Soldier

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@ soldier Soldier.png
Difficulty 8
Attacks

Weapon 1d8 physical

Base level 6
Base experience 78
Speed 10
Base AC 10
Base MR 0
Alignment −2 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means) 1 (Very rare)
Genocidable Yes
Weight 1450
Nutritional value 400
Size Medium
Resistances None
Resistances conveyed None

A soldier:

Reference NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 2239

A soldier, @, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The soldier is a chaotic-aligned human fighter that is the lowest rank of monster in the Yendorian army, which informally refers to a group of human mercenaries that are directly employed by the Wizard of Yendor.

Soldiers are strong and omnivorous, can be seen via infravision, will pick up any weapons, armor, food, and other items that they come across, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent. Applying a bugle will cause soldiers that hear it to awaken from any sleep, end any paralysis or scaring, and turn hostile if they are currently not[1][2]—any soldiers and other non-guard mercenaries that have a bugle will play it to awaken, unscare and/or unparalyze any nearby soldiers, with the same effect as the hero playing a bugle.[3] A soldier cannot be made tame, only becoming peaceful instead. As a mercenary, they have a 2⁄3 chance of being pacified by a bribe, with the soldier having a base value of 100zm for acceptable bribes.[4][5][6]

A soldier has a single weapon attack.

Generation

Soldiers are always generated hostile, and are frequently generated in small groups of 2-4. They are not a valid polymorph form. A soldier can grow up into a sergeant.

A barracks has a 4⁄5 chance of generating a sleeping soldier on each square at level creation, including the following:[7]

Random barracks cannot generate if soldiers are subjected to genocide or made extinct.[16]

Five soldiers are generated on the upper filler level of the Tourist quest at level creation, while one soldier is generated on each lower filler level at level creation.[17][18]

Sixteen soldiers are placed throughout the main area of Fort Ludios at level creation.[19]

Eight soldiers are placed in the entry hall of the Castle at level creation, and two soldiers are also placed in each of the Castle's four towers.[20][21]

Monster starting inventory

Main article: Mercenary

As mercenaries, soldiers have more specific generation rules than most other monsters.[22][23]

Soldiers have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a random primary weapon from a set of all polearms (including lances and dwarvish mattocks) and a dagger or knife as a secondary weapon[24]—otherwise, they will be given either a spear or short sword as a primary weapon with equal probability.[25] Default generation for mercenaries means that a soldier also has a 1⁄4 chance of being given a dagger as a primary weapon and a 1⁄7 chance of being given a spear as a secondary weapon, and any soldier that has a primary weapon other than a dagger and no secondary weapon then has a 1⁄4 chance of being given a knife as their secondary weapon.[26]

For armor, a soldier has a target AC of 3 and may receive the following armor:[27]

  • They have a 4⁄5 chance of receiving body armor that counts for 3 points of their target AC and will either be ring mail (2⁄3 chance) or studded leather armor (1⁄3 chance).[28] Otherwise, they will be given leather armor that counts for 2 points of their target AC.[29]
  • They have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a helmet that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[30] Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a dented pot that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[31]
  • They have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a small shield that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[32] Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a large shield that counts for 2 points of their target AC.[33]
  • They have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a pair of low boots that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[34] Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a pair of high boots that counts for 2 points of their target AC.[35]
  • They have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a pair of leather gloves that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[36] Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a leather cloak that counts for 1 point of their target AC.[37]

Finally, a soldier has a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a K-ration and a separate 1⁄2 chance of generating with a C-ration.[38] All soldiers are eligible for offensive items, but only have 1⁄13 of the chance of receiving a defensive item or miscellaneous item as other monsters.[39][40][41][42]

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit da859c5e, soldiers cannot generate with lances and dwarvish mattocks as starting weapons—this is done to resolve issue #623 regarding incongruous behavior in mercenary item generation.

Strategy

The usual tactics for handling groups of monsters applies to dealing with soldiers: drawing soldiers into a corridor is effective for both reducing vulnerability and thinning their ranks, especially since they will likely be caught in the path of their allies' attack wands. However, said wands also make them potentially dangerous to face without reflection or magic resistance, though neither property is strictly required unless you want to avoid the rare wand of death. Chickatrice and cockatrice corpses are dangerous in the hands of a soldier wearing gloves, allowing them to wield it and use it against you: be wary of this if you kill one in their presence, especially in the Castle or within Gehennom, and have lizard corpses or other cures for stoning ready to go.

Fortunately, soldiers are on the slower side at 10 movement speed, and can usually be dealt with quickly in melee by a cautious-enough hero, especially if employing group tactics as above—their wands can also prove valuable against their comrades and other monsters if the hero can procure them without the wands being used up or else destroyed (e.g., by a zap from a wand of lightning). They also completely lack any MR score, meaning that poisoned weapons, poison attacks and various forms of magic are very often effective. Be wary if you see a soldier pick up a bugle: they are capable of applying one if any of their fellow fighters nearby are scared or immobilized, which can wake an entire barracks and will often ruin stealth-based approaches and scare pets in the process—this may also awaken other nearby monsters as well if the combat itself does not do so.

A soldier's leftover equipment is a good source of polyfodder, as well as possible replacements for any eroded or lower-enchantment armor that you or a pet may have. They also drop plenty of high-nutrition food, both in the form of their rations and the soldier's own corpse: human heroes should beware that they do not eat them by accident while trying to pluck their rations off the ground in a hurry! Similarly, a human hero that is polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer must not attack soldiers in melee if they want to avoid cannibalism penalties. Human Cavepeople and heroes of other races can eat soldier corpses safely for half the nutrition of a standard food ration, while chaotic human heroes can use them as same-race sacrifices to summon major demons and raise their luck—a human hero that is not chaotic or a Caveperson can still use the corpse to feed any carnivorous pets.

A game that features several barracks, usually including Fort Ludios, makes it very possible for a hero to render soldiers extinct upon reaching the Castle. This is especially likely for Tourists, who encounter several barracks of soldiers and their stronger officers throughout their quest and also encounter several more soldiers within the filler levels.

Bribery can be used can be used to block off a hallway using a pacified soldier in areas such as the Castle, since hostile monsters will not route their movement past peaceful ones. This can help a hero herd and eliminate groups of monsters with other crowd control strategies: a Knight or other mounted hero can pound away at foes without disturbing the peaceful monster between them, and Wizards can cast Skilled fireball or cone of cold with relative impunity. This will not stop teleporting or covetous foes, and the soldier can still die from other ranged attacks—a human shield will not do much good against a black dragon's disintegration breath.

History

The soldier first appears in NetHack 2.2a—in this version and NetHack 2.3e, they use the 3 glyph, and only appear if the SAC compile-time option is defined.

From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.1.3, including some variants based on those versions, soldiers and other mercenaries have their intended target AC recorded in their monster data, with code in makemon.c set to outfit them with armor that matches the target AC[43]—any difference is compensated for by equipping that monster with a ring of protection whose enchantment is equivalent to that difference, with the ring being cursed if that difference was negative (i.e. a soldier's equipment took them above their target AC).[44] Additionally, from NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.1.3, soldiers only appear if the ARMY and MUSE compile-time options are both defined: if only the former is defined, then they are replaced by unarmored soldiers.[45]

NetHack 3.2.0 phases out the unarmored soldier and makes MUSE a default feature while also establishing the modern mechanism of equipment generation for mercenaries, removing the ring of protection from the process.

From NetHack 2.2a to NetHack 3.3.0, soldiers and other Yendorian army monsters move at a much slower speed of 4—in NetHack 3.3.1, their speed is boosted to 10.

From NetHack 3.0.4 to NetHack 3.0.6, soldiers and other Yendorian army members use the @ glyph—soldiers are given their current glyph color in NetHack 3.0.7.

From NetHack 3.2.0 to NetHack 3.3.1, soldiers and other Yendorian army monsters can generate with elven cloaks—the leather cloak is introduced in NetHack 3.4.0 to resolve this incongruity, as stated in that version's bugfix list.

Messages

"Resistance is useless!"
"You're dog meat!"
"Surrender!"
You were chatting to a hostile soldier.[46]

Variants

In some variants of NetHack, soldiers are treated as racial monsters.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, barracks will not be randomly generated under normal circumstances due to a bug that reverses the check for genocided monsters, meaning that barracks will only appear if soldiers specifically are genocided[47]—such barracks will consist mostly of random monsters alongside a few higher-ranked army members. Predefined barracks such as those in the Castle will appear normally, as in NetHack.[48][49][50]

Three soldiers are generated in specific areas within Grund's Stronghold at level creation, with two stationed near the iron bars lining the stronghold's walls and surrounding the drawbridge, and another is stationed within the stronghold's halls. All three are given specific equipment on their square in addition to starting inventory (which is changed as explained further below):

  • The soldier on the northern side of the wall has an uncursed +1 orcish bow and a stack of uncursed +3 orcish arrows placed on their square, along with a 2⁄5 chance each of a wand of cold, an uncursed +3 sniper rifle, a stack of uncursed +3 bullets, and a stack of uncursed +4 bullets.
  • The soldier on the northern side of the wall has an uncursed +1 orcish bow and a stack of uncursed +2 orcish arrows placed on their square, along with a 2⁄5 chance each of a wand of fire, an uncursed +1 grenade launcher, a stack of uncursed +2 frag grenades, and a stack of uncursed +3 frag grenades.
  • The soldier in the halls has a 1⁄2 chance of generating with a potion of booze.

In the black market, Yendorian army officers are called in place of the Keystone Kops if the hero steals anything, with soldiers generated in place of the standard Keystone Kops.[51][52]

The soldier's starting weapons are changed drastically if the FIREARMS compile-time option is defined: Their primary weapon will be either a rifle or a submachine gun with roughly equal probability, with 2 different stacks of 3–27 bullets as ammo.[53] Their secondary weapon will be either a knife or a dagger with equal probability, and they will always be given a stack of frag grenades.[54]

The soldier's armor selection, starting food and fall-through cases for daggers, spears and knives apply as in NetHack.[55][56][57][58][59] Their melee weapon selection will also remain the same as NetHack if FIREARMS is not defined.[60]

GruntHack

Main article: Soldier (GruntHack)

In GruntHack, soldiers and other Yendorian army fighters are racial monsters, and can be generated as any applicable race.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, 4-10 hostile soldiers are generated on each upper filler level in the Tourist quest at level creation, while 2-8 are generated in each lower filler level at level creation.

The soldiers guarding the four towers of the Castle are replaced with sergeants.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, 16 soldiers are stationed across each of the three possible maps for Fort Ludios, and each of those maps also contains a singular and irregularly-shaped set of barracks. Barracks containing soldiers and other officers are present on each of the three possible maps for the Castle.

In the black market, Yendorian army officers are called in place of the Keystone Kops if the hero steals anything, with soldiers generated in place of the standard Keystone Kops.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, soldiers are lawful rather than chaotic, and only 250 of them can be generated in a game. Soldiers have skilled prowess in martial combat and a full base attack bonus of +1 to-hit per level, and can be commanded by accompanying sergeants, lieutenants and captains fighting alongside them to increase their damage and accuracy. They have a mutual grudge with skeletal pirates and damned pirates.

1⁄5 of the monsters randomly generated on the Sunken City map of the Sea will be soldiers.

Soldiers can be generated randomly with higher frequency on various levels of the Law quest, including several that are generated at level creation:

  • Three soldiers are placed randomly on the road to the Arcadian Fortress, and 2⁄25 of the monsters randomly generated on this floor after level creation will be soldiers.
  • 20 soldiers are generated on the outskirts of the fortress drawbridge, and 1⁄5 of the monsters randomly generated on this floor after level creation will be soldiers.
  • 24 soldiers are generated within the inner section of the fortress in groups of three, and 3⁄10 of the monsters randomly generated on this floor after level creation will be soldiers.
  • The ground floor and next two floors of the Arcadian Tower each contain four soldiers, while the next floor after contains three. 3⁄10 of the monsters randomly generated on the ground floor after level creation will be soldiers.

When randomly generating soldiers via normal monster creation in these levels, there is a 1⁄6 chance of a sergeant being generated instead. If soldiers or sergeants are extinct or genocided when the game attempts to randomly generate them in this manner, a random human or elf will be generated instead.

Zombified soldiers can generate among the many undead that are randomly generated in the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest after level creation.

Soldiers may appear among the random @ that are part of the first quest monster class for Binders and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Binder quest. Six soldiers are also randomly placed on the locate level of the Binder quest at level creation.

The soldier is the first standard quest monster for Nobles, and makes up 96⁄175 of monsters randomly generated on the default Noble quest. Some soldiers are also generated on the default Noble quest at level creation: three are placed on the northwest corner of the hero's stronghold on the home level alongside a sergeant, and six are placed randomly on the goal level. Soldiers may also appear among the random @ that are part of the second standard quest monster class for Nobles and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated there.

The soldier is the second quest monster for Pirates, and makes up 24⁄175 of monsters randomly generated on the Pirate quest. Some soldiers are also generated on a few floors of the Pirate quest at level creation: nine are placed randomly on the home level, three are randomly placed on each upper filler level, and nine more are placed randomly on the locate level.

Soldiers in dNetHack have their starting inventory changed significantly:

  • For their primary weapon, they have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a primary weapon that will be a partisan, halberd, bill-guisarme, or bec de corbin with a roughly equal probability of each, and otherwise have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a crossbow with 3–26 crossbow bolts as ammo. If neither set of weapons is given, they will be given either a spear or a short sword with roughly equal probability.
  • For their secondary weapon, they will be given a dagger or knife with roughly equal probability.
  • As in NetHack, default generation for mercenaries means that a soldier also has a 1⁄4 chance of being given a dagger as a primary weapon and a 1⁄7 chance of being given a spear as a secondary weapon, and any soldier that has a primary weapon other than a dagger and no secondary weapon then has a 1⁄4 chance of being given a knife as their secondary weapon.
  • For armor, soldiers that are generated in the Law quest are always created with harmonium scale mail, a harmonium helm, a pair of harmonium gauntlets, and a pair of harmonium boots. Otherwise, they are given armor for each slot as detailed below, with the base AC for each given piece of armor counted towards their target AC of 3:
    • For their suit, they have the same chance of receiving ring mail, studded leather armor or leather armor as in NetHack.
    • For their helm, they have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a helmet, a 1⁄2 chance of being given a leather helm if they are not given a helmet, and a 1⁄10 chance of being given a war hat if they are not given a leather helm.
    • For their shield, they have the same chance of being given a buckler or a kite shield as they do in NetHack, with both items being equivalent to the small shield and large shield respectively. Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a roundshield if they are not given either of the aforementioned shields.
    • For their boots, they have the same chance of being given a pair of low boots or high boots as they do in NetHack. Otherwise, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a pair of armored boots if they are not given either of the aforementioned boots.
    • For their gloves, they have a 2⁄3 chance of being given a pair of gloves, and a 1⁄2 chance of being given a pair of gauntlets if they are not given standard gloves.
    • For their cloak, they have a 1⁄2 chance of being given a standard cloak.
  • Soldiers have the same chance of being given C-rations and K-rations as in NetHack, but this chance does not apply if they are generated on level creation (including generation in barracks), generated in the Law quest, or are generated as zombified monsters.

EvilHack

Main article: Soldier (EvilHack)

In EvilHack, soldiers and other Yendorian army fighters are racial monsters and can be generated as any applicable race.

Encyclopedia entry

The soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war, many trained by the Wizard himself. Some say the soldiers are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured, and put under the Wizard's spell. Those who have survived encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons, and are fierce fighters. Because of the load of their combat gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing so is considered a wise thing.

References

  1. ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3730
  2. ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 184
  3. ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 490
  4. ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 360
  5. ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 361
  6. ↑ src/dokick.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 370
  7. ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 765: populating barracks
  8. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 171
  9. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 172
  10. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 174
  11. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 328
  12. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 336
  13. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 338
  14. ↑ dat/knox.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 98: Ludios barracks
  15. ↑ dat/castle.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 240-L241: Castle barracks
  16. ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 786: barracks generation
  17. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 481-L485
  18. ↑ dat/Tourist.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 513
  19. ↑ dat/knox.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 112-L127: Ludios soldiers
  20. ↑ dat/castle.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 153-L161: Castle soldiers
  21. ↑ dat/castle.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 163-L171: Castle tower soldiers
  22. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 188
  23. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 591
  24. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 192
  25. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 196
  26. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 209-L221
  27. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 598
  28. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 628
  29. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 631
  30. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 634
  31. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 636
  32. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 638
  33. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 640
  34. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 642
  35. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 644
  36. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 646
  37. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 648
  38. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 665
  39. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 556
  40. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 791
  41. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 794
  42. ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 796
  43. ↑ makemon.c in NetHack 3.0.0, line 328
  44. ↑ makemon.c in NetHack 3.0.0, line 353
  45. ↑ monst.c in NetHack 3.1.0, line 1732
  46. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 913
  47. ↑ mklev.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 769
  48. ↑ mkroom.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 324
  49. ↑ mkroom.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 815
  50. ↑ mkroom.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 819
  51. ↑ shk.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 366
  52. ↑ shk.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 3935
  53. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 253
  54. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 256
  55. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 358
  56. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 364
  57. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1005
  58. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1011
  59. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1031
  60. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 260: falls through to this case if FIREARMS is not defined
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