Deeper one (dNetHack)
h deeper one 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 19 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 3d4 physical, offhand weapon 3d4 physical, kick 4d6 physical, passive 3d4 shared soul |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 456 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 2000 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | cold resistance, sleep resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | sleep resistance (+10,000) |
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A deeper one:
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| Reference | dNAO 3.25.0 - src/monst.c, line 1073 |
- For the monster in SLASH'EM and its related variants, see deeper one (SLASH'EM).
A deeper one, h, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The deeper one is a type of medium-sized, omnivorous humanoid that is a stronger variation of the deep one with all of the same traits and attributes, and are lords to their kind. Seeing a deeper one can lower the hero's sanity and increase their insight, and being attacked by a deeper one or any of its growth stages can increase the hero's deep one-specific impurity with a 1⁄n chance (where n is the current impurity level)—reaching impurity levels of 1, 4 and 15 for this counter will also increase the hero's overall impurity. Tame deeper ones may turn traitor.
Deeper ones have a weapon attack, an offhand weapon attack, a strong kick attack, and a passive attack that triggers on death and raises the current maximum HP of every other deep one-related monster that is on the current dungeon level, increasing their monster level if necessary—this applies to the deeper one's growth stages, as well as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, and deeper ones themselves gain +4 HP when this passive from any deep one-related monster triggers. Deeper ones have basic prowess in martial combat, and possess sleep resistance and cold resistance.
Eating a deeper one corpse or tin–or quaffing its blood–grants temporary sleep resistance for a duration of 10,000 turns before physical size modifiers.
Deeper ones can be warded by an Elder Sign at any level of reinforcement.
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated deeper ones are always created hostile, and can appear in small groups. They will not be randomly generated in Gehennom. A deep one can grow up into a deeper one, and a deeper one can grow up into a deepest one—becoming a deepest one this way will not destroy or re-size the monster's worn armor.
A deeper one that is randomly generated will always have a group of 3–12 deep ones accompanying them. A deepest one that is randomly generated will always have a group of 3–5 deeper ones accompanying them.
1⁄10 of the monsters randomly generated on the Sunken City map of the Sea will be deeper ones.
Deeper ones may appear in the court of a randomly-generated throne room ruled by a deepest one. They may also appear as prisoners in random throne rooms.
Deeper ones are among the various H.P. Lovecraft-inspired r'lyehians that can appear in the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest, making up 3⁄112 of the monsters randomly generated on those quests. A deeper one is also generated on the locate level of the Anachrononaut quest during level creation.
Monster starting inventory
Deeper ones are generated with different equipment depending on their location in the dungeon.
- Deeper ones generated in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut and Android quests) are created with the following equipment:
- A set of body armor that has an equal probability of being leather armor, studded leather armor or plasteel armor
- A flack helmet and a pair of gloves
- One of the following weapon sets with an equal probability of each:
- a rusty assault rifle with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, 3 stacks of bullets, and a mineral stiletto; the stiletto has a 1⁄2 chance of the rustling object property, and an independent 1⁄20 chance of being either damp or faded (with an equal probability of each)
- a rusty pistol with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, a stack of bullets and a mineral long sword; the long sword has a 1⁄2 chance of the rustling property, and an independent 1⁄20 chance of being either damp or faded (with an equal probability of each)
- a rusty heavy machine gun with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, 4 stacks of bullets and a mineral stiletto; the stiletto has a 1⁄2 chance of the rustling property, and an independent 1⁄20 chance of being either damp or faded (with an equal probability of each)
- a rusty submachine gun with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, 3 stacks of bullets and a mineral short sword; the short sword has a 1⁄2 chance of the rustling property, and an independent 1⁄20 chance of being either damp or faded (with an equal probability of each)
- a rusty shotgun with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, 2 stacks of shotgun shells and a mineral short sword; the short sword has a 1⁄2 chance of the rustling property, and an independent 1⁄20 chance of being either damp or faded (with an equal probability of each)
- a rusty sniper rifle with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +4, 3 stacks of bullets and a mineral club that always has the rustling property; the club also has independent 1⁄10 chances each of being damp or faded
- A 1⁄4 chance of explosive weapons: a stack of frag grenades (2⁄3 chance), a stack of gas grenades (1⁄6 chance), or a rocket launcher and a stack of rockets (1⁄6 chance)
- Deeper ones generated on R'lyeh–the lowest floor of the Lost Cities and the Neutral Quest–are created with the following: an uncursed rustproof +6 trident; an uncursed rustproof +6 ranseur; a stack of 6 thoroughly eroded and uncursed +6 javelins; a set of cursed +6 archaic plate mail; an uncursed +6 oilskin cloak; a thoroughly eroded and uncursed +6 orcish shield; two randomly-selected potions from a potion of acid, confusion, blindness, sleeping, or paralysis, with acid having twice as much chance of being selected as the other potions; and a randomly-selected wand with 1 charge from a wand of striking, magic missile, sleep, fire, or cold, with magic missile having twice as much chance of being selected as the other wands.
- Deeper ones generated elsewhere in the dungeon are created with a set of body armor that has an equal probability of being a jacket, a set of leather armor, or a set of chain mail that will be very rusty if the chain mail is made of a rust-prone material. They will also be given a number of weapons equal to 4d23 (rounded down) that are chosen from the following set with equal probability: a two-handed sword, a scimitar, a trident, a short sword, a dagger, or a spear—each of the chosen weapons will be thoroughly rusty if they are generated with a rust-prone material.
Origin
The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's 1931 novella The Shadow over Innsmouth, but were already hinted at in the 1917 short story "Dagon". The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy appearance, and the males would regularly mate with human women against their will, creating societies of hybrids along the coast.
Despite being primarily marine creatures, Deep Ones can survive on land for extended periods of time and possess biological immortality, never dying except by accident or violence. The Deep One portrayed in Dagon is of a vastly larger size than the roughly human-scaled beings seen in Innsmouth, and the wider Cthulhu Mythos implies that Deep Ones continuously grow throughout their lives, hence their size changing when they grow up in SLASH'EM and other variants.
Strategy
While deeper ones themselves are not especially remarkable on an individual basis, they frequently generate in groups, and their "shared soul" passive means that each deeper one killed on the current level will cause their kin to gain HP and potentially become stronger or even grow up: there is no feedback for a deep one growing up this way, so be especially careful when dealing with squads of hostile deep ones and their stronger relatives! This also applies to peaceful or even tamed deeper ones, so taking advantage of this is a great way to beef up a pet deeper one, but also increases the risk of it turning traitor and becoming hostile.
Deeper ones represent a significant hazard on the Plane of Water, specifically for heroes that attempt to preemptively genocide sea monsters before entering the magic portal to the level itself: deeper ones and their kin cannot be genocided, and are highly likely to replace the now-missing sea monsters during initial level generation. This makes such preemptive genocides a bad idea and all but ensures that the hero will be swarmed by fairly tanky and high-difficulty monsters which become even stronger if any of them are killed—this effect will be more pronounced if the hero entered R'lyeh earlier in that run. Combined with the Plane of Water and its moving air bubbles, the outcome is likely to be disastrous for most ascension runs, though the deep ones will often not even be the biggest threats present compared to the hostile Uiscerre Eladrin and charybdisones that cannot be genocided. Iron-hating heroes such as elves, drow and yuki-onna are especially vulnerable in these situations.
History
The deeper one first appears in the Lethe patch against NetHack 3.3.1.
Encyclopedia entry
For eighty thousand years Pth'thya-l'yi had lived in Y'ha-nthlei,
and thither she had gone back after Obed Marsh was dead.
Y'ha-nthlei was not destroyed when the upper-earth men shot death
into the sea. It was hurt, but not destroyed. The Deep Ones
could never be destroyed, even though the palaeogean magic of the
forgotten Old Ones might sometimes check them. For the present
they would rest; but some day, if they remembered, they would
rise again for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved.
