Major demon
Major demons are a type of monsters that appear in NetHack. These 'true' demons are defined by the M2_DEMON flag, which is in turn used by other code such as the is_demon function.
Contents
Common traits
All major demons are part of the demon monster class. They resist fire, poison, level drain, and death rays, although they are still considered living creatures. Major demons cannot be tamed unless you are polymorphed into a demon yourself. All major demons can be burned by silver for an extra d20 damage.
Major demons are mostly found in Gehennom. Non-unique major demons generated at the time of level creation have an 80% chance of starting out asleep, unless you possess the Amulet of Yendor in which case they will always be awake.[1] This does not apply to those generated after level creation.
Demon summoning
Sacrificing your own race can summon a major demon or a demon lord (but not a demon prince), as can angering a chaotic god when on an altar (by praying with negative alignment, converting a chaotic altar, or a few other actions).
Demons summoning demons
This section of the page is based on a spoiler by M. Stage which can now be accessed on the web archive or on alt.org's mirror of www.nethack.de.
Every major demon and demon lord or prince has a 1⁄13 chance of summoning (sometimes called "gating in") another major demon or unique demon every time it acts when it thinks it's adjacent to you (wearing a cloak of displacement can result in gating if the demon attacks your displaced image).[2] Foocubi and balrogs cannot summon demons, but can be summoned by them. Quest nemesis demons can summon as major demons, but cannot be summoned. Restrictions on demons being generated outside Gehennom are ignored. Demons will never summon demons while attacking other monsters, therefore tame demons will not normally summon other demons (which would be hostile, anyway).[3] Minor demons cannot summon or be summoned at all.
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.
Bone devils summon skeletons instead of other demons (but can still be summoned by other demons).The difference between major demons, demon lords, and demon princes lies in which other demons they can summon, and how often. The following table shows the chance of a given demon gating in another demon of a specific rank:
| Summoner | Summoned demon | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Major demon | Demon lord | Demon prince | |
| Major demons (except foocubi and balrogs) |
95% | 5% | 0% |
| Demon lords Juiblex, Yeenoghu |
93.1% | 4.9% | 2% |
| Demon princes Asmodeus, Baalzebub, Dispater, Geryon, Demogorgon, Orcus |
71.75% | 23.75% | 5% |
Summoned demons will always be the same alignment as the summoner—that is, summoners are only capable of summoning co-aligned demons. In practice, this means that lawful major demons only summon other major demons, because there are no lawful demon lords. The Wizard of Yendor's summon nasties (remote or in person) is an exception: he can create any demon. Major demons summoning other major demons will choose their own type 5⁄6 of the time, and otherwise choose a random type.[4] When a prince or lord summons a major demon, there is a 1 in 4 chance it will summon two demons of that type instead of one.
If you are trying to summon Demogorgon (perhaps as an unofficial conduct) the quickest way to do it is with Orcus. The chance of getting Demogorgon per turn is 113 × 5100 = 1260 per turn. Your chance of having summoned Demogorgon after n turns is then:
| Number of turns n | Chance of Demogorgon |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.38% |
| 50 | 17.5% |
| 100 | 32.0% |
| 200 | 53.7% |
| 500 | 85.4% |
| 1000 | 97.9% |
If you don't want to deal with Orcus' spells, Yeenoghu is also an option, although he'll take about 150% longer, assuming Orcus has already been generated. Zap a wand of speed monster at him to give him more actions per turn.
Summoning while polymorphed
If you are polymorphed into a major demon that can summon, and you hit a monster with bare or gloved hands, there is a 1 in 13 chance of summoning a tame demon at your side, announced with the message "Some hell-p has arrived!"[5] This chance occurs on each attack, so a demon with many attacks, such as a marilith, will be more likely to summon a demon.
When a demon is summoned, it will be of the same type as your current form 5⁄6 of the time and a random demon of the same alignment as you the rest of the time. You will never summon a unique demon.
Strategy
Major demons are quite strong opponents and can summon other major demons and unique demons; foocubi and balrogs cannot summon, but other demons can summon them. The unique demons are very strong and can be dangerous in some circumstances.
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.
In Gehennom, the presence of a demon lord or prince will now block others on the same level from teleporting.Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM introduces the following major demons:
- & spined devil
- & bearded devil
- & bar-lgura
- & chasme
- & babau
- & nabassu
- Quest nemeses:
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, a shambling horror can be defined as a demon in certain games, allowing them to appear via demon gating and gate other demons themselves.
Angels and demons attack each other on sight, as part of Nephi's grudge patch.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, the infernal is a playable demonic race.
References
- ↑ makemon.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1035
- ↑ mhitu.c#line589 /* Special demon handling code */
- ↑ Mhitu.c#line482, Wizard.c#line432, Minion.c#msummon,Minion.c#ndemon,Makemon.c#mkclass
- ↑ minion.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 87
- ↑ demonpet in uhitm.c
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.
