An engulfing attack is one in which you are surrounded by the monster, whether being swallowed whole by it (in the case of e.g. purple worms and trappers) or simply being drawn into it (vortices and air elementals).
Monsters with engulfing attacks:
| Monster | Damage Type |
|---|---|
| ochre jelly | Acid |
| lurker above | Digestion |
| trapper | Digestion |
| fog cloud | Physical |
| dust vortex | Blinding |
| ice vortex | Cold |
| energy vortex | Shock and Drain energy |
| steam vortex | Fire |
| fire vortex | Fire |
| purple worm | Digestion |
| air elemental | Physical |
| Juiblex | Disease |
To be expelled and escape from an engulfed state, you can:
- wait it out (digesters will kill you rather than expel you, though)
- kill the engulfing monster (best done with, e.g., a wand of death)
- zap a wand of opening or spell of knock
- ring the charged Bell of Opening
- scare the monster with a tooled horn or drum or Magicbane (other methods rely on line-of-sight and thus do not work when engulfed)
- polymorph yourself into something too large to be engulfed (size Huge or larger)
- polymorph the engulfing monster into a non-engulfing monster (sets the resulting monster to one hit point; if by chance you polymorph it to another engulfer you will still be engulfed)
- put on a ring of slow digestion (only works on digesters: lurkers above, trappers, and purple worms)
- zap a wand of slow monster or spell of slow monster (only works on whirly monsters: vortices and air elementals)
- zap a wand of digging or spell of dig (only works on non-whirly monsters: ochre jellies, purple worms, trappers, lurkers above and Juiblex; sets the monster to one hit point)
- teleport yourself out, if you are on a level that allows teleport
- teleport the monster engulfing you, if you are on a non-teleport level (on levels that allow self-teleport, you will teleport with the monster)
Take note that when you are expelled from an engulfing monster, you are subject to any traps on the square you are released to. If the engulfing monster has moved you, this may trigger traps that you have not discovered yet.
A directional spell will always hit the monster engulfing you ("The <spell> rips into the <monster>!") although ray-based attacks do not travel beyond the confines of the monster.
Also, any melee attacks on an engulfing monster will always hit. This can be useful for practicing melee weapon skills at low levels.
A ring of slow digestion protects against digesting attacks. Rather than damage you, "You get regurgitated! Obviously the <foo> doesn't like your taste." and you are expelled.
If you have any free time while engulfed, you might try searching or engraving.
The time you will be engulfed is shortened by high monster level, and lengthened by good (low) AC. This means digesters will fully digest you faster if they are high level or you are poorly armored. The effect is perhaps unintuitive for other engulfers, however. The minimum number of (the engulfer's) turns you will be engulfed is 2 (including the one on which you are swallowed), which means at normal speed you are guaranteed at least one to attempt to escape a digester.
