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I suspect engraving "Elbereth" on the floor wouldn't prevent Oracle from attacking me. More's the shame.

The main emacs package is just 25 MB uncompressed. By today's standards, that's positively tiny.

Now you've done it, I got all confused when you hit me with your brilliant red.

Actually, NetHack isn't as cruel as pointed out in the article. Instadeaths are extremely rare and almost all can be prevented by following the advice from this spoiler. Cockatrices are pretty harmless once you know how to handle them. For example, soldier ants are much worse because they a) tend to come in groups and b) appear at dungeon depths where a character is usually not fully equipped.

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Ascensions: ABKPSVW

Cool link you gave there, green slime is also a fairly wellknown/famous creature in in Nethack. I wonder if there might be a connection between the two?

From the Juiblex monster manual (http://www.juiblex.co.uk/nethack/VernonSpoilers/M onsterManual/AMOEBOID.html#green_slime):

Name: green slime
Difficulty: 8
Base level: 6
Base experience: 164
Speed: 6
Base AC: 6
Base MR: 0
Alignment: 0
Frequency: Very rare, only in Gehennom
Genocidable: Yes
ATTACK:
        Touch: Turns you into green slime
Weight: 400
Nutritional value: 150
Size: large
Resistances: cold, electricity, poison, acid, petrification
Resistances conveyed by eating: None

A green slime can flow under doors. Due to its unusual body chemistry, It has no need to breathe. It has no eyes, and is therefore impervious to gaze and blindness attacks. It has no mind, and is therefore not detectable via telepathy. A green slime has no limbs and no head. It is acidic and poisonous if eaten. It is an omnivore.

From the steelypips instadeath spoiler (http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/instadeath.html #slime):

sliming

Green slimes (generally not seen outside certain parts of Gehennom) can slime you with their 'touch' attack. If you're slimed, you will slowly turn into another green slime over the course of several turns.

Preventatives: Always kill green slimes from a distance. Don't let them get close to attack you. (This implies that you should have some way to spot them from a distance) An amulet of unchanging will protect you from being slimed.

Remedies: If you get yourself slimed, you can pray to your god for help, if they're happy with you. Don't pray to your god, though, if you're beneath the Valley of the Dead (Vlad's tower doesn't count as being beneath the Valley of the Dead) or they'll become angry with you, so if you're beneath the Valley of the Dead, you'll need to teleport out of Gehennom in order for your deity to heal you. Additionally, putting on an amulet of unchanging will halt the sliming process. Reading a scroll of fire, casting 'Fireball' on yourself, zapping a wand of fire at yourself, stepping on a fire trap, lighting a potion of oil and throwing it upwards, and other methods of setting oneself on fire will burn the slime away (but will also hurt you and probably destroy many carried scrolls and potions at the same time). Casting 'Cure Sickness' on yourself or #invoking the Staff of Aesculapius will heal sliming more safely. Additionally, polymorphing yourself will heal you of sliming. Applying a unicorn horn will NOT stop sliming!

funny you should mention that, as it has saved my ass many a time in nethack ! check out the prayer spoiler for a glimpse at the complexities of prayer in nethack

I think you just underestimate the power of prayer. Also a good number of people enjoy figuring out how to reduce the randomness through identification methods. Figure out which jewels are worthless, which spellbooks you can read without losing your mind, and which armors can be worn without negative consequences! A minor spoiler: the scroll of identify is the cheapest in the game. Shopkeepers will charge the average customer 26 gil for one (If I remember properly). I suggest not selling them, once he makes an offer.

Nethack used such features for a years. Lycantrophy happens often at nights, undeads are stronger around midnights, Friday the 13th, really brings bad luck, and all dogs-alike creatures reacts to phase of the moon.

See http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/341/art2-341.htm l for more details.

If you're going to try this seriously, make sure you read all the spoilers and FAQs. There's a ton of good information in there.

-Ted