Genocide

Genociding something is the action of wiping out all members of a certain race by magical means. Do not confuse it with extinctionism, where you must kill all the creatures by yourself.

Genocide can take place in the form of a scroll of genocide or you may get to genocide one monster when #sitting on a throne. Genocides gained from a throne are always safe, scrolls may not be if they are cursed or if you are confused.

Unique monsters and creatures represented by A, ', or & cannot be genocided. Elementals also cannot be genocided (but stalkers can). The "human" race is exempt from genocide by divine fiat, but subsets of this race (such as nurses and Keystone Kops) and other sentient races are not so protected.

If you want to keep a genocideless conduct, you can always answer "none" when asked what to genocide. Specifying an invalid race five times in a row will also result in nothing being genocided and your conduct will be preserved.

Reverse genocide
Reading a cursed scroll of genocide will create 4-6 of the specified monster. This is what makes reading a non BUC-identified scroll of genocide dangerous. However, it can work to your advantage if the resulting monsters are useful and can be killed easily. Some useful monsters to reverse genocide are:


 * W, wraiths: to eat their corpses for a level gain.
 * , dragons: a dangerous way to make dragon scale mail.
 * , nurses: to nurse dance.
 * , tengu: to eat for a possibility of teleport control.
 * , kraken: easy experience as they are very slow out of water. Be aware that although they tend to run away, they still attack occasionally (but for obvious reasons cannot drown you out of water).
 * , mind flayers: to eat for intelligence gain; be sure to be standing on a burned Elbereth square.
 * , giants: to eat for strength gain.
 * , unicorns: to eat for poison resistance, to sacrifice if cross-aligned, and for unicorn horns, whether to use as-is or to polypile into other magical tools such as magic markers.
 * gypsies (In SLASH'EM): can be used to get wishes.

For monsters that you want to eat, especially those that provide a large amount of nutrition, it is valuable to have a tinning kit on hand when reverse genociding.

You cannot reverse genocide a monster which cannot be genocided, or which has already been genocided.

Reverse genociding does not break the genocideless conduct.

Emergency genocide
The scroll of genocide is a useful escape item, as it can instantly kill a monster which poses an immediate threat and cannot be dealt with in any other way. For example, a sea monster holding you, a single monster about to take your last hit point, or a nymph who is robbing you blind. Keep in mind however that some monsters cannot be genocided.

Common genocides
Some species are widely considered to be so nasty, or so annoying, that they merit genocide as soon as possible:


 * , liches
 * , mind flayers
 * , sea monsters
 * , rust monsters and disenchanters

It is nearly always best to postpone genocide until you can bless your scroll, as the worst monsters don't appear until later, giving you plenty of time to build up a cache of holy water. Note that if you are a dwarf, genociding h will be instantly fatal! Thus, this is a good use for uncursed scrolls or genocides offered by a throne.

No genocides
It can be argued that all species are a source of useful items and properties, and hence genociding actually makes the game harder. Liches provide athames, mind flayer corpses can boost intelligence, sea monsters are trivial for a well equipped player to deal with, etc.

This viewpoint usually advocates genociding only mimics, as this will increase the number of items present in shops, especially in Orcus Town.

A player who wishes to maintain genocideless conduct can answer "none" when prompted for which species to genocide.

Wizard mode genocide
Wizard mode offers an additional option for genocide: entering * for your genocide choice on a blessed scroll wipes out all enemies on the level, even those you can't see. This includes normally ungenocideable monsters, tame monsters, peaceful monsters, and everything else that isn't you.