Queen bee
a queen bee 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks |
Sting 1d8 poisonous |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 225 |
| Speed | 24 |
| Base AC | -4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1 |
| Nutritional value | 5 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Poison (60%) |
|
A queen bee:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line132 |
The queen bee, a, is an insectoid monster that appears in NetHack. It is a stronger version of the killer bee.
Queen bee corpses are poisonous to eat, but have a 3⁄5 chance to convey poison resistance.
Contents
Generation
Queen bees are not randomly generated, but are eligible forms for polymorph. Each beehive contains a single queen bee, including the guaranteed one within the Wizard's Tower.
Queen bees can hatch from eggs, including ones laid by a player polymorphed into a queen bee - however, only 1⁄77 of eggs laid will be queen bee eggs, and the rest will be killer bee eggs.[1]
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.
Killer bees can now eat royal jelly to grow up into queen bees if no queen already exists on the level. Pet killer bees will actively seek out nearby royal jelly to do this. This will kill them if queen bees are genocided.
Rubbing non-cursed royal jelly on a killer bee egg will turn it into a queen bee egg; cursed royal jelly will kill the egg ('The egg quivers feebly'), while non-cursed jelly will revive it ('The egg quivers briefly'), and blessed jelly will make the newborn creature think you are its parent, so it is guaranteed to hatch tame.Strategy
Queen bees are exceedingly fast at 24, tied with unicorns, warhorses and the mail daemon for third-highest among monsters. Their sting is also more than twice the strength of normal killer bees - unfortunate players that find an early beehive before obtaining poison resistance would do well to steer clear. Queen bees are also eligible forms for shapeshifters such as the animal-favoring chameleon, which can be a nasty surprise for similarly unlucky player. Even with poison resistance, you should be solidly armored with a weapon that can reliably land hits against their low AC.
The queen bee is quite vicious on its own, but has 0 MR score and remains as vulnerable to wands and spells as normal bees. More often than not a queen is accompanied by her hive, and improperly handling a swarm can result in damage piling up quickly even with poison resistance. Stealth is an excellent property to use in clearing beehives, and crowd-control tactics like scaring via bugle or tooled horn and funneling them through long hallways can keep the queen off your back until you have dealt with the weaker bees.
History
The queen bee was introduced alongside beehives in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female of the species that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees; the term "queen bee" can be more generally applied to any dominant, reproductive female in a eusocial bee species colony. The queen is usually the primary bee with fully developed reproductive organs, and thus the mother of most (if not all) of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed with royal jelly in order to become sexually mature; the bees usually follow and fiercely protect the solitary queen.
In some species such as the Brazilian stingless bee, a single nest may have multiple queens or even dwarf queens, ready to replace a dominant queen in a case of sudden death.
Messages
- You feel very comfortable here.
- You sat on a throne as a queen bee, and no effect occurred.
Variants
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, the Gnome King's Apiary is a variant of Mines' End that contains a beehive with a queen bee and several killer bees, as well as a statue of a queen bee.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, one to four honey badgers may spawn on any level with a beehive and will dig for it as fast as possible - this has the added peril of likely waking the queen and her hive before you are prepared to deal with either them or the badgers.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for bee.
