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.

The Slime Pits are a 5-floor branch full of amorphous horrors. Four guaranteed treasure vaults, a large 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 the ill-prepared.

Stairs to the Slime Pits can be found on the bottom floors of the Lair. 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.

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.

Useful Info

Entering the Slime Pits unprepared can be an extremely costly mistake for low-level characters. The branch is home to high level jelly monsters that are fast and can inflict immense damage. Acid blobs rapidly corrode your equipment at range and melee, azure jellies have multiple 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.

It's much safer to explore here after acquiring (in order of importance):

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

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 Eyeballs spell).

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 major exceptions are rockslimes. The lack of EV means that low-accuracy, high-damage spells such as Iron Shot, Lehudib's Crystal Spear, or Starburst are highly effective, while the lack of AC can make spells such as Airstrike or Lee's Rapid Deconstruction (but not Shatter!) quite effective.

Slime: 5

The fifth 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. 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. Once it is killed, the translucent walls of the treasure vaults will vanish. See the Strategy section for some advice on defeating it.

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 walls of the vaults will disappear, allowing you to grab the rune and the loot. Of course, said loot will swiftly be devoured by nearby wandering slimes, so if you want any of it, act quickly; a potion of haste, Swiftness, and Apportation can all help you save particularly choice bits from being devoured (though at the very least, you'll be left with the artefacts and the rune).

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

Talismans are items used to change your form.

Useful Info

A talisman, when eVoked, turns you into its respective transformation (e.g. a beast talisman turns you into Beast Form). This transformation lasts indefinitely. It can't be cancelled or dispelled, though you can voluntarily exit (also with V) at any time. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns. If you are turned into a bad form, when you revert, you'll go back to your talisman form.

Once you have turned into a desired form, the talisman can safely be dropped. You do not need to hold the talisman to stay in a form or exit one. Talismans are found around the dungeon and in jewellery shops.

The undead (ghouls, mummies, bloodless vampires) are unable to transform. Zin despises form-shifting, and will instantly excommunicate any follower who uses one.

Transformations

Each form has its own benefits and downsides. However, talisman forms share a few things in common:

• All talisman forms will boost Unarmed Combat in some way.
• Most forms will meld certain types of equipment, which cannot be used. For example, a blade talisman turns your hands into blades, melding your weapon, shield, and gloves.
• Forms often negate certain mutations, or add new ones. They can also change your size.

Being in any form will make you take +75% damage from silver weaponry.

Skill

Each form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill. Below this skill, you will receive a penalty to max HP. Every level of skill below the minimum gives a penalty of -10% max HP (min. 30%), which is then multiplied by the form bonus.

Raising Shapeshifting past this point will give you form-specific benefits. Beast Form will increase your slaying (attack) bonus, Statue Form will increase your defenses, etc. Each form also has a maximum Shapeshifting skill, where further training has no benefit.

Talismans are not related to spells in any way, so intelligence, wizardry, etc. has no effect.

List of talismans

Talismans are sorted by "tiers". Each tier has the same minimum and maximum Shapeshifting skill.

Tier 1: (min. 0 skill, max. 13 skill)

• Beast talisman (Beast Form)

Tier 2: (min. 9 skill, max. 20)

• Blade talisman (Blade Hands)
• Maw talisman (Maw Form)
• Serpent talisman (Anaconda Form)

Tier 3: (min. 17 skill, max. 23)

• Dragon-blood talisman (Dragon Form)
• Granite talisman (Statue Form)

Tier 4: (min. 21 skill, max. 27)

• Talisman of death (Death Form)
• Storm talisman (Storm Form)

History

• In 0.31, talismans will be introduced, replacing Transmutation spells. Removed spells: Beastly Appendage, Spider Form, Ice Form, Blade Hands, Statue Form, Dragon Form, Storm Form, Necromutation (Lichform).

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The rest of this page will document the various forms

Beast talisman

A beast talisman is a talisman that changes you into Beast Form, a wild, hulking form that grants bonuses to melee.

Shapeshifters start with this item, and start the game in Beast Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a beast talisman turns you into Beast Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Beast Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 4 base damage.
• Slaying Bonus: adds 1 + (5 * Shapeshifting / 13) slaying (1-6 slay) to melee combat, even when using a weapon. Slaying increases damage and accuracy.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour except for body armour. (This includes helmets/hats, cloaks, gloves, and boots/bardings. Does not include shields.)

Beast Form does not block any mutations, does not change your size, and gives no innate bonus to HP / AC.

Beast Form has no minimum Shapeshifting skill. It has a maximum skill of 13; further skill has no further impact.

Strategy

If you haven't found any auxiliary armor pieces yet, then beast form is a free +1 slaying (and +1 Unarmed damage); a net positive for every character. You don't need to train any Shapeshifting to benefit.

It is an essential form for Shapeshifter starts. Your base fists are stronger than the plain short swords, whips, and maces you'll find on the dungeon. Branded weapons can perform better, though. For example, if you find a dagger of venom on D:2, then don't hesitate to switch. Weapon or not, Beast Form is still a buff.

Note that even Shapeshifters won't want to train the Shapeshifting skill right away.

• Shapeshifting skill gives you < 0.5 slay per level.
• Unarmed Combat skill gives +1 base damage per level (which is more damage), better accuracy, and speeds up your attacks.

I haven't thoroughly checked the code, but looks like the slaying bonus isn't randomly rounded yet. There are breakpoints every (13/6 round up) skill levels; you get an extra +1 slay at the following skill intervals: 2.6, 5.2, 7.8, 10.4, 13.

History

• Beastly Appendage.

Serpent talisman

A serpent talisman is a talisman that changes you into Anaconda Form, a giant, constricting snake.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a serpent talisman turns you into Serpent Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Anaconda Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• HP Bonus: 120% HP
• Innate AC: 8 - 12 AC, scaling linearly with Shapeshifting skill.
• Unarmed Combat: 12 base damage.
• Constriction: When making a melee attack, you initiate constriction. You can constrict 1 large (or smaller) foe at a time.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour, weapon and shield. (Can only wear jewellery)
• You cannot throw items.
• Spells are much harder to cast (increases raw spell failure rate by +30%).

Other

• Cold-blooded: You will be slowed when hit by certain cold attacks. Negated by any amount of cold resistance.
• Anaconda Form is large-sized. Species smaller than large will have reduced EV in this form. (Being large also lets you constrict large opponents)
• Suppresses many mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Anaconda Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 9, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 20, where skill has no further impact.

Strategy

Constriction is broken. Remember 0.10 Nagas? Now you are one, but with normal speed and even better stats.

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Anaconda Form had no previous counterpart.

Maw talisman

A maw talisman is a talisman that changes you into Maw Form, which adds a giant, gnashing mouth in place of the stomach.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a maw talisman turns you into Maw Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Maw Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 5 base damage.
• Maw aux attack: Adds a biting auxiliary attack. Whenever you make a melee attack (weapon or not), you have a chance to make a maw attack. Damage equals 7 + Shapeshifting (max. 27 dmg). The chance to activate any aux attack depends on XL; see auxiliary attack for details. If this XL-based check succeeds, then the maw will always attack.
• Devour on kill: Whenever you kill a enemy that can drop a corpse, you'll devour it, which heals you. You'll heal the lesser of HD + 1d(HD) or Shapeshifting + 1d20.
  • Beogh followers will not devour orcs. Gozag turns corpses into gold, stopping this effect. Death drops still generate, so you won't miss out on dragon scales and the like. (Necromancy??)

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: Body armour.

Maw Form does not block any mutations, does not change your size, and gives no innate bonus to HP / AC.

Maw Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 9, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 20, where skill has no further impact.

Strategy

The maw auxiliary attack doesn't care about how hard you hit, but the faster you swing, the more maw attacks you'll proc. Therefore, it works best on fast weapons. Unarmed Combat is obvious, but it also works well with Short Blades.

At XL 27 and skill 20, you'll get a 27 damage attack at a 96% chance to proc. A quick blade at mindelay swings every 0.25 decaAut, so you'll be getting maw attacks four times per turn. That's well above triple sword values. While an Unarmed specialist with Storm Form would be stronger, maw only melds the body armour slot, leaving the shield and 4 aux slots free.

Please train Dodging.

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Maw Form had no previous counterpart.

Blade talisman

A blade talisman is a talisman that gives you Blade Hands, increasing your damage in Unarmed Combat.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a blade talisman grants Blade Hands, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Blade Hands has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 22 base damage.
• Your off-hand punch gains +6 damage.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: Weapon, shield, and gloves. Claws are also melded.
• You cannot throw items.
• Makes spells harder to cast (increases raw spell failure rate by +20%).
• Cut hydra heads.

Blade Hands does not block mutations (other than claws), does not change your size, and gives no innate bonus to HP / AC.

It has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 9, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 20, where skill has no further impact.

Strategy

Strong, "two-handed" Unarmed Combat. Right now, Blade Hands is stronger than a giant spiked club, and it takes less skill to get running, and it doesn't block the off-hand punch.

Otherwise see Blade Hands#Strategy

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Previously implemented as a spell, Blade Hands.

Dragon-blood talisman

A dragon-blood talisman is a talisman that changes you into Dragon Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a dragon-blood talisman turns you into Dragon Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Dragon Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• HP Bonus: 150% HP
• Innate AC: 16 - 22 AC, scales linearly with Shapeshifting. 18 AC at 15 skill.
• Unarmed Combat: 38 base damage (32 + 6 from Claws 3)
• Two auxiliary attacks: Bite 5 (11 dmg) & Tail slap 3 (6 dmg).
• Breathe Fire: Active ability. Launch a piercing, range-5 bolt of fire, creating a flame cloud where it lands. No cost, but has a cooldown of a few turns. Damage = 3d(4 + 2*XL/3). <ref>{{source ref|0.30.0|ability.cc|742}}</ref><ref>{{source ref|0.30.0| zap-data.h|999}}</ref>
• Stat Bonus: +10 strength.

Resistances

• rf++
• rC-
• rPois
• Innate flight.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour, weapon and shield. (Can only wear jewellery)
• You cannot throw items.

Other

• Dragon Form is Giant-sized. This gives a penalty to EV, but you are resistant to trampling, constriction, and nets.
• Suppresses many mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Dragon Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 15, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 23, where skill has no further impact.

Draconians

If you are a Draconian, Dragon Form has special bonuses:

• The AC bonus from draconian scales is added to Dragon Form.
• You retain your natural breath weapon, if any, instead of Breathe Fire.
• Instead of gaining rF++ and rC-, you retain your natural elemental resistances (or lack thereof). Red and white draconians gain rF++/rC- and rF-/rC++, respectively. You still get rPois, no matter the colour.

Strategy

See Dragon Form#Strategy.

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Previously implemented as a spell, Dragon Form.

Granite talisman

A granite talisman is a talisman that changes you into Statue Form, granting you the durability (and speed) of a statue.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a granite talisman turns you into Statue Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Statue Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• HP Bonus: 130% HP
• Innate AC: 20 - 38 AC, scales linearly with Shapeshifting.
• Unarmed Combat: 12 base damage.
• All melee damage, including from weapons, is increased by 50% (after AC is applied).

Resistances

• Poison immunity
• rElec, rN+
• rTorment (50% damage from torment, stacks with rN)
• Non-living: Unbreathing, lacks blood, immune to sleep and petrification
• Vulnerable to Lee's Rapid Deconstruction and Shatter.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: Body armour, gloves, boots.
• All actions slowed by 50%. Stacks with the slow status.
• If you are an amphibious species, you can stand in deep water, but you get all the normal penalties from both shallow and deep water (statues can't swim).

Statue Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 15, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 23, where skill has no further impact.

Gargoyles cannot use this item, as they are already made out of stone.

Strategy

See Statue Form#Strategy.

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Previously implemented as a spell, Statue Form.

Storm talisman

A storm talisman is a talisman that changes you into Storm Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a storm talisman turns you into Storm Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Storm Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Innate AC: 10-20, scales linearly with Shapeshifting. (17 AC at 21 skill).
• Bonus EV: 16/27 * Shapeshifting bonus EV, added on top of your base EV.
• Unarmed Combat: 8 + 3/2 * Shapeshifting (39 at 21 skill) base damage, with added electrocution brand and cleaving.
• Blinkbolt: Bolt-targeted ability that deals electric damage to everything in its path, then blinks you to the end. Has a cooldown.

Resistances

• Poison immunity
• rElec
• Innate flight.
• Non-living: Unbreathing, lacks blood, immune to sleep.
• Insubstantial: Immune to constriction / ensnarement, Sticky Flame, and petrification.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour, weapon and shield. (Can only wear jewellery)
• Suppresses many mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Storm Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 21, below which you get an HP penalty. Maximum skill is 27, which is the cap on Shapeshifting itself.

Strategy

See Storm Form#Strategy.

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Previously implemented as a spell, Storm Form.

Talisman of death

A talisman of death is a talisman that changes you into Death Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a talisman of death turns you into Death Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Death Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 9 base damage.
• All melee attacks (including weapons) inflict drain, slow, and weakness for 3-6 turns.

• Siphon Essence: Active ability (20 MP). Halves HP to all enemies (except nonliving) within 2 tiles. Then, heals you for 100% of damage dealt, with a cap of 46 + 2 * Shapeshifting. Does work against demonic, holy, and undead enemies. (ability.cc)

Resistances

• Standard undead resistances:
  • rC+
  • Immunity to poison and miasma.
  • rN+++ and immune to torment
  • Cannot be mutated. Receive stat drain if you would be mutated.
  • Cannot be polymorphed.
  • Vulnerable to holy, holy wrath, and Dispel Undead.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: None.
• Cannot drink potions.
• Cannot use certain forms of Necromancy (Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door) or wield holy wrath weapons.

Death Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 21, below which you get an HP penalty. Maximum skill is 27, which is the cap on Shapeshifting itself.

Strategy

Most useful in the extended game. No potions is a hefty penalty, but it gives immunity to two important things: torment and mutation. Pre-extended, if you have this much Shapeshifting, you should probably use Storm Form instead.

Necromutation#Strategy probably has something relevant?

History

• In 0.31, new Slime:5 layouts will be introduced. These do not have the corridor of the original Slime:5 vault, thus making certain strategies much harder.
• Prior to 0.30, the slime covered walls would inflict acid damage, rather than just corroding you.
• In 0.27, rockslimes and quicksilver oozes were added, while death oozes and eyes of draining were removed.
• 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.