Food and hunger in NetHack 3.4

food-341.html Last edited 2003-03-09 for NetHack 3.4.1
Compiled for 3.2.2 by Kevin Hugo.
Updated for 3.4.1 by Dylan O'Donnell <psmith@spod-central.org>.
HTML Conversion by Kate Nepveu <knepveu@steelypips.org>.

Contents

Meat COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME
meatball $ 5 1 0 5 5 1
meat ring 5 1 0 5 5 1
meat stick 5 1 0 5 5 1
egg 9 1 85 80 80 1
tripe ration 15 10 140 200 20 2
huge chunk of meat 105 400 0 2000 5 20
corpse 5 vary 0 vary vary vary
Fruits and Vegetables COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME
kelp frond 6 1 0 30 30 1
eucalyptus leaf 6 1 3 30 30 1
clove of garlic 7 1 7 40 40 1
sprig of wolfsbane 7 1 7 40 40 1
apple 7 2 15 50 25 1
carrot 7 2 15 50 25 1
pear 7 2 10 50 25 1
banana 9 2 10 80 40 1
orange 9 2 10 80 40 1
melon 10 5 10 100 20 1
slime mold 17 5 75 250 50 1
People food COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME
fortune cookie 7 1 55 40 40 1
candy bar 10 2 13 100 50 1
cream pie 10 10 25 100 10 1
lump of royal jelly 15 2 0 200 100 1
pancake 15 2 25 200 100 2
C-ration 20 10 0 300 30 1
K-ration 25 10 0 400 40 1
cram ration 35 15 20 600 40 3
food ration (gunyoki) 45 20 380 800 40 5
lembas wafer 45 5 20 800 160 2
tin 5 10 75 vary vary vary

Comestibles are listed above by category, then by increasing nutrition. Japanese names of items are listed in parentheses (). The COST field denotes the base price of each item. WGT specifies the weight (100 zorkmids weighs 1).

Food comprises 20% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 15% in containers, 22% on the Rogue level, and 16% in hell. PROB is the relative probability of each subtype. Eggs not laid by you have a roughly 1/3 probability of hatching. Tins are 1/6 spinach and are 5% blessed, 90% uncursed, and 5% cursed. All other comestibles will be generated uncursed.

The nutrition of each item is listed under NUTR. The cost of all items are based on the nutrition by the formula COST = (NUTR / 20) +5, with fractions rounded off. Note that several previously archived spoilers did not correctly round their costs. The ratio of nutrition to weight is listed in the NUTR/WGT column; lembas wafers have the best ratio. The amount of time needed to completely eat an item is given under TIME.

Hunger and nutrition

(Adapted from the spoiler "food" by Bryan Butler and J. Ali Harlow.)

Each of the following conditions is checked on the turns shown; if it is the case, then you lose one more point of nutrition that turn. Rings and amulets cause additional hunger as shown; the only exception is a ring that can be charged but is at +0. A ring of slow digestion prevents base ordinary food consumption, but still causes ring hunger. You can therefore consume a maximum of 64 nutrition in 20 turns (if all of these conditions were met).

HOW OFTEN CAUSE
Each turn Ordinary food consumption, if carnivorous or herbivorous and not wearing a ring of slow digestion. When asleep, only about 10% as much is needed.
Odd turns Regeneration from anything other than an artifact.
Odd turns Encumbrance is stressed or worse.
Even turns Hunger intrinsic (e.g., from a ring).
Even turns Conflict from anything other than an artifact.
Turn 4 of 20 Ring worn on left hand (except a +0 ring).
Turn 8 of 20 Amulet worn.
Turn 12 of 20 Ring worn on right hand (except a +0 ring).
Turn 16 of 20 Carrying the Amulet of Yendor.

Naturally, eating some food will make you gain the amount of nutrition in the food. Your level of nutrition is described as follows:

2000 or more Death from choking (under certain circumstances)
1000 or more Satiated
150 to 999 Not hungry
50 to 149 Hungry
0 to 49 Weak
Below zero Fainting
Below (-200)-(20*CON) Death from starvation

Corpses

(Adapted from the spoiler "corpses", by Boudewijn Waijers and Peter Snelling.)

When a monster is killed, the probability of leaving a corpse depends on several factors:

PROB CONDITIONS
0% Killed by digestion or disintegration.
0% Killed by stoning (creates a statue instead).
0% Corpses are never generated on the Rogue level.
0% Golems leave objects instead of a corpse.
0% Some monsters never leave a corpse (e.g., Vlad, liches).
100% Lizards, monsters of large size or bigger.
100% The Riders and player-monsters on the Astral Plane.
1/2 Frequent monster that is not tiny
1/3 Monster appears infrequently or is tiny (but not both).
1/4 Monster both appears infrequently and is tiny.

There is a further reduction of the above chances for undead creatures that die on a graveyard level: by 1/9 if it was killed by you or by 1/3 if it was not killed by you (e.g., by a trap or another monster). This means that wraiths have a better chance of leaving a corpse if you lead them to a stairway and let them follow you to a non-graveyard level, a technique called "wraith luring". For this purpose, the Castle and all levels of the Priest Quest are considered graveyard levels, as is any level on which undead have been summoned by the cursed Book of the Dead or Bell of Opening.

The nutrition, weight, and time needed to eat corpses is determined by the type of monster. The blessed/cursed status of corpses adjusts how fast they become tainted; corpses on an ice surface age half as fast, corpses do not age while in iceboxes, and lizard and lichen corpses never become tainted (though they do become too old for sacrifice). Vampires, mummies and zombies leave corpses that are already considered old. Tainted corpses do not provide either nutrition or intrinsics.

(Adapted from a spoiler by Sascha Wostmann.)

You can acquire useful intrinsics by eating certain corpses or tins. The blessed/cursed status does not change the likelihood of getting an intrinsic. If the monster has more than one conferrable intrinsic, one is randomly picked, with equal probability among all possible. The CHANCE that the picked intrinsic is conferred varies among the different intrinsics; some are based on the level of the monster (LEV). If you get the intrinsic, you will get a MESSAGE (the second one if you are hallucinating).

INTRINSIC CHANCE MESSAGE
Fire resistance LEV/15 "You feel a momentary chill."
"You be chillin'."
Sleep resistance LEV/15 "You feel wide awake"
Cold resistance LEV/15 "You feel full of hot air"
Disintegration resistance LEV/15 "You feel very firm."
"You feel totally together, man."
Shock resistance LEV/15 "Your health currently feels amplified!"
"You feel grounded in reality."
Poison resistance LEV/15 "You feel healthy."
("You feel especially healthy." if you had previously acquired non-permanent poison resistance by other means.)
Note: 25% better chance if killer bee or scorpion.
Teleport LEV/10 "You feel very jumpy."
"You feel diffuse."
Teleport control LEV/12 "You feel in control of yourself."
"You feel centered in your personal space."
Telepathy 100% "You feel a strange mental acuity."
"You feel in touch with the cosmos."

Some corpses or tins have additional effects:

:bjDFNP If you eat a lizard or any acidic monster, a possible stoning process is stopped.

"You feel limber" (non-hallucinating)
"What a pity - you just ruined a future piece of art!" (hallucinating with charisma <= 15)
"What a pity - you just ruined a future piece of fine art!" (hallucinating with charisma > 15)

: Eating a lizard has the supplemental effect of reducing stunning or confusion timeouts to 2 turns, if higher.
: Eating a newt ("eye of newt") may cause you to gain 1 to 3 energy (2/3 chance, always if at two-thirds maximum energy or below). If this would take you above your maximum energy, there is a 1/3 chance that your maximum energy will be increased by one.

"You feel a mild buzz."

:@ Eating a chameleon or doppelganger makes you polymorph once. (Eating doppelgangers may also be considered cannibalism if you are human.)
h a (master) mind flayer has a 50% chance of increasing your INT by one. Otherwise, it confers telepathy.
m Eating a mimic makes you mimic a pile of gold (or, if hallucinating, an orange) for some turns, unless you have unchanging. The larger the mimic the longer you imitate. During this time, you are shown as a $-sign or %-sign. If you are attacked, you revert to your previous form.
yB Eating a bat will make you stunned for 30 (more) turns, or 60 (more) turns for a giant bat. In theory, this also holds for yellow lights (but they don't leave corpses in recent versions).
E When you eat a stalker's corpse and you are not invisible, you'll become invisible for 50 to 149 turns. If you're already invisible, you become permanently invisible and get the "see invisible" intrinsic. In both cases, you are stunned for 60 (more) turns.
F@ If the monster has a stun or hallucination attack or is a violet fungus, you get hallucination for (another) 200 turns.
H Eating a giant, stone giant, hill giant, fire giant, frost giant, storm giant, or Lord Surtur will increase your strength. If you had less than 18 strength, then you have a 19/24 chance of gaining one point, or a 1/24 chance each of gaining 2 to 6 points. If you had 18 strength or more, then you gain 1 to 10 points (equally likely), or just one point if you had strength 18/85 or more, up to 18/** (or your racial maximum if lower).
P Eating a green slime's corpse (unless polymorphed into a green slime, a salamander, or a fire vortex or elemental; or you have unchanging or were being slimed already) will slime you to death in 10 turns.
Q A quantum mechanic's corpse makes you toggle your speed. If you were not currently fast, you'll get fast; otherwise, you lose the speed.
W Eating a wraith's corpse lets you gain a level (unless the corpse is rotten and rots away completely).
df If you eat any of little dog, dog, large dog, kitten, housecat, or large cat, you'll get the intrinsic "aggravate monster" unless you are a Caveman or an orc.

"You feel that eating the <monster> was a bad idea."

c@ If you eat a cockatrice, chickatrice or Medusa's corpse and you are neither stoning resistant nor are you polymorphed into a golem, you'll be instantly killed by stoning.
@hGK Eating something of your own species (Kops are human) is considered cannibalism unless you are a Caveman or an orc. You get the intrinsic "aggravate monster" and lose 2 to 5 luck.
@ Eating a were-creature makes you a lycanthrope of the same kind and may be considered cannibalism if you are human.
@ Eating a nurse heals you up to max hitpoints and may be considered cannibalism if you are human.
& Eating Death, Pestilence or Famine is instantly fatal.

Tins

(Adapted from a spoiler by Sascha Wostmann.)

You get up to 50 moves to open a tin; otherwise, you give up. If you are wielding a tin opener, it takes one turn; any dagger or crysknife, 3 turns; or a pick-axe or axe, 6 turns. Failing this, if you have greasy fingers the tin will be dropped (if carried), otherwise it will take 10+d(500/(DEX+STR)) turns to open (18/xx strengths being mapped to the range 19-21). Blessed tins "open like magic" in one turn. Cursed tins have a 1/8 chance of exploding and will always contain rotten food, so they won't give any nutrition but will make you even more hungry.

Tins made by you with a tinning kit are always homemade if not cursed. All other tins are one of these fifteen possibilities: pureed (500), deep fried (60), homemade (50), pickled (40), soup (20), stir fried (80), candied (100), boiled (50), dried (55), szechuan (70), french fried (40), sauteed (95), broiled (80), smoked (50), or rotten (-50). The number in the parentheses is the nutrition value of each. You cannot tell in advance what type a given tin is.

When you eat deep fried or french fried food, you get slippery fingers for up to 15 rounds, making you drop your wielded weapon. You can shorten the time by (a)pplying a towel. Don't forget to pick your weapon up again.

You can obtain intrinsics from eating tins, with the same chance that you would have from eating the monster's corpse. Note that the chance of getting an intrinsic does not change if the tin is blessed or cursed.

One of the most useful tins is the tin of spinach. If the tin is cursed, you lose strength equivalent to eating a giant corpse. Otherwise, eating the spinach "makes you feel like Popeye" (or Swee'pea while hallucinating) and gives you more strength equivalent to a giant corpse. Tins of spinach have a nutrition of 600.

Other food

(Adapted from a spoiler by Sascha Wostmann.)

Eating a spring of wolfsbane cures lycanthropy.

A carrot cures blindness. Ever seen a rabbit with glasses? (It won't help with being creamed or envenomed, though.)

Eating a fortune cookie gives you a rumor. You can also just (r)ead it without eating the cookie. The rumour is from the true file if the cookie is blessed, the false file if cursed, or either if uncursed.

Eating a lump of royal jelly increases (decreases if cursed) your strength by one. If the jelly was cursed, you lose up to 20 hit points, otherwise you gain up to 20 HP and your wounded legs heal. If your actual HP would become higher than your maximum HP, there is a 1/17 chance of increasing your maximum HP by one.

Eating a cockatrice egg is a real bad idea if you're not polymorphed into something that resists stoning. However, they are very useful when thrown at monsters.

Eating green slime is also an extremely bad idea unless you're polymorphed into something fiery or a slime yourself (or have unchanging).

Eating a eucalyptus leaf cures sickness or vomiting. They can also be a)pplied to give the effect of a tin whistle (cursed or uncursed) or a magic whistle (blessed; this has a 1/49 chance of unblessing the leaf).

Eating tripe may make you vomit (50% chance) unless you are a Caveman or an orc, or polymorphed into a carnivorous non-humanoid.

In addition to eating them, cream pies may be thrown to blind their target, or you can a)pply one directly to blind yourself.

Eating objects

(Adapted from a spoiler by Sascha Wostmann.)

There are some conditions before you can eat an object. If you are polymorphed into a metallivore (rock mole, rust monster, or xorn), you may eat objects made of metal.

If you are polymorphed into a gelatinous cube, the object is organic, and the object doesn't contain other objects, you may eat it. This is different for real gelatinous cubes, which can eat a container and hold the non-organic contents of that container engulfed. So when such a beasty eats your chest with all the artifacts, you may find them on its corpse.

You can never eat Unique Items such as the Amulet or the invocation artifacts.

Eating something that isn't actually food always takes only one move. The code addresses this issue by stating, "[We don't want] to deal with partly eaten plate mails, players who polymorph back to human in the middle of their metallic meal, etc...."

Eating rings has a 1/3 chance of conferring the intrinsic of the ring. Eating amulets has a 1/5 chance of having an effect. Not all intrinsics can be acquired this way. See the spoilers "amul-341.html" and "ring-341.html".

When you eat a leash with a monster on the other side, this monster gets unleashed.

If you eat the iron ball or the chain while you are punished, the punishment is gone. If you eat the chain, the ball is still available to use as a weapon or to throw.

When you try to eat something rustproof while being polymorphed into a rust monster, you spit it out non-rustproof and get stunned a few rounds.

Eating a poisoned weapon has the same effect as eating poisonous corpses. You get poisoned if you're not resistant.

Eating a non-cursed trident exercises wisdom. (This is apparently a US-centric pun having something to do with a brand of chewing gum.) "That was pure chewing satisfaction!"

Eating a non-cursed flint stone exercises constitution. "Yabba-dabba delicious!" (Note however that there are no monsters capable of eating flint stones in the present version.)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Bruce Cox for proofreading the original version of this file.
Further corrections and clarifications by Kieron Dunbar, Stephen S. Lee, Topi Linkala, Jim Monk, Rast, Ryan Murray, Robert R. Schneck, StarChaser, and Mike Stevenson.


Up to the NetHack Page