Ghost (monster class)

The ghost is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by a blank space ( ). Ghosts are designated internally by the macro S_GHOST.

The monster class contains two monsters:

•   ghost
•   shade

It is common for players to use the SYMBOLS option to give ghosts and shades a different appearance.

Common traits

All ghost monsters are medium-sized and humanoid undead monsters that are both unsolid and unbreathing. They are capable of flight and phasing through walls, and will follow a nearby player to other levels.

Generation

Ghost monsters are always generated hostile, and are not valid polymorph forms or genocide targets.

Strategy

Glyph visibility

Many players consider the default glyph to be difficult to see. To mitigate this, you can change the "monsters" option in the options file to take advantage of otherwise unused symbols. The default line looks like:

OPTIONS=monsters:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ@ '&;:~]

One alternative is:

OPTIONS=monsters:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ@8'&;:~]

which uses 8 for ghosts and shades. This makes them generally easier to see, especially when using telepathy or other means of detecting monsters that would otherwise display a blank glyph unless you move the cursor over its square (e.g. using m to cycle through visible monsters while far looking).

Variants

Some NetHack variants change the glyph used by the ghost monster class for better visibility.

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM adds one monster to the ghost monster class:

•   shadow

AceHack

In AceHack, the ghost monster class is merged into the wraith monster class to make them more visible to players. This is also applicable to Nethack 4, NetHack Fourk and FIQhack.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, the ghost monster class uses the dot, ., as a glyph. dNetHack also moves the shade to its own monster class and adds new monsters to the ghost monster class:

• . garo
• . being of Ib
• . priest of Ib
• . garo master
• . poltergeist
• . Maanzecorian
• . Blackbeard's Ghost

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the ghost monster class is merged into the wraith monster class to avoid using punctuation for monster glyphs and make them more visible.

SpliceHack

SpliceHack adds one monster to the ghost monster class:

•   spectre

Regular ghosts can grow up into spectres.

EvilHack

EvilHack adds one monster to the ghost monster class:

•   spectre

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, the ghost monster class uses the 8 glyph.

SlashTHEM retains the shadow from SLASH'EM and adds some more monsters to the monster class:

• 8 shadow
• 8 spectre
• 8 poltergeist
• 8 Blackbeard's Ghost
• 8 Elvis Presley