Gelatinous cube

b gelatinous cube
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Touch 2d4 paralysis, passive 1d4 paralysis

b gelatinous cube
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Touch 2d4 paralysis, passive 1d4 paralysis
Base level	6
Base experience	76
Speed	6
Base AC	8
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	600
Nutritional value	150
Size	Large
Resistances	Fire, cold, shock, sleep, poison, acid, petrification
Resistances conveyed	Fire (10%), cold (10%), shock (10%), sleep (10%)
A gelatinous cube: has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. is acidic to eat. is omnivorous. is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. wanders randomly.
Reference	monst.c#line157

A gelatinous cube, b, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an eyeless, amoeboid monster that has many resistance properties and possesses two paralysis-inducing attacks: an active paralyzing touch and a passive that paralyzes attackers.

The gelatinous cube's acidic body burns through webs that it moves across. It also has a ¹⁹⁄₂₀ chance of engulfing and picking up any object(s) on a square it moves to, with a ¹⁄₂₀ chance for artifacts. Any organic items engulfed by a gelatinous cube this way will be dissolved except for unique items, healing the cube by an amount of HP up to the object's weight, and the remaining objects are added to the cube's inventory - organic containers are dissolved without destroying the contents, which also become part of its inventory.

A gelatinous cube cannot engulf boulders, Rider corpses, quest artifacts, or a punished player's iron ball or the attached iron chain, and will not digest a glob of green slime; it will also respect (and avoid engulfing) a scroll of scare monster. A cube digesting the corpse of a chameleon or doppleganger will polymorph. Most of the above also applies to a pet gelatinous cube, except that it will consume both an organic container if it moves across one and then dissolve its organic contents the next turn - a pet cube also considers organic non-food items "acceptable" in terms of food priority.

Polymorphing into a gelatinous cube allows you to actively eat items made of any organic material, along with bone or dragon hide, using e - most of the above information applies to you in this form, though you will not automatically dissolve items that you pick up, and you cannot eat an applicable container unless it is empty. Eating a scroll of scare monster, a scroll of mail, a scroll labeled YUM YUM, or any other paper item will print unique messages.

The corpse of a gelatinous cube is acidic, but eating its corpse or tin can convey fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, or sleep resistance, with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance for each property. Like all blob monsters, the corpses of gelatinous cubes are vegan.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

As of commit 2108abd, a pet gelatinous cube will eat containers the same as a non-tame one does, consuming the container and engulfing the contents. Unfortunately, the pet gelatinous cube will likely drop its inventory very quickly, meaning that the container's old contents may end up eaten anyway.

Generation

Randomly-generated gelatinous cubes will always be hostile.

Strategy

Gelatinous cubes are not much of a direct threat to your well-being, but their paralysis can cause major trouble if you are careless or caught off guard fighting other monsters; magic cancellation can protect against the paralyzing touch, while a ring of free action will prevent paralysis from the cube's touch and its passive attack. Ranged attacks will also not trigger passive paralysis, though the gelatinous cube will resist most elemental wands and spells and engulf projectiles - be sure not to use wooden projectiles (such as elven arrows) against a cube unless they are disposable.

As a vegan-friendly corpse, there are some cases where a player capable of reliably defeating cubes can consider using a cursed scroll of genocide to generate cubes and kill them for intrinsics. Of note is that the gelatinous cube is the only polyform capable of eating rings with a "wooden" randomized appearance, potentially making it a valuable strategy depending on the ring.

Cubes and stashes

The gelatinous cube's ability to engulf and dissolve organic containers makes them the bane of any stashes they come across, even if the stash's contents are not lost - especially paranoid players will often use a scroll of scare monster to keep them away, and may move a boulder atop it for good measure. Ice boxes are made of plastic and thus completely inedible to gelatinous cubes, ensuring they will at least remain intact.

Conversely, a player trying to loot a cursed bag of holding found in bones may want a hostile gelatinous cube around in order to eat the bag - this will preserve its contents to be retrieved from the cube at your leisure.

Cubes and shops

A hostile gelatinous cube can be used to completely clean out a shop's inventory of non-organic items: pile them all on a single square near the entrance, making sure to store desired organic items well out of the cube's reach if possible. Then, lure the cube onto the item pile - once it engulfs that pile, you can lure it back outside the shop again and kill it to retrieve the stolen inventory. This technique works best in shops that specialize in weapons or armor, or else have enough floorspace to safely store organic items far away from the hungry cube.

History

The gelatinous cube first appears in Hack for PDP-11, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, and uses the g glyph. It is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0. In NetHack 3.0.0, the gelatinous cube is moved to b with the other blobs.

Gelatinous cubes gain the ability to pick up items in NetHack 3.1.1 - from this version to NetHack 3.1.3, a gelatinous cube engulfing a container devours its contents completely. NetHack 3.2.0 introduces the current behavior for cubes engulfing containers, as well as the cube polymorphing when digesting chameleon or doppelganger corpses.

In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, it is possible for gelatinous cubes to engulf Rider corpses without digesting them. This allows the hero to teleport the corpse(s) without reviving them or else to potentially destroy them: for example, they can steal it from the cube using a nymph polyself, then place it in a cursed bag of holding and repeatedly looting it without using up any further turns. This is fixed in Nethack 3.6.0 via commit 0b95104f.

In NetHack 3.6.0, a gelatinous cube can digest a glob of green slime without being subjected to sliming, despite not digesting green slime corpses in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 440d9d74.

Origin

The gelatinous cube first appears in the original Dungeons & Dragons 1974 "white box" set, along with its first supplement Greyhawk. The cube was created directly by Gary Gygax: it is a cube of gelatinous, near-transparent ooze that is "adapted" to the dungeon environment it frequently appears in, and can absorb and digest organic matter, including unfortunate explorers that do not successfully save against paralysis. The gelatinous cube is one of the more iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters to appear in other fantasy works, and is known as much for the silliness of its concept as it is for the genuine dangers posed to player characters.

The average gelatinous cube is 10 feet in size, which takes up the entirety of a typical dungeon's passageways, and acts as a form of scavenger, absorbing living organisms and carrion from the dungeon's floor and walls and dissolving them with acidic digestive juices - larger cubes can even pull in mosses and the like from ceilings. A cube can slide through corridors and molds its body to flow around objects and fit through narrow passages, returning to its original shape once enough space is available. Objects that cannot be dissolved by its juices are swept up and will remain in the cube's body for up to several weeks, after which it is expelled from the cube and left behind. The dim lighting of a dungeon and the gelatinous cube's transparency provide an element of surprise that allows it to engulf all but the most alert adventurers - fortunately, cubes are vulnerable to weapons and fire, and cold can slow them down unless they save against it.

Messages

The gelatinous cube eats <foo>!

A gelatinous cube has eaten (more than) one item.

You hear a slurping sound.
You hear several slurping sounds.

As above while outside of your sight.

The gelatinous cube engulfs <foo>.
The gelatinous cube engulfs several objects.

A gelatinous cube has picked up (more than) one item .

You are frozen by the gelatinous cube!

You were hit by the passive attack of a gelatinous cube.

<Foo> is frozen by the gelatinous cube.

A monster was paralyzed by attacking a gelatinous cube.

<Foo> is frozen by you.

A monster was paralyzed by attacking you while you are in the form of a gelatinous cube.

This junk mail is less than satisfying.

Yet Another Funny Message that occurs if you eat a scroll of mail as a gelatinous cube - you also gain no nutrition from doing so.

Yuck!

You ate a scroll of scare monster as a gelatinous cube, with a period in place of the exclamation point if the scroll was not blessed.

Yum!

You ate a scroll with the random label YUM YUM as a gelatinous cube, with a period in place of the exclamation point if the scroll was not blessed.

Variants

In variants with object materials systems and/or a wider variance of randomized appearances, certain items will be at varying levels of risk from being eaten by a wandering gelatinous cube.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, gelatinous cubes are capable of hiding similar to piercers, and can additionally engulf targets in order to suffocate them. Combined with their paralysis, this will usually lead to a swift death, making gelatinous cubes a major threat once they start generating (typically from the mid-game on).

Use your best available ranged attacks and means of scaring to keep gelatinous cubes from engulfing you before you can kill them - gelatinous cubes respect Elbereth, and a source of warning can help you avoid being caught off guard by a hidden cube. A ring of free action will give you time to kill or break out of the cube if you are engulfed; zapping a wand of digging while engulfed will reduce their HP to 1 and release you, making killing them afterward somewhat trivial. An amulet of magical breathing or a breathless polyform will prevent the cube's suffocating from affecting you, and any polyform that is larger than the cube cannot be engulfed at all.

Gelatinous cubes can also be useful as a means of zombie disposal, as they can consume and dissolve the corpses with no ill effect - their paralyzing touch and passive will also immobilize zombies that try to attack it, which you or another living monster can then dispose of without fearing retaliatory bites. They do not possess sickness resistance, however.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, some levels in the Drow Healer quest generate gelatinous cubes: three are placed on the locate floor at level creation, and four are placed on the goal floor at level creation.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, gelatinous cubes behave mostly the same as they do in GruntHack, though they lack the ability to hide. This makes it much less likely that you will be surprised by one, though they are still a potential game-ending threat - be sure to listen out for telltale slurping noises. If you can prevent paralysis, then a source of phasing (e.g. via polyself) can prevent engulfing, and allows for easy escape if you are already engulfed; much of the strategies for GruntHack are also applicable to EvilHack as well.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, gelatinous cubes are reverted from EvilHack to their vanilla NetHack and/or SLASH'EM traits, removing the engulfing attack.

Encyclopedia entry

Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it), the gelatinous cube is also widely known as one of the sillier role-playing monsters. It is something of a commentary on the ubiquity of treasure-laden dungeons in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, as the cube is a creature specifically adapted to a dungeon ecosystem. 10 feet to the side, it travels through standard 10-foot by 10-foot dungeon corridors, cleaning up debris and redistributing treasure by excreting indigestible metal items.

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