Ghost

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Revision as of 22:46, 13 February 2022 by Cathartes (talk | contribs) (Turning: link revive instead of undead turning, because that is the more relevant concept)
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A ghost,  , is a type of monster in NetHack. In vanilla, the ghost and shade are the only members of the "ghost" monster class.

Generation

Main article: Bones

Ghosts are most likely to appear in bones levels, copies of levels where previous players died. Most causes of death will leave a player ghost behind; see the article on bones files for more information and exceptions. These ghosts are generated asleep on top of their original inventories, and has the same experience level as the late player; their pet(s) may be nearby, and are very likely to have turned feral. Any objects that were carried in the deceased player's main inventory have an 80% chance of becoming cursed, even if they were originally blessed. Other objects on the level and the contents of containers in the player's inventory maintain their BUC status.

Ghosts will also appear in graveyards, including the Valley of the Dead's three large graveyards and the graveyard in Orcus Town. A ghost is also generated on the Rogue level, in Asmodeus' Lair, and in Baalzebub's Lair.

Ghosts will occasionally spawn when you step into haunted temples. Quaffing a milky potion may cause a ghost to appear.

Ghost names

Ghosts of past players found in bones files are named after the dead adventurer they represent. The ghost generated on the Rogue level is named Michael Toy, Kenneth Arnold, or Glenn Wichman.

Ghosts created on other special levels have a 1/7 chance of being given your character's name. Otherwise, they are given a random name from the following list:[1]

  • Adri
  • Andries
  • Andreas
  • Bert
  • David
  • Dirk
  • Emile
  • Frans
  • Fred
  • Greg
  • Hether
  • Jay
  • John
  • Jon
  • Karnov
  • Kay
  • Kenny
  • Kevin
  • Maud
  • Michiel
  • Mike
  • Peter
  • Robert
  • Ron
  • Tom
  • Wilmar
  • Nick Danger
  • Phoenix
  • Jiro
  • Mizue
  • Stephan
  • Lance Braccus
  • Shadowhawk

Strategy

Ghosts are very slow and do very little damage, and in most scenarios involving a bones pile they can usually be led away with little trouble. However, they possess a very low AC, and will likely evade most attacks if met at a low experience level. If you are unable to dispatch them via regular attack, kicking them may work instead. Even though the ghost may not be too difficult to dispatch, be wary that you do not forget about their original killer - you may very well become a ghost yourself if you are careless and the monster is still present.

By default, ghosts and shades are represented by a blank space, making them difficult to see and almost impossible to locate by telepathy. Some players use the SYMBOLS option to give ghosts and shades a different appearance, such as X or 8. This makes them easier to see and allows you to quickly identify bones levels by telepathy.

Turning

When a player leaves a bones file, they leave a corpse and a ghost under regular circumstances; if you revive the corpse, the ghost inhabits the player's corpse on the item pile, removing the ghost. If successful, the message "<Name>'s ghost is suddenly drawn into its former body!" is displayed.

The ghost must be on or adjacent to the square the corpse is on, and must be awake to be turned. The corpse can be of a polymorphed form if the target died while in another form, e.g. from wearing an amulet of unchanging. If the ghost is tame, then the resulting monster is tame, and is otherwise generated peaceful or hostile as normal based on your alignment and race. The monster will also be confused upon resurrection.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the ghost's base level is reduced to 4, their speed is increased to 5, their AC is increased to 5, and their magic resistance is increased to 80.

Similar to shades, ghosts can only be hit by magic, blessed weapons, artifact weapons, or objects made of silver or bone. Unlike shades, ghosts do not take silver damage.

Instead of their 1-damage touch attack, hostile ghosts turn invisible every so often and try to frighten the player by reappearing next to them. When this happens, the player is paralyzed for three turns. This is not prevented by free action, but it will not work if the player is able to sense the invisible ghost. 13 of ghosts will generate invisible.

Encyclopedia entry

And now the souls of the dead who had gone below came swarming up from Erebus -- fresh brides, unmarried youths, old men with life's long suffering behind them, tender young girls still nursing this first anguish in their hearts, and a great throng of warriors killed in battle, their spear-wounds gaping yet and all their armor stained with blood. From this multitude of souls, as they fluttered to and fro by the trench, there came a moaning that was horrible to hear. Panic drained the blood from my cheeks.

[ The Odyssey, (chapter Lambda), by Homer ]

See also

References

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

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.