Unicorn or horse
The unicorn or horse is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase u glyph (u). Unicorns and horses are designated internally by the macro S_UNICORN.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
- u pony
- u white unicorn
- u gray unicorn
- u black unicorn
- u horse
- u warhorse
Contents
Common traits
Unicorns and horses are strong and herbivorous equine monsters that have a tendency to wander while moving, and can be seen via infravision. The domestic horses are all neutral animals, while unicorns are intelligent monsters and there is one for each alignment. Unicorns and horses generally have high movement speed and attack using kicks.
Generation
The domestic horses may generate as peaceful for neutral characters; unicorns generate as peaceful towards characters of their alignment, and will otherwise be hostile.
History
The unicorn first appears in Hack 1.0 as an individual monster, and is phased out in NetHack 3.0.0, which establishes the monster class and the aligned unicorns. The domestic horses are added to the monster class in NetHack 3.3.0.
Messages
- The <unicorn/horse> whickers.
- You were chatting to a tame unicorn or horse.
- The <unicorn/horse> whinnies.
- As above, but they are also hungry.
- The <unicorn/horse> neighs.
- As above while they are low on tameness, or else are not tame.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds two new monsters to the monster class:
GruntHack
GruntHack adds one new monster to the monster class:
SporkHack
SporkHack adds one new monster to the monster class:
dNetHack
dNetHack adds one new monster to the monster class:
Dreprun is a stave that can ward against unicorns and horses.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds some new monsters to the monster class:
- u selkie
- u nightmare
- u pale horse
- u white horse
- u black horse
notdNetHack
notdNetHack retains the monster added in dNetHack and adds another new monster to the class:
EvilHack
EvilHack adds many new monsters to the monster class:
- u lesser nightmare
- u nightmare
- u cauchemar
- u pegasus
- u greater pegasus
- u Pale Horse
- u White Horse
- u Black Horse
- u Red Horse
The unicorn or horse is the second quest monster class for Infidels, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Infidel quest. Random unicorns and horse are also generated on some levels of the quest branch, with two generated on the locate level, four generated on the lower filler level(s), and three generated on the goal level.
GnollHack
GnollHack adds some new monsters to the monster class:
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM and adds another new monster to the class:
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds many new monsters to the monster class from other variants:
- u lesser nightmare
- u greater nightmare
- u cauchemar
- u selkie
- u pegasus
- u greater pegasus
- u Nightmare
