Freezing sphere
e freezing sphere 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 91 |
| Speed | 13 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 10 |
| Nutritional value | 10 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | cold resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | cold resistance |
|
A freezing sphere:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 314 |
A freezing sphere, e, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The freezing sphere is a sphere monster that has an affinity to cold and is the only sphere that does not emit light, but behaves mostly like other spheres do otherwise.
A freezing sphere has a cold explosion attack that causes them to self-destruct and blast a single target for 4-24 base damage, which has a dexterity-based chance of dealing reduced damage and is completely blocked by cold resistance.[1][2] Freezing spheres possess cold resistance.
The spellbook of freeze sphere is a deferred feature that teaches a spell the hero can use to create tame freezing spheres.
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 6b60618e, freezing spheres create 3x3 explosions with their attacks that can affect items and other monsters caught within the blast radius: this can shatter and potions, but does not affect the inventory of a hero that is polymorphed into a freezing sphere and explodes using this attack. This is adapted from xNetHack. The freezing sphere's difficulty rating is also raised to 9, with difficulty calculations adjusted via commit c3802343 to fix related discrepancies.
Per commit eb22a810, item destruction caused by cold damage is dependent on the amount of damage dealt, with the amount of items in open inventory that are affected being equal to 1⁄5 of the cold damage inflicted.
Per commit 0eadf8df and commit b25961fb, pets and other monsters can gain intrinsics from killing monsters using digestion attacks, allowing a monster to gain cold resistance by digesting a freezing sphere. Per commit c78e7af0, this also applies to a hero polymorphed into a monster with a digesting attack.Contents
Generation
Randomly generated freezing spheres are always created hostile, and they will not be generated in Gehennom.
A freezing sphere does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Freezing spheres are fairly annoying to deal with, though thankfully their explosion attack cannot destroy any of the hero's inventory. Pets that attack freezing spheres will likely take the explosion in your stead, and cold resistance completely trivializes them. Freezing spheres can also be made to miss if you are invisible or have displacement, and their nonexistent MR score means they can easily be put to sleep or otherwise immobilized, allowing a hero or their pet to kill them before they can explode.
Be sure to keep freezing spheres away from leprechaun halls, treasure zoos and similar rooms that you do not want awakened if possible, and if a zoo contains a freezing sphere, try to save it for last—stealth is valuable for both purposes.
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 9942b65d, extrinsic cold resistance protects the target's open inventory from damage by a freezing sphere explosion 99⁄100 of the time.History
The freezing sphere first appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0—the ice ball is a somewhat similar monster included in the bestiary of Hack 1.21, also based on Jay Fenlason's Hack.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, freezing spheres additionally have sleep resistance and hit as +2 weapons, and they do not generate in Gehennom.
SLASH'EM makes the spellbook of freeze sphere and its spell functional:[3] casting the spell summons a tame freezing sphere with 1 HP, and casting it at Skilled or higher in matter spells can summon multiple spheres.[4][5] These freezing spheres will only exist temporarily, and monsters hit by their explosions are treated as though the hero had attacked them, e.g. awarding them experience for monsters that the sphere kills, angering peaceful monsters and so on.[6] The spell also respects extinction, meaning it has a finite number of uses throughout a given game.
All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, freezing spheres have an on-death explosion similar to gas spores, covering a 3x3 area centered on it that can freeze potions items in the open inventories of anyone caught in the blast—cold resistance blocks HP damage from the explosion, and extrinsic cold resistance also prevents item damage.
Freezing spheres can be warded by the Elder Elemental Eye at any level of reinforcement.
Freezing spheres may be generated in the Lawful Quest, where they will appear on the Paths of Law and within the Arcadian Tower if Oona's elemental affinity is cold. The summon sphere monster spell can summon freezing spheres.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the explosion attack of freezing spheres covers a 3x3 radius, affecting monsters, armor and items caught in the explosion as well as items in the open inventory of the victims—extrinsic cold resistance protects a hero or monster's open inventory from this damage 99⁄100 of the time.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, the spellbook of freeze sphere is made functional and works similar to SLASH'EM.
Reading a scroll of elementalism while confused has a 1⁄4 chance of summoning freezing spheres, which are tame if the scroll was blessed and read by a hero and will otherwise be hostile.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the spellbook of freeze sphere is made functional and works similar to SLASH'EM, and spheres created by the spell are not counted towards the charisma-based limit for pets.
Freezing spheres use explosion attacks and on-death explosions that cover a 3x3 radius centered on its square, freezing potions caught in the explosion.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for sphere.
