Xan

x xan
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Sting 1d4 wounded legs

x xan
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Sting 1d4 wounded legs
Base level	7
Base experience	120
Speed	18
Base AC	−4
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	3 (Rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	300
Nutritional value	300
Size	Tiny
Resistances	poison resistance
Resistances conveyed	poison resistance (47%)
A xan: can fly. has no hands. is an animal. is poisonous to eat. does not eat. (*) is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 1157

A xan, x, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The xan is an animal that is one of two mythical insects in the game. Xans are capable of flight and can be seen via infravision.

A xan has a unique sting attack that targets one of the hero's legs (or the steed's legs if the hero is riding) with roughly equal probability, and wounds them if the attack hits: the duration is dependent on the hero's dexterity stat, and each successful sting also abuses the hero's strength and dexterity, with worn iron shoes or low boots protecting the hero's legs ²⁄₅ of the time, while any other worn boots will protect their legs ⁴⁄₅ of the time. The sting attack deals ordinary physical damage against monsters with the exception of a steed that the hero is riding, and will always fail to deal damage in either case if the xan is cancelled. Xans possess poison resistance.

A xan corpse is poisonous to eat, and eating its corpse or tin has a ⁷⁄₁₅ chance (46%) of granting poison resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated xans are always created as hostile.

Hostile xans can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell.

The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a xan via the Double Trouble monster spell.

Strategy

Though it lacks any MR score, the xan's AC of -4 can make it difficult to hit with immobilizing or slowing items and spells for some mid-game heroes and pets, and its 18 speed lets it close the gap against heroes trying to avoid melee combat even before its sting slows them down due to wounding their legs. Despite the sting's low damage, xans are commonplace enough to be a frequent annoyance at best, especially with all the ability score abuse inflicted.

Having 100 aum of carrying capacity available can partly alleviate this, and using a bag to stash your belongings can work in your favor if you are able to comfortably drop it before taking on an approaching xan (though this is not always a convenient option). Heroes with high to-hit can exploit the xan's lack of MR score to reliably neutralize them using wands of sleep, cancellation or slow monster (or sleep and slow monster spells) and then deal with them quickly. The xan's corpse provides a fairly substantial 300 nutrition along with a fairly high chance poison resistance if the hero lacks it, but is also poisonous itself: heroes without poison resistance that survive this far can use an extrinsic source like an apron or amulet versus poison as a supplement when eating a xan corpse, or use a potion of restore ability to counteract attribute damage—heroes that have the intrinsic property already can simply utilize xan corpses as quick and filling meals.

History

The xan first appears in Hack 1.0.

In some versions up to NetHack 3.6.2, including variants based on these versions, a xan cannot sting the hero's legs if the hero is riding, flying or levitating, despite xans possessing flight. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.3 via commit 564dcd65 so that the attack routine checks to see if the attacking monster is also flying.

Older messages

<The xan> tries to reach your <right/left> leg!

A xan tried and failed to sting your legs while you were riding, flying or levitating—this message is still present in the code of later versions, but goes unused since the xan is the only monster in NetHack to use the damage type.

Origin

The xan is a creature based on a tale from the Popol Vuh, a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people. Popol Vuh is translated as "Book of the Community" or "Book of Counsel", and literally means "Book that pertains to the mat": a woven mat was used as a royal throne in ancient Kʼicheʼ society and symbolised the unity of the community; the document is one of many that survived Spanish conquest. Among its many tales are the exploits of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, known as the Maya Hero Twins.

The Hero Twins were conceived when Xquic, one of the daughters of the Lords of the Mayan underworld Xibalba, spoke with Hun-Hunahpu's severed head: he spat upon the maiden's hand, causing them to be conceived in her womb. The twins come across the ballgame equipment of Hun-Hunahpu and his brother Vucub-Hunahpu, who had disturbed the Lords of Xibalba with the noise they made playing on the court; the Lords summoned the two men to play ball in their own court, using it as a pretext to subject the pair to many treacherous trials - the duo eventually failed and were executed. The Hero Twins began to play ball in the court and once again disturbed the Lords of Xibalba, who sent summons to the boys to come to Xibalba and play in their court.

The Hero Twins' grandmother, who had initially hidden the ballgame equipment for fear that the twins would suffer the same fate, relayed the message as indirectly as possible; despite her best efforts, the boys received the message and set off to Xibalba. Fortunately, the younger twins did not fall victim to the same tricks as their father and uncle, and sent ahead the mosquito (translated as "xan", as shown in the excerpt that provides the encyclopedia entry) to scout for them. The mosquito stung everyone in the dwelling of Xibalba to uncover the Lords and learn their names, allowing the twins to address and identify them by name when they arrived at Xibalba; from there, the twins would proceed to outwit the Lords and eventually bring about Xibalba's downfall.

Variants

NetHack variants that are based on NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions may not account for the xan's inability to sting mounted or airborne targets while flying.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the xan is the only mythical insect that does not hit as an enchanted weapon.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the xan is made oviparous, is small in size instead of tiny, and lacks flight unlike in NetHack 3.4.3 (thus justifying its inability to sting targets that are not fully grounded). All 14 points of a xan's AC are in the natural category.

A xan is generated on the upper filler level of the Convict quest during level creation.

Worn boots that have the randomized appearance of "jungle boots" grant immunity to wounded legs from the sting attacks of xans.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, xans are targeted for grudges by bats, giant bats, vampire bats, and insect-eating arachnids and centipedes.

A xan is generated on the upper filler level of the Convict quest during level creation.

Encyclopedia entry

They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to find out what lay ahead. "Since you are the one who sucks the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito, "go and sting the men of Xibalba." The mosquito flew down the dark road to the Underworld. Entering the house of the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...
 
The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?" So he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he knew the names of all twelve.

[ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ]