Undead Hunter

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Roles in dNetHack
Roles in notdNetHack

The Undead Hunter, abbreviated as Hnt is one of the roles available for a hero in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack. Their corresponding player monster is the Undead hunter.

Undead Hunters may be humans, incantifiers, orcs, tieflings, vampires, yuki-onnas, aasimars, and can be of any alignment. In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Undead Hunters may also choose to be ents.

Starting inventory

Vampires and aasimars have several adjustments made to their starting inventory.

Intrinsics

Undead hunters gain intrinsics at these experience levels:

Attributes

Undead Hunters have 75 points to distribute among their starting attributes like most other roles unless they are descendants, who have 65 points to distribute.

An Undead Hunter's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Remaining
Minimum attributes 7 7 7 10 10 7 27
Distribution percentages 18% 24% 18% 10% 10% 10%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human) 12.70±2.16 14.11±2.20 12.40±2.10 15.75±1.28 13.02±1.68 10.03±1.70

The means and standard deviations were calculated for NetHack via simulation, whose source code can be found on the role article's talk page, and assumes that all given roles are played as humans—non-human races will have different attribute means as a result of different attribute maximums. Due to the distribution of attributes having a wider variance among roles and races, these calculations may not be wholly accurate to this set of variants.

Skills

Undead Hunter skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled

saber, broadsword, short sword, club, mace, scimitar, quarterstaff, flail, pick-axe, firearm

Expert

Undead Hunters start with Basic in axe, club, and firearms. The Undead Hunter's special spell is fireball, and their spell success is determined by their intelligence.

Special Rules

Sneak attack

Undead hunters can perform a lesser version of the Rogue's sneak attacks, which only deal 2⁄3 as much damage.

Undead

Undead hunters gain a +1d1 damage bonus per experience level when attacking an undead with a ranged weapon.

Blood-smithing

Undead Hunters are adept smiths, though they are initially limited to Basic. With smithing, an Undead Hunter can create items and also enchant existing ones at a forge. To do so, they must wield a smithing hammer at the forge and dip the item they wish to improve into it, increasing its enchantment by 1 each time this is done. Items can normally only be enchanted up to +1 at Basic smithing, +2 at Skilled, and +5 at Expert, but may be enchanted further by using columnar crystals. The columnar crystal must be held in open inventory when dipping the item and is consumed in the process.

A columnar crystal is a special type of crystal that only naturally generates for Undead Hunters when a monster's corpse rots away. There are 4 types of columnar crystals, which are classified by their size. When a monster's corpse rots away, its difficulty determines which type of crystal is created, with more difficult monsters leaving behind larger columnar crystals. A corpse has a 1⁄20 chance to leave behind a columnar crystal, or more if the hero currently has either the eye or weed glyph memorized, or both. Larger crystals can be used to increase an item's enchantment past the hero's smithing skill limit, and each type of columnar crystal can only be used on items with specific enchantments.

  • columnar crystal rods can enchant +0, +1, and +2 equipment.
  • twin-columnar crystals can enchant +3, +4 and +5 equipment.
  • columnar chunks can enchant +6, +7, and +8 equipment.
  • columnar masses can enchant +9 equipment.

Undead Hunters increase their smithing skill limit to Skilled when they use a twin-columnar crystal to enchant an item for the first time, and will increase it further to Expert once they have used a columnar chunk. Simultaneously, after they have used the twin-columnar crystal, they also become able to reach Expert in one randomly chosen weapon skill, and unlock two more when using a columnar chunk. When a skill associated with a trick weapon is unlocked in this manner, it also unlocks all skills associated with the weapon's transformed state and teaches the hero the weapon's identified appearance, as well as the appearance of its transformed state (see the columnar crystal page for full details).

Imbuement

An Undead Hunter can infuse their weapons, weapon-tools and tools that use weapon skills with a elemental affinities, so long as they have knowledge of certain spells. The knowledge of the spell is lost in the process, and the spellbook must be re-red for to apply the imbuement to another weapon. All of the affinities are mutually exclusive, except for the holy and unholy object properties, which may be imbuem on top of another elemental affinity.

The following insight weapons, when imbued, only obtain the lesser version of an object property: arm, rakuyo, pincer staff, , blade of mercy, isamusei, diskos, breaking wheel, bestial claw, and weapons made of mercurial chaos. Artifacts, excluding those that can be named or made from a base item such as dirge cannot be imbued at all

This section contains major spoilers for the Undead Hunter role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.

The toll of time

The Undead Hunter quest is not stationary: the quest's story will develop as turns pass, both while the hero is inside the quest and outside. This affects three things: the quest artifact, the progress of the plague of beasts, and whether a character is allowed to ascend:

  • 28,000–31,999 turns: Vicar Amalia recalls the hero to the quest, if they've already completed it. All quest guardians and shopkeepers outside the quest home begin turning.
  • 32,000–37,999 turns: All of the quest guardians and shopkeepers on the locate level transform into werewolves immediately. Guardians on the home level also begin turning and may transform into a werewolf if they are in line of sight of the hero. Vicar Amalia is exempt from this effect. The Stake of Withering goes out completely, and animals, demihumans, and werecreatures are all alerted to your presence and aggravated by you while you are carrying the Stake of Withering. It also no longer confers bonus fire damage.
  • 38,000–47,999 turns: Vicar Amalia is now susceptible to turning.
  • 48,000 turns and above: All of the quest guardians on the home level, as well as Vicar Amalia, instantly turn. The hero has failed the quest, and the moon draws close. They may now ascend even without having killed the Moon's Chosen.

Moon's Chosen

If the hero has pierced the veil and hasn't yet killed the Moon's Chosen, they will sometimes be surrounded by mist clouds. This effect occurs more frequently at higher insight, with each point of insight above 1 increasing the chance by 1⁄60000 (~0.0016%).

After an Undead Hunter slays the Moon's Chosen, they will suffer an AC penalty of -12, and a DR penalty of 8 to the upper torso slot, 2 to the lower torso slot, 1 to the lower torso slot, and 1 to the gloves slot. The phase of the moon is now permanently changed to hunting moon: after this occurs, an Undead Hunter may ascend without having to wait for 48,000 turns. The Stake of Withering now aggravates animals, demihumans and werecreatures, even if it had already gone out, and increases the experience the hero gains by 30% while it is carried. This also affects their sanity regeneration rate, with their upper regeneration threshold being reduced by 10 points.

Undead Hunter also become able to receive the insight weapon damage bonus like Madpeople or when having Ose bound after they've killed the Moon's Chosen. Insight weapons grant damage and to-hit bonus; the to-hit and damage bonus is equal to the lesser of the PC's insight and their level, except for one-handed weapons, which only receive half as much bonus damage.

On the Astral Plane, Angels will be replaced with aether wolves and foetid angels, and many of the intelligent monsters will generate with the tongue-puppet template. High priests will turn into high priest wolves once you enter the temple, even if they were peaceful to you. If the hunting moon is not in effect by the time an Undead Hunter reaches the Astral Plane, they will instead encounter it unaltered, containing Angels and high priests, but will not find the high altars of their alignment, which will be replaced by altars to the gods of the Wizard pantheon, and cannot be used to ascend, only to escape in celestial disgrace.

Quest

The Undead Hunter quest sees you fighting index wolf for the Stake of Withering, a wooden stake that provides cold resistance and magic resistance. After the quest has been formally completed, the stake will begin burning, and both melee and ranged attacks made will gain +1d10 fire damage. While it is burning, all animals, demihumans, and werecreatures will become scared while it is carried.

This section contains major spoilers for the Undead Hunter role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.

As the plague of beasts progresses, many of the quest guardians and shopkeepers in the lower levels will begin to succumb, transforming into werewolves. After 32,000 turns have passed, all of them will immediately transform as soon as they enter the hero's line of sight, with the sole exception of Vicar Amalia, who will begin to succumb much later, but will immediately transform after 48,000 turns have passed.

After they complete their quest for the first time Undead Hunters will be called back again, this time to put a definitive end to the plague of beasts. This sees them fighting the Moon's Chosen as they retrace their steps back to the bottom of the quest, and ends with them drawing the attention of the Moon Entity.

Gods

Main article: Philosophies

Undead Hunters do not have the same relationship with their deities that is usual for other roles, as they do not worship gods. Instead, they pursue one of three “philosophies”, each providing its own research method and upgrade tree: the college is a philosophy concerning reanimation, the choir concerns parasitology, and defilement concerns the similarly named defilement research. The defilement research path is then further subdivided into three separate strands of research: preservation, vampiric and rot defilement.

Undead Hunters are unable to pray, and as such, unable to get crowned, which makes permanent intrinsics all the harder to obtain. Altars to one of the three philosophies are renamed to workbenches. These workbenches can't be used to determine the beatitude of items, or to interact with the deity in any other way. Many of the functionalities of a normal altar are completely absent from workbenches as well, as they cannot be used to test an item's beautitude, offer corpses, or create holy water or even to receive gifts from their god, but can still be converted. A workbench must instead be used to perform research, which is either done with the #offer or with the #research commands.

By performing research, Undead Hunters gain special benefits and abilities in preparation for their ascension. Only by claiming at least 6 upgrades from any of the 5 research paths are they able to achieve a full-scoring ascension — an Undead Hunter that has not performed this step will escape in celestial disgrace when offering the amulet.

Because Undead Hunters aren't true worshippers of any deity, they may freely interact with all three cults, and can benefit from boons from all three at the same time without any drawback.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

  • XL 1-2: Assistant
  • XL 3-5: Berner
  • XL 6-9: Beater
  • XL 10-13: Inhumer
  • XL 14-17: Hunter
  • XL 18-21: Eliminator
  • XL 22-25: Exterminator
  • XL 26-29: Vindicator
  • XL 30: Old Hunter

Strategy

Undead Hunters are a very versatile martial role that have a very unusual quest and ascension. Undead Hunters aren't naturally able to reach Expert skill in many weapons, though they can gain more Expert skills later on. At the start of the game, an Undead Hunter will find that their starting AC is very low, and will want to find better armor as soon as possible. Their flintlock is a very reliable sidearm and can be relied on to take out tougher monsters early on, and can even be two-weaponed. Like the Convict quest, Undead Hunters will find that their quest changes as time passes, and should avoid lingering for too long.

Early game

Undead Hunters need to take greater care than many other martial roles, as they are somewhat pressed until they can improve their AC and hit point maximum. Undead Hunters cannot pray, and need to take care not to become afflicted by sickness or other ailments, as these will be fatal. Their potions of blood are a valuable resource: applying the potion will transfuse the hero with the blood, healing them for 4⁄10 of their maximum HP. An Undead Hunter must balance not only their health, but also their experience. Both their phlebotomy kit — which they require to obtain blood vials — and their nightmare's bullet mold — which they require to obtain blood-bullets — will drain the hero's experience level. Experience lost in this manner is regained twice as fast, and they will regain the lost level if they gain any amount of experience after they lost it. Both must be used with care, as the bullet mold will also drain the hero for approximately 1⁄3 of their total hit point maximum, while the phlebotomy kit will drain it for 1⁄2 of it.

Undead Hunter will benefit greatly from spending some time exploring the gnomish mines up until mine town, where they can use the forge to create a better armor set for themselves and train their smithing skill. They may also immediately rush to their quest, where they will find many weapons and amenities. With Basic skill, an Undead Hunter can already improve all of their metallic equipment to +1, and can make many of the basic tools themselves. If they aren't short on food, an Undead Hunter will want to leave all corpses behind to rot away, since this sometimes results in a columnar crystal, which they can then use at a forge to improve their equipment past their smithing skill limit, and will also want to scavenge various metals from the hostile dwarves. In lieu of a functional altar, Undead Hunters must rely on other forms of identifying an item's beautitude, and may wish to obtain a pet or pay a shopkeeper to uncurse their items. If possible, an Undead Hunter will want to obtain a silver weapon and holy water at this stage, in preparation for their quest. A hero that already learned the circle of Acheron ward and a way to enter the Windowless Tower may wish to do so now to claim the holy water contained there, as they must otherwise read a scroll of remove curse with various stacks of potions of water in their inventory while confused to obtain it.

Mid game

The Undead Hunter home level is a very desirable spot for a permanent stash, and the hero may wish to rush to the quest as soon as they feel capable of looting the box in the top-left room, where they will find several trick weapons and 5 columnar crystal rods. If they haven't yet, they may wish to make use of a twin-columnar crystal to advance their smithing skill, and possibly become Expert in one of their newly acquired weapons. After they have raided The Temple of Moloch branch they may additionally place an use a scroll of consecration to placean altar near their stash, allowing them to identify the beautitude of items. An Undead Hunter will find many shops and morgues after they reach level 14 and can enter their quest. While none of the monsters that can generate in the quest are particularly threatening, an Undead Hunter should come prepared to deal with lycanthropy since they cannot rely on prayer to fix it. The first half of their quest consists almost entirely of a gauntlet of various undead-filled morgues, werewolves, and mist wolves. Due to the displacing abilities of mist wolves, a hero will greatly benefit from obtaining a shining weapon, as it ignores displacement and can be acquired as soon as they have 10 insight. Many shops are guaranteed to generate in this section, and an Undead Hunter is likely to encounter a shopkeeper that can uncurse their items, if they require it. The second half of their quest sees them fighting through elven zombies in a sequence of forest levels, interspersed with burned out houses which will The Undead Hunter quest nemesis, index wolf, possesses a lycanthropy inducing bite attack, a claw attack, and a strong shocking touch attack. To a hero that has already obtained shock resistance, the index wolf will not be particularly threatening and will leave behind a guaranteed columnar chunk if its corpse is left to rot. The quest goal level also contains a columnar chunk, a evelyn, a chikage, and a spare nightmare's bullet mold, and a worm-gnawed skull, which they can use to pierce the veil and gain 10 points of insight. After they return to the quest leader, chatting to Vicar Amalia will formally complete the quest, after which the Stake of Withering will add 1d10 fire damage to both ranged and melee attacks.

This section contains major spoilers for the Undead Hunter role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.

A hero that has pierced the veil will sometimes be surrounded by mist clouds, which occurs more consistently at higher insight, with each point of insight above 1 increasing the chance by 1⁄60000 (~0.0016%). They will also sometimes be pulled up from the quest by the mysterious force, which will attempt to drag them back to the quest home level. Both of these effects cease once they have killed the Moon's Chosen.

After at least 28,000 turns have passed, if the hero has already completed the quest, the hero will be recalled by Vicar Amalia. An Undead Hunter will then be tasked with finding out what has been causing the plague of beasts before Vicar Amalia herself succumbs to the plague. For this second part of the quest, an Undead Hunter is forced to pierce the veil and confront the Moon's Chosen, a humanoid alien that has two 2-square-reach amulet theft attacks, a lycanthropy-inducing bite attack, and a very strong passive frost attack. To first perceive the Moon's Chosen, an Undead Hunter must have acquired between 20–27 insight, determined when they are first generated. If they have not already done so, they may wish to get a shining weapon, as the Moon's Chosen is also displaced and will otherwise evade 50% of all non-phasing attacks. They also have a customized spell list:

  • Mist wolves: Summons mist wolves around the hero.
  • Mass cure: Heals the Moon's Chosen for 12d8.
  • Mass cure allies: Heals hostile monsters in a radius of 10 squares of the Moon's Chosen for 12d8.
  • Paralyze: Paralyzes the hero for 1d4 turns, or only half as much if the hero has half spell damage.
  • Nightmare: Deals 1d45 damage, stuns for the same amount of turns. Also confuses the hero for 10 * 1d45 turns, and makes them hallucinate for 15 * 1d45 turns. The damage and the duration of the effects are halved if the hero has magic resistance and halved again if they also have half spell damage.
  • Nail to the sky: Makes the hero start levitating for 200–500 turns.

When engaging the Moon's Chosen, it is important to deal more damage than she is able to heal, and to avoid becoming hemmed in by mist wolves. The wolves can be scared by an engraved hexagram, a fully reinforced gorgoneion, or, more practically, by dropping a wooden item carved with a toustefna rune at your feet, allowing you to focus on the Moon's Chosen and reducing the chance of being repeatedly affected by lycanthropy. The only wards which are effective at scaring the Moon's Chosen, however, are the yellow sign and a fully reinforced gorgoneion. An Undead Hunter shouldn't attempt this fight without at least first obtaining cold resistance, and may also wish to bring a source of free action, a potion of paralysis and an escape item. If they feel that they are taking too much damage from the Moon's Chosen, or are being overwhelmed by the number of mist wolves, they may use a scroll of earth to create a boulder fort around the upstairs, which also reduces the Moon's Chosen's line of sight and impedes their spellcasting. After they have been defeated, the moon draws close, and they may officially complete their quest again. However, before they return, they should make sure to take the columnar chunk the Moon's Chosen drops on death, as well as killing the crimson moon-lotus, who is guaranteed to be carrying a dissection kit, an item they will want to obtain to complete their research.

Around this point in time, an Undead Hunter will want to pursue a "great breakthrough" in their philosophy by obtaining at least 6 research upgrades in one of the three philosphies.

Late game

Undead Hunters are incredibly versatile due to the various upgrades they can claim, allowing them to specialize in almost any form of combat. Melee-focused Undead Hunters will generally want to fully enchant their main-hand weapon to +10, and can apply elemental object properties to their weapon with the knowledge of the right spells, which is especially useful to an Undead Hunter who has completed the Chaos Temple Quest, as the crystals allow them to apply these properties without needing the corresponding spellbook. Spell-focused Undead Hunters benefit from two spirits, those being Naberius—who grants them a spell damage boost, doubles the range of their ray spells and increases the size of explosion spells—and from Nudzirath, who doubles the damage of their spells. There is a 1⁄4 chance that the library of Timaresh, located on the Sum of All level in the Neutral Quest, will generate with one, guarded in the center of the spiral by Zenodach. Once a character has engaged in extensive research, they should beware of any intelligence drain, as they will likely be spending some time with severely reduced mental attributes and may be subject to a sudden death to brainlessness, which cannot be averted with life saving.

An Undead Hunter ascension requires the hero to have achieved a "great breakthrough" while researching their philosophy. All research paths count towards this, so claiming 6 upgrades from the reanimation, parasitology or from any of the three defilement strands of research is required. Preservation, Vampiric and rot all count towards a great breakthrough in defilement, and so long as a sum of 6 have been achieved they qualify for ascension; this may be verified through the Ctrl + x menu. Additionally, an Undead Hunter cannot ascend until they are under a hunting moon, which requires them to either kill the Moon's Chosen, or for at least 48,000 in-game turns to have passed.

Origin

Undead Hunter is heavily inspired by the games of FromSoftware, particularly the 2015 game Bloodborne.

Within the lineage of NetHack variants, dNetHack's Undead Hunter role is descended from SLASH'EM's Undead Slayer and Lycanthrope (role), as well as SpliceHack's Drauglir and Dark Forest level.

Encyclopedia entry

Shrouded by night, but with steady stride.
Colored by blood, but always clear of mind.
Proud hunter of the church.
Beasts are a curse, and a curse is a shackle.
Only ye are the true blades of the church.
[ Bloodborne, by FromSoftware ]


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