Special room

For special rooms in SLASH'EM, see special room (SLASH'EM).

A special room is different from the normal rooms of the randomly-generated dungeon. For example, it might contain a shop or a collection of monsters. They only appear in random rooms-and-corridors levels, not maze or cavern levels.

This list might be incomplete.

Shops

Shops contain a shopkeeper, an assortment of items, and allow you to buy and sell items. There is at least one guaranteed shop in Minetown

Frequency

(3/DL, DL 2+, not below Medusa, suitable room)

Messages

• "You hear someone cursing shoplifters."
• "You hear the chime of a cash register."
• "You hear Neiman and Marcus arguing!" (hallucinating)
• "This shop appears to be deserted." (entering, no shopkeeper)

Throne rooms

Throne rooms contain an assortment of monsters, a throne, and a chest. There is a guaranteed throne room in Fort Ludios, in the Castle and in Vlad's tower.

Frequency

(1/6, DL 5+)

Messages

• "You hear the tones of courtly conversation."
• "You hear a sceptre pounded in judgment."
• "Someone shouts "Off with <his/her> head!""
• "You hear Queen Beruthiel's cats!" (hallucinating)
• "You enter an opulent throne room!" (entering)

Leprechaun hall

Filled with sleeping leprechauns and gold.

Frequency

(1/8, DL 6+, leprechauns not genocided/extinct)

Messages

No level sounds.

• "You enter a leprechaun hall!" (entering)

Treasure zoo

Filled with random monsters, and a small pile of gold on every square. There is a guaranteed treasure zoo at the top of Sokoban and another in the second level of the Wizard's Tower.

Frequency

(1/7, DL 7+)

Messages

• "You hear a sound reminiscent of an elephant stepping on a peanut."
• "You hear a sound reminiscent of a seal barking."
• "You hear Doctor Doolittle!" (hallucinating)
• "Welcome to David's treasure zoo!" (entering)

Temples

An altar with a priest in the same room is a temple. If the priest and altar are co-aligned with you, the temple is a sanctuary. If a temple's resident priest dies, the temple becomes haunted. Every time you enter a haunted temple, there is a chance of "an enormous ghost" appearing next to you, paralysing you for a few turns, and then acting as an ordinary ghost.

Known locations of temples

Minetown is guaranteed to have a temple altar.

The Valley of the Dead contains a temple of Moloch with an unaligned altar.

The room in Moloch's Sanctum housing the high priest of Moloch is also a temple.

The knight quest locate level has a neutral temple.

What to do in a temple

You can donate gold to the priest to get extra AC. For more information, see protection and aligned priest.

It is possible to change the alignment of an altar in a temple by sacrificing a monster, especially the right type of unicorn, but doing so will anger the priest. More information is on the page about altars.

What not to do in a temple

When you are BUC testing rings, do not put them on inside the temple. If the ring is a ring of conflict, chances are you will have YASD on your hands.

Frequency and alignment

One temple is created with probability 1/5 from level 9 on in an ordinary rooms-and-corridors level in the main dungeon, provided it does not already have a shop, a throne room, a leprechaun hall or a zoo. There is an 80% chance the temple is the same alignment as its hosting dungeon branch, the rest of the time it has 1/3 chance of each aligment.

Messages

No level sounds.

• "You have a forbidding feeling." (entering, priest of different alignment to altar)
• "You have a strange forbidding feeling." (entering, priest present, cross-aligned or your alignment worse than -5)
• "You experience a strange sense of peace." (entering, priest present otherwise)
• "You have an eerie feeling..." (entering, lost priest)
• "You feel like you are being watched." (entering, lost priest)
• "A shiver runs down your <spine>." (entering, lost priest)

Beehive

Beehives contain killer bees and one queen bee. Roughly 1/3 of the squares will contain royal jelly. All residents are asleep when the room is generated.

Frequency

(1/5, DL 10+, killer bees not genocided/extinct)

Message

• "You hear a low buzzing."
• "You hear an angry drone."
• "You hear bees in your bonnet!" (hallucinating, wearing helmet)
• "You hear bees in your (nonexistent) bonnet!" (hallucinating, no helmet)
• "You enter a giant beehive!" (entering)

Graveyard

Also called crypts or morgues. Contains undead, corpses, chests, boxes and graves. The Valley of the Dead contains three graveyards, though they are cavernous areas rather than rooms in the usual sense. The lair of Orcus also has a graveyard.

On levels containing graveyards, undead creatures are less likely to leave corpses. This includes wraiths, whose corpses are highly desirable. Some players take the trouble to lure wraiths away from graveyard levels before killing them.

Frequency

(1/6, DL 12+)

Messages

• "You suddenly realize it is unnaturally quiet."
• "The <hair> on the back of your <neck> stands up."
• "The <hair> on your <head> seems to stand up." (hallucinating)
• "You have an uncanny feeling..." (entering between 0100-2359)
• "<Run> away! <Run> away!" (entering between 0000-0059)

Anthole

Filled with food items and either soldier ants, giant ants, or fire ants.

Frequency

(1/8, DL 13+)

Messages

No level sounds.

• "You enter an anthole!" (entering)

Barracks

Filled with either soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants or captains, depending on depth. There are guaranteed barracks in the castle and in Fort Ludios. Contains chests or boxes (created on roughly 1/20 of squares).

The Fort Ludios soldiers will awaken when you enter.

Frequency

(1/4, DL 15+, soldiers not genocided/extinct)

Messages

• "You hear blades being honed."
• "You hear loud snoring."
• "You hear dice being thrown."
• "You hear General MacArthur!" (hallucinating)
• "You enter a military barracks!" (entering)
• "You enter an abandoned barracks." (entering, empty)

Swamp

Swamp rooms occur together: up to 5 rooms on a level may be swamps, with a chequered pattern of pools of water containing sea monsters.

Frequency

(1/6, DL 16+)

This room has been known to very rarely appear between Medusa's level and the Castle.

Messages

• "You hear mosquitoes!"
• "You smell marsh gas!"
• "You hear Donald Duck!" (hallucinating)
• "It looks rather muddy down here." (entering)
• "It feels rather humid down here." (entering, blind)

Cockatrice Nest

Cockatrice nests contain sleeping cockatrices and chickatrices, along with statues of player-monsters (created on roughly 1/3 of squares) containing up to four random items.

Frequency

(1/8, DL 17+, cockatrices not genocided/extinct)

Messages

No level sounds.

• "You enter a disgusting nest!" (entering)

Vaults

Vaults are 2x2 rooms (4x4 including external walls) with gold on each of the empty squares. Tunnels are not generated to them so you will either have to dig to reach them, or fall through a trap door and land inside. Landing inside a vault without a pickaxe to escape with can be remedied by waiting for the guard to escort you outside.

Frequency

(independent approximately 35% chance)

Messages

• "You hear the footsteps of a guard on patrol."
• "You hear Ebenezer Scrooge!" (hallucinating)
• "You hear someone searching." (looted)
• "You hear someone counting money." (unlooted)
• "You hear the quarterback calling the play." (unlooted, hallucinating)

External links

• More information at http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/343/room-343.html

This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"TODO:Design more readable layout, and finish transferring individual room info from the DOD spoiler linked above."

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