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	monst.c#line308

A floating eye, e, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The floating eye is the only intelligent and non-explosive member of the eye or sphere monster class. It is 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 canceled and is attacked in melee (but not killed)—the gaze will paralyze the attacker for several turns dependent on their level, with a ¹⁄₄ chance of a 127-turn duration for a hero with 12 wisdom or lower, unless one of the following applies:

• The attacker has free action or reflection.
• The attacker is blind or otherwise cannot see the floating eye (e.g. it is 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, which for a hero has a very low ¹⁄₅₀₀ chance of a -1 penalty to luck with each attack.

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

Pets will avoid attacking a floating eye that they can see in melee ⁹⁄₁₀ of the time, even if any of the other traits above apply to that pet. Applying a mirror at a floating eye will paralyze it with its own gaze, which has a ¹⁄₄ chance of lasting for 120 turns. A hero in the form of a floating eye is treated as levitating, since they lack any limbs to reach the ground with, and will also be paralyzed if they apply a mirror at themselves.

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

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 randomly placed on the Plane of Air at level creation.

Floating eyes can be generated with defensive items (minus the wand of digging) in spite of their lack of limbs.

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, there is a chance that they potentially succumb to hunger instead from the amount of time wasted—furthermore, it is possible to become trapped between the eye and another obstacle in a corridor, preventing escape. The floating eye is an infamous source of early YASDs, to the point that it was once 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 that this is intentional.

Very fortunately, there are many methods for a hero to circumvent the dangers a floating eye poses: cancelling the floating eye will nullify its gaze completely, and the gaze will not work if the eye is blinded (though beware of the luck penalty for attacking a floating eye). Additionally, reflection and free action will prevent paralysis; applying a mirror will paralyze a floating eye, but does not prevent its passive gaze from paralyzing you. Alternately, you can blind yourself by applying an appropriate item, such as a blindfold, towel or a cream pie, or if you cannot see invisible, you can make the floating eye invisible, e.g. with a wand of make invisible: as long as you cannot see the floating eye, its gaze has no effect.

A ranged attack of any kind from any distance (including while still adjacent to one) will not trigger the floating eye's passive attack at all, so daggers, polearms and spells can safely dispose of floating eyes, and even throwing junk or rocks will suffice. While fighting one inside a room, you can wait for it to move so that you can retrieve your thrown projectiles. If you are facing a floating eye in a corridor without any means of ranged attack, and wasting turns is not an issue, you intentionally can 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 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: applying a leather drum can unfreeze a paralyzed pet.

The floating eye's corpse is highly desired as one of the most frequent sources of telepathy for most heroes, though on average only half of floating eyes will drop a corpse: 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. from an accidental murder. Zen heroes have the explicit goal of finding and killing a floating eye (which is trivial for the permanently blind character) in order to eat its corpse so that most of the dungeon's inhabitants will become visible to them. 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—though tricky, it is also possible for any hero to receive telepathy as a boon from their god via prayer.

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 that 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 it that gazed into it—despite this power, floating eyes are very poor fighters with a mild and relatively non-aggressive demeanor, and they reserve this for the brine and plankton they feed upon.

Floating eyes travel in schools of over a dozen or fewer members, typically abandoning their young at birth (though they would 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 paralyzed; 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 variants of NetHack 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 attackers 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 miss from averting their gaze 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 appear among the court of a vampire lord or vampire lady-ruled throne room.

Hamsa is a ward that can repel floating eyes.

FIQHack

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