Talk:Unicorn
What's the best way to get a co-aligned unicorn out of the way in Sokoban without killing it (or doing anything else that would cause a luck penalty)? I zapped it with a wand of teleportation. While that did get it out of the way, it became angry at me and started attacking the next time I saw it. --MadDawg2552 19:35, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
- Got a pet? The pet could kill it. Ring of conflict also works if there are other enemies present. I'm curious why you can't just get the unicorn to walk away from you, though. They're pretty good at that naturally. --Mogri 22:21, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
- The problem I was having was that I was trying to push a boulder down the hallway to the last pit and the unicorn would not leave the hallway. In Sokoban, there is not very much room to move around in, so it was either kill the unicorn or teleport it somewhere. The other option was to sit and wait, but it could be hundreds of turns before the unicorn found its way out of there. The pet thing could work, though, if you have a pet strong enough to kill a unicorn. --MadDawg2552 23:14, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
- Well, (this is a bit late, I know), I'd suggest simply destroying the boulder. Why? -1 luck is irrelevant. Your luck changes towards 0 whenever turns%600, so -1 luck really stays at most 599 turns. If you have a luckstone and want to keep your luck up, you're overdoing it a bit -- holding luckstone alone is +3 luck, and at that point any identified gem chucked at the unicorn is +5 luck and doesn't go away. Heck, even #named gems are +2. So: Destroy the boulder, throw a gem at the unicorn. You can even calm the unicorn by throwing a rock at it.--Renx 13:50, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
- The problem I was having was that I was trying to push a boulder down the hallway to the last pit and the unicorn would not leave the hallway. In Sokoban, there is not very much room to move around in, so it was either kill the unicorn or teleport it somewhere. The other option was to sit and wait, but it could be hundreds of turns before the unicorn found its way out of there. The pet thing could work, though, if you have a pet strong enough to kill a unicorn. --MadDawg2552 23:14, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I have found the white unicorn to be impervious to the wand of death. — Preceding unsigned comment added by N8chz (talk • contribs) 24 February 2007
- I tested it in wizard mode, the white unicorn is anything but impervious to the wand of death. --ZeroOne 23:18, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I think perhaps there should be a strong(er) warning that, for all its useful properties- in the early game unicorns are hard to catch, hard to shoot or zap, hard to kill, hard to haul over to an altar (which never seems to get a mention- and forget luring it over), they are hard to eat, and hard to shift in Sokoban.
As a newbie player I tended to charge straight at a unicorn (buoyed by the prospect of horns and glory)- without considering how I was going to kill it without the use of projectiles, and with slower speed. Then once I killed it how was I going to lug it over to the altar? Slowly- much to the pleasure of Team ant. --PeterGFin 11:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
- All that information is present in the article. About catching them: "...unicorns in NetHack are extremely fast (even to a player with intrinsic speed), and stay always a knights move or more away, so as to be out of range of both melee and ranged attacks. If the unicorn is pinned down in a corner, it may very well teleport away before the player can approach."
- About killing them: "Unicorns also do surprising amounts of damage, getting in multiple kicks and butts per turn. They won't attack on their own, however, due to their tendency to stay out of range, so only moving directly next to one will lead to an attack."
- About moving their corpses: "Weight 1300" --MadDawg2552 00:21, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
Does pounding work to hit them where most other things can't? --220.255.1.57 14:58, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
- Yes, as long as you are at least skilled. Basic will only let you hit where a ranged attack could anyways. The unicorn will probably also try to teleport away after each hit, so pounding is probably only useful if it is stuck in a corner in Sokoban or another no-teleport level. -- Qazmlpok 16:48, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
Sometimes when I throw a type-named, unidentified gem to a coaligned unicorn, I get the message "The <color> unicorn is not interested in your junk." instead of 'gratefully' or 'graciously' accepts. Anyone know what causes this? -Guest --216.252.195.246 21:58, 16 December 2014 (UTC)
That indicates that the gem is actually glass. Most likely you are occasionally making mistakes when trying to figure out the identities of valuable gems in the absence of formal id :-P.
--Chris (talk) 23:28, 16 December 2014 (UTC)
Co-aligned Unicorn only catches gems and no further messages
When I throw my gems/glass at a co-aligned Unicorn, it only says "The white unicorn catches the gem called <name>". I have already thrown 3 gems to it. Does my luck get modified under the hood or what is going on? Running nethack 3.6.0 on NAO. WarriorX90 (talk) 08:25, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
Edit: The Unicorn also drops the gems. WarriorX90 (talk) 09:16, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
A vs an unicorn
TIL. According to the internets it's "a unicorn" https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2015/11/17/a-vs-an/ . ——Winny (talk) 21:26, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
