SLASH'EM

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SLASH'EM (Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic, sometimes also written as Slash'EM) is a variant of NetHack, based on version 3.4.3 and published by Tom Proudfoot and Warren Cheung on January 7, 1998. It began life as a distinct variant when Proudfoot merged two variants of NetHack - NetHack-- (by Proudfoot and Yuval Oren) and NetHack Plus (by Stephen White) to create the original SLASH. The addition of the Wizard Patch - which gave the Wizard role several buffs and made it far stronger and more distinct from the other fighter-type classes - is part of the "Extended Magic" that would soon make it SLASH'EM.

SLASH'EM contains five new roles and new races for the player to choose from, and adds several new special levels, along with many new monsters, items, artifacts, and other changes. The main dungeon branch is thus much longer in SLASH'EM than in NetHack, but in exchange Gehennom is shorter. Many of the more popular additions to SLASH'EM, such as the Vampire starting race and the Black Market level, have since been incorporated into actively developed variants such as UnNetHack.

SLASH'EM is available for Windows, MS-DOS, Linux, OS/2 (obsolete), Mac classic, Mac OS X (tty only), and Android (via this link); the latest stable version of SLASH'EM is 0.0.7E7F3 and the latest development version is 0.0.8E0F1. Hardfought and em.slashem.me currently offer SLASH'EM for online play; the version hosted on Hardfought includes an enhanced xlogfile and dumplogs. All these links and more can be found on their NetHackWiki article here.

As of September 16th, 2018, there are active forks of SLASH'EM - mainly bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. There are two different versions - Keith "K2" Simpson's version can be found here, while Elronnd "moon-child"'s version is here. SLASH'EM also has a successor in Slash'EM Extended, and an abandoned "sub-variant" named SlashTHEM.

SLASH'EM has a website that can be reached through either of these links, though they hasn't been updated since around 2006.

Has nothing to do with Slasher Movies, or Slash Fic.

Tropes used in SLASH'EM include:
  • Bottomless Bladder: Suberted. There are toilets, but their use isn't mandatory and might not be obvious at first. If you're Satiated and sit on one, you "take a dump" and lower your nutrition, also curing sickness.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In a earlier version of the game you could literally do this. He's ungodly strong and respawns anyways, but you know you want to try.
  • Difficulty Spike: Most people regard SLASH'EM as much more difficult than vanilla NetHack; while it contains significantly more content, it is widely considered to be less balanced.
  • Ki Attacks: Monks get them.
  • Laser Blade: Yes, you can wish for a lightsaber. Remember to turn it on first.
  • Lethal Joke Item:
    • Houchou is an artifact spoon imported from Final Fantasy IV that instantly kills whatever you throw it at, but breaks afterwards.
  • Schizo-Tech: Soldiers now carry various guns, most of which use the same ammunition. However, no other enemies carry guns, and you are eventually going to run out of bullets...