Corpse

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% Corpse.png
Name foo corpse
Base price 5 zm
Nutrition (depends on monster)
Turns to eat (weight / 64) + 3
Weight (depends on monster)
Conduct (depends on monster)

A corpse is the body of a dead monster. It is a very common comestible. Some monsters never drop corpses, while others may sometimes do so. Trolls are an exception and always leave corpses, except on the Rogue level.

Some monsters leave poisonous corpses. Eating these drains your strength, so avoid them unless you have poison resistance. See below for a list of poisonous corpses. Pets will instinctively avoid eating poisonous species, unless they are poison resistant. As a rule, if your pet can eat it, so can you. Tripe rations, dog, and cat corpses are exceptions to this rule.

The corpses of yellow molds and purple fungi are hallucinogenic. Some claim that shriekers are hallucinogenic; this is incorrect. They do, however, yield poison resistance sometimes.

Most corpses can be revived with a wand or spell of undead turning, and a few revive spontaenously.

Corpse generation odds

Most monsters do not always leave a corpse when they die. Monsters that normally would leave a corpse will never if killed by stoning, disintegration, or digestion. Corpseless monsters such as ghosts or yellow lights will never leave a corpse. Lizards, player monsters, the Riders, and any monster that is larger than size Medium are guaranteed to leave a corpse when killed by normal means, and golems are guaranteed to leave their special death drops (if applicable) when killed.

For all other monsters, there is a 1 in n chance that the monster will leave a corpse when killed, where n is generated as follows:[1]

  • n starts with a value of 2
  • Add 1 if the monster is size Tiny
  • Add 1 if the monster's generation frequency is less than "Uncommon" (i.e. "Rare" and "Very rare")

Monsters will never leave a corpse on the rogue level. Undead on a graveyard level have a 1 in 9 chance of leaving a corpse if killed by you, or a 1 in 3 chance of leaving a corpse if killed by anything else, further reducing the above odds.

(In a similar vein, some monster types will get replaced when you bring them back to life, e. g. priest corpses become zombies.)

Special corpse behavior

  • Lizard and acidic corpses cure stoning.
  • Lizard and lichen corpses never rot away, and never cause food poisoning.
  • Troll corpses (all T) come back to life 75% of the time.
  • The Riders' corpses have a chance to come back to life starting 12 turns after their "death".
  • Acid blob corpses never cause food poisoning, they are safe (but damaging) to eat and are suitable for sacrifice until they rot away.

Aging

Corpses are generally most useful and safe when fresh, slowly rotting as the turns pass. In most cases, with increasing age corpses become unsuitable for sacrifice or for feeding your pet and become harmful, even deadly, for you to eat, until finally they rot away to nothing.

Corpses do not age while stored in an ice box, and age at only half the normal rate while lying on ice. A tinning kit is also handy for preserving corpses for later consumption, by converting them into tins.

Any corpse dug up from a grave will already be old, aged 100 turns.[2] All mummies, zombies, and vampires are undead--walking corpses already--so any corpse they leave will be the same age.[3]

Your god regards a corpse as "fresh" up to a maximum age of 50 and will accept its sacrifice on an altar.[4] If the corpse is too old, "Nothing happens." Even lizard and lichen corpses are subject to this limit, but acid blob corpses are an exception, suitable for sacrifice at any age.

Pets regard a corpse as "old" once its age reaches 50 turns.[5] Most pets will refuse to eat old corpses, except for lizard and lichen corpses; however, ghouls eat old corpses exclusively.

When you yourself eat a corpse, the effect of age is more complex, as the corpse progresses through several degrees of rottenness. The corpse--except lizard and lichen corpses--gains one degree of rottenness every 10 to 29 turns of age, with a +2 bonus for being cursed or -2 for being blessed.[6] Any corpse except an acid blob that reaches a rottenness of 6 is considered "tainted" and will give you fatal food poisoning, besides conferring no nutrition.[7] Otherwise, if the rottenness is at least 4 ("old"), there is a 20% chance that you "feel sick" and lose 1d8 HP. In the absence of other negative effects, unless the corpse is a lizard or lichen, there is still a 1/7 chance of a corpse turning out to be rotten, in the same sense as non-corpse comestibles, with the associated consequences.[8] Otherwise, you receive the full benefit of eating a fresh corpse.

All unrevived corpses except lizards and lichens eventually disintegrate, quietly disappearing from the game. This happens at an age of approximately 250 turns, with some random variation.[9]

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, corpses sometimes get overgrown with molds. Knowing this fact, players may get extra resistances or lichen corpses. See Mold (SLASH'EM).

Corpse benefits and dangers

Acidic or poisonous corpses do 1d15 points of damage[10], old but otherwise (still) safe corpses sometimes do 1d8 damage.

Gaining intrinsics

Many monsters have a chance of giving one or more intrinsics upon eating their corpse. The chance of gaining an intrinsic from a corpse that could provide it is based on the monster's base level and any other intrinsics the monster could provide. If a monster could provide multiple intrinsics, then there is an equal chance of each being conveyed, even if you already possess the intrinsic. Once one intrinsic is picked from the list, there is a level in 15 chance for most intrinsics that it will be conveyed. Telepathy, teleportitis, and teleport control are exceptions; telepathy is guaranteed, while teleportitis and teleport control and level in 10 and level in 12 chances, respectively.

Many other corpses also have special behaviors that are treated separately from the main intrinsics.

Somewhat beneficial corpses

  • wraith (level up; slightly different results in SLASH'EM)
  • giant (strength up)
  • mind flayer (intelligence up or gain the telepathy intrinsic)
  • floating eye (telepathy intrinsic)
  • stalker (gives you permanent invisibility and see invisible when eaten while invisible, otherwise gives you temporary invisibility; but stuns you for 60 turns either way. You may not want invisibility.)
  • quantum mechanic (you get the speed intrinsic if you don't already have it, but lose it if you do. It is poisonous)
  • blobs, jellies, fungi (F), gelatinous cubes and puddings (often hurts you a little, but a good way to gain intrinsics if you are observing vegan/vegetarian conduct. Black puddings are not vegetarian, and brown puddings are vegetarian, but not vegan. Don't eat yellow molds or violet fungi unless you can unhallucinate yourself or are wielding Grayswandir.)
  • lizard (if needed; cures stoning, lowers stun + confusion to two rounds, will not rot, but does become unsuitable for sacrifice)
  • unicorn (poison resistance. Killing unicorns of your own alignment massively lowers your Luck, but eating unicorns, even of the same alignment, has no such effect.)
  • dragon (gain intrinsics that that dragon has, so red dragons give fire resistance, black dragons give disintegration resistance, green dragons give poison resistance, etc; however, yellow, gray and silver dragons confer nothing. Baby dragons don't give intrinsics.)
  • tengu (gain intrinsic teleport control, but also has chance of conferring teleportitis or poison resistance)
  • elves (gain sleep resistance, don't do this if you're an elf)
  • flesh golems (gain fire, cold, shock, sleep, or poison resistance)
  • newts (can gain 1-3 energy, or increase your maximum energy if you are currently at max)

As a general rule, monsters with a fiery attack (red molds, red dragons, etc.) tend to confer fire resistance and monsters with a cold attack (brown molds, white dragons, etc.) tend to confer cold resistance.

Somewhat harmful corpses

References

  1. ↑ Mon.c, line 1556
  2. ↑ Dig.c, line 787
  3. ↑ Mon.c, line 239
  4. ↑ Pray.c, line 1161
  5. ↑ Dog.c, line 690 and Dog.c, line 668
  6. ↑ Eat.c, line 1250
  7. ↑ Eat.c, line 1258
  8. ↑ Eat.c, line 1307
  9. ↑ Mkobj.c, line 650
  10. ↑ Eat.c, line 1288


External links

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