The Air Elemental FAQ List

By David Goldfarb
HTML Conversion by Kate Nepveu

Last Updated April 23, 2002.

1. What are air elementals? Why are they so dangerous?

   Air elementals are animated embodiments of the element air. They engulf unwary adventurers and pummel them with flying debris. Nethack 3.3.0 introduced a new speed system; as a side effect of it, air elementals (which are naturally at the highest speed possible) get several attacks to an adventurer's one. Since they do a lot of damage, death can be fast. [Note: in version 3.4.0, the Dev Team has compensated for this somewhat by reducing the damage they do.]

2. Where do they show up?

   They can be randomly generated in the dungeon (where they can be quite deadly to early-middlegame characters); also a number of them are guaranteed to show up in the endgame on the Plane of Air. Ones in the dungeon typically have about 50 hit points; in the Plane of Air, about 150. (Of course, an adventurer in the endgame will be much better prepared to face them than one in the middlegame.)

3. Since they're so dangerous, can I genocide them?

   No. The game does not allow you to genocide any kind of elemental. Blessed-genocide of E only kills stalkers; not very worthwhile.

4. What can I do about them, then?

   They have no specific Achilles heel. However, there are several things you can do. Listed here roughly from least to most effective:

   • Slow them down with a wand or spell of slow monster.
   • Polymorph yourself into something too large to be engulfed. Monsters that are large enough include: any D (dragon or baby dragon); earth, air, fire, or water elemental; any H (giant humanoid), as well as giant zombie, giant mummy, ettin zombie, or ettin mummy; black, red, golden, or guardian naga; trapper; lurker above; any v (vortex).
   • Wear a ring of conflict to make them attack other monsters instead of you.
   • Zap a wand of opening, cast a spell of knock, or ring the blessed Bell of Opening to make them unengulf you. (Of course they may just re-engulf you right away.)
   • When engulfed, teleport yourself out, using any of various means. (Not allowed on the Plane of Air! Also, even in the main dungeons, you may not end up far enough away to do much good.)
   • Send them away before they engulf you, with a wand of teleportation or a spell of teleport away. [Note: in 3.4.0 you can now send them away even after they have engulfed you, making this a more effective option.]
   • Level teleport away, then come back when better prepared. (Not allowed on the Plane of Air!)
   • Have a really good AC (-40 or better) to reduce the damage taken. [With the elemental's attack doing less damage, in 3.4.0 this is now an even more effective tactic.]
   • Tame them with a scroll of taming or spell of charm monster. The tamed elementals will then attack the other monsters instead of you.
   • Zap them with a wand or spell of sleep to immobilize them and stop them from attacking. (The spell is usually more likely to work.)
   • Soften them up from a distance with ranged weapons and spells. (A level 30 character can cast magic missile at their class's minimum fail rate even if restricted in attack spells; and the missiles will average 56 damage.)
   • Have half damage reduction from the Orb of Fate or Master Key of Thievery.
   • Zap them with a wand or spell of polymorph. (Whatever they change into will probably be easier to deal with.)
   • Zap them with a wand of death or finger of death spell.

On the Plane of Air, where the air elementals are most numerous and dangerous, you can avoid encounters with a teleport trick. The plane itself (like all of the endgame) is a no-teleport level. But you can deliberately let a fog cloud, steam vortex, or energy vortex engulf you, and then zap a wand of teleport at it. It will teleport and take you along. You can't control the destination, but if you know where the portal is you can keep zapping till you end up near it. [Note: in 3.4.0 this no longer works -- the vortex will be teleported but you will not.]

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