Brown mold

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A brown mold, F, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The brown mold is a type of mold that has an affinity to cold, and like all molds it is sessile and lacks limbs, eyes or a head.

A brown mold has a passive attack that can trigger when it is attacked in melee and not killed, dealing cold damage against attackers without cold resistance dependent on their level while increasing the mold's HP by half the damage inflicted[1][2][3][4] - if enough HP is gained from this, the mold will undergo division, halving its HP (rounded up) and creating a second mold with almost the same amount of HP.[5][6][7] Brown molds possess poison resistance and cold resistance.

Eating a brown mold corpse or tin has a 3% chance each of granting poison resistance or cold resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated brown molds are always created hostile.

Strategy

Brown molds are not threatening to a hero that has cold resistance, and even heroes without the property can avoid YASD against one by remaining attentive. Any form of ranged attack can dispose of a brown mold easily; while pets are also capable of handling them, some early pets may have trouble dealing enough damage to outpace the mold's HP gain and passive damage.

Brown molds can provide an early source of cold resistance and poison resistance for a hero, in spite of the low odds.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Monsters can gain intrinsics from eating corpses, so a brown mold can be useful for giving resistances to a pet pony (e.g. as a Knight).

History

The brown mold first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, brown molds have a 910 chance of reviving from their corpses like other non-lichen fungi and molds. A brown mold has an overall 7.4% chance of generating from a corpse that reach 51 turns of age, is not acidic, and is not located within or on top of a square of water, ice or lava.[8][9][10][11]

Brown molds can be generated in fungus farms.

All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, brown mold corpses can only be eaten safely by a hero or monster with cold resistance, and will otherwise deal 2d12 damage when bitten into - their tins are still safe to consume.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, brown molds and other fungi and molds take extra damage from copper items, and similar to SLASH'EM they can grow from old corpses, though with much lower odds.

Brown mold corpses can be used to brew potions by dipping them in fruit juice, which eventually turns the juice into a potion of sleeping.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, brown molds and other fungi and molds take extra damage from copper items, and similar to SLASH'EM they can grow from old corpses. A brown mold can grow up into a brown moldier.

Attempting to cook a brown mold corpse at a furnace will cause it to immediately revive.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, black molds can often be encountered in the Ice Caves adventure branch.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, monsters can gain intrinsics from eating corpses, so a brown mold can be useful for giving resistances to a pet pony or other herbivore.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, brown molds and other fungi and molds take extra damage from copper items, and similar to SLASH'EM they can grow from old corpses. As in SpliceHack, a brown mold can grow up into a brown moldier.

Similar to xNetHack, brown mold corpses can be used to brew potions by dipping them in fruit juice - in Hack'EM, this eventually turns the juice into a potion of blood.

Monsters eating corpses functions as in EvilHack, allowing the hero to feed brown mold corpses to applicable pets so they can potentially gain intrinsics.

Encyclopedia entry

Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
Most molds are saprophytes. Some species (e.g., penicillium)
are used in making cheese and antibiotics.

[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]

References