Silver bullet (SLASH'EM) - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: /* Origin */ other tweaks

2025-11-30T23:31:44Z

‎Origin: other tweaks

Umbire the Phantom: tweaks

2025-11-30T23:31:07Z

tweaks

Umbire the Phantom: copyedit + detail

2025-09-14T00:35:28Z

copyedit + detail

Umbire the Phantom: word choice

2025-08-29T05:05:35Z

word choice

Umbire the Phantom: /* Description */ typo

2025-08-28T22:44:53Z

‎Description: typo

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ todo

2025-08-28T05:54:17Z

‎Strategy: todo

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ detail

2025-08-28T05:53:19Z

‎Strategy: detail

Umbire the Phantom: /* Origin */ fix wp

2025-08-28T03:45:34Z

‎Origin: fix wp

Umbire the Phantom: /* Generation */ typo

2025-08-28T03:45:21Z

‎Generation: typo

Umbire the Phantom: mention splice, rephrase

2025-08-28T03:45:11Z

mention splice, rephrase

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 ==Origin==
 {{wikipedia|Silver bullet}}
-A silver bullet is a folkloric weapon that is often employed as one of the few effective means to hurt or kill a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term 'silver bullet' is also employed as a metaphor for a simple seemingly-magical solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin circa 1930 was a "silver bullet" or magic bullet that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections.
+A silver bullet is a folkloric weapon that is often employed as one of the few effective means to hurt or kill a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term 'silver bullet' is also employed as a metaphor for a simple seemingly-magical solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin circa 1930 was a "silver bullet" or "magic bullet" that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections.
 Some authors asserted that the idea of the werewolf's supposed vulnerability to bullets cast from silver dates back to the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal killed by the hunter Jean Chastel in the year 1767; however, the idea that Chastel purportedly using a gun loaded with silver bullets is derived from a distortion of a detail found in Henri Pourrat's work, where the French writer imagines that the beast was shot thanks to medals of the Virgin Mary, worn by Jean Chastel in his hat and then melted down to make bullets. Similarly, Swedish folklore and other similar accounts tend to describe silver bullets as a catch-all weapon against creatures like wizards or the skogsrå that are "hard" against regular ammunition.
-These associations from folklore have carried over into popular culture, such as fictional Wild West heroes that used silver bullets to symbolize their purity of heart (e.g. the various incarnations of the Lone Ranger) and monster slayers of the fantasy-horror genre. The 1941 film ''[[wikipedia:The Wolf Man (1941 film)|The Wolf Man]]'' and its sequels and spinoffs codified silver in general as the definitive death-dealer material for werewolves, to the point where this weakness is often regarded as exclusive to lycanthropes: notable film examples include the 1985 ''Silver Bullet'' and the 2005 ''Cursed'', with the latter being in part a self-referential spoof of the 1941 film.
+These associations from folklore have carried over into popular culture, such as fictional Wild West heroes that used silver bullets to symbolize their purity of heart (e.g. the various incarnations of the Lone Ranger) and monster slayers of the fantasy-horror genre. The 1941 film ''[[wikipedia:The Wolf Man (1941 film)|The Wolf Man]]'' and its sequels and spinoffs codified silver in general as the definitive death-dealer material for werewolves, to the point where this weakness is often regarded as exclusive to lycanthropes: notable film examples include the 1985 ''Silver Bullet'' and the 2005 ''Cursed'', with the latter being a self-referential spoof of the 1941 film in part.
 Of note is that real-life experiments with bullets cast from silver have shown them to be slightly less effective than ordinary lead bullets, as they have a lower density and are less malleable, and the high cost of silver means that they have never been produced in any real volume.

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 A '''silver bullet''' is a type of [[weapon]] that appears in [[SLASH'EM]] and [[SlashTHEM]]. The silver bullet is a [[projectile]] that uses the [[firearms]] skill, and like the standard [[Bullet (SLASH'EM)|bullet]] it is designed as ammunition for [[Pistol (SLASH'EM)|pistols]], [[Submachine gun (SLASH'EM)|submachine guns]], [[heavy machine gun (SLASH'EM)|heavy machine guns]], [[Rifle (SLASH'EM)|standard rifles]], [[Assault rifle (SLASH'EM)|assault rifles]], and [[Sniper rifle (SLASH'EM)|sniper rifles]]. It is naturally made of [[silver]].
-The item is phased out in [[SpliceHack]] and [[Hack'EM]] due to the inclusion of an [[object materials]] system in each variant: both [[Object materials (SpliceHack)|SpliceHack]] and [[Object materials (Hack'EM)|Hack'EM]] allow standard bullets to be made of silver.
+The item is phased out in [[SpliceHack]] and [[Hack'EM]], due to the inclusion of an [[object materials]] system in each [[variant]]: both [[Object materials (SpliceHack)|SpliceHack]] and [[Object materials (Hack'EM)|Hack'EM]] allow standard bullets to be made of silver.
 ==Generation==

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 ==Generation==
-Silver bullets are not randomly generated, though they can be [[wish]]ed for or found in [[bones]].
+Silver bullets are generated differently depending on the variant.
-[[Undead Slayer]]s have a {{frac|4}} chance of starting with a weapon set that includes a [[pistol]] and silver bullets, while [[Lycanthrope (starting race)|lycanthrope]] Undead Slayers that receive this weapon set will have them replaced with normal bullets instead.{{refsrc|shknam.c|354|version=SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2}}{{refsrc|shknam.c|1214|version=SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2}}
+===SLASH'EM===
 [[Weapons outlet]]s can very rarely stock silver bullets, where they have a {{frac|100}} chance of being generated on each square.{{refsrc|shknam.c|234|version=SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2}}
 ==Description==
-Silver bullets function identically to normal bullets, except that they also do silver damage to silver-hating monsters when fired from a firearm weapon&mdash;this silver damage is not applied when attacking with a wielded stack of silver bullets in melee or else [[throwing]] them without a proper [[launcher]], similar to [[silver arrow]]s in [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and previous versions.
+Silver bullets function identically to normal bullets, except that they also do silver damage to silver-hating monsters when fired from a firearm weapon&mdash;this silver damage is not applied when attacking with a wielded stack of silver bullets in melee or else [[throwing]] them without a proper [[launcher]], similar to [[silver arrow]]s in [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and versions of ''[[NetHack]]'' that precede it.
 ==Strategy==
@@ Line 34: / Line 44: @@
 ==Origin==
 {{wikipedia|Silver bullet}}
-A silver bullet is a folkloric weapon that is often employed as one of the few effective means to hurt or kill a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term 'silver bullet' is also employed as a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin circa 1930 was a "silver bullet" or magic bullet that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections.
+A silver bullet is a folkloric weapon that is often employed as one of the few effective means to hurt or kill a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term 'silver bullet' is also employed as a metaphor for a simple seemingly-magical solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin circa 1930 was a "silver bullet" or magic bullet that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections.
 Some authors asserted that the idea of the werewolf's supposed vulnerability to bullets cast from silver dates back to the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal killed by the hunter Jean Chastel in the year 1767; however, the idea that Chastel purportedly using a gun loaded with silver bullets is derived from a distortion of a detail found in Henri Pourrat's work, where the French writer imagines that the beast was shot thanks to medals of the Virgin Mary, worn by Jean Chastel in his hat and then melted down to make bullets. Similarly, Swedish folklore and other similar accounts tend to describe silver bullets as a catch-all weapon against creatures like wizards or the skogsrå that are "hard" against regular ammunition.

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 As silver bullets are incredibly rare, it is very unlikely that any hero will be able to amass enough of them in order to bless and [[Scroll of enchant weapon|enchant]] for long-term use until the later stages of the game, and even then doing so may require several wishes.
-An Undead Slayer that starts the game with a cache of silver bullets may consider using them against early [[Werecreature (SLASH'EM)|werecreatures]] in order to kill them quickly with the high base damage and silver bonuses, particularly including after they revert to their initial form. [[Rogue/SLASH'EM|Rogues]] and other character builds with high firearms skill that have the spare wishes may opt to amass a cache and reserve it for specific fights, such as the [[demon lords and princes]] in [[Gehennom (SLASH'EM)|Gehennom]].
+An Undead Slayer that starts the game with a cache of silver bullets may consider using them against early [[Werecreature (SLASH'EM)|werecreatures]] in order to kill them quickly with the high base damage and silver bonuses, particularly including after they revert to their initial form. [[Rogue/SLASH'EM|Rogues]] and other character builds with high firearms skill that have the spare wishes may opt to amass a cache of silver bullets and reserve it for specific fights, such as the [[demon lords and princes]] in [[Gehennom (SLASH'EM)|Gehennom]].
 {{todo|Consider detailing per-variant strategy.}}

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==Description==
-Silver bullets function identically to normal bullets, except that they also do silver damage to silver-hating monsters when fired from a firearm weapon&mdash;this silver damage is not applied when attacking with a wielded stack of silver bullets in melee or esel [[throwing]] them without a proper [[launcher]], similar to [[silver arrow]]s in [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and previous versions.
+Silver bullets function identically to normal bullets, except that they also do silver damage to silver-hating monsters when fired from a firearm weapon&mdash;this silver damage is not applied when attacking with a wielded stack of silver bullets in melee or else [[throwing]] them without a proper [[launcher]], similar to [[silver arrow]]s in [[NetHack 3.4.3]] and previous versions.
 ==Strategy==