The Slime Pits

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The Slime Pits are the amorphous realm of acids, jellies and slimes. Even the walls drip with painful acid. 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 any entrance. This branch is unnaturally silent: sounds travel farther here. The entrance to this branch can be found between levels 4 and 5 of the Lair of Beasts. This branch is 5 levels deep. This branch contains the slimy rune of Zot.

The Slime Pits are a 5-floor branch full of amorphous horrors. Most of this branch consists of nothing but ooze, but the final floor has a guaranteed treasure vault and the slimy rune of Zot. To retrieve the treasures, you must defeat their boss.

Stairs to the Slime Pits can be found between the Lair: 4-5. While the entrance is found in the Lair, it is much more dangerous than the 2 other branches that can be found there (Swamp, Shoals, Snake Pit or Spider's Nest), and should be attempted later in the game.

Layout

Superficially, the layout of the Slime Pits resembles 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 to connect separate chambers together, easing travel. Outside of Slime:5, no items generate here.

The Slime Pits are filled with slime covered rock, which inflict the corrosion status on adjacent players. This wears off the moment you move away from the walls.

Slime:5

Slime:5 is a vault that's always the same - an open chamber with a large, non-corrosive stone structure in the middle, made from four quarter-circle structures.

This floor always contains the boss of the Slime Pits, the Royal Jelly. Killing it will open up the translucent walls of the treasure vaults, allowing you to go inside. The walls will also disappear if you worship Jiyva and reach 6* piety - though, when worshipping Jiyva, the slimes will eat a huge portion of the loot. (Haste, Apportation, Swiftness, etc. are recommended.)

Useful Info

The branch is home to high level jelly monsters - these are fast and can inflict immense damage. Acid blobs rapidly corrode you. Azure jellies have strong cold attacks. Quicksilver oozes have antimagic attacks and can engulf you, and rockslimes can trample you. You'll also find shining eyes that induce numerous bad mutations. You'll also find masses of slime creatures, weak alone, but they come in large groups, and among the stronger jellies.

The wide open floors and caustic walls make it impossible to effectively bottleneck opponents. Expect to be swarmed by all sorts of jellies, especially if you rush in too quickly. Stair dancing is a strong tactic.

Most jellies resist poison, acid, and nothing else - the major exceptions are rockslimes (who resist fire and electricity). Also, jellies have poor AC and EV. Low-accuracy, high-damage spells like Iron Shot or Starburst are quite effective. Note that Shatter doesn't do much against slimes (except for rockslimes).

Strategy

See also: The Royal Jelly

Slime is significantly more difficult than the other Lair branches. Unless you're doing a speedrun, there's little reason to go in right away. You have the liberty to explore other branches (such as the Vaults:1-4) before entering. This branch is often done as the 3rd rune, though it can also be done purely for the loot on Slime:5.

Regardless of anything, it is recommended to have some way of defeating the Royal Jelly before attempting this branch - see the Royal Jelly for more info. You'll also want a few resistances (see below).

Useful Traits

It's much safer to explore here after acquiring:

• Corrosion resistance (ring of resist corrosion, acid dragon scales, etc.)
• High willpower, to prevent getting confused by golden eyes, or worse, paralysed by great orbs of eyes.
• Cold resistance, for azure jellies.

Monsters

G Golden eye	G Shining eye	G Eye of devastation
G Glowing orange brain	G Great orb of eyes	J Jelly	J Slime creature
J Quicksilver ooze	J Azure jelly	J Acid blob	J Rockslime

Uniques

J Dissolution

@ Donald

J The Royal Jelly

History

• In 0.31, new Slime:5 layouts will be introduced. Many don't have the corridors of the original Slime:5 vault, making certain strategies against the Royal Jelly more difficult.
• Prior to 0.30, the slime covered walls would inflict acid damage, rather than just corroding you.
• Prior to 0.27, you could find death oozes and eyes of draining, instead of rockslimes and quicksilver oozes.
• Prior to 0.19, the Slime Pits had six floors. Some jelly creatures were capable of eating items on the floor. Also, killing the Royal Jelly turned walls into translucent rock, so the player needed some way to get in.
• Prior to 0.18, there were an amulet of resist mutation, and an amulet of resist corrosion that were both useful for exploring Slime Pits. The later was changed into a ring.
• Prior to 0.17, Slime:6 prevented Teleport control.
• In 0.13, spiny worms could be found here. They were removed in 0.14.
• Prior to 0.7, the walls of the Slime Pits did not inflict acid damage.