How to Raise the Perfect Pudding
The Shrewd Dude
But maybe you've only heard of the benefits. This guide takes it from
the beginning: how to find the perfect pudding, how to raise it, and
how to breed new puddings, without incurring dementia in the process.
~Step One: Choosing the perfect pudding
Everyone's been talking about this hot new pet that never needs to
be fed, leashed, or even tamed. It's kind of like a tribble in a way,
but your food supplies won't be consumed by these clean creatures. If
you choose to take one with you, it'll follow you everywhere, even
oozing under locked doors to get to you. If you want to leave it
behind, it's not much of a problem, as it's mostly blind and incredibly
slow.
So you're interested in getting a pudding. But where in the dungeon
would you come across one of these beauties? I recommend first locating
a sink. These products of modern plumbing provide a gateway into the
fabulous habitat of the black pudding, one of the two major forms of
pudding that you'll encounter.
--Tip--
/*There's a rumour going around that black puddings are just a brown
pudding gone bad. This is completely untrue and you shouldn't put an
ounce of faith into it. A black pudding will be just as good of a pet
as a brown pudding, and many have often praised the brown pudding,
which is on average twice the size of its brown counterpart, as the
ambrosia of the dungeoneers' gods.
By constantly kicking a sink, you can draw up a curious black pudding
from its native habitat. This ensures its health and quality, and a
curious pudding is always a good pudding. These puddings are generally
much better pets than the ones that have roamed over the dungeon for a
while, growing complacent and docile all the while. Therefore, RULE ONE
of raising your pudding is ALWAYS USE A SINK-SPAWNED PUDDING.*/
Now, you may also prefer the smaller, brown variety of pudding as a
pet. However, it should be noted that these puddings will cause
organics to rot away, are generally less intelligent, and are more
difficult to find and train. Nor are they as easy to locate as the
black pudding, for they don't tend to live in sinks, and they provide
less bang for your buck when you are breeding them, often taking up
more of your precious time. Whatever your choice, remember that a
pudding is a loving pet and a large amount of care needs to go into
raising and breeding them.
~Step Two: Choosing the perfect place for your pudding
So what do you do once you've chosen your ideal pudding? Well, first
of all, locate a nice home for your pudding. Generally speaking, you
should answer the following questions when finding a home for your
pudding:
1. Does the level have an altar?
Your pudding should be just as pious as you are. You should also
think forward to when your pet might unfortunately pass away, at which
time you should have a proper place to cremate its remains.
2. Is the level lower than where the pudding currently is?
You'll save a lot of trouble for both yourself and your pudding if
you're both going down. Getting a pudding up the stairs is a very
difficult process.
3. What features are on the level?
If there are holes in the ground, not only will you injure your pet
both mentally and physically when it inevitably blindly falls down one,
but you'll end up swamping the level below. Polymorph traps,
especially, should be neutralised if they exist on the level. A shop on
the level, especially an abandoned one, can provide a nice refuge for
when you want to be alone, but keep in mind that your loyal pudding
will follow you wherever you go. However, if more than a room or two
cannot be dug away, do not consider that level for housing your pet
pudding.
Once you've chosen your ideal place, first prepare it for your
pudding. Ideally, the level should be completely open, except for the
rooms housing the staircases, which should be preserved. If this is no
longer possible, ringing the staircase with boulders is preferable.
You should plan on spending time around the altar. To facilitate its
use for both you and your pudding, the following boulders should be
placed around the site of worship:
000#
0_0#
00#0
##00
Step Three: Raising your pudding
Now that you've chosen your pudding and created a perfect home for
both it and you, bring it down with you to its new residence. A pudding
will follow you down stairs, so be patient and let it follow you.
Another method, but one not recommended by the Pudding Rights Society
(PRS), is to let the pudding fall down a series of holes.
With the pudding in its new niche, you can spend endless hours of
fun with it, in wonderful activities such as:
~Chase Me Around the Level!
~Ooze Under Doors With Me!
~Let's Play Leapfrog!
~Race Me to the Altar!
~Eat Stormbringer, Filthy Slime!*
*This activity, along with "Catch the Mjollnir!", violates PRS
guidelines and is not recommended.
There comes a time when your pudding might seem anxious and
restless. When it comes, you'll know deep in your heart what to do.
Every pudding has to split sometime, and it's up to you to assist it in
this difficult time. There are some guidelines to follow when doing
this:
1. Use an iron tool
Puddings will split when touched with iron. Do not attack them with
implements of other materials; this will severely harm them.
2. Dullen the utensil
The ideal tool for helping your pudding with its division is in fact
a lesser-known artifact weapon. Your deity, whoever it is, will not
provide this for you, so it's up to you to get the following materials:
1. a knife
Once you have managed to obtain all of the items in the list above,
engrave the following phrase on the ground: P-U-D-D-I-N-G I-S
F-R-I-E-N-D. This should make it sufficiently gentle enough for use. If
you managed to carve anything past "pudding", then your knife was
highly enchanted and you should reprimand yourself for wasting the
enchantment in such a ridiculous manner.
Wield your knife and name it "Breadknife". It should now appear as
either ideal "the -3 Breadknife" or perhaps "a knife named Breadknife"
(or alternately, "a -3 knife named Breadknife). This will be your tool
for splitting your pudding. You can additionally rust or corrode your
Breadknife, and use some spare cursed scroll of enchant weapon, to the
most desirable result of "the throughly rusted throughly corroded -7
Breadknife". Also, remember to avoid increasing your skill in wielding
your knife, lest it become a danger to your pet.
--Tip--
/*Don't pray to your god while wielding Breadknife, or you may end up
with something resembling "the blessed rustproof +6 Breadknife", which
is rather embarassing when your main weapon has been the burnt +0
Orcrist.*/
3. Check the health of your pudding
An important thing to remember when your pudding is reproducing is
that each fission will halve the hitpoints of both offspring. You may
accidentally slay your pudding if you do not keep in mind that it is
mortal, too!
With all of these in mind, place yourself in the following position:
000#
0@0#
00P0
##00
Gently hit the pudding with your Breadknife, which will cause it to
split. Smile gently; this is an awkward time for the pudding, too.
Being placed in your current position, you do not need to see or deal
with any of the offspring at this time. Continue splitting the pudding
until it runs low on health, at which point it will not split any
further. At this stage, you will have the following choices:
1. Wait for the pudding to regenerate.
2. Slay the pudding.
If you follow step one, you are an upright, model citizen of the
dungeon.
If you prefer step two, you are a filthy pudding farmer. Go team @!
When pudding farming, just kill the pudding in the space adjacent to
you. You won't see any other puddings, which is great for keeping your
sanity. Pick up the corpse if one is left, and sacrifice it. Here's a
parting list of tricks for pudding farming:
-When starting out, name the first four or five puddings with
different, amusing names. Then see how many of each name is created and
which ones died out. If you can detect monsters, you can get the YAFM
"There's -foo- on the other side. -more-" when pushing against a
boulder.
-Keep junk you don't need on single adjacent square, so that it's there
when you need it and you don't have to encounter numerous small piles.
-Toss any corpses that your god hasn't accepted against one of the
boulders, instead of placing them on a square you might occupy.
-Keep some food rations on the altar if you prefer to a) be vegan or b)
to not suffer from bad cases of stomach acid.
-If you're invisible or displaced, the puddings might attack each other
on occasion, leading to mind-dulling annoying messages. The boulder
design should keep out most, if not all of these messages, though.
-Puddings are brainless. Put on a blindfold if you can't afford to make
the boulder pattern, and you needn't scroll through [as many] endless
messages.
-Don't get wise and try to stone the acidic puddings, whose corpses
you're trying to sacrifice, remember?
-The farm level should be on a level with teleports, so you can
teleport into either stair-room when you need a break.
-An emptied shop on the level is a great place to teleport for rest, or
to stash some dropped items.
Sledge
Cyde Weys
> 000#
> 0_0#
> 00#0
> ##00
That was a great piece, but I just have one little change to recommend.
Your pudding farm isn't as optimized as it could be, as it requires you
to pick up all of the pudding corpses and bring them back to the altar.
A better design is as follows, which allows you to slay puddings on the
altar and simply go over there every once in a while to sacrifice what
lies on the floor:
000
0.0
0_0
.0.
Ideally, though, the ultimate pudding farm has double-walled boulders (so
that you can't accidentally push apart your fort), and underneath each
boulder is an Elbereth burnt or shocked into the floor (with wands of
fire or lightning) so that no giants can ever move your fort. It looks
like this:
...000...
..00000..
..00000..
.000.000.
0000_0000
0000.0000
.00...00.
And yes, it does require a few more scrolls of earth and some wands, but
if you are seriously into the farming business, it's definitely a wise
investment.
--
~ Cyde Weys ~
Ubi olim vita, nunc vita
Kristoffer Björkman
Sledge says...
> This is your brain, this is your brain on Nethack. Dont do Nethack.
Mmmmm. Brain pudding!
You feel like a scarecrow?
/Kristoffer
--
This cookie has a scrap of paper inside. It reads:
N jvaare arire dhvgf. N dhvggre arire jvaf.
Kamen K.
> Sayeth The Shrewd Dude:
>
[snip]
> Ideally, though, the ultimate pudding farm has double-walled boulders (so
> that you can't accidentally push apart your fort), and underneath each
> boulder is an Elbereth burnt or shocked into the floor (with wands of
> fire or lightning) so that no giants can ever move your fort. It looks
> like this:
>
> ...000...
> ..00000..
> ..00000..
> .000.000.
> 0000_0000
> 0000.0000
> .00...00.
>
> And yes, it does require a few more scrolls of earth and some wands, but
> if you are seriously into the farming business, it's definitely a wise
> investment.
>
You guys are insane. But what's worse, I suddenly got the urge to start
my own farm...
--
Kamen K.
Cyde Weys
On Oct 17, 11:31 am, "Kamen K." <kiri...@abv.bg> wrote:
> You guys are insane. But what's worse, I suddenly got the urge to start
> my own farm...
It's the kind of thing that's worth doing once, if only to see what
everyone else is talking about. It gives the game a distinctively
different feel than you would normally get, so if you're amenable to
the argument that you should try out drugs, you should try out pudding
farming.
Once you've done it once or a few times, though, you tend to give it
up. It's not that fun that it's something you want to do over and
over. The name "pudding FARMING" is very apt.
Kamen K.
Hm, how the hell do you make the pudding follow you downstairs? I found
a suitable altar at level 22 an a sink at level 20. So I have this black
pudding named 'First' that follows my Barbarian wherever he goes in that
level, but so far no clue as to how to get him to 22.
--
Kamen K.
Topi Linkala
> Hm, how the hell do you make the pudding follow you downstairs? I found
> a suitable altar at level 22 an a sink at level 20. So I have this black
> pudding named 'First' that follows my Barbarian wherever he goes in that
> level, but so far no clue as to how to get him to 22.
Kill it and undead turn. Stone it and stone to flesh it. Tame it and let
it go feral.
Are there other ways?
Topi
--
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are
always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
- Bertrand Russell
"How come he didn't put 'I think' at the end of it?" - Anonymous
Mike Kelly
Dig some holes and let it fall through?
--
mike.
Jove
>Cyde Weys ??????:
>> Sayeth The Shrewd Dude:
>>
>[snip]
>> Ideally, though, the ultimate pudding farm has double-walled boulders (so
>> that you can't accidentally push apart your fort), and underneath each
>> boulder is an Elbereth burnt or shocked into the floor (with wands of
>> fire or lightning) so that no giants can ever move your fort.
Peaceful giants will still take boulders.
>> It looks
>> like this:
>>
>> ...000...
>> ..00000..
>> ..00000..
>> .000.000.
>> 0000_0000
>> 0000.0000
>> .00...00.
>>
This setup should work just as well. The important thing is not to be
able to accidentally push boulders out from the inside. Two boulders
lined up are enough to prevent that.
Beware monsters with wands of striking. They'll break your boulders.
So you want to block distant straight line-of-sight with a boulder as
well.
.0.0.0.
.00000.
.00@00.
.00_00.
.00.00.
.0.0.0.
.......
.......
>> And yes, it does require a few more scrolls of earth and some wands, but
>> if you are seriously into the farming business, it's definitely a wise
>> investment.
>>
>
>You guys are insane. But what's worse, I suddenly got the urge to start
>my own farm...
The DevTeam has arranged an automatic and savage punishment for
pudding farming. It's called pudding farming.
No one pudding farms for Ascension more than once. If they pudding
farm again it's because they like pudding farming. ("Not that there's
anything wrong with that." - Seinfeld.)
--
Welcome to NetHack. | I take what I'm given.
| You exploit the game.
All the best, | He's an abusive cheater.
Jove (Joe Bednorz)
Kamen K.
> Kamen K. wrote:
>
>> Hm, how the hell do you make the pudding follow you downstairs? I
>> found a suitable altar at level 22 an a sink at level 20. So I have
>> this black pudding named 'First' that follows my Barbarian wherever he
>> goes in that level, but so far no clue as to how to get him to 22.
>
> Kill it and undead turn. Stone it and stone to flesh it. Tame it and let
> it go feral.
>
> Are there other ways?
Black puddings should be stoning-resistant and I don't want to waste a
precious scroll of taming. But undead turn is a nice idea, I have a wand
for that somewhere in the stash.
--
Kamen K.
Doug Freyburger
> Kamen K. wrote:
>
> > Hm, how the hell do you make the pudding follow you downstairs? I found
> > a suitable altar at level 22 an a sink at level 20. So I have this black
> > pudding named 'First' that follows my Barbarian wherever he goes in that
> > level, but so far no clue as to how to get him to 22.
>
> Kill it and undead turn. Stone it and stone to flesh it. Tame it and let
> it go feral.
>
> Are there other ways?
Wish for a cursed figurine of a black pudding. Cast boatloads of
create monster until you get a pudding. Have a monster read its
cursed scroll of create monster and the resulting crowd can randomly
include a pudding (this one happened to me yesterday but it was a
brown pudding not a black and I hit it hard enough to kill it before it
split).
Cyde Weys
> Hm, how the hell do you make the pudding follow you downstairs? I
> found a suitable altar at level 22 an a sink at level 20. So I have
> this black pudding named 'First' that follows my Barbarian wherever he
> goes in that level, but so far no clue as to how to get him to 22.
You know what, I've just never had a problem getting a black pudding to
the altar level. Generally my problem is finding a black pudding and
finding an altar. Once you have the two, it is very easy to get a black
pudding to the altar level. Just thwack it a few times (making some
clones), make some holes, and send them on down.
Topi Linkala
None of which gets an existing pudding to another level.
I confess that I missed that the question was how to get the pudding on
a lower level. Holes or trapdoors could be used in such situation. I
listed only the cases to get it upwards that I could think of.
Byron A Jeff
>> Are there other ways?
I've done that a couple of times. In fact when I get tired of farming and I
get an icebox, I kill a pudding and put it in the icebox. So later if I
need more stuff I can pull it out, zap with the wand of undead turning,
and get back to farming.
BAJ
Ilmari Karonen
>>Cyde Weys ??????:
>>> Ideally, though, the ultimate pudding farm has double-walled boulders (so
>>> that you can't accidentally push apart your fort), and underneath each
>>> boulder is an Elbereth burnt or shocked into the floor (with wands of
>>> fire or lightning) so that no giants can ever move your fort.
>
> Peaceful giants will still take boulders.
Didn't someone post about a trick that involved reverse-genoing some
sessile monsters (blue jellies?) and then creating the boulders on top
of them, for a truly impregnable boulder fort? I think I remember
reading about something like that.
--
Ilmari Karonen
To reply by e-mail, please replace ".invalid" with ".net" in address.
(Note new username -- the old one will stop working shortly.)
The Shrewd Dude
You're right, that is a better, easier-to-use boulder layout. I used
the one that I showed above the one time I pudding-farmed because I had
the following situation:
000#
0_0#
00>0
##00
Thus, as I didn't want to impede access to the down-stairs, and only
use one scroll of earth, I chose to use that design. (There were three
other boulders lying around on the level, and I made full use of them.)
Patashu
Would that be burned Elbereth squares with blue jellies on them with
boulders on them?
Must be some other way to spice it up.
Matt Frisch
the ether:
Bear traps placed on the spots?
Ilmari Karonen
>
> You're right, that is a better, easier-to-use boulder layout. I used
> the one that I showed above the one time I pudding-farmed because I had
> the following situation:
>
> 000#
> 0_0#
> 00>0
> ##00
>
> Thus, as I didn't want to impede access to the down-stairs, and only
> use one scroll of earth, I chose to use that design. (There were three
> other boulders lying around on the level, and I made full use of them.)
Couldn't you still have built it the other way around, like this?
00##
0_00
#0>0
#000
The Shrewd Dude
Good point. It probably would have saved me quite a bit of time had I
done it that way.