Zombie

For the monster class, see zombie (monster class).

Zombies are a group of monsters that appear in NetHack. The group consists of undead monsters in the zombie monster class that correspond to a living monster, and includes the following:

• Z kobold zombie
• Z gnome zombie
• Z orc zombie
• Z dwarf zombie
• Z elf zombie
• Z human zombie
• Z ettin zombie
• Z giant zombie

Common traits

All zombies are chaotic, mindless humanoid undead that possess unbreathing and infravision, and are inediate. They can follow a hero to another level if they are adjacent.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 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.

If the player is killed by a zombie or a lich, they will rise from the grave as a zombie of their race's type, and will be present as a zombie if a bones file is created. Per commit 3c421da7, the zombie will have the same intrinsics as the former hero.

Generation

Randomly generated zombies will always be hostile. Zombies are frequently found in graveyards, where they are always generated hostile and asleep. As the zombie monster class is the first quest monster class for Priests and make up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of monsters that are randomly generated within the Priest quest, the various zombie monsters make up a majority of monsters seen in the branch.

Zombies are considered corpseless, with a special case that generates an aged corpse of their living counterpart upon "death" in circumstances where a monster would ordinarily leave a corpse (e.g. a gnome zombie leaves an old gnome corpse when "killed" in combat). This means that listed nutritional values for zombies are only relevant to pets or polymorphed heroes that digest zombies - monster corpses left behind by zombies use the normal nutritional values for that monster, though they are usually too old to be eaten safely without a tinning kit.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 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.

Liches and other zombies that are not cancelled can raise monsters as zombies if they kill them with their bare hands, including a hero in the form of one - the corpse will rise 5-20 turns after death if it has a corresponding zombie type. Zombies and liches will grudge living monsters that can be turned into zombies.

The mausoleum themed room may have a randomly generated zombie sealed and meditating within its central subroom.

Per commit 852f8e49 and commit 98d2b0ec, buried zombie corpses can revive if items are placed, dropped or fall on their square, with the response dependent on the weight of the item and the type of impact.

History

The zombie first appears in Hack 1.21, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, where it uses the z glyph; it also appears in Hack for PDP-11, where it first uses its current glyph, Z. The zombie is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0, and appears from this version to NetHack 2.3e, where it is the equivalent of the modern human zombie.

In NetHack 3.0.0, most of the zombies are introduced and differentiated with the exception of the dwarf zombie, which is added in NetHack 3.3.0.

Origin

A zombie is a form of reanimated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft, or science fictional methods such as fungi or pathogens. First recorded in 1819, the word originates from the Hatian French zombi among other similar roots, and appears in various forms in cultural folklore as well as fantasy and horror media. One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was W. B. Seabrook's 1929 novel The Magic Island, presented as the account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls.

The modern zombie may have been codified by the George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead, where the titular undead flesh-eaters were referred to as "zombies" by many film critics, though they were much closer to ghouls in mannerisms and are referred to as such in Romero's original scripts and the film itself. The film and its monsters are also partly inspired by 1954 Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend - despite considering them distinct from zombies (e.g. as seen in White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi), Romero came to use the term similarly in later interviews and eventually accepted the linkage between the concepts.

Along with two of Romero's later films, the 1978 Dawn of the Dead and the 1985 The Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead helped to establish the image of the zombie in popular culture. This was further assisted by the release of break-out franchise-starting video games Resident Evil and The House of the Dead in the mid-1990s; the "zombie apocalypse" concept, in which the civilized world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, has since become a staple of modern popular art, seen in such media as The Walking Dead. Still-later portrayals would come to humanize and even romanticize the zombie as potential friends and love interests.

The zombies of Dungeons & Dragons are introduced in the 1st edition as magically animate corpses commanded by the evil spellcaster or cleric that animated them, and are typically found near graveyards, in dungeons, and in similar areas. Zombies obey simple commands and are slow-moving, but always deal damage when they hit and will fight until they are either destroyed or turned back by a cleric. They are immune to magic that induces sleep, charming, holding, and cold, but are especially vulnerable to holy water.

Variants

Many variants implement a form of mutual grudge between zombies and living monsters, as well as a form of revival similar to trolls. Material hatred that applies to a living monster is typically not applied to their zombie forms.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, zombies can be generated by using the raise zombies technique while on or adjacent to squares with the appropriate corpse(s).

Gnomish and dwarvish heroes that enter the Gnomish Mines will find most of the ordinarily peaceful denizens from NetHack replaced with zombies and other hostile monsters, ensuring that all player roles and races must contend with a dangerous descent through the branch. The specific following substitutions generate zombies:

• G Gnomes become Z gnome zombies
• h Dwarves become Z dwarf zombies

GruntHack

In GruntHack, zombies are racial monsters and can be any of the following races: human, elf, kobold, gnome, dwarf, giant, ettin, orc, and ogre.

Zombies in GruntHack are incredibly dangerous compared to their NetHack counterparts: they have bites that can inflict intelligence drain similar to mind flayers and/or make you terminally ill, and can revive from the corpses they leave behind; these corpses also inflict terminal illness if eaten as well, in addition to the normal effects of eating that corpse. Monsters that die of terminal illness from a zombie will rise as a zombie if they have a compatible form, including the player (who will always be of a compatible form).

Additionally, zombies will grudge other living monsters and vice versa, making them as much of a danger to the other denizens of the dungeon as they are to you - interestingly, grudges between monsters also apply to their undead forms. A means of curing sickness should be a priority for any GruntHack character, along with a means to permanently dispose of them (e.g., via locked container or tinning kit). As with mind flayers, a helm can sometimes block the additional effects of a zombie's bite attack (though it does not do so as often due to a bug), and a helm that is either greased or has the oilskin object property (limited to cloth helms) will block them outright.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, a majority of zombies exist as a form of templated monster, making it possible for most living monsters to have zombie counterparts. There are also new and returning monsters in the zombie monster class.

Monsters that are attacked in melee by zombies are infected, and ¹⁄₂₀ of melee attacks from skeleton monsters will also infect a target monster; once an infected monster is killed by any means, they will rise from their corpse as a zombie. A hero of a living race that is killed by any zombie monster will arise as a zombie of that race if a bones file is created. The presence of a dread seraph on a level will cause corpses dropped on that level to potentially revive as zombies, regardless of whether that seraph is awake or within their sepulcher; loading a normal bones level (i.e. corpse and a player ghost) with a dread seraph will result in the corpse eventually animating as a zombie as normal.

Zombies themselves can reanimate from their corpses with nearly the same the same rules as trolls, e.g. they cannot revive if they are cancelled or locked into a container. Since zombies are unbreathing, they can also revive while in water.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the list of zombie monsters matches that of NetHack, but they are given many new characteristics, including those drawn from upcoming versions of NetHack: Zombies will occasionally revive from their own corpses similar to trolls, but they have a lower overall chance, and will not revive at all if cancelled or beheaded; they can also revive when buried. Zombies will also grudge monsters that they can zombify, and vice-versa.

Monsters with zombie forms that are killed in melee by zombies and liches (including a hero in the form of one) will immediately rise as zombies, and zombies created by a tame zombie or lich will also be tame. Heroes that die at the hands of a zombie or lich have a ¹⁄₄ chance of immediately resurrecting as a zombie with permanent intrinsic unchanging, and will others rise as a zombie if a bones file is created.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, zombies can be any of the variations encountered in NetHack, with the addition of the hobbit zombie, gnoll witherling and drow zombie. EvilHack zombies behave similarly to GruntHack, though they have their own entries in monst.c rather than racial templates, and several modifications are made to keep them distinct and less overwhelmingly difficult while still being quite challenging.

A zombie's claw attack is poisonous with a frequency similar to that of a rabid rat, and their brain-eating bite can cause intelligence loss, but they also have a lower chance of reviving from their corpse, and they will not revive at all if cancelled or beheaded. Zombies can transfer illness the same way as in GruntHack, either via their bite, or if a hero or monster consumes their corpse, and monsters with zombie forms that are killed by a zombie will eventually revive as one; as in xNetHack, a hero killed this way may rarely be able to continue on as a zombie with permanent unchanging.

The same methods for permanently disposing of zombies in GruntHack are generally applicable in EvilHack: zombie corpses will always cause terminal illness when eaten, making it possible to permanently get rid of them by eating one and then using a reliable illness cure, such as a unicorn horn. Lava is slightly more common in the main dungeon, making it easier to burn up the corpses by dipping, throwing or dropping them into the lava square; dipping a zombie corpse into a forge will also incinerate it. Sunsword can vaporize zombies it kills permanently, including a chance of instantly destroying them similar to other Bane-style weapons in EvilHack.

Helms will more reliably prevent the effects of a zombie's bites compared to GruntHack, and helms that are greased or oilskin will block them outright; barding worn by a steed can protect them from zombie bites. Illithids and mind flayers have psychic resistance, giving them immunity to the brain-targeting secondary effects of a zombie bite, though they can still be made ill. The spell of cure sickness spell, which is directional in EvilHack, can damage zombies in the path of the beam.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, zombies can be any of the monster races encountered in EvilHack, with the addition of the centaur zombie as well. Hack'EM zombies behave primarily the same as they do in EvilHack, and are additionally damaged by wands of healing and extra healing.

The artifact weapon Mortality Dial prevents zombies and other monsters from automatically reviving.

Encyclopedia entry

The zombi ... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.

[ W. B. Seabrook ]

See also

• Mummies