# Mindless

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Please confirm or debunk that mindless monsters with items in their inventory will (sometimes?) drop them (steal.c#line587), and that they may not equip armor (worn.c#line372)."

A mindless monster does not have a mind. Mindlessness is identified by the macro mindless(ptr),[1] which checks for the flag M1_MINDLESS in monst.c.
Take heed to discern between mindless monsters and brainlessness, a state attainable by unfortunate players not keeping their distance from mind flayers.

Effects
Mindless monsters cannot be detected by telepathy.[2] They are also unaffected by the brain-eating attacks of mind flayers.[3][4] This protection does not extend to players polymorphed into normally mindless forms—"no such thing as mindless players". Mindless monsters that are also breathless can safely wear an amulet of strangulation.
Further, mindless monsters are incapable of using items; that is, scrolls, wands, potions, and horns.[5][6]

List of mindless monsters
Blobs
Spheres (including gas spores but not floating eyes)
Jellies
Vortices
Lights
Elementals (excluding stalkers)
Fungi
Mummies
Puddings
Zombies
Skeletons
Golems
References

↑ mondata.h in NetHack 3.6.0, line 56

↑ display.h in NetHack 3.6.0, line 33

↑ eat.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 508

↑ eat.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 572

↑ muse.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 278

↑ muse.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1073

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.