Bat
B bat 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 2 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d4 |
| Base level | 0 |
| Base experience | 6 |
| Speed | 22 |
| Base AC | 8 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 20 |
| Nutritional value | 20 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A bat:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1120 |
The bat is a class of NetHack monster represented by the overall symbol B. They are all extremely fast and can fly, as one would expect.
The bat, B, is also the weakest monster of this class. Other bats include the B giant bat and the B vampire bat. The B raven, a bird, also uses the same symbol.
Eating a bat corpse is a bad idea. It stuns you for 30 turns[1], and the corpse itself is worth only 20 nutrition. Pets, however, are for some reason immune to stunning, and can easily eat bat corpses.
Bats grow up to be giant bats.
Players polymorphed into bats are permanently stunned.[2]
Movement
All B monsters have slightly erratic movement. If the monster decides to move, there is a 1 in 3 chance that the monster will fly in a random direction, rather than approach you.[3] If you are fleeing from a bat, this might provide a moment of relief. If you stay in melee range, the monster will also stay in melee range and continue to attack you.
Interestingly, any bat, giant bat or vampire bat generated in Gehennom is made slightly faster than normal[4]. Presumably because nothing moves like a "bat [on its way] out of hell".
Strategy
Bats and giant bats both appear early in the game, and individually the giant bats are actually more dangerous. The danger with the bat is that it often brings one or more partners. Survive one bat and the second bat could finish you.
Bats have only a melee attack, and you have night vision of radius 1, so you can always see them when they attack you. Bats are infravisible, so races with infravision can even spot them through dark corridors. The bats of NetHack stay within melee range, making them easy targets for many players.
The reason why (real life) bats like the night is because it gives them cover from other creatures while the bats apply echolocation, employing sound to discover the positions of things. NetHack does not implement echolocation (though the biodiversity patch does, at least if you polymorph into a bat); in fact NetHack gives very little artificial intelligence to most monsters that do not use items and have only melee attacks, making them only approach the hero and whack them repeatedly.
Throwing something at a bat (even it if it is infravisible down the corridor) is most likely a waste of a turn if you happen to be unskilled or restricted in that weapon. Players who early wield an unskilled weapon to train can encounter trouble. They think that they see an easy bat and try to kill it, only to miss too often and fear wasting a turn to wield a different weapon.
Alas, bats preexisted the #enhance command. Bats have annoyed adventurers seeking the Amulet of Yendor since the days of Hack, back when eating a dead bat would cause confusion because stun was not yet distinct.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
