Cockatrice spoiler

Compiled by David Corbett for NetHack 3.4.2.
Last updated for 3.4.3 on 9 February, 2004.
Corrections, suggestions, additions, etc. welcome.
"Behold the cockatrice, whose diminutive stature belies its hidden might. The cockatrice can petrify any ordinary being it contacts--save those wise adventurers who eat a dead lizard or blob of acid when they feel themselves slowly turning to stone."

This spoiler lists the ways a cockatrice can kill you, and what you can do about it. (Except where otherwise stated, "cockatrice" refers to both cockatrices and chickatrices, the baby form of cockatrices.)

Contents

I. Ways to be petrified by a cockatrice corpse:

(All methods are instantly fatal unless noted)

Wearing an amulet of life saving will save you if you are petrified.

(1) Get hit by a monster wielding it (delayed death)
(2) Eat it

Without wearing gloves:

(3) Pick it up

(4) Put it into or take it out of a container
(5) Try to throw or fire it
(6) Wield it
(7) Snag it (with a bullwhip or grappling hook)
(8) Steal it (e.g., polymorphed into a nymph)
(9) Sacrifice it (yes, even if it's on the altar)
(10) Tin it

Without wearing gloves, and while blind:

(11) Step on to the square containing it
(12) Cease levitating over it
(13) Look ':' at the square containing it

Without wearing a helmet:

(14) Throw it upwards

Without wearing boots:

(15) Kick it

Wearing gloves and wielding the corpse:

(16) Go down stairs while burdened or worse
(17) Go down stairs while fumbling (boots or gloves)
(18) Go down stairs while punished

(19) Fall down a pit, hole or trapdoor

(20) Fall into a chasm (pit) created by a drum of earthquake

(21) Fall onto a sink while levitating
(22) Lose your gloves to disintegration by a scroll of destroy armor
(23) Lose your gloves to overenchantment (or underenchantment) by a scroll of enchant armor

(24) Lose your gloves to the monster spell Destroy Armor

(25) Take off your gloves

(26) Have your gloves taken off by an incubus or succubus

Without wearing gloves and wielding the corpse, while stoning-resistant:

(27) Change to a non-stoning-resistant form

II. Ways to be petrified by a live cockatrice:

(28) Attack (strike, touch or claw) it with bare, ungloved hands
(29) Attack it with ungloved hands, wielding a potion
(30) Attack it in monster-form: bite, butt, grab (or brush against), hug or sting
(31) Suck its brain with tentacles (as mind flayer or master mind flayer)
(32) Swallow it whole (as trapper, lurker above, or purple worm)
(33) Kick it without wearing boots (as a monster attack or as a command)

(34) Without gloves, attempt to saddle it
(35) Attempt to untrap it from a pit without gloves

(36) Hear its hissing (delayed death - see 1)

(37) Get reduced to zero HP by its attacks

III. Other cockatrice-related ways to be petrified:

(38) Eat a tin of cockatrice meat (see 2)
(39) Eat a cockatrice egg (delayed death - see 1, 2)
(40) Get hit by a thrown cockatrice egg
(41) Without a helmet, throw a cockatrice egg in the air
(42) Without gloves, smash a potion of polymorph over a monster, turning it into a cockatrice

IV. Stoning Resistance:

You become stoning-resistant by polymorphing into:

Note: getting petrified as a golem turns you into a stone golem, unless they've been extincted.

Other stoning-resistant creatures:

V. Miscellaneous cockatrice information:

Delayed deaths:

Fun with rubber chickens:

As you would have guessed, cockatrice corpses are potent weapons. Hitting a monster with it will stone it, unless it is stoning resistant or immediately eats lizard meat or something acidic.

If you stone a monster while it has engulfed you, you "jump through an opening in the new statue" of the monster.

Corpse generation:

Chickatrices leave corpses 25% of the time, cockatrices 50% of the time. They're subject to the same rotting as most corpses. You won't be able to wish for a corpse if they've been genocided.

Cockatrice eggs:

Cockatrice eggs can be used to stone monsters (see 40). If you wield one, you'll (better) hit your target. If you throw it, you may miss. You should only wield one at a time - if you hit, all the eggs you wield will break. If you laid the egg yourself, there is a -1 penalty to luck for breaking it.

You can lay cockatrice eggs by polymorphing into a female (adult) cockatrice and using the #sit command. Cockatrice eggs may also be randomly generated on any level that cockatrices can be. Chickatrices will hatch from cockatrice eggs, if they haven't been genocided. Cockatrice eggs can still be wished for, even after genociding or extincting cockatrices/chickatrices. They will still stone, but they won't hatch.

Cockatrice generation:

Chickatrices are 'very rare' monsters, with difficulty 7. They have a 1/2 chance of being generated in small (2 to 4) groups. Cockatrices are 'common' monsters, with difficulty 8.

Cockatrices (but not chickatrices) may be summoned as part of the 'summon nasties' monster spell. They may be summoned even if 120 have already be generated (i.e. they are considered to be 'extinct'.)

Cockatrice nests may be generated in rooms on dungeon level 17 or lower. The room will be filled with sleeping cockatrices (not chickatrices). The nests do not respect extinction.

Genociding class 'c' wipes out all chickatrices, cockatrices, and pyrolisks. This will prevent them being generated by any means.

VI. Other ways to die:

For the sake of completeness, here are the ways to be killed involving a cockatrice that don't involve petrification:

While in a stoning-resistant form and wearing an amulet of unchanging:

Get reduced to zero HP by:

While in a stoning-resistant, breathing form:

While in a stoning-resistant form other than a green mold:

VII. Monsters able to wield cockatrice corpses:

VIII. Acknowledgements:

Contributions and corrections from Dayv!, Andreas Dorn, Wes Irby, Arien Malec, nyra, Dylan O'Donnell, Quietust, Rast, Haakon Studebaker and others on r.g.r.n.

References:

Dylan O'Donnell's spoilers
Trevor Powell's insta-death spoiler
Ray Chason's Incubus and Succubus spoiler
Hojita Discordia's Extinctionist FAQ

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