Giant mimic
m giant mimic 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 11 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 186 |
| Speed | 3 |
| Base AC | 7 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 800 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Acid |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
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A giant mimic:
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| Reference | monst.c#line626 |
A giant mimic, m, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the strongest type of mimic, and is capable of hiding by disguising itself as an item or dungeon feature—its sticky body can trap the hero if they walk into the disguised mimic or the mimic attacks them. A hero in the form of a giant mimic can stick to other monsters through the same methods, and can also cloak themselves using the #monster extended command.[1]
A giant mimic has a two sticking claw attacks, and possesses acid resistance.
Eating a giant mimic corpse or tin causes the hero to mimic a pile of gold (or an orange if hallucinating) for 50 turns unless they have unchanging, which dismounts them if they are riding and breaks the polyselfless conduct.[2][3][4][5][6] A pet that eats a giant mimic corpse will similarly mimic an item or another monster that they are thinking about for the same amount of turns.[7][8][9] This does not affect armor or worn items in either case, and a hero or pet disguised this way will return to normal prematurely if another monster interacts with the item they are disguised as.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated giant mimics are always created hostile. A giant mimic that is randomly generated will appear disguised as an appropriate item or dungeon feature. A large mimic can grow up into a giant mimic.
In addition to random generation, giant mimics can be generated in the following circumstances:
- Giant mimics may be generated in shops at level creation.[10] A giant mimic created in a shop on dungeon level 9 or higher has a 10 × (10 - DL)% chance of appearing as a strange object, and otherwise has a 2⁄17 chance of appearing as a strange object.
- Two giant mimics disguised as boulders appear on the top floor of Sokoban.
- When entering a new dungeon floor that is not the Rogue level, if the level difficulty is 9 or higher there is a chance of a small mimic disguised as a closed door being created in a doorway, rather than an actual door.[11][12]
- A giant mimic may appear among the four mimics generated on The Mimic of the Mines map of Mines' End at level creation.
- A giant mimic is generated on the home floor of the Rogue quest at level creation, and is placed in one of four random locations where the down stair can appear, with the giant mimic disguised as said down stair.
- Three giant mimics disguised as fountains are generated in four specific locations on Juiblex's swamp at level creation.
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.
Per commit 37f6eee1, the "storeroom" themed room may contain giant mimics disguised as chests.Strategy
Giant mimics are very slow at 3 speed, but hit especially hard for an early-game hero, resulting in death if they carelessly bump into one while shopping or else underestimate the power of their claw attacks. A giant mimic that successfully sticks to an early game hero will likely kill them in short order unless the hero can get loose in time - if encountered early enough, it may be better to leave the shop until it re-cloaks itself, or even avoid the shop altogether until you can secure good enough armor and weapons to survive combat.
Like with other mimics, the giant mimic's low speed can be exploited by most ranged attacks, and attentive players can spot shop mimics that are disguised as strange objects or else imitating items that are not normally sold in that type of shop. To safely uncloak a mimic in a shop, a hero can throw a single gold piece (via t + 1 + $) down the row or column where they suspect it to be: the gold will be added to store credit and can be picked up later without any trouble. Be sure not to anger the shopkeeper by hitting them with the coin! Properties such as warning and telepathy can also reliably detect potential mimics—the article section linked at the top of this section lists other methods of safely uncloaking and fighting mimics.
If a hero ends up stuck to a giant mimic, they can scare it into letting them go e.g. by engraving Elbereth, which they should have several chances to write successfully due to the mimic's low speed. Once Elbereth is correctly engraved (which you can confirm by near looking with :), rest with . until the mimic flees to avoid smudging it; remember that the hero cannot go down a hole or use stairs while stuck. Scaring tools and other similar items can also scare a mimic into letting go of a hero stuck to it.
If fighting a giant mimic in a shop, certain ranged attacks may not be safe: thrown projectiles will become the shop's property if the shop buys or sells the weapon in question, and the wand of striking and force bolt spells can break fragile items in their path; additionally, using ray-type wands or spells can risk the shopkeeper being hit by the rebound, depending on the shop size.
Due to the high amount of experience that giant mimics can give, it is recommended for an early hero to be at experience level 3 or higher before dispatching one to maximize their experience gain.
History
The giant mimic first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, the speed system functions differently: the hero and monsters all move at a consistent rate, meaning that an unhasted and unburdened hero always gets four moves to the mimic's one. This allows for 'hit and run' tactics that can consistently and reliably dispose of mimics with enough care: characters with relatively high starting HP and AC can attack them more safely, and with skilled play even weaker roles can defeat mimics this way while avoiding damage.
In those same versions, shapeshifting from eating a giant mimic corpse or tin does not break polyselfless conduct—this is changed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 0f0a85d0 so that eating a mimic corpse or tin breaks the conduct.
In NetHack 3.6.0 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, an umber hulk's gaze attack will not uncloak giant mimics that it targets—this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit b5a027c3.
Messages
Variants
In variants that incorporate the Convict patch, a giant mimic is generated on the home level of the Convict quest at level creation, and will be disguised as a down stair.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, a giant mimic is generated within the magic trap room in the lair of Asmodeus at level creation.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a giant mimic is generated within the magic trap room in the lair of Asmodeus at level creation, as in UnNetHack.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, two giant mimics are generated on the locate level of the Geek quest, and both are disguised as down stairways.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for mimic.
References
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 527
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1016: the cases are designed to fall through and add the amount of turns together
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1024
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1027
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1029
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1031
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 223
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 350
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1338
- ↑ src/shknam.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 471
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 417
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 425
