Butterfly

Useful Info

Butterflies are harmless flying monsters that are fragile, but difficult to hit. They most often appear when using a scroll of butterflies, but "hostile" butterflies can be encountered throughout the Dungeon and the Lair. Butterflies wander around aimlessly, as if they were confused. They offer no XP.

Tips & Tricks

• A scroll of butterflies can be used to block line of fire and distract attackers. Butterflies are evasive, though, so projectiles may pass through the butterflies and hit you.
• Polymorphing a non-summoned butterfly can turn it into something worth XP, but so little that it's probably not worth the wand charge.
• Hostile butterflies will also block line of fire, so killing it will let your shots (and enemies') pass through. If you absolutely need one dead fast, Magic Dart or any EV-ignoring will kill it without fail.

History

• Prior to 0.31, butterflies had 15 EV and 10 willpower.
• Prior to 0.29, butterflies had 25 EV.
• Prior to 0.26, the spell Summon Butterflies existed.
• Prior to 0.19, reading a scroll of random uselessness could summon butterflies.
• Prior to 0.15, evil gods accepted butterfly kills for the purposes of raising piety.

They used to leave corpses and even skeletons, which could be raised as undead. This created amusing zombies that were incredibly fast but lacked any means of attack.