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» (0) Quickstart
» (1) Introduction
» (2) Installation & setup
» (3) Creating a character & starting to play
» (4) The world
» (5) Item and flag details, elements
» (6) Monster details
» (6.1a) Normal, boss & unique monsters and how they spawn
» (7) Character details
» (8) Tactics & strategy
» (9) Miscellanous

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(6.1) Monsters
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(6.2) Monster flags
(6.1a) Normal, boss & unique monsters and how they spawn                        
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Generation-time monster creation:
---------------------------------
When a player enters a dungeon (or tower) floor and causes it to be generated,
monsters will be spawned on it depending on the floor level (also called
'depth') and the player.

In general, a dungeon floor of level N will randomly get monsters placed on it
ranging in r-level from 1 up to N. (Level 0 monsters are for Bree town only.)

This means that if you are looking for say a level 20 monster the highest
probability to find it is at a dungeon floor of level 20. You could also go to
a floor of level 25 for example, but then the total pool of easily eligible
monsters is diluted a bit more from the addition of the level 21-25 monsters.

World map sectors also work this way. Their levels depend on the level of the
closest town sector and their distance to that town.

However, 'Out of Depth' spawns are possible: A monster can, albeit rarely,
occur on a dungeon floor that is way lower level than the monster. This can be
pretty dangerous and will be indicated to the player by a yellow floor feeling,
also see (4.8).

Unique monsters (named monsters, eg "Lagduf, the Snaga") may also spawn on the
dungeon floor if the player 'generating' it has not yet killed that particular
unique monster already.

Dungeon bosses are unique monsters too, but they can only be generated on the
final floor of their respective dungeon. They are displayed in yellow colour
in the uniques list in the knowledge menu (3~).

All monsters have their own 'rarity' parameter, which specifies how often
a monster spawns. This becomes especially noticable when you are going for a
dungeon boss that has a rarity above 'common': It might take several attempts
at generating the final dungeon floor until you see him spawn.
The rarity also affects mimics a lot that are going form-hunting, as rare
monsters are harder to find and therefore take longer to learn their form.
The rarity is listed in ~7 and in the r_info spoiler file in ~l.

Lastly, worldmap terrain and dungeon types (see d_info spoiler file via ~ld)
also determine the type of monster that may spawn, and/or modify the rarity of
certain monster classes. For example..
 - the Orc Caves spawn a lot of orcs, much more in relation to other monsters
   than other dungeons.
 - Ocean on the worldmap spawns aquatic creatures but no land-based critters.
 - The Cloud Planes allow only monsters that at least resist cold and don't
   allow hounds, undead, demons, jelly, mold or breeders to spawn.


Live-spawn monster creation:
----------------------------
Aside from this monster spawning at level generation time, monsters can also
spawn 'live', ie while the player is already on the dungeon level and doing
stuff. This can sometimes be dangerous if the player doesn't notice it and the
monster is a nasty one.

Restrictions apply to live-spawning though:
 - The game boss, Morgoth, as well as any dungeon bosses cannot live-spawn.
 - There are no live-spawns (except for breeders and summons) in the special
   dungeon 'Ironman Deep Dive Challenge' (IDDC).
 - Darklings and Candlebearers (for Maiar) cannot live-spawn.
 - Unmakers cannot live-spawn (except for already existing ones multiplying).
 - Live-spawns do not cause or alter a dungeon floor feeling!
 - Bloodletters of Khorne will not live-spawn (or get summoned) in groups,
   only one by one. (Because the danger of k.o. is deemed too high.)
 - The event monster 'The Great Pumpkin' cannot live-spawn.
 - Monsters can't act for a random, very short amount of 'wind-up' time
   (between 0 and up to 2/3s real-time on Nether Realm floors).
   This also happens for summons except summons done by a player.
   This makes spawns and monster-summons less deadly.
Also note that at level generation time, monsters cannot spawn on staircases,
but live-spawns can spawn on staircases.


Unique monsters:
----------------
Once the player kills a unique (named) monster, he will never generate it again
and the only way to actually meet it again is to have another player, who
hasn't killed it yet, generate a dungeon level and hope for the particular
unique to spawn on it.

However, most unique monsters are eligible for auto-revivification once the
player character obtains the WINNER status, by killing the game boss, Morgoth.
See further below about uniques reviving for winners.

Note that the game boss, Morgoth, cannot be encountered by players who haven't
killed Sauron yet or who currently possess the winner status, ie royal title
and purple name.
Even if you attempt to have someone else generate the dungeon floor and Morgoth
on it, you will be unable to go there and meet him!

The same is true for the seasonal event mob 'The Great Pumpkin', for players
not meeting the required level restrictions. (See 'Seasonal Events' in (4.13)).

There is a special way for everlasting or normal characters who have already
killed Morgoth but then died and thereby lost their royal status, to encounter
Morgoth once more without help from another player, for a chance to regain
their winner status. For details see chapter (4.5a) under 'The Mirror' on how
to change your fate to enable you to 'solo re-king'.


Monsters being summoned:
------------------------
Monsters (and players) can summon monsters of higher level than themselves.
The summoning levels will be random though and the summoned monsters could also
end up of lower level instead.

The same restrictions as for live-spawns listed above apply to summons as well,
with the exception of summoning in the IDDC, which is allowed.
Especially important, the 'wind-up' time for monsters getting summoned by other
monsters applies, same as for live-spawns (see Live-spawn rules above).

Note that monsters summoning other monsters will cause the summons to give less
and less experience until they are 100% clones that do not yield any XP or loot
anymore. So you can 'farm' summons for a while, but not endlessly.

There are also special types of induced live-spawns that do not get summoned by
the normal summoning mechanics and therefore do not count as 'summons' but are
rather spawned as a result of another monster getting killed.
Two very prominent examples are:
 - Killing a pink horror spawns blue horrors.
 - Killing a warrior of the dawn may spawn more warriors of the dawn.


Dead uniques reviving again for winner characters:
--------------------------------------------------
A player that has beaten the game boss, Morgoth, and hasn't died since so he
still carries the royal title and purple name will randomly get dead unique
monsters he killed before revived back to life by the game, so he can kill
them over and over again. Each time he kills them they may randomly revive
again for him at a later time.
If that happens he sees a message "Xyz rises from the dead!" in violet colour.

This check happens once per minute for each eligible (ie winner) player.
The check actually picks a random unique monster that belongs to the pool of
respawn-eligible uniques and then checks if the player already killed it.

If he killed it the game will roll dice against a 'resurrection chance' which
is lower the higher level a monster is, so low-level monsters will resurrect
faster than high-level monsters. If the monster passes the roll it will get
resurrected!
If the monster doesn't pass the roll or if it wasn't actually dead for the
player but currently alive for him then nothing will happen this time.
You can check which uniques you have currently killed or not in the knowledge
menu (~3 key).

This means that the more dead uniques you have the more likely each minute one
of them will revive. On the other hand since one unique is picked randomly each
time independantly of whether it is actually dead or alive to the player, it is
not possible to cause a particular unique to respawn slower or faster (eg by
killing or not killing other uniques). The chance PER UNIQUE will always be the
same over the same amount of time.

This revive-spawning is on hold while the player is in town or in the town area
(the housing zones surrounding each town), so uniques will not respawn until
the player leaves the town area and travels the world map or ventures into a
dungeon/tower.

Some unique monsters are not eligible for revivification, so once the player
kills them he will never generate them again and the only way to actually meet
them again is to have another player, who hasn't killed them yet, generate a
dungeon level and hope for them to spawn on it:
 - The monster level (r-level) must be lower than 98,
   so the game bosses like Sauron and Morgoth also never revive.
 - The Shadow of Dol Guldur never revives (as it is Sauron in disguise!)
 - Nazgul never revive.
 - Dungeon bosses never revive.

(See exceptions for the game boss Morgoth and for the seasonal event
monster 'The Great Pumpkin' explained further above, which cannot be
generated for you by another player if you don't meet the requirements.)
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(6.1) Monsters
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(6.2) Monster flags