Quadruped

The quadruped is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase q glyph (q). Quadrupeds are designated internally by the macro S_QUADRUPED.

The class contains the following monsters:

• q rothe
• q mumak
• q leocrotta
• q wumpus
• q titanothere
• q baluchitherium
• q mastodon

Common traits

All quadrupeds are large, non-equine animals that lack hands and can be seen via infravision. They are all strong except for the rothe, and are all neutral except for the chaotic mumak. Quadruped monsters are either herbivores or omnivores.

All quadrupeds are eligible for use as steeds when tame and saddled.

Generation

Randomly-generated quadrupeds are always hostile.

Strategy

Quadrupeds are generally slow and hard-hitting monsters who can take a few hits before dying, with the notable exception of the leocrotta and its 18 speed. Many players have problems with these monsters when first encountered, due to their difficulty; players who are faster than one can use hit and run strategies or fire ranged weapons at them from afar. Quadruped corpses are generally quite filling for non-vegetarian heroes and carnivorous pets.

History

The wumpus first appears in Hack 1.21, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and in this version it uses the W glyph. The leocrotta first appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is also based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and uses the l glyph—while the wumpus is absent from this version.

In Hack 1.0, the leocrotta is included in the default bestiary, while the wumpus is only generated if the NOWORM compile-time option is defined, and is otherwise replaced by the long worm (which it shares the w glyph with). Both monsters would remain this way until NetHack 3.0.0, where the wumpus is added to the default bestiary and moved to the q glyph with the leocrotta—NetHack 3.0.0 also adds the osquip, as well as all the other quadrupeds present in modern NetHack with one exception: the mastodon, which debuts in SLASH 6 and is added to the vanilla game in NetHack 3.3.0.

Origin

A quadruped refers to any animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture to bear weight and moves using all four legs. Although the words ‘quadruped’ and ‘tetrapod’ are both derived from terms meaning ‘four-footed’, they have distinct meanings: a tetrapod is any member of the taxonomic unit Tetrapoda (descended from a specific four-limbed ancestor), whereas a quadruped actually uses four limbs for locomotion; not all tetrapods are quadrupeds, and not all entities that could be described as ‘quadrupedal’ are tetrapods.

With this in mind, almost all quadruped organisms are tetrapods, with the few exceptions including some raptorial arthropods adapted for four-footed locomotion, as well as brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae), which are the largest butterfly family with ~6000 species including the well-known monarch. The distinction between the two is important in evolutionary biology, particularly in the context of tetrapods whose limbs have adapted to other roles, e.g., hands in the case of humans, wings in the case of birds and bats, and fins in the case of whales. Even snakes, whose limbs have become vestigial or lost entirely, are considered to be tetrapods.

The quadruped monster class of nethack are based on either extinct real-world animals (i.e. the titanothere, baluchitherium and mastodon) or fantastic ones (i.e. the rothe, mumak, leocrotta, and wumpus). With the possible exception of the mysterious wumpus, they are at least mammalian in nature if not mammals themselves.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM introduces several new monsters to the monster class:

• q lamb
• q giant badger
• q scramper
• q sheep
• q goat
• q squealer
• q cow
• q mangler
• q bull
• q Jumbo the Elephant
• q juggernaut
• q catoblepas

Encyclopedia entry

The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes
of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified.
They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but
adventurers have nevertheless met their end numerous times
due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals.