Iron golem

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An iron golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the strongest of the golem monster class, and will seek out and pick up items such as weapons and food.

An iron golem has a strong weapon attack and a breath weapon that can spew a trail of lingering poison clouds. Iron golems possess fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, and shock resistance damage - shock damage slows down an iron golem, while fire heals it.[1] An iron golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[2]

A hero polymorphed into an iron golem can use the #monster extended command to breathe a stream of poison clouds for 15 energy.

An iron golem is instantly destroyed if submerged in water or hit by rust traps, which deals damage equal to the iron golem's maximum HP (which is affected by half physical damage).[3] This also applies to a hero polymorphed into an iron golem, and dying in this manner returns them to normal form, even if they are wearing an amulet of unchanging.[4][5] The iron golem is the only monster that can be damaged by a rust monster's touch attack, which instakills them and has the same effects as water on a hero in the form of an iron golem.[6][7]

Generation

Randomly generated iron golems are always created hostile. Iron golems are always generated with 80 hit points, which is the most among golems.[8]

Iron golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough iron, metal or mithril objects in a pile of items.[9] Hostile iron golems can be created by the summon nasties monster spell.[10]

A randomly generated iron golem has a 514 chance of being generated with any one of the default weapon sets for strong weapon-using monsters: a battle axe, a two-handed sword, a bow and 3-14 arrows, a long sword, or a lucern hammer.[11] They are not eligible for a random offensive item.

Iron golems drop several iron chains upon death.[12] They are not a valid target for genocide.

Strategy

A hero should be more than prepared to deal with their poison breath by the time they encounter iron golems, barring an early polypiling accident - non-poison resistant pets (if any) may not be, and will likely perish if allowed to remain in or near the poison clouds for too long. Iron golems themselves can hit quite hard and have the second best AC among golems, but are also just as slow as any of them at 6 speed; heroes that reach the point of encountering iron golems via normal generation should have little trouble making short work of them. In certain cases, turning an iron golem into a stone one can also work to significantly weaken them.

History

The iron golem first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

Messages

The iron golem falls to pieces!
An iron golem was hit by a rust monster or rust trap.
May <pet> rust in peace.
As above, but the golem was your pet.

Variants

In variants that incorporate the Convict role, two iron golems appear on the Convict quest: one is found in the southwestern "supplies" room on the locate level, and another guards the entrance to Warden Arianna's lair on the goal level.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, iron golems alwys generate with 240 HP.[13]

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, a peaceful iron golem is generated in the forest within the Ruins of Moria. It is always generated with an axe and has independent chances of generating with any of the following items: a tin opener (12 chance), a can of grease (15 chance) and/or a tinning kit (320 chance).

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, iron golems generate with one of three iron weapon sets (with an equal probability of each): a glaive and a battle-axe; a spetum and a dwarvish mattock; or a bec de corbin and a war hammer. Iron golems may drop iron bars upon death in addition to iron chains.

Argentum golems and Center of All are healed by fire and slowed by shock damage, similar to iron golems.

References