Demogorgon

& Demogorgon
Difficulty	57
Attacks	Spell-casting, Sting 1d4 drain life, Claw 1d6 disease, Claw 1d6 disease (stun if first disease attack successful)

& Demogorgon
Difficulty	57
Attacks	Spell-casting, Sting 1d4 drain life, Claw 1d6 disease, Claw 1d6 disease (stun if first disease attack successful)
Base level	50 (106)
Base experience	3297
Speed	15
Base AC	-8
Base MR	95
Alignment	-20 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	Unique
Genocidable	No
Weight	1500
Nutritional value	500
Size	Huge
Resistances	Fire, Poison
Resistances conveyed	None
Demogorgon: can fly. has no hands. can see invisible creatures. is poisonous to eat. does not eat. (*) is not a valid polymorphable form. is a demon. is an overlord to its kind. is male. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. wants the Amulet of Yendor. has infravision. can be seen through infravision. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line2546

Demogorgon is the most difficult of the demon princes and perhaps the most difficult monster overall to appear in NetHack.

Demogorgon is covetous like all demon lords and princes, and possesses infravision and flight. He can cast spells, use a life-draining sting, and make two disease-inducing claw attacks; if the first claw attack hits, the second one will instead stun you upon a successful hit.

Generation

Demogorgon is one of three demon princes not to have his own lair (the other two being Geryon and Dispater), and therefore he only appears via demon summoning or the summon nasties monster spell. He can be summoned directly by Orcus, Juiblex, or Yeenoghu, and hence indirectly by any demon that can summon one of these demon lords; he may also be rarely generated by any spellcasting monster that casts summon nasties within Gehennom, including the Wizard of Yendor.

Strategy

The 'safest' approach to Demogorgon is not to meet him in the first place; since Orcus, Juiblex and Yeenoghu are the most likely to summon Demogorgon, it is best to kill them as expeditiously as possible. If you get bogged down fighting lesser threats, you are giving Demogorgon an opportunity to arrive every turn.

Conversely, if you want to fight Demogorgon for bragging rights, your best option is to take precautions against Orcus' wand of death and let him spend all the time he wants ineffectively zapping you with it; he will resort to his spells afterward and eventually summon Demogorgon. If Yeenoghu is the one to summon Demogorgon, you may have a hard time avoiding confusion and stunning; this leaves you open to further status afflictions - including Demo's dreaded disease attack - if you try to attack or cure the afflictions.

The only "surefire" way to survive Demogorgon is to be as prepared as you can. Just as you carry an escape item for emergencies, work out your "Demogorgon Kit" and carry it in your inventory when you enter Gehennom. It is preferable to be very fast and unencumbered, as Demogorgon can only be outsped by fast or very fast characters who are unburdened. The ability to cure diseases is critical, as is having a solid offense and a means of escape; a scroll of scare monster in a container is very helpful, especially since Demogorgon is liable to curse your items. Be aware that not even a blessed unicorn horn is perfectly reliable for curing sickness — the safest items are holy water, a blessed potion of healing, extra healing, full healing, and the cure sickness spell if you can get it to a 0% failure rate.

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.

Monsters will not use wands against you if they discover you are immune to their effects, meaning that Orcus will stop using his wand of death if you prove sufficiently immune. Additionally, a scroll of scare monster on the ground no longer scares any unique monster.

Escaping Demogorgon

If Demogorgon does appear and you did not plan on fighting him, it is usually best to leave the level immediately - teleport to the staircase, quaff a cursed potion of gain level, zap a wand of digging downwards, etc. As always, discretion is the better part of valor. Beware that Demogorgon will follow you to another level if standing next to you; you can gain the necessary distance by teleporting him, paralyzing him, being fast enough, damaging him so that he teleports, etc.

If this happens while you have the Amulet of Yendor, throwing it away is something of a last resort - Demogorgon will give you a turn or two by teleporting to it to pick it up, but you are committing to fighting him at some later point if you successfully escape. You can then use the breathing space to reassess, re-equip, and move back in on your own terms.

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.

You can no longer teleport to the stairs if Demogorgon is on the same level in Gehennom. Level teleportation, branchporting or using a cursed potion of gain level will still work.

Fighting Demogorgon

Most strategies for tackling Demogorgon involve getting to the upstairs before he can, as he will teleport to that tile to heal any damage; the usual strategies for stopping covetous monsters from escaping apply here. If you manage to encounter him outside of Gehennom, you can burn Elbereth to scare him off and prevent him from attacking, though you won't be able to attack him in return. You can also make use of a scroll of scare monster, which will let you attack him while standing on it and will stoll function in Gehennom. Additionally, you can keep him at a distance using a non-cursed scroll of earth and a non-force bolt ranged attack - remember that most spells are rendered impractical against him due to his extremely high monster magic resistance.

If you choose to engage him in melee, make sure you possess magic resistance and that your weapon is blessed and well-enchanted in order to handle Demogorgon's base −8 AC and item-cursing spells. The more time you spend trying to finish him off, the more likely he is to curse something vital or else render you ill. Demogorgon's first disease attack leaves you with between 20 and (19 + constitution) turns to live, which is a fairly comfortable margin for healing yourself: however, each subsequent disease attack he lands will reduce your remaining turns to live by roughly two-thirds, though you will instead be stunned if both disease attacks hit. There is no way to know the exact value of your turns-to-live counter if you are diseased, so you should act as if the worst case were true in every circumstance.

Demogorgon is not immune to stoning or disintegration, so you can kill him via those methods - if you have any wishes left, a partly eaten chickatrice corpse may be worthwhile. One approach that is more reliable is to polymorph into a female cockatrice and lay some eggs ahead of time to use as petrification grenades.

Jousting Demogorgon

If you are a Knight with expert skill in lance and you are riding, you may be able to joust Demogorgon to death before he gets a chance to teleport to the stairs; if you're lucky, you'll even be able to hit him before he sickens you. If he does get away, you can use a unicorn horn and try again.

Other strategies

The Demogorgon FAQ written by Kate Nepveu covers a lot of relevant strategies for understanding and dealing with Demogorgon; note that it is based on NetHack 3.4.0, and at least some of the information will be dated.

History

The effect of Demogorgon's second disease attack that stuns an-already deathly ill player was added in NetHack 3.4.0.

Origin

Demogorgon is a demon prince in Dungeons & Dragons, which in turn derived him from a supposed pagan god invented by Christian authors. In both sources, he is a powerful demon - in D&D Demogorgon appears as an 18-foot (5.5m), vaguely humanoid/reptilian demon with two mandrill heads, two long reptilian necks and two tentacles for arms. His image graces the front cover of Monster Manual 2 in D&D's 4th edition.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Demogorgon has his own lair somewhere between the second and sixth levels of Gehennom, guaranteeing his appearance like Juiblex, Yeenoghu and Orcus. Like their lairs, Demogorgon's lair is a non-teleport level; Demogorgon still can teleport to the staircase, and to you, as covetous monsters usually do.

Keep in mind that the behavior of unicorn horns is changed in SLASH'EM, making them far less reliable. However, enchantment now matters a lot. You should come prepared with a highly enchanted horn to deal with the sickening attack.

SLASH'EM monks can easily kill him using the pummel technique.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Demogorgon does not respect Elbereth. He sometimes appears in his own lair in Gehennom, but this is not guaranteed; the lair takes the form of a small self-contained maze surrounded by a moat of ice.

Slash'EM Extended

In Slash'EM Extended, as in UnNetHack, Demogorgon does not respect Elbereth, and he is also immune to stoning, so the usual strategy of throwing a cockatrice egg won't work either. He will sometimes be waiting in his lair in Gehennom, but it's not guaranteed; Lamashtu or another demon's lair may be generated instead. All chaotic major demons can randomly summon him on other dungeon levels, though.

GruntHack

As in many other variants, Demogorgon does not respect Elbereth, and has a guaranteed lair. This is found at the very bottom of Gehennom, typically only one or two levels before the vibrating square level.

Encyclopedia entry

A terrible deity, whose very name was capable of producing the most horrible effects. He is first mentioned by the 4th-century Christian writer, Lactantius, who in doing so broke with the superstition that the very reference to Demogorgon by name brought death and disaster.
  [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]

Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth and can spread a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending them. He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life of mortals with a touch of his tail.

See also

• Orcus
• Yeenoghu
• Juiblex