NetHack - This cockatrice corpse tastes terrible!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > NetHack - This cockatrice corpse tastes terrible!

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

rms posted:

Does it for artifact wishing purpose, reduce the number of present artifacts?

It's actually "number of artifacts created", not "number of artifacts in existence"; eating (or otherwise destroying) artifacts won't reduce the number.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 15:44

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# ? May 14, 2024 08:55

Golbez: Oct 9, 2002; 1 2 3!
If you want to take a shot at me get in line, line
1 2 3!
Baby, I've had all my shots and I'm fine

Argon_Sloth posted:

The thread title would like to partially disagree with your advice. Cockatrice corpses make great weapons, so long as you are wearing gloves, are unburdened and can manage to avoid pit traps.

Also picking up corpses for the purposes for the purpose of sacrificing is encouraged.

If you're able to wonder about picking up a cockatrice corpse and use it as a weapon, you've moved far past having to worry about where your next meal is coming from. That said, yes, cockatrice corpses are - with the right preparation - the sixth exception to the "never pick up a corpse" rule. (The first five being: 1) Lichen, 2) Lizard, 3) Anything you're going to sacrifice, 4) Anything you're going to tin, and 5) Anything you're putting in an icebox)

When I said "never pick up a corpse", it was for early players who, like I used to, probably had auto-pickup on and were collecting corpses, then eating them without realizing they were going to cause food poisoning. Always - *always* - eat a corpse where it lies, unless you have some way of preserving it. If you're *not* going to eat it, then by all means, pick it up and do whatever. But for purposes of eating, the only corpses you should ever eat that are in your inventory are lichen and lizard.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:02

Rashomon: Jun 21, 2006; This machine kills fascists

Contra Duck posted:

Save your rations for when you need them and eat corpses whenever possible. Most corpses are edible but there's a few basic rules you should follow:

1. Don't eat kobolds.

Unless you're a Barbarian!

Golbez posted:

avoid eating bat (confuses) or mold (hallucinates) corpse;

Red and brown molds are good to eat, yellow and purple are not (in most situations). Green is also not worth it.

Rashomon fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Mar 25, 2009

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:14

Argon_Sloth: Dec 23, 2006; I PLAYED BATTLETOADS AND ALL I GOT WAS A RASH IN MY ASS

Golbez posted:

If you're able to wonder about picking up a cockatrice corpse and use it as a weapon, you've moved far past having to worry about where your next meal is coming from. That said, yes, cockatrice corpses are - with the right preparation - the sixth exception to the "never pick up a corpse" rule. (The first five being: 1) Lichen, 2) Lizard, 3) Anything you're going to sacrifice, 4) Anything you're going to tin, and 5) Anything you're putting in an icebox)

When I said "never pick up a corpse", it was for early players who, like I used to, probably had auto-pickup on and were collecting corpses, then eating them without realizing they were going to cause food poisoning. Always - *always* - eat a corpse where it lies, unless you have some way of preserving it. If you're *not* going to eat it, then by all means, pick it up and do whatever. But for purposes of eating, the only corpses you should ever eat that are in your inventory are lichen and lizard.

You don't have to pick up a corpse to tin it. I can't remember if tinning makes soiled food safely edible. But if it's a matter of taking a corpse to a tin, you're better off retrieving the tin and returning. Just about everything worth tinning will probably increase your burden too much.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:18

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

A very general rule of thumb for what is safe to eat is, will my (starting) pet eat it? I think the only things they'll eat that will cause trouble for you are bats, cats/dogs, and humans (or whatever your species is). I don't think three forbidden things is too much to keep track of, and even cannibalism doesn't carry a tremendous penalty. You'll learn what is safe to eat with time, but to start with, let Fluffy be the Royal Food Taster.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:25

Medenmath: Jan 18, 2003

stubblyhead posted:

A very general rule of thumb for what is safe to eat is, will my (starting) pet eat it? I think the only things they'll eat that will cause trouble for you are bats, cats/dogs, and humans (or whatever your species is). I don't think three forbidden things is too much to keep track of, and even cannibalism doesn't carry a tremendous penalty. You'll learn what is safe to eat with time, but to start with, let Fluffy be the Royal Food Taster.

When I first started playing, I would often abandon my pet because it would beat me to stuff I wanted to eat. :mad:

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:34

Vanadium: Jan 8, 2005

When playing a wizard, I used to just eat everything that was poisonous in order to get a shot at poison resistance. It took me a while to realise that that might be a bad idea on a more melee-oriented character. What is my best chance to get poison resistance early on without gimping my strength?

# ? Mar 25, 2009 17:44

RoboBlaster: Mar 25, 2005; Run, Robot, Run.

Vanadium posted:

When playing a wizard, I used to just eat everything that was poisonous in order to get a shot at poison resistance. It took me a while to realise that that might be a bad idea on a more melee-oriented character. What is my best chance to get poison resistance early on without gimping my strength?

Not all corpses that grant poison resistance are poisonous. Shriekers are pretty plentiful in the early game and they have a 20% chance of granting the resistance though they aren't poisonous to eat themselves. There are lots of others though so check the wiki as you come across possibilities.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 18:10

I am hella PEEVED: Oct 25, 2007; Welcome to Earth.

RoboBlaster posted:

Not all corpses that grant poison resistance are poisonous. Shriekers are pretty plentiful in the early game and they have a 20% chance of granting the resistance though they aren't poisonous to eat themselves. There are lots of others though so check the wiki as you come across possibilities.

Bees and scorpions are poisonous, however they have a 33% and 50% chance to grant poison resistance. Early game the only non poisonous monsters that grant poison resistance are Molds(brown and red), Shriekers (purple F not to be confused with purple molds), and Unicorns. I think blue jellies as well, but they are on the higher end of that scale. I think Centipedes and Garter Snakes do as well, but I'm not positive on them.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 18:19

Devonaut: Jul 10, 2001; Devoted Astronaut

Vanadium posted:

When playing a wizard, I used to just eat everything that was poisonous in order to get a shot at poison resistance. It took me a while to realise that that might be a bad idea on a more melee-oriented character. What is my best chance to get poison resistance early on without gimping my strength?

Usually I wait until I have a unicorn horn before I start eating poisonous corpses. Poison resistance can be a life saver, but on the other hand losing a bunch of str can make you permaburdened, which can be deadly as well.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 18:37

McNerd: Aug 28, 2007

Golbez posted:

5) Anything you're putting in an icebox)

Do people actually find iceboxes useful? Aside from the goodies that spawn inside, I always thought they were up there with the grappling hook and iron chain, as worthless items went.

I guess if you run across one in the early game when starving could actually be an issue, but I've never seen this happen. Are you actually carting fire giant corpses to an icebox? It'd make a good c corpse storage facility, I suppose I can understand that, but what other use are the drat things?

Argon_Sloth posted:

I can't remember if tinning makes soiled food safely edible.

The answer is yes. I love eating tins of giant zombie meat.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 18:49

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

From the wiki:

The following corpses provide a chance (given) of gaining poison resistance, and are not dangerous to eat:

code:

Monster			Probability
black unicorn 		27%
blue jelly 		13%
brown mold 		3%
cave spider 		7%
centipede 		13%
flesh golem 		12%
golden naga 		67%
golden naga hatchling 	20%
gray unicorn 		27%
guardian naga hatchling	20%
pyrolisk 		20%
quasit 			20%
quivering blob	 	33%
red mold 		3%
red naga 		20%
red naga hatchling 	10%
shrieker 		20%
white unicorn 		27%

I generally wait until I have a unihorn as well, but sometimes you get lucky with a shrieker or brown mold.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 19:05

tripwood: Jul 21, 2003; "Cuno can see you're trying to shit him, but Cuno's unshittable, so fuck does Cuno care?"

Hint: He doesn't care.

Don't forget cobras, which always give poison resistance. Very useful for melee classes!

# ? Mar 25, 2009 21:46

McNerd: Aug 28, 2007

tripwood posted:

Don't forget cobras, which always give poison resistance. Very useful for melee classes!

Very interesting, didn't know that. Still, just to clarify, you can still lose STR by eating them since the poison kicks in before the resistance starts, right? I can definitely imagine situations where I'd decide not to eat it, although in most cases it'd probably be worth it. Depends a lot on how high your STR already is.

McNerd fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Mar 25, 2009

# ? Mar 25, 2009 22:24

tripwood: Jul 21, 2003; "Cuno can see you're trying to shit him, but Cuno's unshittable, so fuck does Cuno care?"

Hint: He doesn't care.

A little loss is okay, just go push some rocks around and it'll come back up soon enough.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 22:30

angryblackguy: Mar 4, 2009; by The Finn

Speaking of food, is it just me or do monks and samurai find more food than every other class? Playing as a monk, I find tons of fruit and rations (and shops also seem to carry more food) while playing as a samurai I once picked up 10 gunyoki on the first floor of the gnome mines.

It's like "You kill the gnome lord. You see here 2 gunyoki. You kill the dwarf. You see here 3 gunyoki. You kill the cave spider. You see here 2 gunyoki." poo poo was ridiculous. It happened for three games; one monk and 2 samurai runs.

Then I play an elf wizard and I'm eating practically every corpse just to keep from getting hungry. I end up passing out on floor 7 and I had the detect food spell. Nothing for three floors.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 23:50

Vanadium: Jan 8, 2005

I do not know anything about probabilities to pick up food, but spellcasting does have a hunger penalty. :shobon:

# ? Mar 25, 2009 23:52

angryblackguy: Mar 4, 2009; by The Finn

Vanadium posted:

I do not know anything about probabilities to pick up food, but spellcasting does have a hunger penalty.

Did not know that. Still, no other class seems to find as much food as monk and samurai.

# ? Mar 25, 2009 23:58

Banannana: Aug 12, 2007; Are you my mummy?

Vanadium posted:

I do not know anything about probabilities to pick up food, but spellcasting does have a hunger penalty.

Unless you have 17 or higher intelligence, which is nice.

# ? Mar 26, 2009 00:01

Vanadium: Jan 8, 2005

MarionetteOwl posted:

Unless you have 17 or higher intelligence, which is nice.

I swear I knew that at some point of time!

# ? Mar 26, 2009 00:16

I am hella PEEVED: Oct 25, 2007; Welcome to Earth.

MarionetteOwl posted:

Unless you have 17 or higher intelligence, which is nice.

Only if you are a Wizard.

# ? Mar 26, 2009 01:26

Tyshalob: Apr 10, 2008; om nom nom i eat ur town

This local game Wizard is doomed to failure. First sacrifice I get Magicbane, and then two sacrifices later I get Orcrist (which is pretty useless but whatever). :shobon:

edit: Yep. One floor down and a dip results in snakes and the fountain didn't dry. Death by snake.

Tyshalob fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Mar 26, 2009

# ? Mar 26, 2009 22:35

Greybone: May 25, 2003; Not the red cross.

This was weird: I was exploring one of the long corridors in the castle, where out of nowhere a death ray hits me. Luckily I had a cloak of MR

The weird part is that I kept walking up the corridor until I explored everything, without finding a wand of death, a black dragon, or anything else.

My only theory is that a soldier had the wand, fired it once on me, then quaffed a cursed potion of gain level? I've searched everywhere, and no explanation anywhere.

# ? Mar 26, 2009 23:15

bort: Mar 13, 2003

It could have been a cursed wand of death and exploded on the next zap.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 00:59

boo_radley: Dec 30, 2005; Politeness costs nothing

Picked this up again this week. I've had some of the shittiest luck imaginable so far. Best YASD so far: Me and my pet triggered opposite rolling boulder triggers, rolling over both of us twice in the same round.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 01:57

BARON BONGHITS: Jul 20, 2005; ahahaha tyeaa smoke weed lick a nigga fartjohnson chet etc blablab dmx guns are strong WOOF WOOF mameshibaaa~

Tyshalob posted:

This local game Wizard is doomed to failure. First sacrifice I get Magicbane, and then two sacrifices later I get Orcrist (which is pretty useless but whatever).

edit: Yep. One floor down and a dip results in snakes and the fountain didn't dry. Death by snake.

'Don't dip until snakes aint no thang' is a really good rule of thumb and definitely one to apply to any promising characters

# ? Mar 27, 2009 02:35

Vanadium: Jan 8, 2005

BARON BONGHITS posted:

'Don't dip until snakes aint no thang' is a really good rule of thumb and definitely one to apply to any promising characters

It is also the rule of thumb that ended up making me curse my only holy water and half of my armor. :smith:

# ? Mar 27, 2009 02:38

Tyshalob: Apr 10, 2008; om nom nom i eat ur town

BARON BONGHITS posted:

'Don't dip until snakes aint no thang' is a really good rule of thumb and definitely one to apply to any promising characters

I really wanted holy water to bless some things, and I was also hoping for a dip wish since things were going so well. :smith:

# ? Mar 27, 2009 02:55

boo_radley: Dec 30, 2005; Politeness costs nothing

BARON BONGHITS posted:

'Don't dip until snakes aint no thang' is a really good rule of thumb and definitely one to apply to any promising characters

I'm not gonna stop 'til I get my Excalibur oh god an incubus

# ? Mar 27, 2009 04:42

angryblackguy: Mar 4, 2009; by The Finn

How do you avoid water nymphs? One literally stole my entire set of armor off my loving back.

Where the hell do they go when they seduce you? Do they teleport away or are they just really speedy?

# ? Mar 27, 2009 05:11

Darth l33t: Jul 6, 2000

angryblackguy posted:

How do you avoid water nymphs? One literally stole my entire set of armor off my loving back.

Where the hell do they go when they seduce you? Do they teleport away or are they just really speedy?

Yes, they teleport.

Ranged attacks are the key, so get a set of daggers or something. Nymphs also respect Elbereth.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 05:12

Smash Daisaku: Jul 12, 2008; Last Bet $15 on Player 1
Odds 807.1:1 ($1)

Darth l33t posted:

Yes, they teleport.

Ranged attacks are the key, so get a set of daggers or something. Nymphs also respect Elbereth.

Another note is to try and avoid using force bolt or a striking wand. Breaking the mirror that they often carry is a not-so-good -2 luck, and that could hurt early on.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 05:17

Contra Duck: Nov 4, 2004; #1 DAD

angryblackguy posted:

How do you avoid water nymphs? One literally stole my entire set of armor off my loving back.

Where the hell do they go when they seduce you? Do they teleport away or are they just really speedy?

Nymphs are generated sleeping. If you don't go around kicking doors and chests they'll probably remain asleep.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 05:34

Rudger: Feb 20, 2006; i will mess you up

McNerd posted:

Do people actually find iceboxes useful? Aside from the goodies that spawn inside, I always thought they were up there with the grappling hook and iron chain, as worthless items went.

I guess if you run across one in the early game when starving could actually be an issue, but I've never seen this happen. Are you actually carting fire giant corpses to an icebox? It'd make a good c corpse storage facility, I suppose I can understand that, but what other use are the drat things?

The answer is yes. I love eating tins of giant zombie meat.

Can't you icebox corpses to sacrifice them? I thought holding a corpse goes bad after a certain amount of steps.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 06:27

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

Nethack Wiki on ice boxes.

Short answer: yes. Ice boxes stop all aging, which means iced corpses remain good to sacrifice (as long as you get them into the box fast enough).

That said, it's generally easier to kill things near the altar than it is to kill them far away from the altar, box them, drag them back to the altar, and sacrifice them.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 07:59

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Did NAO recently make a change with bones files? My past few games have all hit multiple bones files, often with a few ghosts each. Am I just imagining things?

# ? Mar 27, 2009 17:40

Ham Pants: Apr 22, 2008; "HEADS! I eat a big ham sandwiche! TAILS! I work out!"
HamPants, HamPants the movie, 2009

JawnV6 posted:

Did NAO recently make a change with bones files? My past few games have all hit multiple bones files, often with a few ghosts each. Am I just imagining things?

Could be that you're just racking up lost lives?

I just hit my 100th death this morning

# ? Mar 27, 2009 18:17

McNerd: Aug 28, 2007

ToxicFrog posted:

Nethack Wiki on ice boxes.

Heh. I love that they can spawn with something inside that's too heavy to remove in any way, or to allow the icebox to be moved.

quote:

That said, it's generally easier to kill things near the altar than it is to kill them far away from the altar, box them, drag them back to the altar, and sacrifice them.

This is exactly the problem. Even an empty icebox weighs a ton; almost nothing you can do with a corpse is worth that hassle, especially since having to get the corpse to the icebox quickly means keeping it near you all the time. Admittedly I'm lazy about keeping proper stashes of any kind; I hate hauling chests between floors, and I usually just deal with weight management issues instead. Maybe if you don't mind that sort of thing, an icebox isn't much worse?

McNerd fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Mar 27, 2009

# ? Mar 27, 2009 18:33

Tyshalob: Apr 10, 2008; om nom nom i eat ur town

JawnV6 posted:

Did NAO recently make a change with bones files? My past few games have all hit multiple bones files, often with a few ghosts each. Am I just imagining things?

It's possible to have a bones level where the previous player was also on a bones level and died.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 19:00

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# ? May 14, 2024 08:55

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Tyshalob posted:

It's possible to have a bones level where the previous player was also on a bones level and died.

I know that, I'm not saying that's odd. I'm saying that going through the mines and hitting 3 bones levels in two consecutive games is strange.

# ? Mar 27, 2009 19:10

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