# Breath
For other uses, see Breath (disambiguation).
Many monsters have breath weapons which they can deploy against you as a ranged attack.  Breath weapons are often vexing to low-level characters who do not have reflection or the appropriate resistance.

Contents

1 Types of breath weapons
2 Defending against breath weapons
3 Use of breath weapons while polymorphed
4 Use by pets
5 SLASH'EM
6 References

Types of breath weapons
There are eight types of breath weapon:

Weapon
Monsters using it

Magic missile
D&nbsp;gray dragon

Fire
d&nbsp;hell hound pupd&nbsp;hell houndD&nbsp;red dragonN&nbsp;red nagaD&nbsp;Ixoth

Cold
d&nbsp;winter wolf cubd&nbsp;winter wolfD&nbsp;silver dragonD&nbsp;white dragon

Sleep gas
D&nbsp;orange dragonW&nbsp;Nazgul

Disintegration
D&nbsp;black dragon

Lightning
D&nbsp;blue dragon

Poison gas
D&nbsp;green dragon'&nbsp;iron golem

Acid
D&nbsp;yellow dragon

The D&nbsp;Chromatic Dragon can attack with any breath weapon, chosen at random when attacking.
In 3.6.1, poison breath also leaves behind a short-lived trail of poison clouds.

Defending against breath weapons
There are basically four ways to defend against a breath weapon:

Have reflection; any breath weapon that hits you will then be reflected, though all monsters are immune to their own breath weapons.
Have the appropriate resistance, either intrinsic or extrinsic.  This however does not protect your gear from fire, cold, or lightning.  Disintegration resistance, on the other hand, does extend to armor that would otherwise disintegrate.
Fight the monster in melee.  A monster will never use its breath weapon if it can hit in melee, unless it is impaired.
Cancel the monster.  It will then cough instead of blasting when it tries to use its breath weapon.
Use of breath weapons while polymorphed
While you are polymorphed into a monster with a breath weapon, you can launch a breath blast by using the #monster extended command.  This uses 15 points of magical energy.

Use by pets
In 3.6.1 and later, pets can use their breath weapons against both hostile and peaceful monsters.[1]  Unlike melee attacks, they can sometimes target monsters of much higher level than themselves, although attacking anything 5 or more levels higher that the pet is increasingly unlikely.[2]  Pets are much less likely to use a breath attack if they're hungry.[3]  They will avoid to breathe in your (or other pets') direction, assuming you are not invisible or displaced and they're not confused.[4]  However, they can still hit you on a rebound.

SLASH'EM
The following new SLASH'EM monsters have breath weapons:

Weapon
Monsters using it

Magic missile
D shimmering dragon' diamond golem

Fire
' ruby golem

Cold
' steel golem

Sleep gas
f kamadan

Lightning
' sapphire golem

Poison gas
D deep dragon

In addition, ' crystal golems use a random breath weapon like the Chromatic Dragon.

References

↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1118

↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 777

↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1138

↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 760

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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
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