Slash'EM Extended: Difference between revisions

'''''SLASH'EM Extended''''' - sometimesprimarily written as '''''Slash'EM Extended''''', and also known as "Sadistic Levels of Endless X-Citement" or '''SLEX''' for short<ref>[[Overly Long Gag|''Also'' technically known as]] [[Overly Long Title|Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic]] [[Department of Redundancy Department|Extended]]</ref> - is a [[:Category:NetHack variants|variant]] of ''[[SLASH'EM]]'' version 0.0.7E7F2, created by the user known as [https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/User:Bluescreenofdeath Bluescreenofdeath] - (alternately known as [[User:AmyBSOD|AmyBSOD]], or just Amy).

Compared to ''SLASH'EM'', the aim of ''Slash'EM Extended'' containsis to be a "kitchen sink" style variant that heavily raises the difficulty of the dungeon and adds several new roles and races for the player to choose from, alongside several new special levels, and a lotnear-endless amount of new monsters,; the developer is also known to deliberately implement content from generally-obscure and lesser known NetHack variants (e.g., a dungeon branch dedicated to [[ZAPM]]), as well as incorporating other changes"evil" patch ideas and features from her favorite games. TheWhile mainthe dungeonbase goal of the game is eventhe longersame in- ''Slash'EMclaim Extended''the Amulet of Yendor and bring it to your god - the main dungeon is far longer than in ''SLASH'EM'', with the upper Dungeons of Doom being 50 levels in length followed by 50 levels of Gehennom,; meaningafter thatclaiming the Amulet of Yendor at Moloch's Sanctum is on dungeon level 100. After claiming the Amulet of Yendor, the player also needs to complete a 100-level bonus dungeon before the actual ascension run begins, greatly increasing the length of the game.

But whereWhere many variants of ''[[NetHack]]'' tend to run with a different aspect of its [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] full of [[Anachronism Stew]] - such as the later [[EvilHack]]'s adapting traits from ''[[Advanced Dungeons and Dragons]]'' to the NetHack mold, and [[FIQHack]] increasing monster/player congruency - ''SLASH'EM Extended'' focuses on a few... ''other'' things:

# ''Nothing is off limits.'' If Amy overhears an idea she likes, she'll [[Throw It In]], no matter where it's from. This includes other variants, which naturally "cross-pollinate" ideas as a simple matter of course.

# ''[[Difficulty Spike|Harder is better.]].'' The game is designed with the idea that the player should be in danger of dying at any moment, even in the late stages of the game - but SLEX's philosophy handles this far differently from something like EvilHack.

# ''Unfair =/= unbalanced.'' Not every game will be 100% winnable; Amy is something of a stickler for preserving the more chancey elements of the gameNetHack and considers SLEX players being screwed by the [[Random Number God]] fair play, since a similar element of risk already existed in the base game.

# ''Unbalanced =/= unfair.'' On the other hand, she also does her best to make it so that the player has as many viable options as possible without one being overwhelmingly stronger than any of the others. - trapsTraps and monsters with the most dangerous and game-ruining qualities are ideally extremely rare until the late game - the game is intended to remain challenging throughout ''without'' necessarily becoming completely [[unwinnable]].

The end result is a variant that is... extremely weird and unique, and decidedly isn't for everyone&mdash; as it can be justifiably off-putting in ''many'' way, ways&mdash;but ''Slash'EM Extended'' still displays a form of creativity that results in an experience not seen in many other variants of ''NetHack'', if not most [[roguelikesroguelike]]s in general.

* [[Author Appeal]]: The variant author has many loves that she inserts into the game, but among her foremost ones are fleecy things and shoes, especially high heels. The latter's even a weapon you can use!

** [[Biblical Motifs]]: One of the many available artifacts is [[Suffer the Slings|The Sling of David]].

* [[Bonus Boss]]: Many,Several e.g.- among them are powerful demon lords that can only be gated in by other demons. Arguably the most dangerous foe in the entire game is the Elder Priest of Moloch, who has plenty of attacks that can easily off an endgame-capable player character, but a player who manages to beat him gets [[Bragging Rights Award|a cool robe]].

* [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even Chaotics Have Standards]]: A chaotic Jedi might not be punished for murder, but attacking a peaceful being is a violation of the way of the Jedi regardless of alignment.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: ItemsItem types that are safe to use in vanilla NetHack can turn out to be dangerous, e.g. when a random box turns out to be a box of digestion that eats the valuable items you put into it. Malicious terrain is abundant, including stalactites that hurt players who fly into them, rain clouds that rust the player's iron equipment, or moorland that deals damage while the player swims through it. And triggering the wrong trap can [[Interface Screw|cause the interface itself to try to screw you over!]]

* [[Get Back Here Boss]]: Vlad the Impaler is an especially annoying example, spawning with scrolls that allow him to teleport to any random dungeon level. Have fun searching for up to 100 dungeon levels to get the MacGuffin he's holding. And if you do find him, chances are he's got [[This Is Gonna Suck|another one of those scrolls.]].

* [[Harder Than Hard]]: Not to completely-unplayable levels, but you'll develop a grudging respect for how committed the [[Random Number God]] can be to screwing you when it wants to. And if you play difficult roles like the Courier or Bleeder, the game can seem almost impossible.

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: ''Far'' more so than the vanilla game. Various optional areas are characterisedcharacterized by the fact that whether or not their reward can be obtained is randomly determined at the start of a game. If the RNG is not on the player's side, it can turn out to be a complete waste of time to enter certain dungeon branches. Also, when the player character is created, the game may decide to make specific items, intrinsics or skills impossible to obtain.

** The mould and ungenomold races are capable of polymorphing into monsters at random [[Baleful Polymorph|with no way to control it]]. You may be lucky and polymorph into a powerful black dragon, or end up as a slow-moving lichen that can't equip anything and deals no damage when attacking an enemy.

* [[Pokemon-Speak]]: Especially if the player chooses to play as a Pokemon and makes it to their quest. Hostile angels and demons also sometimes make taunts that areuse literal quotes from [[Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal]] as taunts.