Chunk

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Chunks are edible pieces of meat, carved from freshly slain corpses using the butcher (c) command. The number of chunks a corpse provides is somewhat random, but larger monsters generally provide more chunks. Most species can eat chunks only when hungry, though carnivorous species can eat more often and some species cannot eat meat at all (spriggans, which are completely herbivorous, vampires, which subsist solely on blood, and mummies, which are completely incapable of eating).

You will most commonly encounter "clean" meat, which has no ill effects. Some creatures will instead produce poisonous, rot-inducing, or mutagenic chunks of meat. Regardless of type, chunks of meat will eventually rot away completely.

Tips & Tricks

• Chunks are the main food source of most characters. Ghastly as it may be, taking advantage of them will allow you to stretch out your permafood and avoid starvation more easily.
• The Carnivore mutation or wearing an amulet of the gourmand will allow you to eat chunks even when not hungry and gain more nutrition from them. Note that ghouls, felids, and kobolds are all carnivorous, making these species easier for players who are having trouble keeping other species well-fed. Trolls, meanwhile, start with the gourmand trait as an intrinsic. Spriggans, being herbivorous, gain no benefit from the amulet.
• Remember that eating chunks from your own species is cannibalism, which is forbidden by certain gods. Zin forbids eating highly intelligent creatures (i.e. humanoids, player races, etc.) altogether.
• If your current weapon isn't sharp, the "cut" command will assume you pull out an emergency knife for the duration of the butchery.
  • Certain spells and effects can directly generate chunks without wasting turns butchering. Most useful is Animate Skeleton, which is very easy to cast and leaves chunks from any zombifiable monster with a skeleton, i.e. most living, corpse-leaving monsters other than ugly things and insects. Other effects that can leave chunks include the beam from a wand of disintegration, the high-level Conjurations spell Orb of Destruction, and the aftereffects of Inner Flame.

See Also

• Comestibles and satiation

History

Prior to 0.16, chunks would turn into rotten chunks before rotting away completely.

Prior to 0.15, some monsters would produce contaminated chunks, which provided less nutrition than clean chunks.

Prior to 0.13, contaminated chunks occasionally caused nausea, as well as being worth less satiation.

Prior to 0.12, cursed blunt weapons or blunt weapons of distortion would prevent players from butchering corpses. Players could get around this with certain spells or mutations.

Prior to 0.9, characters did not have an emergency knife for butchering corpses and were required to carry an edged weapon for that purpose.