Corpse

%
Name	foo corpse
Base price	5 zm
Nutrition	(depends on monster)
Turns to eat	(weight / 64) + 3
Weight	(depends on monster)
Conduct	(depends on monster)

A corpse is the body of a dead monster. It is a very common comestible. Some monsters never drop corpses, while others may sometimes do so. Trolls are an exception and always leave corpses, except on the Rogue level.

Some monsters leave poisonous corpses. Eating these drains your strength, so avoid them unless you have poison resistance. See below for a list of poisonous corpses. Pets will instinctively avoid eating poisonous species. As a rule, if your pet can eat it, so can you. Tripe rations, dog, and cat corpses are exceptions to this rule.

Most corpses must be eaten when fresh because they will begin to rot after 30 turns. Undead monsters never leave fresh corpses (after all, they are walking corpses to start with). An ice box or tinning kit can be used to prevent rotting and preserve corpses for later use. Eating a rotten corpse results in food poisoning, which is fatal if not cured.

The corpses of yellow molds and purple fungi are hallucinogenic. Some claim that shriekers are hallucinogenic; this is incorrect. They do, however, yield poison resistance sometimes.

Corpse generation odds

Most monsters do not always leave a corpse when they die. Monsters that normally would leave a corpse will never if killed by stoning, disintegration, or digestion. Corpseless monsters such as ghosts or yellow lights will never leave a corpse. Lizards, player monsters, the Riders, and any monster that is larger than size Medium are guaranteed to leave a corpse when killed by normal means, and golems are guaranteed to leave their special death drops (if applicable) when killed.

For all other monsters, there is a 1 in n chance that the monster will leave a corpse when killed, where n is generated as follows:

• n starts with a value of 2
• Add 1 if the monster is size Tiny
• Add 1 if the monster's generation frequency is less than "Uncommon" (i.e. "Rare" and "Very rare")

Monsters will never leave a corpse on the rogue level, and undead on a graveyard level only have 1 in 3 chance of leaving a corpse in addition to the above odds.

(In a similar vein, some monster types will get replaced when you bring them back to life, e. g. priest corpses become zombies.)

Special corpse behavior

• Lizard and acidic corpses cure stoning.
• Lizard and lichen corpses never rot away, and never cause food poisoning.
• Troll corpses (all T) come back to life 75% of the time.
• The Riders' corpses have a chance to come back to life starting 12 turns after their "death".
• Acid blob corpses never cause food poisoning, they are safe (but damaging) to eat and are suitable for sacrifice until they rot away.

Corpse benefits and dangers

Acidic or poisonous corpses do 1d15 points of damage, old but otherwise (still) safe corpses sometimes do 1d8 damage.

Gaining intrinsics

Many monsters have a chance of giving one or more intrinsics upon eating their corpse. The chance of gaining an intrinsic from a corpse that could provide it is based on the monster's base level and any other intrinsics the monster could provide. If a monster could provide multiple intrinsics, then there is an equal chance of each being conveyed, even if you already possess the intrinsic. Once one intrinsic is picked from the list, there is a level in 15 chance for most intrinsics that it will be conveyed. Telepathy, teleportitis, and teleport control are exceptions; telepathy is guaranteed, while teleportitis and teleport control and level in 10 and level in 12 chances, respectively.

Many other corpses also have special behaviors that are treated separately from the main intrinsics.

Eat these corpses

• wraith (level up; slightly different results in SLASH'EM)
• giant (strength up)
• mind flayer (intelligence up or gain the telepathy intrinsic)
• floating eye (telepathy intrinsic)
• stalker (gives you permanent invisibility and see invisible when eaten while invisible, otherwise gives you temporary invisibility; but stuns you for 60 turns either way. You may not want invisibility.)
• quantum mechanic (you get the speed intrinsic if you don't already have it, but lose it if you do)
• blobs, jellies, fungi (F), gelatinous cubes and puddings (often hurts you a little, but a good way to gain intrinsics if you are observing vegan/vegetarian conduct. Black puddings are not vegetarian, and brown puddings are vegetarian, but not vegan. Don't eat yellow molds or violet fungi unless you can unhallucinate yourself or are wielding Grayswandir.)
• lizard (if needed; cures stoning, lowers stun + confusion to two rounds, will not rot, but does become unsuitable for sacrifice)
• unicorn (poison resistance. Killing unicorns of your own alignment massively lowers your Luck, but eating unicorns, even of the same alignment, has no such effect.)
• dragon (gain intrinsics that that dragon has, so red dragons give fire resistance, black dragons give disintegration resistance, green dragons give poison resistance, etc; however, yellow, gray and silver dragons confer nothing. Baby dragons don't give intrinsics.)
• tengu (gain intrinsic teleport control, but also has chance of conferring teleportitis or poison resistance)
• elves (gain sleep resistance, don't do this if you're an elf)
• flesh golems (gain fire, cold, shock, sleep, or poison resistance)
• newts (can gain 1-3 energy, or increase your maximum energy if you are currently at max)

As a general rule, monsters with a fiery attack (red molds, red dragons, etc.) tend to confer fire resistance and monsters with a cold attack (brown molds, white dragons, etc.) tend to confer cold resistance.

Don't eat these corpses

• kobolds, rabid rats, baby green dragons, vampire bats (poisons you, no beneficial effect except nutrition; okay for poison-resistant characters like orcs, barbarians or if you have acquired poison resistance)
• bats and stalkers (stuns you for a while; see above for benefits to eating stalkers)
• mimics (you can't move for a while)
• cockatrice, chickatrice, Medusa (you die of stoning; okay if you're petrification resistant)
• Death, Famine, Pestilence (you die)
• green slimes (slimes you)
• your own race (cannibalism gives you the aggravate monster intrinsic unless you're a caveman or orc)
• cats and dogs (gods don't like it, okay if you're a caveman or orc)
• werecreatures (you become one, considered cannibalism for humans)
• keystone kops (considered cannibalism for humans)
• chameleons and doppelgangers (causes you to polymorph, and eating a doppelganger is considered to be cannibalism for humans)
• leprechauns, nymphs and tengu (if you don't want teleportitis; some people see it as a benefit, though, especially with teleport control; see above for benefits to eating tengu)
• green molds (give you acid damage)
• any undead (mummy, vampire, zombie) corpse - it is already old and has a chance to cause food poisoning
  • However: Zombies can be tinned. The tinning process de-rotten-ifies the corpse and makes it edible.

External links

• Eating Corpses for Food and Intrinsics - useful reference table of corpses, the intrinsics and effects they give when eaten, and other related information.
• HiSPeed's Nethack Helper - contains the corpse attribute database from above.