Canine
The canine, usually short for "dog or other canine", is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase d glyph (d). Dogs and canines are designated internally by the macro S_DOG.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
- d jackal
- d fox
- d coyote
- d werejackal (animal)
- d little dog
- d dingo
- d dog
- d large dog
- d wolf
- d werewolf (animal)
- d winter wolf cub
- d warg
- d winter wolf
- d hell hound pup
- d hell hound
- Deferred monsters
- d Cerberus
Common traits
Canines are carnivorous animals that are quadrupedal and lack hands, and are also visible via infravision. Canines can be separated into four broad categories:
- Domestic dogs—the little dog, dog and large dog
- Werecreatures—the animal forms of the werewolf and werejackal
- Ordinary canines—jackals, foxes, coyotes, dingoes, and wolves
- Fantastic canines—wargs, winter wolves and their cubs, hell hounds and their pups, and Cerberus
Canines primarily use bite attacks in combat, and all fantastic canines except for the warg also have a breath weapon.
In terms of alignment, canines are either neutral as with the warg and mundane canine monsters, or chaotic as with the werecreatures and other fantastic canines. Chatting to a tame canine monster can be used to gauge its current condition.
Canines that eat mimic corpses may assume the form of a sink for the duration of the meal if they do not assume a monster-specific form.[3] A monster that polymorphs into any canine monster outside of the hero's sight (excluding werecreatures assuming their animal form) will cause a specific message to be printed.[4]
Generation
Randomly generated canines that are not domestic are always created hostile—domestic canines are sometimes peaceful towards neutral heroes.
The canine is the first quest monster class for Samurai, and makes up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Samurai quest. Some random canines are also generated on a few levels within this quest branch at level creation: one each is placed randomly on every floor between the home and goal levels, and two are randomly placed on the goal level itself.
History
The jackal is the first of the canine monsters to make its debut in Hack 1.21, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack—the little dog and its growth stages debut in Hack for PDP-11, and may have been an early addition by Andries Brouwer. All four monsters are part of the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0. The hell hound first appears in Hack 1.0.2.
NetHack 3.0.0 introduces the "dog or other canine" monster class, moves the existing canines from previous versions to this class, and adds six other monsters the werejackal, wolf, werewolf, winter wolf, warg, and hell hound pup. Cerberus' deferred data is first available in this version.
NetHack 3.3.0 adds the dingo, fox, coyote, and winter wolf cub: the dingo appears in NetHack-- 3.0.10 and NetHack-- 3.1.3, while the coyote appears in NetHack-- 3.1.3 and SLASH 6, and the fox first appears in SLASH 6.
Messages
- You notice a dog smell.
- A monster polymorphed into a dog outside of your sight range.[4]
- <The canine> howls.
- You chatted to a canine while it is night time during a full moon, regardless of other circumstances.[5]
- <The canine> whines.
- You chatted to a tame canine that is hungry, caught in a trap, confused, scared, or at low tameness.[6] A leashed canine that is near a square with a trap will whine on its own when moving.[7]
- <The canine> barks.
- A tame non-dingo canine will become hungry in 1000 turns or less, or you chatted to a peaceful and non-dingo canine.[8]
- <The canine> yips.
- You chatted to a peaceful or tame canine, and none of the above conditions apply.[9]
- <The canine> growls.
- You chatted to a hostile canine.[10]
Variants
Some NetHack variants enable and incorporate the deferred Cerberus into normal gameplay.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds several monsters to the monster class:
- d pit bull
- d dingo puppy
- d large dingo
- d death dog
- d rabid wolf
- d wolverine
- d shadow wolf
- d mist wolf
- d Cerberus
The canine is the second quest monster class for Yeomen, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest.
dNetHack
dNetHack adds many monsters to the monster class:
- d mist wolf
- d Cerberus
- d hound of Tindalos
- d anuban jackal
- d seal
- d Watchdog of the Boreal Valley
- d aether wolf
- d high priest wolf
- d Vicar wolf
- d blue-eyed fox
- d index wolf
- d Moon-entity manipalp
- d werefox
The Toustefna stave carved into a wooden weapon can repel canine monsters if it is placed on the hero's square, and that weapon will also warn the hero of canines while wielded.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds some monsters to the monster class:
- d winter wolf pup
- d thought eater
- d guard dog
- d vulpferno
- d pack lord
notdNetHack
notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack retain the monsters added in dNetHack and add another canine to the monster class:
- d Naberius
EvilHack
EvilHack adds some monsters to the monster class:
The canine is the first quest monster class for Infidels, and makes up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest.
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM and adds some other canines to the monster class:
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds many new monsters to the monster class from other variants:
- d dingo puppy
- d rabid dog
- d death dog
- d rabid wolf
- d large dingo
- d guard dog
- d pit bull
- d barghest
- d wolverine
- d shadow wolf
- d mist wolf
- d weredemon
- d nova fox
- d Cerberus
References
- ↑ include/defsym.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 298
- ↑ include/monsters.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 197
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1443
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5872-L5875
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 838-L839
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 841-L844
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 495-L497
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 847-L849: "dingoes do not actually bark"
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 845-L846
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 851-L853
