Here are all the ways I know of removing curses in
Nethack and
Slash'Em. Many of these tips were taken from
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/games/nethack/General/Spoilers/NH31/trouble.
Some of them will not uncurse the item, but will free you from being
stuck to it.
- Read a scroll of remove curse. If the scroll itself is cursed,
this will do you no good. An uncursed scroll will remove curses on
your worn and wielded items, and on any loadstones in your
inventory. A blessed scroll will uncurse all cursed items in your main
inventory (note that this will not work on cursed items in bags).
- Dip a cursed object into a potion of holy water. This requires one
potion per object or stack of objects to be uncursed. Uncursed or
cursed water can be blessed (made into holy water) by being dropped on
a coaligned altar and prayed over, assuming you are in good standing
with your god. You can also make more holy water out of many uncursed
potions of water by dipping them, in a stack, into a single potion of
holy water. Uncursed potions of water can be made by diluting other
potions.
- Dip a cursed object into a fountain. There is a 2/15 chance that
the item will be uncursed with the message "The water glows for a
moment". Metal items might rust, and you may attract water demons
or water nymphs, so be careful.
- Pray. Your deity treats cursed blindfolds and
levitation items as a major problem, and other cursed wielded or worn
items (plus loadstones and luckstones) as a minor problem. If your
alignment and luck are good enough, all these items will be
uncursed. Also, a "light blue aura" surrounding you after a prayer
will uncurse all cursed objects in your main inventory, as per a
blessed scroll of remove curse; however, this effect cannot be
guaranteed.
- Zap a wand or spell of cancellation at the object. If possible,
drop it first before zapping it; otherwise (i.e., it's welded to your
body), drop all magical items, including enchanted and/or blessed
armor and weapons, and zap yourself (direction .). Failing to remove
magical items from inventory before cancelling yourself can result in
the unpleasant effects of loss of armor/weapon enchantment, blanking
of scrolls and spellbooks, changing of magical potions into uncursed
water or fruit juice, etc.
- Cast a spell of remove curse. If you're at least skilled in the
appropriate spell school, it will have the same effect as a blessed
scroll. Otherwise, it will have the same effect as an uncursed
scroll.
- If the cursed object is armour or a weapon, enchant it.
- If the cursed object is armour and you don't mind losing it, take
off all other armour and read a noncursed scroll of destroy armour.
- If the cursed object is armour, let an incubus or succubus
remove it.
- If the cursed object is causing you to levitate, float over a
sink. You will crash to the floor, and the item will be removed,
although it will remain cursed.
- If the cursed object is a chargeable ring, charge it up until it
explodes. This is probably a waste of scrolls of charging. In
Slash'EM, you may be able to pay a shopkeeper to charge the ring for
you.
- If the cursed object is armour or a weapon, polymorph into
something that can't wear armour or wield weapons.
- Drop everything else and let a nymph steal the cursed items.
- Loadstones only: drop everything but the loadstone, a wand of
digging and your armour, enter a shop, pick up something in the
shop, and dig through the floor. The shopkeeper will grab your
backpack.
- Step on a magic trap. There is a 1/20 chance of this acting
like an uncursed scroll of remove curse. Be careful, because the most
common effect of a magic trap is to blind you and summon monsters.
- If the cursed object is a ring, a blast of lightning may cause
it to explode, but may also explode useful rings and wands.
- High-level spellcasting monsters can destroy armour if you're
not magic resistant, in the order cloak, suit, shirt, helmet,
gloves, boots, shield, but watch out for their other spells such
as touch of death.
- Dip the cursed item into a potion of polymorph.
- In Slash'Em, pay a shopkeeper to uncurse the item. The cost is
no more than 250 GP. If your Charisma is low, ensure that the item is
marked as cursed in your inventory, because otherwise the shopkeeper
may cheat you by not uncursing it.
- In Slash'Em 6E4F8, dipping a cursed worn or wielded item into a
potion of gain level will remove/unwield it. However, this is a
bug and has been fixed in the development version.