Gremlin
g gremlin 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d6, Claw 1d6, Bite 1d4, Claw 0d0 intrinsic theft |
| Base level | 5 |
| Base experience | 61 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 25 |
| Alignment | -9 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 100 |
| Nutritional value | 20 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | poison |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (33%) |
|
A gremlin:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line394 |
A gremlin, g, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The gremlin is a small humanoid monster that is the namesake monster of the gremlin monster class - they are capable of swimming, can be seen via infravision, and can follow the hero to other levels if they are adjacent. Gremlins can duplicate into two identical clones with half the maximum HP via division if they make contact with water of any kind, and will actively seek out bodies of water for this purpose; they cannot divide if their max HP is 1. Cloned gremlins retain the properties of the original gremlin (including being a shape changer if the original "gremlin" was one), and a hero that clones themselves this way while polymorphed into a gremlin will create a tame gremlin.
Gremlins possess two claw attacks, a bite attack, and a third claw attack that deals no damage, but has a 1⁄10 chance of intrinsic theft at night if the gremlin is not cancelled[1] - the attack cancels monsters it hits with the same chance, instantly destroying clay golems, and a hero polymorphed into a clay golem is forced back to normal form if an intrinsic would be stolen, even with unchanging.[2][3][4]
Gremlins possess poison resistance, and are uniquely weak to light, including a hero polymorphed into a gremlin:
- Zapping a wand of light, reading a scroll of light, or casting the light spell will deal d5 damage to gremlins in the light radius.
- Applying a wand of light will deal (1 + charges)d4 damage to gremlins caught in the blast.[5]
- Applying an expensive camera will do d4 damage to gremlins caught in the flash.[6]
- Sunsword does +d8 damage against gremlins that it hits, and the light it emits while wielded will scare them if they are within its radius.[7]
A gremlin corpse is poisonous to eat, and eating a gremlin corpse or tin has a 1⁄3 chance (33%) of granting poison resistance.
Chatting to a gremlin causes it to laugh, with one of four different messages - of note is that one of them is the same as the message for a successful intrinsic theft attack.[8][9]
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.
Per commit f5d88985, a hero in the form of a gremlin can also create a tame gremlin clone by using either the #monster extended command or the sit command while they are on a fountain square or in a pool of water.Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated gremlins may be peaceful towards chaotic heroes.
A gremlin that makes contact with a fountain, moat, a rust trap, or even the vapors of a potion of water will divide into two gremlins with half the maximum HP of the original, which can dry up fountains and does not respect extinction.
A gremlin is generated within the entrance hall in the second variant of Medusa's Island at level creation.
Strategy
Gremlins by themselves are annoying to contend with at absolute worst if the hero is adequately kitted out, but become very risky to deal with at night since they can steal several vital intrinsics, or else cancel certain exotic pets - the intrinsic theft attack can target intrinsics that are hard to obtain or recover, including those from experience level or the hero's race! Thankfully, on top of being somewhat fragile on their own, gremlins can also be disposed of by exploiting their weakness to light, and ranged attacks can kill them before they even get close enough.
If you find any gremlins around a significant amount of water, kill them quickly before they can flood the level regardless of the time. This is especially bad for chaotics, who may have gremlins generate as peaceful: killing them yourself may seriously lower your alignment record, all but requiring the use of a pet. Gremlins that have split enough times can be easily killed en masse using a burst of light, but this does not anger peaceful gremlins before killing them, and doing so potentially incurs multiple luck penalties on top of the alignment record penalties.
Pets with multiple attacks like vrocks have the most chance of hitting and killing low-HP divided gremlins before they can retaliate; a magic whistle is also ideal for maneuvering pets around to clear gremlins out of levels like Medusa's Island and Juiblex's Swamp. Conflict can also be a useful way to mop up a crowd of peaceful gremlins if there are far stronger monsters around them—beware if the gremlins manage to score any kills, as this increases their hit point maximum and allows them to divide again.[10]
Farming
Gremlins are generally unremarkable as pets outside of their ability to wear non-torso armor and cancel other monsters. However, their division can be put to potentially good use for farming, even without taming them.
If you find yourself with a tame gremlin, but don't particularly want one and have a means of polymorphing handy (e.g., a polymorph trap), consider allowing it to split a few times so you can polymorph the resulting gremlins into more powerful pets. If you let them divide as much as possible, you will end up with a legion of 1 HP pets that die once anything inflicts damage (including light!) - however, there will be more than enough left over to ensure that you can turn at least some of them into useful allies.
While gremlins normally stop dividing once their maximum HP falls to 1, they can divide almost indefinitely if made to kill something and gain max HP via conflict. Provided that non-tame gremlins are given enough time to heal and divide, they can be farmed somewhat like puddings: While cloned monsters do not leave death drops at all and give diminishing experience returns, gremlin corpses can still be used for sacrifice;[11][12] it is also worth noting that gremlins are followers, and can thus be brought to levels with water via level teleport or branchport. See the section on gremlins in the farming article for additional information.
History
The gremlin first appears in NetHack 2.3e, where it uses the G glyph alongside the gnome—in NetHack 3.0.0, the gremlin is moved to the g glyph and given its own monster class.
Origin
Gremlins are mischievous creatures that originate in myths among airmen, and became popularized during World War II among airmen of the Royal Air Force (RAF) units, who blamed gremlins for otherwise inexplicable accidents which sometimes occurred during their flights. Gremlins were also thought at one point to have enemy sympathies, but investigations revealed that enemy aircraft had similar and equally inexplicable mechanical problems. As such, gremlins were portrayed as equal opportunity tricksters, taking no sides in the conflict, but acting out their mischief from their own self-interest. The concept of gremlins as scapegoats eventually became important to pilot morale.
The aviator Pauline Gower's 1938 novel The ATA: Women with Wings has one of the earliest post-WWII references to gremlins: in the novel, Scotland is described as "gremlin country", a mystical and rugged territory where scissor-wielding gremlins cut the wires of biplanes when unsuspecting pilots were about. An article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly Royal Air Force Journal, dated 18 April 1942, also chronicles the appearance of gremlins and states that such stories had been in existence for several years, with later recollections of it having been told by Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940. Folklorist John W. Hazen states that some people derive the name from the Old English word gremian, "to vex", while Paul Quinion suggested that the term is a blend of the word "goblin" with Fremlin, the manufacturer of the most common beer available in the Royal Air Force of the 1920s.
British author Roald Dahl is credited with popularizing the concept of gremlins, having himself served in 80 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. In January 1942, he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air attaché at the British Embassy, where he wrote his first children's novel, The Gremlins, featuring the titular characters as tiny men who lived on RAF fighters. Though plans to create a live-action or animated full-length feature film (and then an animated short) fell through, Disney managed to have the story published in the December 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. At Dahl's urging, Random House published a revised version of the story as a picture book in early 1943, which was considered an international success.
The concept of gremlins that multiply in water and have a weakness to light comes from the 1984 movie Gremlins, produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Joe Dante—the film prominently features a small and furry "mogwai", who spawn more malignant mogwai upon contact with water; these mogwai mutate into the evil and destructive titular creatures when fed after midnight, and at least one of them is killed by disintegration with light.
Messages
- For messages associated with losing intrinsics to a gremlin, see Intrinsic theft#Messages.
- <The gremlin> chuckles.
- You chatted to a gremlin, with a 1⁄4 chance of this message being printed[8]—otherwise, it is night and the gremlin attempted to steal an intrinsic from you or destroyed your clay golem form, or else you saw one use its intrinsic stealing attacking on another monster.[9]
- You hear laughter.
- It is night, and the gremlin has stolen an intrinsic from you or destroyed your clay golem form while you were blind, or else it used the attack on another monster outside your vision.
- The gremlin cries out in pain!
- A gremlin was hit by light and took damage.
- The gremlin wails in agony!
- A gremlin was hit by light and took damage greater than half its current HP.
- "Bright light!"
- The gremlin flees from the painful light of Sunsword.
- A gremlin is scared by the light of Sunsword while within its radius.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, tame gremlin minions can be given as sacrifice gifts for chaotic heroes at experience level 3 or below.
A hostile gremlin named Clown is generated within the Cloud Bank of the Lawful Quest at level creation.
Gremlins multiply normally in Lethe water, i.e. without suffering amnesia, and will also multiply if subjected to the vapors from a potion of amnesia—this also applies to a hero in gremlin form, who will also be subjected to the normal effects of those vapors as well.
The galltrit is a deferred monster in the code that is part of the gremlin monster class and has a similar attack routine, including the intrinsic-stealing claw attack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, light-emitting artifacts such as Sunsword that hit gremlins will instantly reduce them to dust.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, gremlins can steal intrinsics from other monsters as well as the hero, and will do so regardless of the time of day: the gremlin also gains the targeted intrinsic as opposed to just removing the intrinsic from the victim.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, gremlins can grow up into gremlin leaders. The galltrit is also un-deferred and added to the bestiary.
The Undertaker quest has the same layout as the Lawful Quest, including the hostile gremlin named Clown generated within the Cloud Bank at level creation.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, gremlins can steal intrinsics regardless of the time of day, as in FIQHack.
Encyclopedia entry
The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil
creature. It lives to torment other creatures and will go
to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury.
Suddenly, Wilson thought about war, about the newspaper
stories which recounted the alleged existence of creatures in
the sky who plagued the Allied pilots in their duties. They
called them gremlins, he remembered. Were there, actually,
such beings? Did they, truly, exist up here, never falling,
riding on the wind, apparently of bulk and weight, yet
impervious to gravity?
He was thinking that when the man appeared again.
References
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1526: Intrinsic theft attack against hero; line 1528 checks if it is night and the attacker is a gremlin, and aborts the sequence otherwise
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1537: hero in clay golem form is forced back to normal before intrinsic is stolen
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1244: Intrinsic-stealing vs. other monsters
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1830: Intrinsic-stealing by hero vs. monsters
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2623
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3145: Gremlins take damage from light
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 328
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 727: MS_LAUGHS() case
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1535
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1831: hit points gained after killing another monster
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2432
- ↑ src/exper.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 137
