The TunnelHack Guide: Monsters

Monsters

This section describes the various creatures in the game, including unique
ones!

Monsters: Dwarf

Of the Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs variety. A mid-level creature, somewhat
dangerous if hostile (nerd aligned), doing 0-20 base physical damage. (Likely
more, as they have a good chance of starting with a weapon such as a pick axe,
one of best weapons in the game.) They have fairly low HP (20-30) however, so
they are not very difficult to deal with by the time you encounter them in
most cases.

Monsters: Oompa Loompa

A member of the pestilentially irritating race of dwarvish slaves owned by the
mad confectioner, Willie Wonka. Not of exceptionally notable physicals stats,
but it is an item user and usually starts with several good food items, which
tend to amplify its HP. Slightly jock aligned. Beware of the gum they carry.
They sing.

Monsters: Giant Toad

Low-level mundane creature. Not very notable. The corpse is poisonous, but it
has no special attack. Often found in cesspools. They are large.

Monsters: Fat Oompa Loompa

Like an Oompa Loompa, but more of it. Somewhat more dangerous.

Monsters: Parodic Dwarf

A bit more dangerous type of dwarf. Very similar to the ordinary dwarf with
respect to stats, but they are jock aligned and usually in a disordered mental
state do to substance abuse. Also tends to say crazy stuff at random. (Much of
what they say is amusing or nonsensical.)

Monsters: Candy Golem

We're not sure what the arms are made of.

A construct of candy and chocolate, animated by arcane energies. Usually
created by mad confectioners to do work in factories, as an alternative
to troublesome, unionized human workers. Fairly high HP (50), otherwise
moderate stats. Doesn't pick up items, can't level up, and does not eat.
It reisists chemical attack. It is of gigantic.

Monsters: Liberal Arts Student

(You start out as this creature if you choose Liberal Arts as your major. For
information about playing liberal arts students, see the character types
section; this is about them as NPCs.)
Neutrally aligned student, starts with items (but not very good ones) and uses
them. Mediocre physical stats, has moderate rate of regeneration, and will
chase you. Danger is low; despite their physical stats being a distinct
improvement over Science Students, they are much less frequently in possession
of dangerous textbooks, and seldom start with a good weapon. They also do not
exhibit horde behaviors of nerds and jocks, which makes them less likely to
kill players early on.

Monsters: Garbage Collector

COWER, BRIEF OBJECTS

Essentially a much more powerful varriant of the Debugger. It has more HP,
varrying from 140-220, and is very resistant to stunning and charming.
Although it does the same physical damage as the debugger, the garbage
collector is far more feared because of its special attack. It has a 25%
chance per turn of attempting this special attack, which is insta-death for
everyone except the player. It may also insta-kill the player, however, the
player has a chance to survive. This chance is based on the number of murders
the player has commited: a player who has never killed a human being will
always be protected, a player who has killed 9 or more will always face
Insta-Death.
Garbage collectors are neutrally aligned, along with debuggers; this is
considered a key advantage of the Liberal Arts Student. (Neither Debuggers nor
Garbage Collectors can be generated rabid/insane.)
The special attack is not usable by polymorphed players. Garbage collectors
resist polymorphing and do not level up.

Monsters: Greater Mind Flayer

High level monster, shares the special brain-eating (Insta-Death) attack of
the Mind Flayer but has substantially better stats.
(80-120 HP, for instance, and higher DX, which enhances its special attack's
chance of success.)
Generally, a nastier version of the Mind Flayer, handle with increased caution
but the same methods. Might be worth it to introduce it to an electric blast
from a wand.
Note that both kinds of mind flayers are nerd aligned, and have only the
normal chance of being rabid; this is useful for co-aligned players.
The special attack is player-usable, and the greater mind flayer can level up.
This makes it an attractive target for controlled polymorphing.

Monsters: Zergling

Mid-level creature that is not very threating when alone. It will chase you
and has excellent regeneration, but its solo power is limited by its low HP
and ST. The danger this neutrally aligned creature poses is in its special
attack, in which d4 additional zerglings of the same AI state as the summoning
zergling are created. The chance of it using this attack falls off as the room
becomes filled with zerglings, but because of their chase behavior, they can
propagate to dangerous numbers with disturbing frequency as you attempt to
retreat from them. They can hold weapons.

Monsters: Garden Gnome

You can tell he's a gnome because of the hat.

Nerd-aligned low-level creatures of varrying but moderate stats. They start
with items that can be very useful, especially in the early game, but have an
irritating tendency to teleport away when injured, thus denying you of your
prize. They can teleport intrinsically, or with the conical hats they are
often generated with. Gnomes can pose an unexpected threat by spawning (as
they occasionally do) with a wand, or wielding a magic cookie; It is advisable
to look at their inventories (with 'l') before attacking peaceful gnomes, if
you desire to do so. Gnomes use all kinds of items and are small in size.

Monsters: Champion

Dangerous high-level NPC, possibly the third hardest in the game. No
insta-kill, but does a lot of conventional damage and has VERY high HP from
his diet of chromatic cookies. High physical stats, including 26-28 ST. Uses
items and starts out with quite a number of good ones, including possibly a
wand or glowing sword. The champ is neutrally aligned and never insane, so you
can bypass him easily if you are co-aligned with him. He will chase you and
has great regeneration (1/2). Lots of XP and potential good items from killing
him, but likely not worth the risk of you can avoid him. (He is also human.)

Monsters: Code Monkey

Very irritating mid-level monster. Has enough HP to usually not nicely
die in one hit, and has an IN-draining special attack that it uses all too
regularly. The special attack removes 1-2 IN and 1-3 HP against most
creatures.
In of itself, these properties are not all that bad, however the Code Monkey
has the capacity to become VERY irritating by the other aspect of its special
attack: It can steal the special attacks of other creatures and use them. For
instance, if one attacked a garbage collector, it would posess the
instakilling special attack of that creature. Worse, the knowledge of the
attack will be propagated to all code monkeys everywhere. Code monkeys should
generally be killed quickly if hostile; they may have stolen a very nastly
special attack while you were not observing them. Code Monkeys will also pick
up and use items, and sometimes start with textbooks. The code monkey special
attack is player usable.

Monsters: Pikachu

It only sounds harmless.

Neutrally aligned peaceful mid-level monster with an elevated chance (25%) of
being rabid. It also posesses fast regeneration and starts with a random minor
food item. It is a scavenger and will eat corpses. Although agile (DX 20) it
has little health (15-25 HP) and does only 0-7 base physical damage. It is
notable mainly for its special attack, executed on 40% of qualifying turns, in
which it fires an electric blast at an enemy. The bolts do d10+10
armor-ignoring damage, although the target has a DX-based chance to avoid the
attack. If you polymorph into a Pikachu, you can use its thundershock attack.

Monsters: Tribble

You do better. :p

Essentially worthless monsters with little HP. Good food/practice for
pets early on. Tribbles are noteworthy only for their summon-help special
attack, which is not very common since tribbles only use it when attacking and
are generally peaceful or one-hit-killed. However, it is not as bounded (as the
zergling special attack is), thus a sort of tribble population explosion could
potentially occur. (Although it is vanishingly unlikely, reports from the field
indicate at least one instance of this ecological catastrophe.) Tribbles are
tiny.

Monsters: Mad Lab Tech

Your nemesis, the dreaded Zeius Magus (self proclaimed). The second most
difficult enemy in the game by most estimations. She has good physical stats,
high HP (250), and starts with a variety of good items (including lab coats,
flasks, etc.) She is always insane, so even if you are also neutrally aligned,
Zeius will be hostile. Zeius will chase you if you flee. Zeius is not
considered a human for murder purposes (she is an evil criminal trying to take
over the world, after all), but eating her is still a bit much and is counted
as canibalism.
The greatest danger the Mad Lab Tech presents is from her special
attack, which she will start using once her HP falls below 200, with
increasing frequency. This attack is chemically based (she throws hot acid on
you), and does 2d20 armor ignoring damage. In addition, it stuns you for d4
turns and reduces your strength by 1. Thus, chemical resistance is an absolute
must! If you resist chemicals from a lab coat, you will only take d20 damage,
and your armor will be subtracted from it. The lab coat will also protect you
from the stunning and stat drain. Being polymorphed into a pyrex elf will make
you totally immune to the attack, but this really isn't worth it unless you
polyed early on and have been leveling up as a pyrex elf to the point that you
have stats comparable to a normal character! Still, this fact is worth knowing,
if you can charm some pyrex elves for backup during the battle - they will
serve as a distraction that will not be stunned as most other
creatures would be. (Mad scientists and anything wearing a lab coat are
another possibility.) Interestingly, the nemesis herself is not immune to
chemical attack intrinsically, and although she usually starts with a lab coat
(and wears it), pyrex elves could theoretically use their spitting attack on
her sucessfully.
Be very careful when facing Zeius: she is hard to lose once woken up and
chasing you!
Also, it is possible for a wandering monster to wake her up, whereupon she
will start wandering the maze.
In addition to the obvious undesirable aspect of having
her suddenly drop in on you (or worse, walking into a room and being ambused
by her while not yet ready, especially if you are not ready because you
haven't found a lab coat), this also makes it a pain to find her to get your
artifact, and brings into play unpeasant possibiltes that could render your
game unwinnable. (E.g. Zeius is engulfed by a gelatinous cube, which digests
your artifact.)
Thus, try to keep her sleeping until you really want to fight her. The best
way is to avoid the southern branch as much as possible until you are ready
for her, as even if you stay out of the lab itself, a wandering/fleeing
monster could go in there and wake her up.
It is possible to controlled-polymorph into Zeius, although you will not get
her special attack, she can't level up, and she is polymorph resistant.

Monsters: Care Bear

Fairly weak monster, neutrally aligned although they have a 50% chance of
being rabid. They start with items and can use them, although they will not
pick up additional items or use items that require intelligence. They don't
leave corpses. They are fairly intelligent (26) and thus have some chance
to resist charming and other IN dependant attacks. Uses all kinds of items
and is small.

Monsters: Mind Flayer

Fairly dangerous creature, nerd aligned and intelligent. It does limited
physical damage and has moderate (40-56) HP; the danger comes from its attack
which can stun and cause Insta-Death (although it is fairly unlikely and has
a DX based chance to avoid death, meaning that high level characters are
generally safer and can fight it without excessive caution.)
The special attack is, naturally, brain-eating; In order to do this it must
latch all four of its tenticles onto the head of the victim in one turn.
The chance of a tenticle latching on is a straight randomized comparison
between the flayer's DX and the target's. If even one tenticle latches on, the
target will be stunned for one turn. (Being stunned does not affect the chance
to avoid having your brain eaten.) Mind flayers always attempt this special
attack in combat. It will chase you and starts with some items, possibly
including a knife. The special attack is player-usable.

Monsters: Mad Confectioner

The boss of the Chocolate Mines, he rules over his confectionary empire with
an iron fist and the assistance of the brutal slave-drivers that control his
legion of dwarvish slaves, called Oompa-Loompas.
Wonka has high HP, 150, very good stats, is jock-aligned, and has an elevated
chance of being a cyborg (taking his HP to 300, possibly.)
Wonka resists polymorphing and memory management, he will chase you, and uses
items. He does not level up, although you can polymorph into him.
He has a special attack that summons a small number of oompa-loompas.
Neither wonka nor the oompas are exceptionally dangerous, however they all
have some chance of having Blue Gum, which can be exceedingly dangerous unless
you have very high DX or are polymorphed into something polymorph-resistant.
It is thus best to finish off Wonka expiditiously. He drops an artifact, the
Brass Whistle, on his death. You can use it to free the oompa-loompas.

Monsters: Hobo

Low level monster of moderate danger to beginning characters. Co-aligned with
jocks, so they have less to worry about hobos (and are more able to deal with
them anyway when insane ones turn up.)
It is important to note that hobos are human; it is murder to kill them!
However, they usually flee easily enough, and are durable enough that low
level characters can typically attack them until they run away without
worrying about mistakenly killing them. If you want their stuff, weaken them,
and then let a pet, ahem, take care of the situation.
They do start off with items, but none are very good. Hobos have moderate HP
for their difficulty level, will chase you, and use items. Hobos have a
useless special attack that was made to test the special attack system - they
will compare you to rodentia. (This does nothing.) Hobos have low physical
stats and have the interesting feature of always being generated wandering
rather than sleeping - meaning that they may well have picked up good stuff.
Check their inventory before attacking peaceful hobos (if you choose to do
so), they may have glowing swords. (Hobos may also irritatingly take stuff
from your kills, kill and eat your pet, etc; these behaviors make them more
vexatious than their humble stats and low difficulty level would suggest at
first.)

Monsters: Computer Programmer

Possibly the most difficulty creature in the game. Nerd aligned (naturally),
but peaceful (thank goodness!) and vanishingly rare. (Although one programmer
is guaranteed - see the special room Programmer's Tower.) Starts with many good
items (possibly including an artifact!) and will make use of non-food items.
The programmer can teleport and is chemical resistant. Attacking the
programmer is a very bad idea, even for high-level characters, since he has a
50% chance per turn of using an undogeable Insta-Death attack. (Meaning that
your chances of surviving N turns with a hostile programmer in the room are
1/2^N at best - the programmer also does fairly high physical damage,
particularly if he starts with a good weapon. (Programmer + Sword of Nerfing =
PWN'D!)
The programmer is mainly useful for his other effects, which can be obtained
by talking to him. 25% of the time, the programmer will give you a message
that is a rough indicator of how many murders you have commited and how many
you can get away with: if he says "You are doomed", you have already exceeded
the number you could have gotten away with. "Do not forget the laws of the
surface world" means you can't get away with any more, but are currently safe,
and if he "watches you", you can get away with 1 or more murders.
Another 25% of the time, the programmer will just stare at you, unless you
have attacked non-hostile creatures, in which case the programmer has a chance
of becoming hostile. (Not desirable!) The chance is 0 if you have never
attacked a peaceful creature and 100% if the number of times you have attacked
peaceful creatures is greater than or equal to your experiance level.
Another 25% of the time, if you have ever canabalized a member of your own
species, the programmer will be irritated and turn you into a hamster. If you
haven't resorted to canibalism, murdered, or attacked a peaceful creature, the
programmer will grant you 10000 XP and usually a level up, then disapear.
(This is likely the most desirable outcome and a good reason to go on the
western branch after finding the boiler room - human enemies become somewhat
more common as you progress, and thus the occasional murder is harder to avoid.)
The final 25% of the time you talk to the programmer, he demand that you
"embrace the true path" (Computer Science). (If you are already a science
student, or otherwise nerd-aligned - e.g. polymorphed into a gnome - there is
no effect: the programmer just observes you.) If you agree to convert, you get
changed into a Science Student and your stats are rerolled. (This might be an
improvement if you were recently polymorphed into something lame like a
hamster, but is not generally a good thing.) If you refuse to convert, the
programmer becomes hostile and the exits of the current room are collapsed.
Unless you have a way to teleport, you are going to be dead in a few turns.
Your non-HP stats are also reduced to 1, making it difficult to use a
teleporting item. Under these circumstances it is likely best to accept the
programmer's terms. Angry programmers chase you.

Monsters: Physical Education Student

(You start out as this creature if you choose Physical Education as your major.
For information about playing Physical Education students, see the character
types section; this is about them as NPCs.)
Moderatly dangerous mid level creature. (Sometimes appears at low levels, so
watch out - jocks are much more dangerous when your level is low.) Poor mental
and good physical stats, chases, and has moderate regeneration (1/20). They
often start with a decent weapon, such as a baseball bat or knife. Their
tentency to congregate in locker rooms and ambush unsuspecting cross-aligned
players is a great contributor to their lethality; avoid locker rooms until
you are sure you are ready.

Monsters: Robot

One of many kinds of robot.

Robots are moderate-difficulty monsters; they have no special attacks and
start with no items. (They can pick up and use items, but do not eat.)
Their HP is not especially high (30), and they do 0-10 damage with their
physical attack. They always drop a metal slab on death. They are nerd
aligned. The fact that they do not eat (or drink!) represents a considerable
threat to polymorphing randomly. Robots cannot level up. They are large.

Monsters: Dog

Slightly stronger than a cat in terms of damage and HP, but slightly less
agile. Quite unremarkable. Both it and the cat have 1/10 regeneration.

Monsters: Science Student

(You start out as this creature if you choose Science as your major. For
information about playing science students, see the character types section;
this is about them as NPCs.)
Science students are obviously nerd aligned, have poor physical stats, and
have 1/25 regeneration. They will chase you, and use items. Not especially
threatening, although they frequently start with textbooks that can stun you,
particularly if you have low IN. (This can be devistating to low or even
medium level PE student PCs, in areas where nerds congregate, such as labs and
internet cafes.)

Monsters: Pyrex Elf

Irritating creatures of moderate difficulty. Often first encountered in
Laboratories. They use items and start with an assortment of broken glass,
flasks, and the like; they will throw chemicals from the flasks at enemies and
additionally have a iron-compound based spitting attack, used 60% of
qualifing turns, that will do d12 armor ignoring damage and may reduce
strength by d3 if the victim is not chemical resistant. (Pyrex elves
themselves are intrinsically chemical resistant; you can get this resistance
by wearing a lab coat - really a must have item since the nemesis has a VERY
dangerous chemical attack.) Pyrex elves, thankfully, have fairly low HP (20),
and do little (0-7 in theory, but almost always 5-12 in practice because of
their usually starting with and wielding a shard of glass) physical damage.
Pyrex elves have an elevated chance of being insane, and are guaranteed to
drop a shard of glass in leu of a corpse, for what it's worth. They're
neutrally aligned, not nerd aligned, as might be expected. (They are
mortal enemies of science students - they are taken from a bit of Yuba College
chemistry lab lore: the notional elves are sometimes blamed for soiling
glassware, messing up experiments, etc.)
The special attack of the pyrex elves is usable by the player if polymorphed.
Pyrex elves use items of all kinds.

Monsters: Hamster

Hamsters exist in a state of perpetual peril.

Weakest of Weak monsters. Utterly non-threatening in most cases, it will run
away if attacked and is peaceful (perhaps because it recognizes that it would
be squished like an insect if it attacked anyone). May start with some minor
food items in its cheek pouches.

Monsters: Gelatinous Cube

A gelatinous cube perched on a mantle of slime.

Neutrally aligned peaceful creature that eats items, even ones not edible to
other species. It has a large ammount of HP (300-400) and tends to resist
charming and stunning with textbooks. Gelatinous cubes are only rarely rabid
or cyborgs. They posess good regeneration (1/5), will eat corpses and other
items off the floor, and, if actually angered, they will chase you from room
to room. Gelatinous cubes start off with 8 random items (chosen from all
non-artifact items) engulfed in them, but they will usually digest these
before you would have a chance to kill them.
Gelatinous cubes have a pralyzing attack, which they perform on 50% of turns.
This stuns the victim for 3d6 turns, and has a 1 in 6 chance of engulfing and
digesting the victim (an Insta-Death), if not the player.
The special attack is not avaible to polymorphed players and the gelatinous
cube cannot level up.

Monsters: Furby

You can tell it's evil from the horns, see?

Furbies are low level creatures that are fairly unremarkable, although their
cryptic language may reveal disturbing facts about the apparently harmless
furballs. They are scavengers and can use items, though, which distinguishes
them from most creatures of similar difficulty level; any monster is dangerous
with a glowing sword. They drop a guaranteed fur scrap when killed, and are
neutrally aligned. Furbies how low HP (11-15) and other stats, and are able to
teleport (making them somewhat harder to kill for the fur). Furbies are small,
and although they wield and use items, they can't wear armor.

Monsters: Ancient Dragon

Draco Orientis

Dragons are high-level neutrally aligned creatures with very high HP,
intrinsic teleportation, no chance of being a cyborg, and very high stats
generally. They are _not_ peaceful, and should be considered fairly dangerous.
They are uncommon, however. When dragons die, they leave behind a Dragon Fang,
an uncommonly accurate and fairly powerful weapon. They are giant.

Monsters: Jedi Skunk

It's like a skunk, but with a lightsaber and stuff. Nerd-aligned, and of
high-moderate difficulty. It's weakness is its fairly low HP, but it is stil
lethal to the unprepared. Doesn't chase or pick up items. Used to be much more
dangerous, but it was nerfed somewhat and now appears less frequently and
usually only by the time you will be reasonably well-equiped to deal with it.
Since Jedi Skunks always start with glowing swords, they are a good source for
this item.
Still, do not underestimate it, because its special attack can trip an enemy
(stunning the enemy for a turn), steal items, and eject creatures from the
room. (It only uses this special ability 15% of turns, though, so don't worry
too much.)

Monsters: Feral Cat

Low level mundane creature. Fairly agile and has an elevated chance of being
rabid. It will chase you from room to room if hostile, and is a neutrally
aligned scavenger. Does 0-13 damage and has 1/10 regeneration.

Monsters: Fetid Blob

Resemblance to Jar Jar Binks was unintentional.

A disgusting amorphous blob of organic matter. Has low stats except for HP.
Fetid blobs congregate in cesspools, and are generally rare elsewhere. They
are often the result of tragic polymorphing accidents. They resist (further)
polymorphing and chemical attacks, are scavengers, regenerate HP fairly
quickly, and can be found with many kinds of items embedded in their purulent
flesh.

Monsters: Coach

Like a Physical Education Student, but more powerful. There is little else to
say; coaches can be insane or cyborgs, unlike regular jocks. They are also
somewhat smarter than their students are more resistant to stunning from
textbooks for that reason.