Bennu

Version 0.23: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

bennu b
HP	50-103
HD	14
XP	1014
Speed	16
AC	6
EV	16
Will	140
Attack¹	46 (peck: holy)
Attack²	36 (claw: plain)
Resistances	rF+++ rPois+ rMiasma rN+++
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Medium
Type	bennu, bennu
Flags	See invisible Flying Speaks Warm-blooded No poly

A sacred, self-created sunbird, representative of rebirth. It has ascended past the cycles of life and death, and calls upon aspects of both, rising forth from death in a burst of unholy flame.

Useful Info

Bennu are curiously contradictory creatures, masters of both life and death. Their attacks inflict holy damage, and upon death bennus emit a large burst of negative energy, damaging the living. 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 ziggurats.

Tips & Tricks

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.

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

Prior to 0.28, they were vulnerable to water.
Prior to 0.19, their ghostly flame explosions could heal any nearby undead, including the player. Also, bennus had a draining melee attack.
Bennu were added in 0.16. For a brief time during their development, they also possessed sticky flame attacks.