Mindless

Not to be confused with brainlessness.

In NetHack, a mindless monster is any monster that lacks a physical brain and nervous system or a sufficiently analogous equivalent. Mindlessness is designated by the M1_MINDLESS flag in monst.h, which is checked for by the macro mindless(ptr).

This is not to be confused with brainlessness, which is the result of a hero or monster having their intelligence drained by a mind flayer or master mind flayer.

Description

A mindless monster cannot pick up items unless they have the M2_COLLECT flag, and cannot use most amulets, any scrolls, any wands, any potions, or most tools that they come across, including items obtained prior to polymorph into a mindless form. Weapons can be used by mindless monsters if they have a weapon attack, while they can only wear armor that they are generated with, though they will still pick up armor if they are flagged to collect items.

Mindless monsters cannot be detected by telepathy, and are unaffected by the brain-eating attacks of mind flayers. This protection does not extend to a hero polymorphed into the form of a mindless monster. A mindless monster that is also breathless can safely wear an amulet of strangulation with no adverse effects, which also applies to a hero in the form of such a monster.

Mindless monsters cannot be scared by musical instruments.

List of mindless monsters

The following monster types are considered to be mindless:

• all ​b blobs
• all e eyes and spheres except the floating eye
• all j jellies
• all v vortices
• all ​y lights
• all ​E elementals except stalkers
• all F fungi and molds
• all M mummies
• all P puddings and oozes
• all ​Z zombies
• all ​' golems