Fire vortex

v fire vortex
Difficulty	10
Attacks	Engulf 1d10 fire, passive 0d4 fire

v fire vortex
Difficulty	10
Attacks	Engulf 1d10 fire, passive 0d4 fire
Base level	8
Base experience	142
Speed	22
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Fire, Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
A fire vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not have a solid form. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse. gives out light.
Reference	monst.c#line897

A fire vortex, v, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The fire vortex has the highest monster level and monster difficulty among the vortices: it can be seen via infravision, and is the stronger of two vortices with an affinity to fire, with the other being the steam vortex.

A fire vortex has an engulfing attack that deals fire damage, which is replaced with a touch attack that deals fire damage and can destroy scrolls, spellbooks and potions in the target's inventory if the attack hits the hero during the grace period where they were expelled and cannot be re-engulfed. A fire vortex also has a passive fire attack that triggers when it is attacked and not killed in melee, and deals damage based on the attacker's experience level or monster level. Fire vortices possess fire resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, and stoning resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated fire vortices are always created hostile, and are only created in Gehennom.

Six fire vortices are generated on the Plane of Fire at level creation.

Fire vortices do not leave a corpse upon death.

Strategy

Though the fire vortex is among the more dangerous vortices for a hero to face and its passive fire attack can deal potent damage, most heroes that encounter one normally will have long secured a source of fire resistance, rendering it mostly harmless—for a resistant hero, the primary danger that remains is being carried over lava while engulfed or possibly burning up important items in open inventory. For non-resistant heroes, wands and other ranged attacks are preferable, and options such as the wand of cold can make short work of them.

History

The fire vortex first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

Messages

You are burning to a crisp!

You were engulfed by a steam vortex or fire vortex.

You feel mildly hot.

As above, but you have fire resistance.

<Foo> is burning to a crisp!

You engulfed a monster while in the form of a steam vortex or fire vortex.

<Foo> seems mildly hot.

As above, but the monster has fire resistance.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, fire vortices require a +1 weapon or better to be hit and implicitly hit as +1 weapons.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, two fire vortices are generated in the lava chamber within the island layout of the Castle at level creation.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the fire vortex and almost all other vortices (except for the yochlol's stinking cloud form) take halved damage from blunt, piercing and slashing weapons.

Fire vortices can generate as minions of Kos and Brigit.

Fire vortices can generate randomly in the Law Quest if Oona is alive and her elemental affinity is fire.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, a fire vortex is generated in the City of Brass at level creation.

Encyclopedia entry

See the encyclopedia entry for vortex.