Lieutenant

@ lieutenant
Difficulty	12
Attacks	Weapon 3d4 physical, weapon 3d4 physical

@ lieutenant
Difficulty	12
Attacks	Weapon 3d4 physical, weapon 3d4 physical
Base level	10
Base experience	221
Speed	10
Base AC	10
Base MR	15
Alignment	−4 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
A lieutenant: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is a human. is a member of the Yendorian army. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is strong. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line2251

A lieutenant, @, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The lieutenant is a chaotic-aligned human fighter that is the second-highest ranked fighter in the Yendorian army, which informally refers to a group of human mercenaries that are directly employed by the Wizard of Yendor.

Lieutenants are strong and omnivorous, can be seen via infravision, will pick up any weapons, armor, food, and other items that they come across, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent. Applying a bugle will cause lieutenants that hear it to awaken from any sleep, end any paralysis or scaring, and turn hostile if they are currently not—any lieutenants and other non-guard mercenaries that have a bugle will play it to awaken, unscare and/or unparalyze any nearby army fighters, with the same effect as the hero playing a bugle. A lieutenant cannot be made tame, only becoming peaceful instead. As a mercenary, they have a ²⁄₃ chance of being pacified by a bribe, with the lieutenant having a base value of 500zm for acceptable bribes.

A lieutenant has two weapon attacks.

Generation

Lieutenants are always generated hostile, and are not a valid polymorph form. A sergeant can grow up into a lieutenant, and a lieutenant can grow up into a captain.

A barracks has a ¹⁄₂₅ chance of generating a sleeping lieutenant on each square at level creation, including the following:

• The barracks within the Tourist quest
• The one located at the east end of Fort Ludios
• The guaranteed pair of barracks in the Castle

A lieutenant is placed in the main area of Fort Ludios at level creation.

A lieutenant is placed in the entry hall of the Castle at level creation.

Monster starting inventory

As mercenaries, lieutenants have more specific generation rules than most other monsters.

A lieutenant will be generated with either a broadsword or a long sword as their primary weapon with roughly equal probability. Default generation for mercenaries means that a lieutenant also has a ¹⁄₄ chance of being given a dagger as a primary weapon and a ¹⁄₇ chance of being given a spear as a secondary weapon, and any lieutenant that has a primary weapon other than a dagger and no secondary weapon then has a ¹⁄₄ chance of being given a knife as their secondary weapon.

For armor, a lieutenant has a target AC of -2 and may receive the following armor:

• They have a ⁴⁄₅ chance of receiving body armor that counts for 7 points of their target AC and will either be plate mail (⁴⁄₅ chance) or crystal plate mail (¹⁄₅ chance).
  • If neither standard or crystal plate mail is given, they have a ⁴⁄₅ chance of receiving either splint mail (²⁄₃ chance) or banded mail (¹⁄₃ chance) that counts for 6 points of their target AC.
  • If neither splint nor banded mail is given, they have a ⁴⁄₅ chance of receiving either ring mail (²⁄₃ chance) or studded leather armor (¹⁄₃ chance) that counts for 3 points of their target AC. Otherwise, they will be given leather armor that counts for 2 points of their target AC.
• They have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a helmet that counts for 1 point of their target AC. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a dented pot that counts for 1 point of their target AC.
• They have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a small shield that counts for 1 point of their target AC. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a large shield that counts for 2 points of their target AC.
• They have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a pair of low boots that counts for 1 point of their target AC. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a pair of high boots that counts for 2 points of their target AC.
• They have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a pair of leather gloves that counts for 1 point of their target AC. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a leather cloak that counts for 1 point of their target AC.

Finally, a lieutenant has a ¹⁄₃ chance of generating with a K-ration, a separate ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with a C-ration, and a separate ¹⁄₃ chance of generating with a bugle. All lieutenants are eligible for offensive items, defensive items and miscellaneous items.

Strategy

Lieutenants are fairly tough to face in solo combat, let alone while surrounded by their lower-ranking comrades: as with other military fighters, drawing them into a corridor is effective for both reducing vulnerability and thinning their ranks, especially if other hostile fighters zap attack wands at them to get to you. While a wand of death is rare enough that reflection or magic resistance are not strictly required, said wands can still be a danger to the hero. Additionally, be mindful of leaving chickatrice and cockatrice corpses around lieutenants with gloves (especially in the Castle or within Gehennom), and have lizard corpses or other cures for stoning ready to go in case.

Lieutenants possess the same movement speed of 10 as the rest of the Yendor military and have a low MR score of 15, so while poisoned weapons, poison attacks and various forms of magic remain effective against them, they may occasionally resist such effects. Lieutenants that generate with a bugle or else pick one up can apply it if any of their fellow fighters nearby are scared or immobilized, which can wake up entire barracks and ruin stealth-based approaches while scaring pets—this may also awaken other nearby monsters as well if the combat itself does not do so.

Leftover equipment from lieutenants make a good source of polyfodder, as well as possible replacements for any eroded or lower-enchantment armor that you or a pet may have—a lieutenant's long sword can make for a good offhand weapon if the hero can perform two weapon combat, and can be used to dip for Excalibur if they have not yet obtained the artifact. Strong humanoid pets will also appreciate the armor as well as a good-quality long sword.

The rations dropped by a lieutenant make for good nutrition sources, though a human hero should make sure they do not eat a lieutenant corpse by accident while trying to pluck their rations off the ground if they are in a hurry—similarly, one that is polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer should not attack them in melee if they want to avoid cannibalism penalties. Human Cavepeople and heroes of other races can eat lieutenant corpses safely for half the nutrition of a standard food ration, while chaotic human heroes can use them as same-race sacrifices to summon major demons and raise their luck—a human hero that is not chaotic or a Caveperson can still use the corpse to feed any meat-eating pets.

Though not commonly employed, bribery can be used can be used to block off a hallway using a pacified lieutenant, since hostile monsters will not route their movement past peaceful ones. This can help a hero herd and eliminate groups of monsters with other crowd control strategies, including pounding and casting skilled fireball or cone of cold—it will not stop teleporting or covetous foes, however, and breath weapons and other ranged attacks can still kill the sergeant. Additionally, lieutenants require much more gold to be bribed than soldiers and sergeants.

History

The lieutenant first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.1.3, including some variants based on those versions, lieutenants and other mercenaries have their intended target AC recorded in their monster data, with code in makemon.c set to outfit them with armor that matches the target AC—any difference is compensated for by equipping that monster with a ring of protection whose enchantment is equivalent to that difference, with the ring being cursed if that difference was negative (i.e. a lieutenant's equipment took them above their target AC). Additionally, from NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.1.3, lieutenants only appear if the ARMY and MUSE compile-time options are both defined: if only the former is defined, then they are replaced by unarmored soldiers.

NetHack 3.2.0 phases out the unarmored soldier and makes MUSE a default feature while also establishing the modern mechanism of equipment generation for mercenaries, removing the ring of protection from the process.

From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.3.0, lieutenants and other Yendorian army monsters move at a much slower speed of 4—in NetHack 3.3.1, their speed is boosted to 10.

From NetHack 3.0.4 to NetHack 3.0.6, lieutenants and other Yendorian army members use the @ glyph—lieutenants are the only ones to retain this glyph color in NetHack 3.0.7, while all other military fighters are given different colors.

From NetHack 3.2.0 to NetHack 3.3.1, lieutenants and other Yendorian army monsters can generate with elven cloaks—the leather cloak is introduced in NetHack 3.4.0 to resolve this incongruity, as stated in that version's bugfix list.

Messages

"Resistance is useless!"

"You're dog meat!"

"Surrender!"

You were chatting to a hostile lieutenant.

Variants

In some variants of NetHack, lieutenants are treated as racial monsters.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, barracks will not be randomly generated under normal circumstances due to a bug that reverses the check for genocided monsters, meaning that barracks will only appear if soldiers specifically are genocided—such barracks will consist mostly of random monsters alongside a few lieutenants and other army members. Predefined barracks such as those in the Castle will appear normally, as in NetHack.

In the black market, Yendorian army officers are called in place of the Keystone Kops if the hero steals anything, with lieutenants generated in place of Kop Lieutenants.

The lieutenant's starting weapons are changed drastically if the FIREARMS compile-time option is defined: Their primary weapon has a roughly equal probability of being either a heavy machine gun with 3 different stacks of 3–52 bullets as ammo, or a submachine gun with 2 different stacks of 3–32 bullets as ammo. Their secondary weapon will be either a knife or a dagger with roughly equal probability. Lieutenants will also be given two stacks of grenades, and both stacks will be either frag grenades or gas grenades with roughly equal probability. If FIREARMS is not defined, lieutenants will be given either a flail or a mace as their primary weapon with roughly equal probability, similar to sergeants.

The lieutenant's armor selection, starting food, chance of a bugle, and their fall-through cases for daggers, spears and knives are all applied as in NetHack.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, lieutenants and other Yendorian army fighters are racial monsters, and can be generated as any applicable race.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Yendorian army officers are called in place of the Keystone Kops if the hero steals anything in the black market, with lieutenants generated in place of Kop Lieutenants.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, lieutenants are lawful rather than chaotic, and their second weapon attack uses their off-hand weapon. Lieutenants have skilled prowess in martial combat and a full base attack bonus of +1 to-hit per level, can command accompanying soldiers and sergeants fighting alongside them to increase their damage and accuracy, and can be similarly commanded by captains to gain damage and accuracy boosts.

The top two floors of the Arcadian Tower in the Law quest will each generate one lieutenant accompanied by three soldiers at level creation. The top of the Platinum Dragon Tower, which shares a level with the top of the Arcadian Tower, generates two sleeping lieutenants at level creation.

Lieutenants may appear among the random @ that are part of the first quest monster class for Binders and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Binder quest. One lieutenant is also randomly placed on the locate level of the Binder quest at level creation.

Lieutenants may additionally appear among the random @ that are part of the second standard quest monster class for Nobles and make up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the default Noble quest. One lieutenant is also generated on the default Noble quest's goal level at level creation.

One lieutenant is placed randomly on the locate level of the Pirate quest at level creation, accompanied by nine soldiers.

In the Tourist quest, the Kop Lieutenants placed within the "police station" structure on the goal level are replaced by lieutenants, as dNetHack replaces the Keystone Kop monster class.

The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth maps for the Castle each have one lieutenant generated in the entrance hall at level creation, while the second map generates two in its entrance hall.

Lieutenants in dNetHack have their starting inventory changed significantly:

• For their primary weapon, lieutenants have a roughly equal probability of generating with either a broadsword or a long sword as in NetHack. They also have a roughly equal probability of being given either a short sword or a bow with 3–38 arrows as ammo.
• As in NetHack, default generation for mercenaries means that a lieutenant also has a ¹⁄₄ chance of being given a dagger as a primary weapon and a ¹⁄₇ chance of being given a spear as a secondary weapon, and any lieutenant that has a primary weapon other than a dagger and no secondary weapon then has a ¹⁄₄ chance of being given a knife as their secondary weapon.
• For armor, lieutenants that are generated in the Law quest are always created with harmonium plate, a harmonium helm, a pair of harmonium gauntlets, and a pair of harmonium boots. Otherwise, they are given armor for each slot as detailed below, with the base AC for each given piece of armor counted towards their target AC of -2:
  • For their suit, they have a ⁴⁄₅ chance of receiving plate mail. Otherwise, if they are not given plate mail, they have the same chance of receiving splint mail, banded mail, ring mail, studded leather armor, or leather armor as in NetHack.
  • For their helm, they have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a helmet, a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a leather helm if they are not given a helmet, and a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being given a war hat if they are not given a leather helm.
  • For their shield, they have the same chance of being given a buckler or a kite shield as they do in NetHack, with both items being equivalent to the small shield and large shield respectively. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a roundshield if they are not given either of the aforementioned shields.
  • For their boots, they have the same chance of being given a pair of low boots or high boots as they do in NetHack. Otherwise, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a pair of armored boots if they are not given either of the aforementioned boots.
  • For their gloves, they have a ²⁄₃ chance of being given a pair of gloves, and a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a pair of gauntlets if they are not given standard gloves.
  • For their cloak, they have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being given a standard cloak.
• Lieutenants have the same chance of being given C-rations and K-rations as in NetHack, but this chance does not apply if they are placed on level creation (including generation in barracks), are generated in the Law quest, or are created as zombies. They also have the same chance of generating with a bugle as in NetHack.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, lieutenants and other Yendorian army fighters are racial monsters and can be generated as any applicable race.

Encyclopedia entry

The soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war, many trained by the Wizard himself. Some say the soldiers are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured, and put under the Wizard's spell. Those who have survived encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons, and are fierce fighters. Because of the load of their combat gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing so is considered a wise thing.