Deepest one (dNetHack)
H deepest one 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 35 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 3d8 physical, offhand weapon 3d8 physical, kick 5d6 physical, passive 0d0 shared soul |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1586 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | -5 |
| Base MR | 70 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1000 |
| Size | huge |
| Resistances | cold resistance, sleep resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | sleep resistance (+10,000) |
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A deepest one:
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| Reference | dNAO 3.25.0 - src/monst.c, line 4317 |
- For the monster in SLASH'EM and its related variants, see deepest one (SLASH'EM).
A deepest one, H, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The deepest one is a type of huge-sized, omnivorous giant humanoid that is an even stronger variation of the deep one with almost all of the same traits and attributes as the deeper one: deepest ones are also thick-skinned and giant as well as human, can tear through webs and break open locked doors, and are overlords to their kind. Seeing a deepest one can lower the hero's sanity and increase their insight. Tame deepest ones may turn traitor.
Being attacked by a deepeest one or any of its growth stages, or else witnessing either Father Dagon or Mother Hydra reincarnate from the body of a deepest one, can increase the hero's deep one-specific impurity with a 1⁄n chance (where n is the current impurity level)—reaching impurity levels of 1, 4 and 15 for this counter will also increase the hero's overall impurity.
Deepest ones have a weapon attack, an offhand weapon attack, a strong kick attack, and a passive attack that triggers on death and raises the current maximum HP of every other deep one-related monster that is on the current dungeon level, increasing their monster level if necessary—this applies to the deepest one's growth stages, as well as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, and deepest ones themselves gain +8 HP when this passive from any deep one-related monster triggers. If Father Dagon or Mother Hydra are killed, they will reincarnate by transforming from the deepest one of the matching gender that the hero has encountered the earliest outside of the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest), with that deepest one's level and HP being raised to the appropriate values first. Deepest ones have skilled prowess in martial combat, and possess sleep resistance and cold resistance.
Eating a deepest one corpse or tin–or quaffing its blood–grants temporary sleep resistance for a duration of 10,000 turns before physical size modifiers.
Deepest ones can be warded by a fully-reinforced Elder Sign.
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated deepest ones are always created hostile, and will not be randomly generated in Gehennom. A deeper one can grow up into a deepest one, and becoming a deepest one this way will not destroy or re-size the monster's worn armor.
A deepest one that is randomly generated will always have a group of 10–19 deep ones and 3–12 deeper ones accompanying them.
A deepest one may appear as the ruler of a randomly-generated throne room, and their court can contain deep ones, deeper ones, humans, mind flayers, dark young, and umber hulks, as well as stumbling, wandering, and shambling horrors.
Deepest ones are among the various H.P. Lovecraft-inspired r'lyehians that can appear in the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest, making up 9⁄80 of the monsters randomly generated on those quests. A deepest one is also generated on the locate level of the Anachrononaut quest during level creation.
Lillends generated on the Plane of Water and the Astral Plane may be generated with deepest one masks, which also enables them to use the deepest one's attacks.
Monster starting inventory
Deepest ones are generated with different equipment depending on their location in the dungeon.
- Deepest ones generated in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut and Android quests) are created with a gigantic +7 misty and slithering mineral quarterstaff; a huge sniper rifle and a stack of 18 huge erosion-proofed +7 bullets; a huge set of +5 gold plate mail; a huge pair of +5 golden gauntlets; a huge pair of +5 golden armored boots; and a huge golden amulet of life saving.
- Deepest ones generated on R'lyeh–the lowest floor of the Lost Cities and the Neutral Quest–are created with: a huge erosion-proofed +9 trident; a huge erosion-proofed +9 ranseur; a huge crossbow and 18 huge erosion-proofed +9 crossbow bolts; a huge erosion-proofed +9 copper shield of reflection; two randomly-selected potions from a potion of acid, confusion, blindness, sleeping, or paralysis, with acid having twice as much chance of being selected as the other potions; and two randomly-selected uncursed items from a potion of invisibility, speed, confusion, gain level, extra healing, or a scroll of remove curse.
- Deepest ones generated elsewhere in the dungeon have a 5⁄6 chance of being created with at least one weapon, with an equal probability for each of the following weapon sets: a huge +3 erosion-proofed two-handed sword; 2 huge +3 erosion-proofed scimitars (for two-weaponing); a single huge +3 erosion-proofed scimitar; a huge +3 erosion-proofed trident paired with a huge +3 erosion-proofed knife; or a huge +3 erosion-proofed knife.
Strategy
Deepest ones always bring swarms of their lesser kin along when generated normally, and their "shared soul" passive means that killing each of the group increases the HP of the others—there is no feedback for a deep one growing up from this effect, so be especially careful when dealing with these squads. This also applies to peaceful or even tamed deepest ones, so taking advantage of this is a great way to beef up a pet deeper one, but also increases the risk of it turning traitor and becoming hostile: a tame deepest one can also provide a very nasty if Dagon or Hydra incarnates through the pet after the hero kills either of them!
Deepest ones can generate on the Plane of Water, and since they and their kin cannot be removed by genocide, a hero on the ascension run will have to either clear them and their entourage out or else avoid them while searching for the magic portal. They also represent a significant hazard for heroes that attempt to preemptively genocide sea monsters before entering the Plane, since they are highly likely to replace the missing sea monsters during initial level generation: such preemptive genocides are a bad idea since this all but ensures that the hero will be swarmed by fairly tanky and high-difficulty monsters which become even stronger if any of them are killed,—this effect will be more pronounced if the hero entered R'lyeh earlier in that run.
Combined with the Plane of Water and its moving air bubbles, the outcome is likely to be disastrous for most ascension runs—even if the deep ones are not the biggest threats present (e.g. contending with Uiscerre Eladrin and charybdisones that cannot be genocided), Hydra and Dagon appearing as a result of incarnating into a deepest one on this level is immensely perilous if not handled correctly, since the other deep ones may grow up enough that Hydra and Dagon will be able to reincarnate from them as well. Additionally, higher concentrations of deep ones mean that iron-hating heroes such as elves, drow and yuki-onna are especially vulnerable to swarms of them.
History
The deeper one first appears in the Lethe patch against NetHack 3.3.1, where it is a humanoid-class monster that is huge rather than a giant humanoid.
Origin
The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's 1931 novella The Shadow over Innsmouth, but were already hinted at in the 1917 short story "Dagon". The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy appearance, and the males would regularly mate with human women against their will, creating societies of hybrids along the coast.
Despite being primarily marine creatures, Deep Ones can survive on land for extended periods of time and possess biological immortality, never dying except by accident or violence. The Deep One portrayed in Dagon is of a vastly larger size than the roughly human-scaled beings seen in Innsmouth, and the wider Cthulhu Mythos implies that Deep Ones continuously grow throughout their lives, hence their size changing when they grow up in SLASH'EM and other variants.
Encyclopedia entry
It was the pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me
spellbound. Plainly visible across the intervening water on
account of their enormous size, were an array of bas-reliefs
whose subjects would have excited the envy of Dore. I think that
these things were supposed to depict men-at least, a certain
sort of men; though the creatures were shewn disporting like
fishes in waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some
monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well.
Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail; for the
mere remembrance makes me grow faint. Curiously enough, they
seemed to have been chiselled badly out of proportion with their
scenic background; for one of the creatures was shewn in the act
of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself.
No Deep One dies naturally. The longer it lives, the larger
it grows, and it can become exceptionally large.
a Field Observer's handbook of preternatural entities ]
