Bennu

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

bennu b
HP	59-96
HD	14
XP	1288
Speed	16
AC	6
EV	16
Will	140
Attack1	27 (peck: holy)
Attack2	18 (claw: drain experience)
Attack3	18 (claw: plain)
Resistances	rF+++, rPois+, rN+++, rRot, rDrown
Vulnerabilities	Water, Holy
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Normal
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Medium
Type	bennu, bennu
Flags	Evil Flying Glows No poly Regenerates See invisible Speaks Warm-blooded

Sacred, self-created sunbirds, representative of rebirth. They have ascended past the cycles of life and death, and readily call upon aspects of both. Famously, they may rise forth from death in a burst of flame, though common portrayals leaves out how unholy these flames are.

Useful Info

Bennu are curiously contradictory creatures, masters of both life and death. Their attacks inflict both holy and draining damage, and upon death they emit a large burst of ghostly flame, damaging the living and healing the dead. Once they've resurrected once, however, they become mortal, and slaying them a second time will finish them off. They are very rare, appearing only in the Tomb of the Ancients, and usually only on the third and final floor.

Tips & Tricks

• The ghostly flames it emits upon death will heal any undead units within its radius. Try to finish off any particularly dangerous, heavily wounded undead opponents before landing a killing blow on the bennu (or better yet, try not to fight a bennu with other opponents around at the same time).
• Lacking any ranged attacks, or even any particularly devastating melee ones, the bennu is one of the least-deadly opponents in Tomb, at least against living characters. Undead characters should avoid leaving these enemies alive for very long, however. Their holy-branded peck attacks can be surprisingly harmful if you lack solid physical protection. The ghostly flame bursts they emit upon death will heal you, however.

Trivia

The bennu is a reference to Bennu, an Egyptian deity of the sun, creation, and rebirth. The unholy aspects ascribed to it in DCSS have likely only been added to make it better fit in the undead-filled Tomb of the Ancients.

History

• Bennu were added in 0.16. For a brief time during their development, they also possessed sticky flame attacks.