Giant (monster)

H giant
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Weapon 2d10

H giant
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Weapon 2d10
Base level	6
Base experience	127
Speed	6
Base AC	0
Base MR	0
Alignment	2 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	2250
Nutritional value	750
Size	Huge
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	Increase strength (50%)
A giant: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is carnivorous. is a giant. is nasty. is strong. can throw boulders. likes gems. can pick up weapons and food. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line1388

A giant, H, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a type of giant that serves as the base monster for the corpse left by a giant zombie or giant mummy. Its stats are identical to those of the stone giant.

A giant has a single weapon attack.

Eating a giant corpse or tin has a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) of increasing a character's strength.

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

The attacks of giants and other sufficiently large monsters can inflict knockback, sending targets flying one or more squares.

Giants and other large humanoids can wear mummy wrappings.

Generation

Standard giants are not randomly generated.

A giant zombie or giant mummy will leave an aged human corpse behind upon death. Giants can also be generated by zapping a wand of undead turning at a giant corpse that is not left by a zombie or mummy, wishing for a figurine of a giant and applying it, or else selecting giants while reading a cursed scroll of genocide.

Giants that are somehow generated normally have a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) of being generated with either a boulder or a club with equal probability, and an independent chance of being generated with a small assortment of gems. They are eligible for offensive items, defensive items, and miscellaneous items.

Strategy

Giant corpses left behind by zombies and mummies can be a risky source of additional strength for characters, due to the chance of contracting food poisoning. A tinning kit can render them both safe to consume and much less nutrition-heavy.

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

Knockback can make giants and other large monsters exceedingly dangerous if the player character is positioned between them and a hazard, such as pools of water or lava. This also includes giant zombies and mummies, which can make it more difficult to obtain their corpses in some situations.

History

The giant first appears in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, the monster uses the 9 glyph.

NetHack 3.0.0 moves the giant to the giant humanoid monster class and introduces most of the distinct giant types minus the storm giant - the standard giant remains in the game's data as a placeholder for the corpse left by the giant zombie and giant mummy, which are introduced in the same version.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, 20 giants are generated in the Giant Caverns at level generation.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, giants are a playable race, and they also generate as racial monsters - both leave behind giant corpses upon death. The giant's level is lowered to 3, and its monster difficulty is also lowered to 4.

SporkHack

SporkHack includes the giant as a playable race.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, giants are neutral-aligned and vulnerable to iron. They have an additional ¹⁄₄ chance (25%) of being generated with a club, due to an oversight in the code.

Giants may appear among the court of a titan-ruled throne room.

NetHack Fourk

NetHack Fourk includes the giant as a playable race, and standard giants now generate randomly: they are used as a replacement for the stone giant due to its identical stats, and are generated in the same locations that stone giants are in NetHack.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, giants are also a playable race and can generate as racial monsters, similar to GruntHack. The giant's stats are changed to reflect its status as a placeholder: its monster level is lowered to 0, its difficulty is lowered 2, its AC is set to 6, and its weapon attack can inflict knockback like other giants.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the giant is also a playable race: the monster is given a second weapon attack with the same dice to reflect the role's twoweapon ability, and its monster difficulty is increased to 11.

Hack'EM

Hack'EM adds giants as a playable race, and they generate as the same racial monsters as in EvilHack, with the same stat changes applied. The giant monster no longer appears in the Giant Caverns, and each instance is replaced with random giant humanoids.

Encyclopedia entry

Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in these times. They range in size from little over nine feet to a towering twenty feet or more. The larger ones use huge boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances. All types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or fried. Their table manners are legendary.