Growing up

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Growing up is the process in which a monster turns into a larger version of itself (e.g., a kitten turns into a housecat). Monsters grow from killing monsters and gaining levels, from the effects of a potion of gain level, or from wraith corpses.

Natural growth

If a monster kills another monster, its maximum and current HP will both increase.[1] If its maximum hp are increased above the threshold for its current level, it will gain a level. There is a limit to maxhp and levels a monster can gain in this way.

The monster will increase maxhp by d(victim level + 1), but no more than enough to bring it to the minimum for the next level. Current hp will increase by d(increase in maxhp) - 1.

The hp threshold for most monsters is 8 * current level (4 for level 0). Exceptions are golems and elementals on their home plane.

The maximum level attainable via this method is 3/2 of the base level for the current monster type (or the next type if there is a more "grown up" form), but no less than 5 and normally no greater than 49.[2] Player monsters can reach level 30, and monsters which have a minimum level greater than 49 (i.e. demon lords and princes) have a maximum level of 50. If an increase in maxhp would increase the monster's level above this maximum, its maxhp are reset to the threshold for its current level.

Examples

  • a dog (currently level 4, maxhp 31) kills a kobold shaman (level 2). Its maxhp can increase by 1-3. If it gains 2-3 maxhp, it will become level 5, with maxhp of 33.
  • a large dog (currently level 9, maxhp 70) kills a dwarf king (level 6) and would gain 4 maxhp. Its maxhp do not increase beyond 72.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"It would be nice to have a table on a separate page of each monster and its "natural" maximum level and hp"

Magical growth

A monster drinking a potion of gain level or eating a wraith corpse will gain a level and increase its current and maximum hp by d8.

Monsters may exceed their natural level limit in this way, although they may not exceed a hard limit of 49 (50 for named demons). Additionally, pets eating wraith corpses cannot exceed their base level by 15[3] (but engulfing live wraiths still works[4]). They may subsequently increase their maximum HP to the cap for their new level by killing monsters.

Changing form

If a monster gains a level so that its current level equals or exceeds the minimum level of its next available form, it will "grow up" into that form (e.g. a little dog which reaches level 4 will become a dog.) If you can see or detect the monster, you will receive a message to that effect: "The kitten grows up into a housecat" or "The soldier becomes a sergeant".

Growing up does not allow a monster to take a genocided form. If the new form is genocided, the monster dies and does not leave a corpse. Extinct forms are nonetheless allowed.[5] This will generate the message "As foo grows up into foo, s/he <expires/dies>!" if you can see or otherwise detect the monster.

Growing up is a one-way process, and level draining a grown-up monster will not cause it to revert to a lesser form. The only possible way for a monster to retake its previous form is polymorphing them, which yields no real benefit.

While many players may only ever notice the growth of domestic pets (dogs, cats, and horses), a surprising number of monsters can grow up in this manner. The possible form changes are as follows:[6]

Domestic animals:

Baby monsters:

Orcs and elves:

Other humanoids:

Undead:

Giant animals:

Soldiers, Kops and watchmen:

Quest guardians:

Other:

Although queen bees can lay killer bee eggs, and winged gargoyles can lay gargoyle eggs, such offspring are sterile and will not grow into their parent forms.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Several monsters added in SLASH'EM also are capable of growing up, and one monster has their growth path altered:

UnNetHack

In the Convict patch and some other variants that include it, the giant rat grows up into the enormous rat before it becomes the rodent of unusual size.

SpliceHack

SpliceHack adds new monsters that can grow up, and gives some monsters from vanilla the ability to grow up:[7]

References

  1. ↑ grow_up in makemon.c
  2. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1700
  3. ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 336
  4. ↑ meatobj in mon.c
  5. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1731
  6. ↑ grownups data structure in mondata.c
  7. ↑ https://github.com/NullCGT/SpliceHack/blob/Spl-R-1.1.0/src/mondata.c#L1070

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.

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