Cockatrice egg
A cockatrice egg can be very useful, but also very dangerous.
Using a cockatrice egg
When thrown, the egg will stone the monster that it hits if the monster is not resistant to petrification. If wielded, the cockatrice egg will stone whatever monster you hit. After either of these, the cockatrice egg is broken and cannot be re-used. Hitting a monster with a stack of eggs will break all of them, not just one.
Obtaining cockatrice eggs
They can be obtained by:
- Wishing for them.
- Laying an egg while polymorphed into a female cockatrice.
- Breaking your own eggs costs you 1 point of Luck per egg (up to a maximum of 5 at once).
- Polypiling meatballs (which can be obtained via the stone to flesh spell).
- In small numbers (occasionally none) in a cockatrice nest
Keeping a cockatrice egg
Like real eggs, cockatrice eggs need some special care. An egg that is just carried will hatch after a short while; however, an egg that has "rotted" will not hatch and can safely be carried. An egg that is inside a container will not hatch; the ideal strategy is to keep them in the container until you are sure the hatching time has passed, and then test by picking up more than one egg. If they stack in your inventory, they will not hatch.
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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
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