Hiding

In NetHack, some monsters have the ability to hide. Trappers, lurkers above, and various piercers can innately hide on the ceiling. Cave spiders and all snakes can hide under objects on the ground. Mimics can disguise as objects, which is related. All sea monsters can hide in water.

Moving next to a monster hidden in this manner grants them an opportunity to attack you unnoticed, and attempting to move onto the tile where they are produces "Wait! There's a foo hiding under <an item>!", wasting your movement time. This also goes for movement with the m command (sometimes except if you are warned of the creature).

If you know exactly where the hiding monster is and are already adjacent, you can simply use the F command to fight it; if you can detect the monster directly (most likely through telepathy), you can simply attempt to move on its square as normal. Otherwise, the monster will get a turn, and hence a chance to hit you, before you do. It is possible to hit hidden monsters with ranged weapons or thrown objects, making it fairly easy for wary players to detect them. Gold is good to throw because it is abundant, does not risk breaking pacifist conduct, and gets you credit in stores.

Attacking a hiding monster in melee (e.g. with F or detected via telepathy) will cause it to stop hiding and attack you with its normal attacks. Attacking with ranged weapons and spells, as well as kicking, will not. A monster that stops hiding must use an action to re-hide itself, and will only do so when it is not in your line of sight; as many hiding monsters are quite slow, it may take some time for them to hide again. Cancellation will not reveal hidden monsters, but it will prevent trappers, lurkers above and piercers from re-hiding.

Searching is guaranteed to reveal their position, and causes them to stick to you if applicable. Applying a stethoscope or wand of probing at a hiding monster's square will reveal its presence, but not cause it to act. It will be described as concealed.

Player hiding

If you are polymorphed into a monster capable of hiding, you can use the #monster command to hide under objects or on the ceiling. As of NetHack 3.6.4, if you are polymorphed into a monster capable of hiding on the ceiling, you can use > to unhide.

This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.