Hack'EM

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Hack'EM is a project started by User:Hackemslashem with the goal of becoming the next successor to SLASH'EM. Simply put, Hack'EM is "Hack, Extended Mechanics." Starting with version 1.3.0, User:malor has taken over to keep Hack'EM alive and help it continue to evolve!

Main menu

Template:HackEMMonsters

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

• Hack'EM Frequently Asked Questions
• Hack'EM strategy guide for vanilla players

Info on new content and changes to existing content:

• Item (Hack'EM)
• Monster (Hack'EM) (Unabridged listing of all monsters)
• Roles and races (Hack'EM)
• Artifact (Hack'EM)

Script generated pages:

• Hack'EM monsters
• Hack'EM items

About

Welcome to Hack'EM!

When hackemslashem first started this project, it was an attempt to modernize SLASH'EM and bring it to a modern post-NetHack 3.4.3 environment. He started with EvilHack as a base because he was intrigued by the challenging reputation of EvilHack and the comprehensive feature set it contained. However, as the project proceeded he found many other interesting mechanics and ideas to refine and mix in from other forks. The result was a game where the skeleton is SLASH'EM, but the innards are composed of EvilHack, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, xNetHack, UnNetHack, and almost every other fork. In particular, the content of SpliceHack and SlashTHEM were of importance - because these forks have a goldmine of content but their development has largely stalled, resulting in a backlog of bugs. Now players can find many of the features from those forks in Hack'EM, with less bugs and refined mechanics.

The main design philosophies still stand:

• If something doesn't work, is buggy, or is easily abusable, attempt to improve it or remove it.
• If something is bland or feels unfinished - attempt to flesh it out.
• Add all the quality-of-life features that are available in the variant market.

But a couple of new ideas have also evolved:

• Make the game accessible to both NetHack newbies and veterans. This was mostly accomplished by updating the object lookup to show more information on objects, monsters, and artifacts. A player doesn't have to run to the wiki (or wonder if the wiki is up-to-date).
• Make the game challenging for NetHack veterans, even if completely spoiled. We want to keep people coming back for more, and we want to encourage different tactics as the texture of the game reveals itself.
• Make the game difficult - but fair. Many new challenges have been introduced, but the player shouldn't feel that a situation is completely out of their control unless the RNG is really bad that day. For each new challenge, a counter-balance has usually been achieved. The opposite is also true, for any powerful effect in the player's favor, a counter-effect is usually balanced. The end-goal is to present the player with interesting situations.
• Nudge players to make more creative decisions. If a mechanic, item, or feature makes for a completely decisionless strategy, this is usually viewed as a sign that something needs to be adjusted.

Quality-of-life features

Object lookup has been fleshed out:

• If you are new to Hack'EM, the object lookup will be your new best friend!
• There are a few ways to access the lookup info:

   - Open your inventory (i), and then press the inventory letter associated with your item.
   - Farlook: Press ; then : on a monster or item.
   - Type / and ?, and manually type in the item/monster to query (e.g. "potion of acid")

• Object lookup shows a lot of useful information for items, including object properties and special effects from materials.
• Object lookup for corpses now shows intrinsics conferred, and other info about eating them (like if they are poisonous or acidic).
• Weapons show bonus damage and effects resulting from materials.
• Artifacts can also be looked up to reveal all the special effects they confer or attacks they inflict.
• You can see if a monster doesn't respect Elbereth or can't be magically scared in the Pokedex.
• Special item manipulation tricks will also be displayed if they pertain to the item:
  • fermentation recipes with fruit juice (Lookup "fruit juice" for full listing)
  • gem alchemy (Lookup "acid" or "gem alchemy" for a full listing of recipes)
  • forging recipes
  • tinker/upgrade paths

Auto-identification

• All roles start out having these basic items pre-identified:
  • potions of water
  • blank scrolls
  • scrolls of identify
• Many items are auto-identified on wear, first use, or when their effects should logically be reveals (ie: water walking boots are identified when you walk over water)
• Almost all wands are identified when seeing their engraving effects or zap usage.
• If a wand shares an engrave message with others, it can be auto-identified by process of elimination if its counterparts are already identified.
• Auto-ID rings dropped into a sink when message is shown (Un)
• Auto-ID amulets dropped into toilets, if possible (slex)
• Auto-ID flintstones when rubbed on iron weapons (evil)
• Rustproof/erodeproof/fixed status is known by default for all items (DynaHack)
• After a period of using a wielded weapon and gaining experience with it, you will fully identify it (evil)
• Throne insight now recursively identifies all items in your possession and in your containers (fiq)
• Blessed stethoscopes can identify eggs (on the floor)
• Projectile un-identification has been left out (this prevents merging of previously known projectiles in 3.7)

Magic chests

• The ultimate quality-of-life feature has been imported from EvilHack!
• Magic chests provide a convenient place to centralize your stash.
• There are many magic chests in the dungeon, and they all magically share the same contents. So you can store your goods in the Minetown stash, run down to Sokoban, and voila - there they are!
• Nothing this good comes without a catch though, and since all magic chests start out locked, you will need a special magic key to access them. Magic keys can be found in Mine's End, the Pleasant Valley village level (in Goda's hideout), or at Grund's Stronghold.
• You can also use the alignment quest keys because they double as magic keys.
• Note: Monster can and will loot your magic chests - so always make sure to lock them when away!

Magic chest locations:

• Minetown
• Sokoban (first level)
• The Pleasant Valley
• Your role's quest home level
• The Lawful Quest
• Fort Ludios
• The Black Market
• The Temple of Moloch
• The Castle
• Orcus town

Other QoL

Many effects are explicitly displayed for the player's benefit:

• The player's magic cancellation (MC) is shown in the status bar (evil)
• Phasing status is also shown in the status bar. (from EvilHack)
• Realtime display option is now available (from EvilHack)
• Show prayer stats in Attributes menu [^X screen] (from UnNetHack, originally from dNetHack)
• Firearms that have different modes of operation display their modes in the player's inventory.
• The number of gifts received appears in the #conduct screen.
• When transmogrifying or using the add property service, the same property will not ever be re-applied. You should always expect to see a different property as a result.

New options are available for the player's convenience:

• Config option for auto-stair travel (autostairtravel)
• Config option for kicking shortcuts (ctrlkick)
• Config option to play without the bloody tile coloring (bloodless)
• Paranoid swim and paranoid trap options can be set.
• showdmg option (from SLASH'EM): This shows damage vs the player in (parentheses) and damage vs monsters in [brackets]. It also toggles the flanking bonus display on and off.

Effortless dungeon navigation features

• > < to auto-travel to stairs (from Unnethack)
• Control+Direction now kicks in that direction
• The Astral Plane is always lit (xnh)
• Removed all random secret corridors (xnh)
• Don't hide magic portals (from xNetHack)
• Removed the Quest turn limit (Un)
• Removed the mysterious force
• Deliberate level teleporter activation ignores magic resistance (3.7)
• Switching between your main and alternative weapon does not take any turns (from dnh)
• Prevent stopping on graves and engravings when running.
• Punishment no longer stops you from displacing pets (DynaHack)
• The passtune range has been extended by 1 so you can now play one step farther away from the drawbridge (xnh)

Better inventory management

• When identified, scrolls of enchant armor ask what armor to enchant.
• When identified, scrolls of transmogrify ask what item to target.
• Remove "Auto-select every item" when putting into containers (Un)
• Default shopkeeper sell prompt to N (xnh)
• Magical Explosions: Players cannot put known wands of cancellation or magical bags into bags of holding anymore (dnh). This also applies when #tipping into your bag of holding, you will flick away explosive items if you have the item and the BoH identified.
• Magicbane is safe for any Bag of Holding, it does not cause BoH explosions.
• If a player charges a depleted Bag of Tricks/Rats with contents - it will now explode and scatter the contents instead of deleting them.
• You can tip into containers on the ground, as well as empty bags of tricks/rats.

End Game Log Changes

• Total damage the player has done now shows in the end game log.
• Total damage the player has taken now shows in the end game log.

Misc other features:

• Regeneration only causes additional hunger when injured (Un)
• Having hunger prevents choking on food (3.7)
• 1-damage hits still train weapon/unarmed skills (from DynaHack)
• Chargeable rings may get charged when hit with electricity (3.7)
• Lower chances of rings exploding during charging. Rings with enchantment +3 or lower will no longer have a chance of exploding when charged, making them similar to enchanting armor and more intuitive. Rings at -5 or lower will only explode from cursed charging. (DynaHack/SporkHack)
• Useless +0 rings are generate very rarely (xnh)
• Monsters are prevented from picking up gold in shops (Un)
• Monsters don't blame the player for falling down holes the player dug. Pit traps still count.
• Potions have been made more useful from a small collection of patches (see the Alchemy Mechanics section)
• Allow all position prompts to be aborted (DynaHack).
• Extrinsic resistances protect items from elemental damage. For example, wearing a ring of fire resistance will protect your scrolls and potions from fire damage.
• Wielding/wearing item giving stoning res will cure stoning (EvilHack).
• Phasing allows escape from being engulfed. (EvilHack)
• When a spell of yours gets under the 100 turn threshold, you will get a reminder that it is fading.

• All roles (except Caveman) get their special spell granted when they reach level 12 (SpliceHack)
• Pets will not use rings of teleportation.
• Players can use gaze attacks in melee range when poly'd into a form with one.
• Greased/oilskin objects have a chance of resisting theft. (from EvilHack)
• Merged scimitar and saber skills.

New options and commands

• #force can also be used on doors while wielding a weapon (SLASH'EM)
• #naming glitches have been nerfed - Players can no longer #name items for identification clues. On attempting to name a regular object with a related artifact name (e.g. naming a candle "The Candle of Eternal Flame"), your hand will always slip.
• Monks can break boulders and statues using martial arts skill at skilled level or higher (shift + f and then a movement key).
• Rogues can steal from monsters by using 'thievery', (must be bare-handed to use, press shift + f and then a movement key).
• Convicts can #chat with rats to pacify or tame them.
• Necromancers can #chat with zombies to pacify or tame them.
• Changed #forge to #craft.
• #tech accesses your role's available techniques.
• #loot can be used at your pet to both give and take away items from its inventory. You cannot give an unpaid item to a pet by using #loot.
• Add #genocided command to view what species have already been eliminated

Wizard mode updates

• #wizclear (^z), clears all monsters on level (splice)
• Can wish for monsters with ^w (Un)
• Wishing does not trigger the normal game wishing penalties on luck or increased monster generation.

New conducts

• Added celibate conduct (SLASH'EM)
• Added conduct for performing (or refusing to perform) techniques.
• Added a conduct for buying or selling from shopkeepers.

Wishing shortcuts

Note: Capitalization does not matter when using these.

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

Major changes

These are changes you should definitely know about first, especially coming from other variants.

Priests and donations

• When donating to priests - the gold vanishes upon receipt.

Wishing mechanics

• Using wishes in Hack'EM has long term consequences. Wishing can impact your base luck, the monster spawn rate, and the difficulty of monsters.
• After the 2nd wish (the first 2 are free from consequences), the player's base luck gets lowered by -1 for every new wish they make. So 3 wishes = -1 base luck, 4 wishes = -2 base luck, and so on.
• Base luck cannot be lowered more than -10.

To clarify any confusion about the adjustment to base luck - this means that your luck will now time out to this amount. Your maximum luck is still potentially +10 (or +13 with a blessed luckstone) can still be reached by altar sacrifice or gaining luck from unicorn gem-tossing. If your base luck is quite low, keep in mind that the luck will timeout fairly quickly if it is maximized.

This table lays out the exact adjustments for how many wishes the player has made.

# of wishes	base Luck	spawn rate	difficulty spike
1	0	1x	0
2	0	1x	0
3	-1	1x	2
4	-2	2x	3
5	-3	3x	4
6	-4	4x	5
7	-5	5x	6
8	-6	6x	7
9	-7	7x	8
10	-8	8x	9
11	-9	8x	10
12	-10	8x	11
13	-10	16x	12

Other wishing notes:

• Note: Magic lamps are more rare, but always guaranteed to grant wishes. You can bank on the Sunless Sea to have a magic lamp with a wish.
• Monsters can no longer use wands of wishing to get wishes - if they get a wish from a smoky potion they will still attempt to get something powerful.

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 the player has wished for (successful or not).
• The first two artiwishes are guaranteed.

Astral rain

• Taming is much more difficult on the Astral Plane.
• When attempting to use a scroll of taming, a magic harp, the charm monster spell, or any other source of taming - there is only a 10% chance of success.
• Figurines still function as normal.

Polymorphing mechanics

• Polymorphing non-magical items Inspired by dNetHack, this change significantly reduces the likelihood of polymorphing generic non-magical items.
• The following items will only have a 1% chance of transforming into something magical:
  • blank scroll
  • scroll of amnesia
  • potion of water
  • potion of blood
  • potion of amnesia
  • blank spellbook
  • wand of nothing
  • wand of wonder

Bones mechanics

• When bones files are left, there's a significant chance of items being polymorphed or shuddering away. This makes bones file peeking and bones stuffing a bit less reliable.

SLASH'EM style unicorn horns

The probability of a unicorn horn curing ailments is changed. Blessed horns try to fix all problems, each with the given probability, and uncursed horns try to fix a single problem, with the same probability.

Enchantment	Chance
0 or less	30%
1	40%
2	50%
3	60%
4	70%
5	80%
6 or more	90%

SLASH'EM style wraith corpses

In SLASH'EM, wraith corpses have different effects if eaten:

Possibility	Effect	Message
10%	You lose experience.	"You feel that was a bad idea."
10%	Your maximum HP and Pw decreases.	"You don't feel so good ..."
20%	Nothing happens.	"You feel something strange for a moment."
10%	Your maximum HP and Pw increases.	"You feel physically and mentally stronger!"
50%	You gain experience.	"You feel that was a smart thing to do."

• Necromancers will always benefit from eating wraith corpses and default to gaining a level.
• Undead Slayers get a -5 alignment penalty for eating a wraith corpse.

Elbereth

Initially, players must discover Elbereth within the game, either through rumors or by reading about it, with exceptions made for elves and hobbits, who innately possess this knowledge. When conflict is in effect, the protective power of Elbereth is nullified. Orcs, regardless of their form, are incapable of learning Elbereth. In a significant development, when a lawful character is crowned as the Hand of Elbereth, they gain knowledge of Elbereth if they didn't possess it before. The alignment penalty for attacking while invoking Elbereth has been reduced to a modest -1.

Notably, there are some creatures that show no reverence for Elbereth's protection:

• Any @ monsters, including shopkeepers and guards
• minotaurs
• elder minotaurs
• giant praying mantis
• neothelids
• unique monsters
• monsters in Gehennom
• peaceful monsters
• blind monsters

Scare monster

Several more monsters have immunity to the scroll of scare monster as well, with the complete list below:

• All unique monsters such as the formidable Wizard of Yendor, quest nemeses, and the Riders
• All angelic beings
• All human or elf monsters
• All player monsters
• Any monster in a berserk state
• Any monster under conflict
• Any mindless monster

Genocide

The scroll of genocide functions as in UnNetHack: an uncursed scroll eliminates all of a chosen monster on the current level; a blessed scroll permanently removes a chosen monster from the game; and a cursed scroll will generate a few of the chosen monster as in NetHack.

Mechanics changes

Combat

• Major change from SLASH'EM - Artifact weapons do not deal flat +x damage - they deal damage based on their dice rolls.
• All edged weapons can be poisoned (ex: daggers, swords)

• When a player attempts to strike a monster using a weapon they are either restricted or unskilled in, or any non-weapon item, their likelihood of successfully landing a hit will never exceed 75%. Notably, bare-handed combat remains an exception to this rule.

• Launchers now contribute to damage.
  • The enchantment of a launcher applies to missiles shot from it. However, the enchantment on a launcher and missiles does not stack. This means you only need to enchant the launcher and can save scrolls of enchant weapon for other uses.
  • Example #1: You have a +7 bow and +0 arrows. The arrows will act as if +7.
  • Example #2: You have a +0 bow and +7 arrows. The arrows will act as if +7.
  • Example #3: You have a +7 bow and +7 arrows. The arrows will act as if +7.
  • Example #4: You have a +3 bow and +2 arrows. The arrows will act as if +3.

• Strength bonus for two-handed weaponry is x1.5 (from EvilHack)
  • The standard damage bonus for strength is multiplied 1.5 times when wielding a weapon using two hands, or if you're a giant one-handing a two-handed weapon (they're heavy)

• Gloves' enchantment is now added to unarmed damage.
  • Example: Fighting bare-handed with +3 gloves adds +3 damage to hits.

• Stoning – monsters being stoned is a slow-stoning process, just as it is for the player.

Skill system overhaul with crosstraining

The skill system for achieving proficiency in weapons and spells has been overhauled and adapted to the UnNetHack system.

UnNetHack changes the number of successful uses of a skill required to reach each level. These values are:

Skill level	Successful uses	Old value
Unskilled	0	0
Basic	100	20
Skilled	200	80
Expert	400	180
Master	800	320
Grand Master	1600	500

Spell skills, however, advance four times as fast until the player is Skilled in the relevant skill, after that, the skill only advances twice as fast as shown in the table above.

Crosstraining skills:

However, in addition - we have also brought in crosstraining from DynaHack. As you level up a weapon skill, it will enable faster training of related skills. You will notice a 2x by a skill that gets a double bonus, or even a 3x or 4x bonus.

Also from DynaHack a couple tweaks were made to skill bonuses that increase the effect of skills on weapon to-hit/damage.

Crosstraining bonuses:

While you are training up weapons, you will also get rare bonus training points for related skills. As an example you might get a bonus to mace skill when exercising club skill because they are both "bludgeon" weapons. As your skill grows, the bonuses will become more frequent. As a result, it might be worth maxing out a strong skill your role starts with to benefit from all the crosstraining bonuses. Once a skill can be advanced (100%) it will stop receiving random crosstraining bonuses.

Shield skill

A new trainable skill from EvilHack, shield skill gives the player a new avenue of defense (and even offense) to train up. Roles that can highly train shields will benefit from much higher AC and gain some nice offensive bonuses. The shield skill also works in conjunction with the Power Shield technique, which you gain access to on attaining skilled level in shields. This technique can be a lifesaver if you get caught in a sudden ambush.

AC bonuses:

• To get these bonuses, you must be wearing a shield and have the required skill.

Skill level	AC bonus
unskilled/restricted	+0AC
BASIC skill:	+1AC
SKILLED skill:	+3AC
EXPERT skill:	+5AC
MASTER skill:	+8AC

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

Shield Bashing:

If shield skill is basic or higher, and a shield is being worn, there's a chance the player will receive an extra 'shield bash' attack along with their regular attack. The greater the shield skill, the greater the chance of the extra shield bash attack occurring.

• Small shields do 2-4 damage, Tower shields do 2-13 damage.
• All other shields do 3-8 damage (not counting material hatred, which is factored in).
• Expert skill or higher gets an extra small damage bonus
• Expert/master skill in shields gives a chance of stunning your target with a shield bash.

Misc:

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

The roles that can train in shields are:

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

• Knights and Valkyries start at basic skill.

Mold and fungus resurrection

• This content has been imported from xnh, which, in turn, had borrowed it from SLASH'EM.
• Corpses have a chance over time to grow moldy and produce a random F monster.
• The corpses of petrifying monsters (ie: cockatrices) will only grow green molds.
• The resurrection rates have been tapered back a bit, so it's not as pervasive as in Slash'EM - but there are now more molds that can spawn (including moldiers at deeper levels).
• Moldy corpses can be used with different potions (see the brewing patch details)

Conflict

A significant change has been introduced in the way conflict is triggered in the game. Now, when inciting conflict, the player's charisma score plays a crucial role in the process.

The formula behind this calculation is: (CHA - monster level + player level).

If this result exceeds 19, it is capped at 19. Subsequently, there is a percentage-based chance, determined by a random roll of the dice (rnd(20)), to determine whether the conflict actually takes effect or not. Even with maximum charisma and experience level, there's still a 5% chance of conflict failing to activate. Another crucial aspect is that the monsters must have visual contact with the player for conflict to activate.

Dexterity based AC

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

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

Amnesia

• Can make you lose Elbereth knowledge if you had it.
• Can make you lose intrinsic telepathy.
• Can make you forget about shambling horrors.
• Can make you lose "eaten knowledge", which doppelgangers use to poly into different forms.
• Psychic resistance protects from amnesia loss, however the only sources are wearing a tinfoil hat or playing as an illithid form.

• Potions of amnesia can also inflict this effect if imbibed or inhaled. Potions of amnesia always have the "sparkling" appearance. Keep in mind that monsters can throw these potions at you.

Religion, prayer, altars

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

Minions

• SLASH'EM had a mechanic for getting aligned minions as gifts from your god when you sacrifice or pray with low health. This has been ported over but with some restrictions.

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

As the number of altar gifts increases, the odds of getting a minion decrease.

• The minions granted are a little bit different from SLASH'EM but generally follow the same pattern.
• Minion pets are not subject to the same tameness expiration as normal pets - they should remain tame forever unless abused or their tameness is reduced in some other fashion.

Dungeon growth patch

Another feature ported over from Slash'EM. This enables trees to slowly branch out in the dungeon and occasionally drop ripe fruits/leaves, offering potential resources to the player.

This encourages the growth of various herbs that are left on the ground or placed in water. Herbs left unattended will periodically sprout more of the same type in the surrounding tiles. These herbs comprise garlic, wolfsbane, catnip, carrots, mushrooms, pineapples, and kelp fronds. While some of these may not be technically herbs, they still exhibit prolific growth.

One intriguing strategy is to leave these items on the ground early in the game and return after a significant number of turns to see what has been "farmed."

Levels containing trees have a chance of yielding an extra axe, which can be helpful for managing potential overgrowth caused by the spreading trees.

Oily Corpses patch

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

Slow Luck timeouts (modified)

In Hack'EM, Luck items greatly slow down Luck timeout rather than stopping it completely - this is similar to how it works in UnNetHack and EvilHack, however, the timeouts have been modified and extended to cover extremely negative base luck situations (this could occur from wishing and incurring many base luck penalties). The timeouts have also been reduced heavily from the UnNetHack calculations.

The modified Luck timeout depends on how far your Luck is from your base Luck: the higher or lower your Luck, the less the timeout is slowed. The timeout is calculated every turn, meaning gaining or losing a point of Luck could result in that point timing out immediately.

The modified Luck timeout is calculated by the following formula:

   Timeout = 25 * (20 - base_distance) * (20 - base_distance)

base_distance is how far you are from your base luck. If your base luck is 0 and you have 3 Luck, the base_distance is 3. If you have -10 base luck and 10 Luck, the base_distance is 20.

Additionally, Archaeologists gain a +1 bonus to base Luck from wearing a fedora. Putting on or taking off the fedora also changes your natural Luck accordingly.

base distance	Timeout	Time to base Luck
0	∞	0
1	9 025	9 025
2	8 100	17 125
3	7 225	24 350
4	6 400	30 750
5	5 625	36 375
6	4 900	41 275
7	4 225	45 500
8	3 600	49 100
9	3 025	52 125
10	2 500	54 625
11	2 025	56 650
12	1 600	58 250
13	1 225	59 475
14	900	60 375
15	625	61 000
16	400	61 400
17	225	61 625
18	100	61 725
19	25	61 750
20	0	61 750

If you have the Amulet or your god is angry with you, halve all times in this table.

Ascending with a helm of opposite alignment

• When attempting to ascend using a helm of opposite alignment, there is a ¹⁄₃ 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.

Bribing devil princes

Bribing a lawful demon prince can only be done if you meet them while they are still meditating, and typically costs 200 gold times the hero's level.

Attack specialization

Hack'EM allows you to use the #tech menu to specialize in any of the combat-oriented skills, including twoweaponing or attack spells.

Entering the name of the skill will provide a +1 damage bonus when using that skill for each of the following milestones:

• Obtain the Sokoban prize
• Kill Medusa
• Kill Cerberus
• Defeat any of the alignment key bosses
• Pick up the the Bell of Opening
• Be crowned by your god

The skill chosen can be changed with a cooldown of 1,000 to 1,500 turns if desired.

Intrinsics and resistances

Partial resistances

• Intrinsic resistances are no longer binary, but are percentages instead. The spread is 5% to 50% resistance gained from eating per corpse. Damage reduction from various attacks is determined by how much partial resistance the player has to it.

Partial reflection

• Reflection is not 100%; it can lessen the effects of an attack it reflects, but will never negate it.

Partial magic resistance

• The "shower of missiles" monster attack is not completely negated by magic resistance.

The afraid and fearless conditions

• The player can sometimes become too afraid to control their actions and will run away in fear.
• This is similar to the effects of being stunned or confused. You won't be able to control your movement or attacks, but you can still use items as normal.

Causes of fear:

• Hearing or seeing a dragon roar
• Being caught in the blast of an ethereal light
• Hearing the scream of a monstrous spider or banshee
• Seeing the gaze of a bodak or an eye of fear and flame
• Breaking a wand of fear or being zapped by a wand of fear
• Applying a cursed Nighthorn or carrying a cursed Nighthorn
• Magic trap effect (1 in 21 chance)

-* If you get caught in an explosion type that you are vulnerable to, it can cause a brief panic attack. This only occurs 1 in 3 times and if the damage exceeds a 3d6 roll.

Curing fear:

• If the monster you are afraid of dies, your fear will subside as well.
• Quaff a potion of booze. Quaffing booze actually gives you intrinsic fearlessness. If blessed it grants for 8d6 (more) turns, otherwise 8d3 turns - even after the confusion wears off.
• Quaff a potion of amnesia (Note: this will make you forget many valuable things, so use extreme caution when considering this strategy)
• Let it time out
• Applying a non-cursed Nighthorn
• Invoking the Staff of Aesculapius
• Using the calm steed technique as a centaur

Preventing fear:

• Wear a tinfoil hat
• Wield a weapon with the "rage" property
• Wear the large shield Pridwen
• Wield Dragonbane to protect from dragon roars
• Knights are also specifically immune to dragon roars
• Play as a Necromancer, they start with intrinsic fearlessness

Note: Wearing or wielding extrinsic sources of fearlessness that prevent fear don't actually cure fear, but wearing them does nullify the effects. If you remove the item, the fear will still be active until it times out or is actually cured.

Extreme stability

• Some monsters have a new clobber attack which can knock you senseless.
• You are vulnerable to this attack if you are smaller than a huge monster and are solid.
• A successful clobber attack occurs 1 in 6 times and will send you flying back 1 to 2 squares.
• Furthermore, after being hurtled back, there is a 1 in 4 chance of being stunned for 2-3 turns.
• The stability property protects you(or monsters) from clobber attacks, it won't reduce the damage, but it will keep you from moving and being stunned.

Be very wary of your surroundings in encounters with monsters that clobber. You don't want to be next to lava or water tiles because you could easily be hurtled back to your death.

Sonic damage and resistance

• Ported from SpliceHack

Sonic damage comes in two main forms: rays and monster attacks. The sources of sonic rays are primarily wands of noise, violet dragons, and the sonic boom spell. These rays can be reflected (with a source of reflection) or resisted with sonic resistance. Sonic rays are quite destructive and will easily shatter anything made of glass in a monsters inventory, your inventory, or even on the floor. Glass objects include potions, rings, wands, tools, armor, or weapons. It is possible to shatterproof your items by wielding one and reading a scroll of enchant weapon while confused. Sonic rays can also destroy iron bars, toilets, sinks, boulders, and statues.

There are a handful of monsters which possess potent sonic or "scream" attacks. The common theme is that they are all ranged and can be launched from about 12 squares from the hero. They can also be used in melee range.

• concussive spheres: A one-time explosive sonic blast (similar to flaming spheres)
• violet dragons: Sonic breath attack, and passive sonic damage.
• screamer: Similar to a shrieker, but deals a sonic scream
• nazgul: Scream which stuns
• monstrous spider: Scream which inflicts fear
• mobat: Piercing scream
• banshee: Scream which inflicts fear
• harpy: Song which paralyzes.
• gibberling: Possesses a plethora of attacks, each inflicting a unique but twisted effect (similar to a cursed unicorn horn)

All of the scream attacks can also shatter glass objects. The gibberlings and harpies don't scream, but are quite dangerous anyway.

Also - there are sonic bombs, and spellcasting monsters can make you vulnerable to sonic damage.

As you can see, in Hack'EM the player must have a game-plan for dealing with sonic damage going into the late game. How can you protect against it or at least mitigate the damage? There is no source of intrinsic sonic resistance, unless you polymorph into a monster that innately has it. All sources are extrinsic but once obtained will also protect your items from shattering.

Sources of sonic resistance:

• violet dragon scales
• violet dragon scaled armor
• resonant shield
• ring of sonic resistance
• Wielding or wearing an item with the sonic resistance property.
• Wielding Thunderstruck

The tortle race also starts with a toque, which doesn't grant explicit sonic resistance - but it will protect the player from sonic damage and nullify the effects of sonic attacks. Unfortunately, it will not protect your glass items from destruction. Becoming deaf also accomplishes the same thing.

One other obscure source of sonic resistance is simply being underwater. This automatically dispels any sonic damage and grants you (and monsters) sonic resistance while submerged.

Using sonic damage for offense:

• It may look daunting seeing all the sonic threats facing the player - but keep in mind that if you are able to obtain Thunderstruck, or a decent weapon that has the scream property (which does sonic damage), you now wield a weapon that the majority of monsters in Hack'EM do not resist. Only about 5% of monsters are sonic resistant. There are almost double the amount of acid resistant monsters at ~10%, which shows how niche this attack vector is.

Psychic damage and resistance

• (from Splice and EvilHack)

Like sonic damage, psychic damage also comes in a few forms. The form most players will be familiar with is the mind flayers psychic blast, which can target you from a wide range. A few new monster now also have a melee based psychic attack: the gnomish psyker and the dream thief. Ethereal lights also are fast and will explode on contact, inflicting psychic damage as well as fear on the player.

Psychic resistance:

• The only source of extrinsic psychic resistance is the tinfoil hat.
• Protects you from forgetting skills, spells, and other things from potions and scrolls of amnesia, as well as mind flayer and zombie brain eating attack.
• Illithids start with psychic resistance.
• Illithid player characters are immune to the mind flayer brain eating attack but are not immune to zombie brain eating.
• Protects you from an illithids psionic wave and tentacle attacks.

Larva carrier property

• Some monsters can infect you with dangerous eggs! If their larva are allowed to hatch, they emerge from your body dealing a significant amount of damage in the process. Plus, you have to deal with a new set of monsters in front of you. The only way to defend against this attack, other than canceling the injector, is to be polymorphed into a monster with thick skin.

Luckily, you can cure this condition using a few different methods:

• quaffing potions of sickness (this kills the larva from inside)
• drink from a toilet (poisonous water)
• receiving a disease attack from a monster
• eating a pill
• invoking the Staff of Aesculapius
• invoking the Healing Hands technique
• being zapped by a cure sickness spell

There are only three monsters that can infect you with larva, remember them well: giant ichneumon, gibberlings, and spibrawulfs.

Regeneration

• 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.
• Regeneration only causes additional hunger when injured.
• Restful sleep regenerates HP (we can get restful sleep property from the amulet of restful sleep or a ring of sleeping)

Item manipulation

Item generation

• 1/80 of random non-artifact weapons will be generated erodeproof (xnh)
• 1/80 of random non-artifact items will be generated as pre-eroded (xnh)
• Grease will generate on an erodible object every once in a great while - 1 in 1000 chance (xnh/3.7)

The following effects of items with certain randomized appearances are adapted from dNetHack:

• Combat boots grant +1 AC and +1 to-hit when attacking.
• Mud boots make you more resistant to wrap attacks.
• Hiking boots grant +100 to carrying capacity while you are grounded (e.g., not levitating or riding a steed).
• Jungle boots prevent many types of leg injury.
• Padded gloves grant +1 AC.
• Old gloves can't be eroded.
• Fencing gloves grant +2 to-hit with a one-handed weapon and no shield

Object materials

• Object materials were inherited from EvilHack. For details see EvilHack § Object materials
• Many objects and items can spawn made from something other than its base material.
• In Hack'EM - you will also notice rings and unicorn horns appearing in new strange materials. Ring appearances were completely overhauled to enable more diverse materials appear.
• 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 (wielding the object and reading a scroll of enchant weapon while confused) if its material allows for it.

• The dragonhide AC bonus has been reduced from 8AC to 5AC.
• Shirts can only be cloth.
• Mummy wrappings can be leather or dragonhide.

• Gold objects are notable because they are the frequent targets of leprechaun theft.
• Glass objects should be handled with care because they are vulnerable to shattering from sonic attacks.

Keep in mind that if the material of an object is not working for you, it may be possible to alter with a scroll of transmogrify.

Object properties

The object properties patch exists in a handful variants – the code used for Hack'EM was taken from EvilHack, which in turn 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 Hack'EM, there are many object properties, they can be applied to weapons, armor, and rings, but the chances of finding such items at random is quite rare. There are new alternate methods to both discover and manipulate object properties since they will be a powerful resource to the player.

In version 1.3.0 and beyond it is once again possible to wish for object properties when wishing for an item.

Eligible items for object properties are: weapons, armor, and rings (with some restrictions).

Restricted items: non-weapons (ie: cockatrice corpses), artifacts, dragon scales, and unique items.

• A players' starting inventory will never spawn with an object property (with the exception of the Undead Slayer-Vampire who starts with a jacket of fire resistance)
• Changing a regular item with object properties into an artifact (e.g., dipping for Excalibur) will strip that item 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 also work in the offhand whilst twoweaponing.

Generation odds

Random item generation:

• Odds of an eligible item having a magical property: 1 in 150
• Odds improve deeper into the dungeon
• The chances of an item having 2 properties on creation is 1 in 100000.

Player monsters:

• Odds of their weapon having a magical property: 1 in 20 if high level or encountered on the Astral Plane

Angel-class monsters:

• 1 in 10 chance of their long sword having a magical property

Two properties: 1 in 100,000 chance of an eligible item randomly spawning with two properties.

Identifying object properties

• Observing the effects of most properties in action should auto-identify the property.
• The shopkeeper identify service will reveal properties on weapons, armor, and rings.
• Adding a property via confused scroll of transmogrification or shopkeeper service will auto-identify the property on successful grafting.
• Some properties will auto-id upon wielding or wearing, like the stealth, slow, oilskin, and rage properties.
  • Trying to sell stench items, the shopkeepers will refuse - identifying them.
  • Items with the excellence, vigilance, or prowess properties usually auto-identify because they modify stats like charisma or wisdom.
  • If an item of sustainability or toughness resists draining or destruction, the property is revealed.
  • Using items with the swimming or surfing property on water auto-identifies them.
  • The pirate's first gift, The Marauder's Map, has a useful #invoke ability that reveals artifacts and items with properties.
• 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).
• Dipping weapons with offensive properties into fountains or toilets can reveal what property it has. The weapon properties that interact with water are: fire, frost, shock, decay, scream, sizzle, rage, venom, filth, and sleep.
• Wielding or wearing an item with the insight property will grant you the ability to sense magical properties.
• Reading scrolls of magic detection reveals properties.
• Zapping wands of probing at items reveals their properties.
• If playing as a Jedi, you start with a droid pet. This pet is capable of walking over items and revealing their properties.
• Archaeologists can use their appraisal technique to reveal properties on items.
• In other cases, use your own judgment and logic to narrow down the property.

Manipulating object properties

Shopkeeper's Add Property service:

• Non-magical items have a base charge of 750.
• Magical items have a base charge of 2250.
• The shopkeeper can add a random property to an item of your choosing. The item type depends on the shop type, so a ring shop can add properties to rings, and so on.
• After adding a property, the weapon is also fully identified.
• If a weapon already has a property, the shopkeeper will offer to remove it for a base price of 200. There is a 1 in 4 chance of successful removal.

Upgrade/tinker and property transfers:

• Upgrading/tinkering objects will not remove or change any properties on the item.

Forging and property transfers:

• Properties will never spontaneously appear from forging results, the property has to come from the first or second ingredient.
• Forging will take the secondary object property over the primary. If you have formally identified the object property of one of the recipe objects, you'll know the object property of the newly forged object.

Dipping into a potion of invulnerability:

• Items can be dipped into potions of invulnerability to gain the toughness property.

Polypiling and Property transfers:

• Polymorphing items that are cursed always wipes the properties from an obj.
• An uncursed object has a luck dependent chance of retaining its properties.

   LUCK:     <0      0     +2     +5     +8    +11
   SUCCESS: 0.5%  20.0%  39.5%  59.0%  78.5%  98.0%

The Scroll of Transmogrify:

• Confused readings can be used to altar the properties of objects.
• A confused cursed scroll will remove any properties on an item.
• An confused uncursed scroll will change an existing property on an item (depending on luck)
• Reading a confused blessed scroll will add a random property to the item. If it's a magical item (ie: speet boots or cloak of magic resistance), a successful property addition also depends on luck, similar to the above odds.

   LUCK:     <0      0     +2     +5     +8    +11
   SUCCESS: 0.5%  20.0%  39.5%  59.0%  78.5%  98.0%

• When changing or adding properties, any property is valid - even those with negative effects.

Table of object properties

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

Object property	Armor/ring attributes	Weapon attributes
Fire	fire resistance	+(1d5+3) fire damage
Frost	cold resistance	+(1d5+3) cold damage
Shock	shock resistance	+(1d5+3) shock damage
Venom	poison resistance	permanently poisoned(*)
Sizzle	acid resistance	+(1d5+3) acid damage
Scream	sonic resistance	+(1d5+3) sonic damage
Decay	drain resistance	drain life attack
Sleep	"alertness" sleep resistance	sleep attack
Vs Stone	petrification resistance	petrification resistance (only for launchers)
Filth	"health" sickness resistance	disease attack
Toughness	makes item erodeproof makes item indestructible cannot be used in forging	makes item erodeproof makes item indestructible cannot be used in forging
Oilskin	n/a	permanently greased only valid on cloth
ESP	telepathy	telepathy
Searching	searching	searching
Stealth	stealth	stealth
Vigilance	wisdom adjustment warning flanking evasion	wisdom adjustment warning flanking evasion
Excellence	charisma adjustment luckstone effect when worn	charisma adjustment luckstone effect when wielded
Insight	see invisible magical detection	see invisible magical detection
Prowess	n/a	dexterity bonus You gain double the usual skill points when using weapons and spells. It also doubles the rate your tech cooldowns expire.
Surfing	water walking speed bonus on water/lava	water walking speed bonus on water/lava
Rage	n/a	fearlessness bloodthirsty (the rage weapon will attack mercilessly like Stormbringer) max damage rolls on the weapon with rage.
Fumbling	fumbling	fumbling
Hunger	hunger	hunger
Stench	aggravate monster prevents digestion unedible item	aggravate monster, prevents digestion, inedible item
Teleportation	teleportitis	teleportitis
Lethargy	slow	slow
Sustainability	fixed abilities item cannot be enchanted(*) item is immune to disenchantment and draining item never shudders from polymorph	fixed abilities item cannot be enchanted(*) item is immune to disenchantment and draining item never shudders from polymorph
Danger	infravision increased difficulty	infravision increased difficulty
Burden	stability item weighs 8x	stability item weighs 8x

Notes:

• All sources of resistances or statuses are considered extrinsic
• If a property affects a stat (like charisma), the adjustment is based on BUC status (25/18/6 – blessed/uncursed/cursed)

(*) Venom inflicts the normal 1d6 extra poison damage with a 10% chance of instakill by poison, plus an additional 1d2 poison damage.

• Cloaks with the oilskin property also let you pass through tight diagonals.

Malcolm Ryan's Brewing Patch

Enables the player to dip mold corpses in potions of fruit juice to start a fermentation timer that will eventually turn the potion into something else dependent on the mold.

• Dipping brown mold into fruit juice produces blood
• Dipping green mold into fruit juice produces acid.
• Dipping yellow mold into fruit juice produces confusion.
• Dipping red mold into fruit juice produces booze.
• Dipping violet fungus into fruit juice produces hallucination.
• Dipping gray fungus into fruit juice produces amnesia.
• Dipping orange mold into fruit juice produces sleeping.
• Dipping black mold into fruit juice produces sickness.

• lichens, shriekers, and non-F corpses do not ferment.
• Dipping cursed molds into fruit juice produces sickness.

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

Pouring potions into sinks

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

Gem alchemy

• Acid is no longer a useless endgame potion!
• Gems dissolve in acid to produce new potions, based on the gem's and potion's color (meaning the same gem will produce different potions from game to game).
  • Diamonds do not dissolve in acid at all.
• If the acid is cursed or the gem is a dilithium crystal, there is a guaranteed alchemical explosion, otherwise there is always a 1 in 30 chance of an explosion.
• Use the object lookup (on a gem) to see what potion is created from a particular gem.
• Note: Smoky, milky, and clear potions cannot be produced with this method.

Upgrading and tinkering

Hack'EM features an upgrading mechanic facilitated by potions of gain level or the tinkering technique or the tinkering service sometimes offered by gnomish shopkeepers, a feature adapted from SLASH'EM.

The upgrade process has seen some improvements, offering an accessible object lookup system to display upgrade information for each item. Each item now maintains a one-to-one relationship, directly mapping to the specific item it upgrades into. This transition also brings about changes in the power of magical item upgrades, as their properties are retained in their new forms, resulting in a reduction in the potency of many magical item upgrades to maintain game equilibrium.

New Upgrade Table:

• "->" Indicates a one-way transformation path
• "<->" indicates the two items upgrade back-and-forth.

item 1	to	item 2
orcish arrow	->	arrow
arrow	->	elven arrow
elven arrow	->	orcish arrow
ya	<->	light arrow
boomerang	<->	chakram
orcish spear	->	spear
spear	->	elven spear
elven spear	->	dwarvish spear
dwarvish spear	->	orcish spear
orcish dagger	->	dagger
dagger	->	elven dagger
elven dagger	->	stake
stake	->	great dagger
great dagger	->	orcish dagger
knife	<->	stiletto
axe	<->	throwing axe
dwarvish bearded axe	<->	battle axe
pick-axe	<->	dwarvish mattock
orcish short sword	->	short sword
short sword	->	elven short sword
elven short sword	->	dwarvish short sword
dwarvish short sword	->	orcish short sword
orcish scimitar	<->	scimitar
saber	<->	rapier
broadsword	<->	elven broadsword
orcish long sword	->	long sword
long sword	->	elven long sword
elven long sword	->	orcish long sword
mace	<->	heavy mace
morning star	<->	orcish morning star
war hammer	<->	heavy war hammer
club	<->	aklys
orcish bow	->	bow
bow	->	elven bow
elven bow	->	orcish bow
quarterstaff	<->	silver capped staff
staff of escape	<->	staff of matter
staff of war	<->	staff of divination
staff of necromancy	<->	staff of healing
cornuthaum	<->	dunce cap
fedora	<->	elven helm
orcish helm	<->	dwarvish helm
helm of madness	<->	helm of brilliance
helm of telepathy	<->	tinfoil hat
dwarvish chain mail	<->	elven chain mail
chain mail	<->	orcish chain mail
splint mail	<->	large splint mail
ring mail	<->	orcish ring mail
light armor	<->	jacket
robe	<->	large robe
robe of weakness	->	robe of power
robe of power	->	robe of protection
robe of protection	->	robe of weakness
striped shirt	<->	t-shirt
mummy wrapping	<->	plain cloak
orcish cloak	->	dwarvish cloak
dwarvish cloak	->	elven cloak
elven cloak	->	orcish cloak
poisonous cloak	<->	alchemy smock
orcish shield	<->	dwarvish roundshield
large shield	<->	tower shield
small shield	<->	elven shield
gauntlets of fumbling	<->	gauntlets of dexterity
low boots	<->	high boots
fumble boots	<->	elven boots
levitation boots	<->	water walking boots
sack	<->	oilskin sack
oilskin sack	<->	bag of holding
bag of rats	<->	bag of holding
bag of tricks	<->	bag of holding
bag of holding	<->	sack
skeleton key	<->	lock pick
mirror	<->	expensive camera
eight ball	<->	crystal ball
lenses	<->	goggles
towel	<->	blindfold
leash	<->	saddle
tin opener	<->	tinning kit
pea whistle	<->	magic whistle
flute	<->	magic flute
tooled horn	<->	horn of plenty
fire horn	<->	frost horn
harp	<->	magic harp
leather drum	<->	drum of earthquake
whetstone	<->	luckstone
loadstone	<->	healthstone

Techniques

Changes to techniques

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

• Maintaining your techniques requires eliminating harmful conditions from your play. While suffering from most harmful ailments, your tech cooldowns will expire much slower. This includes most major physical and mental ailments, as well as being too hungry or satiated. If you are wielding a weapon with the prowess property, the normal timeout will always apply.
• Tech cooldowns will also not expire if the player is just waiting or searching on one square.

• Revised tech cooldown times. There are four broad categories of techniques. Premium techs are really powerful, so they have a long cooldown of 1500-2500 turns. Strong techs are very useful and comprise most of the techs, so the standard cooldown is 1000-1500 turns. Mid-strong techs are not too abusable, but deserve some kind of timeout so they are 500-1000 turns. Utility techs are very useful techs and meant to be quite accessible, so they are only 100-200 turns. There are also some techs which don't have any timeout at all.

• Revivification technique and the spirit bomb spell (which was the Monk's Spirit bomb technique).

• Double damage (from DeathVision or Staff of Rot) is handled properly for techs.

List of techniques

Technique	Notes	Origin
air dash	Monk blitz tech Cannot air dash while trapped or underwater. Using the air dash tech while confused, stunned, or fumbling goes in a random direction.	SLASH'EM
Berserk	+2 to hit and +4 damage for 2d8 + (TECHLEVEL/5) +2 turns Barbarian	SLASH'EM
blessing	Priest	SLASH'EM
blink	Hobbits	SLASH'EM
blood magic	Adapted the Blood Magic skill from SpliceHack into a technique for necromancers.	Hack'EM/Splice
booze	For the deferred Drunk role from SlashTHEM.	SLEX
break rock	Adapted the monk's boulder breaking ability from EvilHack into a technique. It it still available by using force attack (F) on boulders or statues.	Hack'EM/Evil
calm steed	Yeoman Cures fear when used in centaur form/race.	SLASH'EM
chained blitz	Monk blitz tech Chain blitz tech now shows how many blitz moves you have available and input feedback as you type the blitz commands. Chain blitz shows helpful feedback for incorrect inputs. Chain blitz only costs energy if a successful command sequence is input; invalid commands also don't use up the tech. Chain blitz commands can also be terminated with ; or : Updated blitz commands to be shorter and more intuitive; commands with 2 versions are always mirrored. Instead of wasting a move when making a mistake in chain blitz, it just cancels the tech and let's the player try again.	SLASH'EM
charge saber	Jedi	SlashTHEM
chi strike	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
chi healing	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
critical strike	Rogue	SLASH'EM
cutthroat	Rogue	SLASH'EM
dazzle	Vampirics	SLASH'EM
disarm	Any role can get this tech by advancing a non-ranged weapon skill to Skilled. In SLASH'EM, you could get this tech by advancing any weapon skill except whips. In Hack'EM, we have instead excluded ranged weapons, since it's awkward to explain how you would disarm somebody with a dart or arrow. We have also allowed the whip since they can actually be applied to disarm enemies already.	SLASH'EM
draw blood	All vampirics now start with a medical kit so they can use this technique. Removed the cooldown.	SLASH'EM
draw energy	General spellcaster tech Draw energy tech now uses grass, puddles, sewage, and dead trees in its calculation. Necromancers get a bonus for using draw energy near graves.	SLASH'EM
elemental fist	Monk blitz tech Elemental fist can inflict sonic damage. Added some rare critical-hits for elemental fist (inspired by SpliceHack skills)	SLASH'EM
eviscerate	Tech for the deferred Lycanthrope/Lunatic	SLASH'EM
force push	Jedi Jedi gain a force-push technique at level 14. Using the force push tech while engulfed breaks you out.	Hack'EM
ground slam	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
healing hands	Knight and Priest tech. Also cures larval infection now.	SLASH'EM
ice armor	Ice mage tech As you gain levels, your armor protection will grow more powerful. Calculation is: ACBONUS = -((YOURLEVEL / 2) + 2) Like SLASH'EM, this bonus caps at -11 Ice mages also get a passive ice attack that scales with their ice armor strength and level. The chance of triggering this passive improves as you gain levels. Level 1 2-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 AC Bonus -2 -3 -4 -5 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11	SLASH'EM
jedi jump	Jedi	SlashTHEM
kiii	Kii technique timeout gets extended on successful hits. Samurai	SLASH'EM
liquid leap	Doppelganger Liquid leap affects all squares the same as being zapped with acid. Paranoid confirm for liquid leaping into water or lava.	SLASH'EM
missile flurry	Ranger	SLASH'EM
pickpocket	The rogue's thievery ability from EvilHack is now available on the technique menu. It it still available by using force attack (F).	EvilHack
power shield	Previously known as the 'shield block' tech in SlashTHEM. General tech for melee roles. Shield block doesn't work if confused, stunned, fumbling, swallowed, sleeping, blind, or Weak/Fainting. Similar to disarm, any role that reaches Skilled proficiency in Shields will automatically gain access to this technique. As a result, no roles gain this tech by reaching X level anymore, and we have given priests the ability to reach skilled in shields now. Added bonus counter attacks while power shielding. Double the time power shield is usually active.	SlashTHEM
power surge	Powerful technique for spellcasters.	SLASH'EM
primal roar	Caveman Primal roar tech now levels up pets permanently. The duration of their double damage has been extended.	SLASH'EM
pummel	Monk blitz tech	SLASH'EM
raise zombies	Necromancer	SLASH'EM
revivification	Removed revive tech from healers; necromancers get it at level 14. Priests can also get this tech at level 30.	SLASH'EM
souleater	Enabled soul eater tech for dark knight Souleater tech will buff any weapon that drains life (instead of just originally Soulthief) This tech originally required the Soulthief artifact. This artifact has been left out. Necromancer gets souleater tech at level 6.	SlashTHEM
spirit bomb	Monk blitz tech Buffed spirit bomb technique damage.	SLASH'EM
rage eruption		SLASH'EM
reinforce memory	General tech for spellcasters that lets them refresh their memory of a spell that is getting low in retention.	SLASH'EM
research	Archaeologist	SLASH'EM
spirit tempest	Necromancer Created for necromancers - it works as a self centered spirit bomb. Spirit tempest tech gets a multi explosion bonus at level 21.	Hack'EM
sunder	Adapted the Sunder skill from SpliceHack into a technique. Can confuse monsters after successfully sundering their weapon. Pirates get it at level 5.	Hack'EM/Splice
surgery	Healer Also cures fear and larval infection.	SLASH'EM
telekinesis	Jedi Can disarm/trigger traps and remotely pickup objects. Rearranged the telekinesis logic into a loop, so player doesn't waste MP on invalid targets. Added new traps that can be disarmed.	SlashTHEM
tinker	Gnomes	SLASH'EM
tumble	Adapted the Tumble skill from SpliceHack into a technique. Pirates get it from level 1. Cannot be used underwater or while levitating. The tumble technique can confuse monsters after tumbling past them. The chance depends on if they are innate flankers, since outflankers would be better at anticipating your actions. Displacing a monster into a trap always confuses them.	Hack'EM/Splice
turn undead	As in SLASH'EM, #turn is now a technique. Knights, priests, and undead slayers get this technique.	SLASH'EM
uppercut	New blitz tech for monks. It's a powerful alternate to ground slam which creates a pit. Does double damage to targets with heads. Influenced by stunning fist skill from Splice.	Hack'EM
vanish	Gnomes	SLASH'EM
weapon practice	General tech for some melee roles to let them train up skills without fighting.	SLASH'EM
whistle undead	Necromancer Acts as a magic whistle effect for undead.	Hack'EM

Techniques left out from SLASH'EM

The Monk retains their standard resistances, rendering the following warding techs unnecessary: Ward against flame, Ward against ice, and Ward against lightning

All the sigil techniques were removed, as some of these sigils have been rendered obsolete by skilled/expert spellcasting: Sigil of control, Sigil of tempest, and Sigil of discharge.

The Quest

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

Lowered Level Requirement: The minimum experience level needed to be accepted for the quest has been lowered to 10 (from the default 14).

Dealing with an Angry Quest Leader: 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. However, quest leaders are not weak, and your deity may not be pleased with you killing them.

Alignment Impact: Your alignment record can still be positive, but abusing your alignment can have a direct effect on how your quest ends. Alignment abuse is tracked throughout the game. Any negative alignment adjustment counts as one abuse point, and this can be checked at any time via #conduct. Compared to the standard game, you'll receive more feedback when abusing alignment.

Permanent Abuse Record: Unlike your alignment record, which can be adjusted back into positive standing, your alignment abuse record is permanent.

Quest Artifact Forfeiture: Quest leaders might ask you to forfeit the quest artifact if you have abused your alignment.

Options for Forfeiture: 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.

Incomplete Quest Consequences: 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. Attempting to evade your quest leader will not help in the long run, as the Bell of Opening has been 'cursed'. The only way to lift the curse is to complete the quest. The Bell will not function for the invocation until this is done.

Luck boon: If you complete the quest with under 13 alignment abuse, you will receive a luck boon (+1 to permanent luck).

Alternative Scenarios: The game considers alternative scenarios. For instance, if you angered your quest leader before starting the quest and you killed them, you simply need to defeat your quest nemesis to flag the quest as complete. Conversely, if you've killed the quest nemesis and return but somehow anger your quest leader before you speak to them, killing them also flags the quest as complete.

Dungeon features

Trap mechanics

Several new trap features have been added to the game:

Ice Traps: These traps are only generated after level 8. They shoot a freezing jet of icy air, which can freeze and slow down the player upon activation. This blast of icy mist is dangerous - it will do 4d8 cold damage and can remove your intrinsic cold resistance! (adapted from xnh)

Magic Beam Traps: Magic beam traps are now part of the game, but they cannot generate above level 16. Notably, these traps now produce a random type of magical beam upon activation, offering more variety compared to their previous static beam type.

Rust Trap Changes: Players now have the ability to untrap rust traps using the #untrap command, which transforms them into fountains. However, disarming rust traps from a distance, whether through telekinesis or zapping with acid, will not yield a fountain.

Fire Trap Untrapping: Fire traps can be deactivated using #untrap, but it requires water to do so.

Spear Trap Yield: When disarming a spear trap, there is a chance of obtaining a spear or stake. Flyers also still have a 50% chance of being poked by a spear trap. If you (or a monster) are levitating, you will be too high to reach.

Web Destruction: Players can now force-fight webs with a bladed weapon to destroy them.

Castle Drawbridge: It's worth noting that the Castle drawbridge doesn't always close with the passtune as it did before.

Temporary Invisibility: Invisibility gained from magic traps is temporary and not permanent.

Polymorph Traps: The mechanics of polytraps have been adjusted, with a 1/7 chance that the polymorph trap disappears after polymorphing a monster. This mechanic was adapted from SpliceHack.

Breaking wands creates related traps

Breaking wands will usually create related traps (Un)

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

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

Breakable iron bars

• Iron bars can be destroyed in a couple of different ways.
• You can shatter them with wands of striking, wands of noise, spells of force bolt, or spells of sonic boom.
• You can punch and shatter them when wearing gauntlets of force.
• You can zap them with an acid ray or breath to dissolve them

If you shatter them, some iron chains may be randomly flung out as a result.

Grass

• Pulled from SpliceHack/xNetHack, we now have lush grass in the dungeon!
• Grass appears sparsely in the early levels, peaks around level 15, and then tapers off after level 22.
• Although grass is mostly ornamental, keep in mind that some monsters can use it as clever method of concealment. In deeper levels, it's possible a dangerous asphynx or even giant centipede could be hidden in the thickets...

If you want to clear out grass from levels, there are a couple methods. Rays of fire, acid, and death will quickly kill and remove the offending grass squares.

Bloody tiles

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

Vents

• Ported from SpliceHack, vents appear as a bright cyan (#) tile.
• Vents appear after level 3. They will never appear in rooms with stairs. After level 8, some vents will emit poison gas instead of harmless mist.
• Vents have a 3/5 chance of being destroyed when bombs are dropped or thrown into them, releasing a small earthquake in the process.

• Polymorphed sinks can turn into vents

Vents act as occasional monster generators:

• Spiders, snakes, and rats can randomly pop out of vents.
• Monsters can use vents to conceal themselves. Since they can also be covered by the vent fog or poison clouds, exercise a little more vigilance when by a vent.

Toilets

Toilets may seem a bit whimsical, but in the game, they've received enhancements to make them more engaging and practical. These improvements were inspired by their inclusion in SLASH'EM. Notably, toilets can now appear on their own, separate from sinks, whereas in SLASH'EM, they only came in pairs with sinks. The addition of fishing in toilets introduces a quirky element to the game.

• Enabled fishing in toilets
• Dropping a ring of poly into a sink can poly into a toilet.
• Toilet prayer can now stop the vomiting process
• If giants sit on toilets, they break.

Toilet kicking:

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

Amulet identification in toilets (SLEX)

• Amulets can be dropped down toilets and possibly identified.
• Amulets of flying are always regurgitated from toilets.
• Amulets of change will polymorph the toilet into a sink

Sinks

• Random sink effect: noxious gas cloud (from 3.7)

Forges

• Inherited from EvilHack
• Forges 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
• They can also be used to repair corrosion/rust damage to any metallic object (if your luck is greater than 0).
• There is a rare chance that a lava demon can be summoned via dipping, which will be hostile most times, but can sometimes spawn tame (same odds as getting a wish from a water demon/fountain).
• Having negative luck can cause a forge to explode when used, which can cause considerable fire damage.
• Players can also use a forge to remove an attached ball & chain.
• Forges can be blown up by rays of water.

Forging and #craft

• Using the #craft command, you can also combine two objects to forge something new.
• When forging, if either item has erodeproofing, the resulting item will be erodeproof.

Dungeon changes

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

• Main dungeon length is capped at 35-40 levels.
• The fountains in Delphi can sometimes cause hallucination (Splice)
• The Rogue level has been removed
• Additional variants of the Castle, Fort Ludios, Sokoban, Mine Town and Mines End have been added.

The SLASH'EM levels

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

Appears	Level
2-4:	The Gnomish Mines
5-9:	The Oracle
6-10:	Sokoban
7-11:	Town branch
10-39:	Fort Ludios
10-11:	Rat level (50%)
11-12:	Kobold level (50%)
12-13:	Grund's Stronghold
15-19:	The Quest
15-19:	Lawful Quest
15-19:	Neutral Quest
15-19:	Chaotic Quest
20-21:	The Wyrm Caves
22-23:	One-eyed Sam's Market
21-24:	The Lost Tomb
26-29:	The Spider Caves
28-31:	The Sunless Sea
32-35:	The Temple of Moloch
32-35	The Giant Caverns
8-24:	Aphrodite's level (45%)
10-29:	The Big room
19-26:	The Storage Room
25-34:	Ozymandias' Tomb (45%)

Gnomish Mines

Different types of gnomes, dwarves, and thieves have been added to the mines. Dwarf and gnome thieves are now found in most town and Minetown variants. The presence of undead in the mines is no longer tied to alignment (as in SLASH'EM) but depends on the dungeon depth. The deeper you go, the higher the chance of encountering undead versions of the regular denizens, making the later stages more challenging.

Hack'EM has integrated Minetown variants from SlashTHEM and SpliceHack, along with Mine's End levels from SlashTHEM. Additionally, the Gnome King's ending from SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM is available. One Minetown variant features a drawbridge. However, players should be cautious, as destroying the drawbridge in the presence of guards will anger them. The mine rivers that are present in GruntHack and EvilHack are still in the mines - but they will be found only deeper than Minetown and not before.

Sokoban

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

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

Town branch

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

Rat level

A single randomized level picked from:

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

Alignment quests

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

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

Big Room

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

Grund's Stronghold

• Added more traps and the moat is double wide now, the stronghold wall is also phaseproof.
• Grund's Stronghold now has a large cache of ammunition in one of the storage rooms.
• If one of the iron safes doesn't have a magic marker, it will have a scroll of acquirement in its place.

Fort Ludios

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

Wyrm Caves

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

Black Market

• The Black Market prices have been reduced a bit from SLASH'EM.
• The layout of the level has been cut down in size to reduce the tedium involved in combing through all the items.
• A small area has been dedicated to the player as a "break room", complete with furniture and even a magic chest for convenience.
• To prevent theft, the level has been made undiggable and phase-proof. When attempting to tame monsters in the Black Market, you won't anger everybody, but the taming will simply have no effect. Scrolls of earth can be also be used without consequence, but beware, One-Eyed Sam can break through boulders like butter.

The Storage Room

• Added 4 variations from dnh

Gehennom

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

Elemental planes

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

New special rooms

• Fungus Farm (SLASH'EM)
• Migo Hive (SLASH'EM)
• Dragon Lair (SLASH'EM)
• Real Zoo (SLASH'EM)
• Bad Food Shop (SLASH'EM)
• Giant Court (SLASH'EM)
• Lemure Pit
• Mini Guild (Hack'EM)
  • These replace the Guild of Disgruntled Adventurers in SLASH'EM.
• Clinic room (SlashTHEM)
• Terror hall (SlashTHEM)
• Zouthern room (Hack'EM)

Themed rooms

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

Shops

• Shopkeepers can be a variety of different races.
• Removed the racial shopkeeper price adjustments.
• Imported shopkeeper hollering (from SlashTHEM)
• Shopkeepers start with more than double their usual gold.

Shopkeeper services

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

   - Shopkeeper services can be accessed by #chatting with the shopkeeper 
   - The black market has a chance of offering any service.
   - Adjust odds for general store services.
   - Shopkeeper tinkering costs a lot more.

Firearms training service

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

Tinker service

• Only gnomes offer this service
• Allows you to upgrade an object to a similar or related form, works the same as dipping an item into a potion of gain level or using the tinker technique.
• Here the service only takes 1 turn (shopkeepers are either very good at tinkering or just cheating with a hidden potion of gain level behind the counter)
• Base charge is $500
• Low intelligence (under 18 INT) players are subject to $500 price gouge
• Lower intelligence (under 13 INT) players are subject to $1000 price gouge
• Non-gnomes are charged double

Add property

• Weapon, armor, and ring shops can offer this service.
• Base charge is $2000 for adding properties

1. To remove properties, it costs $250 - but there is only a 1 in 4 chance of success.

• Only one property can be added to an item at a time, if you attempt to add to an item with an existing property, the shopkeeper will prompt you to remove it.

Charging service

• Some shops offer a charging service where you can buy a 'basic' recharge that usually does 1 point of charging (like an uncursed scroll of charging, or even a 'premier' charge that acts as a blessed charging.

• Any shop that offers charging will always offer both the basic and premier service with the exception of general stores. Because they are so common, general stores only offer basic charging.
• Premier charging is restricted to only specialty items that the shop offers (ie: In a ring shop you can only buy premier charging for rings)
• Basic charging is unrestricted and can be performed on any item in any shop.

Service details

Shop/Race	Services
All shops:	1 in 3 offer uncursing services. 1 in 20 offer rumors
General stores:	Capable of offering any type of identify service 20% offer firearms training 25% offer basic charging
Weapon shops:	75% offer weapon ID 20% offer armor ID 25% offer weapon fixing 25% offer weapon enchanting 25% offer weapon poisoning 20% offer firearms training 20% offer property grafting (for weapons)
Armor shops:	75% offer armor ID 20% offer weapon ID 25% offer armor fixing 25% offer armor enchanting (Note: Armor shops will refuse to work with dragon scales) 20% offer firearms training 20% offer property grafting (for armor)
Scroll stores:	75% offer scroll ID 20% offer book ID
Spellbook stores:	75% offer book ID 20% offer scroll ID
Potion stores:	50% offer potion ID
Ring stores:	33% offer ring ID 20% offer amulet ID 20% offer gem ID 25% offer basic charging 20% offer property grafting (for rings)
Wand shops:	50% offer wand ID 20% offer armor ID 25% offer basic charging 25% offer premium charging
Tool shops:	50% offer tool ID 25% offer basic charging
Deli/food shops:	100% offer food ID 10% offer potion ID
Pet shops:	50% offer food ID 25% offer tool ID
Lighting shops:	10% offer potion ID
Dwarves:	20% offer weapon ID 20% offer armor ID 20% offer gem ID
Orcs:	25% offer weapon poisoning
Gnomes:	25% offer tool ID 25% offer tinker
Giants:	20% offer gem ID
Nymphs:	10% offer ring ID 20% offer potion ID
Hobbit:	50% offer food ID 10% offer ring ID
Illithid:	25% offer scroll ID 25% offer spellbook ID

New shop types

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

Misc shop changes

• Lighting shops can now carry wands/scrolls/spellbooks of light, as well as the rare wand of lightning.
• Delis can carry meat sticks, royal jelly, and huge chunks of meat.
• Hardware stores stock potions of oil and occasionally touchstones.
• Archery shops will not appear if your character cannot attain proficiency in BOW.
• Gun shops will not appear if your character cannot attain proficiency in FIREARM.
• Gun shops can also carry assault rifles, flintlocks, grease, and towels.
• Pet shops can carry bardings of all types.
• Armor shops can enchant dragon scales via the enchant armor service.

Dragons and dragon scales

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

Dragon	Primary	Secondary	Passive
Black	Disintegration res		Disintegration (!!)
Blue	Shock res	Speed	Shock (!!)
Deep	Drain res	Slow digestion	Drain life
Gold	Light	Infravision Clairvoyant	Blinding
Gray	Magic res	Cancel protection	Cancellation (!!)
Green	Poison res	Sickness res	Poison
Orange	Sleep res	Free action	Slow
Red	Fire res	+1d6 melee damage	Fire (!!)
Shimmering	Displacement	Stun Resistance	Confuse/Stun/Slow
Silver	Reflection	Cold resistance Blinding res	Scaring
Sea	Magical breathing	Swimming	Water/rust (!!)
White	Cold res	Freeze water/Lava walk	Cold (!!)
Yellow	Acid res	Stoning res	Acid (!!)
Violet	Sonic res	Flying	Sonic (!!)

!! - Risks item destruction from the type of attack - Most of the passive attacks only trigger 33% of the time.

Spellcasting

Spellcasting changes

• Like in SLASH'EM, the standard retention for spellbooks is 10000 turns. The reinforce memory technique can be used to extend your spell memory when a spell gets low. You can even use it when the spell has less than half its life left (5000 turns).
• Removed the BODY spell school in SLASH'EM, moved to the ESCAPE spells
• Removed PROTECTION spell school in SlashEM, moved to the CLERIC spells
• Removed CLERIC spell school and created a NECROMANCY spell school to support the new spin on the Necromancer role. The spells from the CLERIC school have been distributed among the other schools as appropriate.
• Spellbook weights are now based on their level.
• Spellcasting while wearing body armor will negatively affect your spell success rate. The exception to this is crystal plate mail, which does not adversely affect spellcasting in any way.
• Casting any spell successfully adds +500 turns to your memory of it (from SLASH'EM).
• You can reread a spellbook to refresh your memory at any time

Variant changes

Here is where Hack'EM diverges from its ancestors.

Changes from SLASH'EM

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

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

These features have been removed or replaced:

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

Changes from EvilHack

• Removed the Goblin Town branch.
• Removed the Ice Queen branch.
• Removed the Vecna's Domain branch. We still have Vecna but in a different level for the Chaotic Quest.
• Removed the indestructible drawbridge from the VotD; it can be destroyed like a regular drawbridge now.
• Demon lords and princes no longer negate being able to self-teleport or use cursed potions of gain level.
• Removed the Wand of Orcus. Orcus gets his standard wand of death now.
• Some of the dragon scales have had buffs or different secondary effects added. All scales grant passive effects now. See the section on Dragon Scales for details.
• Removed chromatic dragon scales.
• #forge has been renamed to #craft for working with forges. The reason is to make #force and #craft auto-complete. #forge still has the same meta shortcut: M('F')
• Removed two-weaponing weight-based restrictions.
• Removed the monster riding monster mechanic.
• Monster spawn rates depend on the number of wishes made, not on game progress.
• Zapping light around peaceful monsters could anger them. This mechanic has been removed except for when you break a wand of light.
• Spellcasting monsters have to see you in order to cast summon nasties.
• Spellcasting monsters have had their spell range limited by their level (gnomish mages are level 3 and can only cast fire bolt in a radius of 2-3 tiles instead of 13).
• Changed timeout for monster spell of stone to flesh to timeout 2d7 instead of rn2(7).
• Removed engulfing attack from gelatinous cube, water elemental, earth elemental, and fire elemental. The Splice elementals (magma, mud, ice, acid) still can engulf.
• Removed cursed weapons reverse hitting (was in EvilHack and Splice). Instead, cursed weapons will miss their target 25% of the time.
• Revert the standard cursed wand backfire chance from 1-in-30 to 1-in-100.
• Revert EvilHack sacrifice gift changes: Instead of a mix of regular items and artifacts, players will receive only artifacts (unless you get a minion as a gift).
• Removed accompanying artifact defenders when wishing for artifacts.
• Lowered the poison insta-death resistance threshold from 35% to 25%. If your poison resistance is under 25% you have a chance of insta-death from poison dart traps, poison bite, etc.
• In EvilHack the Amulet of Yendor has a chance of teleporting randomly if dropped on the floor, this random chance of teleport has been removed.
• Revert cursed amulet of life saving effects
• Revert Amulet of life saving will not work if the player is in nonliving form.
• Revert Amulet of life saving does not fully heal the wearer.

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

Funny or silly changes

• Gnomes hate eggs (from EvilHack)
• Vampires can't use toilets.