NetHack

Introduction and general advice

Nethack is a roguelike computer game in which your objective is to go down to the bottom of the Dungeons of Doom and retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. It can be downloaded for free from the official Nethack home page.

Nethack is a complicated game, and it can be difficult to understand all the details of how it works. There are numerous "spoilers" available on the Web; here is a fairly complete list. If you'd prefer to figure out the game for yourself, here are a few tips that may help:

• Read the Guidebook that comes with the game.
• Inscribing the mystic word "Elbereth" on the ground can help to keep you safe. See the Guidebook for more details.
• Fortune cookies, graffiti and the Oracle will all give you cryptic hints, but only the Oracle's hints are guaranteed to be helpful.
• It's usually safe to try wielding or wearing items that aren't cursed (though a few particularly nasty items become cursed when worn). Pets are reluctant to step on cursed items.
• To determine what a magical item is, read a scroll of identify.
• To determine what special abilities your character has picked up, use a wand or potion of enlightenment.
• As mentioned in the Guidebook, if you play in explore mode you will have infinitely many lives and will start with a wand of wishing. Ascensions (victories) in explore mode do not count, but it can enable you to explore more of the dungeon than you could reach in a real game.

What type of character to play?

If you are a beginner, it is much easier to stay alive as a big dumb warrior (such as a Barbarian, Valkyrie or Samurai) than as a highly intelligent but physically weak magic user (such as a Wizard or Healer). Race is not as significant as class, although Elves have very low limits on their strength and constitution, so are not recommended to beginners. Alignment (whether you are lawful, neutral or chaotic) is also not too important; its main effect is on the artifact weapons you can obtain by sacrificing to your deity.

Lawful Human Valkyrie is an excellent combination for several reasons. Valkyries start with a highly enchanted small shield which can remain part of their armour for a long time. They also start with a good weapon, and if they are lawful they can dip it in a fountain to convert it into Excalibur. (The Lady of the Lake does not insist that you are a Knight, but she gets annoyed if neutral or chaotic characters try this trick.) Another excellent weapon, Mjollnir, is their guaranteed first gift from sacrificing. The Valkyrie's quest artifact is the Orb of Fate, which halves any damage they take, making it well worth lugging it around despite its weight.

The advantage of a Human Valkyrie over a Dwarven Valkyrie is that all inhabitants of the Gnomish Mines will be friendly to the dwarf but not necessarily to the human. Some see this as a disadvantage, but nothing in the Mines is particularly deadly. Killing the inhabitants is not advisable if they are peaceful, because your god will not approve, but is a useful source of food, experience and equipment if they are hostile.

A few other classes have special features which may help you to learn about the game:

• Barbarians have poison resistance, meaning that you can eat (almost) anything and learn which corpses are poisonous.
• Priests can detect whether items are blessed, uncursed or cursed, which helps with discovering the effect of blessing or cursing items.
• Wizards start with several magic items - useful for exploring what items exist in the game and what they do.
• Healers start with a stethoscope, which is handy for checking the state of health of a monster. Note, though, that Healer is one of the most difficult classes.

Basic survival

Nethack is not Quake.

Always remember that Nethack is a turn-based game. You have as long as you need to consider your options, even in the heat of combat. In fact, when you find yourself in a sticky situation, it is wise to walk away from the keyboard while you think about what to do next. You could even save your game and consult the spoilers or the Nethack newsgroup.

The better part of valor is discretion.

In Nethack, there are no prizes for dying with honour. When a monster is giving you a hard time, it is seldom wise to take one last swing at it in the hope that it will die. It is much better to escape from the situation and return when you are more able to handle it. One reason why experienced players are fond of speed boots is that they enable you to run faster than most monsters.

Running is not the only way of escaping a dangerous situation. It's a good idea to carry a scroll or wand of teleportation for emergencies. Most monsters won't follow you up or down stairs, though a few will. If you have a wand of digging, you can use it to dig a hole through the floor, though again, some monsters will follow you. A cursed potion of gain level will cause you to rise up through the ceiling.

If you can't (or don't want to) flee, you could try to heal yourself. Prayer is effective if you are in reasonable standing with your deity, you haven't pestered them for help too recently, and they recognise that you are in need of healing. Their definition of "in need of healing" is either 5 HP or less, or 1/7 or less of your maximum HP. If you don't meet this definition, try some other means of healing, such as spells or potions.

An alternative survival strategy is to inscribe the word "Elbereth" on the ground. This prevents most non-human monsters from attacking you hand-to-hand, though they can still use ranged weapons, wands and spells. You can scribble "Elbereth" in the dust with your fingers, but then it is easy to erode, so it is better to engrave it with a wand of digging, and even better to burn it with a wand of fire or lightning. For full details on how Elbereth works, see Kate Nepveu's Elbereth FAQ.

If none of the above applies, and you feel you have to keep fighting, bring out the magic items or spells rather than hacking away with your weapon. Rays bounce, so take care to avoid being killed on the rebound, for example by choosing a wand to which you are already resistant.

Sometimes an indirect approach is best.

Walking right up to a monster and whacking it with your melee weapon is not always the best approach. Some monsters, such as mumakil, hit hard but are slow enough that you should be able to keep your distance and kill them with ranged attacks. Others, such as floating eyes, are totally harmless until you hit them in melee, but have a nasty counterattack (in this case, they paralyse you with their gaze, leaving you vulnerable to any newt that may appear). Pay attention to monsters that it is unwise to attack in melee, and think about alternative strategies for handling them. If you don't have a good ranged attack (like a bow and arrows or a powerful wand or spell), then throw junk weapons, or even rocks.

Newbie mistakes to avoid

Do not savescum, reroll, or use similar dodgy tactics.

Savescumming is the practice of making backup copies of your save files and restoring them when you die. Since this involves going behind the game's back, it is universally regarded as cheating. No-one will be at all impressed if you ascend by savescumming, especially not if you try to pretend that it was a genuine ascension.

Some people savescum in order to learn the game. This is harmless provided that you do not boast about savescummed games as if they were genuine and that you play on a single-user machine (you won't be able to savescum on a multi-user machine anyway). Even so, explore mode is a better option because it does not clutter up the high score table with scores obtained by cheating.

Savescumming and explore mode are generally considered to be a less effective way of learning than playing the game properly. When you can refuse to die, or save your game before a difficult encounter and restore it if you get killed, it is tempting to just keep trying the same strategy until you happen to survive, rather than thinking about ways to improve your chances.

Incidentally, it should not be necessary to back up save files as protection against your computer crashing. Nethack comes with a "recover" command for restoring crashed games.

Rerolling means that if you don't like the stats or items which your character starts with, you immediately quit and try again. Although this is a legitimate part of some other games (for example Angband) it is generally considered to be abusive in Nethack. Like savescumming (though to a lesser extent) rerolling is an ineffective way to learn the game - the ability to keep weak characters alive and to make do with the equipment you find is an important part of being a skilled Nethacker.

Many players who do not savescum or reroll will deliberately play in a risky manner in the early game, because you haven't lost much time if a beginning character dies. For example, they might drink from fountains hoping for a grateful water demon to grant them a wish, even though there is an 80% chance that any water demon they get will be hostile and will kill them. This is not considered as bad as savescumming or rerolling, but is still frowned upon by many Nethackers, who feel that you should try your best to ascend each character. Also, when you play this way you miss out on the valuable experience of struggling to keep a marginally viable character alive for as long as possible.

• Do not attack peaceful monsters.
  • Gods don't like it
  • Some peacefuls are too powerful
• Only pray if you have good reason to.
• Eat only fresh corpses.
  • Undead aren't fresh
• Don't eat while satiated.

Food

Eat these corpses:

• wraith (level up)
• giant (strength up)
• mind flayer (intelligence up)
• floating eye (you get telepathy-skill)
• quantum mechanic (you get speed-skill if you don't already have it, but lose it if you do)
• blobs, jellies and puddings (often hurts you a little, but a good way to gain poison resistance, which is very important)

Don't eat these corpses:

• kobolds (sickens you, okay for Barbarians)
• bats and stalkers (confuses you for a while)
• mimics (you can't move for a while)
• cockatrice, chickatrice, Death, Famine, Pestilence (you die)
• your own race (cannibalism gives you aggravate monster -skill)
• cats and dogs (gods don't like it)
• werewolves, -rats, -jackals (you become one)

As a general rule, if your pet will eat it, you can too. (Exceptions: pets will eat dogs and cats, and tripe rations aren't for human consumption)

Genocide

A blessed scroll of genocide removes all monsters with a particular letter. A uncursed scroll removes one single type of monster. A cursed scroll creates monsters of that type, which experienced players may find useful.

Genociding your own race is fatal

It's a good idea to genocide all kinds of liches (use a blessed scroll of genocide and take out "L"), because they are powerful spellcasters who can curse your items and summon hordes of nasty monsters.

Mind flayers and master mind flayers should also be genocided, because they eat your brain, causing you to forget what you've learned, and in extreme cases, to die from brainlessness. If your character is a dwarf, remember to use two uncursed scrolls rather than one blessed scroll!

If you have spare scrolls of genocide, consider getting rid of the following monsters:

• Eels (can drown you, but can be avoided with careful play, an oilskin cloak, or an amulet of magical breathing)
• Rust monsters and disenchanters (can damage your armour and weapons)
• Olog-hai and other trolls (have the annoying habit of constantly rising from the dead)

The Ascension Kit

"Ascension Kit" is a term experienced Nethack players use for the equipment they hope to have before entering Gehennom (Hell).