Agent

@ agent
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Weapon 1d4 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing

@ agent
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Weapon 1d4 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing, Claw 1d1 amulet-stealing
Base level	6
Base experience	69
Speed	18
Base AC	10
Base MR	10
Alignment	-7 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	No
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	causes teleportitis (60%)
A agent: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. can teleport. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is strong. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision. does not appear in Gehennom.
Reference	EvilHack - monst.c, line 2895

An agent, @, is a type of monster that appears in EvilHack and Hack'EM. They are strong human minions that possess the ability to teleport randomly, and possess a weapon attack and three claw attacks which are all capable of stealing the Amulet of Yendor, The Idol of Moloch or other unique items; they will also seek out the Amulet if it is left on the floor.

Eating an agent corpse or tin has a ³⁄₅ chance of conveying teleportitis.

Generation

Agents only appear in Infidel games, and are always generated hostile; their difficulty is deliberately lowered compared to what their abilities suggest. Agents will not be randomly generated in Gehennom, and are not valid forms for polymorph.

An agent generates with either a short sword (³⁄₄ chance) or a dagger (¹⁄₄ chance), a potion of invisibility, and a ¹⁄₃ chance of standard armor.

Strategy

While not physically powerful, agents are an early-game nuisance for Infidels due to their ability to steal the Amulet and warp away. Their theft attack can also steal other items, ensuring they remain a nuisance well into the later stages of the game - it is possible to fool them into stealing a mundane, similar-looking figurine rather than The Idol of Moloch.

Encyclopedia entry

It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked
doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how
and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare double-O
prefix -- the licence to kill in the Secret Service -- it was his
duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened,
it happened. Regret was unprofessional -- worse, it was
death-watch beetle in the soul.
[ Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming ]