EvilHack

EvilHack is a variant initially based on NetHack 3.6.2, created by Keith Simpson (also known as User:K2). Work on EvilHack began on October 20th 2018, and it was released for public play in April of 2019 on the Hardfought public NetHack servers. The Github repository for EvilHack can be found at https://github.com/k21971/EvilHack; a direct link to the change log can be found here, and is updated on a regular basis. The latest build of EvilHack incorporates the official release build of NetHack 3.6.7 as well as several bugfixes from NetHack 3.7.0 (EvilHack version 0.8.4 - last build Sat Aug 17 03:24:23 2024 UTC - git commit f4d4ac1). To download the official release (version 0.8.4), which includes Windows binaries, visit this link.

About

EvilHack was designed from the outset to be a much more difficult game to win than vanilla NetHack. The inspiration for this game mainly comes from the variants GruntHack and SporkHack, incorporating many of the same features that make those variants difficult in their own right. Some of those features have remained the same (for example, SporkHack's reflection changes), but many have been altered to set them apart and provide the player with a new experience. Elements from other variants have been included as well, such as from dNetHack, Slash'EM, SpliceHack, UnNetHack, and xNetHack. There is also a significant amount of custom content that has been developed that is not found in any other variant. In the near future, much more custom content will be added, mainly in the way of optional branch quests.

It is not impossible to ascend EvilHack (there have been many ascensions, summarized at this page on the NetHack Scoreboard), but there are several aspects of this game that the player might take for granted from vanilla NetHack that can easily end a promising run. In general, monsters are tougher and have more hit points, they can fight more intelligently, and they can and will use a variety of items and spells against you that previously only the player could use. Players that lean heavily on using Elbereth will need to re-think their strategy, especially during the early game. Some improvements have been made for the player as well, ensuring there is a significant balance to game play, but overall this variant will be a significant challenge for even the seasoned player.

Design Philosophy

As stated before, the overall design goal for EvilHack is that it's a more difficult and challenging game than vanilla NetHack or other variants, without sacrificing game balance or (most importantly) the game's fun-factor.

In short:

EvilHack is meant to be very difficult and challenging.
EvilHack is meant to be fun, even though it is difficult.
Any changes should be balanced.
Replayablilty/randomness is a priority design goal to ensure unpredictable outcomes and to keep the experience fresh.
Addressing bugs/balance issues will always be an ongoing process.
Player feedback/constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged.

Special thanks

From the variant author – a special thank you to community members Tangles, aosdict, AntiGulp, NCommander, jonadab, Demo, hothraxxa, jt, elenmirie, raisse, Grasshopper, ShivanHunter, Ogomt, riker, amateurhour, microlance, mobileuser, Tomsod, qt, krm26, terrapin, hackemslashem, various members of the DevTeam, and everyone else who play tested and provided invaluable feedback and code fixes. EvilHack would not have progressed as far as it has without their help and constructive criticism.

Summary of major changes

Example of HTML dumplog output.

Below is a quick list of the more obvious or significant changes in EvilHack compared to vanilla NetHack:

Random dungeon levels are more varied and distinct.
Gehennom is 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, and Cerberus now guards the entrance to Gehennom. While in Gehennom, if the player does not have 100% fire resistance, they will take a small amount of fire damage each turn.
Vlad the Impaler's tower has undergone a complete revamp. Vampire types cannot be genocided until Vlad the Impaler is destroyed.
A completely new and optional side branch has been created, known as the Ice Queen's Realm, which features new terrain and new monsters that will not spawn anywhere else within the game. While in the Ice Queen's realm, if the player does not have 100% cold resistance, they will take a small amount of cold damage each turn.
A second completely new and optional side branch has been added, known as Vecna's Domain - Vecna is an uber-powerful Lich that is the source of power for all other liches. Because of this, all types of liches (including alhoons) cannot be genocided until Vecna is destroyed.
A third new and optional side branch geared towards beginning/low level players, known as Goblin Town - the Goblin King rules over Goblin Town, and he controls access to Mine Town and Mines' End. He must be defeated to gain physical access to either.
Fourth new optional side branch, known as The Hidden Dungeon, which lies below the castle and is accessible via the Valley of the Dead. Tal'Gath, a very powerful beholder rules this dungeon, and it must be killed in order to be able to genocide other beholders.
Lucifer is the final demon prince that the hero will encounter in the Sanctum after obtaining the Amulet of Yendor, and they will have to defeat him to gain access to Purgatory, which is the only way out of the Sanctum, and begins the final ascension run.
The first four Planes levels are randomized and appear in a different order every game.
The Wizard's Tower has had a complete overhaul, and is now it's own separate branch.
Additional variants of the Castle, Fort Ludios, Sokoban, Mine Town and Mines End have been added.
You cannot use Elbereth until you've learned it in-game (via rumor, reading it, etc).
Object materials – many objects and items can spawn made from something other than its base material.
New object materials have been included – adamantine and spider silk, primarily used for Drow armor and weapons. Each have their strengths and weaknesses.
Object properties – various weapons and armor are sometimes created with magical properties.
The mysterious force has been removed.
The Rogue level has been removed.
Some monsters ride other monsters as steeds, namely The Riders at the endgame.
The Gnomish Mines can have rivers or sewers running through them.
The minimum experience level needed to start the quest has been changed from level 14 to level 10. However, there are consequences for starting too soon...
The Quest can be unlocked by killing the quest leader if you've made them angry.
Abusing your alignment can cause your quest leader to ask you to return the quest artifact.
Vlad the Impaler and Medusa have been... enhanced to a certain degree.
New player races: Centaur, Giant, Hobbit, Illithid, Tortle, Drow, and Draugr, replete with their own special abilities and restrictions.
New player roles: Convict, Infidel.
Several role–race combos have been added or unlocked.
Intrinsic resistances are no longer binary, but are percentages instead.
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.
New artifact weapons (both normal and quest artifacts), and several tweaks to existing artifacts.
Players can twoweapon with an artifact in each hand, if those artifacts happen to get along with each other.
New trainable skills – thievery (usable by Rogues and Convicts only), and shields, usable by various roles that can increase AC and allow a secondary shield bash attack when trained up.
When sacrificing, your deity may gift you an enchanted weapon or piece of gear instead of an artifact.
The last room of Sokoban has more prize variety, with a catch...
Shopkeepers can be a variety of different races; your race versus theirs directly affects pricing.
Priests, soldiers, the watch, and player monsters can also be a variety of different races.
Several new objects that the player (and monsters) can use and interact with.
Intelligent monsters can use a whole new range of weapons and objects, either defensively or offensively.
Unicorn horns no longer cure attribute loss; they can now be wielded in one hand.
Dragon scale mail has been removed, leaving dragon scales only. Players can now merge dragon scales onto regular body armor to create dragon-scaled armor.
All dragon scales have secondary abilities (as do the source of those scales) when merged with regular armor.
A few new spells (some for the player, some for monsters) have been introduced.
Spellcasting while wearing body armor will negatively affect your spell success rate.
Spell levels have been adjusted; some higher-level spells are now at a lower level, and vice versa.
Several new monsters have been added, and several existing monsters have been adjusted – some that used to be considered harmless may now be deadly.
The demon lords/princes encountered in Gehennom, along with which lair they may appear in, has been completely randomized. Your experience in Gehennom can be a very different experience per game.
Player monsters can be encountered throughout the game. Hostile ones covet the Amulet of Yendor much the same as the Wizard of Yendor, and will try to steal it.
Any monster, should it get a hold of the Amulet of Yendor, can and will sacrifice it on an endgame altar.
The end-of-game dumplog can be output in HTML format along with the native default text output (created by User:Tangles).

There are many more changes as well, but the above list will give you a good idea as to what to expect. More in-depth descriptions of various facets of EvilHack can be found below (and will probably be a work-in-progress for quite some time).

Game mechanics

Several aspects of how the game functions have been altered for EvilHack, some minor, and some having a significant impact on how the game plays. Some of these changes will require players to re-think certain strategies that have worked for them in the past for vanilla NetHack.

Elbereth

The player cannot successfully engrave Elbereth until they have learned it in-game first. There is ample feedback given should the player attempt to engrave Elbereth and not be successful because of not having learned it yet. There are several ways the player can 'learn' how to engrave Elbereth – reading it (from an already existing engraving, or from a rumor in a fortune cookie) or hearing it (consultation from the Oracle, whispered to from various artifacts that give rumors). Because of this change, some of the Mines' End levels have a guaranteed engraving that the player can find and read. This plus the closets in Sokoban will most likely be the easiest/fastest way for the player to learn Elbereth. Conflict negates Elbereth.

Scare monster

Several more creatures are immune to the effects of standing on a scroll of scare monster or other means of being frightened magically. In vanilla NetHack, this applies to the Wizard of Yendor, lawful minions, Angels, the Riders, humans, shopkeepers inside their shops, priests inside their temples, and any unique monsters. EvilHack adds the following monsters to this list: Archangels, honey badgers, player monsters, mindless monster, and any monster affected by conflict.

Air

There are various places in EvilHack where gravity is in full effect if the player enters air terrain (also referred to as 'open air'). If they are not flying, levitating, or in a form that can cling to the ceiling, they will plummet to their death. A player can only be saved from this by wearing a non-cursed amulet of life saving: after being revived, they will be moved to a random safe tile spot on that map. Any objects on an open air terrain tile will fall away, essentially destroying them – the exception to this rule are items considered indestructible (the Amulet of Yendor, any of the invocation items, The Idol of Moloch for an Infidel, and the Sword of Annihilation); if any of those objects are dropped in open air, they will materialize at a random safe square on the third tier demon boss level in Gehennom.

There are currently only four places where open air can be found:

Vlad's cavern
The second level of the Ice Queen's Realm
The final level of Purgatory
The top level of the Wizard's Tower

Each of these four levels triggers commentary about the perilous terrain that awaits the player as they enter the level for the first time. Rule of thumb, if you see any mention of an 'abyss' or a deep or bottomless 'chasm', be sure to watch your step. The Plane of Air does not feature open air as it is devoid of gravity, making it impossible to fall while on this level.

Reflection

Reflection in EvilHack is partial, meaning that having reflection can minimize the effects of whatever it is that's being reflected, but will not negate it altogether. This currently only affects players, not monsters, and resistances are factored in. Some examples: being hit by a wand of magic missile will reflect some of the ray, but not all of it, and the player will take reduced damage; if hit by a wand of death, the ray is reflected, but the player will take some damage and will 'feel drained', losing a small amount of maximum hit points. Breath weapons behave the same way, with only some of it being reflected, and the damage dealt is reduced. Being hit by a black dragon's disintegration breath while not having disintegration resistance will prevent instadeath, but the player will take some physical damage.

Take note - the magic missile attack employed by Angels, Yeenoghu and the Oracle is no longer fully negated via magic resistance (half-spell damage reduces its damage output), which means the player will still take damage from this attack type, even with reflection. This alone makes the Astral Plane a very dangerous level. The player should take steps to ensure they do not get surrounded by a group of angels while making their way to the correct high altar.

Partial resistances

Gaining intrinsic resistances from eating corpses is no longer binary (all or none), but is instead incremental, and how much resistance a player gets is based off of the corpses weight. Unlike vanilla NetHack, where there's a chance of maybe getting the intrinsic, the player will always gain partial resistances with every corpse consumed. The spread is 5% to 50% resistance gained per corpse – eating a killer bee corpse would confer 5% poison resistance, but eating a green dragon corpse would give 50% of the same. Also, if a corpse can offer multiple resistance, the player will receive all of them, so eating a flesh golem corpse would give an incremental resistance boost to fire/cold/shock/sleep/poison all at once. Tinning corpses 'remembers' its weight, so tinning a couple black dragon corpses is the safest way to get 100% disintegration resistance.

Damage reduction from various attacks is determined by how much partial resistance the player has to it. For instance, having 50% cold resistance means the player will only take half-damage from any cold-based attack. Having 5% disintegration resistance will protect the player from being disintegrated completely by beholders' gaze attacks, and 50% disintegration resistance or reflection will prevent complete distintegration via dragon's breath, but they will take a substantial amount of physical damage. A note about poison instadeath – it can still occur if the player has less than 35% poison resistance, otherwise instead of an instadeath, they take a significant amount of physical damage based on how much poison resistance the player has.

Intrinsics such as telepathy, teleport control and teleportitis are still binary in nature and are not gained incrementally.

Pets can also gain intrinsics from eating corpses – their method is still all or none and not incremental as it is for the player.

Altar sacrificing

Sacrificing for artifacts has been significantly changed in EvilHack – there is a chance that your deity will gift you a regular item instead of an artifact. The odds of being gifted an artifact go up as you increase in experience level. At experience level 4, there's a 10% chance of an artifact gift, and the chances increment exponentially from there. By the time you reach experience level 26, if a gift were to be generated, and non-quest artifacts are still available, the chance is 100% of receiving an artifact.

Should you receive a regular object instead of an artifact, it will either be a weapon or a piece of armor, and for primary spellcasting types (healer/priest/wizard/infidel), there's a chance of receiving a spellbook also. The armor or weapon received will always be blessed, enchanted, fixed, and there is a 1 in 8 chance that a desirable object property will be added to that object. Care is taken to ensure that the object gifted is made of a material that will not harm you (elves won't receive anything made of iron, orcs won't receive anything made of mithril). There are also rules in place to make sure your deity doesn't give you something that you can't or wouldn't want to use (read: a wizard getting plate mail). If your role has a guaranteed first sacrifice gift and you are at least experience level 4, you will not receive a non-artifact item as a gift until you've gotten your guaranteed artifact. Prayer timeout and the chances of receiving another gift are affected in the same way as if you had received an actual artifact.

Same race sacrifice as a chaotic-aligned player will never summon a demon lord/prince, always a regular demon. This is to ensure that the demon lords and princes are present when entering the various demon boss levels in Gehennom.

Wishing for artifacts

Instead of being based off of how many artifacts exist in the game total (vanilla NetHack method), success is based off of how many artifacts wishes the player has made. An artifact wish is any wish a player makes for an artifact, even if they don't receive it due to it already existing or because they have already made some artifact wishes. The chance of receiving the artifact is 1 in [number of previous artifact wishes + 1]. Another significant difference is that the odds are high that when an artifact is wished for, it comes with its owner, and the owner is none too happy about it. The odds of getting the owner follow the same formula as above: if you receive the artifact, there is a 1 in [number of previous artifact wishes + 1] it won't come with an owner. This means that your first artifact wish is guaranteed to succeed safely, but subsequent wishes get increasingly uncertain and dangerous.

What type of artifact owner should one expect? That depends on what kind of artifact you wish for - if it's a quest artifact, you'll always get the quest leader associated with the quest that artifact is a part of (an exception is made if a Tourist wishes for the Master Key of Thievery, as the Master of Thieves is their quest nemesis). If you wish for a regular artifact, a player monster appears as its owner. Regardless of what type of owner shows up, they are of a high enough level to be taken seriously and will not be easy to defeat, plus the artifact you just wished for will be used by its owner against you. Make sure to be prepared to fight should you decide to make a wish for an artifact.

Take note - various artifacts (Lifestealer, the Magic 8-ball, Butcher, the Bag of the Hesperides, the Eye of Vecna, the Hand of Vecna, the Sword of Kas, and the Wand of Orcus) can never be wished for, as all are meant to be guaranteed to appear at certain points in the game. Forged artifacts are also off limits for wishing, as they are meant to be forged to come into existence.

Throne wishes

Wishes from thrones are much more rare.

In vanilla NetHack, if the player's luck was 0 or greater, they had a 7.5% chance of getting a wish from sitting on a throne - now it's closer to 1.5%. If the player doesn't get a wish, other good things can happen instead, including gaining permanent see invisible intrinsic. Once the player is granted a wish from a throne, the throne is guaranteed to disappear.

Demon gating

The rules for what kind of demon another demon can gate in have changed, and the reason for the changes is to ensure that there will always be a demon prince present on the third tier demon prince level. The changes are as follows:

Demon lords have a 4.9% chance of gating in another demon lord, and will otherwise gate in a regular demon. The exception to this rule – once the player has entered the third tier demon prince lair, demon lords have a 2% chance of gating in a demon prince.
Demon princes have a 23.75% chance of gating in a demon lord, and will otherwise gate in one or two regular demons. The exception to this rule – once the player has entered the third tier demon prince lair, demon princes have a 5% chance of gating in another demon prince. The Wizard of Yendor and Lucifer follow this same guideline.
Although Lucifer is a demon prince, he cannot be gated by any means, as he is meant to be encountered in the Sanctum.

Monster spawn rates

Monster spawn rates will start to increase as you reach various milestones within the game. Normally a new monster will spawn once every 70 turns or so. Here's how that changes:

Spawn rates increase to 2× of normal once you enter Gehennom, if you become crowned, or if you accept the quest before experience level 14.
Spawn rates increase to 3× of normal once you pass the first tier demon lord lair.
Spawn rates increase to 4× of normal once you pass the third tier demon lord lair.
Spawn rates increase to 6× of normal once the Wizard of Yendor is killed.

And finally, once you've performed the invocation, all denizens of the dungeon are aware of what has happened, and the spawn rate increases to 8× of normal. Nasties will also start to spawn on each levels upstairs as you start to make your way back out of the dungeon with the Amulet of Yendor.

Twoweaponing

Twoweaponing has been changed so that the weight of your offhand weapon combined with your skill in twoweaponing has a significant bearing on how successful you'll be in landing a hit. As you increase your skill in twoweaponing, heavier weapons become a viable option to use in your offhand without penalty. That penalty is −30 to-hit, and you'll receive feedback stating that your offhand weapon is too heavy to wield successfully as you try to use it. Below is a listing of what weights and weapons are acceptable per your skill in twoweaponing:

Unskilled – maximum weight of offhand weapon is 20 aum (can use tridents, javelins, crysknives, daggers, unicorn horns, or anything lighter)
Basic – maximum weight of offhand weapon is 30 aum (can use short swords, spears, or a mace)
Skilled – maximum weight of offhand weapon is 40 aum (can use sabers or long swords)
Expert – maximum weight of offhand weapon is 70 aum (can offhand any one-handed weapon)

If playing as a giant, or if wearing gauntlets of power, the maximum weight of your offhand weapon can be 200 aum, meaning you can basically offhand any normal object. Bear in mind that object materials can alter an item's base weight – at basic twoweaponing skill, you can offhand a normal short sword without penalty, but not a silver short sword since it has extra weight compared to iron (33 aum vs 30 aum). At the same time, a mithril katana (15 aum) is perfectly acceptable at the same skill level, since mithril is much lighter than any other metal in the game.

It is possible to dual-wield artifact weapons, though there are stipulations: a lawful artifact and chaotic artifact cannot be dual-wielded together. Similarly-aligned artifacts are acceptable, as are any neutral or non-aligned artifact weapons with any other aligned artifact.

Skills

Compared to NetHack, some skills are either new to EvilHack or changed:

Merged skills

The following weapon skills have been merged into another skill:

Scimitars have been merged into the saber skill.
Knives have been merged into the dagger skill.
Morning stars have been merged into the mace skill.

Thievery

Rogues, and to a lesser extent Convicts, can use and train up their thievery skill, allowing them to pickpocket various objects from their target.

The player must be bare-handed (not wielding anything), and then force fight (shift + f) in the direction of their intended victim while standing adjacent to them.
Various factors can influence the chances of success or failure, those being:
- The players skill in thievery.
- The players dexterity.
- If their intended target is blinded (has eyes but can't see).
- If the player is invisible.
- If the intended target can see but the player is in darkness.
- If the player is small and their target is large or bigger.
- If the intended target is paralyzed, confused, stunned, or otherwise incapacitated.
- If the player has the Master Key of Thievery in open inventory (and is at least uncursed for Rogues, or blessed for all others).
- Several other factors can decrease the chance of success, such as being encumbered, wearing a shield or heavy body armor, riding a steed, having wounded legs, slippery fingers or fumbling, unable to see or sense their intended target, or being confused/stunned.
Thievery can also be used against peaceful targets (but not tame ones). If a rogue is unsuccessful, there is a chance the victim will notice and become angry. The higher the skill in thievery, the less chance a peaceful target will take notice. Convicts however will always be unsuccessful (if they were good at stealing things, they wouldn't be convicts).
Basically anything in the targets inventory can be stolen, including gold, and worn/wielded cursed objects.
Using thievery skill trains up 66% faster than training other skills.
Rogues and Convicts both start with basic skill in thievery; Rogues can train up to master skill, Convicts can train up to skilled.
When attacking with bare hands (without force fighting), the thievery skill level is used for to-hit and damage bonuses.

Shields

Roles that can train in shields can enjoy both defensive and offensive capabilities if they exercise the skill.

Defensive bonuses:

Being unskilled/restricted in shield skill, there is no extra armor class (AC) bonus for wearing one.
To get these bonuses, you must be wearing a shield and have the required skill.
- Basic: +1 AC bonus
- Skilled: another +2 AC bonus (for a total of 3 AC)
- Expert: another +2 AC bonus (for a total of 5 AC)
- Master: another +3 AC bonus (for a total of 8 AC)

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 missed attack event occurs.
If expert skill or higher in shields, your shield cannot be taken away via a dwarvish bearded axe attack.

Offensive bonuses:

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 hit points of damage, all other shields do 3-8 hit points of 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 of stunning your target with a shield bash attack.

Roles that can train in shields are:

Role	Shield Skill
Archeologist	Basic
Barbarian	Skilled
Caveperson	Basic
Convict	Basic
Knight	Expert
Priest	Basic
Rogue	Basic
Ranger	Skilled
Tourist	Basic
Samurai	Skilled
Valkyrie	Master

Knights and Valkyries start the game at basic skill, all other roles start as unskilled.

Suppression of auxiliary attacks

When not force-fighting, there are a number of attacks that (can) trigger automatically in addition to a melee attack:

Illithids making a tentacle attack.
Demonic infidels making a sting attack.
Monks making a kick attack (Master skill or higher in martial arts).
Shield bashes (Basic skill or higher in shield skill).

As some of those attacks can have grave consequences, automatic suppression happens if you are not polymorphed and:

You're an illithid making a tentacle attack against something which can passively stone, slime, or fully disintegrate you, or a Rider, or a creature of the same species.
You're a centaur/tortle monk (can't wear boots) making a kick attack against something which can stone or fully disintegrate you.
You're a demonic infidel making a sting attack against something which can stone or fully disintegrate you.

It's also possible to manually suppress all auxiliary attacks by force-fighting. Some examples:

You're a human monk and don't want to disintegrate your boots when fighting a black dragon bare handed.
You're wearing a shield and don't want it disintegrated when fighting a black dragon.
You're fighting a displaced monster and don't want to risk being displaced, so you give up on the benefits of auxiliary attacks.

Shopkeepers and price adjustments

Shopkeepers are no longer limited to just one race (human) – they now have a wide range of races they can spawn as, and what they charge the player for goods sold (and what they agree to pay for items bought) can be affected by their race as well as the players' race. This makes price ID'ing much more dynamic, but also more difficult to predict.

The different races that shopkeepers can be are human, elf, drow, dwarf, gnome, orc, giant, centaur, nymph, and illithid. Below is a detailed matrix explaining the price adjustments the player can expect to see when dealing with various shopkeeper races.

Price adjustment matrix

		Shopkeeper's race
		Human	Elf	Dwarf	Orc	Gnome	Illithid	Centaur	Nymph	Giant	Drow
Your race	Human				×⁴⁄₃		×10	×³⁄₂		×⁴⁄₃
	Elf		×⁴⁄₅	×⁴⁄₃	×3		×10				×2
	Dwarf		×⁴⁄₃	×³⁄₄	×⁵⁄₃		×10	×³⁄₂		×³⁄₂	×⁴⁄₃
	Orc	×⁴⁄₃	×2	×2	×²⁄₃		×10	×³⁄₂			×2
	Gnome	×⁴⁄₃					×10	×³⁄₂		×⁴⁄₃
	Illithid		×2	×2				×³⁄₂		×⁴⁄₃	×2
	Centaur	×³⁄₂					×10	×³⁄₄
	Hobbit				×3		×10			×⁴⁄₃
	Giant			×³⁄₂			×10			×³⁄₄
	Tortle		×⁴⁄₃		×⁵⁄₃		×10	×³⁄₂		×⁴⁄₃	×⁴⁄₃
	Drow		×2	×⁴⁄₃	×3		×10				×⁴⁄₅
	Draugr	×20	×20	×20	×20		×20	×20		×20	×20

Special notes:

If the shopkeeper is of some other monster species not listed here, they behave as the Human column indicates.
Gnomish shopkeepers base their prices on your Intelligence with no regard for your race: ×³⁄₂ if your intelligence is less than or equal to 14, or ×⁴⁄₃ if it is greater than 14 but less than 18.
Nymph shopkeepers base their prices on your Charisma with no regard for your race: ×⁴⁄₃ if your charisma is 15 or higher and ×⁵⁄₃ otherwise.

There are two more factors that affect prices:

The material of an item. For example, an item made from gemstone will cost 50 times more than an iron one. See the section on object materials for more details.
Levels of erosion. At one level of erosion, the price is decreased by 1.5 times the base value. At two levels of erosion, the price is decreased by 2 times the base value. At three levels of erosion, the price is decreased by 3 times the base value. Types of erosion can stack: for example, if you have an object that is both rusty and corroded, its value will decrease significantly. For fixed objects, the price is increased by 2 times the base value.

Other changes

You can use #loot at your pet to both give and take away items from its inventory.
The number of pets you can have on a level is limited to Charisma divided by 3. Any excess pets will become untame. Your weakest pets (according to their level) will untame first, with ties broken randomly. Your steed will never untame, but does count towards the total. Summoned frozen/flaming spheres do not count towards pet total.
Wearing any kind of body armor will adversely affect your chances of successfully casting a spell – the higher the spell level, the greater the chance of failure. Primary spellcasting types (healers/priests/wizards/infidels) are only penalized on 4th level spells and higher – all other roles, the penalties affect all spell levels. The exception to this is crystal plate mail, which does not adversely affect spellcasting in any way.
When causing conflict (ring of conflict is most common), it now takes the player's charisma score into account. The formula is 'charisma - monster level + player level' and 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.
Orcs, drow, elves and dwarves get a slight bonus to their AC if they wear armor aligned to their race (player and monsters).
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 try to remove an attached ball & chain by wielding a hammer and dipping the ball, and can also combine two objects to forge something new using the #forge command.
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).
Withering can occur as the result of an attack used by gnoll witherlings, mummies, Orcus, or Vecna - the linked article has full details, including how to cure the condition.
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.
New traps and changes to existing traps:
- Spear trap - a spear will poke up from the ground below to skewer anything that walks on it. If it hits, it deals 1d8+6 damage and hurts the right or left leg. It won't be able to reach you if you're flying or levitating. If you're thick-skinned, it will break off. If you're not solid, it will pass right through you. If you're riding, it will hit the steed instead of you. Disarming a spear trap has a chance to produce a (random type of) spear.
- Magic beam trap - nasty magic trap that will shoot a variety of magic beams at whatever steps on it.
- Magic trap - new effects: the trap can toggle the permanent see invisible intrinsic, or the permanent invisibility intrinsic. Only crowning prevents losing the permanent see invisible intrinsic.
- Polymorph trap - will behave for monsters just as it does for the player; once it's used, it disappears.
- Ice trap - various possible nasty effects: 4d8 damage (can be reduced depending on cold resistance percentage), freezing potions in open inventory, temporary slowness, temporary vulnerability to cold if you have cold resistance from your role or race, or otherwise reduced intrinsic cold resistance.
- All types of magical traps will explode when zapped with cancellation.
Permanent see invisible is no longer attainable from quaffing blessed potions of see invisible, fountain quaffing, or eating invisible stalkers.
A blessed potion of restore ability only restores three to five experience levels per potion.
Force-fighting a known spider web with a bladed weapon has a chance of cutting it (depending on strength and weapon enchantment). Force-fighting with Sting will always cut the web.
Greased items (including artifacts, but not invocation items or the Amulet of Yendor) have a 75% chance of resisting being stolen. If not stolen, there's a 50% chance the grease then wears off. This works all the way around (monster vs player, player vs monster, monster vs monster).
When attempting to ascend using a helm of opposite alignment there is a 1/3rd chance that your original deity destroys the helm and you do not ascend. You do not lose the game in this situation, but your luck will be reduced by 5 and your god will be angry. You can still win by going to your normal altar, or by trying another helm of opposite alignment.
Evilhack adds the following conducts to the regular vanilla ones: permadeaf, permahallu, petless, bonesless, never used Elbereth, never died, never touched an artifact, never forged an artifact, never acquired reflection, never acquired magic resistance, never abused alignment.
Dexterity can directly affect the player's armor class, for better or worse. See the table below – being encumbered, or wearing any kind of heavy metallic body armor (read: not mithril) or other rigid material (bone, stone, wood) will negate any favorable armor class bonuses from Dexterity.

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

Levels

Various levels have been altered, some slightly, while others have seen significant changes. Below are many of the more significant changes.

Gnomish Mines

The Gnomish Mines now have a chance of rivers running through each level. The deeper you descend into the mines, the greater the chance of a river forming. The rivers that are created are comprised mostly of pools, but about a quarter of the water tiles created are shallow water instead, which you can walk over without fear of falling in or drowning. These rivers are infested with jellyfish and piranha (and sometimes water moccasins and water trolls deeper down), which can be a significant hazard to a lower-level player with few hit points. The way that the rivers spawn is somewhat random, just as the mine layout is random. Depending on how the river is generated, you may have an easy time going from the upstairs to the downstairs, or you may find the river blocking easy passage to the next staircase. This will test ones ingenuity and resourcefulness, but there are several means available to navigate around or over these rivers.

There is a roughly 50% chance that instead of a regular river being created, a river of raw sewage is generated instead. Sewage is much like shallow water, in that you can easily walk over it without falling in or drowning. However, sewage slows the player's movement (flying, levitation, water walking, being a tortle, wearing boots with the "mud boots" description, or wearing blue or white-dragon-scaled armor will negate this). Giant cockroaches and giant leeches tend to hide in raw sewage. If you dip an item into sewage, there is a chance you will forever lose it to a creature hiding in the muck, unless the item is a cursed worn item, an iron ball chained to you, or an indestructible item.

As of version 0.8.0, the Goblin King controls physical access to the downstairs into Mine Town and Mines' End. The player must defeat the Goblin King to remove the block on the stairs. There are magical means to circumvent restricted access to these areas. However, should the player find themselves deep in the mines between Mines' End and Mine Town without having defeated the Goblin King yet, they can travel up into and out of Mine Town to avoid being trapped.

Sokoban

Main article: Sokoban (EvilHack)

There are a few significant changes to Sokoban in EvilHack, with the biggest one being the final level.

First is the inclusion of several new levels. For those that wish to be completely spoiled or need help solving the new levels, solutions to them can be found at the UnNetHack Sokoban article. The second major change is the prize doors and their contents on the final levels:

All three closets in the Sokoban zoo have a prize behind each door, but you will not be able to tell exactly what that prize is until you pick it up. Once one door is opened, the other two doors disappear and are replaced with a section of wall, cutting off access to those closets.
On the off chance more than one door is opened or destroyed and/or a monster has picked up and moved a Sokoban prize, once a prize is picked up or touched by you, the other two magically disappear. You can use a potion of object detection, a crystal ball, or the spell detect treasure to see what types of prizes are behind each door, but that will only show you what the object type is, not what it is specifically.
There are two different items that can spawn behind each door, with a 50/50 chance of it being one item or the other. Those items are:
- Sokoban prize armor – gauntlets of protection or a helm of speed.
- Sokoban prize amulet – an amulet of reflection or an amulet of magic resistance.
- Sokoban prize tool – a bag of holding or a magic marker.

Since magic markers will never spawn randomly in-game, Sokoban is potentially one of only two sources where a marker is guaranteed to be (the high priest in the Sanctum has the only other guaranteed magic marker).

The third major change concerns player giants: Sokoban Luck penalties are doubled if playing as a giant, since they can easily lift, drop and carry around boulders.

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). However, should you accept the quest too soon, the monster spawn rate immediately doubles.
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 killing your quest leader will make your deity extremely angry with you, and you will receive severe alignment and luck penalties.
Abusing your alignment can have a direct effect on how your quest ends. Once you've defeated the quest nemesis and returned with your quest artifact and the Bell of Opening and speak with your quest leader, there's a chance they may ask you to actually return the quest artifact as they originally alluded to when you first accepted the quest. 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.
- Getting one abuse point means there's a 1 in 50 chance your quest leader will ask you to give up the quest artifact. Racking up more abuse points increases those odds, to the point where if you've accumulated 50 or more abuse points, it's virtually guaranteed your quest leader will demand you return the quest artifact. 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. This is indicated by the addition of "(locked)" to its description.
- 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. Some peace of mind – if you've never abused your alignment, your quest leader will never ask you for the quest artifact.

Gehennom

Gehennom has been significantly revamped compared to the experience found in vanilla NetHack. Instead of tedious mazes, the player will traverse hellish looking caverns with lava rivers flowing around and through them. Cerberus stands guard at the stairs leading down into Gehennom from the Valley of the Dead. While Cerberus is alive, entering Gehennom (or leaving the Valley via level teleport or a cursed potion of gain level) is not possible. Access to Vlad's tower is still found in Gehennom (between levels 34 and 42 inclusive), as is access to Vecna's domain (very first level after leaving the Valley). While in Gehennom, if the player does not have 100% fire resistance, they will take a small amount of fire damage each turn, the feedback being 'The flames of hell are roasting you alive!' or 'slowly roasting' if fire resistance is 50% or greater but not at 100%.

The biggest change to Gehennom is the addition of lairs for some of the various demon lords and princes that exist. The demon bosses that appear, as well as the lair they may appear in, is randomized every game, which gives the endgame much more re-playability:

The player is guaranteed to encounter four demon bosses (Orcus plus three others).
Orcus (demon prince) is still found in Orcus Town. The other three demon boss lairs are divided into three tiers, with each tier randomly picking from a pool of maps to load. Some of these maps are brand new, while existing ones have been modified.
The map chosen does not determine the demon boss the player will encounter - the demon bosses are also split up into three tiers (four demon bosses per tier).
Each tier is progressively more difficult than the last:
- First tier (demon lords): Juiblex, Baalzebub, Geryon, or (new demon lord) Baphomet
- Second tier (demon lords): Dispater, Yeenoghu, (new demon lords) Lolth, or Mephistopheles
- Third tier (demon princes): Asmodeus, Demogorgon, Tiamat, or (new demon prince) Graz'zt
If you visit a demon lair and then try to levelport past it when the demon boss is still alive, the demon boss will follow you.
In the presence of a demon boss, the chances of escaping by teleporting, levelporting or quaffing cursed gain level are much suppressed. With demon lords the chance of success is 1 in 5. With demon princes, the odds go to 1 in 20.

The only true maze-like level that remains in the game is the vibrating square level at the bottom of Gehennom.

Sanctum

The Sanctum has been significantly revamped. The level has been redesigned, specifically the west side, but the most significant changes are in how the level behaves once the high priest of Moloch has been killed.

The entire Sanctum is surrounded by lava, and iron bars exist in certain spots in the walls that allow viewing of the lava fields from the inside. Two drawbridges separate the east and west sections of the Sanctum; lowering or destroying these allow access to the surrounding lava field.
Once the player acquires the Amulet of Yendor (for Infidels, imbue The Idol of Moloch), a gate is formed in the west wall of the inner Sanctum, leading to a previously unreachable part of the map. At the same time that this gate magically appears, the stairs leading back up out of the Sanctum are removed, and all other forms of leaving the Sanctum (branchporting, levelporting, or quaffing a cursed potion of gain level) are suppressed. The only way to leave the Sanctum and continue is through the newly formed gates, and to face the monsters within.
In this new section resides Lucifer, the most powerful demon prince of them all. He guards a magic portal that leads to Purgatory, which can only be used once Lucifer has been defeated. His entourage are four named balrogs waiting outside his inner chamber, and will be encountered as the player leaves the inner Sanctum through the newly formed gate.

Player race–role combinations

Combinations are marked with either an L, N or C denoting a playable alignment. Any blank field means that race–role combination is not allowed.

	Human	Elf	Dwarf	Giant	Gnome	Hobbit	Centaur	Orc	Illithid	Tortle	Drow	Draugr
Archeologist	L N		L N		N	L N				L N
Barbarian	N C		N	N C			N C	C		N		C
Caveman	L N		L N	L N	N
Convict	C		C		C	C		C	C		C	C
Healer	N	N	N	N	N	N	N			N
Infidel	U	U		U			U	U	U		U	U
Knight	L C	C	L				C	C			C	C
Monk	L N C	N C	L N	L N C			N C			L N	C	C
Priest	L N C	N C	L N	L N C		L N	N C	C	C	L N	C
Rogue	N C	N C			N C	N		C			C	C
Ranger	N C	N C			N C	N	N C	C			C
Samurai	L		L	L						L
Tourist	N				N	N				N
Valkyrie	L N		L N	L N			N
Wizard	N C	N C	N	N C	N C	N		C	C	N	C

Many alignment combinations have been unlocked as well vs vanilla NetHack, allowing for some race–role combinations you normally wouldn't expect to see (a neutral Dwarvish Healer for instance, or a chaotic Elven Knight, etc). Infidels always start as unaligned (U), and Convicts always start as chaotic (C) regardless of their race.

New player roles

EvilHack adds two new playable roles: the Convict and the Infidel. More roles may be added at a later date.

Convict

Convicts can be played as a human, dwarf, gnome, orc, hobbit, illithid, drow, or draugr.
Their alignment is always chaotic, regardless of racial background.
New trainable skill known as thievery. Convicts don't feel guilty about stealing from shops or getting caught stealing from peaceful monsters. However, peaceful monsters will always notice their thievery and be angered.
Convicts start the game with a negative alignment, a heavy iron ball chained to their leg, and a cursed fireproof striped shirt (worn). The shirt prevents entry into any shop while worn and visible (not covered by a cloak or robe).
Convicts start as almost hungry, but can be in a state of hunger for a longer period of time.
Convicts start with intrinsic sickness resistance, and gain intrinsic poison resistance and searching at experience levels 7 and 20 respectively.
Their first artifact gift is Luck Blade, a chaotic broadsword (short sword in other variants) that acts as a luckstone.
The Striped Shirt of Liberation is the convict role quest artifact. When worn, it provides magic resistance, stealth, searching, and warning. Invoking this artifact allows the player to temporarily phase through matter much like a xorn. Once worn, it cannot be removed by normal methods. Shops will become off limits to anyone wearing the Shirt, even if it's covered up by other worn armor.
Their starting pet is a sewer rat, and convicts can tame other rats by #chatting them. They can pacify other domestic animals by throwing food at them, but they can't tame them that way.

Infidel

The Infidel role was created by User:Tomsod (see this link for the original patch and author notes). It has been modified to fit in with EvilHack.
Infidels can be played as a human, orc, illithid, elf, giant, centaur, drow, or draugr.
Their alignment will always be unaligned (worshiper of Moloch) regardless of their racial background.
Infidels start the game with the Amulet of Yendor - their primary mission is to travel down to the Sanctum and sacrifice the Amulet to Moloch on the unaligned altar present there. When doing this, they must have their quest artifact in open inventory (The Idol of Moloch) so that Moloch may imbue the Idol with the power of the Amulet. The player must then make their way to the Astral Plane, where they attempt to invoke the Idol on the correct altar to Moloch, thereby giving Moloch dominion over 'heaven' and the other three aligned gods, winning the game.
The correct altar that an Infidel needs to invoke The Idol of Moloch on in the Astral Plane will vary each game. They can discover which is the correct altar by #chatting both their quest leader and the high priest of Moloch in the Sanctum (if the quest leader is dead, the high priest will provide both clues).
Infidels starting armor is cursed. Wearing blessed armor slightly hurts spellcasting success rates, but wearing cursed armor reduces this penalty by 1 per cursed item. They are also weldproof and able to remove, unwield, or drop any cursed items freely.
Except for draugr, Infidels are considered primary spellcasters, and start the game with a spellbook of drain life plus one other random spellbook.
Other notable starting gear for Infidels: a cloak of protection (cursed), two scrolls of charging, a fire horn, 3 potions of unholy water, and an oilskin sack.
Infidels start with intrinsic fire resistance (but not if draugr), and gain intrinsic warning and shock resistance at levels 15 and 20 respectively.
Their first artifact gift is Secespita, a copper ritual knife that greatly aids with altar sacrificing, and can drain energy from the monsters it was used to kill, helping to replenish spell power for the Infidel.
The Idol of Moloch is the Infidel's quest artifact, a figurine of a horned devil that can be used to easily convert altars to Moloch, and provides magic resistance when carried. It can also be used to summon demons to aid the Infidel. An Infidel cannot win the game without having the Idol in their possession.
Their starting pet is a lesser homunculus.
Crowning - if a non-draugr Infidel is crowned by Moloch, they transform into a demon, replete with a stinger-tipped tail and large wings, both of which can be used. In demon form, the Infidel can enjoy all of the strengths (and weaknesses) associated with being a demon. Trident skill is unlocked and can be trained all the way up to expert skill. Their crowning gift is a spellbook of fireball. Draugr do not transform into a demon when crowned. Instead, they receive Angelslayer and gain intrinsic shock resistance.
All aligned priests are hostile towards Infidels and will attack them should they enter their temple.
Infidels are either not penalized or will gain alignment for doing things that would normally be detrimental for other roles, such as murdering peacefuls or sacrificing their pets (killing your pet is still viewed as bad).
Infidels praying to Moloch outside of Gehennom can expect an 80% failure rate. The only reliable means of praying are standing on an unaligned altar or being in Gehennom. Converting an aligned altar to Moloch is also much more difficult without aid - Moloch's power and influence are weakened outside of hell.
Moloch expects an Infidel to perform a sacrifice to him at least once every 6000 turns. Not doing so adversely affects your alignment record, and it will begin to drain at an increasing rate; reaching negative values has a chance of incrementing Moloch's anger as well. Successfully performing a sacrifice delays this effect for 500 turns per point of sacrifice value; this delay is not cumulative, and if the previous remaining delay was higher, it isn't affected. Any sacrifice to Moloch counts, including same-race sacrifice and a sacrifice on a cross-aligned altar (as long as you're actually trying to convert the altar and not yourself). You will be warned when you're due for a sacrifice, both through a message and in the base attributes window.
Infidels create unholy water the same way other roles would create holy water, by placing potions of water on a co-aligned altar and praying (Moloch's 'blessings' are actually curses). This can present a unique challenge for the Infidel role, as having certain blessed items is still desirable. They will need to find already blessed potions of water much the same way other roles typically have to find an already cursed potion of water to use.
The Amulet suppresses teleportation and drains spell power when casting spells as it always has - this can prove quite challenging, especially in the early game. If you cast without the Amulet in your inventory, the spell will drain hit points instead of power. Healing and extra healing drain extra health so that using them is never a net gain. Hit point regeneration is also suppressed without having the Amulet in inventory. Once the Idol is imbued with the power of the Amulet, Moloch gains control over its power and suppresses the spell power draining and non-hit point regeneration effects (teleportation is still suppressed while holding the Idol).

New player races

EvilHack adds seven new playable races to the game: Centaur, Giant, Hobbit, Illithid, Tortle, Drow, and Draugr. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses:

Centaur

Main article: Centaur (starting race)#EvilHack

Centaurs can play as either a Barbarian, Healer, Infidel, Knight, Monk, Priest, Ranger, or Valkyrie.
They can play both genders, alignment choices are neutral or chaotic (role restrictions enforced).
Centaurs have the same increased carrying capacity as the giant player race does. (Centaurs aren't as strong, but they're half horse, and are built for hauling gear).
Strength and dexterity can be maxed to 20, but intelligence maximum is 12, wisdom is 14, charisma is 16.
Centaurs generate slightly more hit points per level vs a human player.
Centaurs know all bow and crossbow weapons automatically, and get a multishot bonus with either type.
Centaurs have a higher base speed (18).
Centaurs start with intrinsic speed, and can jump once reaching level five (not like a Knight, but like wearing a pair of jumping boots). They also gain warning at level 10.
Centaurs cannot wear boots, for hopefully obvious reasons. They can wear all other forms of armor (as can now their monster counterparts).
Centaurs cannot ride anything as a steed due to them being quadrupedal.

Giant

Main article: Giant (starting race)#EvilHack

Giants can play as either a Barbarian, Caveman, Infidel, Monk, Priest, Samurai, Valkyrie, or Wizard.
Giants can be any of the four alignments (role restrictions enforced) and either gender.
Giants have increased initial and maximum cap carrying capacity, with strength and constitution able to reach 25.
Intelligence and dexterity are capped at 14, charisma at 16.
Hit point generation is significantly greater for giants per level vs a human player.
Giants movement speed is slightly slower than other races due to their size.
Giants can pickup and throw boulders (the boulders stack and can be quivered). They can also move onto the same square as a boulder by using the m prefix or by trying to push it in a direction it cannot move. In Sokoban, the player is asked before picking up or moving aside a boulder.
Giants have innate knowledge of certain gems, and they can use uncursed touchstones to identify gems like a gnome or Archeologist.
Giants can dig as well as a dwarf.
Giants automatically aggravate other monsters from the beginning and cannot gain stealth through most means. They gain hungerless regeneration at level 12.
Giants excel in bare-handed combat or with weapons that use the club skill, and have a greater chance of stunning an opponent or shattering their wielded weapon.
Giants get no multishot bonus for bows, crossbows and slings, regardless of skill or role.
Giants can wield two-handed weapons in one hand, except for bows and crossbows.
Giants take extra damage from slings (think 'David and Goliath').
Giants cannot wear body armor, cloaks, or shirts, with the following exceptions:
- Giant samurai start with large splint mail, which only they can wear.
- Giants can wear the chromatic dragon scales dropped by Tiamat.
Boulders have a little bit of weight (8 aum instead of 6000 aum) when carried by giants. This prevents player giants from carrying hundreds of stacked boulders without penalty.
They have an innate lower armor class (AC 6 vs AC 10 when naked).
Because of their size, giants cannot be engulfed or involuntarily fall through holes or trap doors.
Other things in-game that require strength to accomplish are easier for giants.
Giants can only ride one creature – the woolly mammoth, a new monster found in EvilHack.
Giant wizards start with an amulet of magic resistance, and will never start with a ring of stealth.

Hobbit

Main article: Hobbit (starting race)#EvilHack

Hobbits can play as either an Archeologist, Healer, Priest, Rogue, Ranger, Tourist, or Wizard.
They can be either gender, alignment choices are lawful or neutral (role restrictions enforced).
Hobbits can max dexterity, wisdom and constitution to 20, but strength, intelligence and charisma are capped at 16.
Hobbits receive a multishot bonus with slings, knives, and daggers (if their role is capable of multishot).
Everyone knows hobbits are all about food and when they can eat next. They start with the new 'food sense' intrinsic but are also innately hungry. Because of this, they start with extra food (if not a Convict) and a tinning kit (if not a Convict or an Archeologist). They can also eat more than twice the amount of food other races can eat before becoming satiated.
Hobbits gain speed and searching intrinsics at levels 4 and 7 respectively.
Hobbits prefer elven gear over anything else, and will start with said gear if it's available.

Illithid

Main article: Illithid (starting race)#EvilHack

Illithid is the formal name for a mind flayer. This ancient race has psychic abilities and are natural spellcasters, but are physically weak compared to other races.
Illithids can only be of chaotic alignment (unless playing as an Infidel), and can be both male or female.
Illithids can play as either a Convict, Infidel, Priest or a Wizard.
Intelligence and wisdom can go as high as 22, and dexterity as high as 20, but their strength, constitution and charisma are capped at 10/12/16 respectively.
Power generation per level gained is slightly higher than that of the elven player race.
Illithids have a natural psionic attack that 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.
Illithids start out with psychic resistance (new resistance), infravison and telepathy. At experience level 12 they can fly like their more wild brethren.
Illithids have a single extra tentacle attack that behaves exactly like the tentacle attack from a mind flayer. This attack is set up in such a way that it will automatically not be used if attacking something the player should not touch unprotected (read: cockatrice). This attack does not work on a mind flayer. Conversely, illithids are immune to the mind flayer tentacle attack and zombie-brain eating attacks.

Tortle

Main article: Tortle (starting race)#EvilHack

Tortles are a humanoid reptilian race that resembles an upright tortoise, complete with their large protective shell on their back. They are larger than humans, and a bit stronger and wiser, but move slower and aren't quite so nimble.
Tortles are typically of lawful alignment, but can be neutral as well if the role they chose allows it. They can be both male or female.
Tortles can play as either an Archeologist, Barbarian, Healer, Monk, Priest, Samurai, Tourist, or Wizard.
Strength can get as high as 19 naturally, and they have a slightly increased weight carrying cap. Wisdom can go as high as 20, with dexterity capped at 10, and charisma capped at 14.
Tortles start with a natural ability to swim, allowing them to breath underwater and inside water elementals and sea dragons (they can still be strangled by other means, though). At experience level 5, they gain intrinsic warning, and they gain hungerless regeneration at experience level 12.
Tortles have a unique ability - they can hide inside their shell for up to 200 turns at a time, using the #monster command. While inside their shell, they are blind, cannot move or attack, and basically can't do much of anything except regenerate hit points/power and pray. But, while in their shell:
- they receive a massive 40 point boost to their AC, and only take half physical damage.
- the bite attacks of monsters that are large or smaller won't do any damage.
- they are impervious to stinger attacks, being grabbed and crushed, or being decapitated.
- they can come out of their shell early if they so chose (same command used to enter), and will have to wait 300-400 turns before being able to hide in their shell again.
Tortles start with a natural AC of 0 due to their shells, but are extremely limited in what kind of armor they can wear. They are restricted to hats, gloves and shields only: hats and gloves made of any kind of hard or rigid material slow down their ability to retreat into their shell, with The Mitre of Holiness being an exception for tortle priests - being punished, wearing the cursed Mitre or wearing the cursed Gauntlets of Purity will prevent it outright. As a tortle 'grows up' and gains experience, their shells grow thicker and become better able to repel attacks, giving the tortle an extra point of AC every three levels - this caps off at 10 points total for experience level 30.
Tortles are not slowed when walking through sewage.

Drow

Main article: Drow (starting race)#EvilHack

Drow (also known as 'dark elves') are a dark-skinned sub-race of elves that shun the light whenever possible, preferring to live underground. They share many physical attributes with their elven cousins, including their aversion to iron, but the similarities quickly diverge from there.

Drow are always of chaotic alignment, except when playing as an unaligned Infidel. Can be either male or female.
Chaotic drow have their own pantheon, independent of their role: Lolth (chaotic), Vhaeraun (neutral) and Eilistraee (lawful). The demon lord Lolth will be peaceful towards a chaotic drow if they are at least fervently aligned. Any chaotic drow that kill her will permanently change alignment to lawful, receive a massive penalty to luck and alignment score, and make their new deity angry.
Drow can play as either a Convict, Infidel, Knight, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Ranger, or Wizard.
Drow never start with a spellbook of light or a lamp. They can still start with a scroll/wand of light, since those actually become useful for them if cursed.
Drow rogues start with a dark elven hand crossbow and a decent number of dark elven crossbow bolts along with two potions of drow poison instead of a stack of daggers and a potion of sickness.
Drow starting stats and limitations/bonuses match that of elves.
Because drow and elves are so closely related, a character of one race eating the corpse of the other is considered cannibalism, and that same character using a corpse of the other race for sacrifice is considered a same-race sacrifice.
Drow start with sleep resistance and ultravision (allows them to see in the dark as if it were lit), at experience level 5 they gain intrinsic poison resistance, and at experience level 9 they gain intrinsic searching.
Drow have a natural ability to cast an aura of darkness (via the #monster command). This ability can be used as long as at least 10 energy points are available (per use) and the player isn't stunned/confused or otherwise incapacitated. Drow monsters also have a similar ability.
While Drow can tolerate being in the light, they suffer various penalties while in it, and enjoy some advantages while being in darkness. Those are:
- hit points regenerate three times slower when in the light (reverts to normal in darkness).
- spell power regenerates two times slower when in the light (reverts to normal in darkness).
- to-hit suffers a −3 penalty across the board.
- in darkness, Drow receive a bonus to-hit (when using drow weaponry or bare-handed) that scales as they level up ((experience level / 3) + 2).
- NPC drow shopkeepers and temple priests will always tend to unlit shops and temples, unlike other races.
Drow have their own racial armor and weapons, which are made of only adamantine (weapons and heavy armor) or spider silk (light armor). Drow-made items will never generate as any other material.
Depending on the role, Drow start with a pet large spider instead of the typical pet for that role.
Drow are the only race that can tame spiders and cave lizards via throwing food at them. They are also the only race that can ride either as steeds.
Drow can move through webs effortlessly like spiders are able to.
Drow cannot wield artifact weapons that give off light.

Draugr

Main article: Draugr (starting race)

Draugr is a zombie race, the name is an Old Norse term for an undead creature.
Draugr are always of chaotic alignment, except when playing as an unaligned Infidel. Can be either male or female.
Draugr can play as either a Barbarian, Convict, Infidel, Knight, Monk, or Rogue.
Draugr diet is limited to meaty corpses and eggs. Where appropriate, starting food items will be replaced by eggs.
Draugr cannot learn or cast spells, and they will not start with any spellbooks.
Strength and constitution can go as high as 20, but their intelligence, wisdom and charisma are capped at 6/8/6 respectively. They get a bonus to carrying capacity.
Draugr are breathless and start with infravision, aggravate monster, poison resistance, sleep resistance, cold resistance, death resistance, drain resistance, and immunity to sickness.
Draugr never gain intrinsic fire resistance from their role or by crowning, and can only achieve at most 50% intrinsic fire resistance from eating corpses (and three times more slowly than other races at that). Extrinsic sources however still grant full fire resistance. Because they are undead, they are immune to the extra damage from hellfire.
Draugr never gain intrinsic telepathy, but can still use extrinsic sources.
Draugr revive at least once when they are killed. After that, it is random per game whether they get more revivals (maximum is three). However, they cannot revive if they are vaporized by Sunsword or the Hammer of the Gods, beheaded, disintegrated or stoned. Because they are undead, amulets of life saving will not work for them.
Draugr have an extra bite attack that occurs ¹⁄₄ of the time when attacking, and is the same brain-eating attack used by zombie monsters. They also gain a small amount of nutrition from eating brains this way.
Zombies are considered to be of the same race for purposes of cannibalism and same-race sacrifice. Draugr don't get a penalty for cannibalism.
A draugr's base movement speed is 10.
Draugr that are not Infidels always start with -10 alignment record.
Draugr have a luck-based chance to tame zombies by #chatting them. They can pacify other domestic animals by throwing food at them, but they can't tame them that way.
Shopkeepers will ban draugr from entering their shops. If a draugr still manages to get in, the shopkeeper will charge extortionate prices.
Aligned priests that are not co-aligned will become hostile the moment they see a draugr, as will any members of the watch.

Changes to existing races

Elf

Elves have an aversion to iron – wearing or wielding anything made of iron that touches the players skin will prevent hit point regeneration, and will cause 1d8 physical damage on initial contact. Being hit with any weapon made of iron will do the same amount of extra damage. Elf-based monsters are affected the same way when being attacked with weapons made of iron and will avoid using items made of iron. Wielding an iron weapon without gloves incurs a -1 luck penalty.

Orc

Orcs have an aversion to mithril – the same conditions above for elves and iron exists for orcs and mithril. They are also the only player race that can tame and ride a warg.

Changes to existing roles

All roles can reach at least basic skill in riding.
Annam has replaced Tiamat the Chromatic Dragon as the Caveman quest nemesis; Tiamat is now a demon prince.
Archeologist, Barbarian, and Valkyrie roles now have completely new quest artifacts.
Twoweaponing – Barbarians go from basic to skilled. Ranger obtains twoweaponing, up to skilled.
Archeologist – club moved from skilled to basic. Spear skill added, can be trained to expert.
Barbarian – riding skill from basic to skilled. Attack spell school removed. Special spell changed to cause fear.
Caveman – all spell schools removed, has a 20% chance of failing to read any spellbook, regardless of its BUC status. Will never receive a spellbook from their deity. Sometimes their deity will not respond to prayer at all (10% chance). Can bang rocks together to make flint, can lash flint to arrows, making them more deadly. Can also strike flint against objects made of iron, producing sparks (fire). This act can potentially scare some animals and undead. Staying illiterate can increase maximum hit point gain per level-up. Are the only role that can successfully tame and ride saber-toothed tigers. Can get an alignment boost via cannibalism. Can never unrestrict edged weapon skills.
Healer – added clerical spell school, can train to skilled. Gets poison resistance intrinsic at experience level 3 instead of experience level 1. Trades warning intrinsic for sick resistance at experience level 15. Can sense how wounded a monster is when attacking it, can also sense the wounded status of its pets.
Knight – numerous weapon skills adjusted (axe, broadsword, two-handed sword, polearms and spears from skilled to expert. Mace and morning star moved from skilled to basic). Attack and healing spell schools moved from skilled to basic. Knights can only tame co-aligned dragons (they are natural enemies). Dwarven knights will start with a dwarvish bearded axe instead of a long sword.
Monk – crossbow skill removed, added trident and broadsword; tweaked skill advancement for weapons. Gains an extra fist attack per round using martial arts skill at grand master level, and also gains an extra kick attack (random) using martial arts skill at master level and higher. Can break boulders and statues using martial arts skill at skilled level or higher (press shift + f and then a movement key in the desired direction). Because of the extra random kick attack at master/grand master level, players will need to be mindful of wearing boots of some sort, as kicking a footrice/basilisk barefoot equals instant petrification (centaur monks have the extra kick suppressed vs these monsters as they are unable to wear any kind of footwear). Monks wearing any sort of body armor incur an extra -30 to-hit penalty on top of already existing penalties. Wearing a shield will suppress the extra fist martial arts attack gained at grand master level. Monks now receive extra intrinsics as they level up into the higher experience tiers (telepathy at 20, water walking at 23, stoning resistance at 25, disintegration resistance at 27, and sickness resistance at 30).
Priest – all slash and pierce weapons removed; can only train with blunt-type weapons. Incurs a substantial to-hit penalty, abuses wisdom and can negatively impact alignment when trying to use an edged weapon (wielded or thrown). Their crowning gift is Mjollnir (lawful priests need to wield a a heavy war hammer).
Ranger – if playing as a gnome or hobbit, their quest artifact becomes The Crossbow of Carl. Its properties mirror that of the Longbow of Diana, except that it is a crossbow instead of a bow. Rangers can now train broadsword skill, up to skilled. Polearms skill drops from skilled to basic. Pick-axe skill is removed.
Rogue – new trainable skill known as thievery. Critical strike from behind works while twoweaponing.
Samurai – removed attack and clerical spell schools.
Valkyrie – removed escape spell school. Special spell changed to repair armor. Their starting weapon is a spear instead of a long sword.
Wizard – removed numerous weapons from being trained. Wizards can achieve basic skill in dagger, dart and sling, and expert skill with quarterstaff. Enchantment spell skill raised from skilled to expert. Does not start with any weapon to encourage wizards to focus more on spellcasting. Starts with a wand of magic missile (in addition to the random wand). Instead of costing five points of spell power, casting the spell 'force bolt' only costs wizards one point of spell power per cast at basic, two points at skilled, and three points at expert. New starting pet, the pseudodragon. Can sense if objects are magical in nature, much the same way a priest knows the beatitude of all objects.

Items

EvilHack adds a variety of new artifacts, weapons, armor and other usable objects, as well as some edits to a few existing objects. The vast majority of these objects take advantage of the object materials code incorporated from xNetHack, and have the potential to be generated made of a material other than its standard base material. The exception to this rule are artifacts – their material type is hard-coded and cannot be altered, even via a wish.

Object materials

The object materials patch exists in several variants – the code used for EvilHack was taken from xNetHack and then modified. An object's material affects its weight, its cost in a shop, how much protection it can grant as armor or how damage it delivers as a weapon, and what types of damage and decay it is subject to (if any). Certain monsters are adverse to various material types, and spellcasting failure percentage can also be affected. Some materials can affect your magic cancellation rating as well. When items are wished for, their material type can also be chosen if the object category allows for it - artifacts are the exception, as are a few other items.

In the below table, iron is the baseline on which every other material is based. Density is an arbitrary value, as is cost - e.g., an item made of iron weighs X amount, while the same item made of cloth would be one-eighth its weight; an item made of iron costs X amount, while the same item made from gemstone will cost 50 times that amount. For armor class, a poor material can never make the wearer's AC worse if it's in an undamaged state.

Material	Density	AC (as armor)	Damage (as weapon)	Relative cost	Erosion type	Notes
Liquid	10	0		1
Wax	15	1		1
Veggy	10	1		1
Flesh	10	3		3
Paper	5	1	−2 damage penalty (all)	2	burn, rot	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Cloth	10	2		3	burn, rot	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Spider silk	5	4		30	burn, rot	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Leather	15	3		5	burn, rot	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Wood	30	4	−1 damage penalty (slash)	8	burn, rot	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Bone	25	5		20	burn	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object), grants magic cancellation level 3 (MC3) for orcs when worn as body armor
Dragonhide	20	8		200	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor'
Iron	80	5		10	corrode, rust	can be made rustproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object), bonus damage against elves, player as an elf cannot heal if iron armor or weapon touches their skin
Metal	75	5	+1 damage bonus	15	deteriorate	referred to as 'steel', inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor'
Copper	85	4		10	corrode	can be made corrodeproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Silver	90	5		30	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor', bonus damage against demons, werefoo, vampires and shades
Gold	120	3	+1 damage bonus (whack)	60	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor'
Platinum	120	4	+1 damage bonus (whack)	80	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor'
Mithril	30	6	+2 damage bonus (slash, pierce)	50	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor', grants magic cancellation level 3 (MC3) for elves when worn as body armor (MC2 for all other races), bonus damage against orcs, player as an orc cannot heal if mithril armor or weapon touches their skin
Adamantine	50	7	+2 damage bonus (slash, pierce)	70	deteriorate	inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor'. Drow armor made of adamantine can be enchanted up to +7, but only by that race. Drow objects made of this alloy becomes brittle in the presence of light, and can break with use
Plastic	20	3	−2 damage penalty (all)	10	burn	can be made fireproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Glass	60	5	+3 damage bonus (slash, pierce)	20	fracture	can be made shatterproof via wielding object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon when confused (if object is armor, read a scroll of enchant armor while confused and wearing said object)
Gemstone	55	7	+3 damage bonus (slash, pierce)	500		referred to as 'crystal', immune to erosion
Mineral	70	6	+2 damage bonus (slash, whack)	10	deteriorate	referred to as 'stone', inherently fixed, but is subject to decay via the monster spell 'destroy armor', grants magic cancellation level 3 (MC3) for orcs when worn as body armor

New materials

As of version 0.8.2, two new material types have been introduced – adamantine and spider silk. Both materials are almost exclusively used with drow objects, and each have various strengths an weaknesses.

Adamantine - an extremely rare and valuable alloy of adamant ore, used primarily by the drow, but dwarves have been known to forge and use this alloy as well. It is comparable to mithril in that it is very durable (inherently fixed), lighter than other regular metals, and gives slashing/piercing weapons a keen edge. Adamantine is black in color, and imparts one extra point of AC vs mithril when used to make armor. The method that the Drow use to forge their adamantine armor and weapons, makes this alloy very brittle in the presence of light, and runs a risk of being destroyed if used. On the rare chance that a non-drow object is found that is made of adamantine, it will not suffer from the debilitating effects of being in the light.
Spider silk - the Drow have learned and perfected the very difficult process of harvesting spider silk in usable quantities, enabling them to create various clothing and armor pieces out of the material. There is a very small chance that various non-drow cloth/leather items could also come into being made of spider silk, as some Drow are just marginally agreeable to selling their harvested spider silk to others outside of their race. It has one third the weight, but one extra point of AC protection vs leather, making it an excellent alternative to leather. Spider silk is organic, and can burn if not fixed.

Material percentages

Not all objects can randomly generate as any material. There are rules in place that determine the probability of what type of material an object will generate with. You can also use the tables below to determine what material you can wish for based on the object (e.g. wishing for dragonhide plate mail won't work, since plate mail base material is iron or steel).

Default base type iron or steel:

60% its base material
10% steel
5% iron
5% bone
5% wood
4% (each) silver, copper
3% mithril
1% (each) gold, glass, platinum, stone

Default base type wood:

80% wood
8% stone
4% iron
2% (each) bone, steel, mithril
1% (each) silver, copper

Default base type cloth:

80% cloth
19% leather
0.9% dragonhide
0.1% spider silk

Default base type leather:

86% leather
13% cloth
0.9% dragonhide
0.1% spider silk

Armor of dwarvish make (minus cloth items):

60% iron
20% steel
15% mithril
3% silver
1% gold
0.8% platinum
0.2% adamantine

Weapons of dwarvish make:

50% iron
25% steel
20% mithril
4.8% gemstone
0.2% adamantine

Armor and weapons of elven make (except cloth items):

60% its base material
20% wood
10% copper
5% mithril
3% silver
2% gold

Heavy armor and weapons of dark elven (Drow) make:

100% adamantine

Light armor of dark elven (Drow) make:

100% spider silk

Armor and weapons of orcish make (minus cloth items):

65% iron
25% bone
10% stone

Reflectable objects (shields of reflection and amulets):

50% its base material
20% silver
15% gold
5% mithril
4% copper
3% steel
2% platinum
1% adamantine

Most bows:

70% wood
7% iron
7% bone
6% mithril
2% (each) silver, copper
1% gold

Horns:

70% bone
10% copper
8% mithril
5% (each) wood, silver
2% gold

Portable containers (sacks, bags of holding)

93% cloth
6% leather
1% dragonhide

Rods

90% gemstone
4% gold
3% (each) silver, platinum

Sling bullets

65% iron
15% steel
10% mithril
5% silver
3% copper
1% (each) gold, platinum

Object properties

The object properties patch exists in a handful variants – the code used for EvilHack was taken from GruntHack and then modified significantly. An object property is a magical attribute associated with an item – in other variants that have object properties, the number of magical properties and the number and types of items they can be applied to is rather broad, and finding such properties on these items is not uncommon. In EvilHack, the number of magical properties is less, the types of objects they can be applied to are fewer, and the chances of finding such items at random is greatly diminished. Some details concerning Evilhack's object properties:

Eligible items for object properties are weapons, armor and sling bullets (with some restrictions).
Restricted items: non-weapons/armor/sling bullets, launchers (bows, crossbows, slings), artifacts, dragon scales, and unique items.
A players' starting inventory will never spawn with an object property.
Object properties can be wished for on an eligible item.
Object properties cannot be specifically wished for on an already magical item (e.g. no wishing for a cloak of magic resistance and drain resistance), but these properties can appear randomly on eligible magical items, and wishing for a "magical <magical armor>" (e.g. "magical dragonhide cloak of magic resistance") has a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of giving the resulting armor a random (possibly negative) object property.
Items received via wishing can never have more than one object property. However, there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of an eligible item randomly spawning with two properties.
Changing a regular item with object properties into an artifact (e.g., dipping for Excalibur) will strip that item of its object properties.
Merging dragon scales into armor will strip the armor of its object properties.
Extrinsic properties that are applied to weapons or armor are active only when those objects are wielded/worn. With weapons, extrinsic properties work in the offhand whilst twoweaponing.
Wizards have an innate ability to 'sense' if an item is magical (much like a Priest being able to know the beatitude of all items).
Generation odds - for random item generation, the odds of an eligible item having a magical property are 1 in 150, and those odds get slightly better the deeper into the dungeon the player goes. For player monsters, the odds of their weapon having a magical property is 1 in 20 if they are of a high enough level or if encountered on the Astral Plane. Angel-class monsters flagged as M2_LORD have a 1 in 10 chance of their long sword being generated with a magical property. Regular armor and weapons obtained via altar sacrifice have a 1 in 8 chance of being generated with a magical property, provided the player's luck is five or greater.
If wearing gloves or a shield that have the fire/frost/shock object property, there's a chance those objects will cause elemental damage to its target if used offensively (shield bash, or bare-handed attack whilst wearing gloves).

The table below lists all available magical properties, what items they can be applied to, and what their function is.

Object property	Armor	Weapon	Armor attributes	Weapon attributes
Fire	X	X	provides fire resistance	does 1d5 + 3 of extra fire damage
Frost	X	X	provides cold resistance	does 1d5 + 3 of extra cold damage
Shock	X	X	provides shock resistance	does 1d5 + 3 of extra shock damage
Venom	X	X	provides poison resistance	permanently poisoned, doing the normal 1d6 extra poison damage with a 10% chance of instakill by poison, plus an additional 1d2 poison damage.
Decay	X		provides drain resistance
Oilskin	X		acts as being permanently greased, can only be applied to cloth armor pieces (e.g. "oilskin cloth elven helm")
ESP	X	X	extrinsic telepathy when worn	extrinsic telepathy when wielded
Searching	X	X	extrinsic searching when worn	extrinsic searching when wielded
Warning	X	X	extrinsic warning when worn	extrinsic warning when wielded
Excellence	X	X	charisma adjustment equal to the enchantment, acts as a luckstone when worn	charisma adjustment when wielded based on BUC status (25/18/6 – blessed/uncursed/cursed), acts as a luckstone when wielded.
Fumbling	X		extrinsic fumbling when worn
Hunger	X	X	extrinsic hunger when worn	extrinsic hunger when wielded

Artifacts

Artifact	Symbol	Base type	Alignment	To-hit bonus	Damage bonus	Notes
Lifestealer	)	Two-handed sword	Chaotic	1d5	1d2	Found wielded by Vlad the Impaler, drains levels and also grants drain resistance when wielded. Cannot be wished for.
Keolewa	)	Club	Neutral	1d5	1d6	Keolewa is a Hawaiian war club, and is the first sacrifice artifact gift for Cavemen. Grants shock resistance when wielded.
Dirge	)	Long sword	Chaotic	1d5	1d10	The "Dark Knight"'s sword, can only be obtained by chaotic Knights by sacrificing a same race monster on a co-aligned altar while wielding a long sword, elven long sword, or orcish long sword (the exact type makes no difference, Dirge will become a 'long sword' regardless). Does additional acidic damage as well as conferring acid resistance when wielded. Is made of mithril.
Dramborleg	)	Dwarvish bearded axe	Lawful	1d8	1d8	Dramborleg is a dwarven bearded axe made of mithril, and is lawful in alignment. It provides magic resistance and one level of MC when wielded. A unique special capability of this axe, is that it can destroy any balrog in one hit. Because of its affinity to balrogs, Dramborleg will also warn of any demons nearby.
The Sword of Kas	)	Two-handed sword	Chaotic	1d10	x2 vs cross-aligned	Found wielded by Kas, the Sword of Kas delivers a significant amount of damage, especially against creatures not of its alignment, and is made of gemstone. It is also permanently coated in poison, and does extra poison damage against monsters that are not resistant. Wielding this sword confers stoning resistance and giant strength (25). It is bloodthirsty just like Stormbringer, and wielding this sword against liches does double damage (triple damage against Vecna). Cannot be wished for.
Magic 8-Ball	(	Orb	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	The ultimate rumor generator. Applying the Magic 8-Ball delivers a rumor; whether that rumor is true or not depends on its BUC status. Reading the Magic 8-Ball randomly generates one of twenty responses one would find from the real-life commercial product. This artifact is held by the Oracle. Confers warning when carried, and if it's blessed, there's a 0.001% chance that it will grant the user a wish when applied – if a wish is granted, the Magic 8-Ball will disappear. Cannot be wished for.
Xiuhcoatl	)	Atlatl	Lawful	1d5	1d24	Xiuhcoatl replaces The Orb of Detection as the Archeologist quest artifact. The atlatl is part of the spear family, and this artifact has its roots in ancient Aztec lore. Can be thrown, and it will return to the thowers hand just like Mjollnir, but a dexterity of 18 or greater is required for this to happen (or dexterity of 21 or greater if not an Archeologist). Xiuhcoatl does a massive amount of fire damage to monsters that are susceptible to fire, and confers fire resistance when wielded, ESP when carried, and can be invoked for levitation.
The Ring of P'hul	=	Ring	Chaotic	N/A	N/A	The Ring of P'hul replaces The Heart of Ahriman as the Barbarian quest artifact. The Ring of P'hul is an artifact ring that confers free action and magic resistance when worn and sickness resistance when carried. Its base type is an ancient ring that confers free action. Ancient rings never generate randomly, but can be found in bones piles or wished for. Its material is always crystal.
Luck Blade	)	Broadsword	Chaotic	1d5	1d6	Luck Blade is the first sacrifice artifact gift for the convict role. It acts as a luckstone when in open inventory, and is made of steel. In other variants, Luck Blade is traditionally a short sword – for EvilHack it's a broadsword.
The Striped Shirt of Liberation	[	Striped Shirt	Chaotic	N/A	N/A	The Striped Shirt of Liberation is the convict role quest artifact. When worn, it provides magic resistance, stealth, searching, and warning. Invoking this artifact allows the player to temporarily phase through matter much like a xorn. Once worn, it cannot be removed by normal methods. Shops will become off limits to anyone wearing the Shirt, even if it's covered up by other worn armor.
Gjallar	(	tooled horn	Neutral	N/A	N/A	Gjallar replaces The Orb of Fate as the Valkyrie quest artifact. It has the same artifact properties, but it is now a tooled horn instead of a crystal ball and doesn't have half spell damage. Blowing the horn will wake up any sleeping monsters on that level, and its scare radius is larger than that a regular tooled horn. Any monsters directly adjacent to the player when they use Gjallar have a 20% chance of being briefly stunned, and any non-Valkyrie players using it may become temporarily deaf.
Crossbow of Carl	)	crossbow	Chaotic	1d5	1d6	If playing as a gnomish or hobbit Ranger, the Crossbow of Carl replaces The Longbow of Diana as the Ranger quest artifact. It shares all of the same abilities and properties of the former, except it is now a crossbow instead of a bow. Invoking the crossbow produces crossbow bolts instead of arrows. In the hands of a gnomish or hobbit ranger, its weight is the same as a bow (24 aum), for all others it has the same weight as a regular crossbow. Both the Longbow and the Crossbow produce race-specific fully identified ammunition.
Angelslayer	)	trident	Non-aligned	1d5	1d10	An artifact trident that warns of Angels, confers automatic searching and half-spell damage, and does extra fire damage to targets that are susceptible. The fire damage is halved against fire-resistant monsters, whilst demons and undead with fire resistance are completely immune to this bonus. There is a 5% chance that a Balrog may spawn with this artifact.
Bag of the Hesperides	(	bag of holding	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	This is the bag given to Perseus by the Hesperides (nymphs) to aid him in his quest to defeat Medusa. It was used to store and carry Medusa's head. The bag's base type is a bag of holding, confers protection (one level of MC), is made of dragonhide, and greatly reduces the weight of items placed in it, even more so than a regular bag of holding. It also repels water just like an oilskin sack. Can be found with the captive pegasus at the end of the Ice Queen's branch. Cannot be wished for.
Butcher	)	triple-headed flail	Chaotic	1d5	1d8	This massive triple-headed flail belongs to the demon lord Yeenoghu. Legend states that Butcher was created from the thighbone and skin of a god Yeenoghu killed. The base item is a triple-headed flail which is so large it requires two hands to wield if human-sized, and its damage output is greater than even a dwarvish mattock. Butcher has a stun attack, much as Magicbane does, but unlike Magicbane, Butcher does not also cause fear or cancellation. Yeenoghu spawns with this artifact and will use it. Cannot be wished for.
Wand of Orcus	)	rod	Chaotic	1d5	1d6	A wand in name only, the infamous weapon of the demon prince Orcus, its base item is an ornate rod which is made of obsidian and topped with a huge skull. Appears in Orcus' inventory as he spawns. Any living creature struck by this artifact will either have their maximum hit points drained, or if not magic resistant, a small chance of being killed outright. The base item delivers a fair amount of damage in its own right - wielded by Orcus, its damage output is significant. The Wand of Orcus can be used by the player or other monsters, but at a cost – health regeneration is suppressed when wielded, and it will autocurse itself when wielded, dropped, or at random when wielded if uncursed. Can be invoked to tame nearby undead monsters. Cannot be wished for.
Secespita	)	knife	Non-aligned (Chaotic)	1d8	1d8	The first sacrifice gift for Infidels, Secespita is an improved ritual copper knife. It can restore a small amount of magical energy to the one that wields it if used to kill anything living. Secespita also acts as an utility artifact: wielding it while sacrificing a corpse improves its sacrifice value by 50% (rounded down). This is especially useful for Infidels, as they are required to make sacrifices to Moloch on a regular basis to avert his wrath. Confers poison resistance when wielded. Secespita is unaligned for Infidels, chaotic for all other roles (bones/wishing purposes).
The Idol of Moloch	(	figurine	Non-aligned (Chaotic)	N/A	N/A	The Idol of Moloch is the Infidel quest artifact, which is an artifact figurine of a horned devil (representing Moloch himself). It will be unaligned to Infidels, but for wishing and bones purposes it's chaotic. It confers magic resistance and half spell damage when carried. In addition to these two properties, Infidels will benefit from improved energy regeneration while carrying it, but only if they're piously unaligned. If their alignment is lower, but still positive, this effect will be proportionately reduced; for Infidels in bad standing with Moloch (or with changed alignment), and for all other roles, the energy regeneration will not be improved at all. In addition, carrying this item removes the penalties Infidels have when converting altars and praying above Gehennom. Invoking the Idol while standing on an altar instantly converts it to Moloch; invoking or applying it otherwise summons a random major demon, much like an ordinary figurine, except the Idol will not be expended. These two powers respect an invocation timeout.
The Eye of Vecna	%	eyeball	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	The Eye of Vecna is an extremely powerful artifact that is an actual body part that comes from Vecna himself. In this setting, Vecna must be destroyed in order to obtain the Eye, and even then, there is only a 50% chance that it will drop (the other 50% is the Hand of Vecna dropping). Be aware that if Vecna is destroyed via stoning, his Eye will not appear. When carried, the Eye of Vecna confers cold resistance, ESP, astral vision, and half spell damage. When invoked, it causes the Eye to death gaze at all monsters within visual range, either greatly reducing their hit points or killing them outright if they don't have magic resistance. Using the Eye this way can be detrimental, as each use drops the players luck and alignment by three points, and abuses wisdom. Invoking the Eye too often can cause it to turn on the player instead, killing them. The Eye of Vecna can be eaten, but doing so is strongly discouraged. It can also be sacrificed on an altar for maximum value. Cannot be wished for.
The Hand of Vecna	[	mummified hand	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	The Hand of Vecna is also an extremely powerful artifact that is an actual body part that comes from Vecna himself. Just as with the Eye, Vecna must be destroyed in order to obtain the Hand, and even then, there is only a 50% chance that it will drop (the other 50% is the Eye of Vecna dropping). Be aware that if Vecna is destroyed via stoning, his Hand will not appear. The Hand of Vecna appears as a 'mummified hand', and takes up the glove slot for worn armor. Once 'worn' (it fuses itself to your left arm), it cannot be removed, ever, even if the player polymorphs into a monster that would normally cause it to drop their gloves. Because of this, it is immune to erosion, disintegration, destroy armor monster spell, and destroy armor scroll. It also cannot be stolen when worn. The Hand can be enchanted up to +7, but because it can't be destroyed, it will never evaporate if attempting to enchant it higher than +7 (nothing happens). It's powers include: hungerless regeneration, half physical damage, and sickness resistance. It can be invoked for its death magic just like the Eye, killing or hurting any monster within line of sight that isn't resistant to death magic. And just as with the Eye, invoking its death magic has consequences. The Hand of Vecna also confers giant strength like gauntlets of power, and will cause an additional 1d5 + 7 (8-12) hit points of cold damage via melee attack to monsters affected by cold, regardless of whether a weapon is wielded or are fighting bare-handed. Worn rings can be removed without issue, even if the Hand of Vecna is cursed, as it's not treated as worn armor. Objects like a cockatrice corpse can also be handled without concern. The Hand must be 'worn' for any of these abilities to function. Cannot be wished for.
The One Ring	=	Ring	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	The One Ring is an artifact ring that is found in Gollum's Cave. Grants invisibility, stealth and searching when worn, as well as warning of wraiths and their ilk (Barrow wights, Nazgul). Its base type is a lustrous ring that confers invisibility. Lustrous rings never generate randomly, but can be found in bones piles or wished for. Its material is always gold.

Forged artifacts

Forged artifacts are introduced in version 0.8.1 as a special class of artifact that can only come into existence by forging two normal artifacts together using a forge. These artifacts are very powerful - the balance is in the act of obtaining one by giving up two artifacts, some of which are powerful in their own right. Forged artifacts will never spawn randomly, cannot be gifted by a player's deity, and cannot be wished for. Once a forged artifact is created, the forge used to create it will cool down and become unusable. Below is a table of the current forged artifacts, their abilities, and what is required to #forge them:

Forged Artifact	Symbol	Base type	Alignment	To-hit bonus	Damage bonus	Receipe/Notes
The Sword of Annihilation	)	Long sword	Non-aligned	1d5	1d12	Created by forging the artifacts Angelslayer and either The Eye of Vecna or the The Hand of Vecna together. Grants disintegration resistance when wielded, can disintegrate various worn pieces of armor of its target, and has a 10% chance of disintegrating its target outright if they are not resistant. The Sword of Annihilation is made of steel, and because of its nature, is indestructible.
Glamdring	)	Long sword	Chaotic	1d8	1d8 vs orcs/goblins	Created by forging the artifacts Orcrist and Sting together. Glamdring is a mithril elven long sword, and like its brethren, will glow blue in the presence of orcs and goblins. Confers MC1 and shock resistance when wielded. If forged by a wizard, will unlock sword skill for that role, and can be trained up to basic skill.
The Staff of the Archmagi	)	Quarterstaff	Neutral	1d5	1d8	Created by forging the artifacts Magicbane and Secespita together. The Staff of the Archmagi appears as a white ashwood staff, and has a slightly higher base damage modifier vs other quarterstaffs. When wielded, it gives off light (darkness for player Drow), reduces spell casting failure rates by 50% for all spell schools, confers magic resistance, and inherits Magicbane's curse absorbing ability. Grants half spell damage when carried, and can be invoked to temporarily phase through matter. Its damage types are also inline with Magicbane, minus the cancellation attack type.
Shadowblade	)	Athame	Chaotic	1d8	1d10	Created by forging the artifacts Werebane and Stormbringer together. When wielded, confers stealth, searching, and drain resistance, and warns of lycanthropes. Its attack will also drain life from its target, but does not inherit Stormbringer's need to attack peacefuls. In the hands of a rogue, Shadowblade gives a significant damage bonus to backstabs if wielded in the primary hand. It can be invoked to cause fear (similar to the spell), or to invoke an aura of darkness. Is made of adamantine and is attuned to Drow, but does not suffer from being brittle when exposed to light.
Gauntlets of Purity	[	Gauntlets of power	Lawful	N/A	N/A	Created by forging the artifacts Dragonbane and Grayswandir together. Made of silver, and when worn, grants the wearer giant strength, reflection, death magic resistance, and spell power regeneration. Does not inhibit spell casting while worn. If the wearer is of lawful alignment, it makes them immune to seduction attacks. Grants a small damage bonus while worn for lawful unarmed players trained in martial arts. Cannot be worn by a player who is not piously aligned – if the player abuses their alignment to such a degree that their alignment record drops below 20, the gauntlets will resist being worn, and will force themselves off of the players hands if already worn.
Ashmar	[	Dwarvish roundshield	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	Created by forging the artifacts Ogresmasher and Trollsbane together. This shield is made of mithril, and provides exceptional defensive abilities. When worn, confers half-physical damage, hungerless hit point regeneration, acid resistance, MC1, increases the players constitution to 25, and prevents the wearer from being knocked backwards. If Ashmar deflects an attack, it has a ¹⁄₄ chance of knocking back the attacker. This shield grants more armor class than your typical shield, especially if worn by a dwarf.
Hammer of the Gods	)	Heavy war hammer	Lawful	1d8	1d12	Created by forging the artifacts Sunsword and Demonbane together. This hammer is made of silver, and carries over the properties from Sunsword and Demonbane, while adding some of its own. It warns of and deals extra damage to demons and undead, When wielded, it gives off light, suppresses demon gating, and grants sickness resistance. Can be tethered and thrown like an aklys if the player is skilled/expert in hammer skill.
Tempest	)	Halberd	Non-aligned	1d10	1d24	Created by forging the artifacts Mjollnir and Cleaver together. Tempest is made of iron, and carries over the shock resistance and lightning attack from Mjollnir. However, Tempest also has a 20% chance of creating an electrical explosion on the target it hits. Due to the nature of how polearm-type weapons do damage, the explosion will only occur when the player hits a target at range (via applying), or in close melee range if the player is either riding a steed, or playing as a centaur. When invoked, it toggles conflict, and when wielded grants immunity to being stunned, and grants shock resistance to the player as well as any items in open inventory.
Ithilmar	(	Runed barding	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	Created by forging the Gauntlets of Purity and Vorpal Blade together. Ithilmar is a set of steel barding that confers magic resistance and reflection to the monster wearing it. It weighs less than typical barding, provides three more points of AC compared to other types of barding, and is spiky, meaning the steed wearing it cannot be engulfed. It also confers decapitation resistance, immunity to conflict, and immunity to death by starvation to the steed wearing it. Any steed wearing Ithilmar will not lose tameness from being left on another level or being mounted. If the player jousts while riding a steed equipped with Ithilmar, the chance for lance breakage is removed.
Armor of Retribution	[	Crystal plate mail	Non-aligned	N/A	N/A	Created by forging The Sword of Annihilation and Ashmar together. The Armor of Retribution is a crystal plate mail that grants disintegration resistance, half physical damage, half spell damage, 25 constitution, MC3, a ²⁄₃ chance of negating cancellation effects, increased carry cap/maximum carry cap (an extra 200/500 aum respectively), and immunity to knockback attacks when worn, plus acid resistance when carried. It also has a chance of knocking back an attacker if the armor blocks the attack, and has higher AC than ordinary crystal plate mail. It cannot be destroyed through any means. The Armor of Retribution cannot be dragon-scaled, any attempt to do so will fail.
Dichotomy	)	Runesword	Non-aligned	1d8	+1x fire +1x cold	Created by forging the artifacts Fire Brand and Frost Brand together. Dichotomy is a crystal runesword (broadsword) that inherits the elemental properties of both the Brands, hence the name. Those hit by this sword will take either fire damage, cold damage, or both depending on their resistances. If the target has neither resistance to fire/cold, extra damage is inflicted. Objects in open inventory of the target are subject to both fire/cold damage. Whoever wields Dichotomy is granted both fire/cold resistance, and any objects in open inventory are afforded the same protection. If special damage bonus applies (target is not fully resistant to both fire and cold attacks), there's a chance that Dichotomy will experience a surge in elemental power, and explode a ball of fire or cold on the target, doing extra area of effect damage.

Changes to existing artifacts

Only lawful Knights can dip for Excalibur, and there's a danger that the sword will rust away completely when you do (if not fixed). Once it is "thoroughly rusty", subsequent dips can cause it to rust away unless you are successful in getting Excalibur.
Mjollnir and Ogresmasher have had their base types changed from a war hammer to a heavy war hammer, which deals significantly more damage.
The Sceptre of Might has had its base type changed from a mace to a rod, which deals slightly more damage per hit.
Demonbane is made of silver and has been switched from a long sword to a heavy mace, and is the first sacrifice artifact gift for Priests.
Sunsword is made of gemstone (crystal), much like its same-named counterpart in AD&D (5th edition), and killing zombies while wielding Sunsword causes their corpses to evaporate, preventing their revival.
Fire Brand and Frost Brand are now short swords, and are each made of steel.
Dragonbane has been switched to a pair of dragonhide gloves that provides reflection, warns against dragons, and provides acid resistance.
Magicbane is no longer an athame, and is now a quarterstaff. None of its special abilities or functions have otherwise been changed.
The Knight quest artifact The Magic Mirror of Merlin has had magic resistance removed. In its place is reflection and half spell damage when carried.
The Priest quest artifact The Mitre of Holiness allows #pray and #turn to function in Gehennom when worn.
The Samurai quest artifact The Tsurugi of Muramasa confers half physical damage when wielded.
Various artifacts that have a nemesis monster warn against those monsters and can deliver extra damage to them, including a small percentage chance of delivering a fatal blow – this applies to the player as well, so beware of that hill orc wielding Grimtooth if you're playing an elven character.
Almost all of the stock weapon artifacts have had their to-hit and damage modifiers adjusted in the player's favor.
Artifact weapons can be dual-wielded for those that can twoweapon, but there's a catch – lawful and chaotic artifacts cannot be dual-wielded together, and will resist the attempt if tried. Like-alignment artifact weapons can be dual-wielded together, and any aligned artifact weapon can be dual-wielded with a second neutral or non-aligned artifact weapon.
Grimtooth now has a sickness-inducing attack that has a ¹⁄₆ chance of making its target terminally ill (player or other monsters). Just like using a poisoned weapon, lawfully-aligned players incur a small alignment penalty when using Grimtooth.
The Eyes of the Overworld now protect the wearer against many forms of gaze attacks, greatly reducing the need for the player to have to remove them to blind themselves with a blindfold or towel. Take note: Medusa's petrifying gaze attack is too powerful and will overcome the protection of the Eyes. Monks wearing the Eyes have a ²⁄₃ chance of resisting cancellation effects.
Vorpal Blade warns of jabberwocks and will protect the wielder from any type of beheading attack. It is made of steel.
Cleaver's arc attack will not hit peacefuls if the artifact is uncursed or blessed. If cursed, the arc attack will hit any valid target just as before.
Sting and Orcrist are made of mithril. If they are #named from mundane weapons, they will transform into mithril, and may summon a small number of hostile elves.
Sting's bonuses apply vs. both orcs and spiders.
Giantslayer has its base item changed to a spear. When wielded, it sets strength to 25 and grants knockback resistance.
Ogresmasher sometimes knocks back enemies on hit if they are medium-sized or smaller.
The ammunition created by #invoking the Longbow of Diana (or Crossbow of Carl) matches the player's race when applicable, and has a ¹⁄₅ chance of having an object property.
Snickersnee provides stun resistance when wielded.

Bane artifacts

Bane refers to a group of artifact weapons and armor that hates a specific group of monsters.

When wearing or wielding a bane, you will be warned of those monsters (you will sense them all across the map).
Peaceful monsters and pets sensed by the bane will become angry when they see you (and you will feel guilty about it). However, racial shopkeepers will not become hostile, but will permanently ban you from their shop instead. Coaligned temple racial priests will stay peaceful.
Almost all banes have a chance to instantly kill their hated target (or in the case of some unique monsters, gravely wound them). This also works for monsters using a bane against you, e.g. an angel wielding Sunsword has a chance to instantly kill you if you are a draugr.

Dragon scales and dtsund dragon-scaled armor

dtsund-DSM is named for the person who originally came up with the idea for removing dragon scale mail, and having dragon scales fuse with existing worn body armor instead. This system of dragon-scaled armor was first introduced in NetHack Fourk, and then xNetHack. As of EvilHack version 0.8.0, this system of dragon scales is in effect, using xNetHack's implementation, with some minor adjustments (taken from the dtsund-DSM entry on the xNetHack wiki page):

Dragon scales are now worn in the cloak slot, providing their dragon's primary extrinsic, AC 3, and MC 0.
"<Foo> dragon scale mail" no longer exists as an object, so it can't be wished for. If the player wishes for '<foo> dragon scale mail', they'll receive 'a set of <foo> dragon scales' instead.
Dragon-scaled body armor cannot be wished for, and must be crafted: Reading enchant armor while wearing body armor under scales hardens the scales and fuses them together, causing that armor to gain +5 AC and confer the matching primary extrinsic, along with additional secondary extrinsics that are only granted by the dragon-scaled armor.
- The armor is not made erodeproof, but if the scroll was blessed, its erosion is repaired and it becomes blessed.
- If the scroll was cursed, the armor still fuses together, but becomes cursed and loses a point of enchantment. Otherwise, the armor's enchantment does not change, and any enchantment on the scales is discarded.
- If you are confused, the scales meld into the armor and then the armor melds into you, polymorphing you into the corresponding dragon.
Reading enchant armor with scales but without body armor will polymorph you into the corresponding dragon. Wearing a shirt doesn't affect this.
- If you have polymorph control, you can decline to become a dragon.
- A blessed scroll gives you additional time as a dragon and a cursed scroll gives you less time.
- Scaled armor is never destroyed or separated into its components when you become a dragon; it reverts back to your body armor when you revert.
You can change the color of the scales on body armor by wearing a new set of scales and reading enchant armor. The old scale color goes away.
There are no limitations on what body armor can be used.
Player monsters that used to receive dragon scale mail now receive a standard random suit, dragon-scaled with a random color of dragon scales.
Shopkeepers charge a much higher price for a dragon-scaled piece of armor than they would for the same armor piece without scales.

Dragon scales having secondary extrinsics was taken from SporkHack, and then heavily modified – all dragon scales have a secondary extrinsic effect when fused with regular body armor and turned into dragon-scaled armor. Dragon scales worn on their own only exhibit their primary extrinsic, with one exception – gold dragon/chromatic dragon/shadow dragon scales will give off light (or darkness), regardless of whether it's just scales or dragon-scaled armor.

Dragon Scales	Primary extrinsic	Secondary extrinsic (dragon-scaled armor)
Blue dragon scales	shock resistance	confers speed, prevents slowing
Black dragon scales	disintegration resistance	passive disintegration attack
Gray dragon scales	magic resistance	passive cancellation attack, 90% chance of cancellation protection
Green dragon scales	poison resistance	confers sickness resistance, passive poison attack
Orange dragon scales	sleep resistance	confers free action, passive slow attack
Red dragon scales	fire resistance	+1d6 to all melee damage, passive fire attack
Silver dragon scales	reflection	confers cold resistance
White dragon scales	cold resistance	freezes water and lava under foot, passive cold attack
Yellow dragon scales	acid resistance	confers stoning resistance, passive acid attack
Shimmering dragon scales	displacement	confers stun resistance
Gold dragon scales	light (radius dependent on BUC status)	confers infravision and clairvoyance
Sea dragon scales	breathlessness	confers the ability to swim
Celestial dragon scales	flying	confers sleep, shock, and sonic resistance
Shadow dragon scales	ultravision, darkness (radius dependent on BUC status)	confers sleep and drain resistance
chromatic dragon scales	magic resistance, light (radius dependent on BUC status)	special (see below)

What's new for EvilHack that you won't find elsewhere, is that the dragons these scales come from enjoy many of the same secondary extrinsics. Blue dragons are faster, red dragons hit harder, hitting a black dragon has a small chance of disintegrating the weapon you hit it with, etc.

Crystal plate mail

Probably one of the most under-utilized pieces of body armor around – decent AC and no material spellcasting penalties, but it's so heavy, wizard-types will steer clear of it. I've attempted to address this shortcoming in EvilHack, giving it much more utility and hopefully making it into a viable choice for spellcasters.

Back story: crystal plate mail is forged from dilithium crystal, and can only be made by the most skilled of blacksmiths in conjunction with a powerful wizard. Dilithium is virtually transparent to magic; it almost acts like it doesn't exist. To some, this may seem like a bad thing, but for others it's a blessing.

Crystal Plate Mail weight reduced (from 450 aum to 150 aum).
Base material changed from glass to gemstone – no longer runs the risk of being shattered.
The base material change makes it much more expensive, and much more rare to find.
Crystal Plate Mail is immune to disintegration and the monster spell 'destroy armor'.
Crystal Plate Mail is the only body armor that does not incur a spell casting penalty when worn.
Can be dragon-scaled just like any other type of body armor.

Chromatic Dragon scales

As of EvilHack version 0.7.0, chromatic dragon scales have been made available. The only way to obtain them is to defeat Tiamat, who is now a demon prince that potentially inhabits a lair deep within Gehennom. Tiamat will not leave a corpse, and the scales cannot be wished for, so if she doesn't drop them upon her death (1 in 3 chance), there is no chance of obtaining them.

Chromatic dragon scales can be crafted onto any worn body armor to make dragon-scaled armor, just like any other dragon scale.
When worn, the scales confer magic resistance only, and give off light. They must be crafted into dragon-scaled armor to receive all of the extrinsics available (poison/fire/cold/shock/sleep/acid/disintegration/stoning resistance and reflection) in addition to magic resistance and light.
When dragon-scaled, chromatic dragon scales provide a certain level of protection vs cancellation attacks.
Because Tiamat is so huge, the scales she drops are just large enough to fit a player playing as a giant.

Weapons

A few new weapons were added to either flesh out a monster type, or to serve as a base for an artifact weapon.

Weapon	Symbol	Base type	Base material	Weight	Damage vs small	Damage vs large	Notes
Atlatl	)	Spear	wood	30 aum	1d8	1d12	Made specifically for the Archeologist quest artifact Xiuhcoatl. Does not appear randomly.
Dwarvish bearded axe	)	Axe	iron	70 aum	1d8	1d10	A one-handed axe of dwarven make whose damage output is comparable to that of a long sword. Can be used to disarm its target (wielded weapon or worn shield) by applying it, much the same as using a bullwhip.
Elven long sword	)	Long sword	wood	15 aum	1d10	1d12	Racial soldiers are a thing in EvilHack, and the elven types needed a long sword they could wield since elves have an aversion to iron. Lighter than its iron counterpart, but susceptible to fire damage. Damage output is on par with a katana.
Dark elven long sword	)	Long sword	adamantine	25 aum	1d10	1d12	A long sword appropriate for dark elven soldiers. Damage output is on par with a katana.
Dark elven spear	)	Spear	adamantine	15 aum	1d7	1d8	Same damage as an elven spear.
Dark elven dagger	)	Dagger	adamantine	8 aum	1d5	1d3	Same damage as an elven dagger.
Dark elven short sword	)	Short sword	adamantine	15 aum	1d8	1d8	Same damage as an elven short sword.
Dark elven broadsword	)	Broadsword	adamantine	45 aum	1d6+1d4	1d6+1	Same damage as an elven broadsword.
Dark elven mace	)	Mace	adamantine	20 aum	1d6+1	1d8	More damage versus large monsters than a regular mace.
Dark elven heavy mace	)	Mace	adamantine	35 aum	1d10+1	1d12	More damage versus large monsters than a regular heavy mace.
Dark elven bow	)	Bow	adamantine	40 aum	1d2	1d2	Drow version of the elven bow. Drow get the following bonuses: +1 to-hit bonus +1 multishot bonus when firing dark elven arrows +1 damage bonus when firing dark elven arrows
Dark elven hand crossbow	)	Crossbow	adamantine	25 aum	1d2	1d2	Hand crossbows can be wielded one-handed. Drow get the following bonuses: +1 to-hit bonus +1 multishot bonus when firing dark elven crossbow bolts Compared to regular crossbows, their range is slightly less; 8 instead of 10.
Orcish long sword	)	Long sword	iron	40 aum	1d8	1d10	Slightly less damage against large monsters versus a regular long sword.
Orcish scimitar	)	Scimitar	iron	40 aum	1d6	1d8	Slightly less damage against small monsters versus a regular scimitar.
Orcish morning star	)	Morning star	iron	120 aum	1d4+1d4	1d6+1	Made specifically for two new monsters, the goblin outrider and the goblin-captain, but can appear randomly.
Heavy mace	)	Mace	iron	50 aum	1d10+1	1d10	Base object for Demonbane, can appear randomly. Damage output is significantly more than its weaker cousin, the mace.
Heavy war hammer	)	Hammer	iron	60 aum	1d8+1	1d10	Base object for the artifacts Mjollnir and Ogresmasher, can appear randomly. Damage output is significantly more than its weaker cousin the war hammer.
Rod	)	Mace	gemstone	40 aum	1d6+1	1d8	Base object for The Sceptre of Might and the Wand of Orcus, does not appear randomly. Damage output is slightly better than a mace.
Staff of Divination	)	Quarterstaff	wood	40 aum	1d6	1d6	A wormwood staff is a Staff of Divination and gives a 50% boost to casting any divination spell when wielded. This staff and others like it can help non-casters attempt to cast certain spells that normally would have been either extremely difficult or impossible to cast otherwise.
Staff of Healing	)	Quarterstaff	wood	40 aum	1d6	1d6	A twisted staff is a Staff of Healing and gives a 50% boost to casting any healing spell when wielded.
Staff of Holiness	)	Quarterstaff	bone	40 aum	1d6	1d6	A bone-carved staff is a Staff of Holiness and gives a 50% boost to casting any clerical spell when wielded.
Staff of Matter	)	Quarterstaff	mithril	30 aum	1d6	1d6	An etched staff is a Staff of Matter and gives a 50% boost to casting any matter spell when wielded. It is also slightly lighter than its counterparts.
Staff of Escape	)	Quarterstaff	wood	40 aum	1d6	1d6	A darkwood staff is a Staff of Escape and gives a 50% boost to casting any escape spell when wielded.
Staff of War	)	Quarterstaff	iron	50 aum	1d6	1d6	An ironshod staff is a Staff of War and gives a 50% boost to casting any attack spell when wielded. It is heavier than its counterparts, but also has an extra d2 to-hit bonus.
Triple-headed flail	)	Flail	bone	150 aum	1d12+1	3d6+1d6	Base object for the artifact Butcher, does not appear randomly. Requires two hands to use for normal-sized players. Greatest damage output per hit of any base weapon in the game.

Containers and tools

Item	Symbol	Base type	Base material	Weight	Notes
Iron safe	(	N/A	iron	900 aum	A secure container that can only be 'cracked' using a stethoscope. Cannot be physically locked again once it's been unlocked. Can appear randomly.
Eight ball	(	Orb	plastic	20 aum	The base item for the artifact Magic 8-Ball. Does not appear randomly.
Crystal chest	(	N/A	gemstone	500 aum	A rare and magical type of container that cannot be locked, unlocked or forced open by any physical means (the Bell of Opening, Master Key of Thievery and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card are the three exceptions to this rule). The only way to open or lock this container is by magical means – a wand of opening or the spell 'knock' to unlock, or a wand of locking or the spell 'wizard lock' to secure. Otherwise, a crystal chest is immune to all other forms of magic, meaning it cannot be probed, cancelled, teleported, or polymorphed. This makes it the ideal container for the player to use to stash useful gear, as intelligent monsters will unlock and loot regular containers if given the chance, nor do monsters currently know how to use locking/unlocking magic. Crystal chests do not generate as trapped, and they can appear randomly.
Magic chest	(	N/A	N/A	N/A	Magic chests are dungeon features generated at fixed locations in the dungeon. They can be locked and unlocked by magic keys or by the same means as used for crystal chests. They share their contents, so putting items in any magic chest makes them available for looting in all other magic chest locations. Monsters will loot an open magic chest, making it vital to lock them after use. Magic chests can be found in the following locations: Sokoban starting level, Minetown, quest home, Castle, Fort Ludios, Goblin Town, Ice Queen's realm final level and Wizard's Tower final level.
Magic key	(	N/A	gemstone	5 aum	Magic keys can be used to lock and unlock magic chests, but also doors and chests. When unidentified they appear as ornate keys. Magic keys can be found in the following locations: Gollum's Cave, Mines' End and Fort Ludios.
Barding	(	N/A	iron	250 aum	Barding is armor for steeds. Throughout history, barding came in several shapes and sizes. In this setting, imagine barding protecting your steed's head/neck and flank all the way back to the start of where the saddle would be. It is applied to your steed just as you apply a saddle, and just like saddles, it's 'one size fits all'. The material the barding is made from determines how much extra AC protection it gives your steed (iron, the softer/more dense metals – 3 AC, steel or stone – 4 AC, mithril – 5 AC). It also affords some protection to your steeds head against any attacks that target it (zombie bite attack, mind flayer tentacle attack, etc). Barding can be enchanted just like any other piece of armor, and follows the same rules/behavior. To enchant barding, the player must have their steed wear it, and be mounted on their steed. When reading a scroll of enchant armor, they'll be given the option to enchant the barding.
Spiked barding	(	N/A	iron	275 aum	Just like regular barding, but is covered with tiny sharp spikes that protrude outward. If your steed is engulfed while it's wearing spiked barding, the monster engulfing it will spit it back out.
Barding of reflection	(	N/A	silver	275 aum	Just like regular barding, but it's fully reflective just like a shield of reflection.
Pair of goggles	(	N/A	plastic	3 aum	Takes up the eye slot. Allows the wearer to see underwater the same as they could on land.

Spellbooks

An assortment of new spells have been added to EvilHack, both from GruntHack and SporkHack.

Spell	Class	Level	Notes
Lightning	Attack	4	At unskilled or basic skill, this spell shoots a powerful lightning bolt as a ray from the caster. Effects are basically the same as a wand of lightning. At skilled or greater in attack spells, it can be cast as an area of effect spell as well. Damage output uses the same scale as the spells fireball and cone of cold.
Poison blast	Attack	5	Produces a cloud of noxious gas in a ray pattern, same effects much like a green dragons breath attack.
Acid blast	Attack	6	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.
Repair armor	Matter	3	When cast, repairs one level of damage to any worn piece of armor. Will not make armor items fixed, but will bring them back to a new undamaged state. This spell is significant, as the monster spell 'destroy armor' can un-fix and damage your armor to the point that it's destroyed completely, even armor that is inherently erodeproof. The spell will choose a worn piece of armor at random to fix if unskilled in casting matter-based spells, otherwise at basic or higher skill, the player can select which piece of armor to repair.
Reflection	Matter	5	Creates a temporary reflective bubble around the caster, acts exactly the same as an amulet of reflection or silver dragon scales.
Flame sphere	Matter	2	Creates a tame flaming sphere that will explode itself on any nearby enemies. Will dissipate if not used in a timely manner.
Freeze sphere	Matter	2	Creates a tame freezing sphere that will explode itself on any nearby enemies. Will dissipate if not used in a timely manner.
Critical healing	Healing	6	Heals 6d12 of damage if cast at basic level, and scales up if skilled/expert in healing magic. There is a 25% chance that the target of this spell will also be affected the same as if the 'cure sickness' spell were cast on them.
Burning hands	Enchantment	1	Once cast, it engulfs the caster's hands in flame. Casting at basic skill or less, the effect lasts for one hit. Skilled and above, the effect can last for a few turns. Recasting at any skill level can stack the number of available uses of the spell. Skill in enchantment spells dictate the amount of fire damage given: basic skill is 2d4, skilled is 3d4, expert is 4d4. Unskilled/restricted is 1d4. For the effect to work, the caster must not be wielding anything, but wearing gauntlets/gloves is fine. Burning hands will not work while underwater, or if the target is also in water. Cannot be used at the same time as shocking grasp, but it can be used with confuse monster.
Shocking grasp	Enchantment	2	Once cast, it gives the caster's hands a shocking grasp. Casting at basic skill or less, the effect lasts for one hit. Skilled and above, the effect can last for a few turns. Recasting at any skill level can stack the number of available uses of the spell. Skill in enchantment spells dictate the amount of shock damage given: basic skill is 2d6, skilled is 3d6, expert is 4d6. Unskilled/restricted is 1d6. For the effect to work, the caster must not be wielding anything, but wearing gauntlets/gloves is fine. Cannot be used at the same time as burning hands, but it can be used with confuse monster.

Several stock player spells have also had their levels altered to something that makes sense:

Dig – level 5 → 3
Sleep – level 1 → 2
Confuse monster – level 2 → 1
Detect monsters – level 1 → 2
Detect food – level 2 → 1
Charm monster – level 3 → 5
Detect unseen – level 3 → 2
Restore ability – level 4 → 2
Invisibility – level 4 → 3
Jumping – level 1 → 2

Additional spellbook changes:

Spellbook of cure sickness – is now directional and can be cast at other monsters as well as yourself. When cast at zombies it will do damage instead, with the amount of damage based on skill in casting healing spells (basic/unskilled/restricted: 1d8, skilled: 2d8, expert or greater: 3d8).
Spellbook of healing and Spellbook of extra healing take the skill of the caster into consideration when determining how many hit points to heal. Basic skill is unchanged (six dice), skilled bumps that up to 8 dice, expert or greater bumps it up to 10 dice. Being unskilled or restricted in healing spells lowers the amount of dice rolled to four.
Spellbook of force bolt – damage scales with attack spell skill: basic skill is default damage (2d12), skilled is 2d16, expert is 2d20, unskilled/restricted is 2d6. Chance to hit also scales with attack spell skill: at basic skill, the odds are the same as default; at skilled, the odds go up significantly, and at Expert the spell always hits targets with no better than an AC of -10. Wizards casting force bolt expend much less energy per casting: 1 at Basic skill, 2 at Skilled, and 3 at Expert.
Spellbook of restore ability – is now directional and can be cast at other monsters as well as yourself. When cast at a monster, it can uncancel them, same as them drinking or being hit by a potion of restore ability.
Spellbook weights are based on their level, the logic being the higher level the spell, the more pages needed to hold the formula. Level 4 spellbooks weigh the same as vanilla spellbooks; lower level weight less, higher level books weigh more.

Additional item changes

The Amulet of Yendor has a chance of teleporting away to another location on the current level if dropped, whether by the player or a monster. How often that can happen depends on its BUC status (²⁄₃ chance when cursed, ¹⁄₄ chance when uncursed, and ¹⁄₁₆ chance when blessed). This behavior is suppressed only in the Sanctum. Be warned – if you drop the Amulet on a level with open air and gravity is in effect, you run the risk of the Amulet teleporting to an open air spot, at which point it will fall away and land somewhere on the final demon prince level in Gehennom.
Wands in general can only be zapped once when at zero charges in an attempt to wrest them - the wand turns to dust afterward whether successful or not, but the odds of a successful wrest from zapping are dependent on its BUC status (¹⁄₇ chance when cursed, ¹⁄₆ chance when uncursed, and ¹⁄₅ chance when blessed).
Wand backfire patch: When zapping a cursed directional wand, there is a 1 in 30 chance of the wand instead firing its ray at you.
Wands of wishing are more rare to find randomly, and are always charged once already (1:x). The Castle wand is still created as having never been charged (0:x).
Wands of death can be recharged only once.
Wands/scrolls/spellbook of light – if cast too close to monsters that can see, the light will blind them. If a friendly monster is blinded this way, there's a 33% chance that they'll become angry. Pets blinded this way have a 50% chance of losing a point of tameness.
Amulet of flying – new amulet that allows the player to fly when worn.
Amulet of magic resistance – new amulet that provides magic resistance when worn.
Amulets of life saving do not work if cursed or worn by a non-living creature. This applies to monsters as well as the player.
Unicorn horns do not cure attribute loss anymore, but otherwise they act as expected. They are now one-handed weapons, with their damage output changed accordingly (1d8/1d10).
Magic markers now never generate randomly, nor will they appear in a player's starting inventory. Also, because they do not generate randomly, you cannot polypile for one. The only ways to obtain a marker are wishing for one, being lucky enough to find one in a bones pile, looting the crystal chest that belongs to the High priest of Moloch in the Sanctum, or choosing the 'tool' as the prize for completing Sokoban (50–50 chance between a marker or a bag of holding). There is also a very small chance (10%) of finding one in the Goblin King's treasure stash in Goblin Town and the final level of the Ice Queen's Realm.
Iron shoes were renamed to 'dwarvish boots'.
Many body armor types have had their weights reduced.
Many types of potions will have their effects diminished if diluted.
A luckstone will slow down your luck timeout based on its beatitude; a blessed luckstone no longer halts the timeout entirely.
Exploding bags of holding scatter their contents in a roughly 10 by 10 area. Breakable items (things made of glass, potions, etc) are subject to being destroyed from the force of the magical explosion.
Any item or object that is susceptible to being rusted, corroded, rotted, burned, or fractured can be completely destroyed via those methods unless fixed.
Any item or object can be fixed by wielding the object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon while confused, if its material allows for it.
Magic lamps can be wished for. Cursed magic lamps give off darkness instead of light (same radius); the aura of darkness overrides any light source. Magic lamps will keep working when underwater or when engulfed.
Orcish boots are added – much like dwarvish boots, but of lesser quality.
Gauntlets – just regular iron-based gloves (known as 'tekko' if playing as a Samurai).
Gauntlets of protection – base item cloth, provides MC3 just as a cloak of protection does. The rarest of all gloves in the game.
Helm of speed – this helm allows the wearer to become very fast when worn.
Shield of light – gives off light when worn. It has the same light radius as gold dragon scales (based on its BUC status). The base material is gold, and it weighs 60 aum.
Shield of mobility – confers free action when worn. The base material is steel, and it weighs 50 aum.
Various pieces of drow armor: dark elven helm, dark elven boots, dark elven chain mail, dark elven tunic, dark elven cloak, dark elven gloves, and dark elven bracers.
Bracers are worn on the forearms (shield slot), and do not protude outwards like wearing a typical shield would. They therefore allow two-weaponing and do not suppress the extra fist martial arts attack at grand master level, but provide less AC bonus from shield skill and no shield bashing. They behave like a small shield in terms of spellcasting and provide two points of AC. Regular bracers can be made of leather, iron, bone, stone, steel, mithril, silver, copper, gold or dragonhide. Dark elven bracers are always made of adamantine.
Scroll of magic detection – detects magical objects on the current level, in the players inventory and in all containers except crystal chests. An uncursed scroll will label such items as 'magical', a blessed scroll will reveal the type of those same items and any object properties they might have (except if the item is labeled as sokoban prize). Base price is 300 zm.
A Hawaiian shirt may be read to view its design (as no actual reading of text is involved, this does not break illiterate conduct).
Cursed wands of light cast darkness instead of light, just like a cursed scroll of light when read.
Monsters can drink a potion of restore ability to cure cancellation, and you can hit a monster with a potion of restore ability to forcibly uncancel them.
Cursed wands of invisibility will make its target visible if already invisible, and has a ¹⁄₂ chance of aggravating monsters on the current level if zapped at yourself while invisible. If the target is visible, nothing happens.
Wands of striking/force bolt spell will knock its target back one tile space if the damage output is sufficiently high enough (16 hit points of damage or greater).
Cursed locking tools (keys/lockpicks/credit cards) have a 20% chance of breaking with each use, whether locking or unlocking. Artifact locking tools are not affected.
Wands of nothing have a base price of 500 - the same as a wand of death or a wand of wishing.
Scroll of amnesia – reading a blessed scroll and having an intelligence of 13 or higher allows the player to reset their skill points so that they can then be redistributed differently to other trained skills if the player so chooses.
Reading a blessed scroll of genocide only wipes out two monsters of the chosen class, at random.
A monster that is hit by a potion of hallucination will be confused if it fails to resist.
New object - potion of drow poison. Can be used to coat weapons, and the coating will last a bit longer versus a weapon coated with a potion of sickness. When quaffed or hit by the potion, will cause the target to be knocked unconscious for a small amount of time (2-4 rounds). Sleep resistance can negate or lessen the effect (free action does not). If struck by a weapon that is 'tainted' by a potion of drow poison, the effect is a two-third chance of being put to sleep for 2-4 rounds along with 1-2 points of extra damage (non-lethal poison-based), or a one-third chance of just the small amount of extra damage. Cancelled potions of drow poison turn into fruit juice.
Dipping a gray fungus corpse into a potion of fruit juice creates a potion of sickness; dipping a black fungus corpse into a potion of fruit juice creates a potion of drow poison. To prevent wish farming, potions of sickness and drow poison have fixed descriptions (dark green/inky respectively).
Potions of paralysis thrown at monsters or wielded and smashed on their head, will paralyze the monster for 3 to 24 turns, or 1 to 12 turns if diluted.

Monsters

EvilHack introduces several new monsters – some pulled in from other variants, others are custom creations not found in any other variant. Several stock monsters have also been changed to varying degrees.

New monsters

This section lists all of the new monsters introduced in EvilHack, and is just a brief overview of each monster and any outstanding abilities or features each has. The order listed here is the same order as these monsters appear in src/monst.c.

Monster	Symbol	Difficulty	Notes
Locust	a	11	A small but dangerous flying insect that spawns in small groups. They can bite and sting, the latter of which can make the player terminally ill.
Giant mosquito	a	4	Tiny, fast flying insect that spawns in large groups. Their bite is weak, but has a small chance of poisoning the player much like a rabid rat, affecting their constitution instead of dexterity. Being surrounded by a large group of these can be a serious problem for a lower-level player.
Queen ant	a	16	Much like a queen bee, a queen ant is only found in antholes guarded by either giant ants, soldier ants, or fire ants. Queen ants have a tough exoskeleton, bite hard and deliver a venomous sting.
Giant cockroach	a	6	Small and fast, giant cockroaches are only found in areas with raw sewage – they do not spawn randomly. Giant cockroaches have a poisonous bite similar to a rabid rat, and can hide under objects.
Basilisk	c	16	Basically this – a larger, faster and all-around more deadly version of the cockatrice.
Rabid dog	d	4	Small mangy dog that is slightly stronger than a little dog, but a bit slower. Its bite attack is the same poisonous bite that a rabid rat employs.
Weredemon	d / &	16 / 19	The most powerful of the lycanthropes, weredemons are lesser demons that have been infected by a werewolf. They can change form into a hell hound and back again into demonic form, and can summon hell hounds or other demons to defend it. Like all other lycanthropes, they can infect others with lycanthropy. Weredemons are the only demon-class monster that can spawn outside of Gehennom.
Bourbon	d	22	One of a pair of German Shepherd dogs that guards Kathryn the Ice Queen. Bourbon is smaller but faster than her counterpart Ozzy. Cannot be killed, but can be defeated and forced to submit (becomes peaceful). Cannot be tamed or genocided.
Ozzy	d	24	One of a pair of German Shepherd dogs that guards Kathryn the Ice Queen. Ozzy is slower but bigger than his counterpart Bourbon. Cannot be killed, but can be defeated and forced to submit (becomes peaceful). Cannot be tamed or genocided.
Cerberus	d	30	Cerberus is a unique monster that guards the gates to Gehennom. It has three powerful bite attacks, and can breathe fire. Cerberus has three heads and is immune to Vorpal Blade - if one head is cut off, it grows back before the hero has a chance to remove the other two. Cannot be tamed or genocided.
Beholder	e	16	Beholders spawn asleep 80% of the time, and are one of the most dangerous creatures in the game if woken up. They are slow, and can be detected remotely by telepathy or via warning - beholders will always show as a 5 via warning, regardless of their level. It has a strong bite attack along with several different gaze attacks (slow, sleep, disintegration, stoning, cancellation), all of which can be negated by simply blinding oneself. Cannot be tamed. Can only be genocided after killing Tal'Gath.
Magical eye	e	14	A serious nuisance, especially when encountered with other monsters. Harasses the player with six different gaze attacks at its disposal (slow, sleep, stun, fire, cold, luck) and is skittish, meaning it will evade and kite its target - making the magical eye somewhat difficult to kill. Eating its corpse will randomly increase or decrease the player's Luck by 2 points. Cannot be tamed nor genocided.
Saber-toothed tiger	f	14	The most dangerous of the feline family, saber-toothed tigers will only spawn in the Ice Queen's Realm.
Lava gremlin	g	8	Similar to normal gremlins, but with more fire & lava & fun! Attacks are the same, but the claws are both fire damage. The bite is identical. The real nasty bit is the intrinsic stealing - instead of triggering only at night, lava gremlins are creatures of bright light, so they trigger during the DAY only. This also makes them immune to camera flashing/etc., unlike normal gremlins. They can't swim in water, but they enjoy a relaxing bath in lava, like salamanders & lava demons. They split in lava and forges, following the same behavior as gremlins in water/fountains.
Hobbit pickpocket (formerly hobbit rogue)	h	3	Slightly more powerful than a regular hobbit, and has an additional item stealing attack.
Gnoll	h	6	Gnolls are human-like, with a strong resemblance to hyenas. They have one weapon and one bite attack. Typically a gnoll will use a flail, spear, morning star, or polearm. Gnolls will also have some sort of leather or cloth based armor for defense. Can appear in large groups.
Gnoll hunter	h	9	A stronger, faster gnoll that hunts in small groups and will always have a bow and a number of arrows.
Gnoll cleric	h	10	A physically weaker gnoll that can cast an array of monster-based clerical spells.
Flind	h	12	A stronger, faster gnoll that can also have a battle-axe or two-handed sword.
Alhoon	h	30	A truly terrifying creature, alhoons are rogue master mind flayers that sought out ultimate magical power, sacrificing their souls and becoming something akin to an arch-lich. Alhoons do not have as many tentacle attacks as their mind flayer brethren, but they can cast powerful spells. They enjoy all of the strengths and weaknesses associated with being undead.
Ice nymph	n	5	Ice nymphs are basically the same as any other nymph, except that they are immune to cold-based attacks and only spawn in the Ice Queen's Realm or on special levels where nymphs in general occur.
Goblin shaman	o	5	A weak goblin capable of casting monster spells, much the same as a kobold shaman. Eating its corpse (or any monster spellcaster's corpse) can confer intrinsic telepathy.
Goblin outrider	o	5	One of a handful of monsters in EvilHack that can ride a steed. Slightly stronger than a regular goblin, it always spawns riding a wolf and is created in small packs. Goblin outriders are usually equipped with some form of ranged attack; while not a serious threat by itself, its steed and small packs can be a concerning threat.
Goblin-captain	o	7	The strongest of the goblin race, and always spawns riding a saddled warg. Does not spawn in groups.
Woolly mammoth	q	26	A gigantic creature, and the strongest of the S_QUADRUPED class. It can deal significant damage with twin tusk attacks, and it can use its trunk to grab and crush its target. Woolly mammoths are resistant to cold, and are the only creatures that can be ridden by player giants. Will only spawn in the Ice Queen's Realm.
Enormous rat	r	7	Larger, stronger, and faster than a giant rat, which can grow up into these if given the chance. Spawns in small groups.
Rodent of unusual size	r	9	Stronger than an enormous rat, which can grow up into these. Does not spawn in groups.
Honey badger	r	12	A fearless, nasty rodent that loves to eat the lumps of royal jelly found in a beehive. Can tunnel through rock, and has a significant bite and claw attack. Killer bees are its natural enemy. Can spawn randomly, but any level generated with a beehive has a good chance of spawning 1d4 honey badgers. Incentive to get to that beehive before they do.
Jumping spider	s	5	Slightly stronger than a cave spider and has a poisonous bite. Spawns in small groups. Can jump at the player from a small distance.
Large spider	s	3	Large spiders do not have a venomous bite, but they can spin webs. Cave spiders can grow up into large spiders, and large spiders can grow up into giant spiders.
Gargantuan spider	s	10	Gargantuan spiders have a venomous bite and can spin webs. Giant spiders can grow up into gargantuan spiders.
Giant centipede	s	20	A truly nasty monster, giant centipedes are larger than humanoids and are very fast. They have a serious venomous bite, and can wrap themselves around the player to prevent escape.
Drider	s	16	Driders are a horrific cross between a drow and a giant spider. They appear much like a centaur - humanoid from the waist up, but a massive spider abdomen and legs. Driders can attack with weapons and wear armor (minus boots), have a venomous bite, and can shoot webs at a distance. They will spawn with drow weapons and sometimes drow armor.
Lesser nightmare	u	5	An evil type of horse that is the starting default steed for the 'Dark Knight' player role, and is roughly equivalent to a pony that a regular Knight starts with, other than its poisonous bite. Can grow up into a Nightmare.
Nightmare	u	8	A slightly stronger version of the Lesser nightmare, and is roughly on par with a horse in terms of hit points and speed. Can grow up into a Cauchemar.
Cauchemar	u	10	The strongest of the Nightmares, and is roughly the same in hit points and speed as a warhorse.
Pegasus	u	20	Can only be found in the Ice Queen's Realm. Pegasi are strong horse-like creatures that have huge wings and can fly. Has two strong kick attacks and a nasty bite. Can be tamed by feeding and ridden. Can grow up into a Greater pegasus.
Greater pegasus	u	22	A greater pegasus is a fully-grown pegasus with a slightly stronger attack, more hit points, and better magic resistance.
Pale Horse	u	21	Unique monster, and is the steed ridden by Death. Powerful in its own right, as are all of the Riders' steeds. Has a level-draining bite attack along with multiple kicking attacks. Is the only undead steed, as no living creature could endure such proximity to Death for any period of time and live.
White Horse	u	21	Unique monster, and is the steed ridden by Pestilence. Has an armor disenchanting bite attack, along with multiple kicking attacks.
Black Horse	u	21	Unique monster, and is the steed ridden by Famine. Has a slow-inducing bite attack, along with multiple kicking attacks.
Red Horse	u	32	Unique monster, and is the steed granted to the player once they enter the Astral Plane (in lieu of an Angel minion) if their alignment record is of sufficient level (fervently aligned or greater). The player is War, one of the four Riders, hence the red horse. The red horse is stronger than the steeds that the Riders employ, and has a decent chance of surviving along with the player if it's taken care of. Has a fire-based bite attack, along with multiple kicking attacks. Spawns with a blessed saddle.
Giant leech	w	8	Giant leeches are only found in raw sewage, and prefer to hide in pools of sewage if available. They can hide in raw sewage and sneak-attack unsuspecting players that get too close. Their bite causes them to stick to you, but because of their size, a player with a giant leech latched onto them may find it difficult to get away.
Neothelid	w	36	Neothelids come into existence when a mind flayer larva nursery has been abandoned and the remaining larvae start eating each other until there is only one left (10% chance, 50% on the second floor of the Wizard's tower). They are massive in size, as large as a purple worm if not larger, and are often mistaken for one. They have a ranged acid breath attack, four huge tentacles around their gaping maw (one to grab, the other three act like mind flayer tentacle attacks), and can engulf like a purple worm. They will basically attack anything that isn't mindless, as they need brain matter to survive. Mind flayers view neothelids as abominations, and will attack them on sight. Cannot be tamed nor genocided.
Archangel	A	25	About as strong as an Archon, and are only found on the Astral Plane. Can cast clerical-based spells and can grab the player, not allowing them to escape. Cannot be tamed nor genocided.
Eldritch ki-rin	A	21	An eldritch ki-rin is one that started its celestial life as a normal lawful ki-rin, and at some point lost its way and started following a path of darkness. In nearly all aspects, they are identical to their lawful brethren. The differences are that their alignment is strongly chaotic, they have unrestricted access to the dungeons (they can appear in Gehennom), and their appearance is extremely dark. Cannot be genocided, and cannot be tamed by lawful knights, but are excellent steeds for chaotic knights.
Shimmering dragon	D	20	A shimmering dragon has a natural displacement intrinsic, and has a stun-type breath attack. They have stun resistance. The baby form of this dragon also exists.
Gold dragon	D	20	A gold dragon is much like a red dragon with a fire-based breath attack and is fire resistant. They emit light in a radius of 1. The baby form of this dragon also exists.
Sea dragon	D	20	A sea dragon is made primarily of water – its breath attack is a torrent of water that slams into its target, inflicting physical damage. Sea dragons are drawn to water and prefer to be in it rather than be on land. They are the only dragon that cannot fly, but they are also the only dragon that can swim and breathe underwater. Their engulfing attack can drown the player if they do not have a means of not requiring to breathe. Hitting it with unprotected iron weapons can cause those weapons to rust. The baby form of this dragon also exists.
Celestial dragon	D	34	A celestial dragon's main attack is it's powerful sonic roar in lieu of a breath attack. It also has a strong bite and dual claw attacks. Celestial dragons do not engulf its foes like other dragons, but can cast spells. They do not spawn randomly, and will only be found in other planar places, like the Planes, or Purgatory. Cannot be genocided. There is a baby form of this dragon.
Shadow dragon	D	24	The breath attack of a shadow dragon is level drain. If you're level drain resistant, you just take physical damage. If you're not resistant but reflecting, instead of level drain, you take damage along with some max hit point drain. Shadow dragons give off an aura of darkness, just as gold dragons give off light. There is a baby form of this dragon.
Fell beast	D	16	Like a dragon, but isn't one. The fell beast is the steed of the Nazgul. Has a fairly strong claw and bite attack. Cannot be tamed nor genocided.
pseudodragon	D	4	The new starting pet for the wizard player role. Is fast, can fly, and has a poison stinger at the end of its tail. Can grow up into an elder pseudodragon. Does not spawn randomly – the only way to obtain one is to either start with one as a wizard, cast create familiar spell, or to find one on a bones level that was the pet of a deceased player.
Elder pseudodragon	D	6	Slightly stronger version of the pseudodragon. Can grow up into an ancient pseudodragon.
Ancient pseudodragon	D	8	The strongest of the pseudodragons, and is grown up sufficiently that it can be ridden as a steed.
Gray fungus	F	5	Nasty addition to the fungus-class of creatures. Only has a passive attack, but this attack can make the player terminally ill.
Black fungus	F	5	Part of the mold/fungi family. Only has a passive attack. Anything attacking it that isn't sleep resistant has a chance of being put to sleep for 8-10 turns. Poisonous to eat, but can confer a small amount of sleep resistance.
Hill giant shaman	H	10	The hill giant shaman is considered a mid-level spellcaster, and can cast from the pool of clerical-based monster spells.
Elder minotaur	H	29	A much stronger and harder hitting version of the minotaur, only found in Gehennom. Along with the typical claw and headbutting attacks which can do serious amounts of damage, it can also grab the player and crush them, preventing escape. Cannot be tamed.
Snark	J	15	Weaker than a jabberwock and skittish. Is disintegration resistant, and its corpse can confer disintegration resistance when eaten. Cannot be genocided. One percent of snarks will turn into a boojum when attacked.
Boojum	J	21	Stronger and faster than a jabberwock and can do more damage per attack. Very rare, only appears when a snark is attacked, and it has the same intrinsic properties. One of its attacks can teleport the player across the map much like a quantum mechanic.
Vorpal jabberwock	J	26	Strongest and most deadly of the jabberwock class of creatures, each of its claw attacks has a small chance of beheading its target if said target has a head. Can be killed in one hit with Vorpal Blade. Cannot be genocided.
Hobbit mummy	M	6	The hobbit player race exists, so hobbit mummies do also. Same characteristics as any other mummy.
Giant anaconda	S	13	The largest and strongest of the snake family of creatures, it can grab onto the player and also engulf them with a digesting attack.
Shambling horror	U	15	This bizarre monster will always be something different from game to game. Its monster abilities, hit points, speed and other characteristics change every game and it's never the same monster twice. You may get lucky and encounter a very weak shambling horror, or have a game where they are incredibly powerful and would give any demon lord or prince a run for its money... or anything in between. Once a shambling horror has been killed, their stats are available in the pokedex. Cannot be genocided.
Vampire mage	V	26	One of the most powerful undead monsters in the game, the vampire mage enjoys all of the same attacks and abilities as a regular vampire, but also has powerful magic at its disposal. These can make for powerful pets if you can overcome its natural magic resistance and keep it tame.
Baby owlbear	Y	4	Since adult Owlbears can lay eggs, baby owlbears naturally hatch from them. Baby owlbears do not have the crushing attack that their full grown counterparts have, but can be cause for concern if encountered in groups.
The Abominable Snowman	Y	27	A unique, powerful monster that guards the ice bridge in the Ice Queen's Realm. Has a devastating bite and dual-claw attack, and can pickup and throw boulders. It can also walk over water and freeze it underfoot, turning any pool into ice. Cannot be tamed or genocided.
Hobbit zombie	Z	3	Just like hobbit mummies, hobbit zombies exist because the hobbit is a playable race. Has the same characteristics as any other zombie found in EvilHack.
Revenant	Z	15	The strongest of the S_ZOMBIE class of monsters, and will only spawn in the Ice Queen's Realm. Revenants are not true zombies - instead of infecting their target and making them ill, they can paralyze their prey with fear with a single touch. If a player is killed by any type of lich, they will arise as a revenant.
Gnoll witherling	Z	6	This is a zombified form of gnoll that can cause withering, and shares the same brain-eating bite attack as other zombies. Any gnoll killed by a zombie will rise again as a gnoll witherling.
Snow golem	'	25	Only found in the Ice Queen's Realm. Slow but strong and extremely hard-hitting. Can walk over open water and freeze it underfoot, turning it into ice.
Elven wizard	@	11	Elven wizards are considered a mid-level spellcaster and can cast from the pool of wizard-based monster spells. They also have a ranged magic missile attack.
Drow raider	@	7	Similar to a Green-elf, but additionally has poison resistance and infravision. Appears in small groups.
Drow warrior	@	11	Stronger version of the drow raider. Appears in small groups.
Drow mage	@	12	Similar to an elven wizard, but slightly stronger and additionally has poison resistance and infravision.
Drow cleric	@	15	Can cast an array of monster-based clerical spells, including summoning of arachnid or centipede monsters (instead of insects).
Charon	@	38	Unique humanoid - Charon stands right outside the entrance to Cerberus's lair. Spawns peaceful, and can be chatted to for hints. Cannot be tamed or genocided.
The Rat King	@	14	The Rat King is a unique monster that is only found in a specific Mines' End level known as 'The Sewers of Waterdeep'. The Rat King is much like a wererat except that it never changes form and keeps its human appearance. It will attack with weapons, its bite can cause lycanthropy, and it can also summon various rats if needed. Not an opponent to take lightly.
Kathryn the Ice Queen	@	36	Kathryn the Ice Queen is the boss monster found at the end of the Ice Queen's Realm. She is guarded by Bourbon and Ozzy, who will become hostile and protect her if she is attacked. Kathryn the Ice Queen cannot actually be killed, but can be defeated. Upon defeat, she transforms into Kathryn the Enchantress, who is peaceful and much more powerful. The Ice Queen has ascension-level gear, and has the full range of monster spells to cast at her disposal (some of these being geared towards cold-based attacks). Cannot be tamed or genocided.
Kathryn the Enchantress	@	104	If Kathryn the Ice Queen is defeated, the evil curse on her is lifted and she transforms into Kathryn the Enchantress. In this new form she is peaceful (unless you are an Infidel) and makes her companions Bourbon and Ozzy peaceful as well. However, she is an order of magnitude more powerful than her ice queen form, and cannot be killed or even defeated. If you accidentally anger Kathryn the Enchantress, she can be pacified by throwing a candy bar at her.
Spectre		13	A more powerful form of ghost, the spectre can always be found in Gehennom. They can use weapons and other gear that the player can use. If the player is killed by a spectre, or if the player dies and is of a high enough level (experience level greater than 21) and leaves bones, if they would have normally arisen as a ghost, they will instead arise as a spectre.
Lava demon	&	15	A new type of demon introduced with the addition of the Convict patch. Lava demons can be encountered during the convict quest, in Gehennom, and can also be summoned via dipping objects into a forge.
Mind flayer larva	;	8	Mind flayer larva are only ever found in mind flayer nurseries, on or after dungeon level 20. Relatively weak, they exist in shallow pools of water and will not venture from them. They have one attack, which is to attempt to attach itself to the player's face. If successful, the player has only one turn to kill or remove the mind flayer larva from its face. If not removed in time, the mind flayer larva burrows itself into the player's brain, killing them instantly. Players that die in this way will arise as a mind flayer (this is how mind flayer's enter into their adult form).
Giant turtle	:	8	Very tough and hard to hit due to its protective shell, but also very slow. Has a moderately powerful bite attack.
Frost salamander	:	13	Slightly stronger than their salamander counterparts, frost salamanders are only found in the Ice Queen's Realm. They prefer ice over any other terrain, can use weapons and have a cold-based touch and hug attack.
Cave lizard	:	9	Cave lizards can be tamed and ridden by drow only. They can be saddled/barded like any other steed. Cave lizards are clingers, meaning they can walk on ceilings like a wumpus. They have the ability to jump.
Large cave lizard	:	13	Stronger version of the cave lizard.

Changes to existing monsters

Various overall changes – monster hit point generation is 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 can use many more items against the player or for their own benefit, including stashing objects into bags and taking them back out, making a wish (either from the wand, or from a djinni appearing from a used smoky potion), activating any figurines it may have, unlocking and looting locked containers, wearing most rings, scrolls of remove curse to uncurse items in its inventory, scrolls of charging to recharge wands in its possession, and utilizing powerful wands against the player (polymorph and cancellation). Certain monsters have a grudge against certain other monsters. Monsters that generate in groups may be accompanied by a stronger "leader" monster or "support" monster spellcasters.
Stoning – monsters being stoned is a slow-stoning process, just as it is for the player.
The zombie – probably the most significant monster change in EvilHack and one of the key changes that makes this variant so difficult. Zombies now have two different attack types, one being a poisonous claw attack (effects and frequency are the same as a bite from a rabid rat), the other being a disease-inducing bite attack to the head. The latter is a very serious threat, as the ability to cure oneself from being terminally ill are almost non-existent in the early game. If the player becomes ill from a zombie bite, they only have a few turns to cure themselves, or they will die and turn into a zombie. This zombie can be encountered by other players if a bones file is generated. There is a very small chance that the player will be able to continue playing if they are turned into a zombie; however, they will be stuck in that form for the remainder of the game. A zombie's bite attack will not cause amnesia, but still has a chance of causing intelligence loss. Eating a zombie corpse will make the player ill and cause them to start turning into a zombie (tins of zombie meat 'cure' the meat and make it safe to eat). Attacking zombies at range and wearing a piece of armor that protects your head are highly recommended. Zombies can make other monsters terminally ill as well - the same methods used by the player to cure themselves of a terminal illness can be used/applied on monsters or pets also - intelligent monsters will seek out these items and use them if necessary.
The Wizard of Yendor can cast from both schools of monster spells, and has a basic kit appropriate for a wizard (cornuthaum, robe, a magical athame or quarterstaff, and a chance of an amulet of guarding or an amulet of magic resistance). He is capable of stealing every quest artifact except that of your role.
Player monsters are now technically their own class of monster and are separate from how the actual player is defined in src/monst.c, and 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 monster Knights spawn riding either a horse or a warhorse. Player monsters in EvilHack covet the Amulet of Yendor and will attempt to steal it, and if they steal it while on the Astral Plane, will attempt to sacrifice it themselves. As you can imagine, if that happens, it is a game-ending event.
Unique demons (demon lords and princes):
- All demon lords and princes have their own randomly selected special levels in Gehennom; some will be encountered by the player at some point during their descent to the bottom. Many have all also been given the ability to cast clerical-type spells in addition to their regular attacks.
- Unique demons now ask for a significantly greater amount of gold when attempting to bribe the player for safe passage.
- Juiblex has been enhanced, and has many more acid-based attacks at its disposal.
Along with the group of vanilla NetHack creatures that are immune to magical scaring, all quest leaders and nemesis, all demon lords and princes, player monsters, archangels and honey badgers are also immune to magical scaring.
The Riders have had their hit points increased significantly, and each Rider has its own steed which it rides, each with unique attacks and abilities.
Players can do battle with their quest leader if they turn hostile, and if they defeat their quest leader, it unlocks their quest and they can still finish it. Consequently, angering your quest leader or being banished from the quest is no longer a game-ending event.
Vlad the Impaler can cast wizard-based monster spells, and wields the artifact weapon Lifestealer.
Medusa has been enhanced significantly, and is no longer an easy kill. Medusa's hit points and level have been increased, and 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, as Medusa will shield her eyes from her own reflection 92% of the time. If the player is too far away (three or more spaces) from Medusa, her reflected gaze is too far away for her to notice and will not have any effect on her.
The Yendorian army is now significantly changed, as there are now various races among the soldier, sergeant, lieutenant and captain ranks. It is not uncommon to see either human, elven, dwarvish, gnomish, orcish, hobbit, giant or centaurian races across all ranks, outfitted with appropriate gear given their race and size. The hit dice and difficulty rating for each rank is basically the same, regardless of race. As with player monsters, listing every single new rank and race of the Yendorian army would unnecessarily inflate the new monster list and was purposely left out.
All of the 'lord' and 'king' monsters that exist (dwarves, kobolds, gnomes, ogres, vampires, and elves) now have 'lady' and 'queen' counterparts. Their stats are the same, just that their title and gender have changed. To include all of these on the new monsters list would have been counter-productive and was left out on purpose. Vampire kings and queens have also been created – each are slightly stronger versions of their Vampire lord/lady counterparts, but are not as powerful as Vampire mages.
Dragons have been significantly enhanced – they spawn with much more hit points (especially in the end game), can engulf creatures smaller than it and digest them, and their scales have some form of a secondary passive attack (which is passed on to the scales they drop upon death). Overall, they are now a much more worthy opponent befitting their status and are not to be taken for granted.
All elemental monsters can engulf creatures smaller than it – the fire elemental engulfing attack is fire-based, the earth elemental engulfing attack is much the same as an air elemental, and the water elemental engulfing attack can choke the player if they do not have a means of breathing underwater.
The gelatinous cube and green slime now have engulfing attacks – the green slime engulfing attack is the same as its touch attack (sliming), whereas the gelatinous cube engulfing attack is a modified version of the giant eel wrap attack. It will strangle the player unless they have a means of magical breathing, and not much time is afforded the player to escape before they die of suffocation. Since the gelatinous cube also has a paralyzing attack, this makes them a very fearsome monster and they should be avoided if at all possible.
Lichens now have a weak attack that does little damage but can slow its target down.
Leprechauns will steal not just gold pieces, but anything made of gold from the players inventory.
Tame vampire types will not revert back into their animal form.
All orcs are immune to poison, just like the orc player race.
Shape-changing monsters (except for vampires and werecreatures) will revert back to their original form when their polymorphed form dies. They cannot change form again once this happens.
Wargs can now be ridden by player orcs, and subsequently can only be tamed as domestic by them.
The Elvenking has been renamed to 'elven royal'.
Color changes – the Wizard of Yendor, mind flayers, and master mind flayers have had their color changed to bright magenta so as to make it possible to differentiate them from other monsters that they used to share the same color (magenta) with. Tigers are now orange, as they should have been from the get-go.
Mumakil, mastodons, and woolly mammoths, can attack with their trunks, grabbing onto and crushing their target. Mumakil have also had their difficultly level increased to make it more in-line with the damage it delivers.
Salamanders can grab onto the player and pull them into lava if it is currently in a pool of lava.
Ghosts are more of a threat, as all incorporeal monsters can only be hit with blessed or enchanted objects, or objects made of silver or bone. They can also turn invisible and back again, scaring the player and making them immobile for a brief period of time.
Some monsters can break through boulders if they are hostile: the Riders, quest leaders, temple priests, shopkeepers, the Oracle, or any monster that happens to be wielding a digging tool. The Riders can do this on every turn, and the others will do so every 10-20 turns.
Gnomes hate eggs (inspired from the 'Oz books'). If nearby living gnomes see you have regular eggs in open inventory, there's a chance they'll become agitated and flee. They'll also take 4d5 damage if you manage to hit them wih a thrown egg, with an additional small chance of cancelling them. Gnomish shopkeepers aren't affected by this.
Barbed devils, Mephistopheles and Lucifer can cast hellfire if up close to their target. If the target has fire resistance, they will still take half-damage. However, demons and undead with fire resistance are completely immune. Barbed devils can also cast fire bolts from a distance.
The Oracle has been significantly buffed.
The explosion attack of sphere monsters now cover a 3x3 area, similar to gas spores.

Monster spells

A few new monster spells have been added to EvilHack, and some existing spells have been tweaked or changed. The order listed here is the same as they are listed in src/mcastu.c, typically strongest to weakest.

Spell	Type	Status	Notes
Touch of death	Mage	existing	Vanilla NetHack behavior – no magic resistance, you're dead. With MR, nothing happens. In EvilHack, 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	Mage	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	Mage	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	Mage	existing	Vanilla NetHack behavior – if the player didn't have magic resistance, one piece of armor would be completely destroyed. In EvilHack, this spell isn't as direct, but is more insidious, and having magic resistance is no longer full protection against this spell. Any piece of armor being worn can have its fixed status removed, and then can be deteriorated to the point that it's completely destroyed. Even armor that is normally erodeproof (dragonhide and dragon scales, mithril, etc) is affected. Having MR keeps the erosion level at one per cast, otherwise the erosion level is of one to three levels per cast. The counterbalance to this spell is the spell of repair armor. Blessed pieces of armor have a small chance of resisting. Armor-based quest artifacts are immune to this spell, as is crystal plate mail.
Fire bolt	Mage	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. This is a low-level spell, so access to this spell is given to every monster spellcaster that has access to mage-based spells.
Ice bolt	Mage	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. This is a low-level spell, so access to this spell is given to every monster spellcaster that has access to mage-based spells.
Summon minion	Clerical	new	Allows the monster spellcaster to summon a type of minion based on its alignment. Demons that can cast clerical-based spells are not given access to this spell, as they already have the ability to gate in other demons. Can be cast at a distance.
Geyser	Clerical	existing	A powerful spell that causes a large geyser of water to slam into its target, causing physical damage (8d6). What's new to this spell versus vanilla NetHack is that it can now rust any unprotected worn armor.
Open wounds	Clerical	existing	A spell that causes wounds to appear on the target's body, causing damage based on the caster's level. In EvilHack, the spell can also be cast at a distance.
Vulnerability	Clerical	new	The target of this spell temporarily becomes vulnerable to either fire, cold, shock or acid-based attacks, dropping its resistance (if any exists) by 50%. It can also be cast at a distance.
Reflection	Mage	new	A spell that creates a shimmering globe around the caster, granting them reflection for several turns.

The cure self monster spell has not been altered, but some logic was introduced that makes this spell a priority if the spellcasting monster's hit points drop to a life-threatening level.

Stone to flesh is an ability that functions similarly to the stone to flesh spell for players, but works differently from other monster spells: Any spellcasting monster of level 5 or higher can use this ability if they are not immobilized, with a random cooldown that can reach up to 7 turns; stoning is revamped so that it affects monsters gradually as it does you, and requires 5 turns to turn a monster completely to stone. This makes defeating particular bosses via stoning much more difficult, but not impossible.

Monsters can use their spells in combat against other monsters, but will not summon or aggravate monsters. Polymorphing into a spellcasting monster and attacking in melee will cast a random monster spell, with the same attack order as that monster would have normally (i.e. no casting will occur if your previous attacks killed the target monster); the spellcasting attack fails if you do not have enough power.