Mind blast

The mind blast, also known as a psychic blast or mental blast, is an ability in NetHack that can inflict damage to the hero and other monsters via psychic energy.

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Description

Mind blasts are associated with the mind flayer and master mind flayer, which are the only monsters to possess the ability and have a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of using it during each of their turns: a flayer that can either see the monster they are targeting, or is able to detect them, will concentrate and emit a wave of psychic energy that locks on to the mind of any hero or monster within an 8-square radius.

If a mind flayer is hostile or under the influence of conflict and near a hero that is not currently invulnerable (i.e. from successful prayer), they will "lock on" and inflict damage with a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance if the hero has intrinsic telepathy, which will always occur if the hero has extrinsic telepathy and can sense the flayer, and otherwise has a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of targeting the hero—mind blasts that "lock on" this way deal d15 damage that can be reduced by half spell damage, and a hero killed by this damage will have their cause of death listed as a "psychic blast". A mind flayer that is not hostile will not damage the hero with their mind blasts.

Monsters that a mind flayer will normally attack can be targeted by their mind blasts under the same conditions unless they are mindless monsters, and monsters hit by mind blasts are not subject to invulnerability or half spell damage. A monster damaged by a mind flayer's mind blast will be awakened from any sleep.

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.

Per commit a37975b6, a hero or monster that is hiding will be revealed if they are damaged by a mind blast.

Per commit ecc275a4, mind blasts from monsters are handled in their own function.

Per commit 39530f92, a bug is fix which causes a flayer to attack a distant hero: if the flayer mind blasts a polymorphed hero in a way that leads to the hero returning to normal form and falling into deep water, followed by performing an emergency teleport to reach land, the mind flayer would then attack that hero using their melee attacks from far away.

Use by the hero

A hero that is polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer can use the #monster command to fire a mind blast for 10 power: the mind blast will lock on to any hostile monsters within an 8-square radius and inflict d15 damage to each of them—the chance of inflicting damage is roughly ¹⁄₂ if they have intrinsic telepathy, always if the monster has extrinsic telepathy and the hero can sense them, and ¹⁄₁₀ otherwise. This can affect mindless monsters, unlike mind blasts from non-player flayers.

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.

As part of commit a37975b6, a hero's mind blast will not affect mindless monsters.

History

The mind blast first appears with the mind flayer in NetHack 3.1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.3.0, including some variants based on those versions, the check for a mind flayer targeting monsters is backwards, meaning that a peaceful or tame mind flayer will target the hero with mind blasts while hostile ones will not—this is fixed in NetHack 3.3.1.

From NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.3.1, mind blasts that targeted monsters did not awaken them—this is fixed in NetHack 3.4.0.

In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, invulnerability from successful prayer does not block mind blasts—this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 3e3ec4eb.

Messages

The <monster> concentrates.

A mind flayer or master mind flayer that you can see is attempting a mind blast.

You sense a faint wave of psychic energy.

As above, but you are outside of the mind blast's range.

A wave of psychic energy pours over you!

You are within the range of a flayer's mind blast.

It locks on to your <telepathy/latent telepathy/mind>!

A hostile flayer's mind blast damaged you, with the last phrase chosen depending on whether or not you possess telepathy in either or both forms.

It feels quite soothing.

The flayer is peaceful or tame, and its mind blast does not damage you.

It locks on to <the monster>.

A flayer's mind blast damaged another monster that you can see or sense.

You concentrate.

A wave of psychic energy pours out.

You performed a mind blast while polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer.

You concentrate but lack the energy to maintain doing so.

You attempted a mind blast while you have less than 10 energy.

You lock in on <the monster's> <telepathy/latent telepathy/mind>.

Your mind blast damaged a hostile monster, with the last phrase chosen depending on whether or not the monster possesses telepathy in either or both forms.

Variants

Some NetHack variants significantly expand the capabilities of mind blasts, and may also extend that ability to the hero or other monsters.