Mastodon
q mastodon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 22 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 611 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 5 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 3800 |
| Nutritional value | 800 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A mastodon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line725 |
A mastodon, q, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The mastodon is a large herbivorous quadruped that is thick-skinned and can tear through webs, and has the highest monster level and difficulty of its monster class.
Mastodons possess two strong headbutt attacks.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated mastodons are always created hostile.
Strategy
The mastodon is not nearly as damaging as the much weaker mumak in terms of individual attacks, but can potentially output more damage while moving at the same speed as an unhasted hero. Though it has no MR score and a mediocre 5 AC, care should be taken when fighting against one even in the late game.
Tame mastodons are passable as pets and can make decently strong steeds, but their herbivorous diet and lack of defenses can make long-term maintenance very difficult.
History
The mastodon first appears in SLASH 6, and makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
Origin
A mastodon (from Ancient Greek μαστός, mastós or "breast", and ὀδούς, odoús or "tooth"), is a member of the genus Mammut (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to the early Holocene, which spans from 11 million to 11 thousand years ago. Mastodons belong to the order Proboscidea, which also contains the modern elephants and mammoths (which belong to the family Elephantidae), while Mammut is the type genus of the extinct family Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of modern elephants at least 27–25 million years ago, during the Oligocene.
The mastodon may have been a significant symbol in ancient Native American cultures of the Pacific Northwest: In 1987, Carl E. Gustafson recovered fossil evidence of a late Pleistocene mastodon far away from where the species would typically roam, with the radiocarbon dating confirming a date of about 13,800 years ago; the local tribal members identified the remains as being of game pieces for slahal, a gambling game used for dispute settlements and entertainment. The bone sticks recovered were carved from mastodon bones, and are not easily interpretable archeologically, but tribal members saw the recovery of the items as evidence of the endurance of ancient cultural practices like slahal. While the mastodon could have been recognized in Native American oral histories, they are unlikely to have referenced any specific species—typically, they may have been depicted as aggressive and antagonistic beasts.
The American mastodon became a stand-in for American nationalism within the United States very early in American history: Thomas Jefferson was famously known for having hoped that the Lewis and Clark Expedition would eventually yield evidence of living mastodons in the western frontier of the United States. It was a defining symbol of museums according to Brett Barney, as evident by a mention of it by Walt Whitman in a passage of the 1855 poem "Song of Myself."
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the mastodon's glyph is changed to q, identical to the rothe. It cannot be seen via infravision.
Mastodons may be generated within real zoos at level creation.[1]
Hostile mastodons can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell.[2]
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, notnotdNetHack, the mastodon is a huge monster that is considered a giant, and its difficulty is raised to 23, while its speed is raised to 15. Mastodons can smash down doors, and all 15 points of its AC are in the natural category.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the mastodon is given the ability to inflict knockback with their melee attacks, as well as an additional holding attack that crushes the target with their trunk, and can go berserk when at 1⁄3 HP or lower. This also applies to Hack'EM.
Druids that reach experience level 20 can wildshape themselves into the form of a mastodon.
A mastodon is generated near the down stair of the middle floor in the Ice Queen's Realm at level creation.
A mastodon is generated as one of the caged monsters within the northeastern section of the Hidden Dungeon at level creation.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, a hero polymorphed into a mumak or mastodon gains intrinsic immunity to amnesia and improved spell retention as granted by wearing an amulet of data storage (since "an elephant never forgets"). This feature is incorporated from the Ring of Memory patch, which the amulet's function is based on.
Gladiators that kill mastodons are rewarded with 50+(1d20*XL) gold pieces.
Encyclopedia entry
Any large, elephantlike mammal of the genera Mammut, Mastodon,
etc., from the Oligocene and Pleistocene epochs, having
conical projections on the molar teeth.
