Vampire bat

B vampire bat
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d6, Bite 0d0 poison

B vampire bat
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d6, Bite 0d0 poison
Base level	5
Base experience	66
Speed	20
Base AC	6
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	30
Nutritional value	20
Size	Small
Resistances	sleep, poison
Resistances conveyed	None
A vampire bat: can fly. has no hands. is an animal. regenerates HP quickly. is poisonous to eat. is omnivorous. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line1141

A vampire bat, B, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an omnivorous flying animal that is the strongest type of bat, and possesses two bite attacks, with the second being poisonous. It is capable of enhanced regeneration, and has poison resistance and sleep resistance.

A vampire bat corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating its corpse or tin does not stun you as with other species of bat.

Vampires are capable of shifting into bat form, and will resurrect into their base form if killed; Vlad the Impaler will not shift to bat form while he has the Candelabrum of Invocation. A player polymorphed into vampire bats are stunned for the duration of the polyself. A player polymorphed into any form of vampire will turn into a vampire bat if they are polymorphed again or use the #monster extended command, and can decline to do so if they have polymorph control - as vampire bats lack a special ability, players turned into bats this way cannot turn back at will.

Generation

Randomly-generated vampire bats are always hostile. Three vampire bats are generated in the Valley of the Dead at level creation (outside of bones).

Vampire bats are the first quest monster for Wizards, and make up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of monsters randomly generated on the Wizard quest. Several vampire bats are also generated on floors below the home level of the quest branch at level creation: four are generated on the upper filler level, seven are generated on the locate level, two are generated on the lower filler level(s), and eight are generated on the goal level.

Vampire bats also appear among the random B that are part of the first quest monster class for the Wizard quest and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated there.

Strategy

Vampire bats are generally weak, but their 20 speed and erratic movement make them hard to hit and deal with, and their bites can deal severe damage to an early character lacking poison resistance.

Vampires disguised as vampire bats can be revealed by using any means of probing (e.g. a wand of probing or a stethoscope), or else attacking them with a silver weapon - though this form is weak and can be easily killed, the vampire will then resurrect in their base form with full HP. Careful tracking of their health can be exploited to avoid having to kill a vampire "twice": weaken them in bat form, wait until they return to base form of their own accord, then finish them off quickly. The vampire bat form is a nuisance for players looking to keep pet vampires, since a ring of protection from shape changers is required to prevent them from shifting into bats and dropping any armor and weapons.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Vampires can be fed while in the form of bats to grant them intrinsics they could not gain in their base form.

History

The vampire bat first appears in Hack 1.21, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, where it uses the b glyph. It makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.0.0 under its current glpyh.

Vampires' ability to transform into bats is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0.

Origin

Vampire bats are leaf-nosed bats that are members of the subfamily Desmodontinae, and are primarily found in Central and South America. They are named for the fact that a primary food source is the blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on blood: the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata), and the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi).

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, vampire bats are classified as vampiric monsters - while this does not give them any actual vampiric properties, they qualify as monsters of the same race for player vampires, and are weak to silver weapons.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, a potion of vampire blood quaffed by non-vampire players will polymorph them depending on beatitude: a cursed potion will turn them into a vampire bat. This incurs a −3 alignment penalty if neutral, while you take a −15 alignment penalty and anger your god if you are lawful or a Monk. The polymorph is "semi-permanent" and will last until your HP is reduced to 0.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, tame vampires will not shapeshift into bats or other forms - this makes them much more useful as pets, but makes it difficult to convey intrinsics.

Encyclopedia entry

A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window which had been left healthfully open. It then proceeded to circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually gifted of God's creatures. Show me a bat, says the old proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in some kind of a home.

[ A Pelican at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse ]