Samurai/SLASH'EM

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Not to be confused with One-Eyed Sam.

In SLASH'EM, the Samurai, abbreviated as Sam, is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.

Samurai are always humans, and always start as lawful.

Starting equipment

Each Samurai starts with the following equipment:[1]

Samurai start with knowledge of all non-magical weapons and armor.[5]

The Samurai's default starting pet is a little dog named Hachi.[6]

Intrinsics

Samurai gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:[7]

Attributes

The Samurai's starting attributes are distributed as follows:[8]

Attributes Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Remaining
Minimum attributes 10 10 17 8 7 6 17
Distribution percentages 30% 30% 14% 10% 8% 8%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human) 15.90±1.94 15.54±1.75 17.91±0.32 9.94±1.37 8.56±1.27 7.37±1.20

Skills

Samurai have the following skills available to them:[9]

Samurai skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert

Samurai start with Basic skill in long swords, short swords, bows, and martial arts.[10] They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is clairvoyance.[11]

Techniques

Samurai can learn the disarm technique by reaching Skilled in any weapon, and also gain the following techniques at the listed experience levels:[12]

Level Technique
1 kiii

Special rules

Samurai get a +1 bonus to multishot and damage when firing ya from a yumi.[13]

Samurai can perform a shattering blow while wielding a katana without wearing a shield.[14]

Shopkeepers will charge Samurai twice the normal price for items.[15]

Samurai are expected to adhere to a role-specific code of conduct, detailed in the section below.

Code of conduct

The Samurai code of conduct is designed after bushido, and those following it must behave honorably—dishonorable acts will incur an alignment record penalty and display a guilt message:

You disturb the honorable dead!
You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from digging up a grave.[16]
You dishonorably attack the innocent!
You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking peaceful or tame monster.[17]
You dishonorably use a poisoned weapon!
incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking with a poisoned weapon.[18]

Japanese names for items

On top of normal language-specific changes for some game dialogs while the hero is a Samurai, certain items also use Japanese names in place of their regular English names, which are listed below:

English Japanese
short sword wakizashi
broadsword ninja-to
flail nunchaku
glaive naginata
lock pick osaku
wooden harp koto
knife shito
plate mail tanko
helmet kabuto
leather gloves yugake
food ration gunyoki
potion of booze potion of sake

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:[19]

  • XL 1-2: Hatamoto
  • XL 3-5: Ronin
  • XL 6-9: Ninja/Kunoichi
  • XL 10-13: Joshu
  • XL 14-17: Ryoshu
  • XL 18-21: Kokushu
  • XL 22-25: Daimyo
  • XL 26-29: Kuge
  • XL 30: Shogun

Gods

Main article: Religion

The Samurai pantheon is based on the pantheon of Japanese mythology.[20] Their first sacrifice gift is Snickersnee.

Quest

Main article: Samurai quest

The Samurai's quest sees them fighting Ashikaga Takauji for the Tsurugi of Muramasa, an artifact tsurugi. The Tsurugi of Muramasa acts as a luckstone while carried, and deals +8 damage to all monsters with a 110 chance (10%) of a size-dependent effect: against medium-size or smaller monsters and any monster that is engulfing the wielder, the Tsurugi can bisect and instantly kill them upon hitting, which can include the hero if Ashikaga Takauji uses the weapon against them—against large-or-bigger monsters, the Tsurugi instead deals double damage.

Strategy

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Structure and fill out similar to other SLASH'EM role strategy sections, and differentiate accordingly."

Samurai can be played more or less the same way in SLASH'EM as in Vanilla. Just be a little more wary of enemies' stronger attack power, using your ya and scribbling the E word whenever enemies are near.

  • Their "kiii" technique gives a temporary boost to your attack power. Due to the Samurai's strong attack power you may never use it, but it can be useful if you're facing somewhat powerful enemies and want to take them out quickly.
  • SLASH'EM allows you to #twoweapon two artifacts at the same time. Considering that Samurai can easily get both Excalibur and Snickersnee—two of the most powerful weapons in the game—and are able to advance both longsword and #twoweapon to expert, this is a huge advantage.
  • Since a Samurai wielding both Excalibur and Snickersnee will do large amounts of damage even with zero enchantment, enchanting your weapons is a low priority. If you find any scrolls of enchant weapon, consider blessing it and enchanting your unicorn horn—enchanting unicorn horns increases their chances of working in SLASH'EM.
  • Despite improvements to The Tsurugi of Muramasa from NetHack 3.4.3, the ability in SLASH'EM to dual-wield artifact weapons diminishes the Tsurugi's appeal considerably: combining Excalibur and Snickersnee is excellent for Samurai, since both weapons are easily available to them, use the same weapon skill, and both have a flat damage bonus against all monsters that allows far more damage on average than the Tsurugi. A Samurai who can get his hands on one of the better lawful swords, such as Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Grayswandir, or the Sword of Justice can be even more powerful. Additionally, SLASH'EM lacks the #tip command, making it more serious if a two-handed weapon is cursed.
  • Once you have at least a submachine gun and a bunch of bullets, don't bother any more with the yumi. Firearms are superior to bows and arrows. Later, replace your submachine gun with an assault rifle. The assault rifle will be very good for the special cases where melee is a bad idea.
  • Save up gold for shops, or get good at stealing: along with rogues and barbarians, samurai are massively overcharged in shops, paying twice as much. Samurai trying to buy the items one might typically buy in the early game (mithril coat, food rations, scrolls of enchant weapon/armor, boots and gloves with a base cost of 50, etc) will quickly run out of money, and buying magic lamps (with their 1000zm base cost in SLASH'EM) is usually impossible until well after the Oracle.
  • A good ascension kit for a Samurai is:

References