Fungus or mold
The fungus or mold is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase F glyph (F). Fungi and molds are designated internally by the macro S_FUNGUS
.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- F lichen
- F brown mold
- F yellow mold
- F green mold
- F red mold
- F shrieker
- F violet fungus
Contents
Common traits
All fungi and molds are neutral. They are unbreathing, inediate and mindless monsters that lack limbs, eyes or a head, and do not have any MR score; they all possess poison resistance except for the lichen and green mold, and cannot be seen via infravision except for the red mold. A hero that polymorphs into a fungus or mold gains immunity to sickness in addition to the monster's other traits.[3] Fungi and mold corpses and tins are considered vegan food, and is acceptable for herbivorous and omnivorous monsters.
Fungi
The fungi consist of the lichen, shrieker and violet fungus, which all have the minimum possible speed of 1—the lichen and violet fungus use touch attacks, while the shrieker has no attacks at all and simply shrieks intermittently, which can wake sleeping monsters and cause other monsters to generate.
Molds
The molds consist of the brown, yellow, green, and red molds—they are all sessile and only possess a passive attack and intrinsic resistances that usually correspond to their color:
- Brown molds have a passive cold attack and possess poison and cold resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant either resistance.
- Yellow molds have a passive stun attack and possess poison resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant poison resistance, but the corpse is poisonous and both it and the tin always cause hallucination.
- Green molds have a passive acid attack and possess acid resistance and stoning resistance. Eating their tin or corpse does not grant either resistance, but can abort stoning (though the acidic corpse will also deal damage).
- Red molds have a passive fire attack and possess poison and fire resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant either resistance.
Generation
All randomly generated fungi and molds are created hostile.
Fungi and molds are generated in swamps.[4]
Body parts
Fungus refers to the grouping of body parts for the forms of rhyzomic life. It affects the messages referring to the appropriate body parts as follows:[5]
Bodypart[6] | Description |
---|---|
Arm | Mycelium |
Eye | Visual area |
Face | Front |
Finger | Hypha |
Fingertip | Hypha |
Foot | Root |
Hand | Strand |
Handed | Stranded |
Head | Cap area |
Leg | Rhizome |
Light headed | Sporulated |
Neck | Stalk |
Spine | Root |
Toe | Rhizome tip |
Hair | Spores |
Blood | Juices |
Lung | Gill |
Nose | Gill |
Stomach | Interior |
Strategy
Most fungi and molds are not especially dangerous, unless an early hero is careless in attacking any of the molds: the most troublesome that monsters from this class can become involve situations where either a mold blocks a hero's path, or else a shrieker manages to summon an out-of-depth purple worm with its shrieking. Otherwise, even the weakest of heroes can typically handle any fungus or mold they come across; any form of ranged attack will suffice for dealing with the stationary molds in particular, even junk such as rocks or spare orcish daggers. Early pets may have trouble with molds due to lacking a ranged attack, and unfortunate ones may end up taking more damage passively than they can successfully deal.
Many fungi and molds have a low chance of granting useful resistances from eating their corpses or tins, making it a good idea for a hero to eat the safer ones, especially if trying to obtain poison resistance in particular; for vegan heroes, they make up about half of the suitable corpses that resistances can be obtained from. Fungi and mold corpses that are safe can also be used to feed herbivorous pets, such as the starting pony of a Knight.
History
The fungus or mold monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, which adds the four mold types.
From Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack to NetHack 2.3e, violet fungi (known as the "violet fungus" if the KAA compile-time option is set) use the v glyph—NetHack 3.0.0 moves the violet fungus to the monster class and gives it its current name and glyph.
The shrieker is added to the monster class in NetHack 3.1.0, and the lichen is added in NetHack 3.3.0.
Variants
SLASH'EM
Fungi in SLASH'EM behave somewhat differently than in vanilla. The first change is that any fungus that leaves a corpse, other than a lichen, has a 90% chance of reviving in the same manner as a troll;[7] however, fungi only leave corpses 1/3 of the time. The second change is that fungi may grow on old corpses, as opposed to the corpse simply rotting away over time.
Lastly, there are two new types of mold, black and disgusting, which are dangerous to new players but whose corpses are safe to eat and may provide poison resistance.
Growth from corpses
After 51 turns, there is a 50% chance that a fungus will grow from an old corpse,[8] as long as the corpse is not "in adverse conditions";[9] specifically, the corpse must not be acidic[10] or located within/on top of water, ice, or lava.
The fungus grown will be a random member of the fungus class, biased towards sessile fungi,[11] and will destroy the corpse via its growth:
Fungus | Likelihood |
---|---|
Brown | 14.8% |
Green | 14.8% |
Red | 14.8% |
Yellow | 14.8% |
Black | 14.8% |
Disgusting | 14.8% |
Violet fungus | 3.7% |
Shrieker | 3.7% |
Lichen | 3.7% |
Strategy
Only 1 in 54 eligible corpses will grow into a lichen, and those themselves only leave corpses 1 time in 3. Thus, it is best to eat corpses if you are hungry, and farm for lichens only if you are satiated, the corpse is poisonous or else is thought to be old and tainted.
It may also be useful to eat larger corpses for the extra nutrition, and leave small ones for mold growth; only one mold may grow on a corpse, regardless of size, and corpses of small creatures tend to give negligible amounts of nutrition.
However, for monks, farming may be a good idea in order to keep the vegetarian conduct.
SporkHack
SporkHack introduces the F gray fungus, which has a passive disease attack.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds some new fungi:[12]
- F volatile mushrooms are explosive
- F screamers can deal sonic damage
- Moldiers are humanoid fungi that can use items
Fungi grow on corpses, similar to SLASH'EM.[13]
All fungi receive an extra d6 damage from copper.[14][15][16]
Encyclopedia entry
Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
stems, roots, and leaves. Unlike algae, fungi cannot
photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes. The
division comprises the slime molds and true fungi. True
fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
filaments, or hyphae. All fungi are capable of asexual
reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
spores. Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one. The
four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
and ringworm). Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
production.
References
- ↑ include/monsym.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 46
- ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1295
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 77: immunity to sickness is not defined elsewhere, and AD_DISE has no cases laid out in mhitm.c so monsters cannot become ill
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 542
- ↑ polyself.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1177
- ↑ hack.h in NetHack 3.4.3, line 226
- ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 764
- ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 765
- ↑ do.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1685
- ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 811
- ↑ do.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1680
- ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/Spl-R-1.1.0/src/monst.c
- ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/Spl-R-1.1.0/src/do.c#L2016
- ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/b3a1427a43fd6ecc6088129e72ac594a1d3e531f/src/mondata.c#L348
- ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/b3a1427a43fd6ecc6088129e72ac594a1d3e531f/src/mondata.c#L340
- ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/Spl-R-1.1.0/src/uhitm.c#L844
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