Instadeath

Like many roguelikes, in Ragnarok there is always the danger of death.

Some things can kill you instantly before you have a chance to react. Thankfully, most of them are easy to avoid with little practice.

Diseases and Disorders[]

Many monster attacks have a chance to give you an effect or disease that can kill you if gone unremidied. Pay special attention when fighting one of these monsters.

Monster	Effect	Remedy
Sentinel, Basilisk, or Cockatrice	Petrification (turning grey)	Eat a clay lump if stiffening, gain immunity from a wonder scroll/dead hel dragon
Corpse	Rotting skin	Any potion of curing
Gorm	Impregnated	Blessed potion of curing
Preden	Feverish	Any potion of curing
Vanisher	Fading from existence	No remedy! Read a scroll of extinction to avoid meeting one

Instant Death Effects[]

Monster	Effect	Remedy
Iridorn	Beheading	Always wear a gorget
Phantom Asp	poison bite	Has a chance of instadeath even with poison resistance! Extinct them, kill from afar, or wear the war vest

Grabbed or engulfed by a monster[]

In addition to each monster's respective strategies, see tips below table for escaping a monster's grasp.

Monster	Effect	Remedy
Bloodslug	Bite of disease	See below
Chameleon	Crushing	See below
Elle Giant	Crushing	See below
Giant Squid	Crushing	See below
Gibberer	Crushing	See below
Hill Giant	Crushing	See below
Ivy Creeper	Crushing	Never Melee. See below
Ogre	Crushing	See below
Pyrta Ath	Smothering	Never melee. See below
Red Ooze	Engulfing Burn	Never melee. Zap it with a wand of ice (zap yourself if engulfed).
Watery Form	drown attack	Animated water; Hela's spells can make one or you may create them by accident when terraforming near water. Flee immediately, because you can't extinct them!

If a monster grabs/engulfs you, escape by:

Zapping the monster with displacement or polymorph
Teleporting yourself with a wand of displacement, scroll of traveling or ring of relocation
Taming the monster with a scroll of alliance, scroll of wonder, the skill of taming, or a barbed whip
Phasing via a potion of phasing or the amulet of ethereality
Immobilizing the creature with a wand of sleep or a net
leave the level through magical means

Stun Effects[]

Monster	Effect	Remedy
Minion	stun attack	Can only be used if 4+ minions surround you. Fight them in a hallway.
Ranger	stun attack	Get an AC of -40 or better before fighting them.

Item Effects[]

If it sounds like a dumb idea, it probably is. Here are some items that can kill you.

item	Effect	Remedy
potion of contamination	degeneration	Don't drink them! If you do by accident, use blessed curing.
potion of venom	poisoning	Don't drink them! If you do by accident, use blessed curing.
scroll of extinction		Don't read while confused, and don't extinct humans if you are one!
scroll of pure evil	might send you to Niflheim	Don't read unidentified scrolls arbitrarily, unless desperate.
wand of death	very long and bouncy death ray	Only use outdoors, or if you are wearing a mirror shield
wand of polymorph	used on yourself	Chance of polymorphing into something worthless like a retchweed. Wield (not carry) a wand of restoration when messing around.

Dungeon Effects[]

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

Feature	Effect	Remedy
Phase Trap	teleports you to a 1x1 room	Bring a pickaxe, or a wand of tunneling, or a method of teleportation
Water Trap	closes the doors of the room and fills it with water	Bring Skidbladnir and a method of teleportation
Quicksand Trap	changes floor to quicksand	Bring a grappling hook (the first shop always has one)
Stairs destroyed	e.g. from moleman rubble	use dimension travel, glass ocarina, or obtain Lazlul's Rope and zap a wand of tunneling upward

Corpses[]

Don't eat any of the following dead creatures:

High Damage Enemies[]

Note that almost everything in Niflheim hits like a truck; they are not included in this list. This list is about nasty surprises you might find sooner.

Monster	Where?	Notes / Remedy
Breleor	Chaos	Super high melee damage (1000+). Try not to spend more than 1 turn in chaos if using the glass ocarina.
Draugr	Nidavellir / Grynr / Chaos	High melee damage(200+). Having -350 AC is valuable if you have not been pumping CON. Eat their corpse to avoid fast respawns.
Knell Bird	Jotenheim / Mimir	Can attack at short range for ~150 armor-ignoring dmg
Jormungand	Ocean (far edge of world)	Don't go there. There's nothing useful to be found.
Lorkesth	River Gioll (north of Slaeter's)	There's no need to approach the river until you are ready to visit Niflheim. Plan on -150 AC or better.
Scyld	Underground	Just leave if you meet him and don't have the green stone yet. He has a shockwave attack with very variable damage (1-999).
Vidur	Vidur's Temple (30m)	Kill the NPC adventurers when given the option, to avoid this fight
Zardon	Underground (20-30m) or outer rivers	Can attack for 50-70 armor-ignoring damage at full map range and give deafening sound effects. Use disperser helm to block, or extinct them.