Passive attack

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Some monsters possess a passive attack - it is used automatically in retaliation to a melee attack against the monster. They can be avoided by use of ranged weapons, pounding with a polearm or lance, or being resistant to the attack. Passive attacks are not affected by magic cancellation.

The most infamous example of such a passive attack is the floating eye's paralysis gaze - hitting a floating eye normally paralyses the player for a period of time, during which they are vulnerable to outside attack - a cause of numerous YASDs. Other well-known examples include the various jellies, puddings, molds and acid blobs.

A passive attack is denoted by AT_NONE in the source code[1].

List of passive attacks

Passive attacks against the player are handled in uhitm.c:passive(). Monsters have at most 1 passive attack, which is defined separately from any other attacks they might have.

Acid

b acid blob, j spotted jelly, j ochre jelly, F green mold

  • 50% chance of an acid damage. If this succeeds, there's a 1/30 chance that your armor is subject to corrosion
  • 1/6 chance, independent of the above, that whatever you attacked with (boot, weapon, etc) is subject to erosion
  • Your strength is abused

Stoning

c chickatrice, c cockatrice

  • If you hit with a bare appendage, you turn to stone and die instantly (unless stoning resistant)

Rust

R rust monster

  • If the monster is cancelled, nothing happens
  • If you kicked it, your boots suffer the effects of a rust trap
  • Otherwise, 1/6 chance that your weapon/gloves are subject to rust

Corrosion

P black pudding

  • Exactly like the rust attack above, but with the more-powerful corrosion effect

Magic missile

@ Oracle (the source code comment is "wrath of gods for attacking Oracle")[2]

  • If you have magic resistance, no effect
  • Else, you are hit with a magic missile attack

Drain enchantment

R disenchanter

  • If the monster is canceled, nothing happens
  • If you attacked with an enchanted weapon/boots/gloves, they lose 1 enchantment. Artifact weapons resist the drain 90% of the time, and ordinary equipment resists 10% of the time.

Paralysis

b gelatinous cube, e floating eye

  • If the monster is canceled or dies from the blow, nothing happens
  • If you have free action, "You momentarily stiffen"
  • If it is a floating eye and you have reflection, you cannot see it, or it is blind, nothing happens
  • Else, there is a 2/3 chance that you will be paralyzed
  • Being frozen by a gelatinous cube abuses dexterity

Cold

j blue jelly, F brown mold

  • If the monster is canceled or dies from the blow, or if you are cold resistant, nothing happens
  • Else, there is a 2/3 chance that you suffer a cold attack
  • The monster gains half its attack damage in HP, possibly increasing its max HP
  • If the monster's max HP is now high enough, it reproduces

The self-healing makes blue jellies especially deadly to lower-level characters who can't reliably hit hard enough to offset the healing.

Stunning

F yellow mold

  • If the monster is canceled or dies from the blow, nothing happens
  • 2/3 chance that you become stunned

Fire

v fire vortex, E fire elemental, F red mold

  • If the monster is canceled or dies from the blow, or if you are fire resistant nothing happens
  • 2/3 chance of fire damage
  • If you are polymorphed into an iron golem, you heal by the damage amount, instead

Electricity

v energy vortex

  • If the monster is canceled or dies from the blow, or if you are shock resistant nothing happens
  • 2/3 chance of shock damage
  • If you are polymorphed into a flesh golem, you heal by 1/6 of the damage amount

Sticky

m large mimic, m giant mimic

  • If you walk into the mimic without knowing that there is a monster there, you are affected by their sticking attack, and cannot move away.

Slime

  • Although the green slime has a passive slime attack defined, there is no code to handle it.

References


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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

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