Wolf

From NetHackWiki
(Redirected from Wolves)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
d wolf Wolf.png Wolf female.png
Difficulty 6
Attacks

Bite 2d4 physical

Base level 5
Base experience 56
Speed 12
Base AC 4
Base MR 0
Alignment 0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means) 2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable Yes
Weight 500
Nutritional value 250
Size Medium
Resistances None
Resistances conveyed None

A wolf:

Reference NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 257

A wolf, d, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The wolf is a medium-sized and carnivorous canine animal that can be seen via infravision. Female wolves are depicted in the default tileset with slightly shorter tails than the males.

Some shapeshifters are capable of transforming into wolves or wolf-like forms:

  • Werewolves can transform into wolf-like forms, and a hero that has lycanthropy from a werewolf can do the same.
  • Vampire leaders and Vlad the Impaler can take the form of wolves when outside of the hero's line of sight unless they are in the Rogue level or over hazardous terrain such as lava[1][2][3]—a vampire in wolf form will retain their vampiric traits.
    • Vlad will not shapeshift at all if he is carrying the Candelabrum of Invocation.[4][5]
    • A vampire that can shift into wolf form will do so while in their base form with a 1⁄6 chance each turn if they are at 9⁄10 of their maximum HP;[6][7] they will shift from fog cloud form to wolf form with a 1⁄4 chance each turn if they are at full HP;[8] they will shift out of wolf form into their humanoid form with a 3⁄4 chance if their current HP is at or below maxHP + 56;[9] and they will shift out of wolf form into fog cloud form if they encounter a closed door.[10][11]

Wolves are considered "children of the night" for the purpose of chatting to vampires in their humanoid form.[12]

A wolf has a single bite attack.

A hero that is polymorphed into a vampire leader can turn into a wolf if they are polymorphed again or use the #monster extended command, and can decline to do so if they have polymorph control[13][14]—from this form, they can use the #monster command to shapeshift back into a vampire leader or into a fog cloud. A hero that is killed while polymorphed into the wolf form of a vampire leader will be return to their base form rather than to their vampire leader form, unless that "death" was the result of the hero genociding wolves.[15][16]

Eating wolves is considered cannibalism for a hero that has lycanthropy from a werewolf.[17][18]

Generation

Randomly-generated wolves are always created hostile, and may appear in small groups.

Werewolves that call for help and summon hostile monsters have a 4⁄5 chance of generating a wolf per summoned monster[19]—a hero that contracts lycanthropy from a werewolf can spend 10 power to summon tame wolves with the same odds by using the #monster command.

The wolf is the first quest monster for Samurai, and makes up 96⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Samurai quest. Several wolves are generated on multiple floors of the quest branch at level creation: three are placed randomly on the home level, five are placed randomly on the upper filler level, nine are placed randomly on the locate level, and four each are placed randomly on the lower filler level(s) and goal level. Wolves also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for the Samurai quest, and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated there.

Strategy

Wolves can move at the same base speed as an unhasted hero, but possess a mediocre 4 AC—a lone wolf is not too troublesome for a decently-kitted character, but in packs their bites can easily overwhelm a hero that is careless, burdened and/or under-prepared. Werewolves can also make it easy to be surrounded by wolves at inopportune times, leading to a quick death for the unfortunate and unwary alike.

As with jackals and coyotes, try to pull wolf packs into a hallway to use melee combat or spellcasting them, including any reasonable area-of-effect attacks, and prioritize werewolves for elimination before they bring down several packs of wolves or worse (i.e. wargs and winter wolves) on top of you. Wolf corpses give a decent amount of nutrition for non-vegetarian heroes and pets alike.

Finding a method to make Vlad the Impaler shift into wolf form is vital for heroes that want to attempt taming him and then feeding him corpses for intrinsics.

History

The wolf first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, vampire lords and Vlad the Impaler are not capable of shapeshifting at all—the ability of stronger vampires and heroes polymorphed into vampire lords to shift themselves into wolf form is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 9b3521e5: this introduces a bug that causes a chameleon, doppelganger or sandestin which randomly became a vampire or vampire lord to no longer shapeshift randomly and become stuck in that form. This bug is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 885de116, as well as another bug that causes vampire lords to only shift into wolf form during their initial creation.

From NetHack 3.0.4 to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the wolf uses the d glyph—NetHack 5.0.0 gives the wolf its current glyph via commit 3b2d3eab, which also applies to the werewolf's animal form.

Wolves are the subject of many other bugfixes and code adjustments over multiple versions and some applicable variants, several of which concern vampiric shapeshifting.

  • In versions up to NetHack 3.6.0:
    • It is possible for a lycanthrope hero in wolf form (or any hero polymorphed into a wolf) to throw projectiles and other items—this is bug C343-243, and is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 187b8dec so that a hero's polymorph form must have hands in order to throw items.[20]
    • Vampire lords in wolf form become unkillable and will continually resurrect in wolf form if their base vampire form is removed by genocide, which is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 757e6f9c.
    • Vampire lords that are subjected to stoning in their wolf form will resurrect into their base form as expected while leaving behind a wolf, which is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 6117eddc.
    • Incorrect messages are printed for vampire lords if they are killed in wolf form and return to their base form, which is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit a791b4b1.
    • Vampire lords will not shapeshift into their wolf form and instead favor their fog cloud form unless killed—this is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit cb1309cd, which establishes their current shapeshifting behavior.
  • In versions up to NetHack 3.6.1:
    • The cannibalism check for eating wolves as a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf is introduced via commit 1f4574b6.[21]
    • Vampire lords that die while they are in wolf form and being held by a polymorphed hero will remain in the hero's grasp after resurrecting—this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.2 via commit d0cc6459 so that any holds are released when a vampiric shapeshifter is "killed" and returns to base form.
  • In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7:
    • Feedback for "killing" Vlad the Impaler in wolf form is poorly-phrased, which is fixed in NetHack 3.6.2 via commit 45c59857.
    • Heroes that are polymorphed into vampire lords and shapeshift into wolves using the #monster command cannot use that command to turn back at will. This is fixed for NetHack 5.0.0 via commit a27ca52b, which also establishes the response for genociding wolves while polymorphed into a wolf in this manner.
    • Vampire lords will transform into wolves while flying over lava and then die instantly from losing flight and sinking into the lava—this is followed by returning to normal form and then being teleported despite their base form possessing flight, as the check for teleporting a reviving monster in such a situation precedes the check for flight. This is fixed for NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 5fe746a0 so that vampire leaders will not transform into wolves over hazardous terrain.
    • Wolves of different genders share the same tile. The current tiles are introduced in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 7e20be61.

Origin

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:

The wolf (Canis lupus, pl. wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large carnivorous canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though the popular understanding of gray wolves only comprises naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae, and is distinguished from other species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, shorter torso and a longer tail—at the same time, it is still related closely enough to Canis species like the coyote and the golden jackal to produce fertile hybrids with them.

The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the Arctic region may be nearly all white. Wolves are most specialized for cooperative game hunting due to physical adaptations that enable tackling large prey, as well as their more social nature and highly advanced expressive behavior, including individual or group howling. Wolves travel in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring—such offspring may leave to form their own packs on the onset of sexual maturity, and in response to competition for food within the pack. Wolves are also territorial, and fights over territory are among the principal causes of mortality. The wolf mainly feeds on large wild hoofed mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, and carrion, and single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than large packs.

Wolves have a long history of interactions with humans, being despised and hunted in most pastoral communities because of their attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies. Although a fear of wolves exists in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to rabies symptoms: wolves live away from people, and have developed a fear of humans themselves because of their experiences with hunters, farmers, ranchers, and shepherds. The wolf is a common motif in the mythologies, cosmologies and stories of peoples worldwide, with their roles ranging from cunning and dangerous tricksters to the point of shapeshifting (which ties to the related concept of people turning into wolves), to bestial and cruel savages, with the loyal and tightly knit family portrayal of wolves not attaining popularity until the publishing of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

In China, the wolf was traditionally associated with greed and cruelty and wolf epithets were used to describe negative behaviors such as cruelty ("wolf's heart"), mistrust ("wolf's look") and lechery ("wolf-sex"); conversely, in Chinese astronomy the wolf represents Sirius, who guards the heavenly gate. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, gods of protection ride wolves as steeds, and in Vedic Hinduism the wolf is a symbol of the night whose jaws the daytime quail must escape from, while in Tantric Buddhism wolves are inhabitants of graveyards and destroyers of corpses.

The Ancient Greeks associated wolves with Apollo, the god of light and order, while the Ancient Romans connected the wolf with their god of war and agriculture Mars, and believed their city's founders Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf. Norse mythology includes the feared giant wolf Fenrir, and Geri and Freki are wolves that serve as Odin's faithful pets. Aesop featured wolves in several of his fables, playing on the concerns of Ancient Greece's settled, sheep-herding world: His most famous is the fable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", which warns against the dangers of knowingly raising false alarms; some of his other fables concentrate on maintaining the trust between shepherds and guard dogs in their vigilance against wolves. Though the wolves of his fables served as a form of warning, they added to the wolf's image as a deceitful and dangerous animal.

The Pawnee creation myth states that the wolf was the first animal brought to Earth, and when humans killed it, they were punished with death, destruction and the loss of immortality. Sirius is the "wolf star" for the Pawnee, whose disappearance and reappearance signified the wolf moving to and from the spirit world—both Pawnee and Blackfoot peoples call the Milky Way the "wolf trail". The Bible uses an image of a wolf lying with a lamb in a utopian vision of the future prophesied in the Old Testament; in the New Testament, Jesus uses wolves as illustrations of the dangers that his followers would face should they follow him.

Messages

Messages associated with wolves can be found on other articles:

Variants

NetHack variants based on NetHack 3.6.0 and earlier versions may not count eating wolves them as cannibalism for heroes given lycanthropy by a werewolf like later versions do, and variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 and prior versions may not include the ability of strong vampires to shapeshift into wolves as they can in later versions of NetHack.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, wolves do not randomly generate in Gehennom, and vampires cannot transform into wolves. Eating wolves is not considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

The lycanthrope is a playable race that is essentially a human werewolf, and has a similar ability to switch between humanoid and wolf forms and summon other wolves. Unlike other werecreatures, player lycanthropes in wolf form have hit dice equal to their current level and can throw projectiles such as daggers, the latter of which is a NetHack 3.4.3 bug that is seemingly kept as a feature.

Wolves can appear among the random d that are part of the second quest monster class for Yeomen and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest. Some wolves are also generated on multiple floors of the quest branch at level creation: two are placed in specific locations on the home level, and one each is generated on the filler levels and goal level.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Cavepeople and Rangers each have a 1⁄4 chance of starting with a pet wolf (or 3⁄4 if the player sets the option to always start with exotic pets). Cavepeople and Rangers can also use thrown food for taming wolves like domestic animals.

Eating wolves is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, wolves are lawful monsters similar to dogs and their growth stages.

Wolves can be warded by a Toustefna stave that is carved into a wooden weapon and placed on the hero's square, and that weapon will also warn of wolves and other canines while wielded.

Index wolves and mist wolves that call for help and summon hostile monsters (including the latter's mist cloud form) will both have a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating a wolf per summoned monster. Eating wolves is not considered cannibalism for a hero that is turned into a werewolf via lycanthropy.

Wolf zombies make up 1⁄6 of monsters randomly generated in the Windowless Tower branch, and several wolf zombies are scattered across the forest area on the ground floor leading up to the tower during level creation. Wolves also appear among the d that make up 1⁄10 of monsters randomly generated in this branch.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, pack lords that call for help have a roughly 1⁄2 chance per monster of summoning a wolf, while a hero with lycanthropy from a pack lord has a 3⁄4 chance per monster of summoning a wolf. Eating wolves is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

In pre-Rewrite versions of SpliceHack, it is possible to use the defunct cooking feature to turn a winter wolf corpse into a regular wolf corpse.

EvilHack

EvilHack adds the wolf cub, which can grow up into a wolf. Wolves and their cubs are woodland creatures, and eating wolves and wolf cubs counts as cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Orcish heroes are the sole race of hero that can ride wolves as steeds. Vampire heroes are capable of taming wolves domestically by throwing 'people food' or meaty food at them.

Kas is a strong vampire that is given the ability to transform into a wolf, but will not do so normally.

Wolves can appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Infidels and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest.

Goblin outriders are always generated riding atop wolves. Wolves generated as steeds for monsters are always generated with saddles, while wolves generated normally have a 1⁄2000 chance of generating with a saddle. Saddled wolves have a 1⁄100 chance of generating with barding, which has a 3⁄4 chance of being standard barding, a 1⁄6 chance of being spiked barding and a 1⁄6 chance of being barding of reflection.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Lunatic role is similar to the lycanthrope race, including their ability to summon tame wolves, and the role's starting pet is also a wolf.

Three wolves are generated inside the entrance hall of the thieves' dwelling within the Town branch during level creation.

The wolf is the first quest monster for Ninjas, and makes up 96⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Ninja quest. Wolves can also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for the Ninja quest, and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated there.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, wolves can randomly generate in Gehennom unlike in SLASH'EM. Nosferatu that call for help have a 4⁄5 chance per monster of summoning a wolf. Eating wolves is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Three wolves are generated inside the entrance hall of the thieves' dwelling within the Town branch during level creation, as in SlashTHEM.

Wolves can appear among the random d that are part of the second quest monster class for Yeomen and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest, as they do in SLASH'EM. Wolves can also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Infidels and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest, as in EvilHack.

Encyclopedia entry

The ancestors of the modern day domestic dog, wolves are powerful muscular animals with bushy tails. Intelligent, social animals, wolves live in family groups or packs made up of multiple family units. These packs cooperate in hunting down prey.

References

  1. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1195-L1198
  2. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4871-L4938
  3. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4948-L4964
  4. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4949-L4952
  5. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5034-L5038
  6. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4885
  7. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4920-L4925
  8. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4898-L4911
  9. ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4893-L4897
  10. ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1485-L1506
  11. ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2363-L2371: can_fog() function
  12. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 750
  13. ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 623-L625
  14. ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 671-L686
  15. ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1395
  16. ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2748-L2755
  17. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 770-L777
  18. ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 83-L88
  19. ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 172
  20. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 248
  21. ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 83-L87
Retrieved from "https://nethackwiki.com/index.php?title=Wolf&oldid=204625"