The Oracle

The Oracle is a unique monster that appears in NetHack. She resides on a special level called "The Oracle Level" (or Delphi) and can provide a consultation for a fee, which is one of the main ways an unspoiled player can learn about the game.

Level

Delphi
Location	Level 5–9 of the Dungeons of Doom
Bones	Yes
Mappable	Yes
Teleportable	Yes
Diggable floor	Yes
Diggable walls	Yes

The Oracle Level is located between level 5 and 9 inclusive in the Dungeons of Doom. It is eligible to leave bones, and monster creation is biased towards neutral monsters. The level immediately below will always have the entrance to Sokoban.

There are five rooms to the sides of the above area, with two separate rooms containing the stairs. Five random monsters, three random traps, and six random items are placed around the level, and the rooms are linked to each other and to the above room by corridors. Each room has one trap, except the rooms with two objects or the up stairs. The Oracle is at the center of the three-by-three room (called Delphi), amid the fountains; there is a random empty doorway in one wall. There are two random monsters generated in the area surrounding Delphi. The marked statues are:

• two forest centaurs (northwest and southeast)
• two mountain centaurs (northeast and southwest)
• four plains centaurs (north, west, south, and east).

If any of the centaur flavors are genocided or extinct, those statues will be replaced with statues of random creatures.

The statues are considered historic, and thus yield an alignment penalty if they are broken by an Archeologist. The statues also have a chance of containing a random spellbook.

Monster

@ Oracle
Difficulty	13
Attacks	Passive (level + 1)d4 magic missile

@ Oracle
Difficulty	13
Attacks	Passive (level + 1)d4 magic missile
Base level	12
Base experience	286
Speed	0
Base AC	0
Base MR	50
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	Unique
Genocidable	No
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
The Oracle: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is a human. is female. is normally generated peaceful. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line2203

The Oracle, @, is a human that always generates peaceful.

Attacking the Oracle in any manner results in being denied access to consultations for the rest of that game. While she has no active attacks of her own, attacking her in melee causes a spray of magic missiles to hit you; the passive magic missile attack is not implemented for inter-monster combat.

Due to having a magic missile attack, the Oracle has magic resistance and is thus immune to magic missiles and rays from a wand of death or the finger of death spell.

Consultations

The Oracle offers two services, both of which cost money. Minor consultations are simply true rumors, much like you can get from a blessed fortune cookie. A major consultation is an extended description of some aspect of the game, for example:

Behold the cockatrice, whose diminutive stature belies its hidden might.  The  
cockatrice can petrify any ordinary being it contacts--save those wise  
adventurers who eat a dead lizard or blob of acid when they feel themselves  
slowly turning to stone.

The first major and the first minor consultation you buy each increases your score and gives experience points. Buying a consultation of a type you've already bought gives neither experience nor score. If you take a major consultation, but do not have enough money to pay for it, the Oracle will take all your money and give a special oracularity which refers to Oracle machines; this will "use up" the experience points gain for major consultations.

First consultation bought	Type	Cost	Score	Experience points	Cost/Score	Cost/XP
Minor	Minor	50	21	5	2.38	10
	Major	500 + (50 × XL)	90 + (9 × XL)	20 + (2 × XL)	5.56	25
Major	Major	500 + (50 × XL)	210 + (21 × XL)	50 + (5 × XL)	2.38	10
	Minor	50	9	2	5.56	25

Lists of consultations

The Oracle's consultations are stored in plain text in the source code:

• List of major consultations from dat/oracles.txt
• List of rumors from dat/rumors.tru

Strategy

The presence of naga hatchlings and baby dragons on a level typically indicates that you have found the Oracle level.

Those looking to dispose of the Oracle for whatever reason (e.g. extinctionist conduct) can kill her with ranged attacks without any retaliation, but this will incur murder penalties for non-chaotic characters. Due to the fact her magic missile passive does not apply to monsters, any pet at level 11 or higher can attack the Oracle and may kill her.

Be mindful of having enough for a major consultation when leveling a pacifist character - additionally, if you have obtained a powerful pet early on, be sure to keep it well away from the Oracle for the above reasons if you have not yet obtained any consultations.

History

The Oracle is appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

Origin

The Oracle is primarily based on the Pythia, the priestess who presided over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi; the NetHack Oracle will welcome you to "Delphi" when she spots you arriving at her abode.

The Oracle-level sound effects reference several different oracles - the "strange wind" alludes to the Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona; "conclusive ravings" refers to the Oracle of Apollo; and "snoring snakes" is derived from the Oracle of Aesculapius at Epidaurus. The two additional hallucination sounds both reference the Internet Oracle from rec.humor.oracle, which first appeared in 1989, particularly the taboo question "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" The Oracle was added to NetHack the same year.

Messages

You hear a strange wind.
You hear convulsive ravings.
You hear snoring snakes.

The Oracle is present on the level.

You hear someone say "No more woodchucks!"
You hear a loud ZOT!

As above, while hallucinating.

Variants

Many variants enable the Oracle's passive attack to be used against other monsters.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the Oracle is able to use her passive attack on other monsters. If a woodchuck attacks the Oracle, the message associated with the attack is "ZOT!"

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, woodchucks will attack the Oracle on sight as part of Nephi's grudge patch, and the Oracle is able to use her passive attack on other monsters.

UnNetHack also makes a few minor adjustments to the Oracle level. The level is generated with 1 guaranteed woodchuck, and monster generation is slightly tweaked. 93% of monsters are generated by the normal mechanism; the remaining 7% of monsters generated are according to the following probabilities:

• 30% random i
• 10% r woodchucks
• 10% e floating eyes
• 10% @ / r wererats
• 10% y yellow lights
• 10% random u
• 10% random r
• 10% random n

NetHack Fourk

In NetHack Fourk, the Oracle can grant enlightenment at a price equal to 20 times your experience level in gold.

FIQhack

In FIQhack, the Oracle provides enlightenment similar to Fourk.

xNetHack

xNetHack adds two other variations of the room in the center of the Oracle level. In both of them, the Oracle sits amid a ring of pools instead of a smaller room. One variant has many trees and only three fountains; the other has statues of snakes, nagas, sea monsters and elementals. The Oracle herself has many new consultations, and also a ²⁄₃ chance of generating with a potion of hallucination - this is another allusion to the shrine at Delphi, which had chemical vapors emitting from a spring-made cleft that is speculated to have induced "prophetic" trances.

Like UnNetHack, woodchucks and the Oracle attack each other on sight.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the Oracle can use her passive attack on other monsters. Additionally, she holds an artifact tool known as the Magic 8-Ball, which divulges rumors based on its beatitude. The magic missile attack she uses no longer has its damage negated via magic resistance; half-spell damage still reduces its damage output, and reflection will only partially reduce its damage.

Encyclopedia entry

Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo's oracle was,
plays an important part in mythology. Castalia was its
sacred spring; Cephissus its river. It was held to be the
center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from
foreign countries as well as Greece. No other shrine rivaled
it. The answers to the questions asked by the anxious
seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into
a trance before she spoke.

[ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
2. Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.

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