Killer bee
a killer bee 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 1 |
| Base experience | 31 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | -1 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1 |
| Nutritional value | 5 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | Poison resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison resistance (30%) |
|
A killer bee: | |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 96 |
A killer bee, a, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The killer bee is a female-only species of oviparous insect that is inediate and capable of flight.
A killer bee can eat a lump of royal jelly to grow up into a queen bee (which includes a hero that is polymorphed into a killer bee[1]), and cannot grow up into queen bees by standard means:[2] killer bees will only eat royal jelly to grow up if there are no queen bees on the current dungeon level[3][4]—pet killer bees will seek out lumps of royal jelly for this purpose.[5][6] If queen bees are genocided, killer bees that eat royal jelly will die. Applying a non-cursed lump of royal jelly to a killer bee egg will transform it into a queen bee egg (and revive the egg if it was stale), and using blessed royal jelly will also guarantee that it hatches tame.[7]
A killer bee has a single sting attack that can inflict strength-draining poison, and possesses poison resistance.
A killer bee corpse is poisonous to eat, and eating a killer bee corpse or tin has a 3⁄10 chance of granting poison resistance due to a special case for them in the code.[8]
Chatting to a killer bee causes it to buzz angrily if it is hostile, and otherwise it will "drone".[9]
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated killer bees are always created hostile, and are often generated in large groups. Killer bees can hatch from killer bee and queen bee eggs, including ones laid by a hero polymorphed into either type of bee, and 76⁄77 of eggs laid by queen bees this way will be killer bee eggs.[10][11]
Kicking a tree has an effective 3⁄200 chance of generating 2+rnl(4) killer bees near the hero, and will only occur once per tree.[12]
Hostile killer bees can be generated by the summon insects monster spell.[13]
Beehives are special rooms that contain a horde of killer bees, a queen bee, and lumps of royal jelly[14][15]—there is a guaranteed beehive within the Wizard's Tower.[16]
Killer bees can appear among the a that are part of the first quest monster class for Valkyries and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Valkyrie quest.
Strategy
Killer bees are quite fast at 18 speed, and their sting can drain strength and even inflict severe 'toxic' damage unless you are poison-resistant. Though killer bees have low HP and will often die in a couple of hits, they have a low natural AC of -1 that makes them hard to hit in the first place, and they frequently appear in swarms. A source of extrinsic poison resistance, such as an alchemy smock or amulet versus poison, will prevent the worst of the damage from the stings, and high magic cancellation from armor can offer some protection as a last resort.
Discretion is the better part of valor: if you are low-level, burdened and/or lack poison resistance, you will want to get away as quickly as possible using suitable wands or escape items. Elbereth can also offer some breathing room against killer bees if you find it difficult to avoid them. If you plan to actually fight back, drawing the bees into narrow corridors is a valuable tactic, either to handle them one at a time or else decimate them with wands or spells—killer bees have no MR score, and even wands of magic missile will suffice if their rays hit successfully, while chain lightning can easily decimate killer be swarms and hives with enough energy. An effective alternative, especially for pacifists, is to lead the bees to a falling rock trap, which will dispose of them quickly.
Killer bees are a popular source of intrinsic poison resistance for heroes that either have extrinsic poison resistance, a means to prevent strength loss and/or a way to significantly reduce poison damage. You can nullify the strength penalty through the use of a ring of sustain ability, or reverse it with a potion of restore ability or similar item, and a tinning kit makes the corpses safe to eat. Heroes that encounter beehives will want to save the queen bee within for last in order to prevent the royal jelly being eaten if they want easier combat and/or want the jelly for themselves.
A hero whose Quest home level has several trees may consider kicking them to summon bees if they still lack intrinsic poison resistance at that point in the game, or else if they want corpses to sacrifice on an altar. This is especially useful for Clerics seeking to convert the altar near the Arch Priest, as most of the monsters in the Cleric quest will be undead that generally do not leave usable corpses (if they leave one at all, due to the abundance of graveyard levels).
Killer bees created by the summon insects spell are usually encountered at a point where they are of no real trouble to most heroes, and can even serve as a limited form of buffer, e.g. against monsters in Moloch's Sanctum or the Astral Plane—due to slower HP regeneration at higher experience levels it may be best not to idle (even with the regeneration property), unless you have a method of healing yourself thoroughly and need the time and space to apply it reliably. Similarly, they can also provide a vector for chain lightning spells, although the amount of hostiles a hero will be facing in late-game situations where insects are summoned means that significant power drain will usually occur—heroes conserving their energy for other spells should utilize this as a form of last resort.
History
The killer bee first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, the killer bee uses the k glyph. NetHack 3.0.0 adds beehives, introduces the ant or other insect monster class and moves the killer bee to its current glyph at a.
In NetHack 3.6.7 and previous versions, including some variants based on those versions, the killer bee has a difficulty of 5 and its poison stings can cause instant death—applying a unicorn horn can cure strength drain from the killer bee's stings or their poisonous corpses. NetHack 5.0.0 increases their difficulty to its current value via commit 47724f01, removes the ability of poison attacks to cause instant death via commit d0b11fd2, and additionally removes the unicorn horn's ability to restore attributes via commit 43d331c4. Furthermore, homemade tins of killer bee meat grant 40 nutrition rather than the standard 5—this is changed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 39bd259b.
The ability of killer bees to eat royal jelly is added in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 4159dd98 and refined via commit 5e26589f to apply to a polymorphed hero, while the ability to transform killer bee eggs with jelly is added via commit d44c83d4.
Origin
The "killer bee" is an Africanized hybrid of the western honey bee, produced originally by crossbreeding the East African lowland honey bee with various European honey bee subspecies, such as the Italian honey bee and the Iberian honey bee. The East African lowland honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957; since then, the hybrid has spread throughout the Americas. Africanized honey bees are typically (but not always) much more defensive than other varieties of honey bees, and are both more easily provoked and quicker to react to disturbances, chasing targets for up to a quarter of a mile.
"Killer bee" stings are 10 times more frequent than from European honey bees, and have killed horses and other animals, and even some humans—this has made them highly feared, a reaction amplified by media reports and movies such as The Swarm. "Killer bee" is also used as a blanket term for any type of bee demonstrating aggressive behavior, which is often dramatized in fiction and media as actively seeking humans to attack. Despite this, their venom is no more potent than any other variety of honey bee, and higher-reported sting incidents are entirely rooted in their more aggressive reactions compared to European honeybees. While killer bee sting cases can still become very serious, they remain relatively rare and only kill one or two people per year on average.
Messages
- The <killer bee> buzzes angrily.
- You chatted to a hostile killer bee.
- The <killer bee> drones.
- As above, but the bee is not hostile.
- You've attracted the tree's former occupants!
- You kicked a tree and summoned a group of killer bees, which only occurs once per tree.
- You smell stale honey.
- As above, but the tree has already generated killer bees and will not create another group.
Variants
NetHack variants based on NetHack 3.6.7 and previous versions may or may not retain the ability of a killer bee's sting to cause instant death, as well as the ability to cure attribute damage from being stung or eating one's corpse with a unicorn horn. They may or may not also include the ability to turn killer bees into queen bees with royal jelly.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, killer bees can cause instant death with their sting as in NetHack 3.4.3—strength drain from the sting or from eating a killer bee corpse can be cured with a unicorn horn, though unicorn horns in SLASH'EM require a higher enchantment to more reliably cure troubles.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, killer bees can cause instant death with their sting as in NetHack 3.4.3, and strength drain can be cured with a unicorn horn.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, killer bees can cause toxic poisoning rather than instant death with their stings, and strength drain cannot be cured with a unicorn horn.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, killer bees are a lawful species that can follow scents as well as using normal vision, and can cause instant death with their sting as in NetHack 3.4.3. Strength drain cannot be cured with a unicorn horn.
Killer bees make up 1⁄5 of the monsters randomly generated on the Arcadian Roads of the Law Quest, and may appear among the random insects that are placed during level creation for those floors.
The Wizard's Manse and Lich's Manse maps for the third level of the Lost Cities in the Neutral Quest each place four killer bees on specific squares within the garden area during level creation.
Killer bees created in the Law Quest can be generated with armor made to fit their body shape: they have a 1⁄4 chance of generating with leather armor, and otherwise have an effective 1⁄4 chance of generating with a plain dress.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, killer bees can cause instant death with their sting as in NetHack 3.6.7, and strength drain cannot be cured with a unicorn horn. Poison resistance is also a partial intrinsic, and a hero needs 35% intrinsic poison resistance to prevent instant deaths from killer bee stings unless they obtain the intrinsic by gaining experience levels. Conversely, a hero with extrinsic poison resistance can eat several killer bees to increase their intrinsic levels of poison resistance (with a gain of +5% per bee).
Honey badgers have a mutual grudge against killer bees: they can generate on levels with beehives during level creation, and will move towards the royal jelly within the hive if they are closer to it than they are to the hero—this makes it possible that the badgers will awaken the hive before a hero is prepared to deal with either them or the bees.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Gnome King's Apiary is a variant of Mines' End that contains a beehive with a queen bee and several killer bees.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, killer bees can cause instant death with their sting as in NetHack 3.6.7, and strength drain cannot be cured with a unicorn horn. Partial intrinsics function as in EvilHack, although a hero only requires 25% intrinsic poison resistance to avoid instant death from killer bee stings and other poison attacks. The mutual grudge between bees and honey badgers from EvilHack also applies.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for bee.
References
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2529-L2532
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 390-L420: bee_eat_jelly() function
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2066
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 866-L874
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1023-L1029
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 255-L259
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3615-L3683: use_royal_jelly() function
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 967-L970: When eating a killer bee corpse, the code ignores their base level and automatically grants poison resistance 1⁄4 of the time; the other 3⁄4 of the time, there is the usual level-based 1⁄15 chance of granting it. Combined, these chances equal exactly 3⁄10.
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 903-L906
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5559-L5563
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5573-L5575
- ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1171-L1190
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 649-L651
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 350-L353
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 392-L396
- ↑ dat/wizard3.lua in NetHack 5.0.0, line 36
