NerfHack

NerfHack
Revised divine protection scheme

This changelog exists to track the changes in NerfHack: https://github.com/elunna/NerfHack.

QUALITY OF LIFE FEATURES

Chaotics do not get alignment penalties for angering, attacking, or killing peacefuls (xnh)
Don't livelog events in explore mode
Running and traveling no longer pushes boulders (xnh)
When traveling, engravings on graves will not be stopped on or considered 'interesting'
Stinking clouds no longer block line of sight
Launchers don't count as weapons for the 'hit with a wielded weapon' conduct.
Stop occupations when the hero is caught in a poison gas cloud

STREAMLINED IDENTIFICATION FEATURES

A general design philosophy of NerfHack is to automatically identify items that are unambiguous from various effects. If a quick wiki lookup is all that is needed (ie: sink ring identification) let's save the player from opening up a browser.

All roles start out knowing potions of water, blank scrolls, and scrolls of identify
When dropping a container on an altar, the BUC status of all contained items is revealed (NetHack4)
Your primary wielded weapon is auto-identified after killing enough monsters with it (Evil)
Auto-ID enchantment on non-projectile weapons when we are expert in at XP10+ and wielding the weapon.
Auto-ID potions of acid when water explosions result from dipping (xnh)
Auto-ID potions of acid when a lichen corpse is dipped into one
Auto-ID potions of sickness when they coat a weapon in poison
Auto-ID potions of sickness and fruit juice when dipping unihorn in sickness
Auto-ID potions of see inv and fruit juice by process of elimination when quaffed.
Auto-ID potions of restore ability when quaffed
Auto-ID potions of booze when quaffed.
Auto-ID amethyst, fruit juice, and booze when dipping amethyst into booze (Fourk)
Auto-ID some potions when inhaling their vapors (xnh)
Auto-ID scrolls of scare monster when they crumble from picking up (Un)
Auto-ID scrolls of confuse monster when read
Auto-ID scrolls of enchant armor when they erodeproof or make dragon scaled armor
Auto-ID scrolls of food detection if they have an obvious effect.
Auto-ID scrolls of enchant armor when they erodeproof or harden dragon scales.
Auto-ID scrolls of remove curse when read
Auto-ID rings dropped into a sink (Un)
Auto-ID rings of regeneration when they heal you (Un)
Auto-ID +0 rings of protection (if MC is increased)
Auto-ID wand of cancellation after destroying a bag of holding (Un)
Auto-ID wands when engraving (xnh)
Automatically use a process of elimination for auto-identifying wands when available (Un)
Auto-ID loadstones when attempting to drop or stash them (Un)
Auto-id flint yielded from applying rocks to each-other
Auto-ID most musical instruments upon use (Un)
Auto-ID magic lamps and oil lamps when rubbing (Un)
Auto-ID dunce cap when it's first put on (Un)
Auto-ID jumping boots upon wearing (Un/Ace)
Auto-ID water walking boots when they waterwalk (xnh)
Auto-ID kicking boots when they are kicked
Auto-ID BUC of products from BUC identified tinning kit or horn of plenty (UnNetHack++)
Auto-ID BUC of wands when they backfire
Auto-id bags of holding when items are added or removed
Blessed stethoscopes can identify eggs (Evil/Spork)
Make rustproof/erodeproof/fixed known by default (Dyna)

INTERFACE CHANGES

Detailed object and monster Pokedex is available in the in-game lookup (xnh/Un/HackEM)
Object lookup also works for artifacts (HackEM)
Peaceful monsters are underlined [TTY and curses] (xnh)
Magic cancellation (MC) value is shown on the bottom line (Evil)
Skill caps and percentage towards next level is available in #enhance
Show available skill slots in #enhance menu (Dyna)
Add inventory weight/carrycap and n/52 items display
/> or < can be used to autotravel to stairs (autostairtravel option)
Display AC values for armor in the hero's inventory (Splice)
Prayer statistics (last prayed, reconciled, or received a gift) can be viewed in the attributes screen (via Ctrl-X)
Show how many points of divine protection hero has in the attributes screen.
All position prompts may be aborted
Show warning level 0 for very weak monsters (Dyna)
We are able to see more monster conditions on farlook (Evil/Splice/xnh)
Farlook also shows amulets and rings monsters are wearing
We are able to see what weapon a monster is wielding from farlook (Evil)
We are able to see roughly how much armor a monster is wearing on farlook (Evil)
More descriptive combat messages have been added to enhance hits and misses (xnh)
The SLASH'EM style message is used for getting zapped by cancellation
Show messages for objects that are randomly cursed (Dyna)
Print an explicit message when summon nasties occurs as part of wizard harassment
Special room and special level walls can have their own unique coloring (Splice/xnh)
Disabled #chronicle from auto-completing (so #chat will autocomplete as normal)
Enabled autocomplete for #twoweapon
Disabled farlook help
Disabled the 3.7 tutorial
Enable full options by default
Changed the symbol for sinks back to #
The hero's color reflects their race (SLASH'EM)
Suggest donation amount (relative to XP level) when #chatting to priests
Change woundedlegs, glowhands, and barehanded statuses to opt-out so they are available by default
NERFHACKOPTIONS instead of NETHACKOPTIONS

New config options

showdamage: Displays damage dealt and flanking bonuses/penalties
noflipsoko: Enables player to choose whether they want Sokoban levels to be flipped. If enabled, incurs Sokoban penalty for each level used.
invweight: Show weights of objects in inventory

WIZMODE FEATURES

The #wizcrown command has been added for testing crowning (Evil)
The #wizclear (^z) command, clears all monsters on the screen (Splice)
Wizard mode can override an artifact ignoring you (xnh)
Allow teleportation into unteleportable spots in wizard mode
Allow wishing (^W) for monsters in wizmode (Un)
Changed #debugfuzzer command to just #fuzz
Allow wishing for specific spell beings
Show wizmode timeouts for sick, rabid, withering, and most other afflictions

ITEM CHANGES

Items that are 'lost' from the players inventory will no longer be un-identified.
Items that grant steadfastness will do so even if the hero is flying or levitating.
Levels of erosion on an object can affect its price (Evil).
orcish equipment usually generates rusty and/or corroded
dwarvish items frequently spawn as fixed.
Towels cannot be worn over the eyes - blindfolds now must be relied upon for blinding.
Wet towels provide 100% protection from poison gas when worn.

Price Identification Nerf

This change destroys price identification and aligns most potions, scrolls, wands, and rings to the same price (SLEX).

All rings cost $200
All potions cost $200
All wands cost $200
All scrolls cost $200

Exceptions:

Potions of water still cost 100 (if cursed or blessed)
Potions of blood cost 100
Cards of zapping still cost $50. These are usually only present for cartomancers.

ITEM EROSION AND DESTRUCTION

Objects can be completely destroyed via rusting/rotting/corroding (Evil)
Almost all items are erodeable/destroyable (Evil) - amulets, rings, wands, and tools are now eligible for erosion. These items can be erodeproofed via confused enchant weapon scrolls or by dipping into potions of reflection.
Silver items can corrode (xnh)
The iron ball and chain cannot be destroyed from rusting (Evil)
Poison gas clouds can rot organic armor
Extrinsic poison resistance protects items from rotting in poison gas.
Monsters can wear down and destroy ANY armor with the destroy armor spell (Evil)
Item erosion can be repaired by dipping into a potion of restore ability (xnh)
Scrolls can burn up when hitting hot ground in Gehennom. (3.7 introduced potions being shattered when dropping on hot ground - this just takes it a step further.)
Getting hit by potions of acid can corrode armor. Monster acid attacks and spit also corrode armor.
Passive acid attacks corrodes armor more often.
Thrown potions of acid can corrode items when they hit a monster or the player.
Water damage may disintegrate scrolls; may occur when dipping (Dyna)
Disintegration rays can vaporize boulders
Improved item destruction (xnh). This patch fixes some problems with item destruction, making it less random and more dependent on the damage dealt in the interaction. Overall, players should expect to get a more fair deal with fewer items destroyed.

Anti-magical items resist being enchanted (from SpliceHack)

If an item grants magic resistance, it will resist scrolls of enchant weapon and enchant armor.
The resistance is not absolute.
Gray dragon scales can always be converted to dragon scaled armor.

For enchant armor:

Current enchantment	Chance of failure
+0	0%
+1	14%
+2	29%
+3	43%
+4	57%

For enchant weapon:

Current enchantment	Chance of failure
+0	0%
+1	8%
+2	15%
+3	23%
+4	31%
+5	38%
+6	46%
+7	54%
+8	62%
+9	69%
+10	77%
+11	85%
+12	92%

Weapon changes

Higher max weapon enchantment

Weapons can be enchanted much higher, with a soft limit of +11.
This means that the new "+5" is "+11", and +13 is easily attainable by reading a blessed scroll of enchant weapon with a +11 weapon.
To compensate, weapon enchantment gives variable to-hit bonus instead of flat bonus. This means that instead of a +7 weapon granting +7 to-hit, it grants a random to-hit bonus from +1 to +7, inclusive.
Random weapons have a small chance to generate with very high enchantment.
The enchantment based to-hit bonus for projectiles capped at +7.
Lords, princes, and uniques will also appear with much higher enchantment on their weapons.
Beware, over-enchanted weapons that vaporize now explode.
Abuse wisdom if items are destroyed by over-enchanting.
Players get an additional +1 to-hit bonus whilst XP1-5.
The effect Luck has on to-hit bonuses has been reduced to (Luck / 3) (Evil/Spork)

Misc weapon changes

Swapping weapons take 0 turns (dnh)
A welded cursed quarterstaff doesn't block spellcasting (xnh)
Cursed launchers always have a chance of misfiring.
Cursed projectiles can hit yourself in the leg (Evil).
Crysknives are never auto-quivered
Any slashing or piercing weapons can now be poisoned (SLASHEM)
All short swords get +1 to-hit (Dyna)
Reduced probability of long swords generating (K-Mod)
Increased probability of boomerangs
Increased weight of war hammers to 120.
Reduced weight of morning star to 50.
Reduced weight of bullwhips to 7 aum
Increased weight of shuriken to 2 aum each.
Wielded polearms grant an AC bonus depending on their weight (for every 30aum, they grant -1AC)
Spears at expert skill can skewer through enemies, allowing you to hit the enemy directly behind the target. Peacefuls are prevented from being hit unless the spear is cursed. We also won't auto-skewer the spot unless it is visible or spottable via ESP. Skewering doesn't trigger most passive attacks unless it's a passive electrifying attack and you attack with a metal spear.
Tridents at skilled can also skewer monsters.
Spetums can skewer up to 3 monsters when used in melee whilst riding a steed
Ranseurs can disarm monsters or the player when pounded or used in melee whilst riding a steed.
Bardiches (long poleaxes) have a 1 in 100 chance of beheading monsters (or the player)
+4 to-hit bonus for attacking with a scimitar on a steed.
Wielding and unwielding curved swords takes 0 turns.
Morning stars and flails can stun monsters (or the player) on critical hits. Player must be skilled or better.
Special weapon effects (like rogue backstab, flail stunning, and samurai katana weapon smashing) have been enabled when two-weaponing.
Crossbows no longer grant multishot, instead their damage output is multiplied by your skill (dnh)
No multishot when fumbling
Boomerangs will can pass through enemies on hit.
Polearms can be used to trigger traps (from NetHack Fourk).
Polearms get a +4 to-hit bonus vs horses and centaurs.
Polearms and lances can be pounded when blind (as long as you can sense the target)
Daggers and knives have a small chance to mulch. If non-cursed, the probability is 1 in 100. If cursed, they go through the same checks as other mulchable projectiles.
Bows and crossbows are two-handed.
Ported the modified version of L's Bullwhip Patch (xnh).
All launchers can contribute to missile projectile damage (adapted from SpliceHack); the damage is calculated as d(x/3), where x is the current enchantment of the launcher.

War Hammers

war hammers have been changed from a one-handed weapon into a competitive two-handed weapon (xnh)
They now deal 2d6 vs small monsters and 2d8 vs large

Slings

Projectiles receive a strength bonus when using slings (xnh). However, this bonus is 3/4'th what is normally granted.
Gem class projectiles do minimal damage vs thick-skinned monsters
Launching gem class projectiles from slings has the potential to instakill H

Armor changes

reduced weight of most armors by 50 aum (K-Mod)
reduced weight of elven gear by about 1/3'rd (Evil)
kicking boots supersede thick_skin/clumsy (Splice)
mud boots provide protection from wrapping attacks
hiking boots let you avoid pit traps
hiking boots provide extra carrying capacity (dnh)
fencing gloves provide +2 to-hit when you are attacking with a free off-hand (dnh)
old gloves don't take erosion damage (dnh)
padded gloves provide an extra point of AC (dnh)
leather gloves provide 0AC (from NetHack Brass)
combat boots provide 1AC and +1 to-hit (dnh)
jungle boots provide protection from wounded legs (dnh)
kicking boots allow kicking even when your legs are wounded.
gauntlets of dexterity grant +1 to-hit whilst using bows (Evil)
gauntlets of fumbling grant -9 to-hit penalty whilst using bows (Evil)
oilskin cloaks let you slip effortlessly out of web traps.
increased weight of dwarvish and elvish mithril coats to 200 aum
increased weight of dragon scales to 80 aum
mummy wrappings always generate rotted
cursed armor weighs more when worn.
the protective effect of hard helmets has been reduced when heavy objects fall on the hero's head.
only elves can safely enchant elvish armor over +3. Other races will get a warning vibration if their elvish armor is enchanted over +3.
worn armor has a 25% weight reduction (xnh/FIQ)
dwarves, elves, ad gnomes get a +1 bonus for each racially aligned piece of armor they wear (Evil)
orcs get a +2 bonus for each racially aligned piece of armor they wear (Evil/THEM)
plate mail now grants 8AC
crystal plate mail now grants 9AC
bronze plate mail now grants 7AC
leather armors don't grant any MC
leather cloaks grant 3AC and 0MC

New dragon armor system: DSM replaced by scaled armor

Ported from xNetHack's implementation. The following text was revised from xNetHack commit 00fec37778:

This proposal, referred to as the "dtsund-DSM" system, developed by dtsund and jonadab, introduces a significant change to how dragon scales are used in the game. Instead of dragon scale mail being its own type of armor, players can now incorporate dragon scales into existing armors—such as leather armor, chain mail, and others. These "scaled" armors provide the same extrinsic benefits as traditional dragon scale mail whilst retaining their original properties.

Motivation for the Change

The primary reason for replacing dragon scale mail with this system is to enhance armor strategy. Dragon scale mail was overwhelmingly optimal, rendering other armor choices irrelevant. It was simultaneously:

Lightweight,
Higher in base AC than any other armor,
Naturally erodeproof,
Unrestrictive for spellcasting,
Easily obtainable before the Castle or Quest, often as an early wish, and
A source of powerful extrinsics (e.g., reflection, magic resistance).

Once dragon scale mail became available, there was little incentive to consider other armors. With this new system, players must weigh the pros and cons of different base armors, making armor strategy relevant beyond defeating the first few dragons.

Benefits of the New System

This approach aligns with the philosophy of prioritizing found items over wished ones. Previously, even excellent armors like mithril chain mail would only serve as placeholders until dragon scale mail became available. Now, players can find dragon scales, integrate them into their chosen armor, and continue using it throughout the game.

Key Details

Dragon scales provide +3 AC when used as a cloak and add +3 AC to any scaled armor.
Scaled armor is not automatically erodeproof, maintaining the risk of erosion into the midgame. Players can still erodeproof their armor or attach scales to naturally erodeproof materials.
Following the system used in Nethack Fourk, if a player polymorphs and merges with their scaled armor, it will return after unpolymorphing. This is an intentional buff, ensuring that players do not lose enchantments or scales.
Potions of phasing can also be used to graft dragon scales onto armor.

Other dragon scale notes:

Dragon scales now weigh 80.
Shopkeepers price dragon-scaled armor at a high value (xnh).
When wishing for dragon scales, any specified enchantment is nullified to +0 (xnh)
Dragon scales do not provide secondary intrinsics, they must be enchanted into scale-mail for the secondary effect to kick in.

Dragon	Scales confer	Scaled armor confers
gray	magic resistance
gold	light source	hallucination resistance
silver	reflection	blinding resistance
shimmering	displacement	stun resistance
red	fire resistance	increase damage
white	cold resistance	slow digest/water walk
orange	sleep resistance	free action
black	disintegration res	drain/withering res
blue	shock resistance	speed
green	poison resistance	regeneration, sickness res
yellow	acid resistance	petrification res

Red dragon scaled armor confers increase damage; enchantment works in the same fashion as a ring of increase damage.

Comestibles

Port the Oily Corpses Patch (xnh)
Blessed food items are rotten much less often.
Eucalyptus leaves can never be rotten unless cursed.
Zapping eggs with cancellation sterilizes them (from HackEM).
Cursed food items will no longer tame or pacify monsters.
Recolor royal jelly to magenta (Evil/xnh).
Nutrition tweaks and messages for lembas and cram (Evil)
Bump up fried tin nutrition and add stale tins (xh).

Potions and alchemy

Potions can shatter when dropped on cold floor (this shows up in Sokoban and in Gehennom)
Implement behavior for cursed potion of gain ability (xnh)
Cursed potions of gain level can be used in Sokoban to bypass a floor (xnh)
Dipping an eroded item in restore ability repairs the erosion (xnh)
Dipping worn dragon scales into a potion of phasing works the same as reading a scroll of enchant armor.
Dipping in potions of reflection erodeproofs an item.
Potions of restore ability can be alchemized.
Quaffing potions of restore ability also cures wounded legs.
Acid potions are immune to being destroyed by freezing (xnh)
More potion breathing effects (xnh)
Thrown potions of hallucination confuse monsters (Evil)
Potion of paralysis lasts 3-24 turns on monsters and has less effect when diluted (Evil)
Withering can be cured by quaffing holy water.
Blessed restore ability only restores a few levels (Evil)
potions of gain energy grant a lot more energy and get an alchemy recipe (xnh).
Mixing oil with water always results in diluted oil.
Dipping water into any potion will simply dilute the other potion (SLASHEM)
Dipping into a cursed potion always causes an explosion (SLASHEM).
Dipping acid into toilets explodes and destroys the toilet.
Dipping a unicorn horn into a potion of acid will dissolve the horn, alchemizing it into a potion of healing.
Dipping scrolls of amnesia blanks non-water non-polymorph potions.
Non-magical alchemy is less likely to result in an alchemical explosion.
HP gains from healing potions are subject to nurse dancing limits, but the limit is always observed as if the players level is maxed out at 30.
Fizzy potions and booze can cause (loud) burps.
Smoky potions cannot appear in any starting role's inventory.

Diluted potion effects

Most potions have a much less potent effect when diluted (EvilHack)
Potions can sometimes generate diluted.
Shopkeepers only offer 1/2 price for diluted potions.
Diluted healing potions heal less and grant less max-HP (EvilHack).
Diluted vampire blood grants half the normal HP gains for vampires.

GEM ALCHEMY

Ported from UnNetHack, originally from SLASH'EM.
This allows you to dip a gem into a potion of acid, to alchemize a potion with a specific appearance.
This adds some serious value to potions of acid and gems.
Gem alchemy recipes can be viewed in the object lookup entry for "potion of acid".
Other potions and gems should display their respective recipes.
Gems auto-id after successful gem alchemy.

Scrolls

Reduced probability of enchant weapon scrolls, increased prob of scrolls of knowledge.
Blank scrolls cost 50
Buff the effects of the scroll of light (xnh)
Reverse the name of the HACKEM MUCHE scroll
Cursed scrolls of remove curse will curse items.
Scrolls of genocide only clear a single monster species on the level (uncursed) or globally (blessed) (Un)
Endgame genocide nerf.
- Monsters cannot be truly genocided after entering the planes.
- Any scrolls of genocide read in the endgame will be uncursed and their effectiveness depends on the monster's proximity to the hero. Targeted monsters within 2 squares of the hero are guaranteed kills, but further distance decreases the chance of success.
- This is a soft counter to the plane of water genocide strategy that most players employ. Players can still genocide ; before entering the planes, but beware, there might be more dangerous replacements waiting for them.
Enchant armor: Ability to choose worn piece of armor to enchant/repair (Evil)
Give enchanting vibrate warning for all weapons/armor (Dyna)
Blessed scroll of destroy armor asks which armor to destroy (xnh)
Confused cursed scroll of destroy armor prompts for armor to fix
Confused scroll of identify gives enlightenment (xnh)
Confused cursed scroll of punishment decreases god anger by 1.

Wands

Cursed wands have a higher chance of exploding and can backfire.
Raise odds of a zapped cursed wand exploding to 1 in 30 (Un)
Cursed wand backfire patch (Evil)
- If a directional wand is cursed and the player zaps it, there's a 1 in 8 chance it will backfire, hitting the player instead.
Wands will never explode when engraving with them (SLASHEM)
Blessed and uncursed wands wrest much more often
- blessed wands wrest 1/7 of the time
- uncursed wrest 1/23 of the time
- cursed wands still wrest 1/121 of the time
Wand of cancellation extensions
- Monsters can zap the player with wands of cancellation
- Being cancelled removes the protection spell effects
Increase wand to-hit chance for high-dex characters (Splice)
Wands of secret door detection can be broken to detect traps.
Wand explosions discharge their effects in an explosion (SLASH'EM).
Monsters zapping cursed wands have double the chance of explosions.
You must have at least one free hand (that is not welded to a cursed item or shield) to zap a wand.
Plastic wands can neither be broken (via apply) nor exploded by shock damage.
Wands can sometimes generate pre-charged

Wands of wishing

Wands of wishing do not generate randomly.
The only wand of wishing is found at the castle and is precharged with 2 charges so will always yield 3 wishes, no more and no less.

Rings/Amulets

Port FIQHack's ring initial enchantment rules
Cursed rings burn extra nutrition when worn.
Amulets of magical breathing are immune to water damage
The ring of levitation is now a valid starting ring.
Rings of sustain ability protect legs from wounding.
Cursed rings can slip off your fingers when Glib.
Amulets of unchanging can't be polymorphed (Un)
Amulets of guarding are now chargable with variable AC protection (positive or negative)
Activating Protection from shape changers wakes up shifters when they revert to their normal shape (this also applies to Werebane, since that also confers PfSC)
Rings of free action offer protection from grabbing attacks (from SLASH'EM).
Lower chances of rings exploding during charging (SporkHack). Rings with enchantment +3 or lower will no longer have a chance to explode when charged, and rings at -5 or lower will only explode from cursed charging
Rings of conflict usually generate cursed.
Reduced the probability for amulets of reflection.
We fully identify rings of increase damage or accuracy with enough experience killing monsters.

Eating Jewelery & Accessories

Eating rings and amulets only confers an intrinsic for a temporary period.
To compensate for the temporary nature of these intrinsics, the possibility of getting the property is guaranteed.
Before, the chance of getting an intrinsic from a ring by eating it was 1 in 3. It is now 100%. The chance for an amulet by eating it was 1 in 5. It has been changed to 100%.

** Summary of revised eating effects:**

Eating a ring now grants 750-1500 turns of it's property intrinsically.
Eating an amulet now grants 1250-2000 turns of it's property intrinsically.
Eating the amulet of reflection now gives intrinsic reflection for 1250-2000 turns. Previously it would not grant anything.
Eating the amulet of flying now gives intrinsic flying for 1250-2000 turns. Previously it had no effect.

Tools

Reduced weight of land mines to 40 aum (xnh)
Reduced weight of beartraps to 50 aum (xnh)
Reduced weight of pick-axe to 75 aum (SLASHEM)
Reduced weight of potions to 10 aum
Increase the prices of many magical tools
Raised price of magic marker to 500
Raised price of magic lamp to 500 (xnh)
Using eroded unlocking tools also has a chance to break.
Playing eroded musical instruments can break the instrument or fail to play.
Applying rusty stethoscope is much less effective.
Stethoscopes don't work on undead or nonliving monsters.
Rusty tin openers can break.
Applying a cursed horn of plenty causes hunger.
Using a cursed unlocking tool has a chance to break (Evil)
Credit cards may slip through a lock when cursed or hero is fumbling (xnh).
Reduce crystal ball paralysis if player has free action (Dyna)
saddles are now twice as common (FIQ)
Switch probabilities of bags of holding vs oilskin sacks so BoH are more rare.
Make beartraps stackable (xnh).

Safer bags of holding:

The following safeguards were added to protect players from exploding bags:

Players cannot put known wands of cancellation or magical bags into identified bags of holding. Keep in mind, unknown wands and bags are still dangerous and should be handled with care until formally identified (dnh)
Players are prevented from tipping known explosive items into identified bags of holding
Empty wands of cancellation may still be placed inside bags of holding (no risk of blowing up)

DISCLAIMER: Bag of holding explosions are not prevented when confused or hallucinating!

Another subtle but helpful change: bags are not susceptible to burning up when lava walking. In Vanilla this was never the case, but in some variants bags can sometimes burn up unless foo-proofed.

Magic markers

Appear randomly much less often (1/5'th of the frequency in Vanilla)
They can still be created from polypiling
There is a 1 in 4 chance of a magic marker being the Sokoban prize.
Guaranteed magic marker in Moloch's Sanctum (Evil).
Added magic markers to soko1-7 and soko1-8.
The head of the Lethe Branch has a 50% chance of having a magic marker in a chest (the other times it has a magic lamp)
Any role that could start with a magic marker always starts with one.

Unicorn horns

Unicorn horns are now one-handed, dealing d6 vs small/d7 vs large
Cancelled unicorn horns become degraded, unusable for curing. A unihorn only becomes degraded if it's enchantment is +0, otherwise it is drained of 1 enchantment level. However, a degraded horn still has a 1 in 20 chance of success.
Unicorn horn drops decrease as the number of unicorns killed increased.
Since they are much more rare, be more careful when dipping into random potions as potions of acid will dissolve your unihorn!
Unicorn horns cannot be poisoned (via toilet dipping)

Unicorn horns now reduce the timeouts of most afflications instead of outright curing.

For troubles that time out (not illness or vomiting), the unihorn has been nerfed so that it only reduces the timeout.
The amount reduced depends on a few factors:
- the base fix is 1d3 + 1
- your skill in unicorn horn (multiplied by 2)
- the enchantment on your unicorn horn (multiplied by 3)
- if you are a healer or you hit the luck bonus, double the entire above sum
- the luck bonus goes up with your luck. At 0 luck , there is a 4.2% chance, at 11 there is a 20.4% chance.
- Add all of the following for the time out reduction roll (or "tRoll").
- For each afflication, we roll d(tRoll) for the amount reduced.
Regardless of any of the above, there is always a 1 in 20 chance of completely curing a condition.
Applying a unihorn can also exercise your unihorn skill.

Note: The success rate change from SLASH'EM was experimented with, but ultimately discarded in favor of the timeout nerf.

Gems/Stones/Rocks

Reduced weight of flint stones to 2 aum (xnh/Spork)
Reduced base cost of flint stones to 1.
Reduced weight of rocks to 4 aum
Rocks can be broken (a)pplied to produce flint stones (xnh). When the player breaks rocks, they enter into an occupation which continues until the rocks are used up.
Flint stones can be struck (applied) against objects made of iron, producing sparks (fire). This can scare certain monsters away who fear fire. (Spork/THEM)
Boulders deal 1+5d4 damage instead of 1d20.
Cursed gems count as attacks when thrown at unicorns.
Significantly lowered the odds of luckstones generating randomly; increased the odds of other gray stones

NEW ITEMS

Item	Class	Origin	Notes
razor card	weapon	SpliceHack	slightly weaker shuriken for cartomancers
silver short sword	weapon	SLASHEM
rapier	weapon	SLASHEM	light metal saber, erodeproof steel
heavy sword	weapon	NerfHack	base item for Load Brand
scythe	weapon	SpliceHack	strong polearm that can be used in melee
gnomish helm	armor	SlashTHEM	0AC (+1AC for gnomes)
fire helmet	armor	SlashTHEM	fire resistance
oilskin helm	armor	EvilHack	protection from tentacle/wrap attacks
shimmering dragon scales	armor	Deferred	displacement, stun resistance
gnomish suit	armor	SlashTHEM	1AC (+1AC for gnomes)
tower shield	armor	SpliceHack	Heavy, provides 4AC
anti-magic shield	armor	NerfHack	1AC/2MC, provides MR, counters spellcasting
shield of integrity	armor	NerfHack	provides disintegration and withering res
rogue's gloves	armor	SpliceHack	Confers searching, fingerless (!)
bronze gauntlets	armor	NerfHack	copper, 1AC
gauntlets of swimming	armor	SLASHEM	grants swimming
gauntlets of force	armor	NerfHack	stuns monsters, steadfastness
gnomish boots	armor	SlashTHEM	0AC (+1AC for gnomes)
orcish boots	armor	EvilHack	1AC (+ 2AC for orcs)
dwarvish boots	armor	EvilHack	2AC (+1AC for dwarves) - replaces iron boots
stomping boots	armor	SpliceHack	Instakills tiny/small monsters, noisy
ring of withering	ring	NerfHack	causes withering
ring of sleeping	ring	SLASHEM	causes restful sleep
ring of carrying	ring	xNetHack	grants expanded carrying capacity
playing card deck	tool	SpliceHack	can reveal your current luck
deck of fate	tool	SpliceHack	high risk, high reward!
glob of like-like	food	NerfHack
potion of reflection	potion	SpliceHack	conveys temporary reflection
potion of phasing	potion	NerfHack	conveys temporary phasing
potion of blood	potion	SLASHEM	nutrition for vampires
potion of vampire blood	potion	SLASHEM	nutrition/healing for vampires
scroll of cloning	scroll	SpliceHack	clones items or monsters
scroll of knowledge	scroll	SpliceHack	learn about a random magic item
scroll of flood	scroll	Un/xnh	generates water pools
scroll of zapping	scroll	NerfHack	special for cartomancers
spellbook of repair	spellbook	EvilHack	repairs any item erosion
spellbook of fire bolt	spellbook	HackEM	shoots a beam of fire
wand of wonder	wand	SpliceHack	random wand effect
wand of identify	wand	SlashTHEM	identifies items, spawns with 4-8 charges
wand of poison gas	wand	SpliceHack	shoots poison gas
wand of corrosion	wand	SpliceHack	shoots acid rays
wand of draining	wand	SLASHEM	shoots drain life rays
healthstone	gem	SLASHEM	affects regeneration
whetstone	gem	SLASHEM	sharpens edged weapons
foulstone	gem	NerfHack	aggravate monster & misc effects
sling bullet	weapon	EvilHack	1d6 + 1 damage

Potions of reflection are immune to fire and cold damage.
Cursed potions of reflection aggravate monster (similar to cursed potions of invisibility)
Cursed potions of phasing removes any intrinsic phasing and resets your stats (like self polymorph)
Shields of integrity are also immune to erosion.
(!) fingerless gloves do not protect against petrification

playing card deck

When applied, gives you a poker hand which correlates to your luck.
If the deck is blessed (or you are a cartomancer), you get a clear indication of your luck by using the kicker.
If uncursed, you get a rough indication of your luck by the hand strength.
If cursed, the meanings are reversed.
Can be #tipped and emptied for a stack of razor cards

scroll of cloning

Ported from SpliceHack with modifications
This is a $300 scroll that can clone an item in your inventory or clone yourself if read whilst confused.
Attempting to clone unique items or items that are too powerful will result in lesser quality results: magic markers, magic lamps, wands of wishing, scrolls of cloning, artifacts, and any invocation items.
To copy the enchantment on an item, the scroll must be blessed.
If the scroll is cursed, the resulting item will be cursed.
All other properties on the item should be copied exactly as is. This enables fun tricks like cloning a +13 fixed crysknife, or that blessed figurine of an Archon you've been holding onto.
When confused, the scroll clones the player. The resulting clone will have no inventory. A blessed scroll creates a tame clone, an uncursed scroll makes a peaceful clone, and a cursed scroll makes a hostile clone. An interesting side-effect of this is that cloning yourself reduces your current HP by half.
If confused and the scroll is blessed, you can also clone yourself to create a powerful tame pet if you currently hold a strong polyform (ie: master mind flayer, purple worm, etc)

Here are the updated features from SpliceHack:

Unpaid items cloned in shops now become the property of the shopkeeper. Additionally, more item properties are carried over during cloning, including erosion-proofing, container status, and other miscellaneous attributes to ensure that items are genuinely cloned.

Intelligent monsters can also use these scrolls to clone themselves, which helps balance the scroll's power, as many will be consumed by monsters. When monsters read the scrolls, they always read-as-confused, meaning they can only clone themselves. Whilst this approach might seem odd, it simplifies the system by avoiding the complexities of allowing monsters to clone items.

Unique monsters can use these scrolls as well, but the Wizard of Yendor must still follow the Double Trouble routine, ensuring that no more than two Rodneys can oppose you at any time. However, other unique monsters have the potential to clone themselves more than once if the opportunity arises.

deck of fate

This tarot-based deck is very powerful and was ported from SpliceHack with some major changes. In Splice, you would be prompted for how many cards to draw. This has been changed to be a mandatory draw of 5 cards, eliminating the prompt. After using the deck, it is always destroyed, allowing only one use. Because it is capable of granting wishes, the deck of fate cannot be wished for, cloned, or created from polypiling.

There are 22 different cards in the deck, each having a potentially good or bad effect. About half the cards are "good" and half "bad". There is a nudge factor that occurs if the deck is cursed or blessed.

If cursed, the drawn card value will be lowered by one notch. This means The World is impossible to draw with a cursed deck since it's the highest numbered card at 22. It also doubles the chance of drawing The Tower since that card is number 1.

If blessed, the drawn card value is raised by one notch. This effectively doubles your chances of drawing The World and prevents The Tower from being drawn.

Before you start drawing cards, your current alignment is set to -1. Be wary of any artifacts you may wish for because the artifact blast is guaranteed - both because your alignment is negative and because the odds artifact blasts were set to always occur if possible. Artifact blasts have also been increased, making early arti-wishes much more dangerous.

Unlike the playing card deck, this cannot be #tipped for razor cards, making it easy to identify.

Card	Effects
The Tower	Explosions of fire and magic blast you for 1d30 each and you are cancelled.
The Wheel of Fortune	Draw two more cards.
The Devil	If your luck is 0 or less a demon lord is summoned, otherwise a random demon appears; cease drawing from the deck.
The Fool	INT and WIS are each drained by 1-3 points. Grants aggravate monster for 1500-2245 turns.
Death	You are subjected to the touch of death; you cease drawing from the deck.
Judgment	You are punished.
The Emperor	Two intrinsics are drained or outright stolen (like the gremlin attack).
The Hermit	You gain invisibility and teleportitis for 1000-1499 turns.
The Hanged Man	A rope golem is summoned and you lose 1 Luck.
Justice	With -13 or less alignment abuse or non-positive luck, you are paralyzed for 20-49 turns and stop drawing cards. Otherwise you are unpunished. You may also receive divine protection if you have retained your original alignment.
Temperance	Two worn pieces of armor are destroyed; the deck becomes cursed for the rest of the draws.
The Lovers	Two peaceful foocubi are summoned.
The Magician	If the Wizard of Yendor has been killed he is resurrected, otherwise your max energy is increased by 10-29 points.
Strength	Your strength is increased.
The High Priestess	Your charisma is increased by 1 point and you gain intrinsic ESP for 1250-1999 turns
The Hierophant	Creates an altar where you are standing if the terrain is valid.
The Empress	Creates a throne where you are standing if the terrain is valid. Summons an Elvenqueen if you have bad Luck.
The Chariot	Uncontrolled teleport on the current level.
The Sun	No effect if you have changed alignments, otherwise you are granted some divine protection.
The Moon	You gain 7 luck.
The World	Your entire inventory is identified.
The Star	You are granted a wish; cease drawing from the deck.

healthstone

Ported from SLASH'EM with updates
A blessed healthstone now increases your regeneration rate by 10%.
An uncursed healthston increases regeneration by 5%.
A cursed healthstone decreases regeneration by 10%.
Stackable.
Monsters carrying noncursed healthstones also gain regeneration.

whetstone

Ported from SLASH'EM with updates from HackEM.
Whetstones no longer can add positive enchantment to a weapon, they can only repair it to +0.
Cursed whetstones either rust or corrode items now.
Blessed whetstones can uncurse a cursed weapon, but lose their blessed state in the process.
Most of the other small quality-of-life improvements from HackEM remain.

foulstone

Effects of carrying a foulstone:

Causes aggravate monster (but without increasing the difficulty of spawned monsters)
Monsters cannot digest you and you cannot digest monsters carrying one.
Shopkeepers will not let you into their shops and won't buy it.
If blessed, has a 1 in 100 chance each turn of emitting a stench that scares monsters for a short while (similar to garlic breath)
If cursed, has a 1 in 100 chance each turn of emitting a poisonous cloud on your square.
The effects can stack, so carrying multiple foulstones increases the frequency of the cursed or blessed effects.

Other effects:

Monsters will never eat this rock and it's inedible if you are polyd into a monster that could eat it.
Pets will try not to step on one (treated as a cursed item).
If rubbed on another rock, emits a poisonous cloud.
Foulstones always generate cursed.
Cursed foulstones cannot be dropped (like loadstones).

ARTIFACT CHANGES

General artifact changes

Artifact weapons can now be dual-wielded (SLASHEM)
Intrinsics are granted for both weapons accordingly.
Lawful and chaotic weapons cannot be two-weaponed (Evil)
Quest artifacts cannot be left in bones, they revert to ordinary objects.
Artifacts always blast you if they have the chance (instead of passing a 1 in 4 roll)
Artifacts blasts inflict much more damage (SLASHEM)
Cartomancers take doubled artifact blast damage.

Specific artifact changes

The Tsurugi of Muramasa has a 10% chance of bisection (SLASHEM)
The Tsurugi of Muramasa also confers very fast speed when wielded (Fourk)
Magicbane is a quarterstaff (FIQ)
Creating Excalibur will fix any negative enchantment on it (xnh)
Fire Brand instakills highly flammable monsters and green slimes (xnh)
Fire Brand cures sliming whenever you attack with it
Fire Brand is now a short sword (Evil)
Frost Brand instakills water elementals
Frost Brand is now a short sword (Evil)
Vorpal Blade gets a 10% chance of beheading (SLASHEM)
Vorpal Blade grants see invisible whilst wielded
Vorpal Blade provides warning vs jabberwocks (Evil)
The Heart of Ahriman grants slotless flying and displacement instead of stealth (FIQ)
The Heart of Ahriman can be invoked for a blessed remove curse effect (Fourk)
The Orb of Detection grants clairvoyance whilst carried.
Trollsbane grants regeneration whilst wielded (many variants)
The Eyes of the Overworld protect against more gaze attacks (Evil)
Prevent Cleaver from cleaving peaceful bystanders (xnh)
Giantslayer is now a spear (Evil)
Giantslayer conveys 18/* strength whilst wielded (Dyna)
Grayswandir only deals bonus damage versus cross-aligned monsters.
Ogresmasher can also hurtle light-weight monsters (Evil)
Werebane provides protection from shapechangers when wielded
The Sceptre of Might grants steadfastness when wielded
The Sceptre of Might gets a bonus on all monsters (this is to compensate for the difficulty in enchanting it due to its magic resistance)
The Longbow of Diana confers half physical damage when wielded
Increased Mjollnir's wakeup radius when it strikes monsters with lightning
Mjollnir can be invoked for a lightning bolt (xnh)
Sting actually cuts through webs when exiting a web
Snickersnee grants stun resistance when wielded (Evil)
Withering can be cured by the Staff of Aesculapius (xnh/Evil)
Grimtooth can inflict disease on its victims (Evil)

Bane changes:

All banes provide warning vs their bane monster type when wielded (Evil)
All banes glow red in response to their monster types (Evil)
All banes can instakill their associated monster types with a 1 in 5 chance (Un)
Sunsword and Disrupter don't get instakills
Banes can't instakill unique monsters

NEW ARTIFACTS

Name	Align	Type	From
Carnwennan	lawful	knife	SpliceHack
Pridwen	lawful	large shield	SpliceHack
Quick Blade	lawful	silver short sword	SLASHEM
Serenity	lawful	silver spear	NerfHack
Blackshroud	chaotic	cloak of invisibility	SlashTHEM
David's Sling	neutral	sling	slashthem
Deluder	neutral	cloak of displacement	SLASHEM
Disrupter	neutral	mace	SLASHEM
Skullcrusher	lawful	aklys	SLASHEM
Mirrorbright	neutral	shield of reflection	SLASHEM
Thunderfists	neutral	gauntlets of force	NerfHack
Mouser's Scalpel	neutral	rapier	slashem-up
Snakeskin	Neutral	robe	SlashTHEM
The End	neutral	scythe	SpliceHack
Whisperfeet	neutral	speed boots	SLASHEM
Amulet of Storms	chaotic	amulet of flying	xnh
Doomblade	chaotic	short sword	SLASHEM
Hellfire	chaotic	crossbow	SLASHEM
Mayhem	chaotic	stomping boots	NerfHack
Plague	chaotic	bow	SLASHEM
Poseidon's trident	chaotic	trident	SpliceHack
Serpent's Tongue	chaotic	dagger	SLASHEM
Load Brand	unaligned	heavy sword	NerfHack
Origin	unaligned	quarterstaff	SpliceHack
The Lenses of Truth	unaligned	lenses	NerfHack
Holographic Void Lily	chaotic	credit card/banned card	SpliceHack

Misc changes:

Plague was changed from an orcish bow to a standard bow.
Quick Blade is a silver short sword instead of an elvish short sword
Blackshroud was a neutral cloak in SlashTHEM - it was changed to chaotic.
Skullcrusher was a club in SLASH'EM, but it has been changed to an aklys.
Wielding Origin protects from amnesia.
Snakeskin provided a point of protection in SlashTHEM but that was removed and provides MC2 as a robe.

Load Brand

This heavy sword was forged from load stones and weighs in at a hefty 500aum!
Deals 3d10 vs small monsters and 3d16 vs large monsters
Double damage
It also confers half physical damage, steadfastness, and MC1 protection.
As a bonus, it also absorbs curses like Magicbane

The Lenses of Truth

Confers see invisible and stun resistance when worn.

Serenity

This silver spear has some nice benefits when wielded:
+d10 damage
counters 80% of monster spells whilst wielded
whenever it successfully counters, it adds a2d6 penalty delay to the casters "mspec_used", making the caster require more time to recover
blocks you from casting spells when wielded
blocks aggravate monster and conflict
blocks barbarian blood rage from activating if wielded
prevents monsters from berserking

Thunderfists

gauntlets of force
Grants shock resistance when worn
Deals shock damage when used bare-handed
When monks don these, they occasionally release a chain lightning blast
Grants MC1

NEW MONSTERS

The following summarizes the new monsters, advanced info can be found in the monster pokedex in NerfHack or on the NetHack Wiki.

Monster	Sym	Origin
giant fly	a	SpliceHack
giant cockroach	a	EvilHack
giant praying mantis	a	SpliceHack
bullet ant	a	SpliceHack
locust	a	EvilHack
queen ant	a	EvilHack
assassin bug	a	SLASH'EM
migo drone	a	SLASH'EM
migo warrior	a	SLASH'EM
migo queen	a	SLASH'EM
jiggling blob	b	SLASH'EM
lava blob	b	SLASH'EM
static blob	b	SLASH'EM
burbling blob	b	SLASH'EM
basilisk	c	EvilHack
barghest	d	SpliceHack
Cerberus	d	Evil/xnh
glowing eye	e	SLASH'EM
stinking sphere	e	Fourk
acid sphere	e	Splice/Evil
third eye	e	SLASHEM/YANI
blinking eye	e	SLASH'EM
kamadan	f	SLASH'EM
weretiger	f/@	SLASH'EM
deep one	h	SLASH'EM
deeper one	h	SLASH'EM
deepest one	h	SLASH'EM
alhoon	h	EvilHack
dretch	i	SLASH'EM
rutterkin	i	SLASH'EM
blood imp	i	SLASH'EM
nupperibo	i	SLASH'EM
redcap	i	SpliceHack
clear jelly	j	SLASH'EM
yellow jelly	j	SLASH'EM
orange jelly	j	SLASH'EM
rancid jelly	j	SLASH'EM
killer mimic	m	SpliceHack
pixie	n	SLASH'EM
spiked orc	o	NerfHack
diamond piercer	p	SpliceHack
god piercer	p	SpliceHack
landshark	q	SpliceHack
pack rat	r	SLASH'EM
hedgehog	r	SpliceHack
rabbit	r	SLASH'EM
nickelpede	s	SLASH'EM
recluse spider	s	SLASH'EM
phase spider	s	SLASHEM
werespider	s	SLASH'EM
monstrous spider	s	SpliceHack
giant centipede	s	EvilHack
maggot	w	SLASHEM/Splice
acid worm	w	SLASH'EM
bloodworm	w	SLASH'EM
tunnel worm	w	SLASH'EM
rot worm	w	SLASH'EM
spark bug	x	SLASH'EM
arc bug	x	SLASH'EM
lightning bug	x	SLASH'EM
will-o'-the-wisp	y	SpliceHack
koala	z	SLASH'EM
compsognathus	z	NerfHack
velociraptor	z	SpliceHack
t-rex	z	SpliceHack
zoo bat	B	SpliceHack
athol	B	SLASH'EM
phoenix	B	SpliceHack
byahkee	B	SLASH'EM
nightgaunt	B	SLASH'EM
fell beast	D	EvilHack
baby shimmering dragon	D	Deferred
shimmering dragon	D	Deferred
volatile mushroom	F	SpliceHack
gray fungus	F	Evil/THEM
gnoll	G	SLASH'EM
arch-vile	L	NerfHack
adherer	M	SpliceHack
troll mummy	M	SLASH'EM
ha-naga	N	SpliceHack
ogre mage	O	SLASH'EM
shadow ogre	O	SLASH'EM
like-like	P	NerfHack
shoggoth	P	SLASH'EM
orb weaver	Q	NerfHack
alchemist	Q	SpliceHack
cerastes	S	SpliceHack
asphynx	S	SLASH'EM
weresnake	S	SLASH'EM
giant anaconda	S	EvilHack
grave troll	T	SpliceHack
vampire mage	V	SLASH'EM
ghoul mage	Z	SLASH'EM
revenant	Z	EvilHack
gug	Z	SLASH'EM
ghoul queen	Z	SLASH'EM
elven cleric	@	EvilHack
familiar	@	NerfHack
Wintercloak	D	NerfHack
shadow	X	SLASH'EM
lava demon	&	Convict Patch
spined devil	&	SLASH'EM
Buer	&	SpliceHack
Kostchtchie	&	SpliceHack
Baphomet	&	SpliceHack
Lolth	&	EvilHack
Malchanthet	&	SpliceHack
Mephistopholes	&	SpliceHack
merfolk	;	Splice/THEM
thing from below	;	SpliceHack
cartomancer	@	SpliceHack
King of Games	@	SpliceHack
Del Zethire	@	SpliceHack
duelist	@	SpliceHack

New monster notes

adherer AC was buffed from it's original AC in SpliceHack
alhoons were covetous in EvilHack, now they move normally but faster
alhoons can now displace monsters
arch-viles are fast and lethal L class monsters that can cast fire pillar from a distance and revive monsters
assassin bugs are stronger than SLASHEM
athols have increased size, weight, and nutrition
athols are now strong, berserk, flank, and have infravision
byahkees were recolored to yellow
cerastes buffs: 2 poison bites, poison res, higher difficulty.
rats are the same as Vanilla's rabid rats. They always spawn rabid.
some deepest ones are guaranteed on the plane of water
elven clerics were known as elven wizards in EvilHack
ghoul queens can generate randomly in the dungeon
ghoul mages are now clairvoyance
ghoul queens are now bright magenta
giant praying mantis now ignores all magical scaring
giant praying mantis has a higher level
grave trolls can spawn in graves/graveyards
grave troll corpses cause sickness when eaten.
gugs are now orange
jiggling blobs can jump
kamadan are recolored to light green
kamadan can now jump and have infravision
kamadan get some poisonous snake bites
koalas cannot calm berserking monsters.
rabid koalas are not capable of calming anything
landsharks were recolored to bright blue
like likes can eat organic shields and cloaks when engulfing you (note: dragonhide scales are not edible for them)
merfolk were recolored to bright green
merfolk no longer steal items, they get more attacks and spawn with tridents or spears.
Migos explode into poison gas clouds on death
Migo drones and warriors are slightly lower level than in SLASH'EM.
nightgaunts were recolored to purple
pack rats can generate randomly in the dungeon
phase spiders may appear in small groups
phase spiders can't move diagonally.
revenants can now shoot fireballs (inspired by DOOM 2)
revenants have fire resistance.
shadows can now stalk the player
shadows have some minor buffs: higher level, better AC, stronger attacks, unsolid.
shadows also resist shock.
shadows have the same defense as shades (must be hit with silver or blessed weapons)
shadow ogres spawn invisible and have a drain life attack
spiked orcs cannot wear anything in the armor slot
spined devils now have a passive spike attack
things from below can see invisible
troll mummies get a withering attack
t-rex can berserk and emit a scary roar
velociraptors are stronger than in SpliceHack (roughly the same strength as SLASHEM's kangaroos)
weretigers are recolored to red and can jump
zoo bats now cause confusion when eaten
rot worms are now tiny.
bloodworms get a drain life bit instead of poison bite.
tunnel worms are now huge.
tunnel worms get a armor rending attack and a butt attack.
werespiders can summon giant spiders, phase spiders, and monstrous spiders.
weresnakes can summon snakes, pit vipers, and asphynxes.
Weresnakes are now red
monstrous spiders were buffed from level 8 to 12, difficulty 10 to 15.
monstrous spiders now have berserk, infravision, infravisible, and MR 20.

Passive spiking monsters:

This mechanic was ported over from SpliceHack and applies to hedgehogs and spiked orcs.

Phoenix:

Very strong lawful monster that explodes on death
When it dies it leaves behind a phoenix egg, which will hatch when exposed to fire or lava
It will also hatch when attempts are made to eat it, bury it, or put it in a container
When zapped with polymorph, a phoenix will self-explode in resistance to the change
To prevent a phoenix from exploding or leaving an egg, you must cancel it or stone it
To prevent a phoenix egg from hatching, you can also cancel it
Lowered their MC protection from 40 to 20

Orb Weaver:

A brand new monster debuting in NerfHack
This pesky spellcaster will relentlessly summon spheres of all types
They will actively avoid the player and use the spheres as their offense.
Although they can cast clerical spells, they only can cast summon orbs, healing, and protection.
Currently, uses the transmuter's tile from SpliceHack.

MONSTER CHANGES

Misc monster changes

all quest guardian colors were changed to cyan
all A monsters are immune to death magic (xnh)
air elementals get shock resistance.
Aleax difficulty raised to 16 (SLASH'EM)
Aleax weapon attacks raised to 2d6 (SporkHack)
baluchitherium is now huge; strengthened claw attack from 5d4 to 5d12; increased difficulty
all bats can see invisible
captains are considered princes (xnh)
captains and watch captains generate with keys (Evil)
centaurs will keep their distance from the player naturally (xnh)
couatls get sleep and shock resistance (Fourk)
couatls get a stunning gaze and can generate invisible
deep ones and deeper ones also have thick skin.
many major demons have been given flight (xnh)
disenchanters can appear in the main dungeon
dragons, nagas, and golems don't balk at approaching as much
dwaves sometimes start with potions of booze (xnh)
all elementals resist sickness
elf-lords get 9AC, elvenkings get 8AC (K-Mod)
erinys can generate up to 13 times (from 3 previously)
ettins count as giants and are vulnerable to sling damage
fell beasts can shriek, inflicting stun damage (xnh/evil)
floating eyes inflict less passive paralysis; wisdom limits duration (Dyna)
fog clouds don't leave traces of steam (always visible as v)
all footrice can fly
foocubi gain a level when draining one from the player (xnh)
gas spores and volatile mushrooms start with exactly 1 HP
all ghost class monsters get acid resistance.
giant mimics get an engulf-digest attack
giant spiders can ensnare monsters in webs (Evil)
gnome lords and kings always get gnomish suits
gnomish wizards always get a gnomish helm
gnomes get candles in the mines twice as often as before
goblins can generate in small groups (Spork)
grave trolls no longer have thick skin (they used to in SpliceHack)
green slimes can hide on the ceiling (xnh)
green slimes are faster (going from 6 to 13 speed), higher difficulty
green slimes have a passive sliming attack (Grunt)
green slimes can appear in the main dungeon
gremlins can steal intrinsics no matter the time of day (FIQ)
peaceful gremlins don't use fountains/pools/etc to split themselves (Fourk)
hezrou and steam vortices don't leave clouds unless they moved so they won't obscure their own visibility with self-generated clouds.
hobbits can get flint with their slings (xnh)
horned devils get a butt attack
ice and bone devils are now lawful (xnh)
ice devils have speed 8 (K-Mod)
ice devils' cold sting and claw attacks have been buffed, they have the power to strip cold resistance from the player or monsters (xnh)
iron golems get a passive disenchant attack (from SLASH'EM steel golems)
jellyfish get a passive paralyzing attack
Keystone Kops cannot be genocided (Un)
Keystone Kops are tougher (K-Mod)
Keystone Kops no longer wander, but instead can flank
lava demons are huge
leprechauns do not stash gold in the ground after stealing it (reverted from 3.7)
lizards appear with slightly less frequency
ki-rin get shock, sleep, cold, and poison resistance (xnh)
long worms have thick skin, 7 speed
long worms get -5AC, a 2d10 bite attack, and accurate behavior
long worm segments have lower chance to be cut
lords and princes never get negative weapons or armor (xnh)
lieutenants are considered lords (xnh)
master liches and arch-liches can see invisible (FIQ)
mastodon is now huge; strengthened butt attacks from 4d8 to 4d16; increased difficulty
mastodon gets a hug attack and can berserk (Evil)
giant mimics, large mimics, and killer mimics are higher level and difficulty
mimics take the form of strange objects much less often
mind flayers are bright magenta
mind flayer attacks can make hero forget skills (Evil)
mind flayer psychic blasts do more damage; if telepathic they can stun the target
minotaurs resist death magic (SLASHEM)
minotaurs have a thick hide, have flanking, and berserk
minotaurs carry wands of digging less often
all molds can generate in small groups
molds and fungus can grow on corpses (SLASHEM/xnh)
monkeys get a small head start after they steal an item (xnh)
mordor orcs can spawn with orcish boots
mumakil get butts or kicks instead of bites
mummies get a nasty withering attack (xnh/Evil)
all mummies get an additional -1AC to compensate for their ragged wrappings
Nazgul always spawn accompanied by a fell beast (Evil)
Nazgul have increased level, difficulty, AC, attack strength, infravision, and MR (Evil)
Nazgul cannot be genocided (Evil/xnh)
Nazgul get an additional weapon/drain attack, can flank, and resist stoning
nurses won't heal you if you are undead
nurses can also cure rabid status
nurses cannot flank or assist flanking
nurses grant max-hp at a much higher rate, for quicker "nurse dancing"
nymphs giggle after stealing (xnh)
olog hai get poison resistance
all orcs can stalk the player
orc captains now are lords and have speed 9 (xnh)
orc shamans and kobold shamans are skittish (FIQ)
paper golems leave special cards for cartomancers
pit fiends have speed 8 (K-Mod)
priests of Moloch are always generated hostile (SLASHEM)
purple worms have thick skin
pyrolisks have slightly negative alignment
quasit buffs: faster, stronger attacks, see invisible, can appear in small groups (xnh)
queen bees can displace monsters
quest leaders resist death magic (Evil)
quest nemeses can break boulders after getting frustrated enough.
rock moles can actually eat rocks (xnh)
rock trolls are stoning resistant (xnh)
all spheres (shocking spheres, flaming spheres, etc) cannot be genocided
all spheres explode on death (unless cancelled)
skeleton/shade slow attack is ineffective vs undead
soldiers get half as many C-and-K-rations and cannot load both types of rations (K-Mod)
soldiers and their higher ranks get level, speed, AC, and MR boosts (K-Mod)
soldiers can generate with shuriken
seducing monsters will introduce themselves before stealing items (Splice/xnh)
sewer rats hide under objects (xnh)
scorpions are tiny
shades get 20MR
shapechangers turn back to their base form when killed with 50-75% of their health (SLASH'EM)
shapechangers hold level-appropriate form longer, out-of-depth forms for less time (Fourk)
cancelled shapeshifters cannot change form
shopkeeper base level raised to 24, AC to -6 (SLASH'EM)
shopkeepers get a wand of sleep instead of striking (Evil)
shopkeepers get extra defensive items (SLASHEM)
shopkeepers and priests are colored yellow (xnh)
shopkeepers resist sleep and poison
tame spiders will not spin webs
titans can see invisible (FIQ)
titans resist death magic (SLASHEM)
titans are level 17 (K-Mod)
tigers are orange (Evil)
tigers can also jump
titanothere is now huge; strengthened claw attack from 2d8 to 8d8; increased difficulty
trappers and lurkers above are mindless and speed 6
troll meat provides temporary intrinsic regeneration (xnh)
unique monsters cannot be tamed
violet fungi get a passive hallucination attack
all vortices (v) resist shock damage
vampire mages can see invisible
vampires (any V) are not afraid of cracked or Molochian altars
vampires attack with their bite attacks first
all werefoo in animal form get infravision
wargs have a thick hide
werefoo revert back to their base form when killed (SLASH'EM)
werefoo can occasionally summon rabid breathren
werewolves have a higher level and difficulty, stronger attacks
weretigers have a higher level and difficulty, stronger attacks
wraiths also no longer "stalk" the player and follow them across levels (Dyna)
the wumpus is now unique to the ranger quest and much scarier; it also now appears in a random room in the Ranger's locate level
wumpus is now huge with a thick hide; strengthened bite attack from 3d6 to 6d9; increased difficulty
xans can't fly (dnh)
xorns have flanking
yellow and black light explosions are directionless (xnh)
yellow molds puff out clouds of stunning spores (as a corollary, pets will attack them less often now)

Dangerous piercers

All piercers are mindless and can grow up
Much more AC is required to dodge dropping piercers (previously, -2AC would nullify their drop attacks, now -22AC is required)
Piercing damage scales with their level (monster level * 6) with a minimum of 4d6 being dealt.
Piercers and lurkers/trappers always generate hidden if possible.
Hidden piercers (and other ceiling clingers) can surprise attack you from adjacent squares.

Piercers can actually pierce hard helmets:

Piercers can penetrate even the toughest helmets, but the level of enchantment on your helmet determines its resistance to piercer damage and destruction:

Helmet Resistance:

Only hard and metal helmets are affected, cloth and leather helms are safe from this specific damage.
If a piercer strikes a helmet with a negative enchantment, the helmet is instantly destroyed.
For helmets with positive enchantments, a successful hit reduces the enchantment level by -1. With bad luck, the penalty may range from -1 to -3.

Glass and Crystal Helmets:

Glass helmets (e.g., crystal helms) don’t lose enchantments. Instead, they crack over time, following erosion rules rather than enchantment degradation.

Enchanting Helmets:

Enchanting your helmet can be both protective and risky. A higher enchantment level defends against weaker piercers but may still leave you vulnerable to stronger ones.

Enchantment Levels and Piercer Resistance:

+1 enchantment: Generally protects against rock piercers.
+2 enchantment: Generally protects against iron piercers.
+3 enchantment: Generally protects against glass piercers.
+4 enchantment: Generally protects against diamond piercers.

Special Case – God Piercers:

God piercers deal extremely high damage. Your best defense is achieving an AC of -22 or better, as even the most enchanted helmets provide limited protection against their attacks.

Reviving and Poisonous Zombies

Zombie corpses may auto-revive similar to trolls (Evil/xnh)
Cancelled or beheaded zombies/trolls don't revive (Evil)
Wielding Sunsword prevents zombies corpses from appearing (Evil)
Playing as a priest reduces the chance of zombie revival by 50% (Dyna)
All zombies get an additional poisonous bite attack that can drain constitution.
Sometimes zombies will try to bite the players legs, inflicting wounded legs for a short time.
Zombies are immune to being scared by any source (xnh)

Dragons

Dragons have been overhauled to more closely resemble the versions in SLASH'EM and FIQHack.
An attempt has been made to make each dragon have a special quality or perk.
Part of the challenge in SLASH'EM was that adult dragons (and therefore dragon scales) were more difficult to come by. Baby dragons are plentiful and can potentially be tamed and grown up into adults, but with the large gap in levels the process is long and difficult. It's possible they might not be guaranteed in Ludios or the Castle anymore either, but the increased frequency means they should show up in Gehennom much more often.

Baby dragon changes

Most baby dragons are level 4 and difficulty 6 (SLASHEM)
Their size has been reduced from HUGE to LARGE (eliminates possible knockback on the player)
Reduced their weight from 1500 to 1000.
They can generate randomly in the dungeon with a frequency of 1, but not in Gehennom
Baby dragons get a special 1d6 bite attack instead of a 2d6 physical bite (K-Mod).
For most dragons, their bite matches their adult breath attack (red = fire bite, blue = shock bite, etc).
All baby dragons get an additional 1d6 claw attack
baby dragon alignments match their adult counterparts (Evil)
baby red dragons can berserk
baby blue dragons are slightly faster at speed 12
baby green dragons regenerate, and are slightly higher level and difficulty
baby yellow dragons get a passive acid attack
baby gray dragons flank
baby white dragons are weaker
baby gray dragons get a disenchanting bite
baby black dragons get a drain life attack (and level 7 difficulty)

Adult dragon changes

They get a 3d8 bite and 2d4 claw attacks, and are frequency 2.
Their speed has been increased from 12 to 20, and have a small buff to their claw attacks (FIQ)
all dragons stalk/follow the player (FIQ)
red dragons can berserk
blue dragons are faster (speed 24)
green dragons regenerate and are slightly higher level
orange dragons get an engulf digestion attack
black dragons get a terrifying roar
yellow dragons get a passive acid splash attack
white dragons are weaker than other dragons
gray dragons can flank
shimmering dragons have displacement and resist stunning

Unique monster changes

Croesus can move other monsters out of his way (Evil)
Ixoth can berserk. AC raised from -1 to -4, stronger claw attacks.
Ixoth gets poison resistance (Evil)
Lord Surtur can berserk
Cyclops can berserk
The Master Assassin is poison resistant (xnh)
The Master Assassin is stronger, faster, sees invisible, resists sleep, and gets one additional attack.
Yeenoghu's magic missile attack has been buffed to 6d6 (Evil)
Vlad gets stoning resistance.
King Arthur gets a full suite of resistances.
Give Baalzebub some combat buffs (xnh).
Master Kaen and the Grand Master receive the same intrinsics that high level monks have.

Medusa

Inspired by EvilHack, Medusa gets an overall difficulty boost:

She goes from level 20 to 24
She gets -8AC (a big buff from 2AC)
Her weapon attack goes from 2d4 to 4d4
Instead of a single poisonous bite, she gets two poisonous snake bite attacks.
Medusa also gets a stoning bite (Evil).
Medusa gets infravision

Cerberus

Cerberus has been un-deferred and enabled with many tweaks. It acts as the end boss for the Lethe level.
Cerberus inherits many abilities from EvilHack:
- Level raised from 12 to 27
- Speed raised from 10 to 20
- AC raised from 2 to -7
- MR raised from 20 to 90
- Weight and nutrition raised
- Size raised from large to huge
- Added thick skin, berserk, poisonous corpse, see invisible, teleport control, accurate, displaces monsters.
- resists sleep, poison, stoning, draining, and death.
- Waits for the player to approach
And from xNetHack
- Bumped all bites to 5d6
- Added fire bite
- Replaced the breath attack with 2 6d6 claws
NerfHack:
- Added drain life bite

Wizard of Yendor

Rodney is bright magenta (Evil)
Rodney will never steal the quest artifact of the current role (Un)
Rodney gets a strong weapon and the ability to use it (Evil)

The riders

Each rider gets an additional 100 HP (EvilHack)

MONSTER BEHAVIOR

Monster item use

Monsters can use figurines and magic flutes (Evil)
Monsters can use cameras to blind you (Splice)
Monsters can read scrolls of remove curse (Evil)
Monsters can read scrolls of stinking cloud and target the player (Evil)
Monsters can read scrolls of fire and target the player (deferred in vanilla)
Monsters can read scrolls of flood (defensively)
Monsters can throw (lit) potions of oil at you (xnh)
Monsters can throw potions of polymorph (Evil)
Monsters can throw potions of hallucination at you (xnh)
Non-lawful monsters can dip weapons into potions of sickness.
Monsters can zap wands of cancellation at the player (Evil)
Monsters can zap wands of slow monster at the player (Evil)
Monsters can zap wands of wonder at the player
Hostile monsters wielding a digging tool can break boulders (Evil)
Monsters can quaff potions of restore ability to un-cancel themselves (Evil)
Monster will quaff potions of reflection if you have a reflectable attack available.
Vampire monsters can quaff vampire blood to heal (SLASHEM)
When playing as a cartomancer, monsters can use monster summon cards and zappable cards against you.
Some monsters will not throw a weapon that is usable for melee.
Monsters won't try to use wands of digging on hardfloor levels.

Monster accessory use

Adapted from EvilHack with modifications
Monsters can wear most rings and amulets.
Your pets can also wear the same items, but you need to #loot them and manually give them the gear you want them to equip.
The range of usable items has been expanded upon, notably:
- All resistance rings
- rings of teleportation and teleport control
- amulets and boots of flying
- stomping boots
- amulets versus poison
- amulets of ESP
- rings of polymorph (turns any monster into a shapeshifter!)

Misc monster behavior changes

Monsters with a negative AC get damage reduction from melee attacks (Evil)
Monsters will switch to their melee attack intelligently (Spork)
When a monster spawns with a weapon, it wields it immediately (xnh)
Intelligent monsters pick up keys and lock picks (Un)
Magic-liking monsters will pick up magical tools (xnh)
Covetous monsters will equip wearable items that they target (xnh)
Monsters will use ranged combat in melee as a fallback option (Grunt)
Monster stunning now works similarly to player stunning (xnh)
Add more spears in monster starting inventory (Fourk)
Hallucination protects against skeleton bone rattling (xnh)
Headless and breathless monsters don't cough in poison gas clouds
Monster knockback is noisy.
Monsters may be woken up by eating carrots, reading dusty books, or rolling boulders.
Monsters that hatch in water drown unless amphibious or natural swimmers.
Monsters can use breath/spit attacks in melee range (from FIQHack).
Cancelled monsters can't explode (in death or as an attack).
Displacing monsters (like the displacer beast) cannot displace you if helpless or trapped.
Cancelled displacers are incapable of displacement.
Because see invisible cannot be gained intrinsically - peaceful monsters will not make themselves invisible by means of potions, wands, or spells.
Monsters can hide under other dungeon furniture (xnh)

Flanking behavior

Ported from SpliceHack, with enhancements
Monsters with this property have the M2_FLANK tag.
Any two monsters can flank a player (or another monster) if they sandwich the target. However, monsters with this property ("outflankers") are more tactical and will actively seek opportunities to flank you.
Monsters gain a large to-hit bonus when flanking
Flanking now scales with monster level (it used to be a flat +4 AC penalty in SpliceHack):
Monsters that are natural outflankers get a much higher bonus than other monsters.
Flanking has been applied to many monsters in NerfHack.
Using a pet, you can also take advantage of flanking. Simply place yourself and your pet in such a way as to "sandwich" the monster. You (or your pet) will get a flanking bonus on the victim when attacking.

Flanking restrictions:

You cannot flank if hallucinating, afraid, confused, punished, fumbling, wounded, unaware, stunned, or standing on an Elbereth engraving.
You must be able to see the monster you want to flank.
Monsters cannot flank if eating, sleeping, fleeing, confused, stunned, trapped, petrified, sick, diseased, stationary, or hiding.

Certain roles also count as natural flankers and will get higher bonuses than other roles:

Knights
Monks
Rangers
Rogues
Samurai
Valkyries

Berserking behavior

Ported from EvilHack, with modifications
Monsters with this property have the M3_BERSERK tag and can be quite dangerous if you take them for granted
When berserkers are below 50% of their health, they have a high chance to go into berserk mode
Monsters can also immediately go berserk if they are woken and angered
When a monster goes berserk it turns hostile and regains a roll of it's max HP, possibly recovering all of its HP.
Nearby denizens are also woken up when a monster goes berserk (it screams in anger)
When berserking, monsters totally ignore Elbereth or Scare Monster. If they are usually skittish or trying to keep away, they will instead actively approach
Berserking monsters also never flee when their HP gets low
A berserking monster deals double damage rolls when hitting you
Taming berserking monsters only un-berserks them, it doesn't pacify or tame
Monsters that can berserk: all dwarves, mordor orcs, uruk-hai, mumaks, zruty, fire giants, frost giants, storm giants, ettin, all ogres, owlbears, sasquatch, and balrog.
Berserkers get angry when stuck in traps.

Rabid monsters

This is a brand new mechanic, debuting in NerfHack!

There is a fairly small probability of a monster spawning rabid, but bats and coyotes always have a 1 in 10 chance of spawning infected.
Rabid is mostly limited to living mammals. Insects, birds, and lizards cannot contract it.
For special rooms (zoos, throne rooms, etc), rabid monsters are prevented from spawning.

Effects of the rabid status on monsters:

Rabid monsters get an additional bite that can cause the player to become rabid. This bite attack is also poisonous (damaging CON), similar to the rabid rat.
Rabid monsters don't regenerate
They grudge all non-rabid monsters (that are capable of catching rabies).
They occasionally move erratically (from confusion)
They will never flee or become scared and will actively approach.
Rabid monsters cannot quaff potions.
Rabid monsters cannot be tamed.
If a tame pet becomes rabid, it immediately loses its tameness and becomes hostile.
Rabid monsters grant a little extra XP when killed.
Rabid humanoids will growl when #chatted with.

Effect of being rabid on the player:

You cannot regenerate
You become bloodthirsty in your attacks (similar to wielding Stormbringer).
You occasionally move erratically - 1 in 10 moves is confused.
When the player is infected a timer starts from 100 + d(CON*2) turns.
- At 40 turns, you develop a fear of water and cannot quaff potions.
- At 10 turns, you become confused.
- At 0 turns, you die.

Curing rabid:

Generally the same guidelines for illness apply, but there are a couple important differences to know about.
You cannot use a unicorn horn to heal rabid status!
You can drink healing potions (in the early stages)
You can cast cure illness
You can pray (counts as a major trouble)
You can eat a eucalyptus leaf or a clove of garlic
You can eat the corpse of a dog (tinned or otherwise)
You can be healed and cured by a nurse
You can rub a non-cursed foulstone (ie: "madstone"). When the foulstone is used this way, it autocurses and becomes a dangerous item again.
Rabid monsters that poly can stop being rabid if the new form is immune - the same goes for the player.

Diseased monsters

Ported from EvilHack
Monsters can become infected with terminal illness, with a short countdown to death.
Monsters can cure themselves if they have the means, and the player can use cure sickness or eucalyptus leaves to heal sick pets.
Currently, the only weapon that causes disease is Grimtooth.

Accurate behavior

Ported from EvilHack, with modifications
Monsters with this property have the M3_ACCURATE tag
Makes monsters more accurate in melee and with projectiles
These monsters get a large to-hit bonus of +5 or more
Players are the elven starting race or polymorphed into elves also enjoy a to-hit bonus that scales with your level.

Jumping behavior

Ported from EvilHack/SpliceHack
Lets monsters jump at you from a few squares away, quickly bridging the gap between you
They can also cross short barriers like water and lava and even jump over other monsters

Withering attacks

Ported from xNetHack and EvilHack
Withering is a nasty new attack that will give the player the "wither" status temporarily. Whilst withering you will lost 1HP per turn.
If you are already withering and the new wither attack is strong enough, it will also drain some of your maximum HP, making this threat quite insidious.
Withering can be cured by quaffing holy water, praying, or invoking the Staff of Aesculapius.
Any item that grants extrinsic disintegration res also grants withering resistance (black dragon scales, shield of integrity)
When playing as a vampire, you will also enjoy withering resistance by virtue of being undead.
All mummies possess wither attacks.
Powerful clerics can also cast the Blight spell at range which can cause withering.

MONSTER SPELLCASTING

Monsters can target and cast spells at other monsters (EvilHack).
Peaceful monsters won't cast make invisible on themselves. They also won't drink potions of invisibility or zap themselves with wands of make invisible.
Monster spellcasters will prioritize healing when wounded.
Monster spellcasters can cast stone-to-flesh in response to getting stoned (Evil).
Don't let monster cleric stunning reset stun counter to 1 when stunned.

Clerical Spells

protection

Ported from EvilHack
This is the monster version of the protection spell already available to the player.
Provides a temporary magical shield that increases the monster's AC protection.
Can be dissipated with a blast of cancellation.

geyser spell

The core spell is unchanged from Vanilla NetHack, however now the geyser also rusts armor and instakills iron golems (Evil)

hobble

This clerical spell smashes the hero's legs with a magical force and inflicts you with wounded legs for a brief period
Ranged, can be cast at the hero from up to 13 squares away.

blight

Ported from xNetHack
In xnh this spell was reserved for 'dark speech' - a nasty group of curses that Asmodeus and Demogorgon can use. But I thought it would be pretty cool if extracted out and used as a new clerical spell. Not too many monsters use clerical spells, but they tend to be potent. The spell itself is pretty straightforward: it inflicts withering on the player. Since withering can only be cured by a few methods, this could end up quite dangerous if multiple blights are cast.
In xnh, the duration of the withering was 100-140 turns. For the big demons this might fly, but for lesser spellcasters I reduced it to 20-60 turns. In xnh I believe this could only be cast in melee range, but now it can also be cast up to 8 squares away - further increasing its deadliness.
Being polyd into a non-living form protects against the blight spell.

Mage Spells

reflection

Ported from EvilHack
A spell that creates a shimmering globe around the caster, granting them reflection for several turns.
Can be dissipated with a blast of cancellation.

acid blast

Ported from EvilHack
Explodes an acid blast on its target and the surrounding squares. The damage output is dependent on the level of the monster casting it.
The acid from this spell also has a chance of eroding any unprotected weapons or armor in open inventory.
Ranged, can be cast at the hero up to 13 squares away.

ice bolt

Ported from EvilHack
This spell explodes a small ice storm upon its target (and surrounding squares)
Any non-protected objects in open inventory are subject to being frozen.
This is a low-level spell, so access to this spell is given to every monster spellcaster that has access to mage-based spells.
Ranged, can be cast at the hero up to 13 squares away.

fire bolt

Ported from EvilHack
This spell explodes a small fireball upon its target (and surrounding squares)
Any flammable objects in open inventory are subject to being burned.
This is a low-level spell, so access to this spell is given to every monster spellcaster that has access to mage-based spells.
Ranged, can be cast at the hero up to 13 squares away.

destroy armor

Altered from Vanilla NetHack, ported from EvilHack
Having magic resistance is no longer full protection against this spell. Any piece of armor being worn can have its fixed status removed, and then can be deteriorated to the point that it's completely destroyed. Even armor that is normally erodeproof (dragonhide and dragon scales, etc) is affected. Having MR keeps the erosion level at one per cast, otherwise the erosion level is of one to three levels per cast. Blessed pieces of armor have a small chance of resisting. Armor-based quest artifacts are immune to this spell, as is crystal plate mail.

entomb

Ported from xNetHack
Used by a monster when they are low on health or fleeing. It is primarily for escape and when cast surrounds the player with boulders.
Any mage-spellcaster can use it when desperate.
In xnh there was also a chance to create solid walls to block the player in, this effect was removed so it only drops boulders.

call undead

Ported from SLASHEM
Call Undead can only be cast by undead and demon spellcasters
Ranged, can be cast at the hero from up to 13 squares away.

evil eye

Ported from dNetHack
When successfully cast on the hero, this lowers your Luck by 1 point.
Evil eye can only be cast by undead and demon spellcasters.
Because this is implemented as a gaze attack, the player can increase their protection by being invisible or displaced. There is no maximum range to this spell.

cure self

Spellcasters can use this to cure illness, blindness, withering, and rabid statuses.

ROLE CHANGES

ARCHEOLOGIST

An Archeologist wielding a bullwhip will not fall through trap doors (SLASHEM)
Archeologists get bonus when searching (FIQ)
Archeologists start out knowing dwarvish mattocks.
Archeologists always get an extra id when reading scrolls of identify.
Archeologists start with an extra scroll and spellbook (SLASHEM).
Archeologists sometimes crack their whip at animals, scaring them. This usually occurs when hitting a natural 20, but occurs more often the higher whip skill is advanced. This inflicts an extra 1d2 damage.
Archeologists count as primary spellcasters, so they benefit from spell memory bonuses when casting spells.
Archeologists of any race can use dwarvishmattocks.
Allow Archeologists to highly enchant fedoras (xnh)
Add boomerangs, spare tinning kit, grappling hook to Arc home (xnh).

Archeologists vs snakes!

Archeologists get a -1 to-hit penalty when fighting snakes (any S class monsters).
Snakes get a +1 to-hit bonus on archeologists
All snakes have the potential to paralyze archeologists in fear when they successfully connect a hit. Free action only protects the hero 75% of the time vs these paralyzing attacks.
Some giant anacondas have a chance of appearing in the arc quest now.

Skill adjustments for archeologists:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
axe	restricted	->	basic
spear	restricted	->	basic
shield	n/a	->	skilled

BARBARIAN

Barbarians start with a little more food (SLASH'EM).
Barbarians get a blood rage bonus for low health.
- Only occurs when barbarians reach level 4 and higher.
- When under 40% of their max HP, they get a damage bonus that scales with their level.
- When under 25%, this bonus is doubled.
- Each rage attack uses up 1d5 energy, so at least 3 energy is required to trigger a rage attack.
- This feature was adapted from the SpliceHack skill system.
The barbarian quest gets a lot more trees in the beginning (these can be chopped down now)

Skill adjustments for barbarians:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
riding	basic	->	skilled
shield	n/a	->	skilled

CAVEMAN/CAVEWOMAN CHANGES

Cavemen start with a random set of dragon scales.
When reading scrolls of identify, cavemen will never be able to identify all items, they will be instead identify 1 instead.
Cavemen have also been gifted with more skills in rudimentary tools like rocks and flint:
They start the game with more flint and no rocks (xnh)
Cavemen can lash flint to arrows, making them do slightly more damage (Spork/THEM). When arrows are flinted, their enchantment is also revealed.
Cavepersons can get an alignment boost via cannibalism (Spork)
Cavepersons' gods sometimes don't respond to prayer. There is a 10% chance of being ignored (Spork/THEM)

Caveman quest updates:

The cavewoman quest has been updated and filled with more jungle type monsters: tigers, pythons, and the like. There is also a lot of water added and ; monsters to occupy it (from SlashTHEM)
The Chromatic Dragon has some buffs: AC raised from -1 to -4, stronger claw attacks.
The Chromatic Dragon can now berserk.
The narrow passageways in their quest have been opened up for convenience (Evil)
Their quest narration and dialogue is more caveman-like (xnh/Fourk)

Illiterate bonuses:

They can increase their max-HP at each level-up if they remain illiterate (Spork/THEM)
- XP1-3: 2 bonus HP
- XP4-7: 3 bonus HP
- XP8-15: 4 bonus HP
- XP16+: 5 bonus HP
An additional tier of HP gain has been added; after level 16 cavewomen can gain 1d4 max HP for remaining illiterate.

Spellcasting nerfs

They cannot receive spells from their deity (Evil)
They have an 80% chance of failing to read any spellbook
Their special spell has been removed (Evil)

Skill adjustments for cave dwellers:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
dagger	Basic	->	Restricted
knife	Skilled	->	Restricted
morning star	Basic	->	Restricted
polearms	Skilled	->	Restricted
attack spells	Basic	->	Restricted
matter spells	Skilled	->	Restricted
riding	Restricted	->	Basic
shield	n/a	->	Basic

Cave dwellers cannot have skills in edged or pointy weapons unrestricted. Note that they can still receive these weapons as altar gifts. The exception is unicorn horns, which the cave dwellers can reach skilled in.
Cavemen get Skullcrusher as their first sacrifice gift.

HEALER

Added L's Wounds patch: healers can see damage on monsters
Healers start with a +1 scalpel
Healers start with 2 eucalyptus leaves.
Healers get a bonus when applying unicorn horns
Healers can use an uncursed unicorn horn as if it is blessed.
Healers know blood potions (SpliceHack).
Healers start out knowing potions of restore ability, sickness, paralysis, and sleeping (from HackEM).

KNIGHT

Only lawful Knights can dip for Excalibur (Evil/Spork)
Knights start with a +0 studded leather armor instead of a +1 ring mail (K-Mod)
The knight's quest has been infested with a swarm of merfolk

Skill adjustments for knights:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
dagger	Basic	->	Restricted
knife	Basic	->	Restricted
axe	Skilled	->	Restricted
pick-axe	Basic	->	Restricted
broad sword	skilled	->	Expert
club	Basic	->	Restricted
polearms	skilled	->	Expert
spear	skilled	->	Expert
trident	Basic	->	Restricted
shield	n/a	->	Expert

MONK

Monks can start with the spell of sleep (in addition to confuse monster, light, and protection).
Monks start with a potion of reflection.
Monks gain acid resistance at level 19 (from dNetHack).
Dramatically increased the monk's body armor penalty (Evil)
Give explicit feedback for monks and cartomancers wearing/removing body armor
Stop giving "You feel guilty message" eventually after breaking vegetarian conduct enough times (xnh)
Monks get a fully charged magic marker as a crowning gift.
Add trees and two ponds to monk quest start.
Monks starting spell compentency depends on the spellbook.
Martial arts users are immune to leg damage from bad kicks (xnh).
Whilst wearing the gauntlets of force, monks can break boulders and iron bars whilst bare-handed.
Monks that have reached grand master in martial arts and level 21 start getting a 1 in 20 chance for critical hits when fighting bare-handed. On critical hits, you inflict double damage.

Skill adjustments for monks:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
crossbow	basic	->	restricted
quarterstaff	basic	->	expert
enchantment spells	basic	->	skilled
divination spells	basic	->	restricted
escape spells	skilled	->	restricted
matter spells	basic	->	restricted

PRIEST

Priests start with a +2 small shield (SLASHEM)
Priests cannot have edged weapon skills unrestricted (Evil)
Priests don't receive edged/pointy artifact weapons via altar sacrifice (Evil)
Instead of the standard crowning gift, priests always receive Mjollnir (Evil)
Priests reduce the chance of zombie revival by 50% (Dyna); when a zombie is destroyed for good, you get a special message
Priests start with more garlic and wolfsbane (similar to the undead slayer in SLASH'EM)
Vampire priests don't start with any food items. Instead they get potions of blood and a guaranteed spellbook of confusion.

Skill adjustments for priests:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
flail	expert	->	skilled
trident	skilled	->	basic
lance	basic	->	restricted
shuriken	basic	->	restricted
riding	restricted	->	basic
shield	n/a	->	basic

ROGUE

In the Rogue quest, some hidden doors were added to the Master Assassin's lair to make accessing the nemesis a little easier.
Rogues also get a multishot bonus for knives.
Rogues start with a +2 stiletto instead of a short sword
Rogues start with a stack of knives instead of daggers
Rogues start with a leather jacket instead of armor.
Rogues start with scrolls of gold detection and teleport (SLASH'EM).

Return of Backstab Damage:

Rogue's can inflict backstab damage for the first thrown weapon. In 3.4.3 this was a very powerful mechanic that was nerfed in 3.6. We are bringing it back in a limited form as a callback to 3.4.3 but also because it strongly fits the theme of the role.
Rogues get bonus backstab damage when using stilettos in melee

Rogueish counterattacks:

Whilst wielding a knife or dagger, a rogue has a chance of counter-attacking an opponent when hit.
There are many restrictions:
- The incoming attack must be a weapon, bite, claw, or kick attack.
- You cannot be polymorphed
- You cannot be wearing any heavy metallic armor or wielding a bulky shield.
- You cannot be weak (or worse from hunger) and you cannot be encumbered.
- You cannot be fumbling or unaware.
- You must be able to see the monster.
The chance of countering goes up with your skill in the wielded weapon.
Each counterattack uses up 5 energy (at least 5 energy required to execute)

Skill adjustments for rogues:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
broad sword	skilled	->	Restricted
long sword	skilled	->	Restricted
two-handed sword	basic	->	Restricted
club	skilled	->	basic
mace	skilled	->	Restricted
morning star	basic	->	Restricted
polearms	basic	->	Restricted
spear	basic	->	Restricted
crossbow	expert	->	basic
divination	skilled	->	basic
matter spells	skilled	->	Restricted

RANGER

Rangers get extended range for seeing object's dknown appearance (this lets them see potions and gems from much further away)
Rangers get auto-id for launchers when they reach XP level 7
Rangers get auto-id for ammo enchantment when they reach XP level 10 (xnh)
Rangers are not stunned from using portals (they are used to quick travel)
Rangers can chop down the trees in the quest entry level.
The ranger quest levels get a bunch of bear traps.
Rangers start the game with 2 beartraps (xnh).

Skill adjustments for rangers:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
dagger	expert	->	skilled
knife	skilled	->	Restricted
axe	skilled	->	basic
pick-axe	basic	->	Restricted
short sword	skilled	->	Restricted
morning star	skilled	->	Restricted
hammer	skilled	->	Restricted
quarterstaff	skilled	->	Restricted
polearms	skilled	->	restricted
spear	skilled	->	Restricted
trident	skilled	->	Restricted
sling	expert	->	restricted
dart	expert	->	skilled
shuriken	skilled	->	restricted
boomerang	expert	->	restricted
divination	expert	->	basic
shield	n/a	->	skilled

SAMURAI

Samurai start with +3 wakizashi (Dyna)
Samurai get to-hit and damage bonuses for two-weaponing a katana with a wakizashi.
The samurai quest was updated to have more water and monsters (jellyfish, more ninjas, some nagas).
Being satiated abuses wisdom for Samurai.
Samurai are also are immune to leg damage from bad kicks (xnh).

Skill adjustments for samurai:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
spear	skilled	->	expert

TOURIST

Tourists get automatic type identification for shop items (Un). This means that all items for sale are identified for you in shops. You can instantly identify anything by selling it.
Tourists start with more darts (Un)
Tourists gain experience by discovering new special rooms.
Tourists start with a pair of walking shoes.

Skill adjustments for tourists:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
dagger	expert	->	basic
knife	skilled	->	basic
short sword	expert	->	basic
saber	skilled	->	basic
unicorn horn	skilled	->	basic
escape spells	skilled	->	basic
two-weapon combat	skilled	->	basic
base-handed combat	skilled	->	basic
shield	n/a	->	basic

VALKYRIE

More fire traps on valk quest
Valkyries get a winter wolf cub as a starting pet.
They can also pacify and tame winter wolves/cubs via the #chat command.
Since the war hammer is now a two-handed weapon, valkyries will have to decide whether to use Mjollnir or go a different route (two-weaponing other weapons or using a single weapon whilst advancing shield skill)
Valkyries start with 5 daggers (SLASH'EM).

Skill adjustments for valkyries:

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
shield	n/a	->	master

WIZARD

Wizards start with a cloak of protection instead of magic resistance.
Wizards never receive magic missile in their starting inventory.
Wizards are able to sense magic fountains.
The Dark One gets a cloak of magic resistances and staff (xnh.

Skill adjustments for wizards:

Most of the wizard's combat based skills have been restricted and removed (Evil)

skill	NetHack	->	NerfHack
knife	skilled	->	restricted
axe	skilled	->	restricted
short sword	basic	->	restricted
club	skilled	->	restricted
mace	basic	->	restricted
polearms	skilled	->	restricted
spear	basic	->	restricted
trident	basic	->	restricted
shuriken	basic	->	restricted

NEW ROLES

CARTOMANCER

The cartomancer is a unique role ported over from SpliceHack. Cartomancers are spellcasters with a focus on using cards and summoning temporary minions to do their bidding. Many parts of the role are inspired by or pay homage to various trading card games. The cartomancer has undergone some dramatic transformations from its original implementation in Splice, becoming a more focused and surprising role to play.

Starting inventory: * graphic tee * 40 blessed +2 razor cards * ~4 meat sticks * ~4 candy bars * 7 blessed summon raven cards * 1 random rulebook * 4 potions of phasing * sack * a playing card deck or a deck of fate

Intrinsics:

XL	Intrinsic
1	Slow (speed 10)
1	Searching
7	Warning
7	Can ascertain razor card enchantments
15	Fast
15	Can ascertain razor card and all scroll/card BUC

Cartomancers also start with 1 point of bonus Luck.

Skill adjustments for cartomancers:

skill	SpliceHack	->	NerfHack
bare handed combat	skilled	->	basic
boomerang	restricted	->	skilled
sling	skilled	->	skilled
dart	expert	->	skilled
shuriken	expert	->	master
unicorn horn	restricted	->	expert
dagger	expert	->	restricted
knife	skilled	->	restricted
axe	basic	->	restricted
short sword	basic	->	restricted
club	basic	->	restricted
mace	basic	->	restricted
quarterstaff	basic	->	restricted
polearms	basic	->	restricted
spear	basic	->	restricted
trident	basic	->	restricted
attack spell	basic	->	restricted
healing spell	basic	->	restricted
divination spell	expert	->	restricted
enchantment spell	skilled	->	restricted
cleric spell	skilled	->	restricted
escape spell	skilled	->	restricted
matter spell	skilled	->	restricted
riding	expert	->	restricted
wild magic	expert	->	n/a

Quest artifact The Holographic Void Lily is a quest artifact that functions as a chaotic credit card. When carried, it grants energy regeneration, half spell damage and reflection. Additionally, it can be invoked to provide a temporary boost in card drops, during which the Void Lily will shine brightly for 25-50 turns. This invocation effect replaces the original #invoke ability from SpliceHack, where it previously summoned a large group of random monsters.

Cartomancer terminology

Whilst playing as a cartomancer, much of the standard NetHack terminology is revised:

item	renamed as
scrolls	"cards"
spellbooks	"rulebooks"
credit cards	"banned cards"
boomerangs	"bent cards"
expensive cameras	"holographic cards"
hawaiian shirts	"graphic tees"
lock picks	"worthless cards"
scrolls under $100	"common"
scrolls for $100	"uncommon"
scrolls for $200	"rare"
scrolls for $300	"legendary"

Whenever you or a monster reads a scroll, they instead "play" that card.

Cartomancer rarity descriptions

Scrolls are also labeled according to their rarity. In the original SpliceHack implementation, this reflected the price. So a $100 card would be "uncommon", a $200 card would be rare, and so on. With the nerfing of price identification, this system has been revised so that the actual probability of cards is reflected. The following chart describes how this works.

Card	Rarity	Description
cloning	10	legendary
charging	15	legendary
genocide	15	legendary
knowledge	15	legendary
taming	15	legendary
punishment	15	legendary
stinking cloud	15	legendary
earth	18	rare
food detection	25	rare
fire	30	rare
gold detection	33	rare
amnesia	35	rare
flood	35	rare
scare monster	35	rare
magic mapping	45	uncommon
destroy armor	45	uncommon
create monster	45	uncommon
confuse monster	53	uncommon
teleportation	55	uncommon
enchant armor	63	common
remove curse	65	common
enchant weapon	80	common
light	90	common
identify	180	common

Card abuse penalties

Cartomancers receive severe alignment penalties for forging or defacing cards.
- writing cards: -20 alignment, -5 luck
- cloning cards: -20 alignment, -5 luck
- polymorphing cards: -10 alignment, -2 luck

Play mechanics

Cards (scrolls) only weigh 1 for cartomancers.
Rulebooks (spellbooks) only weigh 5 for cartomancers.
The camera is played as a holographic card for cartomancers, doesn't break when thrown.
When applying a deck of cards, cartomancers will always be able to use them as if they were blessed.
- For playing card decks, this enables you to easily evaluate your current luck.
- For decks of fate, you will have a bonus toward a better result.
Cartomancers don't break illiterate conduct when playing cards.

No perma-pets

Cartomancers do not receive a starting pet and are unable to tame monsters in the usual way. When food is thrown at domestic animals, it only pacifies them rather than taming them. Any figurines that generate are automatically converted into summon cards, and the rulebook of create familiar also produces summon cards instead of familiars. All standard methods of creating permanent pets have been nullified for Cartomancers. On the Astral Plane, they receive an archon card in place of a guardian angel. When reading a confused scroll of cloning, they will simply receive a summon card instead of a possible tame pet.

Melee combat nerfs

Cartomancers are not great melee fighters - they prefer ranged weapons or fighting behind their summoned help. They have some severe penalties for melee combat.
There is a flat -5 to-hit penalty for all melee combat.
If wearing armor, they receive an additional -20 to-hit penalty
If wearing a shield, they receive an additional -10 to-hit penalty
If attacking with a wielded weapon, they receive an additional -10 to-hit penalty.
Cartomancers get messages (similar to monks) for cumbersome armor and shields.

Card drops

When playing as a cartomancer, there is a chance that a monster will leave a card instead of a corpse upon death. Initially, this chance is 50%, but as you level up and progress deeper into the dungeon, the chance gradually decreases. When a monster dies and is eligible for a drop, one of three outcomes can occur: a razor card (with any BUC status or enchantment) may be dropped, a zap card may appear, or a summon card might be left behind. Summon drops are the most complex, as they can vary depending on RNG. The drop could be the same card as the monster that was killed, a higher difficulty monster, a random monster, or a sphere. If the monster is low level (below 3), it often doesn't leave any card. However, nasty monsters always drop their own summon cards.

Some monsters are restricted from dropping cards:
- spell beings
- revived monsters (zombies and trolls that have been killed once and come back)
- cancelled monsters
- phoenixes (they always leave an egg)
- cloned monsters (gremlins, blue jellies, etc.)
- Keystone Kops (they can be farmed)
Cartomancers don't get card drops whilst polymorphed.

Spell beings

Spell beings originally came from SLASH'EM. Whenever the flame sphere or freeze sphere spells were cast, they would summon a temporary sphere, which counted as a spell being. These beings are tame and act like pets, but they have a limited lifespan. (In SLASH'EM, there was no lifespan unless you left them on a level, causing them to become untame.) Here, when the cartomancer plays a summon card, it will summon a spell being with a predetermined lifespan that will fight aggressively for you, ignoring any hesitation a regular pet might exhibit and never stopping to eat or hide. If you receive credit for killing a spell being, they only grant 1 XP. Spell beings never leave corpses and spawn with no inventory. Spell-beings also don't count toward vanquished or special logged monsters.

Spell beings have a "sparkling" description in farlook, so you can distinguish them from permanent monsters.

** Lifetime of spell-beings:**

XPLev	Turns
1	19
5	35
10	55
15	75
20	95
25	115
30	135

Summon cards

For cartomancers, cards of create monster are twice as common as for other roles, and when these cards spawn, they are keyed to a specific summon monster card. Cartomancers begin the game with seven summon raven cards and have opportunities to expand their collection as they slay monsters. Whilst low-level monsters rarely drop their own summon cards, there is always a small chance that any death drop will leave a higher-level monster card. As the cartomancer's level increases, so does the strength of these rare drops.

The price of summon cards scales according to the difficulty of the monster they summon. In addition to reading summon cards, cartomancers can also throw them to activate the effect, which allows them to summon monsters at a distance, directly next to a threat.

Monsters can also read summon cards, so it’s important for cartomancers to collect them before they are used against them. Cursed summon cards will always create hostile monsters.

Activating summon cards costs 5 energy per card. If the cartomancer lacks enough energy, the card will have no effect and will not be consumed. Unique monsters can drop summon cards, with a few exceptions, such as the Wizard of Yendor and the Riders, due to their ability to revive. Additionally, cartomancers can receive summon cards by offering corpses. Although these cards do not count as artifact gifts they will still increase the prayer timeout.

Explosive summon cards

Summon "sphere" cards are special because they instantly explode when thrown at a monster. However, if cursed, they will not explode and instead summon a hostile sphere, which includes gas spores and volatile mushrooms. Exploding sphere monster cards are more likely to drop for cartomancers, providing them with useful ranged explosive options.

These monster cards are eligible for this mechanic:

freezing spheres
flaming spheres
acid spheres
shocking spheres
stinking spheres
volatile mushrooms
gas spores

Razor cards

In NerfHack, razor cards have been properly implemented as their own weapon type, using the shuriken skill, unlike in SpliceHack, where they were simply renamed shuriken. Razor cards deal 1d6 damage to both small and large creatures, have a +2 to-hit bonus, and weigh 1. Cartomancers can multishot with shuriken-skill projectiles, such as shuriken and razor cards, and they gain multishot bonuses up to expert skill. However, they do not receive additional multishot bonuses at master skill level, though they still benefit from increased damage and to-hit bonuses.

Razor cards will occasionally appear as part of a cartomancer’s regular death drops, sometimes replacing summon or zap cards. These follow the same rules as stacked weapons, so they may appear in stacks of 6-11 and could be blessed, cursed, unblessed, or possibly even poisoned. The strength damage bonus applies exclusively to thrown razor cards, and no other projectile qualifies for this bonus.

If a player comes across a deck of cards that they have no use for, they can #tip the deck to empty it, yielding a potentially large stack of razor cards.

Zappable cards

Zap cards, which function as one-use wands, can drop when cartomancers kill monsters. These cards have a 0% generation chance for other roles, meaning only cartomancers will encounter them. Cursed zap cards have a chance to backfire like wands, but they cannot explode. Playing zap cards requires 5 energy per card.

Cartomancers will never see wands generate. Anytime a wand would spawn it is instead replaced with its equivalent zap card. It's important to note that monsters can and will use both zap and summon cards against the player, so it's crucial to collect them as soon as they drop.

Spellcasting overhaul

Cartomancers do not learn spells in the traditional way, meaning they cannot acquire spells from starting books, reading spellbooks, or receiving gifts from gods. Instead, they cast spells instantaneously by reading rulebooks. These rulebooks generate with 4-5 charges, and each reading consumes one charge. Once all charges are used, the rulebook is consumed and disappears.

Cartomancers begin the game knowing the identities of all rulebooks, as the title and purpose of a rulebook are typically clear from the cover. They always cast spells at expert level, ensuring high proficiency. Whilst rulebooks can still be written using magic markers without penalties (unlike when forging cards), they cannot be recharged with scrolls of charging. Additionally, cartomancers are able to read rulebooks even when blind.

Card combos:

The 'Z' spellcasting command is instead is used for card combos that the cartomancer gets access to as they level up.
Card combos do not become available until level 5. You gain the ability to cast more cards as you level up:
- level 5: 3 cards
- level 10: 4 cards
- level 15+: 5 cards
Starting the combo costs 5 energy. Further cards cost 5 energy per card to play as normal.

Cartomancers get special bonuses for wielding crystal balls: Whilst wielding a crystal ball, a cartomancer will enjoy: * max charisma * telepathy * see invisible * astral vision

Changes to the cartomancer quest:

Created a unique duelist monster to take the place of students in the cartomancer quest.
The cartomancer quest levels have received some updates and detailing.
Buffed the King of Games and Dal Zethire.

Cartomancer gets adjusted different item generation odds. To make up for less corpse drops, they get more food. They also get much fewer wands because they get zap cards.

PLAYER RACE CHANGES

Removed infravision from dwarves, elves, gnomes, and orcs.
Added infravision to vampires
Elves can always squeeze between two trees (xnh)
Elves get see invisible at level 8
Elves can always reach Basic in enchantment spells (xnh)
Dwarves can always reach Skilled in pick-axe (xnh)
Gnomes are good at slipping free from grabbing attacks
Gnomes start with a nightvision radius of 2 (dnh)
Gnomes start with an interesting tool
Gnomes get stealth at level 5 (SLASHEM)
Gnomes get a damage bonus for shooting crossbows
Gnomes can always reach Skilled in crossbow
Gnomes can always reach Basic in club (xnh)
Orcs start with sickness potion (Spork)
Orcs get an alignment boost for cannibalism (dnh)
Orcs can always reach Skilled in saber (xnh)
Orcs and vampires cannot make use of Elbereth; it fades as soon as it's engraved.
Vampires and orcs cannot successfully engrave Elbereth.

New race/role combos.

Elven archeologist
Orcish archeologist
Elvish healer
Dwarven knight
Dwarven priest
Orcish priest
Elvish rogue
Gnomish rogue
Elvish tourist
Gnomish tourist
Dwarven barbarian

Racial item preferences

Monsters of certain races will usually prefer their own equipment and find other racial equipment awkward or uncomfortable to use.
- Elves hate dwarvish, gnomish, and orcish objects
- Orcs hate dwarvish, gnomish, and elven objects
- Dwarves hate orcish, gnomish, and elven objects
- Gnomes hate dwarvish, orcish, and elven objects
- Humans/vampires hate gnomish objects (too small) - but otherwise they can use all other racial equipment

The effects of wearing armor or wielding weapons you hate:

+2AC penalty for each piece
-d5 to-hit penalty for each piece
To make the mechanic obvious, you receive an explicit message when wearing or wielding any hated object.
You'll also receive periodic messages when fighting to remind you your to-hit is suffering.
When throwing items your race dislikes, they have a 1 in 7 chance of slipping - same as a cursed or greased projectile.

This mechanic also applies to monsters, but they will also simply avoid using items they don't like.

New races

Vampires

Vampires have a rich history in NetHack, first appearing in SLASH'EM and later in UnNetHack, dNetHack, SpliceHack, and Hack'EM, with each implementation being slightly different. In this version, the aim was to combine the best aspects of each to create a fun yet balanced vampire race. Vampires start strong, avoiding issues like poison or GWAWOD deaths, and they can fly over many floor traps, such as sleeping gas. What you will have to worry about is your new worst enemies: silver and hunger:

You'll also have to move quickly and attack aggressively to keep draining blood for nutrition. The corpse draining mechanic from SLASH'EM has been removed. It created quite a few bugs in the nutrition code, it resulted in tedious draining of corpses (which often are wasted anyway), and a better alternative was found in SpliceHack, which was simply doubling the nutrition from feeding on life blood during combat. Vampires can also "tin" blood from corpses that are both fresh and big enough to fill a potion with blood. The main drawback to this approach is that now vampirics cannot gain intrinsics or benefits from eating corpses. To compensate, you start off with the many intrinsics a regular vampire enjoys.

Instead of the usual starting pet, vampires begin with a tame and loyal familiar. This is a humanoid (@) capable of wearing armor and wielding weapons. Vampires are now restricted from taming or pacifying any monsters except for familiars which they can tame via #chat.

Vampires resistances and abilities

XL	Intrinsic
1	Regeneration
1	Breathless
1	Flying
1	Poison resistance
1	Drain resistance
1	Immune to death magic
9	Sleep resistance

(Vampires are also immune to lycanthropy, withering, and rabid statuses.)

To avoid "stupid deaths," bite attacks are prevented when fighting monsters like cockatrices, Medusa, or green slimes (even when you are merely polymorphed in a vampire and not the starting race). However, stunned, confused, or hallucinating vampires will bite anything so keep your guard up when impaired (Spork/UnNetHackPlus).

Although vampires have drain level resistance, they remain vulnerable to life-draining bite attacks from other vampires. Intrinsic drain resistance does not protect against these attacks, but an extrinsic source, such as the Stormbringer, will. Vampires also feed more efficiently when their victims are confused, incapacitated, or trapped, a feature adapted from Hack'EM.

In terms of food, most rations and fruit juice potions are replaced with blood potions when playing as a vampire. This avoids creating junk items and helps the player survive longer. Some vampires receive an opera cloak, though it is rarer than in SLASH'EM, and wearing an opera cloak grants a charisma bonus, as in UnNetHack. Potions of blood and vampire blood offer vampires a drinkable food source, but shopkeepers charge more for blood when vampires are hungry.

Like the other vampires players will encounter in the dungeon, player vampires can no longer shapeshift using the #monster command. However, they now start the game with infravision and stand alone as the sole beneficary of that intrinsic in NerfHack.

Vampires can use any racial items, except for gnomish items, which are too small for them. Additionally, they can use tinning kits to bottle blood from corpses, similar to the mechanic in SlashTHEM, but these tins provide only generic blood and do not grant any intrinsics. Vampires are inherently evil, a trait borrowed from EvilHack, and they face minimal alignment penalties for acts of cruelty, such as attacking peaceful monsters. On the Astral Plane, vampires "desire conflict," even without conflict.

Silver weapons also generate more frequently when playing as a vampire. After difficulty level 8 kicks in, 10% of all eligible weapons will be converted to silver. Vampires can handle silver items, but if they come into direct contact (ie: wielding a silver saber without gloves), they will take some damage and be unable to regenerate further HP. Fingerless gloves also don't protect V from silver weapons or shields. Vampires also cannot use the #turn undead command.

SPELLCASTING CHANGES

Most of these changes are to strengthen natural spellcasters abilities and to dull roles that don't specialize (like fighters). Non-specialists can still attempt to utilize spells but they will have to work harder to maintain their spells. Cavemen will have a very difficult time with spellcasting.

Spell memory

The base memory retention ("KEEN") for spells is now 20000 turns for primary spellcasters and 10000 for all other roles.
When reading or re-reading a spellbook, you will bring the retention back up to your roles KEEN value.
Reading restricted spellbooks only grants half* of your role's KEEN value.
Primary spellcasters (healers, priests, monks, wizards, archeologists) get a memory boost of 500 turns when they cast spells (SLASH'EM).
Non-primary spellcasters get a memory boost of 100-200 turns for casting.
Casting your special spell also grants a retention bonus of 500 turns no matter what role you are

Other spellcasting changes

Wielding a quarterstaff provides a small bonus to spellcasting (about a 1/3rd of the bonus a robe confers) (Fourk)
Hungerless casting ignores too hungry to cast penalty (xnh)
Spellbooks' weight is directly related to their level (xnh)
When casting a SKILLED attack spell, you can choose to cast basic fireball or cone of cold (xnh/dnh)
You get a 100 turn reminder for spells that are close to fading away
Spellcasting no longer exercises wisdom (FIQ)
Total hungerless casting is not possible anymore and the intelligence requirements have been increased. (FIQ)
Healing spell effectiveness is determined by skill (Evil)
Spellbook of sleep was lowered to level 2 (EvilHack)
Cure sickness is now directional (Evil)
Only primary spellcasters can receive divine spellbook gifts
Spellbooks can generate pre-read
Casting the spell of clairvoyance at skilled lets it persist for a while
Display a single accurate spellcasting retention percentage in the spellbook list
Remove the spell of identify outright (xnh)
Increase drain life up to level 3 (xnh)

Spellbook of charm monster

This spell is now a directional level 3 spell and only works on the first monster hit.
At unskilled and basic, the spell can only pacify monsters.
You need to have skilled or expert skill in enchantment spells to tame monsters.

Spellbook of light

Spell of light's diameter of effect scales with spellcasting ability.

restricted: 1
unskilled: 1
basic: 3
skilled: 5
expert: 7

For reference, the uncursed scroll of light always illuminates a radius of 11.

Spellbook of dig

Lowered from a level 5 spell to level 3
The range of the digging beam has been roughly halved.

Spellbook of magic mapping

The effectiveness of magic mapping depends on your spellcasting ability. The spell will never fully map a level, only the scroll can be depended upon for that.
Lowered from a level 5 spell to level 4
Unskilled acts like a confused magic mapping (1 in 7 squares successfully mapped)
Basic maps 1 in 5 squares
Skilled maps 1 in 3 squares
Expert maps all squares

Spellbook of knock

The spell of knock cannot be used to escape from an engulfer (this ability is retained for the wand of opening)
Range is reduced to 1

Spellbook of wizard-lock

Range is reduced to 1

Spellbook of drain life

Now ray-based to match the wand of draining
Be aware that these rays may bounce back from reflecting monster now

Spellbook of food detection

Vampires always detect potions with food detection spells and scrolls.

DUNGEON CHANGES

Extended the main dungeon to accomodate the new Lethe branch
Removed the mysterious force from the game (xnh)
Branchport always brings you to the entry level of a branch
The Rogue level has been disabled (many variants)
Chickatrices and cockatrice eggs will now appear in cockatrice nests (xnh)
Shops cannot have themed rooms with unusual floor textures (xnh)
Random scroll shops cannot be big rooms
Allow delis to buy and sell tin openers.
No special themed rooms generate until level 3
Random rivers were added to many of the quest filler levels
Trees can generate in dungeon rooms (xnh)
Trees can be destroyed by fire, cold, and disintegration rays
If a tree is destroyed by fire or cold, it has a 1 in 3 chance of exploding - possbily creating a chain reaction
Random secret doors are secret less of the time (xnh)
Random secret corridors have been removed (xnh)
Removed the "temple of the gods" theme room. This room contains 3 altars, one of each alignment. It was removed to make the finite altars mechanic more relevant.
There is a guaranteed thing from below guarding Rodney and chance of a vampire mage as well.
Thrones can grant knowledge of magical items.
Throne #sits can summon much larger audiences.
Guaranteed pit trap just outside of wizard's zoo.
Courtrooms generated after level 20 can be filled with vampires (dNetHack).
Gnomish mines fill levels sometimes have varied lighting; rarely they get ice patches.
Fake "Closed for inventory" shop engravings can appear in random places.

New levels

Add original author?

All original Vanilla Sokoban levels have been removed and replaced.

Level	Version	Source
Asmodeus' lair #2	Lethe/lava	SpliceHack
Baalzebub's lair #2	lethe marsh	SpliceHack
Baalzebub's lair #3	variation on #1 with lava	Un/Nerf
Bridge of Khazad-Dum	Directly after the VotD	Un
Orcus Town #2	Lethe river runs through	Lethe patch
Castle #2	Lake surrounds castle	Un/Evil
Castle #3	Lava river	Un/Evil
Demogorgon's lair #1	Enclosed in hell-maze	SLASHEM
Demogorgon's lair #2	Two towers	Lethe patch
Demogorgon's lair #3	Fortress with lethe river	Grunt/Evil
Dispater's lair #1	Enclosed in hell-maze	SLASHEM
Dispater's lair #2	the city of Dis	Lethe patch
Dispater's lair #3	Fortress with lethe river	Grunt
Geryon's lair #1	Enclosed in hell-maze	SLASHEM
Geryon's lair #2	the isle of Erytheia	Grunt
Gulf of N'Kai #1A	Version 1	Lethe patch
Gulf of N'Kai #1B	Version 2	Lethe patch
Gulf of N'Kai #2	Portal to Rodney's tower	Lethe patch
Gulf of N'Kai #3		Lethe patch
Gulf of N'Kai #4	Location of vibrating square	Lethe patch
Mephistopholes' lair	Fortress with lethe river	SpliceHack
Moloch's Sanctum #2	Lava islands	Un/Evil
Moloch's Sanctum #3	Cthulhu's sanctum (deferred)	Lethe Patch
Lethe a #1	river head - gargoyles & trices	Lethe patch
Lethe a #2	river head - Vampires and Byakhee	Lethe patch
Lethe b	lethe entry level	Lethe patch
Lethe c #1	Ogre Stockade	Lethe patch
Lethe c #2	Undead Stockade	Lethe patch
Lethe d #1	The Wizards Manse	Lethe patch
Lethe d #2	The Lichs Manse	Lethe patch
Lethe e	Troll Bridge	Lethe patch
Lethe f	Sylvan Park	Lethe patch
Lethe g	Honycombe Canyon	Lethe patch
Lethe z	The gates of Gehennom.	Lethe patch
The Lost Tomb #1	Some variations on SLASHEM's	SLASH'EM
The Lost Tomb #2	Repurposed Demo's map from xnh	SLASH'EM
Mine end #4	The Gnomish Sewer	xNetHack
Mine end #5	Orc Temple	EvilHack
Mine end #6	Gnome King's Apiary	SlashTHEM
Mine end #7	Boulder Bonanza	SlashTHEM
Minetown #8	Zoo Town	Spork/Evil
Minetown #9	Lavender Town	SpliceHack
Minetown #10	Mini-Castle Town	SlashTHEM
Minetown #11	Creek Town	SlashTHEM
Moloch's Temple #1		SLASHEM
Moloch's Temple #2	New variation on #1	NerfHack
Sokoban 1-1	1-4 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 1-2	1-3 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 1-3	Dragon_of_Bactria	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 1-4	1-7 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 1-5	1-4 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 1-6	1-5 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 1-7	1-3 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 1-8	1-6 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 2-1	2-5 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 2-2	2-7 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 2-3	2-3 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 2-4	2-4 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 2-5	2-6 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 2-6	3-9 from Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 3-1	3-5 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 3-2	3-3 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 3-3	3-4 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 3-4	3-6 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 3-5	3-7 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 3-6		GruntHack
Sokoban 3-7		GruntHack
Sokoban 3-8	2-8 from Fourk
Sokoban 4-1	4-3 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 4-2	4-4 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 4-3	4-5 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 4-4	3-6 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 4-5	3-7 from SLASHEM	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 4-6	3-15 from UnNetHack	UnNetHack
Sokoban 4-7		GruntHack
Sokoban 4-8	3-2 from NetHack Fourk	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 5-1	4-3	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 5-2	4-4	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 5-3	4-5	SLASH'EM
Sokoban 5-4	3-4	UnNetHack
Sokoban 5-5	3-5	UnNetHack
Sokoban 5-6	4-3	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 5-7	4-7	NetHack Fourk
Sokoban 5-8	4-10	NetHack Fourk
Valley of the Dead #2	Lethe river runs through	Un/Lethe
Valley of the Dead #3	Pleasant Valley	Lethe patch
Yeenoghu's lair #1	Enclosed in hell-maze	SLASHEM
Yeenoghu's lair #2	Fortress in marsh	Lethe patch
Yeenoghu's lair #3	Fortress with lethe river	Grunt
Oracle #2		xNetHack
Oracle #3		xNetHack

a99935d6d Add lava to asmode-2; fix drawbridge.

New themed rooms

Ported kitchen themed room from Splice/xnh
Ported most of the new themed rooms from xNetHack
- Four connected rooms
- Barbell-shaped room, horizontal
- Barbell-shaped room, vertical
- Graffiti room
- Boomerang-shaped, rot 1
- Boomerang-shaped, rot 2
- Rectangular walled corridor
- Storeroom vault
- Crossed X of water (now lava)
- Mini maze
- Bunch of closets
- Beehives
- Super Honeycomb
- Swimming pool
- Anti swimming pool
- Thin long horizontal room
- Scummy moldy room
- Ozymandias' Tomb
- Gas spore den
- Four-way circle-and-cross room
- Four 3x3 rooms, directly adjacent
- Prison cell
- Mirrored obstacles
- Triple rhombus
- Spiral
- Abandoned shop
- Irregular anthole
- Water temple
- Tiny cage, big monster
- Room with small pillars
- Dragon hall

New themed rooms introduced in NerfHack:

piercer room

SHOP CHANGES

Shopkeeper's real name may be used in cursing shoplifters message (xnh).
Improved the chances of some of the minetown shops appearing.

Lighting shops:
Magic lamps are one notch rarer - down to 11.3% per game now overall (Spork)

New shop: Junk Shop

Ported from SpliceHack
This counts as a general store that is usually pre-populated with a bunch of junky items.

New shop: Collectible Card Game Company

Brand new debuting in NerfHack!
This shop only spawns for cartomancers and features a large variety of summon cards, with the occasional deck box or backpack.
This will take the place of most food and weapon shops to give the cartomancer more ammo to work with.

Castle changes

The castle level is now marked as a graveyard
Castle barracks may open into courtyard instead of throne room, letting soldiers flood the courtyard more quickly (xnh)
Added iron bars to the castle perimeter
Iron bars have been added to the castle towers (Spork)
The location of the chest containing the wand of wishing has been obfuscated. You will find matching chests and scrolls in each of the towers if you use object detection. The other chests have wands of nothing inside (Spork)
The drawbridge passtune range has been expanded by one square (xnh)
The drawbridge also does not always close with the passtune, one out of five times it will malfunction when trying to close it (xnh)
Castle courtyards are unlit
The castle gets a guaranteed forge.
Added a dragon lair to castle-3.

Valley of the Dead

Players can't regenerate hit points whilst in the Valley of the Dead (Evil)
Instead of dart traps, the player will encounter magic traps (Evil)
Less ghosts spawn to clog up the valley

The Lethe Branch

The Lethe Patch is a classic set of levels and changes; it has been converted from 3.4.3 DES format to 3.7.0 LUA and adapted for NerfHack.
The Lethe can span up to 7 levels, but some levels may or may not appear. The head of the lethe appears as a upward branch from leth-b. Expect to see about 3-4 lethe maps on average in the main dungeon.
Technically, it doesn't count as a real "branch" in NetHack terms. The levels are simply sequenced after Medusa's level. This is different from the implementation in the SLethe patch, but was programmed this way so that most of the other dungeon teleportation and travel mechanics would still function as normal.
Cerberus now guards the entrance to the Valley.
One major change from the original Lethe patch is that the Castle level now appears as the precursor to the lethe branch shortly after Medusa's Island (it does not count as a lethe level). This is to give the player access to the valuable loot in the castle before taking on the challenges of the Lethe, it also is less disruptive to the layout.
The lethe water mechanic was not imported. In its place, many subtle but oppressive effects are present.
All lethe levels are hardfloor and undiggable.
More traps were added to these levels, especially anti-magic fields
Many items that were guaranteed in the original lethe patch (or dnh) were minimized or eliminated.
There are up to four altars available in the Lethe branch. Each altar has a 50% chance of generating pre-cracked.

Lethe effects:

You cannot gain experience.
You don't gain skill points for using skills
Spellcasters don't get a memory boost for casting spells on lethe levels.
There are no extra death drops from monsters.
Cartomancers don't get card drops in Lethe levels.
You cannot read spellbooks to learn spells, you become disoriented during attempts.
You cannot engrave Elbereth, you instead forget how and become confused.
One cannot write spellbooks or scrolls effectively in the lethe levels.
Lethe levels make spellcasting a little more difficult.
Energy regeneration is slower on Lethe levels.
Lethe levels make you burn more nutrition than normal.
Monsters don't generate peaceful in the Lethe branch.

Enhanced Gehennom

The fake wizard levels have been removed.
The wizard's tower levels have been moved out of Gehennom and extracted to their own branch (xnh/Evil)
The portal to the wizard's tower has been moved to a special level in the Gulf of N'Kai near the bottom of Gehennom.
Most demon lairs are now phaseproof
Marked the Asmodeus levels as cold and added cold traps
Juiblex's lair gets some puddles and a shoggoth

Gulf of N'kai

The last four levels of Gehennom have been replaced with the maps.
Lava replaces the lethe water flowing through the levels.
These levels are NOT flagged with the "lethe" flag.
The final N'kai level takes the place of the standard vibrating square level.

Sokoban

Sokoban levels are cold and icy - legend has it a white dragon named Wintercloak took the tower over, leaving a trail of frost in its wake. In addition to the level being colored blue with splashes of icey cyan, you will see random patches of ice form in the level. Because they are cold, if potions land on the floor, they have a chance of freezing and shattering.
Note: A recent change from NetHack 3.7 also makes ice occasionally slide the player in a random direction.
Sokoban now has two additional levels - an entry level with river obstacles (adapted from the town filler level from UnNetHack) and another puzzle level to solve.
Monsters are never generated peaceful in Sokoban (FIQ)
Zombies don't revive in Sokoban and they won't dig out of the ground.
Monsters won't break boulders in Sokoban with pick-axes or mattocks, or spellcasting.
All the vanilla sokoban levels have been replaced with the SLASH'EM puzzles.
The Dragon of Bactria level was added from NetHack Fourk; the green dragon was replaced with a white dragon
All Soko zoos have the white dragon guarding the treasure.
The zoos in Soko have been expanded slightly.
Flavored most Sokoban levels with more iron bars.
Decorated the levels with white dragon statues in honor of the new steward.
In addition to the amulet and bag, the Sokoban prize can also be a cloak of magic resistance or a magic marker.
Sokoban prizes are always erodeproofed.
Stop Sokoban guilt after acquiring the prize.
The iron bars in some of the Soko levels can be phased through, but it now incurs a Luck penalty.
You will now receive a message when incurring a Sokoban Luck penalty.
Sokoban maps above puzzle #2 get 2 mimics.

Fort Ludios

Ported two Fort Ludios variants (Evil/Un)
Some mermaids were added to patrol the moats.

Minetown/Mines End

Ported zoo town and lavender town (Splice)
Ported Creek Town and Mini-Castle town (THEM)
Imported the Gnomish Sewer (xnh)
Imported 3 mines end variants (THEM)

Oracle

The Oracle level now appears from levels 8-11.
Ported Oracle variations 2 and 3 (Splice)
Allow dungeon features to generate in the Oracle level.

Temple to Moloch level

Ported from SLASH'EM
Gargoyles replace the statue gargoyles in the original map
Winged gargoyles replace 4 of the original gargoyles
2 ghoul mages were added

Lost Tomb level

Ported from SLASH'EM - this level now has some additional rooms (and treasures) with randomized passages.
A second variation was created using Demogorgon's Lair from xNetHack. This level had a very mazelike structure that lends itself well to a lost tomb (but with no Demogorgon of course...).
Both lost tomb levels are no-teleport

Big Room

Ported bigroom variants from UnNetHack and SpliceHack.
Imported two bigroom variants from xnh.
An additional big room was added to the latter half of the main dungeon (Splice)

Grass

Ported using code from xNetHack, SpliceHack, and HackEM.
Monsters can hide under grass (xnh).
You cannot dust engrave on grassy tiles.
Burned engravings also burn up grass.
Added grass to big rooms.

Puddles

Ported from EvilHack and SlashTHEM.
Puddles act as a nerf for early water sources by limiting a useful resource for diluting and blanking items.
Many pools are replaced with puddles instead.
Fountains gush out puddles instead of pools
Disarming a rust trap results in a puddle instead of a fountain
Scrolls of flood mostly create puddles instead of pools (unless cursed)
Whetstones can be used in puddles and can dry up puddles.
Tiny monsters can drown in puddles (relevant if polymorphed into one)

Forges

Forges were ported in from EvilHack
Forges let the player repair metallic armor, bless items, dispose of zombies or organic items, dispose of the iron ball and chain, and summon lava demons and fire elementals.
Forging recipes are available in the object lookup
Weapons can be forged by applying a hammer whilst standing on a forge.
Items can pass over forges.
New forging feature: There is a one-time 1 in 30 chance of erodeproofing an item when dipping in a forge. After this occurs, the forge will instead emit a puff of steam.
Forges always light up the square they occupy.
Cold rays have a chance cool forges.
Forges burn the grease and poison off dipped items.

FORGING & FORGING RECIPES

Ported from EvilHack with modifications.
No artifact forging
No armor recipes are available if you aren't a dwarf or orc.
Much narrower list of forgeable weapons, mostly bladed and blunt weapons.
Only samurai can forge katanas, tsurugi, and shuriken.
Only dwarves can forge dwarvish items
Only orcs can forge orcish items
Forging recipes are displayed in the object lookup.

Aside from the recipe changes - the biggest change is that we no longer have a #forge or #craft command. Simply get a hammer and (a)pply it when standing over the forge.

Toilets

Toilets have received many enhancements after adapting them from SLASHEM. Notably, toilets can now appear on their own, separate from sinks, whereas in SLASH'EM, they only came in pairs with sinks. Overall, their frequency has been dialed way back so they are quite rare.

Toilet prayer can now stop the vomiting process
Praying at toilets can cure sickness.
Sitting on toilets can alleviate satiated status.
If giants sit on toilets, they break.
Sitting on toilets fully heals your HP.
Toilets can sometimes break when sat on.
Dipping potions into toilets only contaminates potions into sickness.

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 pools 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.

Dipping an edged weapon into a toilet can poison it, but also probably rust any metallic items.

Bloody tiles

Ported from SpliceHack
When a monster is killed, it can spray blood around the surrounding tiles depending on it's size.
The blood is mostly cosmetic, however, players cannot engrave in the dust whilst blood covers that tile.
Blood can be wiped off with a towel, or will wear off after enough activity.
Fire and acid rays also burn off blood from tiles.
Bloody doors are more difficult to open and close.

Traps

Polytraps disappear with 1 in 7 chance when a monster steps on one.
Invisibility from magic traps lasts a long time (2500-5000 turns), instead of permanently.
Anti-magic fields block spellcasting for the player and monsters
Anti-magic fields also block wand zapping
Arrow traps and dart traps cannot be avoided by flight.
Partially reverted commit 5c7c9d10a from 3.7.0 - Rejigger anti-magic traps. I thought the severity of the original change was actually fine, anti-magic traps were historically a joke in NetHack 3.4.3 so this makes them somewhat threatening.

New container traps

A cream pie may spring out of the box and hit the player in the face.
A small critter (rat, snake, or spider) maybe jump out of the container, briefly scaring the player.
The hinges on the container may screech loudly, waking up nearby monsters.

Falling rock traps

At higher levels, boulders can drop from falling rock traps.
Falling rock traps can result in stunning
Falling rock traps can drop multiple rocks (or boulders).
You cannot fly over falling rock traps.
You can now #untrap falling rock traps, obtaining rocks (from nhfourk).

Spear traps

A new floor trap ported from EvilHack
Spear traps only start appearing after level 5
Spear traps can be untrapped, potentially yielding a random spear type in the process.
Flying and levitation usually protect from being harmed by spear traps, however, there is still a 25% chance of being hit (by a abnormally long spear)
If you or a monster hit by the trap is thick-skinned, the spear just breaks and the trap is deleted.
The trap also doesn't affect unsolid monsters.
When hit, it deals 7-14 damage and wounds your legs for 10-19 turns.
Spear traps sometimes have poisoned spears.
Spear traps abuse strength and constitution.

Magic beam traps

A new trap ported from EvilHack
Magic beam traps only start appearing after level 14
When you (or a monster) steps on this trap, it shoots a random ray type from a pre-set location that crosses through the beam trap. The beam type is set for each trap, so once you notice it shoots fire rays, it will always shoot fire rays.
Magic beam traps can very rarely shoot disintegration rays.

Grease traps

A new creation debuting in NerfHack
Grease traps function similarly to rust traps, but they spray a blast of grease at the player or monster that stepped on it.
When you step on a grease trap, you either slip in a puddle of grease or get sprayed by a grease hose.
When stepped on, the trap disarms with a random 1 in 15 chance.
You can also #untrap grease traps, if successful you may yield a rubber hose or a can of grease.

Puddle of grease:

If you don't have levitation or flying, you gain fumbling ("You step in a puddle of grease.")
Slipping in grease traps can cause you or monsters to become paralyzed for a few turns and inflicts a small amount of damage.
Mud boots and water walking boots protect from slipping on grease traps.

Grease hose:

If the grease hits your head, you are blinded unless you are wearing a visored helmet. Your blindfold/lenses/etc may also become greased and fall off.
If the grease hits your arm, your weapon(s) or shield can become greased and fall off. You also gain the Glib condition for 10 to 15 turns.
If the grease hits your feet, your boots can become greased and fall off.
Otherwise, the grease hits your torso and your outermost armor becomes greased. Random items you are carrying can also become greased and fall from your possession. If you are carrying a towel, there is a 50% chance it becomes greased as well. If you are riding a steed the saddle will get hit with grease, making you fall off.
When a monster gets hit with grease, it will randomly grease an item in their inventory.

Door traps

Door traps actually explode in a ball of flame (Evil)
These traps will start appearing at level 8.

Booby-trapped tins

From xNetHack
Randomly generated tins have a 1 in 30 chance of exploding in a blast of fire when opened.
Tins that you create from tinning kits will always be safe.

Special Rooms

Art rooms

Ported from SpliceHack
These rooms have a one-time event that occurs upon entering a room
Most of the time it's a fun piece of art depicting something with the denizens of the dungeon. But sometimes it's a special effect.
- You might see an image of your god, invoking enlightenment
- You might find a partial map of the level
- You might encounter a scary image, stunning you for a few turns
- You might discover a new item
Art rooms help exercise INT and WIS, depending on the room
To get any effects, you must not be blind when you enter the room

Room colors patch

Most special rooms get a distinctive color or combination of colors.

New room: dragon lair (from SLASH'EM).

Dragon scales can sometimes appear in dragon lairs.
Dragon lairs now produce special sounds when they appear on levels.

New room: giant courtroom (from SLASH'EM).

Giant courts sometimes have tinning kits.
Monsters in giant courts are always hostile.

New room: Real zoo (from SLASH'EM).

Monsters in real zoos are always hostile.

New room: Fungus farm (from SLASH'EM).

Features a collection of slimy and oozy monsters.

New room: Migo hive (from SLASH'EM).

Only appears in the Lethe branch

Altars, Prayer, and Priests

When donating to priests - the gold vanishes upon receipt
Greater chance of hostile minions appearing when converting an altar. Especially if the altar is in an occupied temple (Evil)
Converting altars has higher chance of summoning minions (SLASH'EM)
Intrinsics speed, stealth, and telepathy are no longer granted by the gods when #offering.
Getting troubles fixed by prayer abuses constitution.
Permanent alignment conversion prevents more divine protection from being granted
Only one skill per game will be unrestricted by your god via artifact gifts.

Note regarding recent #offer gift changes in NetHack 3.7.0. These recent changes make the value the corpse offered matter in what artifacts are granted. In NerfHack, the framework of these changes was retaine, however, the values of all artifacts have been lowered to 1 (the minimum), so as to preserve the original behavior of #offer gifts. Because there have already been strong changes to altars (cracking and XP dependant chances of gifts), the additional effect of monster value might be too much. The value of a monster still affects the chances of receiving altar luck though.

Revised divine protection scheme

The more protection the player has, the less likely it is to be granted (K-Mod)
The maximum possible divine protection is capped at -9AC.
When protection is granted from priests or your god, it is limited to increments of 1AC per granting.

Current protection	Chance of fail
0	0%
1	1%
2	4%
3	9%
4	16%
5	25%
6	36%
7	49%
8	64%
9	81%
10	100%

Altar cracking

Once the player has received two gifts or has been crowned, altars have a 50% chance to crack with each subsequent gift.

There are two stages to the cracking. In the first stage the altar becomes partially cracked, which is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect the altar's functionality. This cracked status can be seen on an altar by farlooking. However, receiving another gift from a cracked altar will certainly destroy it, losing it forever.
Being crowned also counts as a gift. If you are crowned on a cracked altar, it will also almost always destroy it in the process (however - there is a 1 in 13 chance that the altar will survive the process).
Altars on the Astral Plane will never be destroyed. Note that they can still become cracked but are safe from destruction.
Altars also sometimes generate cracked. 1 in 4 altars will generate pre-cracked
Many of the guaranteed altars in quests now have a good chance to already be cracked. This is especially true if they are unattended or unaligned, implying there was recent conflict and the altar was damaged.
Altars only generate in the main dungeon starting at level 5.
Randomly generated altars are always cracked after level 15.
If more than one altar generates on a standard dungeon level, additional altars are always cracked.
Converting an altar will also frequently crack it. This occurs 1 in 13 times the altar is converted or 1/3rd of the time hostile minions are summoned.
Non-chaotic same-race sacrifice always cracks altars.

The original altar nerf came from SpliceHack, where altars had a 50% chance of being destroyed after two artifact gifts had been bestowed.

A new conduct was added to the #conduct menu so that players can track how many altars have been destroyed in their current game. Altar cracking is livelogged on game servers for the entertainment value.

#offer GIFT ODDS

Altar gift frequency is tempered by your experience level (EvilHack).

As your level increases, the probability of receiving an artifact increases. Under level 4 is not possible:

level 4: 20% chance
level 6: 30% chance
level 8: 40% chance
level 11: 50% chance
level 13: 60% chance
level 15: 70% chance
level 17: 80% chance
level 18: 90% chance
level 20 or greater: 100% chance

This rewards leveling up and slows down the power grab that some characters might go for with a guaranteed sacrifice gift (ie: Barbarians). It also slows down the rate at which altars are cracking and getting destroyed, giving more time to utilize them for other things like building Luck or getting crowned.

The raw odds of receiving an artifact have been adjusted in favor of the player, especially after 2 gifts have been granted.

Gifts Granted	Old odds	New odds
0	10.00%	12.50%
1	8.33%	10.00%
2	5.56%	8.33%
3	3.57%	7.14%
4	2.38%	6.25%
5	1.67%	5.56%
6	1.22%	5.00%
7	0.93%	4.55%
8	0.72%	4.17%
9	0.58%	3.85%
10	0.48%	3.57%

The number of artiwishes is not factored in when determining the chance of a gift. The revised gift probabilities still apply, just filtered through the level check.

CROWNING

Crowning requires 13 Luck (from dnh).
Intrinsic see invisible is no longer granted via crowning
Intrinsic telepathy is no longer granted via crowning
Crowning gifts are only granted when crowned, never for #offer.
Your god will not crown you until you have completed the quest.
Crowning makes it impossible to change alignment ever again.

THE QUEST

Removed the quest turn limit (Un)
Players can enter the quest as soon as they reach level XL 10 (Un)
Prevent the player from skipping most of the quest (xnh).
Mark all quest levels as hardfloor.
Players cannot do horizontal or downward teleporting whilst the quest nemesis is alive.

INTRINSICS AND EXTRINSICS

The new Saving Grace feature introduced in 3.7.0 has been disabled.
The beginner flag is only set true for tourists. This means that you will usually be able to use-test items more effectively in the very early game.
Invisibility and see invisible cannot be permanently gained intrinsically (xnh)
Telepathy cannot be permanently gained intrinsically
Teleportitis cannot be permanently gained intrinsically.
Teleport control cannot be permanently gained intrinsically.
Amnesia can make you forget intrinsic telepathy.
Intrinsic disintegration resistance doesn't protect items from disintegration.
Strength doesn't affect to-hit calculations.
Regeneration only causes additional hunger when it's actually healing your HP.
Free action protects from stoning paralysis.
Magic resistance and spell damage reduction only halve magic missile damage instead of preventing it (Evil)
The chance of gaining levels from wraiths has been reduced using the SLASH'EM version of edible wraith corpses.
Strength gain nerfs: giant corpses have less of a chance of conferring strength gain (from 50% to 25%) (SLASHEM)
Lessen confusing messages for confuse monster effects wearing off.
Passive fire damage burns away slime.
Phasing allows escape from being engulfed (Evil)
Max carry capacity has been raised to 1250, with strength playing a larger factor in its calculation.
Warn the player that invisibility is about to time out (xnh)

PARTIAL INTRINSICS

Ported from EvilHack
Instead of binary resistances where the player either has it or doesn't, the player gradually builds up their resistance from 0% to 100%.
When eating a corpse, player gains a percentage of certain intrinsics.
Percentage gained is based on the weight of the corpse; minimum being 5% and maximum at 50% (capped at 100%).
Tins convey the same percentage from whatever they are made from.
You will always get a percentage intrinsic from each corpse eaten.
You receive all intrinsics that the corpse can convey if there are multiple intrinsics it can give (ie: eating a black pudding corpse grants a small percentage each of poison, cold, and shock resistance.)
Damage/effects dealt felt are adjusted based on the percentage intrinsic currently possessed. Damage reduction is rounded down, requiring slightly more resistance to be effective.
Gremlins steal (25 + d25)% of your intrinsics
Cold traps and ice demons also steal (25 + d25)% of your cold resistance.
Enlightenment always shows the partial percentage acquired for intrinsics. If you have an extrinsic source that will be displayed separately.

PARTIAL REFLECTION

Ported from EvilHack
Reflection will deflect most, but not all, of the effects of ray attacks.
- Example: You are hit by a cold ray, it reflects off your amulet of reflection, but you don't yet possess cold resistance.
If you don't have sleep resistance, but you reflect a sleep ray, you will fall asleep for 1d6 turns (which could be lessened by your current level of sleep resistance).
If you reflect disintegration ray, you still take 12d6 damage (subject to your current level of disintegration resistance).
If you reflect a death ray, you still take damage and lose max HP. This can be mitigated by magic resistance and half-spell damage, but is impossible to fully prevent.
Item destruction from elemental effects (like fire or cold) is prevented when rays are reflected.
Reflection only provides partial protection from floating eye gazes - the player will still be subject to d2 turns of paralysis without free action. This is weighted on Luck, so the higher your Luck the better the chance to avoid the gaze.
Medusa's gaze has no effect on her if reflected back from more than 3 squares away.
- If she might be affected by her own gaze, Medusa will protect herself 98% of the time.

Magic cancellation (MC) protects items vs cancellation

Any level of MC limits the damage if the enchantment on an item is positive.
If the enchantment is negative, the item's enchantment is cancelled to +0 as usual.
If it's a potion, scroll, or other item that would be blanked, it also gets an additional save roll.
With MC0, there is no protection when facing a cancel zap and the standard NetHack 3.7.0 rules apply.

Each level of MC offers a higher minimum that you should expect to maintain. This minimum is not absolute however, there is an additional role (1 in MCx2) to determine if some damage will pass through.

MC1: Item enchantments will not usually go below +2
MC2: Item enchantments will not usually go below +4
MC3: Item enchantments will not usually go below +6
MC1: Items have a 1 in 2 chance to avoid blanking
MC2: Items have a 2 in 3 chance to avoid blanking
MC3: Items have a 5 in 6 chance to avoid blanking

Gaze attack protection

Displacement protects from gaze attacks, only letting 1 in 11 gaze attacks find the player
Invisibility protects from gaze attacks, only letting 1 in 11 gaze attacks find the player
Darkness offers protection from gaze attacks (as long as the player is on a dark square and the gazer doesn't have infravision and the player is infravisible).
If a gazer is in melee range, it will bypass invisibility and darkness protection.
Hallucination always protects against floating eye gaze.
Hallucination negates all incoming gaze attacks, except Medusa's glare (xnh).

Slow digestion nerf

Slow digestion now functions in a fashion opposite of the ring of hunger.
Slow digestion only prevents hunger for 1 in every 2 turns
The previous Vanilla behavior slowed hunger to only occur 1 in 20 turns

Stealth changes

To bring back the feeling of the 3.4.3 stealth mechanic, the chance of sleeping monsters waking up and growling has been lowered dramatically and is based on luck.
- 0 Luck: 12.5% chance of a monster screaming when roused.
- 2+ Luck: 0.3% chance
- Negative luck has at least a 30% chance of rousing monsters.

Aggravate Monster changes

Cannibalism causes aggravation for 10-15k turns instead of permanently.
Eating domestic animals causes aggravation for 5000-7500 turns instead of permanently.
Intrinsic aggravate monster increases monster difficulty by 5 (stacks with extrinsic).
Aggravate monster spell cast at hero causes intrinsic aggravation for 50-300 turns.
Aggravate monster causes monsters not to be scared of musical instruments.
Ring of aggravate monster causes pets to attack anything without fear.
Note: The ring of aggravate monster increases the monster generation difficulty by 15 (this was already implemented in NetHack 3.7, but it's worth including here as a recent change)
Carrying foulstones also confers aggravate monster

Impaired Actions

Allow #terrain whilst impaired (xnh)
Falling downstairs does more damage: 10-19 instead of 1d3. (K-Mod with higher damage)
Falling down a hole or pit whilst fumbling (or low dex) can make you fall on a wielded weapon.
Going downstairs whilst stunned always results in falling, confusion sometimes does.
Don't allow stunned jumping. Confused jumping has a 20% chance to fail (Evil)
Many item actions are now forbidden if you have both hands welded.
If you (or a monster) are stuck in a pit, the range of wand zaps and thrown items is limited to the squares adjacent to the pit.
Hallucination affects all item descriptions and appearances in and outside of your inventory (SLASHEM)
Auto-pickup is automatically disabled whilst hallucinating.

MECHANICS CHANGES

WISHING

Quest artifacts cannot be wished for (dnh)
Attempting to wish for quest artifacts doesn't use up a wish
Wishes no longer increase prayer timeout (Dyna)
Wishes from thrones are much more rare. The chance of getting a wish from sitting on a throne is now about 1.5%. Whenever a player hits the 1 in 13 chance to get a wish and they don't, they lose 1 point of Luck (this roughly translates to a 6% chance of losing luck anytime you sit on a throne). Once the player is granted a wish from a throne, the throne is guaranteed to disappear. (Evil with adjustments)
The chance of getting a djinn from a smoky potion has been halved. The actual chances of getting a wish from the djinn have not been changed.
Players have a chance of getting a wish from crowning now (if no intrinsics were granted).
Artiwishes only care about previous successful artiwishes.
Wishing with bad luck causes amnesia.

There are a few new sources of wishes:

Using the Deck of Fate can result in a wish if you draw The World card. The deck is then used up.
If you get crowned and you have all the resistances that are offered, you can get a wish.
If you zap a wand of wonder and get the wand of wishing effect (and pass a 1 in 100 roll), you can get a wish. The odds of getting a wish on any given zap are (1/28) * (1/100) for 1 in 2800 per zap.

The chance of receiving the artifact from a wish is:

1 in [number of previous artifact wishes + 1].

Artifact wish #1: 1 in 1 chance of success (100%)
Artifact wish #2: 1 in 2 chance of success (50%)
Artifact wish #3: 1 in 3 chance of success (33%)
And so on.

Slow Luck timeouts (modified)

In NerfHack, Luck items greatly slow down Luck timeout rather than stopping it completely - this is similar to how it works in UnNetHack. However, the timeouts have been modified and extended to cover negative base luck situations. 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. The following chart shows how many turns it takes to timeout from one luck level to the next and the total turns to reach the base distance of 0.

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

Pet behavior

Pet Theft

Pet theft from shops has been totally nerfed.
Pets will never pick up objects in shops nor eat unpaid food (Gnoll)
You also cannot #loot items to/from your pet that are unpaid.
Shopkeepers start with more gold, usually more than double the standard amounts (gnoll)

Pets are limited by charisma

Your maximum number of pets is normally (CHA / 3). If you get more pets than that, they will be untamed starting with the weakest first (Evil)
Ported from EvilHack with modifications
The number of pets you can have on a level is now capped at Charisma divided by 3.
For example, if your charisma is only 7, you can keep 2 pets, at 9 charisma you can keep 3 pets.
However, if you exceed this limit, your weakest pets (based on level) will be the first to become untamed, with ties resolved randomly.
Untamed pets that were previously mistreated, such as resurrected ones, may even turn hostile.
Your steed, whilst counting toward your pet limit, will never become untamed.
Summoned spell beings do not count toward the total pet limit.
Since the minimum CHA possible is 3, you should always be capable of retaining a pet.

Misc pet changes:

Steeds are more aggressive - if your steed has a tameness level of 15 or more, it will actively attack monsters instead of merely reacting to being attacked (Evil)
Chaotics do not get alignment penalties for casting healing at pets (xnh)
Restrict pets from blowing you up via gas spore, so they won't attack one whilst you are adjacent (xnh)
Pets never displace player from stairs when entering a level (Dyna).
Pets' items can be managed with #loot
We can also see if pets are stunned, confused, or blinded on farlook.
Pets will use items more intelligently (EvilHack). Many extensions to the pet AI were implemented that help them value armor, weapons, and items so they use the best equipment possible.
Tame pets will not hide or conceal themselves.

POLYMORPHING OBJECTS

The number of items you have polymorphed can be viewed in #conduct
Non-magical potions, scrolls, spellbooks, and wands are much less likely to transform into magical items. These items only have a 1% chance of transforming into something magical. This is now comparable to other non-magical items polymorphing into magical. (dnh)
The chances of getting a golem from polypiling have been increased (K-Mod)
The enchantment level or charges can be randomly reduced on polymorphed objects (Spork)

POLY-SELF

Players can use gaze attacks in melee range when polymorphed into monsters with a gaze attack.
Humanoids are more careful about attacking you when you are a dangerous polyform.
Mind flayers won't purposely to eat the brains of petrifying monsters (ie: when you are polymorphed into a cockatrice)
When you polymorph into a 'nolimbs' monster, you are able to slip out of a ball & chain (Evil)
Escape from controlled polymorph prompt no longer causes random poly (xnh).
Polymorphing into a horned monster destroys flimsy or cloth helms.
Being polymorphed into a wandering form will sometimes make you wander.
Being polyd into a vampire bat doesn't cause stunning.

Elbereth and Scare Monster

Conflict negates Elbereth and scare monster protection (Evil)
Engraving Elbereth no longer exercises wisdom (from NetHack Fourk).
You can't dust engrave whilst being held by a monster.
You can't dust engrave on bloody or grassy tiles.
You don't waste turns for aborted engrave attempts.

Reverted 82f0b1e8e

The previous behavior implmemented in 3.7.0 was "Scared hostile monster which cannot move away will attack."
This has been reverted so players will be able to stand on scrolls of scare monster or Elbereth without risk of random melee attacks from scared or fleeing monsters.
The reason for this is that it violates the classic, expected behavior of Elbereth. There are other nerfs to Elbereth and scare-monster that take the place of this.

NEW GREASE EFFECTS

Many of these changes were introduced to work in conjunction with the new grease trap.

Greased items can't be disarmed with a bullwhip
Greased items are harder to steal
Glib hands makes applying any item except towels drop them
Towels can be used to remove grease from specific objects (with the risk that they in turn become greased)
Grease can be washed off towels by wetting them
Greased towels now operate the same way that cursed towels do
Grease can be washed off your feet/boots by dipping '-' in water, same action as dipping the player's hands.
Kicking monsters can sometimes get the grease to wear off your boots/feet.
Greased gloves cause Glib.
Greased feet/gloves cause fumbling.
Greased rings slip off your fingers as if you had greasy fingers.

ENDGAME CHANGES

Occasional earthquakes can occur during the ascension run (Un/Evil). These will cease after entering the planes.
After the invocation (and whilst traversing through Gehennom), monsters will flood from the upstairs (Un/Evil)
The identity of the Riders hidden via farlook (Un)
The correct temple on the Astral Plane will not be revealed due to fleeing monsters (Un)
Replaced undead on Astral Plane with random A (xnh).
Wizard harassment (after initially killing the Wizard of Yendor) has been increased by 20-25%
Demonic bribes are much more expensive.
Level-teleporting (or branchporting) in hell causes major pain. The levelport will still succeed as normal, but costs a large fraction of the hero's HP and energy. It also drains the max of both (up to 1d3 each). To be fair, the player is warned before this happens and can abort the teleport. This also includes the Wizard's Tower and Vlad's Tower.
Amulet of Yendor needs only be carried to hint of nearby portals (Spork).
Bones file trimming. When bones files are left, there's a high chance of items being polymorphed or shuddering away. This nerfs the common strategy of dumplog peeking or bones stuffing.
Allow performing the invocation whilst hallucinating.

FARMING NERFS

A big philosophy of NerfHack is to discourage repetitive and potentially infinite strategies and exploits. These specific nerfs also are aimed at encouraging using "found items" and prodding the player deeper into the dungeon.

Vault guard farming: Vault guards don't get special offensive or defensive items on spawn and don't leave death drops.
Temple ghost farming: All abandoned temples only spawn one ghost and then lose their status as a temple.
Quest monster/giant farming: This is mostly in regard to what is known as "giant farming" in the valkyrie quest. Players could possibly farm giants for strength and gems by subsisting on their corpses. Monster generation in quests is now dramatically less frequent.
Werefoo farming: Werefoo summon temporary spell-beings that don't leave death drops or corpses.

AC nerfs & buffs

Dexterity affects AC

Ported from EvilHack
Being encumbered negates AC bonuses from dexterity
Wearing any kind of heavy metallic body armor (not mithril) or other rigid material also negates beneficial AC bonuses

Dexterity	AC change
<= 6	+3
7-9	+1
10-14	+0
15-16	-1
17-18	-2
19-20	-3
21-23	-4
24-25	-5

Encumbrance affects AC

Being encumbered has a severe negative effect on your AC and inflicts +4AC for each level of encumbrance.

Encumbrance	AC change
Burdened	+4
Stressed	+8
Strained	+12
Overtaxed	+16
Overloaded	+20

The "wounded legs" status also inflicts a severe AC penalty for bearing weight. You get +1AC for every 100aum you are carrying whilst you are wounded. Many traps can cause this condition, but now the jungle boots can be useful to prevent it.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

SKILL CHANGES

The skill system for achieving proficiency in weapons and spells has been adapted from the UnNetHack system. In UnNetHack most of the requirements for advancing skills have been substantially increased. The major exception is that training skills from unskilled only takes 50 uses compared to UnNetHack's 100.

This chart shows 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	50	20
Skilled	200	80
Expert	400	180
Master	800	320
Grand Master	1600	500

1-damage hits train weapon/unarmed skills (Dyna)
Riding skill is exercised more quickly, closer to vanilla (Un)
Skill gain for spells is faster than skill gain for weapons (Un)
Training skill in pick-axe affects how fast you can dig (Evil)
- Skilled gives you the same bonus as a dwarf (x2)
- Expert gives you double the bonus of a dwarf (x4)

SHIELD SKILL

Ported from EvilHack with some modifications
Shield skill can be trained up like any other weapon attack. It is not actively trained, but passively as you block attacks with your shield. Sometimes you will train even if not directly shielding. There's a 2 in 3 chance of training shield skill whilst wearing one and a regular miss event occurs. A further check is rolled against the enchantment of the shield, with a higher enchantment resulting in more chance of training.
Different roles can reach different levels of shield skill.
As a player levels up with shield, there is also a small chance of shield bashing when attacking a monster.

Effects at different skill levels:

Unskilled: No AC bonus
Basic: Grants -1AC, 1 in 25 chance of shield bash
Skilled: Grants -3AC, 1 in 17 chance of shield bash
Expert: Grants -5AC, 1 in 13 chance of shield bash
Master: Grants -8AC, 1 in 10 chance of shield bash
Knights and valkyries start at basic skill.
Small shields and antimagic shields deal 1-3 damage
Tower shields deal 2 - 13 damage
All other shields deal 2 - 7 damage
If you are expert or greater in shield skill, you deal an extra d4 damage.

EXPERIENCE CURVE CHANGES

XP Level	XP Required
1	0
2	20
3	40
4	80
5	160
6	320
7	640
8	1 280
9	2 560
10	5 120
11	10 000
12	15 000
13	22 000
14	33 000
15	50 000
16	75 000
17	113 000
18	170 000
19	256 000
20	384 000
21	576 000
22	864 000
23	1 297 000
24	1 946 000
25	3 200 000
26	3 520 000
27	3 840 000
28	4 160 000
29	4 480 000
30	4 800 000

Leveling up bonuses

Players get a to-hit bonus after reaching level 20 (from EvilHack with adjustments) * Level 22: +1 to-hit * Level 24: +d2 to-hit * Level 26: +d3 to-hit, and so on.

Leveling up grants damage bonuses (SlashTHEM) * Level 10, +1 damage to attacks. * level 20+: +d(x), where x is 1 damage for every additional level gained. * For example: At level 25, you would get a combined total of +d6+1 damage (+1 for reaching XP 10 and +6 for levels 20-25).

Misc changes

These don't really fit into any category, or are just silly.
8d93bedd9 Halu reverse geno troll msg (from UnNetHack).
899833966 Funny troll #chat messages (from SpliceHack, I think).
Characters who don't like baths may resist fountain's urging (xnh).
New hallucinatory monsters from Secret of Mana and Magic of Scheherazade.
The fat lady sings if you win whilst hallucinating (xnh).

CREDITS

NerfHack draws inspiration and ideas from many variants of NetHack:

AceHack
DynaHack
EvilHack
FIQHack
FourkHack
GnollHack
GruntHack
K-Mod
NetHack Fourk
SLASH'EM
SlashTHEM
slashem-up
SLASHEM9
SpliceHack
SporkHack
UnNetHack
xNetHack

NetHack Ideas Archive credits

YANI	commit	author	notes
#8	763e4ed25	bezaban	You can fall onto your own weapon whilst fumbling.
#10	e049887c8	aosdict	Wizards are able to sense magic fountains.
#125	e03ac9fb5	Andrio	Spiked orcs, which are more deadly than regular orcs.
#149	402066eab	AmyBSOD	Falling down stairs while stunned or confused.
#254	6d15685cf	NeroOneTrueKing	Unicorn horns only reduce the timeouts of statuses.
#441	1036e6cf7	aosdict/FIQ	Strength doesn't affect to-hit calculations.
#743	13c4eb7c8	jonadab	Cancelled unicorn horns become degraded, unusable for curing.
#876	d0ebfe767	K2	Healers can use uncursed unihorns as blessed.
#1022	05b991a0e	RGRN	Serenity blocks aggravate monster.
#1058	9c09d7d57	RGRN	Abuse WIS when over-enchanting items.
#1278	571f8a98c	Chris_ANG	King Arthur gets a full suite of resistances
#1647	ddf5fc1dc	aosdict	Ring of aggravate monster causes pets to fearlessly attack anything.
#1727	22cbacacd	aosdict	Mumakil get butts or kicks instead of bites.
#1824	a9ce809b7	aosdict	Gas spores and volatile mushrooms start with exactly 1 HP.
#1903	04913bdc5	aosdict	Protection from shape changers wakes up shifters when they normalize.
#1923	ed6cd6a42	aosdict	Recolor royal jelly to magenta
#1942	75ebf9a84	aosdict	Boulders deal 1+5d4.
#1944	170c60410	aosdict	Confused cursed scroll of punishment decreases god anger by 1.
#1948	1c8377153	aosdict	Spellbooks can generate pre-read.
#1952	e2b9d3c91	aosdict	Dipping scrolls of amnesia clears non-water non-polymorph potions.
#1976	ea543e77b	aosdict	Mixing oil with water always results in diluted oil.
#1992	163af6658	aosdict	Potions of restore ability also cures wounded legs.
#2023	2b553fee6	aosdict	Nerf slow digestion.
#2062	460d74c91	aosdict	Casting clairvoyance at skilled lets it persist for a while.
#2082	04f87f673	aosdict	Aggravate monster spell cast at hero causes temporary aggro mon.
#2084	7800ffd44	aosdict	You cannot learn spells that you are restricted in [now revamped]
#2090	8b6a11458	aosdict	knock and wizard lock spell nerfs
#2199	896ed1feb	aosdict	Crowning makes it impossible to change alignment ever again.
#2200	4be06d9a9	aosdict	Permanent alignment conversion prevents more divine protection
#2217	b909ed83b	aosdict	Your god will not crown you until you have completed the quest.
#2246	912e4d7f5	aosdict	Anti-magic fields block spellcasting.
#2281	8a2cc0e9f	aosdict	The ranger quests gets a bunch of bear traps.
#2435	f05429d20	aosdict	Being satiated abuses wisdom for Samurai.
#2472	b9b973120	aosdict	You must have at least one free hand to zap a wand.
#2551	09f52ef60	aosdict	Eating domestic animals causes aggro mon for 5000-7500 turns
#2589	10279d5a7	aosdict	Rogues start with a stack of knives instead of daggers.
#2640	8be066328	aosdict/Tone	New monster: third eye.
#2749	9252efc92	aosdict	Unique monsters can drop cards for cartomancers.
#2829	5acc2b12c	aosdict	No multishot when fumbling.
#2903	5a11551b7	aosdict	spell of knock nerf
#2950	a6abab270	aosdict	Shopkeepers offer 1/2 price for diluted potions.
#2966	53c6df5fb	dingotron	Archeologists can reach basic in axe.
#2985	e1d625473	aosdict	Unicorn horns dissolve when dipped into acid, yields healing.
#3019	9250f9b84	aosdict	Cursed rings burn extra nutrition when worn.
#3044	bea6abeb1	aosdict/bouquet	Potions of restore ability can be alchemized.
#3061	5d22ac85e	rikersan/aosdict	Glib hands makes applying any item except towels drop them.
#3085	902bdf934	riker	Free action protects from stoning paralysis.
#3092	dd90a3c27	aosdict	Giant mimics get an engulf digest attack.
#3110	ca583e428	mobileuser	Archeologists start out knowing dwarvish mattocks.
#3204	05bf49bad	aosdict	You can kick with kicking boots even when your legs are wounded.
#3368	150193c7a	spicycat	Aggravate monster causes monsters not be scared of musical instruments.
#3375	e8baf4d73	many	A tree hit by a fire ray or explosion should instantly incinerate
#3390	cb6f97237	aosdict	Samurai get a bonus for twoweaponing katana with wakizashi.
#3578	fd709a04a	K2	Cursed armor weighs more when worn.
#3588	d3b3f5176	Umbire	Limit range of attacks to 1 square when in a pit.
#3658	20b345d6f	NetSysFire	Falling rock traps can stun you.
#3826	b0fc3027b	spicycat/aosdict	Towels can be used to remove grease from specific objects.
#3866	92bca4df9	spicycat	Cartomancers cast spells by reading books
#3878	4d02dafd6	krm26	New item: ring of withering.
#3931	d70406a9a	aosdict	Greased rings slip off your fingers
#3977	5b685c2f4	aosdict/ais523	Falling rock traps can dump multiple rocks
#3991	267661174	ais523/FIQ/Chris_ANG	Spell of charm monster nerfs/updates.
#4083	7ce16cf2f	aosdict	Grease traps.
#4259	bc383ebde	aosdict/Shadow_Rider	Rogues can counterattack with knives and daggers.
#4259	2abbcfca6	aosdict/Shadow_Rider	Morning stars and flails can stun monsters on critical hits.
#4259	2abbcfca6	aosdict/Shadow_Rider	Spears at expert skill can skewer through enemies.
#4267	e8baf4d73	AntiGulp	Hitting a tree with sufficient cold damage makes it explode.
#4350	445bbdf97	amateurhour/aosdict	Let rangers chop down the trees in the quest entry level.
#4364	842f6bd1d	aosdict	New artifact: The Lenses of Truth.
#4411	f9e5ea0f3	Loggers_VIII	Greased items sometimes slip when disarmed with a bullwhip.

Many thanks to all the folks who have helped out with the original Hack'EM and NerfHack, contributing ideas, making patches, playtesting, or anything!

Changes that were later adopted into NetHack 3.7.0

Archeologists get a luck bonus for wearing a fedora (Un).

Special thanks to:

My wife - for being endlessly patient with this time-consuming endeavor!
K2, for making the epic EvilHack, all his help during development, and pushing HackEM up to hardfought.
amateurhour and qt for their endless debugging advice.
cbus for many contributions
mobileuser and hothraxxa for extensively playtesting the original HackEM
malor for continuing maintenance of HackEM
Arseniy for being the first player to succumb to an unwinnable-game bug in the quest.
anyone who has playtested or reported bugs!

Thanks:

amateurhour
antigulp
aosdict
arahael
Ardub23
Arseniy/Doktor_L
bhaak
bouquet
cbus
Chris_ANG
Demo
disperse
Frozty
Hash56
hothraxxa
Janis
K2
krm26
Loggers_VIII
malor
mobileuser
Nat Hall
NetSysFire
nh2465
NoisyToot
notifico
oh6
paxxed
qt
riker
shadowrider38
stenno
terrapin
transcendreamer
Umbire
VaderFLAG
YesLaching

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 86 Commits
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
STRATEGY_GUIDE.md		STRATEGY_GUIDE.md

Current enchantment	Chance of failure
+0	0%
+1	8%
+2	15%
+3	23%
+4	31%
+5	38%
+6	46%
+7	54%
+8	62%
+9	69%
+10	77%
+11	85%
+12	92%

Current enchantment	Chance of failure
+0	0%
+1	8%
+2	15%
+3	23%
+4	31%
+5	38%
+6	46%
+7	54%
+8	62%
+9	69%
+10	77%
+11	85%
+12	92%

License

elunna/nerfhack-changelog

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