SpliceHack/Rules changes

While SpliceHack aims to keep most monsters, items, and rules identical with their counterparts in Vanilla NetHack, some changes have been made for purposes of balance, quality of life, and fun. This page does not list expansions to the game, such as new levels, monsters, or items. It only lists features which are different than their original incarnations.

Quality of Life Changes

This section lists changes that were made for the purposes of quality of life, and where the changes originated.

XNetHack

• Looking at monsters now tells you what weapon they are wielding, and whether they are armored. Farlooking up a monster provides you with a list of their resistances, attacks, and other statistics. The intention behind this page is to make looking at the wiki during play largely unnecessary.
• Branch staircases are colored yellow.
• Altars are colored based on alignment.
• Paranoid trap and swimming confirmation.
• Peaceful monsters can be displaced.

L

• Colored walls and floors, using modified version of L's colored walls and floors patch.

NAO

• The hilite_hidden_stairs option highlights stairs with objects on top of them. This is enabled by default.

DynaHack

• Skill progress is visible to the player in the form of a percentage.

Original

• The mysterious force has been removed.
• The quest can be started at level 10.
• The Amulet of Yendor blocks all forms of teleportation.
• Killing the quest leader will remove the mysterious force preventing access to the rest of the quest.
• Deadly poison no longer instantly kills the player character, but instead will cause both HP and attribute damage.
• #give can be used to give items to the player's pet or peaceful monsters, putting the items directly in their inventory. This streamlines the process of enticing pets to wield weapons or put on armor.
• The vibrating square can be teleported onto directly.
• Artifact wishing is based on the number of artifacts wished for, not the number of artifacts generated, preventing the increased number of artifacts from making artifact wishing more difficult.

Object Changes

• Scrolls of scare monster do not affect unique monsters.
• Scrolls of amnesia are not randomly generated.
• Pickaxes weigh less.
• Robes are now referred to as mystic robes, and robe is a wishable category of item.

Monster Changes

• Tigers and demonic monsters have had their colors changed in order to make room for new monsters.
• Zrutys have been moved to the Y monster class in order to allow for zouthern animals.
• Bones files of players that were level 15 or above contain a spectre instead of a ghost.
• Mind Flayers do not cause amnesia with their attacks.
• The Wizard of Yendor has a weapon attack.
• Yeenoghu wields a triple flail, giving him a much higher damage output.
• Giants and ogre kings can rarely knock the player back with their attacks.
• Monsters are unaffected by the mysterious force.

Monster AI Changes

All monsters in SpliceHack are smarter and make more effective use of items than their vanilla counterparts.

• SpliceHack implements an updated version of the intelligent pet patch, from GruntHack. This means that monsters will cast spells at one another, use ranged attacks against other monsters, and make more intelligent use of items.
• Monsters now use a wider variety of items, including (but not limited to) applying figurines, sacrificing corpses on altars, and playing instruments. They are even capable of making wishes from smoky potions.
• Monsters are capable of riding other monsters. The movement speed of the rider is not changed based on the steed. Currently, only headless horsemen and the Riders use steeds. This feature was later ported to EvilHack.
• Monsters that eat corpses can gain intrinsics, just like the player does.
• Monsters are capable of gaining displacement, jumping, water walking, and teleportitis.
• Monsters can be stunned or turned invisible by eating corpses.

Ascension run changes

The endgame of SpliceHack is designed to be more hectic than vanilla.

• While the player character has the amulet, many monsters are generated awake.
• Upon performing the invocation ritual, all demon princes and demon lords that have not yet been generated or been slain will instantly teleport to random levels with the dungeon. This means that a player will almost definitely encounter Demogorgon in the course of ascension. All unique demons created in this way are not covetous.
• The Astral Plane is populated by more player monsters than in vanilla. Due to the increased number of artifacts, it is more likely than in vanilla that you will encounter player monsters with artifact weapons.
• All player monsters are capable of stealing the Amulet from the player. If they succeed in stealing it, they will flee. Should a monster manage to make it to a coaligned high altar with the amulet, they will sacrifice it, causing you to lose the game.