Lightsaber

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Lightsabers are weapon-tools found in the variants SLASH'EM and dNetHack. In each variant they are powerful melee weapons whose use is highly restricted.

SLASH'EM

)
Name	green / blue / red lightsaber
Appearance	lightsaber
Damage vs. small	see article
Damage vs. large	see article
To-hit bonus	-3
Weapon skill	lightsaber
Size	one-handed
Base price	500 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	[[see article]]

)
Name	double red lightsaber
Appearance	double lightsaber
Damage vs. small	6 + d9 + d9
Damage vs. large	10 + d11 + d11
To-hit bonus	-4
Weapon skill	lightsaber
Size	two-handed
Base price	1000 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	platinum

Use as a weapon

Lightsabers in SLASH'EM have their own weapon skill. All roles in SLASH'EM are restricted in this skill, but can reach Basic if they have it unrestricted by crowning. (The Jedi role, available as a patch, can reach Expert skill in lightsaber.)

The four varieties are green, blue, red and double red. Green, blue, and red lightsabers are single-handed, have a -3 to-hit penalty, and do the same amount of damage on average, but with damage variance increasing in that order. See the table below.

Double red lightsabers are not randomly generated, but can be wished for. They are two-handed, have a -4 to-hit penalty, and do an extra d9 damage against small monsters and d11 against large monsters (beyond the damage for a basic red lightsaber) when in double mode.

From SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/objects.c#line825:

Color	Small monster	Large monster
green	9 + d3	13 + d5
blue	8 + d5	12 + d7
red	6 + d9	10 + d11
red double (not implemented)	6 + d9 + d9	10 + d11 + d11 (d15/d21) in double mode

Lightsabers must be ignited in order to do full damage, so much of their usefulness is lost if they are allowed to run out of power. They can be recharged with a scroll of charging. Lightsabers recharge by the same rules as oil lamps: an uncursed scroll adds 750 turns and a blessed scroll adds 1500. The total charge will never exceed a maximum of 1500 turns. Note that a cursed lightsaber won't ignite even if still charged, and will still weld to your hand should you wield it.

Lightsabers turn off automatically when they are unequipped, although if you are fast enough, you can dual-wield lightsabers, or even stick a lit one in your bag of holding! Note that this currently does not damage your containers in any way.

All lightsabers are made of platinum, except green lightsabers, which are made of plastic.

Enchantment

Lightsabers can be enchanted like other weapon-tools. This is important, since it can considerably help to offset the large to-hit penalty they will always carry, given that one can never become skilled in the use of a lightsaber. To-hit and damage bonuses from enchantment do not apply when the lightsaber is not lit, so using a lightsaber for long periods of time is usually only practical if you have plentiful charging. The Platinum Yendorian Express Card is best for this, though a magic marker (to write scrolls of charging) can also suffice if you don't need to write many other scrolls.

Hits monsters as a +4 weapon

SLASH'EM introduces a new property, the "Need +x weapon to hit". This means that some monsters can only take damage from a weapon with an enchantment above a certain minimum.

Lightsabers can do damage to all monsters regardless of enchantment, charges or ignition. A +0 lit lightsaber will damage Vecna, but also a +0 uncharged one. That an unlit lightsaber hits like a +4 weapon is probably a bug.

Use as a tool

Ignited lightsabers can be used to burn Elbereth and to burn through doors, statues and solid rock, in the manner of a pick-axe with the force command, making them invaluable, even when not used for combat. Be careful: if you dig downwards with a lightsaber, you'll create a hole through the floor instead of a pit, and fall through to the next level. You will only create a pit if you burn through a tomb on the floor.

dNetHack

The variant dNetHack also features lightsabers, which behave somewhat differently. Incantifier Anachrononauts start with a +3 lightsaber.

Lightsabers are artifact-level melee weapons. Lightsabers are one-handed weapons using the saber skill. Lightsabers must be activated via apply. When lit, a lightsaber is a 3x damage melee weapon, surpassing almost all artifacts in terms of damage output. A lightsaber has a base damage of 1d8 to large and small targets, and therefore does 3d8 + 3xEnchantment damage on a hit. Lightsabers sunder any weapon held by the target, and ignore equipped armor.

Lightsabers can cut through many terrain obstructions, included iron bars, trees, and drawbridges (make sure to stand off to one side if using a lightsaber to cut through a drawbridge!). Use #force and a direction to do so. Notably, lightsabers are unable to cut through solid rock squares.

Lightsabers burn through a variety of traps if wielded and lit. They allow you to escape from webs and beartraps without wasting a turn, and free you from pit traps while consuming only a single turn.

Lightsabers are charged weapons and will eventually run out of power. They can be re-charged an unlimited number of times. A single charging is good for 750 hits, or 1500 hits if blessed charging was used. Just being lit also consumes charge, but at a much reduced rate. 100 turns of being lit consumes as much charge as a single hit. Other activities consume charge as fast as combat.

Falling down stairs while wielding a lit lightsaber is dangerous. The character will attempt to switch off the saber before coming into contact with it, with a luck and dex based chance of succeeding. If the character does come into contact with the blade, they take 3d8+3xEnchantment damage.

Double lightsabers also exist, and three of these are guaranteed in any game (not counting the Annulus). One is placed on the locate level, one is placed on the goal level, and one on every lower filler level. These ignite 2 blades (thus dealing 2x damage), but are two-handed. However, the Annulus can also ignite two blades, and requires only one hand, so two-weaponing the Annulus with another plain lightsaber deals more damage overall. In addition, they use the quarterstaff skill, separate from the standard saber skill.

Lastly, a lightsaber's color is purely cosmetic, and can be changed by swapping out the focusing crystal. To change the crystal, drop the lightsaber on the ground and #loot while standing over it. Worthless glass gems produce 'red' blades, valuable gems produce other colors. When a lightsaber is first generated, it has a 5/6 chance of containing blue fluorite ("blue") and a 1/6 chance of containing green fluorite ("green"). This can be used to informally identify valuable gems.

A table of the lightsaber colors, by gem:

Gem	Appearance
magicite crystal	brilliant blue
dilithium crystal	twisting rainbow
diamond	coruscating white
star sapphire	star blue
ruby	ruby
jacinth	sunset
sapphire	sapphire
black opal	smoke
emerald	emerald
turquoise	turquoise
morganite	pink
citrine	citrine
aquamarine	aquamarine
amber	amber
topaz	brown
jet	mirrored
opal	rainbow
chrysoberyl	yellow
garnet	deep red
amethyst	amethyst
jasper	crimson
fluorite	violet*
fluorite	blue*
fluorite	white*
fluorite	green*
obsidian	gray
agate	orange
jade	jade
any worthless glass	red

Note that no valuable gem has a lightsaber color of red, and no two valuable gems have the same color. Garnets and rubies are deep red and ruby, respectively, so you can be certain any gem that gives a red color lightsaber is worthless.