Shocking sphere
e shocking sphere 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 10 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 91 |
| Speed | 13 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 10 |
| Nutritional value | 10 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | shock resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | shock resistance |
|
A shocking sphere:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 329 |
A shocking sphere, e, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The shocking sphere is a sphere monster that has an affinity to electricity, and emits light in a 1-square radius around itself.
Shocking spheres have a shocking explosion attack that causes them to self-destruct and blast a single target for 4-24 base damage, which has a dexterity-based chance of dealing reduced damage and is completely blocked by shock resistance.[1][2] Shocking spheres possess shock resistance.
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 6b60618e, shocking spheres create 3x3 explosions with their attacks that can affect items and other monsters caught within the blast radius: this can burn armor and destroy scrolls, spellbooks, potions, and globs of green slime, but does not affect the inventory of a hero that is polymorphed into a shocking sphere and explodes using this attack. This is adapted from xNetHack. The shocking sphere's difficulty rating is also raised to 10, with difficulty calculations adjusted via commit c3802343 to fix related discrepancies.
Per commit eb22a810, item destruction caused by shock damage is dependent on the amount of damage dealt, with the amount of items in open inventory that are affected being equal to 1⁄5 of the shock damage inflicted. Per commit ef6a88e1, chargeable rings affected by a shocking sphere explosion may be charged rather than destroyed.
Per commit 0eadf8df and commit b25961fb, pets and other monsters can gain intrinsics from killing monsters using digestion attacks, allowing a monster to gain shock resistance by digesting a shocking sphere. Per commit c78e7af0, this also applies to a hero polymorphed into a monster with a digesting attack.Contents
Generation
Randomly generated shocking spheres are always created hostile.
A shocking sphere does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Shocking spheres are fairly annoying to deal with, though thankfully their explosion attack cannot destroy any of the hero's inventory. Additionally, pets that attack shocking spheres will likely take the explosion in your stead, and shock resistance completely trivializes them (though it is slightly more rare. Shocking spheres can also be made to miss if you are invisible or have displacement, and their nonexistent MR score means they can easily be dropped by poison—they can also be put to sleep or otherwise immobilized, allowing a hero or pet to kill them before they explode.
Be sure to keep shocking spheres away from leprechaun halls, treasure zoos and similar rooms that you do not want awakened if possible, and if a zoo contains a shocking sphere, try to save it for last—stealth is valuable for both purposes.
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.
Shocking spheres are a tempting and often valuable target for genocide, due to the increased danger they pose to a hero's inventory.
Per commit 67295bc7, wearing non-metallic gloves will always protect worn rings from shock damage. Per commit 9942b65d, extrinsic shock resistance protects the target's open inventory from damage 99⁄100 of the time, making sources such as the ring of shock resistance and blue dragon scale mail much more valuable.History
The shocking sphere first appears in SLASH 6, and makes its vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
From NetHack 3.3.0 to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, flaming spheres and shocking spheres are capable of picking up items where a freezing sphere cannot, though due to their weight they will only attempt to pick up very light ones such as singular gold pieces (usually only while tame). This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit cbab68a4 so that spheres will properly not attempt to pick up items.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, shocking spheres have an on-death explosion similar to gas spores, covering a 3x3 area centered on it that can destroy rings and sap wand charges from the open inventories of anyone caught in the blast—shock resistance blocks HP damage from the explosion, and extrinsic shock resistance also prevents item damage.
Shocking spheres can be warded by the Elder Elemental Eye at any level of reinforcement.
Shocking spheres may be generated in the Lawful Quest, where they will appear on the Paths of Law and within the Arcadian Tower if Oona's elemental affinity is lightning. The summon sphere monster spell can summon shocking spheres, and will always do so when cast by a vegepygmy shaman.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the explosion attack of shocking spheres covers a 3x3 radius, affecting monsters, armor and items caught in the explosion as well as items in the open inventory of the victims—extrinsic shock resistance protects a hero or monster's open inventory from this damage 99⁄100 of the time.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, reading a scroll of elementalism while confused has a 1⁄4 chance of summoning flaming sphere, which are tame if the scroll was blessed and read by a hero and will otherwise be hostile.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, shocking spheres use explosion attacks and on-death explosions that cover a 3x3 radius centered on its square, zapping monsters and destroying wands and rings.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, eight shocking spheres are generated on the goal level of the Acid Mage quest, where they are placed adjacent to the Lightningrod during level creation.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for sphere.
