Glass piercer
p glass piercer 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 106 |
| Speed | 1 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 400 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | acid resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A glass piercer:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 809 |
A glass piercer, p, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The glass piercer is a carnivorous animal that is the strongest of the piercers: it can hide itself by clinging to the ceiling and will attempt to drop off the ceiling onto targets below them, inflicting 4d6 damage if it makes contact.[1] This "attack" can be avoided more reliably with good AC, and a hero wearing a hard helm will only take 2 HP of damage from the piercer's blow glancing off that helm.[2] If the hero has warning, they will reveal a hiding rock piercer's location when moving adjacent to their square. Tame rock piercers will not attack the hero and harmlessly drop off the ceiling if they walk underneath.[3]
A glass piercer has a single bite attack, and possesses acid resistance.
A hero that is polymorphed into a glass piercer can hide on the ceiling using the #monster extended command: they can return to the floor at any time using >, and can fall from the ceiling onto nearby targets in a similar manner as piercer monsters do.[4]
Generation
Randomly-generated glass piercers are always created as hostile.
Strategy
Glass piercers have a fairly strong bite and the same AC of 0 as iron piercers, but still move at the same extremely slow speed of 1 as other piercers do. Most heroes that encounter glass piercers should already have at least one of a hard helm, a sufficiently-trained weapon, good armor, or keen perception (e.g. automatic searching, warning, telepathy, etc.)—most kinds of ranged attack should be able to metaphorically drop a glass piercer where they stand. On the other hand, certain pets may have trouble dealing with glass piercers, especially if they land too many retaliatory bites and bring them close to dying or even manage an outright kill.
Glass piercer corpses are decent meals for non-vegetarian heroes and meat-eating pets, and grant the same nutrition as iron piercer corpses.
History
The glass piercer first appears in NetHack-- 3.0.10, and also appears in NetHack-- 3.1.3 and SLASH 6—it makes its vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
Origin
A piercer is a snail-like gastropod that first appeared in Dungeons & Dragons. It has a shell that resembles a stalactite, and clings to the ceiling of caverns and dungeons, mimicking a stalactite and falling down to impale anything that passes underneath. The "bestiary of Xygag" mentioned in the encyclopedia entry is an in-universe equivalent to the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual—the excerpt originates in "The Ecology of the Piercer" by Chris Elliott and Richard Edward, published in issue #72 of Dragon magazine.
Messages
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, glass piercers are notably different from their appearance in NetHack: they are insectoid monsters that resist slashing and piercing damage, and use earthsense to perceive their surroundings. Glass piercers have 10 points of natural AC, but lack any natural DR compared to rock and iron piercers, and deal (ML)d6 damage if they fall from the ceiling and land on the hero—this damage is reduced to ML - 53 if the hero is wearing a hard helm, they are a clockwork automaton (including an Android), or they are currently polymorphed into one of a clockwork automaton, android, gynoid, commander, or operator.
Glass piercers possess cold resistance alongside their standard acid resistance—eating a glass piercer corpse or tin, or quaffing its blood, grants temporary cold resistance for a duration of 3,000 turns before physical size modifiers.
Glass piercers can be warded by the Elder Sign and the hallucinatory Cerulean Sign.
Two glass piercers each have a 1⁄2 probability of being generated on each lower filler level within the Convict quest during level creation.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, a glass piercer that falls onto a hero wearing a glass helm and hits them will destroy the helm and inflict full damage unless the helm is shatterproofed (or "tempered")—the same applies for a hero in glass piercer form that lands on a monster wearing a non-tempered glass helm.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, two glass piercers each have a 1⁄2 probability of being generated on each lower filler level within the Convict quest during level creation.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for piercer.
