Worm
The worm is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase w glyph (w). Worms are designated internally by the macro S_WORM.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
Contents
Common traits
All worms are slithy, carnivorous animals that are large or bigger and have no limbs. Adult worms are gigantic, oviparous, strong, and considered nasty as well. Worms generally attack using bites.
Generation
Randomly generated worms are always created hostile.
Body parts
Worm also refers to the grouping of body parts for the forms of annelid-like monsters. It affects the messages referring to the appropriate body parts as follows:[3]
| Bodypart[4] | Description |
|---|---|
| Arm | Anterior segment |
| Eye | Light sensitive cell |
| Face | Clitellum |
| Finger | Setae |
| Fingertip | Setae |
| Foot | Posterior segment |
| Hand | Segment |
| Handed | Segmented |
| Head | Anterior segment |
| Leg | Posterior |
| Light Headed | Overstretched |
| Neck | Clitellum |
| Spine | Length |
| Toe | Posterior setae |
| Hair | Setae |
| Blood | Blood |
| Lung | Skin |
| Nose | Prostomium |
| Stomach | Stomach |
History
The long worm and purple worm first appear in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and both are included in the bestiary for Hack 1.0—a possible ancestor for the long worm appears in the mega-worm of Hack 1.21, which is also based on Jay Fenlason's Hack. From Hack for PDP-11 to NetHack 2.3e, the purple worm uses the P glyph, while the long worm uses the w glyph if the NOWORM compile-time option is not defined.
NetHack 3.0.0 introduces the worm monster class, and both the long worm and purple worm are moved to the monster class and given baby forms.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on those versions, worms are described as having scales due to being defined as slithy, which the game associates with snakes by default—this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 3ea07e2e.
Variants
NetHack: The Next Generation
In NetHack: The Next Generation, the artifact Wormbiter is a crysknife that has +5 to-hit and deals double damage against worms.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds several monsters to the monster class:
Four random worms are generated in The Wyrm Caves at level creation.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, various worms are generated on each level of the Dragon Caves at level creation.
dNetHack
dNetHack adds several monsters to the monster class:
- w dark worm
- w hunting horror
- w wide clubbed tentacle
- w worm that walks
- w parasitic mind flayer
- w parasitic master mind flayer
- w long sinuous tentacle
- w crimson writher
The tentacle 'monsters' in the worm monster class act as "animate" body parts of another monster: they occupy their own square, and can be targeted independently.
Several worms are generated on the locate level of the Drow Noble quest at level creation.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds one monster to the monster class:
- w maggot
EvilHack
EvilHack adds two monsters to the monster class:
- w giant leech
- w neothelid
SlashTHEM
In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM adds Wormbiter from NetHack: The Next Generation.
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds many monsters to the monster class, including several from other variants:
- w larva
- w maggot
- w dung worm
- w acid worm
- w bloodworm
- w tunnel worm
- w rot worm
- w giant leech
- w neothelid
- w hellminth
