Lokoban
| Lokoban | |
|---|---|
| Location | Level 6–10 of the Dungeons of Doom |
| Bones | No |
| Mappable | Yes |
| Teleportable | No |
| Diggable floor | No |
| Diggable walls | No |
Lokoban is a branch of the dungeon in notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack that is a heavily toned-down version of Sokoban with a different goal: where the Sokoban branch mirrors the traditional Sokoban game and has the hero push boulders into pits or holes that block the way forward, Lokoban consists only of a single level with a few massive stone crates (which are used as replacements for boulders in dNetHack) and a piñata monster that contains a majority of the branch's typical loot.
Generation
As in NetHack and dNetHack, the stairs to Lokoban is always located one floor below the Oracle level, and can be found anywhere from dungeon levels 6 to 10 in the Dungeons of Doom. Neither the level containing the Lokoban stairs nor Lokoban itself are eligible for creating or loading bones.
Level map
|<|....---....|
|.|-.((.......|
|.||..((|.....|
|.||....|.....|
|.|------.----|
|.| |......|
|.------......|
|..........u..|
|??-----......|
---- --------
The sole level of Lokoban uses the same map as Sokoban Level 1a, and is fully mapped upon arrival - the two scrolls of earth are present as normal, but all of the pits and most of the boulders are removed; the four remaining boulders replaced with massive stone crates containing food, as in dNetHack. All walls are undiggable and block phasing, the level is no-teleport, and the floor is undiggable as well.
The Lokoban Pinata resides at the marked location on the map, and four food items, a ring and a wand are randomly placed around the level. The massive stone crates can be broken open for their food, though this incurs a luck penalty in notdNetHack.
Lokoban Pinata
| u Lokoban Pinata (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 13 |
| Attacks |
on death 1d3 lokoban prize scatter |
| Base level | 12 |
| Base experience | 318 |
| Speed | 0 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 110 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 3000 |
| Nutritional value | 800 |
| Size | large |
| Resistances | sleep, poison, petrification, disease |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
The Lokoban Pinata:
| |
The Lokoban Pinata, u, is a unique monster that only appears in Lokoban. It is a sessile and mindless equine monster that is amphibious, breathless, and strong, but cannot regenerate HP. The Lokoban Pinata is always generated hostile, does not leave behind a corpse, and is not a valid form for polymorph.
The Lokoban Pinata has no attacks, but has around 1400-1500 hit points, and possesses sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, death resistance, and immunity to sickness. On "death", it will explode for minimal damage and scatter loot around the area nearby:
- 3 random wands
- 3 random rings
- 3 candy bars
- 3 potions of booze
- 30 random food items
- 500 gold
- A bag of holding or amulet of reflection, with equal probability if you do not possess either; if you already possess one item, the other will be given, and if you possess both, then more gold is given instead
Strategy
The quickest way for a character to break open the Lokoban Pinata is to treat it like any other piñata: wield a weapon that inflicts blunt damage, apply a blindfold or towel to become blind, confuse yourself, and then successfully attack the piñata to instantly "kill" it.
The pinata can also be killed by normal means, but while hitting it is not at all difficult due to its 10 AC, doing so takes significantly longer due to its large HP pool: on top of its resistances, it also has an MR score of 110, rendering it thoroughly resistant to several forms of magic. This also means that patient characters can use the Pinata as a means to train specific weapons before killing it properly.
Origin
The decision to replace Sokoban with Lokoban was made by the notdNetHack developer due to his dislike of the Sokoban branch, and the branch was left mostly unchanged for notnotdNetHack.
A piñata is a container often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. The idea of breaking a container filled with treats came to Europe in the 14th century, and the Spanish brought that tradition to Mexico, although there were similar traditions in Mesoamerica (such as the Aztecs' honoring the birthday of the god Huītzilōpōchtli in mid-December). According to local records, the Mexican piñata tradition began in the town of Acolman, just north of Mexico City, where piñatas were introduced for catechism purposes as well as to co-opt the Huitzilopochtli ceremony. The piñata is still part of modern Mexican culture, the cultures of other Latin American countries and the culture the United States, but it has mostly lost its religious character.
Messages
- The pinata explodes, scattering goodies everywhere!
- You 'killed' the Lokoban Pinata.
