Juiblex
& Juiblex 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 26 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 22 |
| Base experience | 899 |
| Speed | 3 |
| Base AC | -7 |
| Base MR | 65 |
| Alignment | -15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1500 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Fire, Poison, Acid, Stoning |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
Juiblex:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2663 |
Juiblex (often mistakenly referred to as Jubilex) is a demon lord. Juiblex's lair is a swamp. Juiblex has infravision and can engulf players and render them ill, as well as spitting acid venom.
Contents
Generation
If he is not generated elsewhere in a game, e.g. via bones, Juiblex is guaranteed to appear at the center of his swamp. There is a 1/260 chance that a water demon may summon him or Yeenoghu, making it possible for him to appear quite early in the game and obliterate a weak character if they try fountain dipping or quaffing. He can also be summoned by same race sacrifice, and will be generated as peaceful if you are chaotic.
Strategy
Like other demon lords, Juiblex is covetous and will teleport to meet you. Because of his infravision, he can see you across his swamp, and will typically confront you a few turns after entering the level, as soon as he can get a turn. Dealing with him in a straight fight is tedious, despite his incredibly low speed: on top of his low AC of -7 and the usual troubles with covetous characters, his illness-inducing engulfing attack can and will kill you shortly unless you can apply an appropriate cure. The most commonly used cure is a blessed unicorn horn, though this can be unreliable, and most characters will have access to a potion of extra healing or full healing in case a reliable cure is needed. You can hit much more easily while engulfed, but the engulfing will render you ill repeatedly; it is possible to escape his grasp, though this may give him time to teleport away or else re-engulf you.
Otherwise, the most common strategy uses a preferably blessed unicorn horn, a wand of digging, and a decent weapon of any kind: when he engulfs you, zapping the wand will tear through him and drop his HP to 1, like any non-whirly engulfing monster. Cure the illness as soon as possible, especially once you have successfully disposed of him; if you are having trouble hitting due to his naturally low AC of -7, you can allow him to re-engulf you for a guaranteed hit. If you do so, do not forget to cure your illness again.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Juiblex now only loses half of his HP when hit with digging magic from inside.As one of the demon lords who can be summoned, Juiblex can be made peaceful if a chaotic player sacrifices his own race on an aligned altar. If this occurs, it may be worth attacking him as soon as you are prepared for the relatively large XP reward, with comparatively minimal risk and only the three required items above.
Juiblex express
If you allow Juiblex to engulf you, and then damage him a bit, he'll teleport to the up staircase with you inside of him. This allows easy traversal of his no-teleport swamp lair, especially when coming up from the Sanctum with the Amulet of Yendor. With regular curing of the illness and attention to your HP, it may be possible to continue the Juiblex Express up to dungeon level one.
Extinctionism
Juiblex presents a difficult problem for extinctionists. He cannot be stoned, so repeated stoning and unstoning will not work unlike most other unique monsters. He will never leave a corpse, so revival also fails.
Life-saved re-kills do not count toward the kill counter, and even those take some effort. Extinctionists looking to add Juiblex to their list will have to drop an amulet of life saving into his belly while engulfed. Then, zap a wand of slow monster or speed monster (or the slow monster spell) at him to make him put it on. He will not pick up an amulet by normal means, but can be generated with one.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, zapping a wand of digging to escape Juiblex's engulfing will only reduce his HP to half its current value, instead of bringing it down to one.
Origin
Juiblex is an original creation of Dungeons and Dragons. As the encyclopedia says, he is a slime-like being.
Encyclopedia entry
Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct spelling of his name. He does not have a physical form as we know it, and those who have peered into his realm claim he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
