Floating eye

e floating eye
Difficulty	3
Attacks	Passive gaze 0d70 paralysis

e floating eye
Difficulty	3
Attacks	Passive gaze 0d70 paralysis
Base level	2
Base experience	7
Speed	1
Base AC	9
Base MR	10
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	5 (Common)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	10
Nutritional value	10
Size	Small
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	Telepathy (100%)
A floating eye: can fly. can survive underwater. cannot pick up items. has no limbs. has no head. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 308

A floating eye, e, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The floating eye is the only member of the eye or sphere monster class to be intelligent and not use any form of explosion, and it is also amphibious, capable of flight and can be seen via infravision.

A floating eye has a passive gaze attack that has a ²⁄₃ chance of triggering if the floating eye is not cancelled and is hit with a melee attack, but not killed by it—the gaze will paralyze the attacker for several turns dependent on their experience level or monster level and has a ¹⁄₄ chance of a 127-turn duration for a hero with 12 or less wisdom, unless one of the following conditions applies:

• The attacker has free action or reflection.
• The attacker is blind or otherwise cannot see the floating eye, e.g. the eye is invisible and the hero cannot see invisible.
• The attacker is a hallucinating hero, who has a ³⁄₄ chance of avoiding the gaze's effects.
• The floating eye itself is blinded—there is also a very low ¹⁄₅₀₀ chance of a -1 luck penalty each time the hero attacks a blinded floating eye.

All of the above also applies to a monster attacking either a floating eye or a hero in the form of a floating eye, with the duration capped to 127 turns at most.

Pets will avoid attacking a floating eye that they can see ⁹⁄₁₀ of the time, even if any of the traits listed above apply to that pet. A hero applying a mirror at a floating eye will paralyze the monster with its own gaze, which has a ¹⁄₄ chance of lasting for 120 turns.

A hero polymorphed into a floating eye is treated as levitating rather than flying and cannot reach the ground—additionally, the hero will paralyze themselves if they apply a mirror at themselves while in this form.

Eating a floating eye corpse or tin always grants intrinsic telepathy, and a hero doing so while in the form of a raven also prints a unique message.

The floating eye is the subject of many in-game rumors, with seven being true and four being false.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit aedb24d3, pet behavior is partly fixed so that they will attack a floating eye if they have a source of reflection.

Generation

Randomly generated floating eyes are always created hostile.

The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a floating eye by casting the Double Trouble monster spell.

Three floating eyes are placed randomly on the Plane of Air during level creation.

Floating eyes can be generated with defensive items except for a wand of digging.

Floating eyes leave a corpse upon death roughly ¹⁄₂ (50%) of the time.

Strategy

A floating eye is very dangerous for a hero or their pet to attack in melee: even if the hero is not subsequently chipped to death by any other monster that finds them (even a newt or gecko), there is a chance that they potentially succumb from lack of nutrition instead as a result of the paralysis causing them to faint or even starve—furthermore, it is possible to become trapped between the eye and another obstacle in a corridor, preventing escape. This makes the floating eye is an infamous source of early game deaths, to the point that it is the subject of a NetHack 3.4.3 bug report citing the lack of warnings present when attacking one, which the DevTeam closed while clarifying it to be intentional.

Very fortunately, there are many methods for a hero to circumvent or defeat a floating eye: you can blind yourself by applying or using an appropriate item, such as a blindfold, towel or a cream pie, or blind the floating eye itself e.g. with a potion of blindness or a cream pie that you throw or wield (though beware of the luck penalty for attacking a floating eye). If you cannot see invisible, you can make the floating eye invisible, usually by zapping it with a wand of make invisible. As mentioned previously, reflection and free action prevent paralysis, and though an applied mirror will freeze the floating eye, its gaze will still trigger. Cancelling the floating eye will nullify its gaze completely.

A ranged attack of any kind from any distance, including from an attacker still adjacent to them, will not trigger the floating eye's passive attack at all—thrown daggers, pounding with polearms, casting spells, and zapping wands are all methods that can safely dispose of floating eyes, and even throwing non-projectile weapons, rocks or other junk items will suffice; if you run out of items to throw while fighting one inside a room, you can wait for it to move so you can retrieve thrown items. If a floating eye pins you in a hallway with no other path around it and no ranged attacks that are guaranteed to defeat it, you can use Elbereth or another means of scaring to drive it off, though this can take quite a while due to its low speed.

If you are facing a floating eye in a corridor without any means of ranged attack, and wasting turns is not an issue, you can intentionally place yourself between the floating eye and an obstacle of some sort (such as a locked door, boulder, or passive creature)—as mentioned prior, this is highly risky and the hero will likely have to contend with hunger and monster generation instead of any damage. Though most pets (intelligent and otherwise) will try to avoid attacking floating eyes in melee, they still have a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of doing so when adjacent, with the same chance of becoming paralyzed unless they lack eyes or are blind: applying a leather drum can unfreeze a paralyzed pet, and a pet with a source of reflection will be protected from the gaze.

The floating eye's corpse is highly desired as one of the most frequent sources of telepathy for most heroes, but on average only half of floating eyes will drop a corpse, and the hero will have to prevent their pet from immediately eating one that drops. Some heroes seek out tins of floating eye meat or make them with a tinning kit as a means of re-gaining the property if is lost later on, e.g. due to murder. Many a Monk will be tempted to risk an alignment record penalty and break vegan and/or vegetarian conducts by eating one, though they can gain the comparable warning intrinsic by reaching experience level 7; it is also possible (though tricky) for a Monk or any hero to receive telepathy as a boon from their god via prayer while their luck is at least +6. Zen heroes, many of whom are played as Monks, have the explicit goal of finding a floating eye and then killing it in order to eat its corpse so that most of the dungeon's inhabitants will become visible to the blind hero—said blindness also means that floating eyes pose little direct danger to them.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 8d2407f1, pets that eat corpses can gain intrinsics from them, allowing them to gain telepathy from eating a floating eye corpse.

History

The floating eye is one of many monsters featured in pre-5.3 versions of Rogue before it was replaced with the ice monster, seemingly due to copyright issues involving Dungeons & Dragons.

The floating eye first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0.

The message for eating a floating eye corpse or tin as a raven is added in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit e305b8a5, and originates from UnNetHack.

Origin

The floating eye is most likely named for the monster that appears in the 1st and 2nd editions of Dungeons & Dragons: rather than being floating disembodied eyeballs, these floating eyes are portrayed as a very unusual type of carnivorous saltwater fish, possessing a single large eye with a three-inch diameter and a body that was transparent to the point of being practically invisible while underwater. Unlike the slow-moving floating eyes of NetHack, these fish swim at very rapid speed and use their solitary pupil to hypnotize and paralyze any creature within 30 feet of the eye that gazes into it—despite this power, floating eyes are very poor fighters with a mild and relatively non-aggressive demeanor, and they normally reserve this ability for the brine and plankton that they feed upon.

Floating eyes travel in schools of over a dozen or fewer members, typically abandoning their young at birth (though they will eat said young if particularly lacking in food). They rely upon their defensive paralyzing ability to hypnotize and escape other creatures that would feed upon them, generally leaving the victim at the mercy of nearby predators. Many of these predators, such as manta rays, piranhas and sharks, live in a symbiotic relationship with floating eyes, traveling with their schools and feasting upon the creatures they paralyze; floating eyes feast upon the scraps of prey left over from these predators in turn.

Messages

You are frozen by <the floating eye's> gaze!

You attacked a floating eye and were paralyzed.

You momentarily stiffen under <the floating eye's> gaze!

You attacked a floating eye while you have a source of free action.

<The floating eye> looks <rather> <numb/stupefied>.

You attacked a floating eye while hallucinating, and your distorted senses prevented the passive gaze from working.

<The floating eye's> gaze is reflected by your <reflection source>.

You attacked a floating eye, but you have reflection.

The blind <floating eye> cannot defend itself.

You attacked a floating eye while it was blind.

<The monster> is frozen by <the floating eye's> gaze!

A monster attacked a floating eye and was paralyzed.

<The floating eye's> gaze is reflected by <the monster's> <reflection source>.

As above, but the monster has reflection.

<The monster> is frozen by your gaze!

A monster attacked you while you were in the form of a floating eye and was paralyzed.

Your gaze is reflected by <the monster's> <reflection source>.

As above, but the monster has reflection.

As a blind <floating eye>, you cannot defend yourself.

As above while you are also blind.

<The floating eye> is frozen by its reflection.

You applied a mirror to a floating eye and paralyzed it.

You hear <something> stop moving.

As above, but you cannot see the floating eye.

Yikes! You've frozen yourself!

You applied a mirror to yourself as a floating eye and became paralyzed.

Yow! The <mirror> stares back!

As above, while hallucinating.

You momentarily stiffen under your gaze.

As above, but you have a source of free action.

You peck the eyeball with delight.

You ate the corpse or tin of a floating eye while polymorphed into a raven.

Variants

Many NetHack variants of alter the floating eye or its abilities in some manner, making them behave differently or else rendering them less immediately lethal, and may also give them a more visible glyph.

NetHack brass

In NetHack brass, the floating eye's passive gaze can trigger when an attacker uses a polearm to pound them.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the floating eye uses a different glyph, e.

Ravens will grudge and attack floating eyes.

AceHack

In AceHack, a hero attacking a floating eye will cause the attack to miss from averting their gaze at the last moment, instead of being paralyzed outright—the passive gaze has the same effects against monsters as in NetHack.

NetHack 4

In NetHack 4, it is impossible for the hero to attack a floating eye in melee without being protected from its gaze in some way, and they will instead displace the eye if this is not the case.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the duration of the floating eye's paralysis from its passive gaze is shortened to 2d6 turns—while attacking them in melee is not as immediately fatal, it is still safest to attack them at range. Floating eyes can be warded by a hamsa, which also blocks their passive gaze.

Floating eyes can appear among the court of a throne room ruled by a vampire lord or vampire lady.

Aphanactonan assessors leave behind a special death drop when killed that includes a floating eye corpse.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, floating eyes have their passive gaze replaced with an area-of-effect slowing gaze, and a hero or monster hitting one in melee slows the attacker for several turns.

Ravens will grudge and attack floating eyes.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, floating eyes are given a more visible glyph, e.

Encyclopedia entry

Floating eyes, not surprisingly, are large, floating eyeballs which drift about the dungeon. Though not dangerous in and of themselves, their power to paralyse those who gaze at their large eye in combat is widely feared. Many are the tales of those who struck a floating eye, were paralysed by its mystic powers, and then nibbled to death by some other creature that lurked around nearby.