Medusa
@ Medusa 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 25 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 physical, Claw 1d8 physical, Gaze 0d0 stoning, Bite 1d6 poison |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 634 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | −15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Poison resistance, Stoning resistance (minus reflecting her gaze)[1][2][3] |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison resistance (100%), turns eater to stone |
|
Medusa:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2293 |
Medusa, @, is a unique monster that appears in NetHack. She is a dangerous humanoid being that is the only human or elf to neither be human nor elven. Medusa is a strong omnivore that is amphibious and capable of swimming, has flight, and can be seen via infravision. She cannot be tamed or even pacified.[4]
Medusa has a passive attack-like gaze that activates once per round and can turn victims to stone if they meet her gaze, as it does in her original Greek folklore[5][6][7]—she also has a normal weapon attack, a normal claw attack and a bite attack that inflicts strength-draining poison. Medusa possesses poison resistance, as well as stoning resistance except against her own gaze: applying a mirror or else wearing a source of the reflection property can protect the user from Medusa's gaze, and will reflect it back at her and turn her to stone unless she also has a source of reflection or else cannot see the hero or monster reflecting her gaze.[1][2][3] See the combat strategy section for further details on the gaze attack and how to take advantage of it.
Medusa is poisonous to eat, and digestion attacks or biting into her corpse will also turn the eater to stone, similar to a footrice[8][9][10][11][12]—unlike a footrice, this does not extend to bare-skinned contact of any kind. A hero that eats her corpse while they have stoning resistance is guaranteed to gain poison resistance.
Contents
Generation
Medusa is always generated hostile, and is not a valid genocide target or polymorph form.
Medusa is found on her special level within the Dungeons of Doom, which is located between the Castle and the level that contains the magic portal to the hero's Quest. She is always generated asleep, and her exact location depends on the map used for the levels:
- The first map will place her on the down stair within the central room of the middle island's structure, along with a statue of Perseus.[13]
- The second map will place her on the down stair within the central room of the eastern island's structure, along with a statue of Perseus.[14]
- The third raven-populated map has 3 eligible squares spread across the islands and their structures that Medusa and the down stair can be generated on.[15][16]
- The snake-infested fourth map will place her within the structure on the largest western island, with four eligible squares inside for Medusa and the down stair to be generated on.[17][18]
As a result of her level appearing in every game, Medusa will never appear live as part of a bones level.[19]
Strategy
The most difficult part of reaching Medusa is often crossing the sea monster-infested waters of Medusa's Island. Levitation or water walking boots are the most common ways to cross the water. Using a wand of cold, a frost horn or the cone of cold spell to freeze a path across the water is another option, as is filling the water with boulders and/or some means of jumping. See the article on Medusa's Island for more specific details on how to successfully cross the waters or else dig down safely to the levels below.
If you are trying to reach the island using boulders, the most efficient method is an uncursed scroll of earth. If need be, you can also push any boulder you find on the level above to the downstair and throw items to make them roll down. 8 boulders are needed for the first map, and 16 are needed for the second; this can be reduced to 7 and 14 respectively if you are willing to jump into water and crawl out. An amulet of magical breathing may also be used to traverse the level underwater, though you should waterproof your inventory beforehand to prevent as much of it getting wet as possible.
If crossing the water is not an option, you may also opt to dig a hole to the next level and then come back up by using the staircase—the stairs to the next level are always in the same room as Medusa, so be sure you are ready for her before going up. This also makes Medusa a nasty surprise for players deep-shafted below her domain from above via trap door: if you end up below dungeon level 20 or so (including the Castle), you should immediately be on the alert for the possibility of finding Medusa if you make your way back up. Maze levels are often a sign that you are between Medusa's island and the Castle, though you are not guaranteed to encounter one between those two floors.
Combat
In terms of fighting Medusa directly, blinding yourself or polymorphing into a stoning-resistant monster protects you from Medusa's gaze, allowing you to take her on like any other monster, while canceling Medusa renders her gaze ineffective.[20] As mentioned prior, the quickest way to deal with Medusa is to have a source of reflection active, or else applying (not wielding!) a mirror towards her from a close enough distance while protected from her gaze[1][2][3]—having reflection will protect you from Medusa's gaze, but she must be able to see you in order to turn her to stone with her reflected gaze, e.g. you cannot be invisible unless you are wearing a mummy wrapping.
If you cannot neutralize her gaze by any means–e.g. due to improbably poor item generation, an inventory-wrecking bag of holding accident, and/or speedrunning to the Castle–then it is generally best to avoid Medusa until you can obtain one and then backtrack. Players lacking any source of reflection might like to investigate the statue of Perseus, even visiting it first if it is in a separate location: the statue may contain a shield of reflection that can be used against her, and can serve as a temporary or even long-term reflection source once it is uncursed.
The following risks are generally worth accounting for when fighting Medusa and trying to avoid being made into a statue:
- Sleep can immobilize Medusa and neutralize her gaze, but only while she is asleep. Her MR score of 50 makes this highly unreliable, and even then it is wisest to keep your source of blindness or reflection worn: a foolhardy hero risks being petrified the moment she awakens.
- If you can reach Medusa's room without awakening her, it may be possible to hit her with a finger of death or wand of death while she is still asleep—beware that a miss will cause her to awaken, leaving you at her mercy if you lack reflection or a way to blind yourself as above.
- Hallucination can protect against gaze attacks, but will only do so 3⁄4 of the time.[21]
- It is a very bad idea to fight Medusa as a purple worm, mind flayer or master mind flayer: eating her brain or digesting her will cause the stoning properties of her flesh to trigger and instantly turn you into a statue.[22][23]
- Although having very fast speed sometimes lets you get next to Medusa and attack her without her gaze stoning you (or stoning herself if you have reflection), one turn is generally not enough time to reliably kill her even if this does occur.
For a hero who blinds themselves to nullify Medusa's gaze, but either lacks reflection or a mirror (or else opts not to use one), the Gorgon is not that difficult to defeat: Medusa's attacks are not very strong for the point she is normally encountered at, and her own AC of 2 is fairly unimpressive; unless a hero blitzed their way to the island as mentioned previously, they should have decent AC and a source of poison resistance. Even so, care should be taken when dealing with her, since Medusa can use the stairs to escape if scared—if you are blind and using telepathy, and you lose track of Medusa but do not see her corpse or a death message, beware of her on the levels immediately above and below her lair as well as around the area. Medusa can also generate with a cursed scroll of teleportation, providing an even nastier surprise if you encounter her later halfway up the dungeon and did not blind yourself beforehand.
Pacifists will want to avoid reflecting Medusa's gaze to kill her, which breaks the conduct: they can instead blind her and leave her to their pets, or additionally blind themselves, prepare a source of reflection, and give Medusa some powerful attack wands so she can kill herself with the rebounds.
History
Medusa first appears in NetHack 2.2a, where she was generated within a room in an ordinary level, and many an adventurer likely met an untimely end from not knowing they would soon see Medusa. NetHack 3.0.0 adds a number of statues to her room, though this is an ambiguous clue; in any case, the use of telepathy or a potion of monster detection is advisable if playing any version from 2.2a to NetHack 3.0.10.
Medusa is first given her island level with the initial two maps in NetHack 3.1.0, and the third and fourth possible layouts for the level are added in Nethack 3.6.0.
From NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.1.3, including some variants based on those versions, if the game is compiled without #define MULDGN, Medusa serves as the holder of the Bell of Opening.
Multi-Medusa bug
While Medusa will never directly appear within bones files in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, her statue can still be generated on bones levels—this is bug C342-54, and is fixed via commit fbfb8e92. As this does not prevent generation of an ordinary Medusa in the game loading the bones until the statue is unstoned, this makes it possible to have two or more Medusas in a single game, and corpses of any unique monster can also be left in bones, allowing the hero to revive multiple Medusa corpses as well.
Origin
In classical folklore, Medusa was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human women with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Medusa was the only mortal among the trio—a later version of her origin written in Ovid's Metamorphoses asserted that she was originally a mortal human maiden, transformed into her current state by Athena as a punishment. While the Bulfinch variant of the tale asserts that this was a result of Medusa's own hubris regarding her beauty (as quoted by the encyclopedia entry), other versions have this occur after Poseidon and Medusa lay together in one of Athena's temples, desecrating it—the original Latin Metamorphoses and other interpretations indicate Medusa did so against her will.
In the tale of Perseus, he is sent to fetch Medusa's head by King Polydectes of Seriphus, who wanted to marry Perseus's mother Danaë and get rid of Perseus under the guise of having him fetch a gift. The gods were well aware of this, and gave Perseus divine assistance in the form of a mirrored shield (from Athena), gold winged sandals (from Hermes), a sword forged by Hephaestus, and Hades's helm of darkness (both given by Zeus). These items were entrusted to the Hesperides, who also gave him a knapsack to safely contain Medusa's head.
Perseus viewed Medusa safely using her reflection on the mirrored shield, then used it to guide his sword and behead her. As she was beheaded while pregnant with Poseidon's children, those children sprang from the neck of her headless body: Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, named for the golden blade he was born wielding. Perseus then bagged Medusa's head and used the helm of darkness to escape the other two Gorgons; upon returning to Seriphus and discovering that his mother was taking refuge from Polydectes's violent advances, Perseus saved her by revealing the head of Medusa, which turned Polydectes and his attendant nobles to stone. In popular culture, Medusa's "weakness" to reflection is often made more direct, with games such as NetHack making her vulnerable to her own reflected gaze.
The fourth variant of Medusa's Island serves as a sort of "palace" for her, with an abundance of snakes and black nagas as well as a yellow dragon—after her decapitation in some tales, her spilled blood was said to have given birth to several creatures, including the Sahara's poisonous vipers and the venomous, twin-headed dragon-like serpent known as Amphisbaena (represented by the yellow dragon). Black nagas, yellow dragons, and their offspring are also acidic and thus resistant to stoning. The crystal ball may also be an allusion to the Graeae, daughters of the sea-deities Phorcys and Ceto and sisters to the Gorgons (who were sometimes called "Graeae")—Perseus stole their sole shared eye in order to ransom it for information on the location of either Medusa herself or the three objects needed to slay her, depending on the telling.
Messages
- Medusa doesn't look all that ugly.
- YAFM when Medusa attempts to use her gaze while she is cancelled.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, hallucination reliably protects a hero from Medusa's stoning gaze.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Medusa can be tamed and has an additional pair of grabbing hug attacks; the first does 1d4 damage, while the second is far stronger at 4d8, making it more dangerous to approach her in melee. Her hair also makes 1-3 bite attacks against all adjacent hostile monsters once per global turn; these bites deal 1d6 damage and have a strength-draining poison. All monsters peaceful and hostile can be affected by her stoning gaze if they can perceive her.
As a pet, she is dangerous to have unless you and all of your other pets are petrification resistant or reflective, as she cannot control her wide gaze. She should be given a source of petrification resistance or reflection to avoid petrifying herself with her reflected image.
Being turned to stone by Medusa is reported in the livelog and high score list as "petrified by Poseidon's curse".
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Medusa is a far more formidable opponent with an AC of -8, and she is also capable of averting her eyes from her reflected gaze, making it much more difficult, but not impossible, to turn her to stone with it.
Monster stats by variant
| @ Medusa
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 25 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 physical, Claw 1d8 phyiscal, Gaze 0d0 stoning, Bite 1d6 poison |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 634 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | −15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Poison, Stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison (100%) (but see warning about being turned to stone) |
|
Medusa:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3939 |
| @ Medusa
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 27 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 physical, Claw 1d8 physical, Bearhug 1d4 drowning, Bearhug 4d8 physical, Secondary bite 1d6 poison (strength), Wide-angle (passive) gaze 0d0 petrification |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 743 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | -15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | poison, petrification |
|
{{{1}}}:
| |
| Reference | dNetHack src/monst.c, line 5849 |
| @ Medusa
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 28 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 4d4, Tentacles 2d6 poison, Gaze stoning, Bite 4d4 stoning |
| Base level | 24 |
| Base experience | 984 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -8 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | -15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (100%) |
|
Medusa:
| |
| Reference | EvilHack - monst.c, line 3104 |
Encyclopedia entry
Medusa, one of the three Gorgons or Graeae, is the only one of her sisters to have assumed mortal form and inhabited the dungeon world.
When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the country. She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva, the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned into stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified with the sight. Perseus, favoured by Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her shield and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she slept and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 945
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2180
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 667
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 871
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2874
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 704
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2208
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 862
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 872
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2154
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2159
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2162
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 88
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 185
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 249
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 300
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 347
- ↑ dat/medusa.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 395
- ↑ src/bones.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 397
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2176
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2166
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 48
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 519
