# Hill orc

o hill orc 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Weapon 1d6

o hill orc 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Weapon 1d6

Base level

2

Base experience

22

Speed

9

Base AC

10

Base MR

0

Alignment

−4 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

2 (Quite rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1000

Nutritional value

200

Size

Medium

Resistances

None

Resistances conveyed

None

A hill orc:

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

 is omnivorous.

 is an orc.

 is strong.

 likes gold.
 likes gems.
 can pick up weapons and food.

 has infravision.
 can be seen through infravision.

 normally appears in large groups.

Reference

monst.c#line684

A hill orc, o, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is usually the second type of orcish monster encountered after the goblin.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Strategy
3 History
4 Origin
5 Variants

5.1 SLASH'EM
5.2 UnNetHack

6 Encyclopedia entry
7 References

Generation
Hill orcs almost always appear in large groups of 2-11 - the group will be smaller if some of them are generated peaceful. They frequently carry scimitars or orcish daggers, and wear orcish helms.[1] Some hill orcs may generate as peaceful towards orcish player characters.
In a game that has Orcish Town, large numbers of named hill orcs will appear around and within the town walls - other hill orcs can appear elsewhere in the Gnomish Mines and the main branch, carrying various looted items with them.[2][3]

Strategy
Hill orc numbers may be formidable and pose a problem for unprepared characters, but they are easy to defeat individually. Hill orcs usually mark one of the first instances where you will have to use crowd control strategies, such as drawing them into a corridor so that only one of them can attack you at a time. Be wary if any of them have scrolls or wands on hand.
Hill orcs make a decent source of food for a starting character, providing 200 nutrition; their corpses also make decent fodder for sacrifice if you can keep them close enough to an altar. Orcish characters lack penalties for cannibalism and stand to gain a lot more from same-race sacrifice, including maximizing Luck and summoning peaceful demon lords and foocubi. The Orcish Town altar in particular is a good candidate for player orcs to use - be sure to convert it with a non-orcish corpse first, though, as same-race sacrifice does not convert an unaligned altar and you will take a -2 Luck penalty.

History
The hill orc is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, where the various orcish monsters were first differentiated from each other.

Origin

Wikipedia has an article about:
Orc

The orcs in NetHack are derived from Dungeons &amp; Dragons, which in turn are based on their portrayal in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, six hill orcs generate in the halls of Grund's Stronghold.

UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, 20-24 hill orcs will appear on the fourth level of the Ruins of Moria.

Encyclopedia entry

Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous.  The average orc
is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested.  Not
needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
apparels.  Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
hordes.  They tend to live underground as well as above
ground (but they dislike sunlight).  Orcs can use all weapons,
tools and armors that are used by men.  Since they don't have
the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
hunting for them.  There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
use.

[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ] 

References

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 397

↑ src/mkmaze.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 740

↑ src/mkmaze.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 797