Pit viper
S pit viper 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 93 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 100 |
| Nutritional value | 60 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | poison |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (40%) |
|
A pit viper:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1776 |
A pit viper, S, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a type of snake that has infravision, and can swim and hide under objects like other snakes.
A pit viper has two poisonous bite attacks, and possesses poison resistance.
A pit viper corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating a pit viper corpse or tin has a 2⁄5 chance of conveying poison resistance.
Pit vipers generate YAFM when falling into pits or spiked pits, which they share with pit fiends.[1][2]
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated pit vipers are always created hostile.
Pit vipers generate among the random S that are part of the first quest monster class for Archeologists and make up 24⁄35 of the monsters that randomly generate on the Archeologist quest.
Pit vipers may generate among the random snakes that appear on the first and fourth variants of Medusa's Island at level creation. Five pit vipers are generated on the Plane of Earth at level creation.
Pit vipers generated at level creation are given a random item to hide under.[3]
Strategy
Pit vipers move fairly fast at 15 speed, and combined with their poisonous bites they can pose a deadly threat to a hero lacking poison resistance. Fortunately, their tendency to hide can potentially be exploited with ranged weapons, and obtaining poison resistance significantly weakens their damage output.
History
The pit viper first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
The pit viper, also known as the pit adder, is the name for a group of vipers in the subfamily Crotalinae that are found in Eurasia and the Americas, and are the only vipers to have a habitat in the Americas - currently, 23 genera and 155 species are recognized. Like all other vipers, they are venomous.
Pit vipers are named for the heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on both sides of their head. When prey comes into range, these allow the snake to determine its direction, with the location of the pits on either side of the head producing a stereo effect that indicates both direction and distance. Experiments have shown that when deprived of their senses of sight and smell, pit vipers can strike accurately at moving objects that are less than 0.2 °C (0.36 °F) warmer than the background temperature - this makes the pits a valuable adaptation for a nocturnal hunter like the pit viper, as well as a key means of detecting and avoiding its own predators. Pit vipers also have a unique specialized muscle between the venom gland and the head that allows them to shoot venom from the gland - an ability that the pit viper of NetHack lacks.
Message
- How pitiful. Isn't that the pits?
- You saw a pit viper fall into a pit, or fell into one while polymorphed into a pit viper.[1][2]
Variants
In variants that incorporate the Convict role, a pit viper is generated on the upper filler level of the Convict quest at level creation.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, pit vipers are not randomly generated in Gehennom.
Weresnakes summoning help have a 1⁄5 chance of generating a hostile pit viper on each applicable square[4]—a hero that gets lycanthropy from a weresnake can summon pit vipers as pets with the same probability by using the #monster extended command, which costs 10 power.
The Snake Pit of the Lawful Quest can generate up to two pit vipers at level creation: there is a 9⁄10 chance of each viper appearing, with one viper generated asleep if it is created. They may also appear among the random S generated at level creation.
All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, pit vipers can be randomly generated in Gehennom compared to SLASH'EM.
Weresnakes summoning help have a 2⁄15 chance of generating a hostile pit viper on each applicable square, and a hero that gets lycanthropy from a weresnake can summon pit vipers as pets with the same probability by using the #monster extended command at the cost of 10 power.
SLASH'EM details for pit vipers in the Lawful Quest apply in Hack'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for snake.
