The Slime Pits

The amorphous realm of acids, jellies and slimes. Any trace of intelligent beings has long been dissolved. Still, there are rumours of great treasures deep down, hidden safely away in secret chambers without door or window for acid to leak in. The Slime Pits are six levels deep and contain the slimy rune. The entry is between Lair:6 and Lair:8.

An entrance to the amorphous realm of acids, jellies and slimes.

The Slime Pits are a 6-floor branch full of amorphous horrors. Four guaranteed treasure vaults, an immense amount of experience, and the slimy rune of Zot await anyone able to find their way to the bottom of the Slime Pits, but its difficulty and unique challenges make it dangerous for all but the best prepared characters. Stairs to the Slime Pits can be found between levels 6 and 8 of the Lair.

Layout

The Slime Pits closely resemble the Orcish Mines: each floor is either a single large irregular chamber or several smaller chambers connected only by stairs. Like the Orcish Mines, you can use a wand of digging or the Dig spell to connect separate chambers together to ease travel. Bear in mind, however, that the walls of the Slime Pits are actually harmful to touch; every time you end a turn adjacent to a wall (even diagonally), you take a small amount of acid damage. Running through long, narrow hallways results in significant exposure to this damage. You can make your own 3-tile-wide hallways to be safe, but whether or not it's worth the time and wand charges is up to you.

Useful Info

Entering the Slime Pits unprepared can be an extremely costly mistake for low-level characters. Acidic monsters such as brown oozes, acid blobs, and death oozes can inflict immense damage and will rapidly ruin your equipment, while shining eyes will induce numerous character-ruining mutations. It is much safer to explore here after acquiring:

• A source of corrosion resistance (cloak of preservation, amulet of resist corrosion, various artifacts) or a full set of corrosion resistant gear (enchanted to +5 or higher, or artifact gear)
• A source of mutation resistance (amulet of resist mutation, worshiping Zin, playing a halfling or undead character)

The two most common solutions to these problems are both amulets, unfortunately, so be prepared to swap them as the situation dictates. Forgetting to do so when a shining eye appears can be extremely aggravating, especially if you're short on potions of cure mutation. While those are the only vital intrinsics, the following also come in handy:

• Cold resistance for azure jellies
• Clarity for golden eyes
• An amulet of stasis or high magic resistance for giant eyeballs and great orbs of eyes

The Slime Pits contain many traps (teleportation, shafts, Zot), they can leave you in a cul de sac or next to a searing acid wall. It's crucial, especially on Slime:6-- where controlled teleports are impossible-- that you have a reasonable Traps & Doors skill.

The wide open floors and caustic walls make it impossible to effectively bottleneck opponents; expect to be swarmed by slime creatures and worse if you rush in too quickly. Fortunately, almost every monster here is mindless and silent, making it easy to creep forward, attract the attention of a single opponent, and lure it back a safe distance before killing it in privacy. When possible, limit yourself to quiet spells unless you feel confident about reliably nuking herds of jellies.

Exploration of the Slime Pits will turn up very little apart from monsters and traps. There is no loot to be found outside of the boss' chambers, and only one unique is capable of spawning here (Dissolution, a deadly jelly priest who should be killed as quickly as possible to avoid his Summon Eyes spell). There is no random food lying around, and few monsters here leave edible corpses (giant eyeballs are the safest bet, though a giant amoeba or eye of devastation will do for characters with poison resistance), so be sure to bring a food supply with you.

One thing to keep in mind about the monsters you find in Slime is that few possess resistances other than poison or acid, and even fewer have any AC or EV worth mentioning. The lack of EV means that low-accuracy, high-damage spells such as Iron Shot, Crystal Spear, or the various bolt spells are highly effective, while the lack of AC can make spells such as Airstrike or Lee's Rapid Deconstruction (but not Shatter!) quite effective. Bolt of Inaccuracy is wonderful in Slime if you have the appropriate rod and the Evocations skill to use it.

Slime: 6

The sixth and final floor of the Slime Pits is an open chamber with a large, non-corrosive stone structure in the middle made from four quarter-circle vaults. Teleport control is initially not allowed. The floor is populated with eyes and jellies like the floors above, but in the center of the structure you'll encounter the boss of the Slime Pits, the royal jelly (see its article for advice on defeating it). Once TRJ is dead, the walls of the central structure will become transparent rock, and you can either teleport in or dig through. Alternatively, you can use a high-powered Lee's Rapid Deconstruction to tear down the walls before fighting the boss, but this will be noisy enough to alert everything on the floor. In any case, be aware that many of the enemies here will eat the contents of the vaults if they gain access to them, and that if you wait too long, slimes may spawn inside the vaults naturally (fortunately, the rune and any artifacts cannot be eaten).

Alternatively, you can avoid all of this conflict by worshiping Jiyva, the god of slimes. Doing so will render all monsters in the Slime Pits neutral to you, and at high enough piety, the vaults turn to transparent rock.

Monsters

• Giant eyeball
• Golden eye
• Shining eye
• Eye of draining
• Eye of devastation
• Great orb of eyes
• Ooze
• Jelly
• Pulsating lump
• Slime creature
• Brown ooze
• Azure jelly
• Death ooze
• Acid blob
• Giant amoeba
• Giant orange brain

Uniques

• Dissolution
• The royal jelly

History

Prior to 0.7, the Slime Pits walls did not inflict acid damage.