Famine
& Famine 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 34 |
| Attacks |
Touch 8d8 plus hunger, Touch 8d8 plus hunger |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1431 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | −5 |
| Base MR | 100 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 1 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | fire, cold, sleep, shock, poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | eating the corpse is an instadeath |
|
Famine:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2761 |
Famine, &, is a unique monster that appears in NetHack. Famine is one of the three Riders: they are strong, have infravision, can see invisible, can be seen via infravision, are capable of flight and regeneration, and will revive from their corpse if destroyed - the revival has a 1⁄3 chance of occurring each turn, with a guaranteed revival after 500 turns, and revival always occurs in response to something that would prevent it otherwise, e.g. a tinning kit is applied to the corpse, something attempts to pick it up, or a boulder is pushed onto its square.[1][2][3][4]
Famine has teleport control, which has a 12⁄13 chance of placing them adjacent to the hero if they are teleported.[5] They also ignore the effects of sanctuary, are unaffected by Elbereth, can unlock doors without an unlocking tool, and can displace other monsters that are in their path unless the monster is occupying a square where a corpse cannot be generated.[6][7]
Famine has two powerful touch attacks that deal damage and inflict hunger, draining 40-80 nutrition points per hit unless the hero is fainting from hunger[8]—if both attacks land, the second attack will stun the hero.[9] The attack has no effect on monsters, though a second successful hit damages and stuns monsters as they do the hero.[10]
Famine possesses many elemental resistances: fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, and stoning resistance. Disintegration will simply cause Famine to instantly reintegrate.
Eating Famine's corpse abuses wisdom and is instantly fatal, including digestion attacks and attempting to eat their brain as a mind flayer or master mind flayer, and Pestilence will immediately revive from its corpse even if the eater survives via life saving.[11][12][13] If the corpse is somehow eaten by a hero without reviving, they always gain teleport control.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 017a8687, Famine's attack deals damage and inflicts disease against monsters unless they are inediate, as part of resolving issue #594.Contents
Generation
Famine is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for polymorph. They are always created with 10d8 maximum HP, and their current maximum HP is preserved upon death for revival.[14]
Famine is always generated on the Astral Plane, where they are placed in the center of one of the three round rooms at level creation.
Famine always leaves a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Famine possesses 100 monster MR and -5 AC, and is generally ranked among the least dangerous of the Riders - this is entirely relative, however, since any of the three Riders are more than capable of ending your game. Unlike Death and Pestilence, which at least have some theoretical forms of resisting their attacks, there is no form of resistance that blocks Famine's hunger-inducing touch. It is common practice for players to obtain food that the hero can eat quickly (e.g. lembas wafers and K-rations) as part of their ascension kit in case they encounter Famine on the last stages of the ascension run, since fainting from hunger is highly likely to be fatal at this juncture - similarly, some heroes will opt to become as satiated as possible before entering the Astral Plane, while others may even decide to polypile for such food, though the abundance of K-rations from barracks (including the Castle at minimum) typically makes this unnecessary.
The quickest way to deal with Famine is to successfully hit them with a wand of death or the finger of death spell - as the primary objective is to find the high altar of the hero's alignment and ascend, it is generally unwise to get bogged down in killing Famine and the Riders repeatedly outside of bragging rights strategies. Like the other Riders, Famine can be dispatched quickly with high damage output, especially from any ranged weapon in order to avoid contending with their hunger-causing touch, and the expensive camera can scare them off. Spellcasting heroes with a high experience level and access to the magic missile spell can bring Famine down in a few shots (especially with rebounds), while heroes with highly-enchanted projectiles can also defeat Famine with a few volleys. Melee-focused heroes can still bring Famine down quickly enough in order to prevent them attacking too often, though this runs a significant risk of enough nutrition drain to leave them at the mercy of the Rider and other surrounding hostiles.
As far as bragging rights go, it is possible to tame Famine using the scroll of taming or charm monster spell after level draining them enough times to lower their monster MR - this typically requires several hits with Stormbringer or The Staff of Aesculapius, since their monster MR makes them immune to the drain life spell.
History
Pestilence first appears in NetHack 3.1.0, which adds the revamped endgame featuring the Riders and the Astral Plane.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on them, a hero can polymorph themself into a green slime and turn Pestilence and the Riders to slime, since the sliming touch attack is not considered magical - similarly, a substantial herd of tamed green slimes stands some chance of turning a Rider into a slime, although this is only somewhat less risky; in either case, the resulting green slime can then be tamed. Additionally, a hostile gelatinous cube can engulf Rider corpses without trying to digest them, allowing the hero to steal them from the cube's inventory using a nymph polyself: a hero that can lift 1450 units of weight can use several methods to dispose of the stolen corpse permanently, such as placing it in a cursed bag of holding and then repeatedly looting it without using up any further turns.
NetHack 3.6.0 makes Pestilence and the Riders immune to sliming and polymorph, prevents gelatinous cubes from engulfing their corpses, and grants the Riders their ability to displace other monsters.
The inability for Pestilence and the Riders to displace monsters located on squares that cannot have corpses created on them (such as a closed door) is added in NetHack 3.6.3, in order to ensure that Rider corpses are created when they are killed.
Origin
Famine is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (or the Riders of the Apocalypse), who appear in The Book of Revelation, the last book of most common versions of the Christian Bible. The Horseman of Famine in particular is portrayed as an emaciated man holding balance scales, symbolising how bread was weighed during a famine. The sixth chapter of the book has verses describing Famine and the other Riders as they appear when the Lamb (representing Jesus) opens six of the seven seals of the Apocalypse—these quotes are cited from the New International Version:
- I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, 'A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!'
- Revelation 6:5-6, describing Famine.
- They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
- Revelation 6:8-9
Messages
- <The monster> belches feebly, shrivels up and dies!
- A monster tried to digest Pestilence and immediately died.[16]
Variants
Some variants of NetHack make significant changes to Death and the other Riders, some of which are in line with their origin.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, hitting Famine with a potion of amnesia has no other effect beyond printing YAFM:
- Famine looks unusually hungry!
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Famine and the other Riders generate with three times as much health, and cannot be identified as specific monsters (e.g. via far look) until they enter the hero's line of sight, which reveals their identity.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, Famine and the other Riders are all male primordials, and are additionally made amphibious and breathless, given death resistance, and will turn traitor if somehow tamed. If the hero is a Binder, then 3 Binah sephiroth are generated whenever Famine or any Rider is generated or revived.
Attempting to sacrifice Famine to The Black Mother will anger her and revive the Rider as usual.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Famine and the other Riders have their monster levels raised to 40 and are given psychic resistance and immunity to sickness, and they generate with 100 + 10d8 HP. They are capable of instantly destroying boulders that block their path on each turn, and will instantly kill tiny monsters rather than displace them to get to the hero.
Famine is generated atop the Black Horse, a unique monster that serves as their steed.
Encyclopedia entry
[Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals,
and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four
beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white
horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given
unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
[War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the
second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another
horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon
to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
[Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the
third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black
horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his
hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,
A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley
for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
[Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and
behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,
and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over
the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
References
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1880: revive_mon function
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1900: cases for Rider revival
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1201: In practice, unless there is something wrong with the RNG, this 500-turn limit will never be hit.
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1432: Teleporting a dead Rider always revives them
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1576
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1589
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 820
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1629: AD_FAMN damage type
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 293: prevent double doinks from disease and hunger attacks
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1449: Unhandled cases default to 0 damage
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 553: brain-eating against Riders
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 715: eating Rider corpses
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 905: digesting Riders
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 994
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 949
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 908
