Egg
% 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | egg |
| Base price | 9 zm |
| Nutrition | 80 |
| Turns to eat | 1 |
| Weight | 1 |
| Conduct | vegetarian |
An egg in NetHack may be "just an egg" (presumably an ordinary unfertilised hen egg) or it may be the egg of a monster, in which case it might eventually hatch. When the egg hatches, the hatched monster may become your pet.
One in three generated eggs is from a non-unique non-aquatic oviparous species, picked following the normal random monster generation for the current level.[1] The species of monster eggs can be identified with a scroll or spell of identify; if the post-identification type is still just "egg", it is not a monster egg. If it is a monster egg, you will now recognize the type in the future. Monster eggs can also be identified by seeing one hatch. Polymorphing into the adult form of an oviparious monster (regardless of gender) will identify all future eggs of that type. Polymorphing into any type of adult dragon will identify all types of dragon eggs as well.
For the purpose of conducts, eggs count as vegetarian but not vegan.
Although eggs are surprisingly efficient on the nutrition/weight ratio, eating them can be dangerous. They may be stale (see below), in which case you will vomit and should have a unicorn horn handy, or on the later levels they may be cockatrice eggs, which will cause delayed stoning if you eat them. If you are already satiated, you won't get a warning about eating an egg, even if it would choke you to death. It is safer to leave eggs sitting on the ground as food for carnivorous pets—throwing them will cause them to break 99% of the time.[2].
If you polymorph into a female oviparous monster, you can lay an egg with the #sit command, and when it hatches it will become your pet. Laying an egg will reduce your nutrition by the nutrition value of an egg.[3] Breaking your own eggs carries a Luck penalty, but eating them does not.[4] Winged gargoyles lay very few winged gargoyle eggs; 76⁄77 (approx. 98.7%) of the time the egg will hatch into a normal gargoyle.[5] A randomly generated dragon egg will also become your pet if you are carrying it when it hatches. If you are male, there is a 50% chance that any egg which hatches while you are carrying it will become your pet.[6]
A fresh monster egg will hatch with about 99.954% chance,[7], unless the relevant monster (either baby or adult form) is genocided.[8] If an egg will hatch, it will do so after 151–200 turns.[9][10] Therefore it may be useful to #name a found or created egg with the current turn. Eggs will only hatch if in your inventory or on the floor. If the egg is kept in a container on the turn it's supposed to hatch, it will turn infertile. Zapping an egg with a spell or wand of undead turning will re-fertilize it and reset the hatch timeout.[11]
Like other comestibles, old eggs have a chance to be rotten; however, for eggs there's a separate check: if the egg is not rotten, but has aged at least 400 turns,[12] it will always be stale,[13] giving you 10d4 turns of nausea with a (terminologically confusing) message "Ugh. Rotten egg." As usual, eggs kept in an ice box will not age; however, this will not delay the hatching (but it may be entirely prevented if the egg is kept inside the container for too long). Strangely enough, re-fertilizing eggs does not affect their age (so they may still be stale or rotten).
Old eggs are a good source of confusion before one of your spells expires if you have a unicorn horn. As opposed to tripe, stale eggs also work when you are polymorphed.
Cockatrice eggs are popular as projectiles that will petrify any stoning-susceptible monsters they hit. (When used this way, they are sometimes referred to as "grenades".) When you throw an egg, there is a risk that it will miss its target and go to waste, so you may prefer to wield the egg. Unlike wielding a cockatrice corpse, this does not have the risk of petrifying yourself. If using cockatrice eggs that you have laid yourself, there is a Luck penalty for breaking your own eggs.[14] You can wield an entire stack of eggs, causing them all to break in a single attack; you can use #adjust to avoid this. If you break a stack of your own eggs, the Luck penalty is −1 for each egg, up to a maximum of −5.[15]
Encyclopedia entry
But I asked why not keep it and let the hen sit on it till it
hatched, and then we could see what would come out of it.
"Nothing good, I'm certain of that," Mom said. "It would
probably be something horrible. But just remember, if it's a
crocodile or a dragon or something like that, I won't have it
in my house for one minute."
References
- ↑ mksobj in NetHack 3.4.3, line 423
- ↑ breaktest in Dothrow.c
- ↑ sit.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 303
- ↑ dothrow.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1588
- ↑ mon.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 2596
- ↑ timeout.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 432: The identity of one's father is learned, not innate
- ↑ src/timeout.c in NetHack 3.6.2, line 740: the chance not to hatch is 150^50 * 150! / 200! ~= 0.00046
- ↑ dead_species in mon.c
- ↑ obj.h in NetHack 3.4.3, line 207
- ↑ timeout.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 389
- ↑ revive_egg in zap.c
- ↑ include/obj.h in NetHack 3.6.2, line 246
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.2, line 1872
- ↑ dothrow.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1588
- ↑ uhitm.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 757
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.
