Aggravate monster

This article is about the property. For the monster spell and effect, see aggravate.

Aggravate monster is a property in NetHack that makes it easier for monsters to notice and track you.

Description

While you have the aggravate monster property, any sleeping monsters nearby are much more likely to be awakened if you move near them, and monsters are able to track you even if they cannot see you. Additionally, pets have their tameness halved when you abuse them while you have the property, instead of being reduced by one.

Gaining the property

Aggravate monster can be gained as an extrinsic property by wearing a ring of aggravate monster, and as a permanent intrinsic property by doing any of the following:

• eating any cat or dog corpse (or their less or more grown up forms), unless you are an orc or caveperson (then it is harmless)
• sacrificing a former pet, if it died while it was tame ("So this is how you repay loyalty?"). If the pet went feral (peaceful or hostile) and then died, sacrificing it is okay.
• eating a corpse of your own race (cannibalism), unless you are an orc or caveperson
• eating a ring of aggravate monster

The effect of aggravate monster is almost completely nullified by stealth.

While extrinsic aggravate monster can be eliminated by simply removing the ring, the intrinsic property is very difficult to get rid of. The only way to do so is to have a gremlin steal it from you at night or eat disenchanter corpses. However, be warned that you are likely to lose a number of good intrinsics before losing the bad one--in most cases, as long as you have stealth, it is better to just finish the game with aggravate monster.