Corpse

A corpse is the body of a dead monster. It is a very common comestible. Some monsters never drop corpses, while others may sometimes do so. Trolls are an exception and always leave corpses, except on the Rogue level.

Some monsters leave poisonous corpses. Eating these drains your strength, so avoid them unless you have poison resistance. See below for a list of poisonous corpses. Pets will instinctively avoid eating poisonous species. As a rule, if your pet can eat it, so can you. Tripe rations, dog, and cat corpses are exceptions to this rule.

Most corpses must be eaten when fresh because they will begin to rot after 30 turns. Undead monsters never leave fresh corpses (after all, they are walking corpses to start with). An ice box or tinning kit can be used to prevent rotting and preserve corpses for later use. Eating a rotten corpse results in food poisoning, which is fatal if not cured.

The corpses of yellow molds and purple fungi are hallucinogenic. Some claim that shriekers are hallucinogenic; this is incorrect. They do, however, yield poison resistance sometimes.

Special corpse behavior

 * Lizard and acidic corpses cure stoning.
 * Lizard and lichen corpses never rot away.
 * Acid blob corpses never become unsuitable for sacrifice, but they do rot away.
 * Troll corpses come back to life 75% of the time.
 * Acid blob corpses never cause food poisoning, they are safe (but damaging) to eat and are suitable for sacrifice until they disappear.

Eat these corpses
As a general rule, monsters with a fiery attack (red molds, red dragons, etc.) tend to confer fire resistance and monsters with a cold attack (brown molds, white dragons, etc.) tend to confer cold resistance
 * wraith (level up)
 * giant (strength up)
 * mind flayer (intelligence up or gain the telepathy intrinsic)
 * floating eye (telepathy intrinsic)
 * stalker (gives you permanent invisibility and see invisible when eaten while invisible, otherwise gives you temporary invisibility; but stuns you for 60 turns either way)
 * quantum mechanic (you get the speed intrinsic if you don't already have it, but lose it if you do)
 * blobs, jellies, fungi (F), gelatinous cubes and puddings (often hurts you a little, but a good way to gain intrinsics if you are observing vegan/vegetarian conduct. Black puddings are not vegetarian. Don't eat yellow molds or violet fungi unless you can unhallucinate yourself or are wielding Grayswandir.)
 * lizard (if needed; cures stoning, lowers stun + confusion to two rounds, will not rot, but does become unsuitable for sacrifice)
 * unicorn (poison resistance. Killing unicorns of your own alignment massively lowers your Luck, but eating unicorns, even of the same alignment, has no such effect.)
 * dragon (gain intrinsics that that dragon has, so red dragons give fire resistance, black dragons give disintegration resistance, green dragons give poison resistance, etc; however, yellow and silver dragons confer nothing)
 * tengu (gain intrinsic teleport control, but also has chance of conferring teleportitis or poison resistance)
 * elves (gain sleep resistance, don't do this if you're an elf)
 * flesh golems (gain fire, cold, electricity, sleep, or poison resistance)
 * newts (can gain 1-3 energy)

Don't eat these corpses

 * kobolds, giant beetles (poisons you, okay for poison-resistant characters like orcs, barbarians)
 * bats and stalkers (stuns you for a while; see above for benefits to eating stalkers)
 * mimics (you can't move for a while)
 * cockatrice, chickatrice, Medusa (you die of stoning; okay if you're petrification resistant)
 * Death, Famine, Pestilence (you die)
 * green slimes (slimes you)
 * your own race (cannibalism gives you the aggravate monster intrinsic unless you're a caveman or orc)
 * cats and dogs (gods don't like it, okay if you're a caveman or orc)
 * werecreatures (you become one, considered cannibalism for humans)
 * keystone kops and doppelgangers (considered cannibalism for humans)
 * leprechauns, nymphs and tengu (if you don't want teleportitis; some people see it as a benefit, though, especially with teleport control; see above for benefits to eating tengu)