Difference between revisions of "Zombie (monster class)"
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==Strategy== | ==Strategy== | ||
| − | Early monsters in the zombie class are usually not as much of a threat to martial roles, but other characters will want to approach them with some caution. Characters in certain roles will want to fight and kill early zombies to gain alignment and access to prayer as soon as possible, especially if they start with 0 alignment or are doing prayer-reliant [[conduct]]s such as [[foodless]]. | + | Early monsters in the zombie class are usually not as much of a threat to martial roles, but other characters will want to approach them with some caution, especially since proper zombies are capable of [[follow]]ing adjacent characters between levels. Characters in certain roles will want to fight and kill early zombies to gain alignment and access to prayer as soon as possible, especially if they start with 0 alignment or are doing prayer-reliant [[conduct]]s such as [[foodless]]. |
Priests and [[Knight]]s can use the [[Turn (command)|#turn]] [[extended command]] to drive off zombies and even instantly destroy weaker ones while outside Gehennom; chaotic Priests and Knights using the command will instead pacify them. | Priests and [[Knight]]s can use the [[Turn (command)|#turn]] [[extended command]] to drive off zombies and even instantly destroy weaker ones while outside Gehennom; chaotic Priests and Knights using the command will instead pacify them. | ||
Revision as of 21:01, 5 November 2023
- For the type of monster, see zombie.
The zombie is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by an uppercase Z glyph (Z). Zombies are designated internally by the macro S_ZOMBIE.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- Z kobold zombie
- Z gnome zombie
- Z orc zombie
- Z dwarf zombie
- Z elf zombie
- Z human zombie
- Z ettin zombie
- Z ghoul
- Z giant zombie
- Z skeleton
Contents
Common traits
All monsters in the zombie monster class are chaotic, mindless humanoid undead that possess unbreathing and infravision. Not all monsters in the monster class are zombies (i.e. ghouls and skeletons), though all zombies are a part of this monster class.
All monsters in the zombie monster class are also inediate; the ghoul is special cased with the ability to eat old and tainted corpses and stale eggs, but will not starve for lack of sustenance.
Generation
All randomly generated monsters of the zombie monster class will always be hostile. Minus skeletons, members of the zombie monster class commonly populate graveyards, where they are always generated hostile and asleep.
The zombie monster class is the first quest monster class for Priests, and makes up 14% of the monsters randomly generated on the Priest quest. Two random Z are generated on the goal level at level creation - the remaining levels beyond the home level do not generate random Z at level creation, they will make up a majority of the graveyard inhabitants encountered on those levels.
Though all monsters in this class are designated as corpseless in monst.c, zombies are special-cased to leave an aged corpse of their living counterpart upon "death" (e.g. a gnome zombie leaves an old gnome corpse when "killed"). This means that listed nutritional values for zombies are only relevant to pets or polymorphed player characters that digest zombies - corpses left behind by zombies use their normal nutritional values, though they are usually too old to be eaten safely without a tinning kit.
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.
Liches and other zombies can now raise monsters killed by them without a weapon as zombies, unless they are cancelled - the corpse will rise 5-20 turns after death if it has a corresponding zombie type, and this will not occur if the killer was cancelled. You can also do this if polymorphed into a zombie or lich. Zombies and liches will grudge living monsters that can be turned into zombies.Strategy
Early monsters in the zombie class are usually not as much of a threat to martial roles, but other characters will want to approach them with some caution, especially since proper zombies are capable of following adjacent characters between levels. Characters in certain roles will want to fight and kill early zombies to gain alignment and access to prayer as soon as possible, especially if they start with 0 alignment or are doing prayer-reliant conducts such as foodless.
Priests and Knights can use the #turn extended command to drive off zombies and even instantly destroy weaker ones while outside Gehennom; chaotic Priests and Knights using the command will instead pacify them.
History
The zombie first appears in Hack 1.21, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, as well as Hack for PDP-11. It is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0, and appears in the game from that version to NetHack 2.3e. In NetHack 3.0.0, most of the zombie monster class is introduced and differentiated, with the skeleton being added in NetHack 3.1.0 and the ghoul and dwarf zombie being added in NetHack 3.3.0.
Origin
The zombie is a mindless animated corpse that originates from Haitian folklore. The etymology comes from African or Caribbean creole of related concepts.
Messages
- You smell rotting flesh.
- A shapeshifter turned into a zombie.
Encyclopedia entry
The zombi ... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.
