Slime mold

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% Slime mold.png
Name slime mold
Base price 17 zm
Nutrition 250
Turns to eat 1
Weight 5
Conduct vegan

Slime mold is the default name for NetHack's customisable fruit.

This fruit is a comestible worth 250 nutrition points and is consumed in a single turn (other fruits have much lower nutrition values and nutrition/weight ratios). NetHack treats the fruit as vegan for conduct purposes, regardless of its name.

Generation

As of NetHack 3.6.2, in a game where Orctown is generated, the name orc-captain that leads the invading horde may have some fruit in their inventory, under the name of either "paddle cactus" or "dwarven root".[1]

Naming

You can change the name with the fruit option to almost anything you like. You could choose "slice of pizza", "bowl of gruel", or "leg of ham", and the game will identify pizza, gruel, and ham as the food part, so that quaffing certain potions results in messages such as "This tastes like ham juice". However, NetHack will prevent you from naming your fruit after a corpse or tin, or with a word indicating BUC status. If you try, you will have a candied corpse, tin, or blessed/cursed/uncursed fruit instead.[2] The name you choose has no impact on gameplay, except that differently-named fruit don't stack. If you want to wish for a fruit, you must wish for a "fruit", regardless of its current name.

If you leave a bones file with any custom fruit in it, the name will be preserved for the player who finds it. Most bones file fruit on public servers are "slime mold".

If you change the fruit option, existing fruit will keep their name, while newly generated fruit will use the new name.

You may find silly suggestions for fruit names on nethack.alt.org.

Origin

Slime molds exist in the real world. A slime mold is not a fungus, and certainly not a fruit. The slime mold creeps around until it finds a rotten food source, such as old wood. Then it grows into a plant-like form and makes spores. Slime molds are disgusting, and you probably would not want to eat one.

Both NetHack and Angband feature edible slime molds. Angband has no option to replace slime molds with something else. Because slime molds are defenseless living creatures, some players do not eat them. An odd Angband tradition is to name individual slime molds and keep them as pets.

Among slime molds, the species Physarum polycephalum is a significant research subject. As it wanders around, P. polycephalum leaves a trail of green slime (not that green slime). P. polycephalum has demonstrated a surprising amount of intelligence, despite being a single cell with no brain. Recent research shows that P. polycephalum can solve mazes. The slime mold uses its slime trail as its memory, and can choose to try a different route, until it finds its food.

Encyclopedia entry

Slime mold

Slime mold or slime fungus, organism usually classified with
the fungi, but showing equal affinity to the protozoa. Slime
molds have complex life cycles with an animal-like motile
phase, in which feeding and growth occur, and a plant-like
immotile reproductive phase. The motile phase, commonly
found under rotting logs and damp leaves, consists of either
solitary amoebalike cells or a brightly colored multinucleate
mass of protoplasm called a plasmodium, which creeps about
and feeds by amoeboid movement.

[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]

Paddle cactus

Opuntia, commonly called prickly pear, is a genus in the cactus
family, Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as tuna (fruit),
sabra, nopal (paddle, plural nopales) from the Nahuatl word
nopalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nochtli
for the fruit; or paddle cactus.

[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

Dwarven root

But when they were cooked these roots proved good to eat,
somewhat like bread; and the outlaws were glad of them, for
they had long lacked bread save when they could steal it.
"Wild Elves know them not; Grey-elves have not found them;
the proud ones from over the Sea are too proud to delve,"
said Mim.

"What is their name?" said Turin. Mim looked at him sidelong.
"They have no name, save in the Dwarf-tongue, which we do not
teach," he said. "And we not teach Men to find them, for Men
are greedy and thriftless, and would not spare till all the
plants had perished; whereas now they pass them by as they go
blundering in the wild. No more will you learn of me; but you
may have enough of my bounty, as long as you speak fair and
do not spy or steal." Then again he laughed in his throat.

"They are of great worth." he said. "More than gold in the
hungry winter, for they may be hoarded like the nuts of a
squirrel, and already we were building our store from the
first that are ripe."

[ Unfinished Tales, Part 1, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]

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.