Vampire bat
B vampire bat 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d6, Bite 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:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1141 |
A vampire bat, B, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It 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.
A player polymorphed into vampire bats are stunned for the duration of the polyself.
Generation
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 the Wizard quest, composing 55% of the monsters randomly encountered there; they may also appear among the random B that make up 14% of randomly generated monsters and are placed at level creation on non-filler floors. Vampire bats are also generated on several floors below the home level at level creation: four on the upper filler level, seven on the locate level, two on the lower filler levels, and eight on the goal level.
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.
Strategy
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.
History
The vampire bat first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Vampires' ability to transform into bats is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0.
Origin
Vampire bats are real, and common to the American Southwest as well as Central and South America. There are three distinct species of vampire bat, and are the only animals known to feed primarily or solely on the blood of other animals.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, vampire bats are classified as members of the vampire race. This does not give them any actual vampiric properties, but player vampires can nevertheless use their corpses for same-race sacrifice.
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.
