Difference between revisions of "Statue"

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The weight of a given statue is 1.5 times the weight of its corpse in monster form, plus the weight of any contents. Statues will fit into containers only if the portrayed monster is tiny, small or medium size; the weight of the statue does not factor into fitting inside a container.
 
The weight of a given statue is 1.5 times the weight of its corpse in monster form, plus the weight of any contents. Statues will fit into containers only if the portrayed monster is tiny, small or medium size; the weight of the statue does not factor into fitting inside a container.
  
When a statue is hit by a [[force bolt]], [[wand of striking]] or a [[digging tool]], they are broken into 6 + ''d60'' [[rock]]s, similar to [[boulder]]s; other items have no effect, and using [[axe]]s additionally produces a message, with a {{frac|2|3}} chance of dealing d2 damage.{{refsrc|dig.c|931}}
+
When a statue is hit by a [[force bolt]], [[wand of striking]] or a [[digging tool]], they are broken into 6 + ''d60'' [[rock]]s, similar to [[boulder]]s; other weapons and wands have no effect, and using [[axe]]s additionally produces a message, with a {{frac|2|3}} chance of dealing d2 damage.{{refsrc|dig.c|931}}
  
 
Breaking a statue allows its contents to be retrieved; using the stone to flesh spell to turn it into a monster will make the contents part of that monster's inventory, which you can obtain by killing them. Casting stone to flesh on a statue of any [[golem]] will animate it as a [[flesh golem]]; other monsters that are not [[fleshy|made of meat]] (such as [[lichen]]s) or do not leave a corpse (such as [[yellow light]]s) will instead turn into [[meatball]]s, destroying their contents.{{refsrc|zap.c|1622}}{{refsrc|zap.c|1631}}  
 
Breaking a statue allows its contents to be retrieved; using the stone to flesh spell to turn it into a monster will make the contents part of that monster's inventory, which you can obtain by killing them. Casting stone to flesh on a statue of any [[golem]] will animate it as a [[flesh golem]]; other monsters that are not [[fleshy|made of meat]] (such as [[lichen]]s) or do not leave a corpse (such as [[yellow light]]s) will instead turn into [[meatball]]s, destroying their contents.{{refsrc|zap.c|1622}}{{refsrc|zap.c|1631}}  

Revision as of 21:56, 24 December 2021

` Statue.png
Name statue of a foo
Appearance statue of a foo
Base price 0 zm
Weight varies

Statues are a type of object that appear in NetHack. They are represented on screen by a bold white monster glyph or a grayscale monster tile. A statue always depicts some specific monster, e.g. "a statue of a kobold" (which would display on-screen as k).

Statues should not be confused with figurines, though they can both be animated with the stone to flesh spell.

Generation

Statues are usually found randomly in the main branch of the dungeon; some special levels always have statues. Random statue generation follows the same rules as monster creation - they must be of appropriate monster difficulty given your experience level and the dungeon level, and must not be genocided or extinct. Statues on special levels can be of a higher difficulty level than would randomly appear, but if the level calls for a statue of a genocided or extinct species, it will instead be replaced with a random statue. A statue trap can animate a statue of any monster and bring it to life.

Most fleshy monsters will turn into a statue when stoned; non-fleshy monsters will usually be turned into a pile of rocks. Insubstantial monsters such as air elementals cannot leave statues; while it is possible to polypile[1][2] or wish for a statue of such a monster, this is mostly pointless as it will be empty and will not turn into a monster upon casting stone to flesh. The presence of multiple out-of-place statues on a given floor may be an indicator of bones - typically resulting from a mishap with a footrice corpse.

Stone golems leave statues of themselves behind when killed.

Statue contents

On normal dungeon levels deeper than level 3, a statue may randomly contain a single spellbook.[3] This does not apply to statue traps or statues of tiny monsters.[4]. Spellbooks in statues may be a reference to Larn, a game which also had spellbooks that could be found after breaking statues.

When a monster is turned to stone, usually by a cockatrice (or its corpse or egg), its inventory becomes the statue contents. Medusa's Island contains a number of statues, often with contents. The statue of Perseus has specific contents; see that article for more details.

Statues on deeper dungeon levels have a greater probability of containing a spellbook:[3]

Level Probability
1–3 0
4, 5 112
6, 7 213
8, 9 314
n, n + 1 n − 2n + 20

By level 24, statues have a 50% chance of containing a spellbook.

Historic statues

Certain statues are historic, causing Archeologists to suffer a −1 penalty to alignment record when breaking or animating them. These include the statues of the gnome king in Grotto Town, the centaur statues around the Oracle, the statue of Perseus, and any petrified unique monsters. Archeologists can tell whether a statue is historic on sight; for other roles, the property is hidden and irrelevant.

Statue traps

Statue traps are indistinguishable from regular statues normally - however, if you search next to one (including the automatic searching intrinsic) or move onto its square, it will turn into the appropriate type of monster. Statue traps can also be distinguished b

Description

The weight of a given statue is 1.5 times the weight of its corpse in monster form, plus the weight of any contents. Statues will fit into containers only if the portrayed monster is tiny, small or medium size; the weight of the statue does not factor into fitting inside a container.

When a statue is hit by a force bolt, wand of striking or a digging tool, they are broken into 6 + d60 rocks, similar to boulders; other weapons and wands have no effect, and using axes additionally produces a message, with a 23 chance of dealing d2 damage.[5]

Breaking a statue allows its contents to be retrieved; using the stone to flesh spell to turn it into a monster will make the contents part of that monster's inventory, which you can obtain by killing them. Casting stone to flesh on a statue of any golem will animate it as a flesh golem; other monsters that are not made of meat (such as lichens) or do not leave a corpse (such as yellow lights) will instead turn into meatballs, destroying their contents.[6][7]

Statues can be polymorphed into other kinds of statues or into boulders, but any contents will be destroyed unconditionally.[8]

Strategy

Spellcasters may find it useful to break every statue located deeper than level 3; this especially applies to Wizards, who always start knowing the force bolt spell. You can use a wand of probing or stethoscope to scan for the presence of items beforehand; the stethoscope also gives different messages depending on whether the statue is a trap or not.

The Oracle level always contains 8 centaur statues, and the table below details the odds of finding a certain amount of books within those statues:

Level Chance of n books (%)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
5 49.9 36.3 11.5 2.1 0.2
6–7 26.3 38.2 24.3 8.8 2.0 0.3
8–9 14.5 31.7 30.3 16.6 5.6 1.2 0.2

History

In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, statues were represented by the ` glyph or an amorphous clay blob. Golem statues affected by stone to flesh followed the same rules as other non-fleshy monsters, usually leaving behind a single meatball rather than always becoming a flesh golem.

Messages

The <monster> appears to be in fine health for a statue.
You applied a stethoscope to a statue.
The <monster> appears to be in remarkable health for a statue.
As above, but you are a Healer and the statue contains items.[9]
The <monster> appears to be in extraordinary health for a statue.
As above, but you are a Healer and the statue is on a statue trap.[10]
You hear a voice say, "You're both stoned, Jim."
You applied a stethoscope to a statue while hallucinating.
Sparks fly as you whack the statue.
You attempted to apply an axe to a statue.
The axe-handle vibrates violently!
You took some damage from the above attempt.

Encyclopedia entry

Then at last he began to wonder why the lion was standing so
still - for it hadn't moved one inch since he first set eyes
on it. Edmund now ventured a little nearer, still keeping in
the shadow of the arch as much as he could. He now saw from
the way the lion was standing that it couldn't have been
looking at him at all. ("But supposing it turns its head?"
thought Edmund.) In fact it was staring at something else -
namely a little dwarf who stood with his back to it about
four feet away. "Aha!" thought Edmund. "When it springs at
the dwarf then will be my chance to escape." But still the
lion never moved, nor did the dwarf. And now at last Edmund
remembered what the others had said about the White Witch
turning people into stone. Perhaps this was only a stone
lion. And as soon as he had thought of that he noticed that
the lion's back and the top of its head were covered with
snow. Of course it must be only a statue!

[ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ]

References

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.