Habitat

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A creature's habitat determines what tiles it can traverse without flight.

• Land: Cannot travel through deep water or lava. Receives penalties in shallow water, unless flying or large/giant sized.
  • Fake Amphibious: Giant monsters with land habitat can travel through deep water, but with the usual shallow water penalties, and without drowning immunity.
• Amphibious: Can travel through both land and water without penalty. Grants immunity to drowning.
• Water: Can only travel in water, both shallow and deep. Grants immunity to drowning.
• Amphibious lava: Can travel through land and lava without penalty. Receives penalties in shallow water unless large size or bigger.
• Lava: Can only travel in lava.

Almost everything in the game is has a land or amphibious habitat.

If a monster is dropped into deep water or lava without a suitable habitat, and it does not have flight, it will instantly die. E.g. land, amphibious, and water habitat monsters without flight will instantly die when entering a lava tile. If a player enters an unsuitable tile without flight, they are drained for every turn until they escape.

If a water habitat monster is outside water, or a lava habitat monster outside lava, it will flop around: it takes damage every turn, moves randomly, and will try to seek to re-enter water/lava.