Water elemental

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

water elemental E
HP	33-53
HD	6
XP	212
Speed	10 (swim: 60%)
AC	4
EV	7
Will	Immune
Attack1	22 (hit: engulf)
Resistances	rElec, rPois+, rN+++, rTorm, rRot+++, rDrown, rWater
Vulnerabilities	Fire
Habitat	Amphibious
Intelligence	Plant
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Big
Type	elemental, water elemental
Flags

A spirit drawn from the elemental plane of water. It exists on this world as part of a body of water and can engulf other beings in its form, depriving them of breath and voice.

Useful Info

Water elementals are vaguely humanoid blobs of water, surging toward their foes and drowning the unwary. They are immune to electricity and poison, and their melee attacks occasionally engulf their victims, dealing moderate asphyxiation damage each turn until their prey escapes.

Their attacks give the Engulf status, which has the same effect as silence on the player: it prevents them from casting spells, reading scrolls, and using god abilities.

They can be found in the Shoals and Cocytus and in some water-based vaults in the Dungeon and the Depths, and can also be summoned by monsters through the Summon Water Elementals spell.

You can also summon them yourself by evoking the phial of floods, or invoking Qazlal's Elemental Force when clouds of cold or rain are visible.

Tips & Tricks

• Avoid simply tabbing your way through combat with water elementals. Once they've engulfed you, you'll start taking irresistible damage each turn, but moving away from them breaks this effect. If possible, retreat each time they start the process.
  • Players of unbreathing races are immune to the engulf damage and can still cast spells normally, making water elementals much less dangerous.
• Their electricity resistance makes it difficult for Air Magic-users to take them out, though Airstrike is a perfectly acceptable method for defeating them.
• Keep in mind that they move much faster when in water.
• If using Qazlal's Elemental Force, the friendliness of the elemental will depend on the source of the cloud: Your clouds are friendly, ambient clouds are neutral, enemy clouds are hostile.

History

Prior to 0.22, the Engulf status slowed the player's movement and did not affect god abilities.

Prior to 0.13, water elementals had normal melee attacks.