Hack'EM

1 About
2 Quality-of-life features
3 Mechanics changes
4 Techniques
- 4.1 Changes to existing techniques
- 4.2 Techniques left out from SLASH'EM
5 The Quest
6 Dungeon features
7 Dungeon changes
8 New special rooms
- 8.1 Themed rooms
9 Shops
10 Dragons and dragon scales
11 Spells and spellcasting
12 Strategy guide for vanilla players
13 Misc resources

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  |˙|   |  __  |/ _` |/ __| |/ /  __| | |\/| |      ||
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  | |   |_|  |_|\__,_|\___|_|\_\______|_|  |_|      ||
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   .

Hack'EM is a project started by User:Hackemslashem with the goal of becoming the next successor to SLASH'EM. Simply put, Hack'EM is "Hack, Extended Mechanics."

About

Welcome to Hack'EM!

The first objective of this project was to bring SLASH'EM content to a modern NetHack platform:

Port over most of the content from SLASH'EM and attempt to take the "next steps" for it.
If something doesn't work, is buggy, or is easily abusable, attempt to fix it or remove it.
If something is bland or feels unfinished - attempt to flesh it out.
Add all the quality-of-life features that are available in the variant market.

Hack'EM was based on EvilHack for a few reasons:

EvilHack is based on NetHack 3.6, and already contained many important updates and bug fixes.
It's inherently more difficult, but in ways that seem to work with SLASH'EM.
Many quality-of-life features were already baked in.
EvilHack also had lots of small tweaks and gameplay changes that seemed to work with SLASH'EM content.
EvilHack has an amazing dedicated community, and without their help, Hack'EM wouldn't have been able to grow and mature!

For a complete list of changes, see the Hack'EM Changelog.

Changes from SLASH'EM

Here is where Hack'EM diverges:

The Drow has not been ported, but may be inherited from EvilHack's implementation in the future.

Techniques have been implemented with updates and bug fixes. New techniques are featured! See the techniques section for more details.

These features have been removed or replaced:

Skipped races: Lycanthrope.
Skipped monsters: Gypsies, Doctor Frankenstein, Frankenstein's Monster
Skipped items:
- wand of fireball
- lab coat
- heavy hammer (evil had heavy war hammer)
- rocket launcher, grenade launcher, rocket, stick of dynamite
- Silver short sword/long sword/mace (object materials has these covered)
- dark elven bow, dark elven arrow, dark elven dagger, dark elven short sword, dark elven mithril-coat
- Giantkiller (Evil has Giantslayer).
Skipped spellbooks:
- spellbook of enchant armor
- spellbook of enchant weapon
- spellbook of resist poison
- spellbook of resist sleep
- spellbook of endure cold
- spellbook of endure heat
- spellbook of insulate
- These all require implementing a IMMUNE property for full 100% temporary resistances, which doesn't really work with Evil's partial resistance system.
The Guild of Disgruntled Adventurers is removed and replaced by mini-guild special rooms
Frankenstein's Lab is removed
The variations on the vibrating square levels have NOT been imported - the EvilHack version remains.
None of the SLASH'EM Demon prince lairs have been imported.
Removed "Hits as +x weapon" property from SLASH'EM monsters
Removed "Need +x weapon to be hit" property from SLASH'EM monsters
Removed the extra artifact blasting (6d6 to 8d10) from SLASH'EM; this mechanic does not seem to add much to the game other than making early wishes less useful and killing unknowing players.
Removed wraith corpse nerf. In SLASH'EM there was a reduced probability of gaining levels with a mix of other effects.
Removed the temporary polymorph mechanic for objects. There is no "hazy" status for polymorphed objects. This mechanic was not imported for 2 reasons: it makes it possible to create overpowered weapons (e.g. +127 weapons) and it is also not intuitive for new players since it contradicts the vanilla behavior of polymorphed items.
Removed SLASH'EM's invisible objects. For now, there has not been a compelling reason to bring this mechanic in.
Removed SLASH'EM polymorph behavior for monsters; when killed shapeshifters could immediately poly into their polyform (or different form if a chameleon or similar). This mechanic was quite frustrating to deal with, especially concerning new threats like weretigers or werepanthers. In SLASH'EM you could be forced to kill the same shapechanger many times before it would finally die in its base form. The EvilHack behavior replaces this so that a shapechanger cannot poly again once it has been killed in its polyform.

Changes from EvilHack

Another objective was to trim some of the EvilHack content. Some things did not fit, were too difficult, or left better as an Evil only feature.

Dungeon changes

Removed the Goblin Town branch and requirement to defeat Goblin King.
Removed the Ice Queen branch.
Vecna's Branch was removed, instead we still have Vecna but in a different level for the Chaotic Quest.
Mines river/sewage generation only occurs on levels deeper than Minetown.
Removed the indestructible drawbridge from the VotD; it can be destroyed like a regular drawbridge now.
The first level of Sokoban is guaranteed to have 2 scrolls of earth.

Big bad changes

Rodney doesn't receive an amulet of magic resistance anymore, in it's place is an amulet of life saving.(In EvilHack the Wizard of Yendor has a 50% chance of starting with an "oMR).
Rodney cannot steal your quest artifact, but he can steal any other artifact in your open inventory.
The Riders only get 40 + d(10, 8) HP instead of 100 + d(10, 8).
Baalzebub, Geryon, Dispater are back to being demon princes. They should be bribable again.
Demon lords and princes no longer negate being able to self-teleport or use cursed potions of gain level.
Removed the Wand of Orcus. Orcus gets his standard wand of death now.
Removed Kas and the Sword of Kas.
Reverted the Dark One back to a human (from an Illithid in Evil)
Vecna no longer has to be defeated to genocide liches/alhoons.

Item changes

Some of the dragon scales have had buffs or different secondary effects added. All scales grant passive effects now. See the section on Dragon Scales for details.
Removed The Magic 8-Ball (The Oracle gets a regular eight ball). Eight balls are still in the game but very rare, and they can be read like the Magic 8-Ball can.
Unicorn Horns have been reverted back to a 2-handed d12 weapon.
Improved the chances of item randomly spawning with two properties to 1 in 3141. (In Evil the chances are 1 in 100000)
Magicbane could cause a Bag of Holding explosion, this mechanic has been removed. Magicbane is safe for any Bag of Holding.
Removed all passive attacks from baby dragons.

Mechanics changes

#forge has been renamed to #craft for working with forges. The reason is to make #force and #craft auto-complete. #forge still has the same meta shortcut: M('F')
Removed two-weaponing weight-based restrictions imposed in EvilHack.
Monsters can no longer use wands of wishing to get wishes - if they get a wish from a smoky potion they will still attempt to get something powerful.
Removed the monster riding monster mechanic.
Monster spawn rates are simplified a bit from EvilHack: Monster spawn rates increase to 4x normal once you've performed the invocation. After that, all denizens of the dungeon are aware of what has happened and nasties will spawn on each level's upstairs.
Zapping light around peaceful monsters could anger them. This mechanic has been removed except for when you break a wand of light.
Spellcasting monsters have to see you in order to cast summon nasties.
Spellcasting monsters have had their spell range limited by their level (gnomish mages are level 3 and can only cast fire bolt in a radius of 2-3 tiles instead of 13).
Changed timeout for monster spell of stone to flesh to timeout 2d7 instead of rn2(7).
Removed engulfing attack from gelatinous cube, water elemental, earth elemental, and fire elemental. The Splice elementals (magma, mud, ice, acid) still can engulf.
Removed cursed weapons reverse hitting (was in EvilHack and Splice). Instead, cursed weapons will miss their target 25% of the time.
Revert the standard cursed wand backfire chance from 1-in-30 to 1-in-100.
Revert EvilHack sacrifice gift changes: Instead of a mix of regular items and artifacts, players will receive only artifacts (unless you get a minion as a gift).
Removed accompanying artifact defenders when wishing for artifacts.
Lowered the poison insta-death resistance threshold from 35% to 25%. If your poison resistance is under 25% you have a chance of insta-death from poison dart traps, poison bite, etc.
In EvilHack the Amulet of Yendor has a chance of teleporting randomly if dropped on the floor, this random chance of teleport has been removed.

Race/role updates

Illithids used to get flying at level 12, now they start with flying.
Centaurs used to get jumping at level 5, now they start with jumping.
Giants can wear mummy wrappings and any giant can wear large splint mail.
Tortles can wear mummy wrappings.

Quality-of-life features

Object lookup has been fleshed out:

If you are new to Hack'EM, the object lookup will be your new best friend!
To access the lookup info, you can either:

   - Type ; and press : on a tile.
   - Type / and ?, and manually type in the item/monster to query (e.g. "dwarf thief")

Object lookup shows more information, including object properties and special effects from materials.
Object lookup for corpses now shows intrinsics conferred, and other info about eating them (like if they are poisonous or acidic).
Weapons show bonus damage and effects resulting from materials.
Artifacts can now be looked up in the item database!

Auto-identification

All roles start out knowing these basic items:
- potions of water
- blank scrolls
- scrolls of identify
Auto-ID dunce cap upon wearing (Un)
Auto-ID jumping boots (AceHack)
Auto-ID some potions when inhaling their vapors
Auto-ID scroll of scare monster on pickup if it turns to dust (Un)
Auto-ID scroll of teleportation when teleporting any distance after reading one
Auto-ID scrolls of remove curse when items' curses are removed (Un)
Auto-ID wand of teleportation on seeing the successful effect on a monster (Un)
Auto-ID wands with unambiguous effects and messages (Un)
Auto-ID wand of undead turning if engraving produces a message (Un)
Auto-ID wands of probing and secret door detection when engraved with (Un)
Auto-ID vanishing wands if the other 2 have been identified (Un)
Auto-ID wands of sleep or death if their counterpart has been identified (Un)
Auto-ID wands of healing or extra healing if their counterpart has been identified
Auto-ID rings dropped into a sink when message is shown (Un)
Auto-ID amulets dropped into toilets, if possible (slex)
Auto-ID for ring of regeneration (Un)
Auto-ID whistles on use (Un)
Auto-ID whetstones when used with a water source.
Auto-ID magic flutes and harps on use (Un)
Auto-ID magic lamps and oil lamps when rubbing (Un)
Auto-ID loadstones upon discovering the inability to drop them (Un)
Auto-ID flintstones when rubbed on iron weapons (evil)
Auto-ID water walking boots when worn (xnh)
Auto-ID tinfoil hat when worn
Auto-ID BUC of products from BUC identified item generator (UnNetHackPlus)
Rustproof/erodeproof/fixed status is known by default for all items (DynaHack)
A blessed scroll of charging will (in addition to charging the item) also reveal the number of charges and the charge counter
After a while of using a wielded weapon, you will identify it and its enchantment (evil)
Throne insight now recursively identifies all items in your possession and in your containers (fiq)

Other QoL

Paranoid swim and paranoid trap options can be set.
The player's magic cancellation (MC) is shown in the status bar (evil)
Phasing status is also shown in the status bar. (from EvilHack)
Realtime display option is now available (from EvilHack)
Show spells known in the dumplog. (from EvilHack)
Show techniques known in the dumplog.
Show prayer stats in Attributes menu [^X screen] (from UnNetHack, originally from dNetHack)
Firearms that have different modes of operation display their modes in the player's inventory.
Attempting to open "." acts as an alias for #loot
> < to auto-travel to stairs (from Unnethack)
Control+Direction now kicks in that direction
You can reread a spellbook to refresh your memory at any time
Blessed stethoscopes can identify eggs (on the floor)
When identified, scrolls of enchant armor ask what armor to enchant.
Remove "Auto-select every item" when putting into containers (Un)
Default shopkeeper sell prompt to N (xnh)
Regeneration only causes additional hunger when injured (Un)
1-damage hits still train weapon/unarmed skills (from DynaHack)
Chargeable rings may get charged when hit with electricity (3.7)
Useless +0 rings are generate very rarely (xnh)
Monsters are prevented from picking up gold in shops (Un)
Monsters don't blame the player for falling down holes the player dug. Pit traps still count.
The Astral Plane is always lit (xnh)
The passtune range has been extended by 1 so you can now play one step farther away from the drawbridge (xnh)
Switching between your main and alternative weapon does not take any turns (from dnh)
Monks eventually stop receiving the "You feel guilty" message for breaking vegetarian conduct (xnh)
Removed repeated coughing of player when poison resistance renders stinking clouds harmless.
Removed all random secret corridors (xnh)
Removed the Quest turn limit (Un)
Removed the mysterious force
Deliberate level teleporter activation ignores magic resistance (3.7)
Potions have been made more useful from a small collection of patches (see the Alchemy Mechanics section)
Extrinsic resistances protect items from elemental damage. For example, wearing a ring of fire resistance will protect your scrolls and potions from fire damage.
Magical Explosions: Players cannot put known wands of cancellation or magical bags into bags of holding anymore (dnh). This also applies when #tipping into your bag of holding, you will flick away explosive items if you have the item and the BoH identified.
If a player charges a depleted Bag of Tricks/Rats with contents - it will now explode and scatter the contents instead of deleting them.
All roles (except Caveman) get their special spell granted when they reach level 12 (SpliceHack)
Pets will not use rings of teleportation.
Slightly discourage pets with ranged attacks (e.g. hell hound pups) from attacking strong peacefuls like watch captains or shopkeepers.
Projectile unidentification has been left out (prevents merging projectiles in 3.7)
Phasing allows escape from being engulfed. (EvilHack)
Wielding/wearing item giving stoning res will cure stoning (EvilHack).
Players can use gaze attacks in melee range when poly'd into a form with one.
Don't drop aklys on the floor due to slippery fingers. (EvilHack)
Greased/oilskin objects have a chance to resist being stolen. (from EvilHack)
Archery and gun shops do not appear if your character cannot attain any proficiency in BOW or FIREARM, respectively.

Wizard mode updates

#wizclear (^z), clears all monsters on level (splice)
Can wish for monsters with ^w (Un)

Wishing shortcuts

Note: Capitalization does not matter when using these.

Item	Shortcut
Amulet of ESP	AoESP
Amulet of Life Saving	AoLS
Bag of Holding	BoH
Cloak of Displacement	CoD
Cloak of Invisibility	CoL
Cloak of Magic Resistance	CoMR
Gauntlets of Dexterity	GoD
Gauntlets of Power	GoP
Helm of Brilliance	HoB
Helm of Opposite Alignment	HoOA
Helm of Telepathy	HoT
Levitation Boots	BoL
Magic Lamp	ML
Magic Marker	MM
Potion of Extra Healing	PoEH
Potion of Gain Level	PoGL
Potion of Monster Detection	PmD
Potion of Water	PoW
Ring of Conflict	RoC
Ring of Polymorph Control	RoPC
Ring of Teleport Control	RoTC
Scroll of Identify	SoI
Scroll of Remove Curse	SoRC
Scroll of Charging	SoC
Scroll of Enchant Armor	SoEA
Scroll of Enchant Weapon	SoEW
Shield of Reflection	SoR
Speed Boots	BoS
Unicorn Horn	UH
Wand of Create Monster	WoCM
Wand of Teleportation	WoT
Wand of Undead Turning	WoUT
Water Walking Boots	BoWW
Kiku-ichimonji	kiku

Mechanics changes

If the player tries to hit a monster with a weapon they are restricted/unskilled in, or any non-weapon object, they'll never have better than a 75% chance of landing a hit (bare-handed is exempt).
The player is unable to regenerate hit points while in the Valley of the Dead – healing via other methods (potions, healing spells) is still possible.
Stoning – monsters being stoned is a slow-stoning process, just as it is for the player.
Merged scimitar and saber skills.
Added celibate conduct (SLASH'EM)
Added conduct for performing (or refusing to perform) techniques.

Added a conduct for buying or selling from shopkeepers.

Galloping duration depends on riding skills (idea by Beolach, code by Pasi Kallinen)

Mold and fungus resurrection

Ported from from xnh, which ported from SLASH'EM.
Corpses have a chance to mold and grow a random F.
Petrifying monster corpses only grow green mold.
The resurrection rates have been tapered back a bit, so it's not as pervasive as in Slash'EM - but there are more F monsters that can spawn (including moldiers at deeper levels).
Moldy corpses can be used with different potions (see the brewing patch details)

Elbereth

You cannot use Elbereth until you've learned it in-game (via rumor, reading it, etc).
Conflict negates Elbereth.
Elves & hobbits start out knowing Elbereth.
Orcs can never learn it, even if polymorphed.
When a lawful is crowned the Hand of Elbereth, they learn Elbereth if they have not already.

Scare monster

Several more creatures are immune to Elbereth and Scare Monster:
- any unique monsters including the Wizard of Yendor, quest nemeses, the Riders.
- all angelics (any A)
- humans (any @), player monsters
- Any monsters affected by conflict or in berserk mode are also immune.

Extended and new commands

#force can also be used on doors while wielding a weapon (SLASH'EM)
#loot can be used at your pet to both give and take away items from its inventory.
#naming glitches have been nerfed - Players can no longer #name items for identification clues. On attempting to name a regular object with a related artifact name (e.g. naming a candle "The Candle of Eternal Flame"), your hand will always slip.
Monks can break boulders and statues using martial arts skill at skilled level or higher (shift + f and then a movement key).
Rogues can steal from monsters by using 'thievery', (must be bare-handed to use, press shift + f and then a movement key).
Convicts can #chat with rats to pacify or tame them.
Necromancers can #chat with zombies to pacify or tame them.
Changed #forge to #craft.
#tech accesses your role's available techniques.

Resistances and intrinsics

Partial resistances

Intrinsic resistances are no longer binary, but are percentages instead. The spread is 5% to 50% resistance gained from eating per corpse. Damage reduction from various attacks is determined by how much partial resistance the player has to it.
Reflection is not 100%; it can lessen the effects of an attack it reflects, but will never negate it.
The "shower of missiles" monster attack is not completely negated by magic resistance.
Restful sleep regenerates HP (we can get restful sleep property from the Amulet of Restful Sleep or a Ring of Sleeping)

Afraid status

The player can sometimes become too afraid to control their actions and will run away from the object of fear.
Similar to the effects of being stunned or confused, but you will still be able to use items as normal.
Attempting to throw projectiles while afraid usually results in them slipping.
Caused by dragon roars, some monster attacks, and the wand of fear.
Can be cured by quaffing booze or amnesia, or by wearing an item that gives psychic resistance.

"Stable" property

Protects you(or monsters) from clobber and hurtle attacks.

Sonic resistance property (from Splice)

Protects you (or monsters) from sonic attacks.
Since this property is only available from extrinsic sources, it will always also protect your items from sonic destruction.

Psychic resistance property

(from Splice and Evil)
Illithids start with psychic resistance.
Protects you from forgetting skills, spells, and other things from potions and scrolls of amnesia, as well as mind flayer and zombie attacks.
Protects you from an illithids psionic wave and tentacle attacks.
Protects from most fear attacks, including dragon roars.
Wearing items that give psychic resistance stop you from being afraid.

Larva carrier property

Some monsters can infect you with eggs!
If the larva are allowed to hatch, they emerge from your body dealing significant damage in the process. Plus you have to deal with the new monsters in front of you.

You can cure this condition with a few different methods:

quaffing potions of sickness
drink from a toilet
eating a pill
invoking the Staff of Aesculapius
invoking the Healing Hands technique
receiving a disease attack from a monster
being zapped by a cure sickness spell

Upgrading and tinkering

Upgrading mechanic via potions of gain level (from SLASH'EM)
Instead of crystal balls upgrading to magic markers, they upgrade to lenses (going to markers didn't make much sense, and it wasn't too useful since the marker would only have a handful of charges)
Removed a lot of the weapon upgrades, since now a lot of those are covered by forge recipes. A few still remain for quarterstaves and boomerangs.
Added many upgrade paths for special armors
The flintstone-to-healthstone exploit has been fixed; flintstones only upgrade one at a time.

Conflict

When causing conflict, it now takes the player's charisma score into account.
The formula is 'charisma - monster level + player level'
if that value is greater than 19, clamps it to be 19.
There's then a percentage chance (rnd(20)) against the value generated on whether conflict kicks in or not.
So even with charisma and your xp level maxed out, there's still a 5% chance of conflict not working.
Also, the monsters affected have to see you for conflict to work.

Dexterity

Dexterity can directly affect the player's AC, for better or worse. See the chart below for details.
- Being encumbered negates AC bonuses from dexterity.
- Wearing any kind of heavy metallic body armor (not mithril) or other rigid material (bone, stone, wood) will also negate dexterity bonuses.

Dexterity	AC change
<= 6	+3
7-9	+1
10-14	none
15-16	-1
17-18	-2
19-20	-3
21-23	-4
24-25	-5

Amnesia and forgetting

Potions of amnesia can also inflict this effect. Potions of amnesia always have the "sparkling" appearance.
Can make you lose Elbereth knowledge if you had it.
Can make you forget forget about shambling horrors.
Can make you lose intrinsic telepathy.
Can make you lose "eaten knowledge", which doppelgangers use to poly into different forms.
Psychic Resistance protects from amnesia forgetting. Sources include rings of psychic resistance and being an illithid.

Religion, prayer, altars

If an unaligned altar generates with a priest of Moloch, that priest will be hostile to all roles except infidels.
This means the VoTD priest is always hostile and unable to give donations (unless, of course, you are an infidel.)
Sacrifice offerings can sometimes bless random objects (From SLASH'EM)

Minions

SLASH'EM had a mechanic for getting aligned minions as gifts from your god when you sacrifice or pray with low health. This has been ported over but with some restrictions. Minions were broken in SLASH'EM and too easy to obtain (Lawfuls could get Solars and Planetars very early!).

Minions will not be granted when:
- You have negative luck.
- You have been crowned
- You have completed the quest
- You have been expelled from the quest
- You have any pets on the current level (prevents overcrowding)

The player will also have to hit a 1 on this roll:
- 1 in 10 + (4 * number of gifts granted)

Minion pets cannot betray you. However, be aware they they do seem to lose tameness quickly if left alone on a level so do try to keep your minion with you if it's important to your survival.

The minions granted are a little bit different from SLASH'EM but generally follow the same pattern.

Dungeon growth patch

Another feature ported over from Slash'EM
This enables trees to slowly branch out in the dungeon and occasionally drop ripe fruits/leaves.
It also promotes the growth of herbs left on the ground or water.
Herbs that are left unattended will occasionally sprout more of the same kind around surrounding tiles.
These include: garlic, wolfsbane, catnip, carrots, mushrooms, pineapples, kelp fronds

Some of these are not technically herbs but they still do spread prolifically.
Herbs in the water will move with water currents.
One strategy to try is leaving these items on the ground early in the game and then coming back after a few thousand turns to see what you have "farmed."
Level with trees have a chance of an additional axe (to aid with potential overgrowth)

Alchemy

Alchemic blast damage is doubled, but acid resistance halves it (xnh)

Malcolm Ryan's Brewing Patch

Enables the player to dip mold corpses in potions of fruit juice to start a fermentation timer that will eventually turn the potion into something else dependent on the mold.
Dipping green mold into fruit juice produces acid.
Dipping red mold into fruit juice produces booze
Dipping brown mold into fruit juice produces sleeping
lichens, shriekers, and non-F corpses do not ferment.
Dipping cursed molds into fruit juice produces sickness.

Note: This also makes the shopkeeper charge you for shop-owned fruit juice that you begin fermenting. This allows you to buy the new, possibly more expensive potion at the cost of the fruit juice.

Pouring potions into sinks (xnh)

Allows for safer identification of potions by dumping them down the drain, leaving the hero to suffer only vapor effects.
This is done by selecting a potion to #dip while standing on top of a sink. If a potion of polymorph is poured down a sink, it polymorphs it.

Gem alchemy

Acid is no longer a useless endgame potion!
Gems dissolve in acid to produce new potions.
If the acid is cursed there is a guaranteed alchemical explosion, otherwise there is always a 1 in 30 chance of an explosion.
Use the object lookup (on a gem) to see what potion is created from a particular gem.
Note: Smoky potions cannot be produced with this method.

As a couple of examples:

Opals turn into "cloudy" potions"
Jade turns into "dark green"

Oily Corpses patch

There is a 20% chance upon starting to eat a corpse of certain slippery monsters (e.g. most slithy, non-snakelike monsters and most blobby monsters) that your fingers get slippery. Tins of them are not slippery unless caused by the tin preparation.

Shield skill

A new trainable skill from EvilHack - using shields.

Shield skill gives the player a new avenue of defense (and even offense) to train up. Roles that can highly train shields will benefit from much higher AC and gain some nice offensive bonuses.

AC bonuses:

Being unskilled/restricted in shield skill, there is no extra AC bonus for wearing one.
To get these bonuses, you must be wearing a shield and have the required skill.
- BASIC skill: +1AC
- SKILLED skill: +3AC
- EXPERT skill: +5AC
- MASTER skill: +8AC

If your role allows for it, you can train up your shield skill while wearing a shield.
If you block an attack outright with your shield, that automatically trains shield skill.
Otherwise, there's a 33% chance of training shield skill while wearing one and a regular miss event occurs.

Shield Bashing:

If shield skill is basic or higher, and a shield is being worn, there's a chance the player will receive an extra 'shield bash' attack along with their regular attack
The greater the shield skill, the greater the chance of the extra shield bash attack occurring.
Small shields do 2-4 damage, Tower shields do 2-13 damage.
All other shields do 3-8 damage (not counting material hatred, which is factored in).
Expert skill or higher gets an extra small damage bonus
Expert/master skill in shields gives a chance to stun your target with a shield bash

Misc:

If expert skill or higher in shields., your shield will be prevented from being taken away via dwarvish bearded axe attack.

The roles that can train in shields are:

Role	Shield Skill
Archeologist	BASIC
Barbarian	SKILLED
Caveperson	BASIC
Convict	BASIC
Knight	EXPERT
Necromancer	SKILLED
Priest	SKILLED
Rogue	BASIC
Ranger	SKILLED
Tourist	BASIC
Undead Slayer	SKILLED
Valkyrie	MASTER
Yeoman	BASIC

Knights and valkyries start at basic skill.

Techniques

Removed limit breaking from techniques. This was the primary attribute of techniques that was broken in SLASH'EM. One could simply lower their HP and gain unlimited access to some of the techs for some fairly unbalanced advantages.

Revivification technique) and the spirit bomb spell (which was the Monk's Spirit bomb technique)
Gnomish shopkeepers sometimes offer the expensive tinker service
In addition the weapon practice technique, some shopkeepers offer a firearms training service.
Double damage (from DeathVision or Staff of Rot) is handled properly for techs.

Changes to existing techniques

Technique	Notes	Origin
chained blitz	Monk blitz tech Chain blitz tech now shows how many blitz moves you have available and input feedback as you type the blitz commands. Chain blitz shows helpful feedback for incorrect inputs. Chain blitz only costs energy if a successful command sequence is input; invalid commands also don't use up the tech. Chain blitz commands can also be terminated with ; or : Updated blitz commands to be shorter and more intuitive; commands with 2 versions are always mirrored. Instead of wasting a move when making a mistake in chain blitz, it just cancels the tech and let's the player try again.	SLASH'EM
air dash	Monk blitz tech Cannot air dash while trapped or underwater. Using the air dash tech while confused, stunned, or fumbling goes in a random direction.	SLASH'EM
elemental fist	Monk blitz tech Elemental fist can inflict sonic damage. Added some rare bonus crits for elemental fist (inspired by SpliceHack skills)	SLASH'EM
chi strike	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
chi healing	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
pummel	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
ground slam	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
uppercut	New blitz tech for monks. It's a powerful alternate to ground slam which creates a pit. Does double damage to targets with heads. Influenced by stunning fist skill from Splice.	Hack'EM
spirit bomb	Monk blitz tech Buffed spirit bomb technique damage.	SLASH'EM
jedi jump	Jedi	SlashTHEM
charge saber	Jedi	SlashTHEM
telekinesis	Jedi Can disarm/trigger traps and remotely pickup objects. Rearranged the telekinesis logic into a loop, so player doesn't waste MP on invalid targets. Added new traps that can be disarmed.	SlashTHEM
force push	Jedi Jedi gain a force-push technique at level 14. Using the force push tech while engulfed breaks you out.	Hack'EM
berserk		SLASH'EM
kiii	Kii technique timeout gets extended on successful hits. Samurai	SLASH'EM
research	Archeologist	SLASH'EM
surgery	Healer	SLASH'EM
reinforce memory	General tech for spellcasters that lets them refresh their memory of a spell that is getting low in retention.	SLASH'EM
missile flurry	Ranger	SLASH'EM
weapon practice	General tech for some melee roles to let them train up skills without fighting.	SLASH'EM
eviscerate	Tech for the deferred Lycanthrope/Lunatic	SLASH'EM
healing hands	Knight and Priest tech. Also cures larval infection now.	SLASH'EM
calm steed	Yeoman Cures fear when used in centaur form/race.	SLASH'EM
turn undead	As in SLASH'EM, #turn is now a technique. Knights, priests, and undead slayers get this technique.	SLASH'EM
vanish	Gnomes	SLASH'EM
cutthroat	Rogue	SLASH'EM
blessing	Priest	SLASH'EM
primal roar	Caveman Instead of the Primal Roar tech temporarily poly-upgrading pets, we fully heal them and the duration of their double damage has been extended.	SLASH'EM
liquid leap	Doppelganger Liquid leap affects all squares the same as being zapped with acid. Paranoid confirm for liquid leaping into water or lava.	SLASH'EM
critical strike	Rogue	SLASH'EM
raise zombies	Necromancer	SLASH'EM
revivification	Removed revive tech from healers; necromancers get it at level 14. Priests can also get this tech at level 30.	SLASH'EM
tinker	Gnomes	SLASH'EM
rage eruption		SLASH'EM
blink	Hobbits	SLASH'EM
draw energy	General spellcaster tech Draw energy tech now uses grass, puddles, sewage, and dead trees in its calculation. Necromancers get a bonus for using draw energy near graves.	SLASH'EM
disarm	Any role can get this tech by advancing a non-ranged weapon skill to Skilled. In SLASH'EM, you could get this tech by advancing any weapon skill except whips. In Hack'EM, we have instead excluded ranged weapons, since it's awkward to explain how you would disarm somebody with a dart or arrow. We have also allowed the whip since they can actually be applied to disarm enemies already.	SLASH'EM
dazzle	Vampirics	SLASH'EM
power surge	Powerful technique for spellcasters.	SLASH'EM
draw blood	Vampirics	SLASH'EM
booze	For the deferred Drunk role from SlashTHEM.	SLEX
souleater	Enabled soul eater tech for dark knight Souleater tech will buff any weapon that drains life (instead of just originally Soulthief) This tech originally required the Soulthief artifact. This artifact has been left out. Necromancer gets souleater tech at level 6.	SlashTHEM
shield block	General tech for melee roles. Shield block also doesn't work if afraid or slow. Similar to disarm, any role that reaches Skilled proficiency in Shields will automatically gain access to this technique. As a result, no roles gain this tech by reaching X level anymore, and we have given priests the ability to reach skilled in shields now.	SlashTHEM
whistle undead	Necromancer Acts as a magic whistle effect for undead.	Hack'EM
spirit tempest	Necromancer Created for necromancers - it works as a self centered spirit bomb. Spirit tempest tech gets a multi explosion bonus at level 21.	Hack'EM
pickpocket	The rogue's thievery ability from EvilHack is now available on the technique menu. It it still available by using force attack (F).	Hack'EM/Evil
tumble	Adapted the Tumble skill from SpliceHack into a technique. Pirates get it from level 1. Cannot be used underwater or while levitating.	Hack'EM/Splice
sunder	Adapted the Sunder skill from SpliceHack into a technique. Pirates get it at level 5.	Hack'EM/Splice
blood magic	Adapted the Blood Magic skill from SpliceHack into a technique for necromancers.	Hack'EM/Splice
break rock	Adapted the monk's boulder breaking ability from EvilHack into a technique. It it still available by using force attack (F) on boulders or statues.	Hack'EM/Evil

Techniques left out from SLASH'EM

The Monk retains their standard resistances, rendering the following warding techs unnecessary:

All the sigil techniques were removed, as some of these sigils have been rendered obsolete by skilled/expert spellcasting:

The unused "invoke deity" technique (T_INVOKE_DEITY) was also removed.

The Quest

Various changes have been made to each role's Quest to make the experience more varied and interesting for the player.

The minimum experience level needed to be accepted for the quest has been lowered to 10 (from the default 14).
If you've made your quest leader angry for whatever reason, this no longer makes the game unwinnable.
You can engage them in battle, and if you kill your quest leader, this unlocks the quest. You can then complete your quest as you normally would.
Take heed, quest leaders are not weak and can prove formidable to a mid-level player. Also note that your deity isn't exactly thrilled with you killing off your quest leader.
Your alignment record can still be in the positive, but if you try any helm of opposite alignment shenanigans when it comes time to sacrifice the Amulet of Yendor at the endgame... interesting (read: bad) things can happen.

Abusing your alignment can have a direct effect on how your quest ends.
Alignment abuse is tracked throughout the game – having your alignment negatively adjusted by one point also counts as one abuse point (this can be checked at any time via #conduct, and compared to vanilla, more feedback when abusing alignment is given).
Unlike your alignment record, which can be readjusted back into positive standing, your alignment abuse record is PERMANENT.
Quest leaders will ask you to forfeit the quest artifact if you heavily abuse alignment (less than -64 alignment abuse score required).
You have two options at this point – either hand over the quest artifact peacefully, or decline.
Declining will anger your quest leader, and they will attack. Handing over the quest artifact peacefully will flag the quest as complete.
Declining to turn over the quest artifact does not complete the quest – at some point your quest leader will need to be defeated before the quest is flagged as complete.
Also, attempting to evade your quest leader (whether they are peaceful or hostile) will do you no good in the long run, as the Bell of Opening has been 'cursed', and the only way to lift the curse is to complete the quest.
The Bell will not function for the invocation until this is done.
If you complete the quest with minimal alignment abuse, you will receive a luck boon (+3 to max luck).

Alternative scenarios have been taken into account, such as if you angered your quest leader before even starting the quest and you killed them, you simply need to defeat your quest nemesis to flag the quest as complete.
Conversely, if you've killed the quest nemesis and return, but somehow anger your quest leader before you speak to them, killing them also flags the quest as complete.

Dungeon features

Trap mechanics

Added ice traps (Un). Only generates after level 8.
Added magic beam traps (evil)
Magic beam traps cannot generate above level 16 (SlashTHEM)
Magic beam traps now generate a random beam type on every trigger; before they were hardcoded to a single beam when created on the level.
Can #untrap rust traps (they turn into fountains)
Disarming rust traps from a distance (telekinesis or zapping acid) doesn't produce a fountain.
Can #untrap fire traps (requires water)
Untrapping a spear trap has a chance of yielding a spear or stake
Allow force fighting of webs with a bladed weapon to destroy them
Thrown items can get stuck in webs (3.7)
The Castle drawbridge does not always close with the passtune
Invisibility from magic traps is temporary.
1/27 chance a polytrap disappears after polymorphing a monster. This mechanic was copied from SpliceHack, but in that variant it was a 1 in 7 chance.

Breaking wands creates related traps

Breaking wands will usually create related traps (Un)

Wand	Trap created
wand of cold	ice trap
wand of opening	trap door
wand of fire	fire trap
wand of magic missile	magic trap
wand of teleportation	teleport trap
wand of polymorph	poly trap
wand of sleep	sleeping gas trap
wand of cancellation	anti-magic trap
wand of deluge	rust trap
wand of shock	magic beam trap
wand of poison gas	magic beam trap
wand of corrosion	magic beam trap
wand of noise	magic beam trap

wand of secret door detection: When broken this does not create a trap, however it will now detect traps and portals.

Grass

Pulled from SpliceHack/xNetHack, we now have lush grass in the dungeon!
Grass appears sparsely in the early levels, peaks around level 15, and then tapers off after level 22.
Hidey monsters can use grass as concealment.
Fire and death rays scorch away grass and revert it to normal floor

Bloody tiles

Ported from SpliceHack
When monsters are killed, they have a chance to spray blood in a random direction and color a tile red. No real effect on gameplay, purely aesthetic.
The amount of blood depends on monster size.
Spraying bloody tiles with a ray of water (e.g. from a wand of deluge) will clear the tile of its blood.
When bloody tile is walked over, there is a 1 in 20 chance it will erode away.
Orc blood is black.
There is also a bloodless game option to play without the tile coloring.

Vents

Ported from SpliceHack
Vents appear after level 3.
After level 8, some vents will emit poison gas instead of harmless mist.
Vents have a 3/5 chance of being destroyed when bombs are dropped or thrown into them, releasing a small earthquake in the process.
Monsters can use vents to conceal themselves.
Polymorphed sinks can turn into vents
Spiders, snakes, and rats can randomly pop out of vents.
Changed vent color to bright cyan to differentiate them from iron bars.

Toilets

Toilets are a bit silly, but they have been enhanced to be more interesting and useful!

Ported from SLASH'EM
Toilets can appear separate from sinks, in SLASH'EM they only appeared in pairs with sinks.
Enabled fishing in toilets
Dropping a ring of poly into a sink can poly into a toilet.
Prevented toilet prayer while levitating.
Toilet prayer can now stop the vomiting process (before it could not and you could vomit and still be in the vomiting process)

Toilet kicking

Kicking now only breaks the toilet 1/7 chance (was 1/4 in SLASH'EM)
Kicking can generate cockroaches and sewage from kicking (1 in 17 chance)
Kicking can generate brown puddings (only once per toilet)
Kicking can generate a random tool, normally this tool will weigh under 15aum, but sometimes you'll get a large tool that bonks against the piping. If a large tool bonks 3x - you'll get that tool no matter now big it is and the toilet is destroyed in the process.

Amulet identification in toilets (slex)

Amulets can be dropped down toilets and possibly identified (similar to sinks and rings)
Updated amulet feedback messages, blind effects, and hallucination effects.
Amulets of Flying are always regurgitated from toilets.
Amulets of Change will polymorph the toilet into a sink

Sinks

Random sink effect: noxious gas cloud (from 3.7)

Forges

Inherited from EvilHack

- Forges are introduced, which have the same appearance as fountains but are orange in color. Just like fountains, dipping things into them can have desirable or adverse affects. They can be used to dispose of anything that is flammable, and can also be used to repair corrosion/rust damage to any metallic object (if your luck is greater than 0). There is a rare chance that a lava demon can be summoned via dipping, which will be hostile most times, but can sometimes spawn tame (same odds as getting a wish from a water demon/fountain). Having negative luck can cause a forge to explode when used, which can cause considerable fire damage. Players can also use a forge to remove an attached ball & chain, and can also combine two objects to forge something new using the #forge command.

Added new recipes for various imported weapons
Forges don't appear until after level 2.
Forges can be blown up by rays of water.

Dungeon changes

Adjust secret passage frequency and exclude them from DL 1-4 (xnh)
Random doors are secret less of the time (xnh)
Kicking a "wall" that is actually a secret of some sort will never injure the player and will always produce an unambiguous message that there's something there. This makes it a valid strategy to kick every wall suspected of hiding something, because a single kick will give a yes/no on whether it's a regular wall or not. It's still not a great strategy, because the real walls will still hurt and wound legs like normal. (xnh)

Extended the main dungeon: Now 42-46 levels deep
The fountains in Delphi can sometimes cause hallucination (Splice)
The Rogue level has been removed
Additional variants of the Castle, Fort Ludios, Sokoban, Mine Town and Mines End have been added.

The SLASH'EM levels

The main dungeon layout has been adjusted to more closely follow SLASH'EM.

Appears	Level	Probability
2-4:	The Gnomish Mines
5-6:	The Mall (50%)
7-9:	The Oracle
8-10:	Sokoban
9-11:	Town branch
10-39:	Fort Ludios
10-11:	Rat level (50%)
11-12:	Kobold level (50%)
12-13:	Grund's Stronghold
15-19:	The Quest
15-19:	Lawful Quest
15-19:	Neutral Quest
15-19:	Chaotic Quest
19-39:	The Storage Room
20-39:	The Big room
20-21:	The Wyrm Caves
22-23:	One-eyed Sam's Market
21-24:	The Lost Tomb
23-24:	Aphrodite's level
26-29:	The Spider Caves
28-31:	The Sunless Sea
32-35:	The Temple of Moloch
32-35	The Giant Caverns

Gnomish Mines

Added new different types of gnomes, dwarves, and thieves.
Added dwarf/gnome thieves to most town/Minetown variants.
Monsters will usually be undead if you are a dwarf, gnome, or hobbit (from SLASH'EM) Instead of making undead dependent on your alignment, the chance scales with the dungeon depth. At the top of the mines, undead should be quite rare, but at mine's end beware.

Imported Minetown variants from SlashTHEM and SpliceHack.
Imported Mine's End levels from SlashTHEM
Imported Gnome King ending from SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM.

Note: There is a new minetown variant with a drawbridge present. Destroying the town drawbridge in view of guards angers them.

Sokoban

The last room of Sokoban has more prize variety, with a catch.
Imported levels from SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM, and NetHack Fourk.
Following in the footsteps of NetHack Fourk, all levels have been given names to make them easier to reference.
The map numbers in the listing below follow the format in the sokobon.des file (1-* is the top level and 4-* is the bottom level).

Map #	Map Name	Solution
4-1	"Kick It On Over"	Sokoban Level 1b
4-2	"Setting That Aside"	Sokoban Level 1a
4-3	"Mirror Hall"	Sokoban Level 1c
4-4	"We See You"	Sokoban Level 1d
4-5	"False Flag"	Sokoban Level 1e
4-6	"One Wrong Step"	Sokoban Level 1f
4-7	"Open the Door"	Sokoban Level 1i
4-8	"Mini Me"	Mini Me
4-9	"One More Time"	One More Time
4-10	"Boomerang Boulders"	Boomerang Boulders
4-11	"Easy Peasey"	Easy Peasey
4-12	"First Things First"	First Things First
4-13	"Picking out the Seeds"	Picking out the Seeds
4-14	"Three-Room Monte"	Three-Room Monte
4-15	"Column B"	Column B
4-16	"One Weird Trick"	One Weird Trick
4-17	"To the Top"	To the Top
4-18	"A Hug and a Kiss"	A Hug and a Kiss
3-1	"Squared Off"	Sokoban Level 2b
3-2	"Old Reliable"	Sokoban Level 2a
3-3	"Old Man of the Mountain"	Sokoban Level 1k
3-4	"Roundabout"	Sokoban Level 1l
3-5	"Room to Breathe"	Sokoban Level 1m
3-6	"The Gauntlet"	Sokoban Level 1n
3-7	"Thinking Rabbit"	Sokoban Level 2c
3-8	"A Secret to Everybody"	Sokoban Level 1j
3-9	"Escape Goat"	Sokoban Level 3j
3-10	"Christmas Chimney"	Sokoban Level 3k
3-11	"Fly on the Wall"	Fly on the Wall
3-12	"Boulder Halls of Zim"	Boulder Halls of Zim
3-13	"Two-Phase"	Two-Phase
3-14	"The Snake"	The Snake
3-15	"Count Carefully"	Count Carefully
3-16	"You Only Need Six"	You Only Need Six
3-17	"Four Wings"	Four Wings
2-1	"Squeeze Me In"	Sokoban Level 3b
2-2	"Nooks and Cubbyholes"	Sokoban Level 3a
2-3	"The Pergola"	Sokoban Level 3e
2-4	"Back Alley Cliche"	Sokoban Level 3g
2-5	"Snaggletooth"	Sokoban Level 3h
2-6	"Diligent Escape Plan"	Sokoban Level 3i
2-7	"Corner Pocket"	Sokoban Level 3c
2-8	"No Way Out"	Sokoban Level 3d
2-9	"Reading Rooms"	Sokoban Level 3f
2-10	"Shave and a Haircut"	Sokoban Level 1g
2-11	"Bring 'em on Down"	Bring 'em On Down
2-12	"Slot Machine"	Slot Machine
2-13	"Through the Cracks"	Through the Cracks
2-14	"Either Way, It's All Good"	Either Way, It's All Good
2-15	"Sneak Preview"	Sneak Preview
2-16	"Daedalus Delicatessen"	Daedalus Delicatessen
2-17	"Stacked Dozen"	Stacked Dozen (alternate solution)
1-1	"Left Holding the Bag"	Sokoban Level 4a
1-2	"Reflectoban"	Sokoban Level 4b
1-3	"Just Keep Pushing"	Sokoban Level 4c
1-4	"Work For It"	Sokoban Level 4d
1-5	"Dudley's Torment"	Sokoban Level 4e
1-6	"Plinketto"	Sokoban Level 4f
1-7	"Ringing Endorsement"	Ringing Endorsement
1-8	"Open at the Top"	Open at the Top
1-9	"Collecting Marbles"	Collecting Marbles
1-10	"Running Rings Around"	Running Rings Around
1-11	"Back At Ya"	Back At Ya
1-12	"The Dragon of Bactria"	The Dragon of Bactria

Town branch

From SlashTHEM/UnNethack
Appears 2-3 levels below the Oracle.
Created a "Raided Angband" level that is been ransacked by bandits and thieves.
You can always find the Master Sword guarded by a gang of bandits in the village.

Rat level

A single randomized level picked from:

The Rat Level (Slash'EM)
The Rat Level (SlashTHEM)

Alignment Quests

Appears on DL 15-19, from SLASH'EM
As in SLASH'EM, two of the three alignment keys are needed for Vlad's Tower
Some elements of the quests have been changed:

Neutral Quest

There is now a secret compartment full of e's that will slowly funnel into the level now.

Chaotic Quest

Instead of the randomized level that SLASH'EM had, we have replaced it with Vecna's Manse from SlashTHEM.
The difficulty of Vecna has been reduced to be closer to the SLASH'EM version, but he still gets the extra clerical spell attack from Evil.

Big Room

Imported a bunch of new big room variations from UnNethack, SpliceHack, and SLASHTHEM.

Grund's Stronghold

Added more traps and the moat is double wide now, the stronghold wall is also phaseproof.
Grund's Stronghold now has a large cache of ammunition in one of the storage rooms.

Fort Ludios

Ludios appears on the first eligible level with a vault.
Fort Ludios can also appear below Medusa's.
An extra dungeon prison has been added below Fort Ludios. This is a leftover from the Lethe branch and it seemed to fit here!

Wyrm Caves branch

Created an entrance level (from dNetHack's Erebor quest)
At the bottom is a dangerous dragon nest which guards a massive treasure horde (from UnNetHack)

Black Market

Now has an extra layout ported from UnNetHack which features many different shops with black marketeers, with One-Eyed Sam still standing guard.
Reduced Black Market prices a bit.
Black Market Layout 1 is now a little thinner.
Now undiggable and phase-proof.

The Storage Room

Added 4 variations from dnh

Gehennom

No longer a series of mazes, but are mines-style levels with lava.
Areas such as the Sanctum and the entrance to the Wizard's Tower have also been adjusted.
Cerberus now guards the entrance to Gehennom.
Vlad the Impaler's tower is the SLASH'EM version
Vibrating square: messages when player is near

Elemental Planes

The first four Planes levels are randomized and appear in a different order every game.
Updated monsters on the plane of water with deepest ones, things from below, and mermaids.

New special rooms

Fungus Farm (SLASH'EM)
Migo Hive (SLASH'EM)
Dragon Lair (SLASH'EM)
Real Zoo (SLASH'EM)
- Added zoo bats
Bad Food Shop (SLASH'EM)
- Full of bad food and rotten eggs.
Giant Court (SLASH'EM)
Lemure Pit
Mini Guild (Hack'EM)
- These replace the Guild of Disgruntled Adventurers in SLASH'EM.
- Much smaller, less densely packed with player monsters
- other monsters include typical pets.
Clinic room (SlashTHEM)
Terror hall (SlashTHEM)

Themed rooms

EvilHack already had most of the themed rooms but more have been added.
Added any missing flipped versions of rooms (from UnNetHack) for completeness
Added minimum levels to all themed Rooms
- The dungeon is pretty clean of themed rooms until level 8.
- At levels 8, 11, and 17 we introduce more variety.

Shops

Shopkeepers can be a variety of different races; your race versus theirs directly affects pricing.
Removed the racial shopkeeper price adjustments.

Shopkeeper services

Instead of every store offering a general Identify service - every shop offers premier identify services based on their shop type or the race of the shopkeeper.
Streamlined the service menu interface. Previously navigating the services was tedious. Now when you press 'p', you are immediately presented with a full menu of all the available services - no submenus within menus.
Removed shopkeepers stealing all your money when you charge a wand of wishing.
Only Black Market can have the "identify any" service
The service charge "smoothing" rewards higher charisma.
All shop identify services are basic (and half price).

Firearms training service

In addition to the weapon practice technique, this is a shopkeeper service for making firearms more accessible.
Gun shops always offer this up to Expert skill.
Weapon shops, armor shops offer 20% of the time, up to max Skilled.
General stores offer it 10% of the time, up to max Basic.
- $500 for Basic skill
- $1000 for Skilled
- $2000 for expert

Tinker service

Only gnomes offer this service
Allows you to upgrade an object to a similar or related form, works the same as dipping an item into a potion of gain level.
In Slash'EM this was implemented as a technique, but here the service only takes 1 turn (we'll assume the shopkeepers are very good at tinkering or just cheating and using a hidden potion of gain level behind the counter)
Base charge is $500
Non-gnomes are charged double
Low intelligence (under 18 INT) players are subject to $100 price gouge
Lower intelligence (under 13 INT) players are subject to $250 price gouge
See the database on "upgrade" for a full list of eligible upgrades.

Add weapon property

Weapon based shops can offer an expensive random property service now.
Only one property can be added to a weapon.

Service details

Shop/Race	Services
All shops:	1 in 3 offer uncursing services. 1 in 20 offer rumors
General stores:	0-2 random identify services, 10% chance of having 1 extra identify service. 20% offer firearms training 25% offer basic charging
Weapon shops:	75% offer weapon ID 20% offer armor ID 25% offer weapon fixing 25% offer weapon enchanting 25% offer weapon poisoning 20% offer firearms training 20% offer property grafting
Armor shops:	75% offer armor ID 20% offer weapon ID 25% offer armor fixing 25% offer armor enchanting (Note: Armor shops will refuse to work on dragon scales.) 20% offer firearms training
Scroll stores:	75% offer scroll ID 20% offer book ID
Spellbook stores:	75% offer book ID 20% offer scroll ID
Potion stores:	50% offer potion ID
Ring stores:	20% offer ring ID 20% offer amulet ID 20% offer gem ID 25% offer basic charging
Wand shops:	50% offer wand ID 20% offer armor ID 25% offer basic charging 25% offer premium charging
Tool shops:	50% offer tool ID 25% offer basic charging
Deli/food shops:	100% offer food ID 10% offer potion ID
Pet shops:	50% offer food ID 25% offer tool ID
Lighting shops:	10% offer potion ID
Dwarves:	20% offer weapon ID 20% offer armor ID 20% offer gem ID
Orcs:	25% offer weapon poisoning
Gnomes:	25% offer tool ID 25% offer tinker
Giants:	20% offer gem ID
Nymphs:	10% offer ring ID 20% offer potion ID
Hobbit:	50% offer food ID 10% offer ring ID
Illithid:	25% offer scroll ID 25% offer spellbook ID

New shop types

Pet Shops (From UnNetHack)
Instrument Shop (From UnNetHack)
Tin Shop ("canned food factory") (From UnNetHack)
Junk shop (from SpliceHack): Features all your favorite items in one convenient place!
Mask shop (from SpliceHack)
Archery shop (from SpliceHack)
Gun shops (from SlashTHEM)

Misc shop changes

Lighting shops can now carry wands/scrolls/spellbooks of light, as well as the rare wand of lightning.
Delis can carry meat sticks, royal jelly, and huge chunks of meat.
Hardware stores stock potions of oil, and rarely touchstones (xnh)
Archery shops not should appear if your character cannot attain any proficiency in BOW.
Gun shops should not appear if your character cannot attain any proficiency in FIREARM.
Gun shops can also carry assault rifles, flintlocks, grease, and towels.
Pet shops can carry bardings of all types.

Dragons and dragon scales

EvilHack uses the dtsund patch for dragon scales, which means that dragon scale mail no longer exists - but we can apply dragon scales to any armor. Since robes are now body armor - we can even create dragon scaled robes! Evil introduced some passive effects, these have been expanded so that every dragon scale provides a form of passive attack. The scales' abilities have also been switched around. Most are from other forks, but some are original to Hack'EM. Dragon scales worn on their own only exhibit their primary effect.

Dragon	Primary	Secondary	Passive
Black	Disintegration res	Slow digestion	Disintegration (!!)
Blue	Shock res	Speed	Shock (!!)
Deep	Drain res	Stable (hurtling res)	Drain life
Gold	Light	Automatic searching	Blinding
Gray	Magic res	Cancel protection	Cancellation (!!)
Green	Poison res	Sickness res	Poison
Orange	Sleep res	Free action	Slow
Red	Fire res	+1d6 melee damage	Fire (!!)
Shimmering	Displacement	Stealth/Warn/See invisible	Confuse/Stun/Slow
Silver	Reflection	Blinding res	Scaring
Sea	Magical breathing	Swimming	Water/rust (!!)
White	Cold res	Freeze water/Lava walk	Cold (!!)
Yellow	Acid res	Stoning res	Acid (!!)
Celestial	Flying	Sleep, shock, sonic res	None

!! - Risks item destruction from the type of attack

- Most of the passive attacks only trigger 33% of the time. - Black DSM also protects from engulfing digest attacks (But not engulf "wrap" attacks) - Blue scales passive shock is normally 1d6, but is capable of a critical hit for 2d24 - Acid scales passive acid is normally 1d3, but is capable of a critical hit for (level+1)d6 - Note: Artifact armors cannot be fused with dragon scales. Currently the only armor this counts for is the Grandmaster's Robe.

Spells and spellcasting

New spellbooks

Spell	Class	Level	Notes
spellbook of acid blast	ATTACK	6	Inherited from EvilHack, originally from GruntHack. A serious damage-causing spell, will transition from a ray to an area of effect spell much like the spells fireball and cone of cold, damage output is on the same scale to creatures that do not resist acid. Can corrode objects in the target's inventory.
spellbook of command undead	NECROMANCY	3	Was an ATTACK spell in SLASH'EM, now a NECROMANCY spell. This spell is equivalent to charm monster, except that it only affects undead. Was a level 5 spell in SLASH'EM, now level 3.
spellbook of enlighten	DIVINATION	4	Using this is equivalent to the wand of enlightenment. Was a BODY spell in SLASH'EM, now DIVINATION.
spellbook of fire bolt	MATTER	1	Fire Bolt is only available to the Flame Mage and will not generate randomly. The spellbook itself is immune to fire. A fire attack (similar to force bolt) that doesn't reflect and can hit multiple targets. Destroys doors, trees, grass, webs, fountains and can insta-kill straw and paper golems. Damage scales with level: Level 1 = 1d10 fire damage Level 4 = 1d10 + 1d8 fire damage Level 8 = 1d10 + 2d8 fire damage Level 12 = 1d10 + 3d8 fire damage Matter at Skilled adds +1d4 fire damage Matter at Expert adds +1d4 fire damage
spellbook of flame sphere	MATTER	1	Inherited from EvilHack, originally from SLASH'EM. This spell creates a number of tame flaming spheres dependent on the skill of the caster. The spellbook itself is immune to fire. Was a level 2 spell in EvilHack.
spellbook of freeze sphere	MATTER	1	Inherited from EvilHack, originally from SLASH'EM. This spell creates a number of tame freezing spheres dependent on the skill of the caster. Was a level 2 spell in EvilHack.
spellbook of lightning	ATTACK	4	Inherited from EvilHack, originally from SLASH'EM. This spell shoots a powerful lightning bolt as a ray from the caster. Effects are basically the same as a wand of lightning, damage output uses the same scale as the spells fireball and cone of cold.
spellbook of passwall	ESCAPE	5	Grants temporary intrinsic phasing, allowing you to pass through solid walls and other objects for anywhere between 50 and 149 turns before they become solid again. Was a level 6 BODY spell in SLASH'EM, now level 5 ESCAPE spell.
spellbook of poison blast	ATTACK	4	Inherited from EvilHack (where it's a level 5 spell), but this spell originally came from SLASH'EM (level 4). Produces a cloud of noxious gas in a ray pattern, same effects much like a green dragons breath attack. Reduced to level 4.
spellbook of psionic wave	ATTACK	1	Not generated randomly. This "spell" acts as the illithid race's psychic attack. When playing as the illithid race you will automatically start with this spell, but you will NOT start with the spellbook. This psionic attack can confuse and kill, and is tied to spell power use (but is not considered a spell for the purposes of Amulet of Yendor interactions). If your race is changed (e.g. by getting crowned as an infidel), this ability is lost. This spell will not time out as a normal spell would. Does 2d6 psychic damage. At XL 26, this increases to 4d6 psychic damage.
spellbook of reflection	MATTER	5	Creates a temporary reflective bubble around the caster. While active this acts exactly the same as an amulet of reflection (or the like)
spellbook of repair armor	MATTER	3	Repairs one level of damage to any worn piece of armor. Will not make armor items fixed. Works as a foil to the new monster spell 'destroy armor'
spellbook of sonicboom	MATTER	4	From SpliceHack. Similar to a cone of cold, but inflicts sonic damage.
spellbook of summon undead	NECROMANCY	5	Was an ATTACK spell in SLASH'EM, now a NECROMANCY spell. 72 in 73 chance of creating one undead monster and a 1 in 73 chance of creating five undead. Necromancers will automatically attempt to dominate the resulting monster(s). Monster(s) may resist, based on their MR.

Spellcasting changes

Unlike in SLASH'EM, the standard retention for spellbooks is still 20000 turns. The reinforce memory technique can be used to extend your spell memory when a spell gets low.
Removed the BODY spell school in SLASH'EM, moved to the ESCAPE spells
Removed PROTECTION spell school in SlashEM, moved to the CLERIC spells
Removed CLERIC spell school and created a NECROMANCY spell school to support the new spin on the Necromancer role. The spells from the CLERIC school have been distributed among the other schools as appropriate.
Increased available max spells by 10 (Added 0-9 for spell list letters)
Spellbook weights are now based on their level.
Spellcasting while wearing body armor will negatively affect your spell success rate. The exception to this is crystal plate mail, which does not adversely affect spellcasting in any way.
Casting any spell successfully adds +500 turns to your memory of it (from SLASH'EM).

Existing spell changes

Spell	Notes
spellbook of cause fear
spellbook of charm monster	Decreased from level 5 (in old Vanilla) to level 4. The SLASH'EM mechanics of traitorous and untamable monsters have been added. This means that many monsters that a player would typically tame with charm monster will now be able to turn hostile on a whim (or not be tamable at all).
spellbook of confuse monster	Decreased from level 2 (in old Vanilla) to level 1.
spellbook of cure sickness	Now directional and can be cast at other monsters/pets as well as yourself. When cast at zombies, does damage to them instead of healing.
spellbook of cone of cold	Was an ATTACK spell, now a MATTER spell.
spellbook of create monster	Was an CLERIC spell, now a ENCHANTMENT spell.
spellbook of create familiar	Was an CLERIC spell, now a ENCHANTMENT spell. Traitorous and untameable pets cannot be made from the spell of create familiar.
spellbook of detect food	Decreased from level 2 (in Vanilla) to level 1.
spellbook of detect monsters	Raised from level 1 (in Vanilla) to level 2.
spellbook of detect unseen	Decreased from level 3 (in Vanilla) to level 2.
spellbook of dig	Decreased from level 5 (in Vanilla) to level 3.
spellbook of fireball	Was an ATTACK spell, now a MATTER spell.
spellbook of invisibility	Decreased from level 4 (in Vanilla) to level 2.
spellbook of jumping	Raised from level 1 (in Vanilla) to level 2.
spellbook of protection	Was an CLERIC spell, now a ENCHANTMENT spell.
spellbook of remove curse	Was an CLERIC spell, now a ENCHANTMENT spell.
spellbook of restore ability	Decreased from level 4 (in Vanilla) to level 2. Restore ability spell is now directional. (EvilHack)
spellbook of sleep	Decreased from level 3 (in Vanilla) to level 1.
spellbook of slow monster	Decreased from level 2 (in Vanilla) to level 1.
spellbook of teleport away	Decreased from level 6 (in Vanilla) to level 5.
spellbook of turn undead	Was an CLERIC spell, now a NECROMANCY spell.

Arcane monster spells

Touch of death

if you have MR you'll take damage (8d6) and your maximum hit point level can be reduced slightly.
Having MR and half spell damage together can reduce those effects even more.

Cancellation (new)

Acts just like having a wand of cancellation zapped at the player.
The spellcasting monster must be lined up with the player before it can cast this spell.

Acid blast (new)

A powerful area of effect spell, does acid damage to its target.
The damage output is dependent on the level of the monster casting it.
The acid from this spell also has a chance of eroding any unprotected weapons or armor in open inventory.

Destroy armor

Vanilla behavior – if the player didn't have magic resistance, one piece of armor would be completely destroyed.
In HackEM, any piece of worn armor can have its fixed status removed, and then deteriorated.
Even armor that is normally erodeproof is affected.
Having MR keeps the erosion level at one per cast, otherwise 1-3 levels per cast.
Armor-based quest artifacts are immune to this spell, as is crystal plate mail.

Fire bolt (new)

A small area of effect spell, this spell explodes a small fireball upon its target.
Any flammable objects in open inventory are subject to being burned.
low-level spell, any spellcaster has access to it.

Ice bolt (new)

A small area of effect spell, this spell explodes a small ice storm upon its target.
Any non-protected objects in open inventory are subject to being frozen.
low-level spell, any spellcaster has access to it.

Reflection (new)

Creates a shimmering globe around the caster, granting them reflection for several turns.

Create Pool (from SlashEM)

Affected by displacement and invisibility now.
Monsters can't create pools on traps.
Spellcasters can only cast create pool on squares that zombies can dig on: normal room and corridor squares, grass, and grave tiles.

Call Undead (from SlashEM)

Summon Monsters/Nasties

Enemies have to see you in order to cast this spell now.
Implemented fix #K669 - 'nasty' monster summoning.
chain summoning nerf. tldr: "If a replacement creature is a spellcaster it now has to have lower difficulty than the summoner."

Updated nasties lists with slashem monsters.
Added gug, slaughter wights, devas, revenant

Clerical monster spells

Summon minion (new)

Summon a type of minion based on its alignment.
Demons that can cast clerical spells are not given access to this spell (they can already demon-gate).

Geyser

A powerful spell that causes a large geyser of water to slam into its target, causing physical damage (8d6).
What's new: can now rust any unprotected worn armor.

Vulnerability (new)

Its target temporarily becomes vulnerable to either fire, cold, shock or acid-based attacks, dropping its resistance (if any exists) by 50%.

Monster mechanic changes

Berserking behavior

From EvilHack
Monsters with this property have the M3_BERSERK tag.
When berserkers are below 1/3 of their health, they go into berserk mode.
When berserking, monsters totally ignore Elbereth or Scare Monster. If they are usually skittish or trying to keep away, they will instead actively approach.
A berserking monster also has a 1 in 3 chance of dealing their max possible damage when hitting you.
They will also lash out at random monsters to get at you.
This property has been added to many monsters: all rabid animals, all dwarves, most orcs, all bears, all badgers, all gnolls, most giants, and other monsters where it seems appropriate.

Traitorous/betrayal behavior

From SLASH'EM, monsters with this property have the M3_TRAITOR tag. If tame, monsters with the traitor property have a small chance to betray you on each turn.
In SLASH'EM this used to depend on the monster's HP being lower than yours, but that condition has been removed and the chance of betraying has been significantly increased.
Also in SLASH'EM, the chance of a pet betraying was quite low. There was a 1 in 850 chance per turn of the betray check even occurring. The chance of this check has been increased to 1 in 250 each turn.
All monsters that were traitorous in SLASH'EM/THEM have kept it, and it has been added to various new monsters as appropriate. For example: Migos, gargoyles, any thieves, any illithids, any pirates, deep ones, most imps, all kobolds, all orcs, all gnolls, and other various conniving creatures.
Also closely related is the "untameable" property, which as also been imported from SLASH'EM.
Necromancers will never be betrayed by their undead pets.

How does the betrayed check work?

All these conditions must be true:

The pet is not a minion
The pet is less than 4 squares away from you.
The pet is capable of treachery.
The pet is not mindless.
Hitting a 1 on a d3 roll.
Hitting a d22 roll that is greater than the pets tameness (means that the lower the tameness, the higher chance of succeeding)
Hitting a d(pet's abuse + 2) that isn't 1 (means that even if your pet has not suffered any abuse, there is a 50% chance of the roll succeeding.)

If all these conditions and rolls are met, your pet will become hostile and turn on you. The implications of this mechanic are to be more careful around polytraps - carefully monitor what your pet is polymorphing into, or abandon it if it could threaten you with betrayal.

Flanking behavior

From SpliceHack, monsters with this property have the M2_FLANK tag.
Any two monsters can flank a player (or another monster) if they sandwich the target. However, monsters with this property ("outflankers") are more tactical and will actively seek opportunities to flank the player.
Monsters gain a large bonus to hit when flanking (located on opposite sides of the player's position).
Flanking now scales with monster level (it used to be a flat +4 AC penalty in SpliceHack):
- AC penalty = 4 + (mdiffulty - 4) / 2
Flanking has been applied to many appropriate monsters in Hack'EM.

Using a pet, you can also take advantage of flanking. Simply place yourself and your pet in such a way as to "sandwich" the monster. You (and your pet) will each get a flanking bonus on the victim.

Flanking restrictions:

You cannot flank if hallucinating, afraid, confused, punished, fumbling, wounded, or stunned. You must also be able to see the monster you want to flank.
Monsters cannot flank if sleeping, fleeing, confused, trapped, being stoned, sick, diseased, or stunned.

Monster hit point generation

Now determined by their size as well as what level they are.
They also have the same armor class damage reduction that players enjoy.

Intelligent monsters

Mostly from evil, but a fair amount of monster usage code has come from Splice, Un, and xnh
Intelligent monsters/pets can use many more items against the player or for their own benefit, including:
- stashing objects into bags and taking them back out
- unlocking and looting locked containers
- activating any figurines it may have
- wearing most rings
- reading scrolls of remove curse to uncurse items in its inventory
- scrolls of charging to recharge wands in its possession
- utilizing powerful wands against the player
If an intelligent monster is lucky enough to get a wish from a smoky potion - it WILL wish for something to use against the player.

Some monsters can break boulders to get at you: the riders, shopkeepers, priests, the Oracle, your quest leader, and any monster with a pickaxe! If you are in Sokoban, however, monsters are forbidden from breaking boulders.

Player monsters

From EvilHack, player monsters are now their own class of monster and separate from how the actual player is defined. They were purposely left out of the new monsters table as it would unnecessarily inflate that list. Player monsters differ here from vanilla NetHack in that they can spawn outside of the Astral Plane, are yellow in color, and are kitted out in player-like gear starting at level 10, and then can be kitted out with ascension-level gear starting at level 20.
Their hit dice and difficulty level roughly matches that of the actual player (this is based off of what experience level the actual player is when the player monster spawns). Their abilities closely match their role as well (wizards and priests can cast spells, rogues can steal items from inventory, etc).
Player monsters covet the Amulet of Yendor and will attempt to steal it! If they steal it while on the Astral Plane, they WILL attempt to sacrifice it themselves. As you can imagine, if that happens, it is a game-ending event.

Shape-changing monsters

(except for vampires and were-creatures) will revert back to their original form when their polymorphed form dies.
They cannot change form again once this happens.

Breaking boulders

Some monsters can now go the extra mile and will even break down your boulder forts to get at you! This feature was ported from EvilHack.
Monsters that can break boulders include: The riders, shopkeepers (including One-Eyed Sam), priests, quest leaders, and the Oracle.
Any monster that is wielding a pick-axe can also break rocks.
Note: This doesn't apply in Sokoban, monsters are banned from breaking those boulders.

Unique monster changes

The Oracle sometimes gets a potion of hallucination. (xnh)

Medusa

Medusa has been enhanced; she is no longer an easy kill.
Her hit points and level have been boosted.
She spawns wielding an enchanted orcish bow with a quiver full of enchanted and poisoned orcish arrows.
The snakes on her head can attack (poisonous bite) and her own bite causes slow-stoning.
Her gaze is still of the instant petrification type.
Having reflection is no longer a guaranteed kill, she resists most of the time.
When defeated, a pegasus will arise from her body (SLASH'EM)

Demon lords/princes

These demons and the lair they may appear in, has been completely randomized.
Your experience in Gehennom can be a very different experience per game.

Juiblex

Has been enhanced, and has many more acid-based attacks at its disposal.

Vlad the Impaler

Can cast wizard-based monster spells, and wields the artifact weapon Lifestealer.

The Wizard of Yendor

Can use any artifact weapons or armor that he steals against the player.
Color changed to bright magenta.
The frequency of Rodney's harassment of the player now slightly depends on luck.
Lowered Rodney's AC from -8 to -6 (from EvilHack)

The Riders

Identity of the Riders is hidden via farlook or 'More info about' prompt. (UnNetHack/EvilHackkkkk)
All of the riders have more HP than they did in Vanilla NetHack (EvilHack).

Strategy guide for vanilla players

Hack'EM strategy guide for vanilla players

Misc resources

Template:HackEMMonsters

Click on a glyph to go to that monster's page.

Hack'EM Frequently Asked Questions
Hack'EM monsters (Complete unabridged listing)
Hack'EM items (Complete unabridged listing)
Monster (Hack'EM)
Roles and races (Hack'EM)
Artifact (Hack'EM)

Hack'EM

Contents

About

Welcome to Hack'EM!

Changes from SLASH'EM

Changes from EvilHack

Dungeon changes

Big bad changes

Item changes

Mechanics changes

Race/role updates

More content!

Quality-of-life features

Auto-identification

Other QoL

Wizard mode updates

Wishing shortcuts

Mechanics changes

Mold and fungus resurrection

Elbereth

Scare monster

Extended and new commands

Resistances and intrinsics

Partial resistances

Afraid status

"Stable" property

Sonic resistance property (from Splice)

Psychic resistance property

Larva carrier property

Upgrading and tinkering

Conflict

Dexterity

Amnesia and forgetting

Religion, prayer, altars

Minions

Dungeon growth patch

Alchemy

Malcolm Ryan's Brewing Patch

Pouring potions into sinks (xnh)

Gem alchemy

Oily Corpses patch

Shield skill

Techniques

Changes to existing techniques

Techniques left out from SLASH'EM

The Quest

Dungeon features

Trap mechanics

Breaking wands creates related traps

Grass

Bloody tiles

Vents

Toilets

Toilet kicking

Amulet identification in toilets (slex)

Sinks

Forges

Dungeon changes

The SLASH'EM levels

Gnomish Mines

Sokoban

Town branch

Rat level

Alignment Quests

Neutral Quest

Chaotic Quest

Big Room

Grund's Stronghold

Fort Ludios

Wyrm Caves branch

Black Market

The Storage Room

Gehennom

Elemental Planes

New special rooms

Themed rooms

Shops

Shopkeeper services

Firearms training service

Tinker service