Water moccasin
S water moccasin 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d6 poison |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 48 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 150 |
| Nutritional value | 80 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison (27%) |
|
A water moccasin:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1760 |
A water moccasin, S, is a type of monster that appear in NetHack. It is a type of snake that is nearly identical to the standard snake, but is somewhat heavier. Water moccasins can swim and will hide under items like most snakes.
A water moccasin has a single poisonous bite attack, and possesses poison resistance.
A water moccasin corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating a snake corpse or tin has a roughly 3⁄11 chance of conveying poison resistance.
Generation
Water moccasins are not randomly generated, and are always created hostile.
Water moccasins can only be generated by dipping or quaffing from a fountain, which has a 1⁄30 chance of generating a group of 2-6 water moccasins.[1] While water moccasins are designated as generating in large group, this only applies to random generation: in addition to water moccasins not using random generation, fountain generation is a separate set of code.
Strategy
Individually, water moccasins are similar enough to snakes that they can be dispatched through the same methods - however, the normal method of encountering moccasins will usually result in a character being surrounded by quite a few of them. This makes it a potent source of deaths for unsuspecting low-level characters - moccasins were once the fourth most frequent cause of death on nethack.alt.org (next to soldier ants, jackals, and wands), and it is common for some users to exclaim "Go team fountain!" when a water moccasin death is announced in the #nethack channel on Libera.
One of the easiest ways for a character to deal with water moccasins is to simply avoid interacting with fountains until they have poison resistance and a means of effectively dealing with the snakes or escaping otherwise. Pools of water generated previously by the same fountain can impede escape - engraving Elbereth can work as an escape tactic, the fountain square cannot be engraved on and moving to a free square may be enough time for one of the moccasins to poison a character. Water moccasins from the fountains in Delphi can easily trap the player, due to the lack of open adjacent squares.
Origin
Water moccasins are a species of venomous snake well known in the southeastern United States.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for snake.
