# Dark One

@ Dark One 

Difficulty

20

Attacks

Weapon 1d6, Weapon 1d6, claw 1d4 quest-artifact-stealing, spell-casting

@ Dark One 

Difficulty

20

Attacks

Weapon 1d6, Weapon 1d6, claw 1d4 quest-artifact-stealing, spell-casting

Base level

15

Base experience

498

Speed

12

Base AC

0

Base MR

80

Alignment

-10 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

Unique

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

Medium

Resistances

Stoning

Resistances conveyed

None

The Dark One:

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is a human.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can follow you to other levels.
 is nasty.
 is strong.

 can pick up weapons and food.
 can pick up magical items.

 wants your quest artifact.
 waits for you to come.

 can be seen through infravision.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

monst.c#line3321

The Dark One, @, is the Wizard quest nemesis. He guards the Bell of Opening and the Wizard quest artifact, The Eye of the Aethiopica.

Contents

1 Strategy
2 History
3 Origin
4 Variants

4.1 UnNetHack
4.2 xNetHack

5 Encyclopedia entry

Strategy
The Dark One is widely considered to be one of the easiest nemeses to defeat: Many of his spells will be ineffective against a Wizard with magic resistance, e.g. from their starting cloak of magic resistance or Magicbane, their first sacrifice gift. Although wearing The Eye of the Aethiopica congers magic resistance, monsters will not wear amulets of ESP, so you are free to use wands of death or the finger of death spell on him. However, his high monster MR makes him likely to resist other effects such as sleep rays or polymorph beams.
Like most covetous monsters, The Dark One should be fought from the upstairs, but preventing him from doing so can be a bit difficult without a means of controlled teleporting. A scroll of earth can be very useful in that case - read it after you get to this level and move one boulder onto the stairs. Another possibility is to teleport and take his place on the upstairs.
If generated at level 16 or higher, the Dark One will be able to summon nasties, so if this is likely have a plan for crowd control or even escape ready.

History
The Dark One first appears with most other quest nemeses in NetHack 3.1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, as well as variants based on those versions, carrying The Eye of the Aethiopica was enough to grant magic resistance; this makes magic missile and the finger of death (or wand of death) completely ineffective against him.
The Dark One in these versions tends to place greater priority on healing than picking up the artifact, so a Wizard that can approach him stealthily or else teleport directly in line with him and use a wand or finger of death, disposing of him without a fight. Wizards lacking either option can instead hit him hard (e.g. with a rebounded magic missile spell), forcing him to warp to the upstairs and leaving The Eye of the Aethiopica free for them to take. The Dark One can then be disposed of at their leisure, with one option to prevent him stealing back The Eye being to stash it in a bag.

Origin
The encyclopedia entry implies that the Dark One is an avatar of Sauron, the chief antagonist of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Variants
UnNetHack
UnNetHack also changes the Dark One's name to Anaraxis the Black, though it does not give him any additional items.

xNetHack
xNetHack changes the name of the Dark One to Anaraxis the Black and gives him his own cloak of magic resistance.

Encyclopedia entry

... But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might
avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the
world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and
he gathered again under his government all the evil things of
the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it,
and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies.
Thus the Black Years began ...

[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ] 