Fungus or mold

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The fungus or mold is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase F glyph (F). Fungi and molds are designated internally by the macro S_FUNGUS.[1]

The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]

Common traits

All fungi and molds are neutral. They are unbreathing, inediate and mindless monsters that lack limbs, eyes or a head, and do not have any MR score; they all possess poison resistance except for the lichen and green mold, and cannot be seen via infravision except for the red mold. A hero that polymorphs into a fungus or mold gains immunity to sickness in addition to the monster's other traits.[3] Fungi and mold corpses and tins are considered vegan food, and is acceptable for herbivorous and omnivorous monsters.

Fungi

The fungi consist of the lichen, shrieker and violet fungus, which all have the minimum possible speed of 1—the lichen and violet fungus use touch attacks, while the shrieker has no attacks at all and simply shrieks intermittently, which can wake sleeping monsters and cause other monsters to generate.

Molds

Molds.png

The molds consist of the brown, yellow, green, and red molds—they are all sessile and only possess a passive attack and intrinsic resistances that usually correspond to their color:

  • Brown molds have a passive cold attack and possess poison and cold resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant either resistance.
  • Yellow molds have a passive stun attack and possess poison resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant poison resistance, but the corpse is poisonous and both it and the tin always cause hallucination.
  • Green molds have a passive acid attack and possess acid resistance and stoning resistance. Eating their tin or corpse does not grant either resistance, but can abort stoning (though the acidic corpse will also deal damage).
  • Red molds have a passive fire attack and possess poison and fire resistance. Eating their tin or corpse can grant either resistance.

Generation

All randomly generated fungi and molds are created hostile.

Fungi and molds are generated in swamps.[4]

Body parts

Fungus also refers to the grouping of body parts for the forms of rhyzomic life, with the following words and phrases in messages referring to body parts exchanged as follows:[5]

Bodypart[6] Description
Arm Mycelium
Eye Visual area
Face Front
Finger Hypha
Fingertip Hypha
Foot Root
Hand Strand
Handed Stranded
Head Cap area
Leg Rhizome
Light headed Sporulated
Neck Stalk
Spine Root
Toe Rhizome tip
Hair Spores
Blood Juices
Lung Gill
Nose Gill
Stomach Interior

Strategy

Most fungi and molds are not especially dangerous, unless an early hero is careless in attacking any of the molds: the most troublesome that monsters from this class can become involve situations where either a mold blocks a hero's path, or else a shrieker manages to summon an out-of-depth purple worm with its shrieking. Otherwise, even the weakest of heroes can typically handle any fungus or mold they come across; any form of ranged attack will suffice for dealing with the stationary molds in particular, even junk such as rocks or spare orcish daggers. Early pets may have trouble with molds due to lacking a ranged attack, and unfortunate ones may end up taking more damage passively than they can successfully deal.

Many fungi and molds have a low chance of granting useful resistances from eating their corpses or tins, making it a good idea for a hero to eat the safer ones, especially if trying to obtain poison resistance in particular; for vegetarian and vegan conduct, they make up about half of the suitable corpses that heroes can obtain resistances from. Fungi and mold corpses that are safe can also be used to feed herbivorous pets, such as the starting pony of a Knight.

History

The fungus or mold monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, which adds the four mold types.

From Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack to NetHack 2.3e, violet fungi (known as the "violet fungus" if the KAA compile-time option is set) use the v glyph—NetHack 3.0.0 moves the violet fungus to the monster class and gives it its current name and glyph.

The shrieker is added to the monster class in NetHack 3.1.0, and the lichen is added in NetHack 3.3.0.

Messages

Something smells moldy.
A monster polymorphed into any fungus, other than a violet fungus or shrieker.
You smell mushrooms.
A monster polymorphed into either a violet fungus or shrieker.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM adds two new monsters to the monster class:

Various fungi and mold can generate in fungus farms.

Fungi and molds in SLASH'EM function differently from NetHack: First, any non-lichen fungus or mold that leaves a corpse (1⁄3 of the time) has a 9⁄10 chance of reviving in the same manner as a troll.[7] Secondly, corpses that reach 51 turns of age and are not acidic have a 1⁄2 chance of turning into a fungus or mold, provided they are not located within or on top of a square of water, ice or lava.[8][9][10] This replaces the corpse with a random monster from the class, with a bias towards sessile ones:[11]

Fungus Likelihood
Brown 14.8%
Green 14.8%
Red 14.8%
Yellow 14.8%
Black 14.8%
Disgusting 14.8%
Violet fungus 3.7%
Shrieker 3.7%
Lichen 3.7%

As the lichen is the most nutritious fungus and one of the rarest generated from old corpses, farming for lichens is possible but somewhat impractical, and it is often better for a hungry hero to eat corpses while they are still fresh. Heroes that decide to try farming for molds in general should use smaller corpses while eating the larger ones, as the corpses of small monsters tend to give negligible amounts of nutrition; a Monk can use this to their advantage in order to obtain intrinsics and maintain vegetarian or vegan conduct.

SporkHack

SporkHack adds one new monster to the monster class:

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds several new monsters to the monster class:

dNetHack

dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack add several new monsters to the monster class:

The Elder Elemental Eye is a ward that can scare fungi at any level of reinforcement.

Similar to SLASH'EM, any of the four NetHack molds have a roughly 1% chance to grow from old corpses, and fungi and molds that are not migo or lichen can revive from their own corpses.

Several fungi are generated on the locate level of the Drow Noble Quest at level creation.

Fourteen random fungi and molds are generated at level creation across the lair of Zuggtmoy, which is one of the possible first Abyss levels; fungi and molds also make up 1⁄3 (33%) of the monsters randomly generated on the level. While the hero is in Zuggtmoy's lair with Zuggtmoy herself present, roughly ~90% of corpses on the level will grow mold - if the hero is in Zuggtmoy's lair while she is absent, or else both they and Zuggtmoy are present on the same level outside of her lair, roughly ~50% of corpses on the level will grow mold.

xNetHack

xNetHack adds one new monster to the monster class:

Fungi and molds take extra damage from copper objects. Fungi and mold can grow from old corpses as in SLASH'EM, though with lower odds; acidic corpses can also produce mold, though only green mold will grow from their corpses.

xNetHack also ports and incorporates Malcolm Ryan's Brewing Patch, which allows the hero to dip fungi and mold corpses in potions of fruit juice to ferment them, turning them into other types of potions after a while:

SpliceHack

SpliceHack adds several new monsters to the monster class:

Fungi and mold can grow from old corpses similar to SLASH'EM, and copper items deal +d6 damage against them.[12][13][14]

EvilHack

EvilHack adds two monsters to the monster class:

SlashTHEM

SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM, and adds two more monsters to the monster class:

Fungi and molds can generate from old corpses and within fungus farms as in SLASH'EM.

Fungisword is a lawful artifact long sword that has +10 to-hit and deals double damage against fungi.

Hack'EM

Hack'EM adds many new monsters to the monster class, including several from other variants:

Fungi and molds can generate within fungus farms, as in SLASH'EM.

As in xNetHack, fungi and molds can generate from old corpses and take extra damage from copper items. Fungi and mold corpses can also be used to create potions by dipping them in fruit juice, with a different list from xNetHack:

  • Brown mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of blood.
  • Green mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of acid.
  • Yellow mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of confusion.
  • Violet fungi corpses turn fruit juice into potions of hallucination.
  • Red mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of booze.
  • Gray fungus corpses turn fruit juice into potions of amnesia.
  • Orange mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of sleeping.
  • Black mold corpses turn fruit juice into potions of sickness, as do any of the above corpses if they are cursed.

Encyclopedia entry

Fungus

"Fungus" and "fungi" both return this encyclopedia entry:

Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
stems, roots, and leaves. Unlike algae, fungi cannot
photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes. The
division comprises the slime molds and true fungi. True
fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
filaments, or hyphae. All fungi are capable of asexual
reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
spores. Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one. The
four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
and ringworm). Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
production.

[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]

Mold

Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
Most molds are saprophytes. Some species (e.g., penicillium)
are used in making cheese and antibiotics.

[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]

References

  1. ↑ include/monsym.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 46
  2. ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1295
  3. ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 77: immunity to sickness is not defined elsewhere, and AD_DISE has no cases laid out in mhitm.c so monsters cannot become ill
  4. ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 542
  5. ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1645
  6. ↑ include/hack.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 409
  7. ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 764
  8. ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 765
  9. ↑ do.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1685
  10. ↑ mkobj.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 811
  11. ↑ do.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1680
  12. ↑ SpliceHack 1.2.0 - do.c, line 2031
  13. ↑ SpliceHack 1.2.0 - mondata.c, line 336
  14. ↑ SpliceHack 1.2.0 - mondata.c, line 844
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