Difference between revisions of "Mind flayer"

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'''Mind flayers''' and '''master mind flayers''' are especially perilous [[monster]]s, capable of eating your brain, resulting in [[intelligence|feeling stupid]], becoming [[amnesia|forgetful]] ("This place looks familiar..."), or [[Brainlessness|perishing as your last thoughts fade away]]. Wearing a [[helm]], preferably greased, can ''sometimes'' protect you against the brain-eating attack. If you die from intelligence drain while [[polymorph]]ed, you will permanently die instead of reverting to your normal form.
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The '''mind flayer''', {{monsym|mind flayer}}, and '''master mind flayer''', {{monsym|master mind flayer}}, are especially perilous [[monster]]s in ''[[NetHack]]''. They are depicted with a humanoid body, an octopus-like head, and four tentacles around a lamprey-like mouth. Mind flayers possess [[flight]] and [[telepathy]], as well as both [[see invisible]] and [[infravision]]. Mind flayers are capable of using the same weapons, armor and wands as the player, and are always generated hostile.
  
Polymorphing into a headless monster will protect you from the special attacks;{{refsrc|src/mhitu.c|1128|version=NetHack 3.6.1}} you will still suffer the normal weapon damage. Being polymorphed into a normally [[mindless]] form won't protect you; a comment says this is because players aren't mindless.{{refsrc|mhitu.c|1149|comment=Players aren't mindless|version=NetHack 3.6.1}}
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Mind flayers can use their tentacles to eat your brain, decreasing your [[intelligence]]; this may result in developing [[amnesia]] and, in the worst cases, [[Brainlessness|perishing as your last thoughts fade away]] from fatal intelligence drain. They share a colored glyph with the [[dwarf king]], {{monsym|dwarf king}}. You can sense the presence of mind flayers remotely via "a faint wave of psychic energy"; if you have [[telepathy]], they can sense yours.
  
If you manage to eat a mind flayer [[corpse]], you gain either [[telepathy]] or 1 [[intelligence]] point, with a 50% chance of each.{{refsrc|eat.c|1077|version=NetHack 3.6.1}}
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Occasionally, they will concentrate and release a blast of psychic energy—if they are hostile or under the effects of [[conflict]], and can either see you or sense you via telepathy, it will "lock on" to your mind or telepathy for d15 damage (which is halved with [[half spell damage]]). If they are [[peaceful]] and not under the effects of [[conflict]], it will "feel quite soothing" and no harm will be done.
  
You can sense their presence remotely, and if you have [[telepathy]] they can sense yours. Occasionally they will concentrate and release a blast of psychic energy. If they are peaceful and you are not creating [[conflict]], it will "feel quite soothing" and no harm will be done. Otherwise, if they can sense your presence either via telepathy or sight, it will "lock on" to your telepathy or mind, and you will sustain d15 damage (halved with [[half spell damage]]). This is the only attack in the game that you need to deal with if you are protected by a [[Boulder fort|boulder/jelly combination fort]].
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Eating a mind flayer [[corpse]] grants you either [[telepathy]] or 1 [[intelligence]] point, with a 50% chance of each.{{refsrc|eat.c|1077|version=NetHack 3.6.1}}
  
==Description==
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==Generation==
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In addition to random generation, the master mind flayer is a candidate for the [[summon nasties]] [[monster spell]].
  
They have a humanoid body, with an octopus-like head, and four tentacles around a lamprey-like mouth.
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Mind flayers are notorious for generating upon entering some floors of the [[Gnomish Mines]], where they are normally far too high difficulty to appear. This is because the Mines levels specify that one random {{mcsl|h}} monster should be generated at normal level creation; this is almost always a [[dwarf]], [[hobbit]], or [[bugbear]]. On occasion, however, the function that chooses which {{monclasssym|h}} monster should be generated totally ignores the difficulty of the monster it produces; flayers that generate like this are sometimes called '''minesflayers'''.
  
== Generation ==
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==Strategy==
Mind flayers generate randomly and are also candidates for being summoned by the [[summon nasties]] monster spell, but they are also notorious for generating in the [[Gnomish Mines]] when they are far too high difficulty to appear. This is because the Mines levels specify that one random {{mcsl|h}} monster should be generated. This is almost always a dwarf, hobbit, or bugbear, but on occasion the function that chooses which {{monclasssym|h}} monster should be generated totally ignores the difficulty of the monster it produces. Flayers that generate like this are sometimes called '''minesflayers'''.
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Mind flayers and master mind flayers are considered a consistent, high-level threat throughout the entirety of the game. Brainlessness is an [[instadeath]] that ignores not only your current HP, but [[lifesaving]] as well—you will be brought back, only to immediately die again since your brain is still gone. If you die from intelligence drain while [[polymorph]]ed, you will permanently die instead of reverting to your normal form.
  
== Strategy ==
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Polymorphing into a headless monster will protect you from the special attacks, mitigating the worst of their threat and leaving the matter of reducing the damage from each 'flay', along with the psychic blasts.{{refsrc|src/mhitu.c|1128|version=NetHack 3.6.1}} Being polymorphed into a normally [[mindless]] form won't protect you; a comment in the relevant code says this is because players aren't mindless.{{refsrc|mhitu.c|1149|comment=Players aren't mindless|version=NetHack 3.6.1}}
=== Detection ===
 
Be careful not to run up to a mind flayer in melee thinking that it is a dwarf king; for some players, dwarves are easy kills while mind flayers are very dangerous. If you have felt the mind flayer's presence, that is your cue to check whether that {{magenta|h}} is a dwarf. The message "You sense a faint wave of psychic energy" is your clue that there is a (master) mind flayer somewhere on the level, but you won't see it every turn. Also note that dwarves will not be generated in [[Gehennom]] (but mind flayers may be generated in the [[Dungeons of Doom]]).
 
  
=== As pets ===
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===Detection and combat===
==== Advantages ====
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If you are outside of [[Gehennom]] and start sensing waves of psychic energy, that is your cue to [[farlook]] and check whether any {{magenta|h}} that appears is a dwarf—a common YASD is to mistake the mind flayer for an easy kill, then march in and have your brain promptly eaten, especially if you are burdened and/or have low intelligence. Keep in mind that you will not see the message every turn.
Mind flayers make excellent [[pet]]s, as they make quick work of [[shopkeeper]]s, and their telepathic outreach just prints a useless message (which can be hidden with [[MSGTYPE]]) rather than harming you, or locks onto hostile monsters. However be careful if your tame mind flayer becomes confused—he will easily do the same with you.
 
  
Due to their high [[magic resistance (monster)|monster magic resistance]], once a mind flayer reaches level 15, it will be immune to [[conflict]], allowing you to have conflict active with no fear of your pet attacking you.
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When fighting mind flayers, avoid melee if at all possible; their high [[monster magic resistance]] will often stop all but the most powerful spells (e.g. [[finger of death]]), and [[cancellation]] will not affect their brainsucking attacks even if it successfully hits, leaving projectiles such as [[dagger]]s or [[arrows]] as your best bet to deal damage. Alternately, if your [[ranged attack]] options are limited and melee is your best bet, consider [[stoning]] them  taking measures to prevent or minimize stat loss ([[#Preventing intelligence drain|discussed further below]]).
  
==== Disadvantages ====
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Mind flayers respect [[Elbereth]] if encountered outside of Gehennom, and can be deterred by standing on a [[scroll of scare monster]]; however, this does not prevent them locking on to your telepathy. You can also [[scare]] them using methods such as an [[expensive camera]] or [[tooled horn]]— while not as secure as Elbereth and possibly subject to their high monster MR, these methods can also scare away other monsters that would not respect Elbereth. Beware that a fleeing mind flayer may still attack you, although it is much less likely to; additionally, a [[blind]]ed one will not respect Elbereth.
In the late game, pet (master) mind flayers may wake up the [[Wizard of Yendor]] with their psychic blasts before you are ready to fight him, causing you a host of problems. It is best to be very careful with such a pet in the later parts of [[Gehennom]] where the [[Wizard's Tower]] might be.
 
  
Tame mind flayers may emit a "faint wave of psychic energy", which is indistinguishable from that of a hostile mind flayer. If "a wave of psychic energy pours over you", and it does not feel "quite soothing", there is a hostile mind flayer on the level.
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===Preventing intelligence drain===
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Wearing any [[greased]] [[helm]] prevents the mind flayer's tentacles from reaching your brain, but the grease has a {{frac|2}} chance to wear off with each of its multiple attacks; a non-greased helm has a {{frac|7|8}} chance of preventing each of the mind flayer's tentacle attacks from reaching your brain. However, mind flayers get multiple attacks per turn, so you should not rely solely on a greased helm, especially if you are unable to kill them quickly.  
  
Also, watch out for [[jelly|jellies]], which can kill any mind flayer that attempts to suck its brains, as well as [[shapeshifter]]s and [[green slime]] which your mind flayer may eat or attack.
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You may alternately want to wear a [[dunce cap]] or [[ring of sustain ability]]; both items will fix your intelligence stat (either at 6 or its current value), preventing stat loss and thus brainlessness. As a helm, the dunce cap also has a chance of blocking each flay altogether. However, none of these methods will prevent amnesia from a successful brainsucking, and you're likely to come out of the fight very forgetful. Have a means of re-identifying items on hand if possible; you can use #[[name]] to label one of a particular type of item(s) that you consider vital and/or does not [[auto-identify]] as a precaution. Having an ideally blessed [[unicorn horn]] can also reverse the stat loss fairly quickly.
  
Mind flayers can use all weapons and armor that the player can.  If you want to protect your mind flayer against [[ochre jelly|ochre jellies]], which are frequently [[summon nasties|summoned]] in the later game, you might consider giving it any [[yellow dragon scales]] you come across, as these will give it [[acid resistance]].
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===Genocide===
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The amnesia and instadeath from brain-eating are enough to make both forms of mind flayer a popular target for blessed [[genocide]]—but '''do not do this if you are a [[dwarf (starting race)|dwarf]]!''' Using a blessed [[scroll of genocide]] will remove all {{mcsl|h}} from the current game, dwarves included, and serves as a particularly aggravating YASD for forgetful dwarven players; those unable to use blessed genocide should instead use two different uncursed scrolls of genocide. If doing this, or else genociding from a throne, target the master mind flayer first; regular mind flayers cannot be generated via summon nasties unless they randomly replace an extinct/genocided nasty.
  
=== Combat ===
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''Do not use scrolls of genocide with unidentified beatitude'' - that one scroll you just found and read without checking may be cursed, and doing this with mind flayers will often result in a quick death. Even if you can scare them away, their psychic blasts may still overwhelm you. Also, be sure to mind your spelling, ''especially'' if you are a [[monk]] - genociding "master mindfalyer" will only parse 'master' and wipe out all monks.
Be cautious when fighting against a mind flayer, and avoid melee if possible. Try to attack the mind flayer with ranged attacks. Those annoying master mind flayers can resist some magic attacks like [[force bolt]], but you can still throw [[dagger]]s or other [[weapon]]s, or use more powerful spells like [[finger of death]] (if you can cast them).
 
  
Wear a [[grease]]d helm. A non-greased helm has a {{frac|7|8}} chance of preventing each of the mind flayer's tentacle attacks from reaching your brain. A greased helm always protects from the brain-eating, but each attack has a {{frac|2}} chance of causing the grease to wear off. However, mind flayers get multiple attacks per turn, so you should not rely on this, especially if you are unable to kill the mind flayer quickly.
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===As pets===
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While highly desirable as [[pet]]s, taming a mind flayer is extremely hard due to their monster magic resistance; you may be much better off using a [[polymorph trap]] on your current pet. Tame mind flayers make quick work of [[shopkeeper]]s, and their telepathic outreach only locks onto hostile monsters, otherwise printing a harmless message (which can be hidden with [[MSGTYPE]]). However, remember that ONLY peaceful mind flayers will produces soothing waves - if you see different messages related to psychic waves and are taking damage from them, a hostile mind flayer may be on the level.
  
You may alternately want to wear a [[dunce cap]] or [[ring of sustain ability]]. Either will fix your intelligence, preventing its loss and thus brainlessness. The dunce cap, being a [[helm]], also has a chance of blocking the flay altogether. However, neither will protect against amnesia from a successful brainsuck, and you're likely to come out of the fight very forgetful.
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Be ESPECIALLY careful if your tame mind flayer becomes confused—they will turn those psychic waves on you! The same danger is present if you have a means to instigate [[conflict]], even with their high monster magic resistance; however, once a mind flayer reaches level 15, this means it will be immune and no longer a threat to you or your brain matter.
  
Engrave or burn [[Elbereth]], or stand on a [[scroll of scare monster]]. Mind flayers respect Elbereth. However, Elbereth does not prevent them locking on to your telepathy.
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[[Jellies]] are a serious threat to mind flayers, whose multiple tentacle attacks can and likely will trigger several passive attacks. Shapeshifters and [[green slime]]s are similarly dangerous, as the former may go down quickly and then transform the mind flayer when its corpse is eaten, while the latter is extremely likely to turn it into another slime. [[Ochre jellies]] are a common sight in the late game, especially as a summonable nasty—consider giving your mind flayer any [[yellow dragon scales]] (or [[yellow dragon scale mail|dragon scale mail]]) that you happen upon to provide them with [[acid resistance]].
  
[[Scare]] them by some other method, for example, an [[expensive camera]]. This is not as secure as Elbereth, as a fleeing mind flayer may still attack you, but it is much less likely to. Mind flayers' high [[Magic resistance (monster)|magic resistance]] makes any resistible attack unlikely to succeed, and a [[blind]] mind flayer will not respect Elbereth.
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Mind flayers also have a tendency to attract [[covetous]] monsters with their psychic blasts. If you are approaching the domain of your [[quest nemesis]] or the [[Wizard of Yendor]]'s [[Wizard's Tower|Tower]], and you do not wish to leave them on another floor temporarily, be prepared to deal with your prematurely awakened foes, or you will likely encounter a host of problems.
  
Do not try to use [[cancellation]] against mind flayers; even if it gets through their magic resistance, their brainsucking attack will be unaffected.
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===As a polyform===
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The master mind flayer is a very sought-after polyform: on top of flight, multiple attacks per turn, a base AC of 0 and no changes to armor or [[encumbrance]], its brain-eating attack is deadly to nearly anything. Non-mindless monsters take an additional d10 points of damage per brainsucking attack to simulate brain loss; additionally, you will gain d30 nutrition per suck message without risk of choking, and if your intelligence score is below the maximum (i.e. your own brain was sucked), it will be increased by d4. The intelligence increase is subject to the normal polymorphed attributes rules, and will be reset when you revert to your normal form; your max HP may also drop significantly in this form, especially if polymorphing at a high level.
  
==== Recovery ====
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Naturally, players in mind flayer form face the same dangers as pet mind flayers, including potential death from getting too close to a jelly. Furthermore, sucking a [[green slime]] causes delayed [[sliming]], and eating a [[cockatrice]]'s brain causes both immediate [[stoning]] <em>and</em> delayed stoning if the immediate stoning was life-saved. Sucking the brains of your [[race]] or other mind flayers will count as [[cannibalism]] as well; eating brains is also not considered vegetarian, but this is only of interest to conduct players and Monks. While you cannot choke directly from eating brains, you run a high risk of choking if you eat ''anything'' afterward.  
Obtain a [[unicorn horn]]. There are many other good reasons to have a unicorn horn, but you can apply one to recover your lost intelligence after the battle. This is of limited use during combat, however, as it has a chance of not restoring your intelligence when you use it, possibly resulting in death from brainlessness the next round. A unicorn horn will ''not'' cure amnesia. Some people collect a #named specimen of each identified object in their main stash to mitigate the effects of amnesia.
 
 
 
=== Special tactics ===
 
==== Stoning ====
 
It is possible to stone a mind flayer or master mind flayer. If you have a source of [[cockatrice]] [[corpse]]s or [[egg]]s, or you find a cockatrice located conveniently near a mind flayer, wear [[gloves]], wield the corpse (or egg), and strike the mind flayer in melee. It only takes one hit (unless the mind flayer eats a [[lizard]] corpse or ingests acid).
 
 
 
==== Taming ====
 
Mind flayers have high MR, so they're very likely to resist [[Pet#Acquiring_pets|taming]]; the {{spell of|charm monster}} spell might or might not work. Be prepared to have the mind flayer attack you if your attempt of taming fails.
 
 
 
==== Genociding ====
 
Many players find the amnesia attack so crippling that [[genocide]] becomes the best option. A blessed [[scroll of genocide]] on {{white|h}} will wipe out both standard and master mind flayers. However, do not do this if you are a [[dwarf]]&mdash;dwarves are also {{white|h}}, and this self-genocide has resulted in a lot of annoying deaths. Instead, only use an unblessed scroll and genocide "mind flayer" or "master mind flayer".
 
 
 
If you can only genocide a single monster (e.g. from a [[throne]]), it is generally best to genocide the master mind flayer, as the [[summon nasties]] [[monster spell]] can conjure one right next to you. The standard mind flayer cannot be generated by this spell unless it randomly replaces a genocided or extinct nasty, so you will usually have a chance to deal with it before it gets in melee range.
 
 
 
Before using a scroll of genocide, check that it is not [[cursed]]. If you send in a group of master mind flayers, they may kill you quickly, either by causing brainlessness in a few short turns, or (if you scare them away) by possibly locking on to any telepathy you possess until you die. This may also leave an annoying [[bones level]].
 
 
 
==Polymorphing==
 
Polymorphing into a master mind flayer is very useful, as its brain-eating attack is deadly to nearly anything. Monsters do not suffer brainlessness in the manner that players do, as they lack intelligence scores. When a player eats a monster's brain, it instead deals an additional d10 points of damage to simulate the brain loss. Additionally, you will gain d30 nutrition per suck message without risk of choking, and if your intelligence score is below the maximum (i.e. your own brain was sucked) it will be increased by d4. The intelligence increase is subject to the normal polymorphed attributes rules, and will be reset when you revert to your normal form.
 
 
 
Sucking a [[green slime]] causes delayed [[sliming]], and eating a [[cockatrice]]'s brain causes both immediate [[stoning]] <em>and</em> delayed stoning (if the immediate stoning was life-saved). Sucking the brains of your [[race]] or other mind flayers will count as [[cannibalism]] as well. Eating brains is also not considered vegetarian, but this is only of interest to conduct players and Monks.
 
 
 
Becoming a master mind flayer also gives you a +10 base AC boost and still allows you to wear all the same equipment you were wearing before, which is unique among the better fighter forms; [[encumbrance|you can also carry]] exactly as much as in your natural form. On top of that, master mind flayers can fly and attack many times per turn, which dealss excellent damage to non-mindless enemies. Your HP will most likely drop significantly, especially if you polymorph yourself at a high level.  
 
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
 
In [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and previous versions, the game would not recognize the alternate spelling "mindflayer" when selecting a monster for [[genocide]]. A [[Monk]] that attempted to genocide "master mindflayer" would instead genocide "master", thus wiping out all Monks and ending the game. This is because "master" is one of the rank titles for Monks, and ''NetHack'' ignores the extra word "mindflayer".<ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.nethack/browse_thread/thread/0d275920c73ced76/ rgrn thread]</ref> Both NetHack 3.6.0 and SLASH'EM recognize the "mindflayer" spelling, so it is okay to genocide "master mindflayer" in those games, but a typo like "master mindfalyer" can still wipe out all Monks and end the game.
 
In [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and previous versions, the game would not recognize the alternate spelling "mindflayer" when selecting a monster for [[genocide]]. A [[Monk]] that attempted to genocide "master mindflayer" would instead genocide "master", thus wiping out all Monks and ending the game. This is because "master" is one of the rank titles for Monks, and ''NetHack'' ignores the extra word "mindflayer".<ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.nethack/browse_thread/thread/0d275920c73ced76/ rgrn thread]</ref> Both NetHack 3.6.0 and SLASH'EM recognize the "mindflayer" spelling, so it is okay to genocide "master mindflayer" in those games, but a typo like "master mindfalyer" can still wipe out all Monks and end the game.
  
==SLASH'EM==
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==Variants==
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===SLASH'EM===
 
Mind flayers are slightly different in [[SLASH'EM]]. First, the master mind flayer has three brain-eating attacks, while the normal mind flayer has five&mdash;an unusual reverse of the situation in vanilla ''NetHack''. More importantly, though, the [[ring of free action]] provides luck-based protection against their brain-eating attacks, starting at a 50% of blocking each individual flay and increasing to a 90% chance at maxed-out luck.{{refsrc|mhitu.c|954|version=SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2}} This, in combination with a greased helm, renders them much less of a threat.
 
Mind flayers are slightly different in [[SLASH'EM]]. First, the master mind flayer has three brain-eating attacks, while the normal mind flayer has five&mdash;an unusual reverse of the situation in vanilla ''NetHack''. More importantly, though, the [[ring of free action]] provides luck-based protection against their brain-eating attacks, starting at a 50% of blocking each individual flay and increasing to a 90% chance at maxed-out luck.{{refsrc|mhitu.c|954|version=SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2}} This, in combination with a greased helm, renders them much less of a threat.
  
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Lastly, if you polymorph into an intelligent monster in SLASH'EM, generally you need not worry about petrifying monsters. This is true of mind flayers&mdash;instead of eating the cockatrice's brain and being stoned, you will instead simply not use your tentacle attack against it at all. Your weapon attack will still go forward, though, and it is still possible to get stoned by other methods (e.g. attacking it bare-handed).
 
Lastly, if you polymorph into an intelligent monster in SLASH'EM, generally you need not worry about petrifying monsters. This is true of mind flayers&mdash;instead of eating the cockatrice's brain and being stoned, you will instead simply not use your tentacle attack against it at all. Your weapon attack will still go forward, though, and it is still possible to get stoned by other methods (e.g. attacking it bare-handed).
  
==Mythology==
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==Origin==
Mind flayers appear in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' as Illithids. ''D&D''&apos;s creator, Gary Gygax, was reportedly inspired to create the monster after seeing cover art for a book by Brian Lumley.
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Mind flayers first appear in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' as Illithids; ''D&D''&apos;s creator, Gary Gygax, was reportedly inspired to create the monster after seeing cover art for a book by Brian Lumley.
  
 
==Encyclopedia entry==
 
==Encyclopedia entry==
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<references />
  
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[[Category:Monsters]]
 
[[Category:Monsters]]

Revision as of 04:03, 29 February 2020

The mind flayer, h, and master mind flayer, h, are especially perilous monsters in NetHack. They are depicted with a humanoid body, an octopus-like head, and four tentacles around a lamprey-like mouth. Mind flayers possess flight and telepathy, as well as both see invisible and infravision. Mind flayers are capable of using the same weapons, armor and wands as the player, and are always generated hostile.

Mind flayers can use their tentacles to eat your brain, decreasing your intelligence; this may result in developing amnesia and, in the worst cases, perishing as your last thoughts fade away from fatal intelligence drain. They share a colored glyph with the dwarf king, h. You can sense the presence of mind flayers remotely via "a faint wave of psychic energy"; if you have telepathy, they can sense yours.

Occasionally, they will concentrate and release a blast of psychic energy—if they are hostile or under the effects of conflict, and can either see you or sense you via telepathy, it will "lock on" to your mind or telepathy for d15 damage (which is halved with half spell damage). If they are peaceful and not under the effects of conflict, it will "feel quite soothing" and no harm will be done.

Eating a mind flayer corpse grants you either telepathy or 1 intelligence point, with a 50% chance of each.[1]

Generation

In addition to random generation, the master mind flayer is a candidate for the summon nasties monster spell.

Mind flayers are notorious for generating upon entering some floors of the Gnomish Mines, where they are normally far too high difficulty to appear. This is because the Mines levels specify that one random h monster should be generated at normal level creation; this is almost always a dwarf, hobbit, or bugbear. On occasion, however, the function that chooses which ​h monster should be generated totally ignores the difficulty of the monster it produces; flayers that generate like this are sometimes called minesflayers.

Strategy

Mind flayers and master mind flayers are considered a consistent, high-level threat throughout the entirety of the game. Brainlessness is an instadeath that ignores not only your current HP, but lifesaving as well—you will be brought back, only to immediately die again since your brain is still gone. If you die from intelligence drain while polymorphed, you will permanently die instead of reverting to your normal form.

Polymorphing into a headless monster will protect you from the special attacks, mitigating the worst of their threat and leaving the matter of reducing the damage from each 'flay', along with the psychic blasts.[2] Being polymorphed into a normally mindless form won't protect you; a comment in the relevant code says this is because players aren't mindless.[3]

Detection and combat

If you are outside of Gehennom and start sensing waves of psychic energy, that is your cue to farlook and check whether any h that appears is a dwarf—a common YASD is to mistake the mind flayer for an easy kill, then march in and have your brain promptly eaten, especially if you are burdened and/or have low intelligence. Keep in mind that you will not see the message every turn.

When fighting mind flayers, avoid melee if at all possible; their high monster magic resistance will often stop all but the most powerful spells (e.g. finger of death), and cancellation will not affect their brainsucking attacks even if it successfully hits, leaving projectiles such as daggers or arrows as your best bet to deal damage. Alternately, if your ranged attack options are limited and melee is your best bet, consider stoning them taking measures to prevent or minimize stat loss (discussed further below).

Mind flayers respect Elbereth if encountered outside of Gehennom, and can be deterred by standing on a scroll of scare monster; however, this does not prevent them locking on to your telepathy. You can also scare them using methods such as an expensive camera or tooled horn— while not as secure as Elbereth and possibly subject to their high monster MR, these methods can also scare away other monsters that would not respect Elbereth. Beware that a fleeing mind flayer may still attack you, although it is much less likely to; additionally, a blinded one will not respect Elbereth.

Preventing intelligence drain

Wearing any greased helm prevents the mind flayer's tentacles from reaching your brain, but the grease has a 12 chance to wear off with each of its multiple attacks; a non-greased helm has a 78 chance of preventing each of the mind flayer's tentacle attacks from reaching your brain. However, mind flayers get multiple attacks per turn, so you should not rely solely on a greased helm, especially if you are unable to kill them quickly.

You may alternately want to wear a dunce cap or ring of sustain ability; both items will fix your intelligence stat (either at 6 or its current value), preventing stat loss and thus brainlessness. As a helm, the dunce cap also has a chance of blocking each flay altogether. However, none of these methods will prevent amnesia from a successful brainsucking, and you're likely to come out of the fight very forgetful. Have a means of re-identifying items on hand if possible; you can use #name to label one of a particular type of item(s) that you consider vital and/or does not auto-identify as a precaution. Having an ideally blessed unicorn horn can also reverse the stat loss fairly quickly.

Genocide

The amnesia and instadeath from brain-eating are enough to make both forms of mind flayer a popular target for blessed genocide—but do not do this if you are a dwarf! Using a blessed scroll of genocide will remove all h from the current game, dwarves included, and serves as a particularly aggravating YASD for forgetful dwarven players; those unable to use blessed genocide should instead use two different uncursed scrolls of genocide. If doing this, or else genociding from a throne, target the master mind flayer first; regular mind flayers cannot be generated via summon nasties unless they randomly replace an extinct/genocided nasty.

Do not use scrolls of genocide with unidentified beatitude - that one scroll you just found and read without checking may be cursed, and doing this with mind flayers will often result in a quick death. Even if you can scare them away, their psychic blasts may still overwhelm you. Also, be sure to mind your spelling, especially if you are a monk - genociding "master mindfalyer" will only parse 'master' and wipe out all monks.

As pets

While highly desirable as pets, taming a mind flayer is extremely hard due to their monster magic resistance; you may be much better off using a polymorph trap on your current pet. Tame mind flayers make quick work of shopkeepers, and their telepathic outreach only locks onto hostile monsters, otherwise printing a harmless message (which can be hidden with MSGTYPE). However, remember that ONLY peaceful mind flayers will produces soothing waves - if you see different messages related to psychic waves and are taking damage from them, a hostile mind flayer may be on the level.

Be ESPECIALLY careful if your tame mind flayer becomes confused—they will turn those psychic waves on you! The same danger is present if you have a means to instigate conflict, even with their high monster magic resistance; however, once a mind flayer reaches level 15, this means it will be immune and no longer a threat to you or your brain matter.

Jellies are a serious threat to mind flayers, whose multiple tentacle attacks can and likely will trigger several passive attacks. Shapeshifters and green slimes are similarly dangerous, as the former may go down quickly and then transform the mind flayer when its corpse is eaten, while the latter is extremely likely to turn it into another slime. Ochre jellies are a common sight in the late game, especially as a summonable nasty—consider giving your mind flayer any yellow dragon scales (or dragon scale mail) that you happen upon to provide them with acid resistance.

Mind flayers also have a tendency to attract covetous monsters with their psychic blasts. If you are approaching the domain of your quest nemesis or the Wizard of Yendor's Tower, and you do not wish to leave them on another floor temporarily, be prepared to deal with your prematurely awakened foes, or you will likely encounter a host of problems.

As a polyform

The master mind flayer is a very sought-after polyform: on top of flight, multiple attacks per turn, a base AC of 0 and no changes to armor or encumbrance, its brain-eating attack is deadly to nearly anything. Non-mindless monsters take an additional d10 points of damage per brainsucking attack to simulate brain loss; additionally, you will gain d30 nutrition per suck message without risk of choking, and if your intelligence score is below the maximum (i.e. your own brain was sucked), it will be increased by d4. The intelligence increase is subject to the normal polymorphed attributes rules, and will be reset when you revert to your normal form; your max HP may also drop significantly in this form, especially if polymorphing at a high level.

Naturally, players in mind flayer form face the same dangers as pet mind flayers, including potential death from getting too close to a jelly. Furthermore, sucking a green slime causes delayed sliming, and eating a cockatrice's brain causes both immediate stoning and delayed stoning if the immediate stoning was life-saved. Sucking the brains of your race or other mind flayers will count as cannibalism as well; eating brains is also not considered vegetarian, but this is only of interest to conduct players and Monks. While you cannot choke directly from eating brains, you run a high risk of choking if you eat anything afterward.

History

In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, the game would not recognize the alternate spelling "mindflayer" when selecting a monster for genocide. A Monk that attempted to genocide "master mindflayer" would instead genocide "master", thus wiping out all Monks and ending the game. This is because "master" is one of the rank titles for Monks, and NetHack ignores the extra word "mindflayer".[4] Both NetHack 3.6.0 and SLASH'EM recognize the "mindflayer" spelling, so it is okay to genocide "master mindflayer" in those games, but a typo like "master mindfalyer" can still wipe out all Monks and end the game.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Mind flayers are slightly different in SLASH'EM. First, the master mind flayer has three brain-eating attacks, while the normal mind flayer has five—an unusual reverse of the situation in vanilla NetHack. More importantly, though, the ring of free action provides luck-based protection against their brain-eating attacks, starting at a 50% of blocking each individual flay and increasing to a 90% chance at maxed-out luck.[5] This, in combination with a greased helm, renders them much less of a threat.

Also, SLASH'EM introduces more sources of amnesia (such as potions of amnesia and migo queen attacks), making a preventative genocide of mind flayers much less of a surefire protection against amnesia.

Lastly, if you polymorph into an intelligent monster in SLASH'EM, generally you need not worry about petrifying monsters. This is true of mind flayers—instead of eating the cockatrice's brain and being stoned, you will instead simply not use your tentacle attack against it at all. Your weapon attack will still go forward, though, and it is still possible to get stoned by other methods (e.g. attacking it bare-handed).

Origin

Mind flayers first appear in Dungeons & Dragons as Illithids; D&D's creator, Gary Gygax, was reportedly inspired to create the monster after seeing cover art for a book by Brian Lumley.

Encyclopedia entry

This creature has a humanoid body, tentacles around its
covered mouth, and three long fingers on each hand. Mind
flayers are telepathic, and love to devour intelligent beings,
especially humans. If they hit their victim with a tentacle,
the mind flayer will slowly drain it of all intelligence,
eventually killing its victim.


References


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