Potion of blood (dNetHack)
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| Name | blood |
| Appearance | blood-red |
| Base price | 350 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
- For the item in other variants, see potion of blood.
A potion of blood is a type of potion that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It appears as a blood-red potion when unidentified, and contains the blood of a specific monster that is revealed when the potion is identified, similar to a tin.
Contents
Generation
Undead Hunters start each game with three blessed potions of their own blood. Vampire heroes start with knowledge of the potion of blood, and will be given human blood as a replacement for the following items in their role's starting inventory: food rations, cram rations, potions of fruit juice, tripe rations, bananas, oranges, and potions of booze.
Potions of blood make up 9⁄500 (1.8%) of all potions randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. A normally-generated potion of blood will belong to a monster that both has blood and can be randomly generated on that dungeon level under normal circumstances (e.g., it is not out-of-depth) at the time of the potion's creation. Randomly generated potions of blood will generate as uncursed 9⁄10 of the time, cursed 1⁄20 of the time, or blessed 1⁄20 of the time.
A hero applying a phlebotomy kit can create potions of their own blood, as detailed further below. A hero applying a tinning kit to the corpse of a monster that has blood will always produce an identified potion of that monster's blood alongside a tin of their flesh or matter.
Potions of blood can be created by some effects that splash blood on the hero, as detailed in the description below.
All vampires have a 2⁄3 chance of generating with at least one potion of blood from an appropriate random monster—they may carry anywhere from one to four potions, with an equal chance of each quantity.
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Description
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Quaffing a potion of blood prints a message describing what monster's blood it smells like if the hero is a vampire or any non-herbivorous race, and then gives the player a yes/no prompt for drinking it. The nutrition, intrinsic properties and other effects of a monster's blood generally depend on those of that monster's corpse, the monster drinking the blood, and the potion's beatitude. Potions of blood from a given species of monster will only stack with other potions of blood from that same monster.
A potion of a monster's blood grants 3⁄10 of that monster's nutrition value if the drinker is a vampire quaffing a cursed potion, or if they are in the form of a non-herbivorous monster and quaffing a blessed potion. Otherwise, if the drinker is not a clockwork being, Android or incantifier, the potion grants 1⁄5 of that monster's nutrition value. A hero that drinks blood and is not a clockwork being, android, incantifier, or vampire will become nauseous for 10d8 (more) turns.
Thrown potions of blood that hit a hero or monster will not evaporate, instead covering the victim for several turns.
Effects that splash a hero or monster with blood, e.g. the blood rain monster spell, will not dilute potions of blood in the target's open inventory as they do other potions, and actually un-dilutes any diluted potions of blood instead—other non-diluted potions will dilute as with normal water damage, and already-diluted potions will be turned into non-diluted human blood.
Potions of a monster's blood that are polymorphed will always turn into blood from a different monster, and other potions cannot be polymorphed into potions of blood. Genocide that wipes out a species of monster will also cause potions of their blood to become empty.
Monsters with blood
The following monster types and monster classes do not have blood: all nonliving monsters, including golems; all clockwork monsters; the Keter Sephiroth; mimics; weeping angels; jellyfish; chorister jellies (including their tail segments); star spawns; and the Great Cthulhu. All other monster types that are not covered by this list have blood that can be found in potion form or made into a potion with a tinning kit.
A monster's blood generally has the same properties as its corpse: a monster whose corpse is poisonous to eat has poisonous blood, while an acidic monster has acidic blood, a monster whose corpse causes stoning has blood that causes stoning, and so on. Intrinsics granted by a monster's corpse are also granted by that monster's blood, regardless of whether or not the drinker can gain any nutrition from consuming blood and can do so without developing nausea. A hero quaffing the blood of a same-race monster is penalized for cannibalism as if they had eaten that monster's corpse.
Properties of blood
The properties of certain types of blood grant them special effects when used, which can include quaffing, dipping or using them in alchemy:
- The blood of a poisonous monster other than specific monsters listed below can be used to poison black signet rings dipped into them as a potion of sickness can.
- The blood of an acidic monster other than specific monsters listed below can be used to poison black signet rings dipped into them as a potion of acid can.
- The blood of a beholder has a 1⁄5 chance of granting clairvoyance for 500–999 turns, and can be used as a substitute for the potion of enlightenment in alchemy.
Phlebotomy kits
Phlebotomy kits can be applied by a hero that is are currently above 1⁄3 of their maximum HP to draw their own blood as described previously: the process will use up a charge from the kit create a potion of blood of the same monster type as the hero and the same beatitude as the phlebotomy kit that was used, which lowers the hero's HP by 1⁄3 of their maximum and cures any illness. They can also perform a transfusion using the phlebotomy kit and an existing potion of blood, which uses up the potion to heal an amount of HP equal to (4 x Maxhp) + 910, adds a charge to the phlebotomy kit, exercises constitution, and grants 100 nutrition (or half as much if the potion was diluted).
Transfusions require blood from a monster of the same race to be performed safely (although they can still kill the hero from over-nutrition): transfusions performed with blood of a monster from a different race will cause non-vomitable illness, while transfusions with cursed blood will cause heart attacks that reduce the hero's HP by 1⁄3 of their maximum. Vampire heroes are immune to heart attacks due to being undead, and they can safely transfuse any form of blood into themselves—a vampire hero gains more HP from transfusion if the blood was from another vampire, and gains more nutrition if the potion used for transfusion was cursed.
Phlebotomy kits are extremely important to the research of Undead Hunters—these and other details about the item are explored more in-depth by the main article linked at the top of this section.
Monster usage
Monsters that can safely quaff blood will quaff the blood of a monster whose corpses grants energy when eaten to restore their own energy.
Blood-drinking pets that quaff a potion of a monster's blood will gain 1⁄5 of the nutrition they would normally gain from eating that monster's corpse, and will avoid blood that is hazardous to them. Tame vampire monsters consider blood to be a treat if that blood does not belong to a Rider, or else if that blood causes stoning and they have stoning resistance.
Strategy
Vampire heroes can use tinning kits to sustain themselves with the blood of monsters and gain intrinsics from them—incantifier heroes are only capable of eating meat from newts and aoa (to absorb their magic), while clockwork heroes and Androids cannot eat at all, and all three very much appreciate potions of blood as a source of intrinsics. Other races can simply dilute the potions for water unless they have need of it for alchemy or poisoning black signet rings.
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