 damage and zap you with a special spell for 6-36 cold damage. He carries a wand of cold and a wand of fire, and he's not afraid to use them (for all the good it'll do. Is it even possible to make it this far in the game without cold and fire resistance?). Asmodeus, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him, and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. When summoning creatures, Asmodeus might bring in other lawful demon princes like Geryon, Dispater, or Baalzebub. Demogorgon (difficulty 57) Symbol: & (huge) Attributes: No hands; flying; infravision; always male Generation: Never Resist: Fire; poison Magic Resist: 95% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Here he is, the most difficult creature in NetHack. You won't see him randomly generated, and he doesn't get his own dungeon level -- be grateful! If he happens to get summoned in by another monster, your luck has already run out: Orcus is the most likely to summon Demogorgon, and that's only a 1 in 260 chance. Demogorgon is fast, has a -8 armor class, and gets no fewer than four attacks in a round: he blasts you with magic, stings with a level-draining attack, and gets two -- count 'em, two -- claw attacks that will make you deathly ill. Whole guides have been written on how to handle Demogorgon alone, but they boil down to: bring a reliable way to cure sickness and don't be afraid to engrave Elbereth when you have the chance. Demogorgon, like all the named major demons, can see invisible creatures, summon monsters to help him (including chaotic named demons like Juiblex, Yeenoghu, and Orcus), and steal the Book of the Dead and Amulet of Yendor. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section IV: Quest Creatures There's one quest for each character role: Archeologists have one quest, Rangers another quest, Valkyries another still. The quests are often extremely difficult, but it's the only way to get the Bell of Opening you need to enter Moloch's Sanctum. There's a common theme that runs through all quests: When you progress through the dungeon, you'll eventually get a telepathic call from help from your quest leader. You must find a level teleporter on the dungeon level where you get that call for help to take you to your quest home. This is where your quest leader and all the quest guardians are. The quest guardians are useless, but the quest leader has a task for you. To undergo your quest, you must have at least 14 experience levels and an alignment score of at least 20 before the quest leader will even talk to you. If your alignment has changed from what it was at the beginning of the game (via a botched altar conversion or a helm of opposite alignment), you can't go on your quest. If you meet the criteria, your quest leader will send you on your quest. This means that the stairs downward from your quest home level are now accessible. Several dungeon levels later, you will meet your quest nemesis. The quest nemesis is the big, bad enemy at the end of your character's quest. They're usually just a more powerful version of another monster -- a balrog, a scorpion, whatever -- but they all have some similar behavior. First of all, the quest nemesis always carries your quest artifact and the Bell of Opening. Your quest nemesis will sit around and wait for you, not attacking until it sees your character approach. When this happens, the nemesis will teleport to an advantageous position to strike. During combat, your nemesis will often teleport away, back to the stairs leading out of the level. If you wish to press the battle and not give the nemesis a chance to recover, return to the stairs, wait for your nemesis to teleport away, and stand on them. Your nemesis will not be able to return to the stairs to recover, and cannot escape upstairs to the next dungeon level. All quest nemeses have an extra claw attack in addition to the melee attack array of their base creature. If for whatever reason you have the Amulet of Yendor or your quest artifact when this claw attack hits, the nemesis will steal it from you. The quest artifact is a powerful magical item that, again, varies depending on your player role. Returning it to your quest leader completes your quest and identifies the artifact. In all cases, you get to keep the artifact for your own use in the dungeon. Attacking a quest guardian carries the usual penalties for attacking a nonhostile creature. Attacking your quest leader will usually end your quest, kick you out of the quest level back to the Dungeons of Doom, and destroy the magic portal you need to enter your quest home. This probably means you can't get the Bell of Opening, which in turn means you can't get the Amulet of Yendor, which in turn means you can't win the game. So you won't go attacking your quest leader if you have any more intellect than a fencepost. If you instead #chat with your quest leader, you'll get some hints on how you might best take on your quest nemesis (except for Rogues #chatting to the Master of Theives, who's kind of a dick). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archeologist Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Lord Carnavon students Minion of Huhetotl Orb of Detection The Archeologist quest has you exploring ancient ruins and temples to recover the Orb of Detection. Since you're spoofing Indiana Jones, it's safe to say that you should watch out for snakes and rolling boulder traps. Minion of Huhetotl Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Resist: Fire; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 75% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse If you think Huhetotl is a mouthful, it could be worse: it's actually a bastardization of the god's actual name, Huehueteotl. Anyway, the Minion is a demon, with all the rights and privileges thereof. He's basically a bigger badder Balrog, swinging for 8-32 and 4-24 damage in combat. His claw attack does 2-12 damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbarian Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Pelias chieftans Thoth Amon Heart of Ahriman The barbarian quest has you descend into the lair of Thoth Amon to recover the Heart of Ahriman. Since you're spoofing Conan (Pelias is a sorcerer from the same body of fiction as Conan the Barbarian), you can expect to fight a lot of big, strong monsters. Ogres and trolls are not uncommon in the barbarian quest. Thoth Amon Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous; always male Resist: Poison, petrification Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse Thoth Amon is a priest, so while he does teleport to and from your position after combat starts, he prefers to zap you with magic over using his wimpy 1-6 damage weapon and 1-4 damage claw attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Caveman Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Shaman Karnov neanderthals Chromatic Dragon Sceptre of Might The Caveman quest has you retrieving the Sceptre of Might from the evil goddess of dragons, Tiamat. In the Dungeons and Dragons universe, Tiamat has five heads -- one for each kind of evil dragon in that game -- and each head can spew its own breath weapon normally. In NetHack, she apparently has about a dozen heads, because she has the breath weapon of every lesser dragon in the game. While I realize that Tiamat is supposedly the source of anguish for a lot of people, it's a bit strange that she has become the quest nemesis for Cavemen specifically. It just seems a little inexplicable. Well, anyway: Chromatic Dragon Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying; no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Resist: Fire; cold; electricity; acid; disintegration; sleep; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 1700. Equal chance (17%) of getting fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, or disintegration resistance. The Chromatic Dragon uses her breath weapon and magic while she closes the distance to melee range -- her breath does 6-48 damage of a random elemental type. Once she's nearby, she'll bite twice for 4-32 damage, claw for 2-16 damage, and sting with her tail for 1-6 damage more. Tiamat is a tough opponent; as Shaman Karnov says, you might want to hold off until you have some way to reflect her breath attacks away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Healer Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Hippocrates attendants Cyclops Staff of Aesculapius The Healer's quest is to descend into the murky, swampy lair of the Cyclops and recover the Staff of Aesculapius. It's a powerful healing item even if it's nearly impossible to pronounce. Cyclops Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; carnivorous Resist: Petrification Nutrition: 700. Cyclops is a giant, so eating him gives you extra strength. For Hermes' sake, don't engage him in melee combat! He's wielding the Staff of Aesculapius, and that thing causes level drain when it hits. Keep your distance as best you can, attacking with wands if you've got 'em. Clops himself has a wand of lightning and throws boulders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Knight Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: King Arthur pages Ixoth Magic Mirror of Merlin Knights have a whole bunch of slimes and minor demons to contend with on their way down to Ixoth's lair. In the lair proper, three spiked pits line the narrow path to Ixoth's perch. Getting stuck in a pit when Ixoth is on the attack is not a good thing, so keep [s]earching to make sure the pits are revealed before the battle. Ixoth Symbol: D (gigantic) Attributes: Flying, no hands; lays eggs; carnivorous Resist: Fire; petrification Magic Resist: 20% Nutrition: 1600; fire resistance 100% Ixoth is the quest enemy for Knights. Not one to buck tradition, he's a bigger, nastier red dragon. Ixoth's claw/claw/bite array deals 2-8, 2-8, and 4-24 damage. His breath is a fiery blast that does 8-48 fire damage. He can use magic to blast you from a distance, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monk Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Grand Master abbots Master Kaen Eyes of the Overworld On the way to Master Kaen, you'll fight your way through a few dozen xorn and earth elementals. Master Kaen himself is on the lowest level, which is dreadfully lacking in interior walls. Kaen might attack before you have a chance to mop up all the other monsters in the area, making a tough battle even worse. Master Kaen Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; herbivorous Resist: Poison, petrification Magic Resist: 10% Nutrition: 400; human; poison resistance 100%. Are you so desperate for poison resistance that you'll sink to cannibalism and break your vow of vegetarianism? Hint: no. The quest nemesis for monks is a monk himself. He uses unarmed strikes for 16-32 damage twice a round, claws for 1-4 damage more, and often finishes with a magic spell. Because of the layout of Master Kaen's level, he will often attack before you even move from the upstair. If you can stay put, he won't be able to escape to other dungeon levels or teleport around to restore his health. On the other hand, you might get mobbed by earth elementals. Tough call. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Priest Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Arch Priest acolytes Nalzok Mitre of Holiness Priests have it tough -- they've got to take down Moloch's right-hand demon, a tough customer by the name of Nalzok. Every level of the Priest quest is considered a graveyard level, so be prepared to run into a whole bunch of undead creatures. Remember your #turn command! Nalzok Symbol: & (large) Attributes: Humanoid; flying; infravision Resist: Fire; poison; petrification Magic Resist: 85% Nutrition: Never leaves corpse He's basically a Balrog on steroids. He swings and whips for 8-32 and 4-24 weapon damage, followed by a claw attack for 2-12. He can cast magic spells, too. One advantage to fighting Nalzok is that it's possible to engage him without ever moving from the upstair leading out of the level. Unable to escape to another dungeon level, he's far less obnoxious than many other quest nemeses. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ranger Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Orion hunters Scorpius Longbow of Diana The Ranger quest is one of the few levels to include trees. Trees are basically dungeon walls, but may be destroyed by [a]pplying an axe to them instead of a pickaxe or mattock. Scorpius has the ability to make you deathly ill with a sting, so until you have some way to reliably cure disease, you might want to hold off on the Ranger quest. Scorpius Symbol: s (medium) Attributes: No hands; carnivorous; conceivably lays eggs Resist: Poison, petrification Nutrition: 350; poisonous; poison resistance 100% Scorpius is the quest enemy for Rangers. His claw attacks do 2-12 damage, and his sting only 1-4... but the sting might make you ill, killing you in just a few turns. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rogue Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Master of Thieves thugs Master Assassin Master Key of Thievery Rogues have it rough. The bottom level of the Rogue quest, where the Master Assassin waits, has a wall running through the middle that separates the stairs from the Master Assassin's lair. The wall is impossible to dig through and teleportation isn't permitted on that level -- that's intentional! Rogues are expected to be canny enough to get through a wall. If you're having trouble, consider polymorphing into a xorn, umber hulk, or some other monster that can phase through walls and simply walk through. Another is to bring a digging tool and a few cursed potions of gain level. Dig down from the level above and hope you land in the area on the right side. When it's time to go, drink one of the potions to rise up through the ceiling and return to the previous level without taking the stairs. Master Assassin Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Resist: Petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 400; human The Master Assassin will strike with a poisoned weapon for 2-12 damage, hit with a second weapon for 2-16 damage, and finally claw for another 2-12 damage. But those are all the tricks he's got, making him one of the less dangerous quest villains. It's getting to him that proves to be such a pain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Samurai Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Lord Sato roshi Ashikaga Takauji Tsurugi of Muramasa Halfway through to Ashikaga Takauji, you'll pass through a castle full of monsters and treasure. There's plenty of nice items to be found there, so bring some identify scrolls. The quest is full of d and E monsters. Ashikaga Takauji Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Resist: Petrification Magic Resist: 40% Nutrition: 400; human Ashikaga Takauji wields the Tsurugi no Muramasa against you in combat, and yes, that one-hit-kill aspect of the blade still works. Ashikaga Takauji probably has more confirmed kills than any other quest nemesis because of the sword he uses. He slashes with the Tsurugi no Muramasa twice a round for 2-12 damage, then claws for 2-12 damage more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tourist Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Twoflower guides Master of Thieves Platinum Yendorian Express Card The Tourist quest has you descending into the seediest parts of the city of Ankh-Morpork, which isn't even a very nice place in the best parts of town. Your goal is the Thieves' Guild, where the Master Thief holds the stolen Platinum Yendorian Express Card. The quest nemesis is the Master of Thieves, the same one who acts as quest leader for Rogues. Master of Thieves Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous Resist: Petrification Magic Resist: 30% Nutrition: 400; human The Master of Thieves will hit with two weapon strikes for 2-12 damage, then follow with a 2-8 damage claw attack. It doesn't sound like much for a quest nemesis, but then, Tourists aren't much for heroism either. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Valkyrie Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Norn warriors Lord Surtur Orb of Fate Valkyries have to fight through a massive horde of giants on the way to Lord Surtur, who is a giant himself. While it's not necessary, you might consider holding off on the Valkyrie quest until you have a tinning kit so you can save all those delicious strength bonuses. There's no sense letting them all go to waste and even less sense choking to death trying to eat them all in one sitting. Lord Surtur Symbol: H (huge) Attributes: Humanoid; infravision; omnivorous Resist: Fire, petrification Magic Resist: 50% Nutrition: 850; fire resistance 50%. Eating Lord Surtur will boost your strength. Lord Surtur is the quest enemy for Valkyries. He's an oversized fire giant, and behaves as such: in melee he seeks to smash you with weapons for 2-20 damage, then claw for 2-12 damage more. At a distance, he throws boulders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wizard Quest Quest Leader: Guardian: Nemesis: Artifact: Neferet the Green apprentices Dark One Eye of the Aethiopica The wizard quest isn't much of a challenge; by the time you're high enough level to take it on, you should have enough spells and tools to deal with a whole lot of locked doors, secret passages, traps, B and W creatures, and xorns. The Dark One is the tough part. Dark One Symbol: @ (medium) Attributes: Humanoid; omnivorous; quest nemesis Resist: Petrification Magic Resist: 80% Nutrition: 400; human I hope you've got another trick up your billowing sleeves, wizards: the Dark One has enough magic resistance that four out of every five spells you throw at him will fail. He can zap you with magic, but often prefers to summon other creatures to fight his fights for him. In melee he'll strike twice for 1-6 damage, then grab for the Amulet with another 1-4 damage. You do have one advantage over the Dark One, though: he meditates until disturbed, rather than watching and waiting for your approach. Until you bother him, he won't attack, and his defenses are down. If you know the finger of death spell, or have a wand of death handy, hit him with that as your opening to combat. He'll die immediately. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section V: Monster Magic Some monsters -- shamans, sorcerors, and so on -- have the ability to cast magic spells at you. Spellcasting monsters have spells determined by their difficulty level, although occasionally exceptionally bright monsters might have picked up a spell slightly higher than what usually appears on their lists (liches often do). Monsters cannot cast spells if they have been cancelled, and must wait two turns before they can cast again (low-level monsters must wait longer). If the monster tries to cast a spell again too soon, it will simply point and curse as its spell fails. Sometimes the spells will simply fail, causing the air to crackle around the monster, to no other effect. Most of these spells are nulled by magic resistance. Monster spells are as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Psi Bolt/Open Wounds Psi bolt is used by wizardly monsters, while open wounds is used by priestly monsters. The effects are the same: hit point damage. Psi bolt gives you a headache that indicates the amount of damage done, while open wounds describes how severely you are hurt. Monsters that can use psi bolt are kobold shamans, barrow wights, orc shamans, gnomish wizards, guides, apprentices, golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, Nalzok, and Neferet the Green. Monsters that can use open wounds are abbots, acolytes, aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Self The monster restores 3-18 of its own hit points. Monsters that can use cure self are kobold shamans, barrow wights, orc shamans, gnomish wizards, guides, apprentices, abbots, acolytes, golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, aligned priests, demiliches, high priests, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, Master Kaen, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haste Self The monster becomes fast. Monsters that can use haste self are barrow wights, orc shamans, gnomish wizards, guides, apprentices, golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stun The spell stuns you for a few turns, or one turn if you have magic resistance. Monsters that can use stun are guides, apprentices, golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confusion Basically the divine counterpart to the arcane spell "stun", this spell will confuse you if you don't have magic resistance. Monsters that can use confusion are abbots, acolytes, aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disappear The monster becomes invisible. Monsters that can use disappear are guides, apprentices, golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paralyze You are frozen in place for several turns, or one turn if you have magic resistance. Monsters that can use paralyze are abbots, acolytes, aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blind You are blinded for 200 turns. Monsters that can use blind are aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weaken The spell saps your strength. Monsters that can use weaken are golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Destroy Armor Unless you're magic resistant, one piece of armor you're wearing crumbles to dust. Monsters that can destroy armor are golden naga, liches, nalfeshnee, demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summon Insects The monster summons a bunch of a creatures around you. If a creatures are genocided or entirely extinct, S creatures are summoned instead. If both a and S creatures are genocided or extinct, nothing happens. Monsters that can use summon insects are aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Curse Items A favorite of liches of all flavors and the Wizard of Yendor, this spell has a chance of cursing objects in your inventory. Carrying Magicbane provides better resistance to this effect than other sources of regular magic resistance. Monsters that can use curse items are liches, nalfeshnee, aligned priests, demiliches, high priests, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, Master Kaen, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightning Deals 8-48 points of electrical damage. If you have reflection or shock resistance, the bolt bounces off or is grounded for no damage. Lightning may destroy wands and rings. Monsters that can use lightning are aligned priests, high priests, and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Pillar Deals 8-48 points of fire damage. If you have fire resistance, the flames don't hurt you. Fire might destroy potions, scrolls, and spellbooks or damage your armor. Monsters that can use fire pillar are high priests and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aggravate This spell gives you aggravate monster, which has a chance to awaken all the monsters on the level, make them hostile, and disclose your location to them so they come your way to kill you. Monsters that can use aggravate are demiliches, ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, Ixoth, the Dark One, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geyser This spell does 8-48 points of damage. This is considered phsyical damage, so intrinsic resistances don't help. Monsters that can use Geyser are high priests and Master Kaen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summon Nasties This spell summons hostile creatures around you, up to one third your experience level in number. "Nasty" creatures are: Coatl; cockatrice; dragons of the red, black, green, and yellow variety; stalker; fire elemental; gremlin; winged gargoyle; master mind flayer; fire giant; ettin; minotaur; ochre jelly; jabberwock; arch-lich; ogre king; green slime; leocrotta; baluchitherium; disenchanter; rock troll; olog-hai; umber hulk; vampire lord; purple worm; xan; xorn; owlbear; carnivorous ape; zruty; elf-lord; elvenking; captain; iron golem. If you are in Gehennom, add the list of demons (all & creatures except djinni) to the creatures that can be summoned nastily -- including the named demon lords and princes (Juiblex through Demogorgon). The ability for named demons to gate one another in is a different ability, even though some named demons can also summon nasties like usual. Monsters that can summon nasties are ki-rins, master liches, titans, archons, arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, Demogorgon, the Minion of Huhetotl, Thoth Amon, the Chromatic Dragon, and Nalzok. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Touch of Death The spell kills you instantly. Magic resistance is important, people. Polymorphing yourself into an undead, golem, vortex, or manes will make you immune to the effect, as will hallucination. Monsters with the touch of death are arch-liches, the Wizard of Yendor, Orcus, Dispater, and Demogorgon. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section VI: EoD/Copyright Notice And that's that. Happy hunting! This guide was compiled with information from Nethack spoilers found on the world wide web, such as those by Kevin Hugo, Dylan O'Donnell et al, combined with my own research. This game guide is copyright 2007 Richard Rouse. Feel free to distribute this guide anywhere you like, but crediting me as the writer would be nice.