Killer bee
a killer bee 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 5 |
| Attacks |
Sting 1d3 poison |
| Base level | 1 |
| Base experience | 31 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | -1 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1 |
| Nutritional value | 5 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Poison (30%) |
|
A killer bee: | |
| Reference | monst.c#line110 |
The killer bee, a, is a monster that appears in NetHack. While not especially strong individually, they are quite fast and their sting is poisoned, which can instakill you if you are not resistant. Their corpses are poisonous, but have a decent chance (30%) of granting poison resistance.
Generation
Killer bees are most likely to be generated in large groups. Kicking a tree may also summon one or more killer bees.
Special rooms known as beehives may appear in the dungeon, and contains a horde of killer bees, a queen bee, and lumps of royal jelly.
Strategy
Despite their offensive threat, killer bees have low HP, and will often die in a couple of hits; however, they have a low natural AC, making them hard to hit in the first place. If you are low-level, slow, burdened, or lack poison resistance, discretion is the better part of valor; Elbereth can offer some breathing room if you find it difficult to avoid them. If you plan to actually fight back, drawing them into narrow corridors is a valuable tactic to handle them one at a time. Be prepared to use a suitable wand or escape item.
A source of extrinsic poison resistance, such as an alchemy smock or amulet versus poison, will prevent the worst of the damage from the stings; high magic cancellation from armor can offer some protection as a last resort. An effective alternative, especially for pacifists, is to lead the bees to a falling rock trap, which will dispose of them quickly.
Although killer bee corpses are poisonous, they also confer intrinsic poison resistance; this makes them useful to consume, but the poison will damage you and induce strength loss. A tinning kit removes the harmful effects completely and slightly increases the nutrition provided; extrinsic poison resistance will negate the strength loss, and the damage to your HP is significantly reduced. You can also nullify the strength penalty through the use of a ring of sustain ability, or reverse it with a unicorn horn.
Encyclopedia entry
This giant variety of its useful normal cousin normally
appears in small groups, looking for raw material to produce
the royal jelly needed to feed their queen. On rare
occasions, one may stumble upon a bee-hive, in which the
queen bee is being well provided for, and guarded against
intruders.
See also
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.
