Sickness - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: /* Description */ mention that cubes will not become sick digesting corpses; other non-pets can eat corpses in 5.0.0 but we cross that bridge when we come to it

2026-05-18T06:01:50Z

‎Description: mention that cubes will not become sick digesting corpses; other non-pets can eat corpses in 5.0.0 but we cross that bridge when we come to it

Umbire the Phantom: /* dNetHack */ filth enjecting

2026-04-20T06:04:38Z

‎dNetHack: filth enjecting

Umbire the Phantom: /* EvilHack */ pothole

2026-04-20T02:50:51Z

‎EvilHack: pothole

Umbire the Phantom: details + Plague (dnh version)

2026-04-20T02:48:10Z

details + Plague (dnh version)

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ tweaks

2025-09-27T14:14:08Z

‎Strategy: tweaks

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ duped citation

2025-09-27T09:54:41Z

‎Strategy: duped citation

Umbire the Phantom: /* Food poisoning */ word choice

2025-08-31T01:05:47Z

‎Food poisoning: word choice

Umbire the Phantom: /* Food poisoning */ tweak

2025-08-08T00:22:24Z

‎Food poisoning: tweak

Umbire the Phantom: /* SLASH'EM */ word choice

2025-07-25T19:46:30Z

‎SLASH'EM: word choice

Umbire the Phantom: /* SLASH'EM */ pot of amnesia

2025-07-25T19:46:06Z

‎SLASH'EM: pot of amnesia

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 Both conditions are not mutually exclusive of each other, and are distinguished by whether or not they can be cured via [[vomiting]]{{refsrc|src/you.h|304|nethack=3.6.7|comment=the two types of sickness are <tt>SICK_VOMITABLE</tt> and <tt>SICK_NONVOMITABLE</tt>&mdash;the third "type" is used exclusively in the context of items or actions that cure both forms simultaneously}}&mdash;food poisoning is considered a "vomitable" sickness, while illness is not, and any reference to "vomitable" and/or "non-vomitable" forms of sickness will specify the appropriate illness type. The hero will [[abuse]] [[constitution]] upon contracting sickness, and will also abuse constitution once every 5 actions while they are sickened.{{refsrc|src/potion.c|165|nethack=3.6.7}}{{refsrc|src/attrib.c|499|nethack=3.6.7}}{{refsrc|src/attrib.c|506|nethack=3.6.7}} An [[amulet of life saving]] will revive a hero killed by any form of sickness.
-[[Immunity to sickness]] (or sickness resistance) is a property that prevents the hero from contracting ''either'' form of sickness, though they cannot obtain it unless they [[polymorph]] themselves into a [[ghoul]], [[fungus or mold]].{{refsrc|src/polyself.c|77|version=NetHack 3.6.7|name="sickres"|comment=monsters defined as sick-resistant; hero cannot transform into monsters with disease attacks and <tt>AD_DISE</tt> has no cases laid out in mhitm.c, so disease attacks have no effect on monsters}} Only the hero is subject to sickness in either form: monsters cannot become sickened by other monster attacks, and only tame monsters will eat corpses at all with the exception of [[gelatinous cube]]s.<ref name="sickres"/>
+[[Immunity to sickness]] (or sickness resistance) is a property that prevents the hero from contracting ''either'' form of sickness, though they cannot obtain it unless they [[polymorph]] themselves into a [[ghoul]], [[fungus or mold]].{{refsrc|src/polyself.c|77|version=NetHack 3.6.7|name="sickres"|comment=monsters defined as sick-resistant; hero cannot transform into monsters with disease attacks and <tt>AD_DISE</tt> has no cases laid out in mhitm.c, so disease attacks have no effect on monsters}} Only the hero is subject to sickness in either form: monsters cannot become sickened by other monster attacks, and only tame monsters will eat corpses at all, with the exception of [[gelatinous cube]]s that will "eat" and dissolve corpses (and most other organic items) without becoming sick.<ref name="sickres"/>
 {{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Per {{commit|ef1eeed7550e38fa1e4ff0ef608f3c8b55eaa950}}, [[green dragon scales]] and [[green dragon scale mail]] grant immunity to sickness while worn.

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 * Weapons and armor can be 'poisoned' with substances that cause illness if those items are eaten or used to hit non-immune targets&mdash;these items are referred to as '''filth-encrusted''', and can be poisoned this way as a result of random generation, purchasing coatings via [[shopkeeper services]], being subjected to the [[Filth (monster spell)|filth]] [[dNetHack monster spells|monster spell]], or [[wishing]] for a filth-encrusted item.
 * [[Mummy curse]]s from killing a [[priest mummy]] or [[pharaoh]] can inflict sickness.
 * The [[Plague (monster spell)|plague]] monster spell can inflict sickness.

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 ** [[Zombie (EvilHack)|Zombies]] have a brain-eating attack that can cause illness among other effects, and eating their corpses will always cause illness ''instead of'' the usual effects of eating old corpses, in contrast to GruntHack's implementation&mdash;dying from zombie-borne illness will turn the fallen hero into a zombie if a [[bones]] file is created.
 ** [[Gray fungus (EvilHack)|Gray fungi]] have a passive illness attack, as in other variants.
-** [[Draugr (EvilHack)|Draugr]] have a brain-eating attack that can cause illness.
+** [[Draugr (EvilHack monster)|Draugr]] have a brain-eating attack that can cause illness.
 * [[Grimtooth]] has a {{frac|6}} chance of inflicting illness upon non-immune targets on each hit.

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 A hero that lacks immunity to sickness and acquires food poisoning will die in 10-19 turns, unless the ailment is cured or else they become immune<ref name="gonebad"/>&mdash;if this occurs while the hero is already sick, the timer will use the lower of the two values between the current timer and the new timer.
-Despite the name, food poisoning is '''completely unrelated''' to standard [[poison]] and is unaffected by [[poison resistance]].
+Despite the name, food poisoning is '''completely unrelated''' to standard [[poison]] and is unaffected by [[poison resistance]], though they can occur simultaneously if eating an old enough corpse that belongs to a poisonous monster.
 {{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Per {{commit|63d3d7b68804e29ffbc7f875771f65c7cded797b}}, a hero has a [[constitution]]-in-100 chance of surviving food poisoning, and if the hero survives food poisoning this way, they will also abuse constitution and silently have it decreased by 1.}}
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 ==Strategy==
-In theory, one of the easiest ways to deal with any potential sickness from food poisoning is to avoid eating tainted corpses in the first place&mdash;in practice, player error can easily cause the hero to ingest a tainted corpse, such as a typo when entering a command or selecting an item to eat, or else simply forgetting how long a corpse was laying around for. Additionally, some players may have their hero eat corpses left by [[zombie]]s or [[mummies]] in particular if they are either desperate for nutrition, which can happen in some early-game situations for certain roles, or else attempting to obtain an intrinsic from them (i.e. [[Elf (monster)|elf]] and [[Giant (monster)|giant]] corpses left by zombies and mummies): assuming such a corpse is eaten immediately, they have a roughly {{frac|2|5}} chance of being old enough to cause food poisoning. Old corpses can be rendered safe to eat by applying a [[tinning kit]] to them.
+In theory, one of the easiest ways to deal with any potential sickness from food poisoning is to avoid eating tainted corpses in the first place&mdash;in practice, player error can easily cause the hero to ingest a tainted corpse, such as a typo when entering a command or selecting an item to eat, or else simply forgetting how long a corpse was laying around for. Additionally, some players may have their hero eat corpses left by [[zombie]]s or [[mummies]] in particular if they are either desperate for nutrition&ndash;which can happen in some early-game situations for certain roles&ndash;or else attempting to obtain an intrinsic from them (i.e. [[Elf (monster)|elf]] and [[Giant (monster)|giant]] corpses left by zombies and mummies): assuming such a corpse is eaten immediately, they have a roughly {{frac|2|5}} chance of the corpse being old enough to cause food poisoning. Old corpses can always be rendered safe to eat by applying a [[tinning kit]] to make a [[tin]] out of them.
 Should a hero ever contract sickness by any means, it should be cured post-haste using one of the remedies listed above&mdash;the most reliable of these cures are listed as follows:
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 * Successful prayer, if it is safe to do so (which will ''not'' be the case in Gehennom).
 * Casting the cure sickness spell with a 0% failure rate.
-* Polyself into the hero's own race&mdash;polymorphing to obtain sickness resistance is generally not advisable, as ghouls and fungi are very weak polyforms.
+* Polyself into the hero's own race&mdash;polymorphing to obtain sickness resistance is generally not advisable, as only ghouls and fungi are applicable and they are very weak polyforms.
 While a blessed unicorn horn is fairly reliable and accessible for all character builds, it is not 100% guaranteed to cure any trouble, and may also cure present troubles other than sickness, such as lowered stats or stunning.{{refsrc|src/apply.c|2030|nethack=3.6.7|comment=A comment above this line displays the odds that a given amount of troubles are cured, and according to this the hero has a 77.3% chance of curing at least one trouble.}} As such, it is generally wise to keep one of the above methods or other remedies available when facing off against any of the monsters that can cause disease: Juiblex acts slowly enough that a unicorn horn can suffice in most cases, but using one is riskier when dealing with the likes of Demogorgon or Pestilence.
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 * Fully eating a [[holy wafer]] can cure sickness.
 * The [[healing hands]] and [[surgery]] [[technique]]s can cure sickness, though surgery requires a carried [[scalpel]].
-* A hero ingesting a pill from a [[medical kit]] that works successfully can cure sickness.
+* A hero ingesting a pill from a [[medical kit]] can cure sickness if that pill works successfully.
 * Quaffing a blessed [[potion of amnesia]] can cure sickness (though it will also inflict amnesia among other effects).
 The following changes affect the ability to inflict or cure sickness:
-* The odds of applying a unicorn horn successfully curing at least one trouble is also dependent on its [[enchantment]] as well as its beatitude.
+* The odds of applying a unicorn horn successfully curing at least one trouble is dependent on its [[enchantment]] as well as its beatitude.
 ===NetHack brass===
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 [[dNetHack]] adds the following sources of sickness:
-* Weapons and armor can be 'poisoned' with substances that cause illness if those items are eaten or used to hit non-immune targets&mdash;these items are referred to as '''filth-encrusted''', and can only be poisoned this way as a result of random generation, purchasing coatings via [[shopkeeper services]], being subjected to the [[Filth (monster spell)|filth]] [[dNetHack monster spells|monster spell]], or [[wishing]] for a filth-encrusted item.
+* Weapons and armor can be 'poisoned' with substances that cause illness if those items are eaten or used to hit non-immune targets&mdash;these items are referred to as '''filth-encrusted''', and can be poisoned this way as a result of random generation, purchasing coatings via [[shopkeeper services]], being subjected to the [[Filth (monster spell)|filth]] [[dNetHack monster spells|monster spell]], or [[wishing]] for a filth-encrusted item.
 * [[Mummy curse]]s from killing a [[priest mummy]] or [[pharaoh]] can inflict sickness.
-* The [[Plague (monster spell)|plague]] monster spell inflict sickness.
+* The [[Plague (monster spell)|plague]] monster spell can inflict sickness.
 * Several monsters are given disease-inducing attacks, with more notable ones listed below.
 ** Monsters such as the [[Nightmare (dNetHack)|Nightmare]] and [[ancient of corruption]] have attacks that can inflict sickness and other random effects as though the hero had been afflicted by a cursed unicorn horn.
 ** The ancient of corruption can also cause sickness in the hero with its inhalations.
-** [[Swamp fern (dNetHack)|Swamp ferns]] have passive disease attacks, and [[Swamp fern spore (dNetHack)|swamp fern spores]] can cause diseases with their on-death [[explosion]]s.
+** [[Swamp fern (dNetHack)|Swamp ferns]] have passive disease attacks, and [[Swamp fern spore (dNetHack)|swamp fern spores]] can cause diseases with their [[on-death explosion]]s.
-* [[The Scorpion Carapace]] has an upgrade that grants the wearer an illness-inducing sting attack.
+* Some [[dNetHack artifacts|artifacts]] can also inflict sickness:
 dNetHack also adds the following remedies for sickness:

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 * Polyself into the hero's own race&mdash;polymorphing to obtain sickness resistance is generally not advisable, as ghouls and fungi are very weak polyforms.
-While a blessed unicorn horn is fairly reliable and accessible for all builds of hero, it is not 100% guaranteed to cure a trouble, and may also cure present troubles other than sickness, such as lowered stats or stunning.{{refsrc|src/apply.c|2030|nethack=3.6.7|comment=A comment above this line displays the odds that a given amount of troubles are cured, and according to this the hero has a 77.3% chance of curing at least one trouble.}} As such, it is generally wise to keep one of the above methods or other remedies available when facing off against any of the monsters that can cause disease: Juiblex acts slowly enough that a unicorn horn can suffice in most cases, but using one is riskier when dealing with the likes of Demogorgon or Pestilence.
+While a blessed unicorn horn is fairly reliable and accessible for all character builds, it is not 100% guaranteed to cure any trouble, and may also cure present troubles other than sickness, such as lowered stats or stunning.{{refsrc|src/apply.c|2030|nethack=3.6.7|comment=A comment above this line displays the odds that a given amount of troubles are cured, and according to this the hero has a 77.3% chance of curing at least one trouble.}} As such, it is generally wise to keep one of the above methods or other remedies available when facing off against any of the monsters that can cause disease: Juiblex acts slowly enough that a unicorn horn can suffice in most cases, but using one is riskier when dealing with the likes of Demogorgon or Pestilence.
-Similarly, non-cursed potions of extra healing and full healing are very reliable cures (arguably moreso than unicorn horns), though they are subject to destruction from [[Fire (element)|fire]] or [[cold]] damage, and [[smoky and milky potions]] that are extra healing and/or full healing can produce a [[ghost]] or [[djinni]] at a very inopportune time and lead to an avoidable [[YASD]]. Keeping a set of spare potions or remedies in a [[bag of holding]] or a secondary container kept on-hand (e.g. in case your primary bag of holding is [[Curse items|un-blessed or even cursed]] and slows you down) is generally wise for occasions where you are wracked with sickness&mdash;this is especially handy for dealing with Demogorgon or Pestilence, where you are just as likely to have items cursed or else be stunned (and thus unable to cast the cure sickness spell).
+Similarly, non-cursed potions of extra healing and full healing are very reliable cures (arguably moreso than unicorn horns), though they are subject to destruction from [[Fire (element)|fire]] or [[cold]] damage, and [[smoky and milky potions]] that are extra healing and/or full healing can produce a [[ghost]] or [[djinni]] at a very inopportune time and lead to an avoidable [[YASD]]. Keeping a set of spare potions or remedies in a [[bag of holding]] or a secondary container kept on-hand (e.g. in case your primary bag of holding is [[Curse items|un-blessed or even cursed]] and slows you down) is generally wise for occasions where you are wracked with sickness&mdash;this is especially handy for dealing with Demogorgon or Pestilence, where you are just as likely to have items cursed, or else be stunned and thus unable to cast the cure sickness spell.
-Emergency caches of holy water are common to carry on a hero's person, and a non-chaotic hero may consider quaffing one as a guaranteed cure for sickness if they want to preserve other items or else lack options.
+Emergency caches of holy water are common to carry on a hero's person, and a non-chaotic hero may consider quaffing one as a guaranteed cure for sickness if they want to preserve other items or else lack many reasonable options.
-{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Green dragon scale mail is now viable as a means of preventing illness outright, and may be worth employing for a player that seeks to hunt Demogorgon in particular or else wants to minimize the worst effects of encountering Pestilence on the [[Astral Plane]].}}
+{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Green dragon scale mail is viable as a means of preventing illness outright, and may be worth employing for a player that seeks to hunt Demogorgon in particular or else wants to minimize the worst effects of encountering Pestilence on the [[Astral Plane]].}}
 ==History==

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 Food poisoning occurs if the [[hero]] eats a tainted corpse or glob, unless they are in the form of a ghoul:{{refsrc|src/eat.c|1606|nethack=3.6.7|name="rottingonly"}} corpses and globs are considered 'tainted' if their age at the time of eating equal to or greater than (6+''x'')*(9+1d20) turns, where ''x'' is 2 if the object is blessed, -2 if the object is cursed, and 0 if the object is uncursed.{{refsrc|src/eat.c|1609|nethack=3.6.7}} The corpses of [[lichen]]s and [[lizard]]s cannot become tainted from aging in this way, while the corpses of [[acid blob]]s cannot cause food poisoning even though they can still rot away from age.{{refsrc|src/eat.c|52|nethack=3.6.7|name="nonrotting"|comment=corpses defined as non-rotting}}<ref name="rottingonly"/>{{refsrc|src/eat.c|1616|nethack=3.6.7|name="gonebad"}}
-A hero that lacks immunity to sickness and acquires food poisoning will die in 10-19 turns, unless the ailment is cured or else they become immune<ref name="gonebad"/>&mdash;if this occurs while the hero is already sick, the timer will use the shorter between the current timer and the new timer.
+A hero that lacks immunity to sickness and acquires food poisoning will die in 10-19 turns, unless the ailment is cured or else they become immune<ref name="gonebad"/>&mdash;if this occurs while the hero is already sick, the timer will use the lower of the two values between the current timer and the new timer.
 Despite the name, food poisoning is '''completely unrelated''' to standard [[poison]] and is unaffected by [[poison resistance]].

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 Despite the name, food poisoning is '''completely unrelated''' to standard [[poison]] and is unaffected by [[poison resistance]].
-{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Per {{commit|63d3d7b68804e29ffbc7f875771f65c7cded797b}}, a hero has a [[constitution]]-in-100 chance of surviving food poisoning, and if the hero survives that abuse constitution and silently have it decreased by 1.}}
+{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Per {{commit|63d3d7b68804e29ffbc7f875771f65c7cded797b}}, a hero has a [[constitution]]-in-100 chance of surviving food poisoning, and if the hero survives food poisoning this way, they will also abuse constitution and silently have it decreased by 1.}}
 ===Illness===

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 * [[Rot worm]]s have an illness-inducing [[bite]] attack.
-* Ingesting a [[pill]] from a [[medical kit]] that fails to work may cause sickness in the hero.
+* Ingesting a [[pill]] from an applied [[medical kit]] that fails to work may cause sickness in the hero.
 SLASH'EM also adds the following remedies for sickness: