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A Guide to the Mazes of Menace:

Guidebook for NetHack 3.

Eric S. Raymond

(Extensively edited and expanded for 3.0 by Mike Threepoint)

August 2, 2000

1 Introduction

Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant in your daily occupation. Strange dreams of prospecting, stealing, crusading, and combat have haunted you in your sleep for many months, but you aren’t sure of the reason. You wonder whether you have in fact been having those dreams all your life, and somehow managed to forget about them until now. Some nights you awaken suddenly and cry out, terrified at the vivid recollection of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be lurking behind every corner of the dungeon in your dream. Could these details haunting your dreams be real? As each night passes, you feel the desire to enter the mysterious caverns near the ruins grow stronger. Each morning, however, you quickly put the idea out of your head as you recall the tales of those who entered the caverns before you and did not return. Eventually you can resist the yearning to seek out the fantastic place in your dreams no longer. After all, when other adventurers came back this way after spending time in the caverns, they usually seemed better off than when they passed through the first time. And who was to say that all of those who did not return had not just kept going? Asking around, you hear about a bauble, called the Amulet of Yendor by some, which, if you can find it, will bring you great wealth. One legend you were told even mentioned that the one who finds the amulet will be granted immortality by the gods. The amulet is rumored to be somewhere beyond the Valley of Gehennom, deep within the Mazes of Menace. Upon hearing the legends, you immediately realize that there is some profound and undiscovered reason that you are to descend into the caverns and seek out that amulet of which they spoke. Even if the rumors of the amulet’s powers are untrue, you decide that you should at least be able to sell the tales of your adventures to the local minstrels for a tidy sum, especially if you encounter any of the terrifying and magical creatures of your dreams along the way. You spend one last night fortifying yourself at the local inn, becoming more and more depressed as you watch the odds of your success being posted on the inn’s walls getting lower and lower. In the morning you awake, collect your belongings, and set off for the dungeon. After several days of uneventful travel, you see the ancient ruins that mark the entrance to the Mazes of Menace. It is late at night, so you make camp at the entrance and spend the night sleeping under the open skies. In the morning, you gather your gear, eat what may be your last meal outside, and enter the dungeon...

2 What is going on here?

You have just begun a game of NetHack. Your goal is to grab as much treasure as you can, retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, and escape the Mazes of Menace alive. Your abilities and strengths for dealing with the hazards of adventure will vary with your background and training:

Archeologists understand dungeons pretty well; this enables them to move quickly and sneak up on the local nasties. They start equipped with the tools for a proper scientific expedition.

Barbarians are warriors out of the hinterland, hardened to battle. They begin their quests with naught but uncommon strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.

Cavemen and Cavewomen start with exceptional strength, but unfortunately, neolithic weapons.

Healers are wise in medicine and apothecary. They know the herbs and simples that can restore vitality, ease pain, anesthetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instru- ments, they can divine a being’s state of health or sickness. Their medical practice earns them quite reasonable amounts of money, with which they enter the dungeon.

Knights are distinguished from the common skirmisher by their devotion to the ideals of chivalry and by the surpassing excellence of their armor.

Monks are ascetics, who by rigorous practice of physical and mental disciplines have become capable of fighting as effectively without weapons as with. They wear no armor but make up for it with increased mobility.

depending on the capabilities of your hardware and software, and whether various compile-time options were enabled when your executable was created. The three possible display options are: a monochrome character interface, a color character interface, and a graphical interface using small pictures called tiles. The two character interfaces allow fonts with other characters to be substituted, but the default assignments use standard ASCII characters to represent everything. There is no difference between the various display options with respect to game play. Because we cannot reproduce the tiles or colors in the Guidebook, and because it is common to all ports, we will use the default ASCII characters from the monochrome character display when referring to things you might see on the screen during your game. In order to understand what is going on in NetHack, first you must understand what NetHack is doing with the screen. The NetHack screen replaces the “You see... ” descriptions of text adventure games. Figure 1 is a sample of what a NetHack screen might look like.

The bat bites!

---

|....| ---------- |.<..|####...@...$.| |....-# |...B....+ |....| |.d......| ------ -------|--

Player the Rambler St:12 Dx:7 Co:18 In:11 Wi:9 Ch:15 Neutral Dlvl:1 $:0 HP:9(12) Pw:3(3) AC:10 Exp:1/19 T:257 Weak

Figure 1

The status lines (bottom)

The bottom two lines of the screen contain several cryptic pieces of information describing your current status. If either status line becomes longer than the width of the screen, you might not see all of it. Here are explanations of what the various status items mean (though your configuration may not have all the status items listed below):

Rank Your character’s name and professional ranking (based on the experience level, see below).

Strength A measure of your character’s strength; one of your six basic attributes. Your at- tributes can range from 3 to 18 inclusive (occasionally you may get super-strengths of the form 18/xx). The higher your strength, the stronger you are. Strength affects how successfully you perform physical tasks, how much damage you do in combat, and how much loot you can carry.

Dexterity Dexterity affects your chances to hit in combat, to avoid traps, and do other tasks requiring agility or manipulation of objects.

Constitution Constitution affects your ability to recover from injuries and other strains on your stamina.

Intelligence Intelligence affects your ability to cast spells and read spellbooks.

Wisdom Wisdom comes from your practical experience (especially when dealing with magic). It affects your magical energy.

Charisma Charisma affects how certain creatures react toward you. In particular, it can affect the prices shopkeepers offer you.

Alignment Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic. Often, Lawful is taken as good and Chaotic is evil, but le- gal and ethical do not always coincide. Your alignment influences how other monsters react toward you. Monsters of a like alignment are more likely to be non-aggressive, while those of an opposing alignment are more likely to be seriously offended at your presence.

Dungeon Level How deep you are in the dungeon. You start at level one and the number increases as you go deeper into the dungeon. Some levels are special, and are identified by a name and not a number. The Amulet of Yendor is reputed to be somewhere beneath the twentieth level.

Gold The number of gold pieces you are openly carrying. Gold which you have concealed in containers is not counted.

Hit Points Your current and maximum hit points. Hit points indicate how much damage you can take before you die. The more you get hit in a fight, the lower they get. You can regain hit points by resting, or by using certain magical items or spells. The number in parentheses is the maximum number your hit points can reach.

Power Spell points. This tells you how much mystic energy (mana) you have available for spell casting. Again, resting will regenerate the amount available.

Armor Class A measure of how effectively your armor stops blows from unfriendly creatures. The lower this number is, the more effective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative armor class.

Experience Your current experience level and experience points. As you adventure, you gain experience points. At certain experience point totals, you gain an experience level. The more experienced you are, the better you fight and withstand magical attacks. Many dungeons show only your experience level here.

Time The number of turns elapsed so far, displayed if you have the time option set.

Hunger Status Your current hunger status, ranging from Satiated down to Fainting. If your hunger status is normal, it is not displayed. Additional status flags may appear after the hunger status: Conf when you’re confused, FoodPois or Ill when sick, Blind when you can’t see, Stun when stunned, and Hallu when hallucinating.

The message line (top)

The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that describe things that are impossible to represent visually. If you see a “--More--” on the top line, this means that NetHack has another message to display on the screen, but it wants to make certain that you’ve read the one that is there first. To read the next message, just press the space bar.

The map (rest of the screen)

The rest of the screen is the map of the level as you have explored it so far. Each symbol on the screen represents something. You can set various graphics options to change some of the symbols the game uses; otherwise, the game will use default symbols. Here is a list of what the default symbols mean:

• and | The walls of a room, or an open door. Or a grave (|). . The floor of a room, ice, or a doorless doorway.

A corridor, or iron bars, or a tree, or possibly a kitchen sink (if your dungeon has

sinks), or a drawbridge.

Stairs down: a way to the next level.

< Stairs up: a way to the previous level.

• A closed door, or a spellbook containing a spell you may be able to learn.

command, which accesses a menu of helpful texts. Here are the commands for your reference:

? Help menu: display one of several help texts available.

/ Tell what a symbol represents. You may choose to specify a location or type a symbol (or even a whole word) to explain. Specifying a location is done by moving the cursor to a particular spot on the map and then pressing one of ‘.’, ‘,’, ‘;’, or ‘:’. ‘.’ will explain the symbol at the chosen location, conditionally check for “More info?” depending upon whether the help option is on, and then you will be asked to pick another location; ‘,’ will explain the symbol but skip any additional information; ‘;’ will skip additional info and also not bother asking you to choose another location to examine; ‘:’ will show additional info, if any, without asking for confirmation. When picking a location, pressing the ESC key will terminate this command, or pressing ‘?’ will give a brief reminder about how it works. Specifying a name rather than a location always gives any additional information available about that name.

& Tell what a command does.

< Go up to the previous level (if you are on the staircase or ladder).

Go down to the next level (if you are on the staircase or ladder).

[yuhjklbn] Go one step in the direction indicated (see Figure 2). If you can sense a monster there, you will fight the monster instead. Only these one-step movement commands cause you to fight monsters; the others (below) are “safe.” y k u 7 8 9 \ | / \ | / h-. -l 4-. - / | \ / |
b j n 1 2 3 (if number pad set) Figure 2

[YUHJKLBN] Go in that direction until you hit a wall or run into something.

m[yuhjklbn] Prefix: move without picking up objects or fighting (even if you remember a monster there)

F[yuhjklbn] Prefix: fight a monster (even if you only guess one is there)

M[yuhjklbn] Prefix: Move far, no pickup.

g[yuhjklbn] Prefix: Move until something interesting is found.

G[yuhjklbn] or <CONTROL->[yuhjklbn] Prefix: Same as ‘g’, but forking of corridors is not considered interesting.

. Rest, do nothing for one turn.

a Apply (use) a tool (pick-axe, key, lamp... ).

A Remove one or more worn items, such as armor. Use ‘T’ (take off) to take off only one piece of armor or ‘R’ (remove) to take off only one accessory.

^A Redo the previous command.

c Close a door.

C Call (name) an individual monster.

^C Panic button. Quit the game.

d Drop something. d7a — drop seven items of object a.

D Drop several things. In answer to the question “What kinds of things do you want to drop? [!%= aium]” you should type zero or more object symbols possibly followed by ‘a’ and/or ‘i’ and/or ‘u’ and/or ‘m’. Da — drop all objects, without asking for confirmation. Di — examine your intentory before dropping anything. Du — drop only unpaid objects (when in a shop). Dm — use a menu to pick which object(s) to drop. D%u — drop only unpaid food.

^D Kick something (usually a door).

e Eat food.

E Engrave a message on the floor. Engraving the word “Elbereth” will cause most monsters to not attack you hand-to-hand (but if you attack, you will rub it out); this is often useful to give yourself a breather. (This feature may be compiled out of the game, so your version might not have it.) E- — write in the dust with your fingers.

f Fire one of the objects placed in your quiver. You may select ammunition with a previous ‘Q’ command, or let the computer pick something appropriate if autoquiver is true.

i List your inventory (everything you’re carrying).

I List selected parts of your inventory. I* — list all gems in inventory; Iu — list all unpaid items; Ix — list all used up items that are on your shopping bill; I$ — count your money.

o Open a door.

O Set options. A menu showing the current option values will be displayed. You can change most values simply by selecting the menu entry for the given option (ie, by typing its letter or clicking upon it, depending on your user interface). For the non- boolean choices, a further menu or prompt will appear once you’ve closed this menu. The available options are listed later in this Guidebook. Options are usually set before the game rather than with the ‘O’ command; see the section on options below.

p Pay your shopping bill.

P Put on a ring or other accessory (amulet, blindfold).

^P Repeat previous message (subsequent ^P’s repeat earlier messages).

q Quaff (drink) a potion.

Q Select an object for your quiver. You can then throw this using the ‘f’ command. (In versions prior to 3.3 this was the command to quit the game, which has now been moved to ‘#quit’.)

r Read a scroll or spellbook.

R Remove an accessory (ring, amulet, etc).

^R Redraw the screen.

s Search for secret doors and traps around you. It usually takes several tries to find something.

S Save (and suspend) the game. The game will be restored automatically the next time you play.

t Throw an object or shoot a projectile.

T Take off armor.

#invoke Invoke an object’s special powers.

#jump Jump to another location.

#loot Loot a box or bag on the floor beneath you, or the saddle from a horse standing next to you.

#monster Use a monster’s special ability (when polymorphed into monster form).

#name Name an item or type of object.

#offer Offer a sacrifice to the gods.

#pray Pray to the gods for help.

#quit Quit the program without saving your game.

#ride Ride (or stop riding) a monster.

#rub Rub a lamp.

#sit Sit down.

#turn Turn undead.

#twoweapon Toggle two-weapon combat on or off. Note that you must use suitable weapons for this type of combat, or it will be automatically turned off.

#untrap Untrap something (trap, door, or chest).

#version Print compile time options for this version of NetHack.

#wipe Wipe off your face.

#? Help menu: get the list of available extended commands.

If your keyboard has a meta key (which, when pressed in combination with another key, modifies it by setting the ‘meta’ [8th, or ‘high’] bit), you can invoke many extended commands by meta-ing the first letter of the command. In NT, OS/2, and PC NetHack, the ‘Alt’ key can be used in this fashion.

M-2 #twoweapon

M-a #adjust

M-c #chat

M-d #dip

M-e #enhance

M-f #force

M-i #invoke

M-j #jump

M-l #loot

M-m #monster

M-n #name

M-o #offer

M-p #pray

M-q #quit

M-r #rub

M-s #sit

M-t #turn

M-u #untrap

M-v #version

M-w #wipe

If the number pad option is on, some additional letter commands are available:

j Jump to another location. Same as “#jump” or “M-j”.

k Kick something (usually a door). Same as ‘^D’.

l Loot a box or bag on the floor beneath you, or the saddle from a horse standing next to you. Same as “#loot” or “M-l”.

N Name an object or type of object. Same as “#name” or “M-N”.

u Untrap a trap, door, or chest. Same as “#untrap” or “M-u”.

5 Rooms and corridors

Rooms and corridors in the dungeon are either lit or dark. Any lit areas within your line of sight will be displayed; dark areas are only displayed if they are within one space of you. Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them. Secret corridors are hidden. You can find them with the ‘s’ (search) command.

Doorways

Doorways connect rooms and corridors. Some doorways have no doors; you can walk right through. Others have doors in them, which may be open, closed, or locked. To open a closed door, use the ‘o’ (open) command; to close it again, use the ‘c’ (close) command. You can get through a locked door by using a tool to pick the lock with the ‘a’ (apply) command, or by kicking it open with the ‘^D’ (kick) command. Open doors cannot be entered diagonally; you must approach them straight on, horizontally or ver- tically. Doorways without doors are not restricted in this fashion. Doors can be useful for shutting out monsters. Most monsters cannot open doors, although a few don’t need to (ex. ghosts can walk through doors). Secret doors are hidden. You can find them with the ‘s’ (search) command. Once found they are in all ways equivalent to normal doors.

Traps (‘^’)

There are traps throughout the dungeon to snare the unwary delver. For example, you may suddenly fall into a pit and be stuck for a few turns trying to climb out. Traps don’t appear on your map until you see one triggered by moving onto it, see something fall into it, or you discover it with the ‘s’ (search) command. Monsters can fall prey to traps, too, which can be a very useful defensive strategy. There is a special pre-mapped branch of the dungeon based on the classic computer game “Sokoban.” The goal is to push the boulders into the pits or holes. With careful foresight, it is possible to complete all of the levels according to the traditional rules of Sokoban. Some allowances are permitted in case the player gets stuck; however, they will lower your luck.

Stairs (‘<’, ‘>’)

In general, each level in the dungeon will have a staircase going up (‘<’) to the previous level and another going down (‘>’) to the next level. There are some exceptions though. For instance, fairly early in the dungeon you will find a level with two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon and the other branching into an area known as the Gnomish Mines. Those mines eventually hit a dead end, so after exploring them (if you choose to do so), you’ll need to climb back up to the main dungeon. When you traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a trap which sends you to another level, the level you’re leaving will be deactivated and stored in a file on disk. If you’re moving to a previously visited level, it will be loaded from its file on disk and reactivated. If you’re moving to a level which has not yet been

control however, you can easily climb in and out of the saddle with the ‘#ride’ command. Lead the beast around the dungeon when riding, in the same manner as you would move yourself. It is the beast that you will see displayed on the map. Riding skill is managed by the ‘#enhance’ command. See the section on Weapon proficiency for more information about that.

Bones levels

You may encounter the shades and corpses of other adventurers (or even former incarnations of yourself!) and their personal effects. Ghosts are hard to kill, but easy to avoid, since they’re slow and do little damage. You can plunder the deceased adventurer’s possessions; however, they are likely to be cursed. Beware of whatever killed the former player; it is probably still lurking around, gloating over its last victory.

7 Objects

When you find something in the dungeon, it is common to want to pick it up. In NetHack, this is accomplished automatically by walking over the object (unless you turn off the autopickup option (see below), or move with the ‘m’ prefix (see above)), or manually by using the ‘,’ command. If you’re carrying too many items, NetHack will tell you so and you won’t be able to pick up anything more. Otherwise, it will add the object(s) to your pack and tell you what you just picked up. As you add items to your inventory, you also add the weight of that object to your load. The amount that you can carry depends on your strength and your constitution. The stronger you are, the less the additional load will affect you. There comes a point, though, when the weight of all of that stuff you are carrying around with you through the dungeon will encumber you. Your reactions will get slower and you’ll burn calories faster, requiring food more frequently to cope with it. Eventually, you’ll be so overloaded that you’ll either have to discard some of what you’re carrying or collapse under its weight. NetHack will tell you how badly you have loaded yourself. The symbols ‘Burdened’, ‘Stressed’, ‘Strained’, ‘Overtaxed’ and ‘Overloaded’ are displayed on the bottom line display to indicate your condition. When you pick up an object, it is assigned an inventory letter. Many commands that operate on objects must ask you to find out which object you want to use. When NetHack asks you to choose a particular object you are carrying, you are usually presented with a list of inventory letters to choose from (see Commands, above). Some objects, such as weapons, are easily differentiated. Others, like scrolls and potions, are given descriptions which vary according to type. During a game, any two objects with the same description are the same type. However, the descriptions will vary from game to game. When you use one of these objects, if its effect is obvious, NetHack will remember what it is for you. If its effect isn’t extremely obvious, you will be asked what you want to call this type of object so you will recognize it later. You can also use the “#name” command for the same purpose at any time, to name all objects of a particular type or just an individual object. When you use “#name” on an object which has already been named, specifying a space as the value will remove the prior name instead of assigning a new one.

Curses and Blessings

Any object that you find may be cursed, even if the object is otherwise helpful. The most common effect of a curse is being stuck with (and to) the item. Cursed weapons weld themselves to your hand when wielded, so you cannot unwield them. Any cursed item you wear is not removable by ordinary means. In addition, cursed arms and armor usually, but not always, bear negative enchantments that make them less effective in combat. Other cursed objects may act poorly or detrimentally in other ways. Objects can also be blessed. Blessed items usually work better or more beneficially than normal uncursed items. For example, a blessed weapon will do more damage against demons.

There are magical means of bestowing or removing curses upon objects, so even if you are stuck with one, you can still have the curse lifted and the item removed. Priests and Priestesses have an innate sensitivity to this property in any object, so they can more easily avoid cursed objects than other character roles. An item with unknown status will be reported in your inventory with no prefix. An item which you know the state of will be distinguished in your inventory by the presence of the word “cursed”, “uncursed” or “blessed” in the description of the item.

Weapons (‘)’)

Given a chance, most monsters in the Mazes of Menace will gratuitously try to kill you. You need weapons for self-defense (killing them first). Without a weapon, you do only 1–2 hit points of damage (plus bonuses, if any). Monk characters are an exception; they normally do much more damage with bare hands than they do with weapons. There are wielded weapons, like maces and swords, and thrown weapons, like arrows and spears. To hit monsters with a weapon, you must wield it and attack them, or throw it at them. You can simply elect to throw a spear. To shoot an arrow, you should first wield a bow, then throw the arrow. Crossbows shoot crossbow bolts. Slings hurl rocks and (other) stones (like gems). Enchanted weapons have a “plus” (or “to hit enhancement” which can be either positive or negative) that adds to your chance to hit and the damage you do to a monster. The only way to determine a weapon’s enchantment is to have it magically identified somehow. Most weapons are subject to some type of damage like rust. Such “erosion” damage can be repaired. The chance that an attack will successfully hit a monster, and the amount of damage such a hit will do, depends upon many factors. Among them are: type of weapon, quality of weapon (enchantment and/or erosion), experience level, strength, dexterity, encumbrance, and proficiency (see below). The monster’s armor class—a general defense rating, not necessarily due to wearing of armor—is a factor too; also, some monsters are particularly vulnerable to certain types of weapons. Many weapons can be wielded in one hand; some require both hands. When wielding a two-handed weapon, you can not wear a shield, and vice versa. When wielding a one-handed weapon, you can have another weapon ready to use by setting things up with the ‘x’ command, which exchanges your primary (the one being wielded) and secondary weapons. And if you have proficiency in the “two weapon combat” skill, you may wield both primary and secondary weapons simultaneously; use the ‘#twoweapon’ extended command to engage or disengage that. Only some types of characters (barbarians, for instance), have the necessary skill available. Even with that skill, using two weapons at once incurs a penalty in the chance to hit your target compared to using just one weapon at a time. There might be times when you’d rather not wield any weapon at all. To accomplish that, wield ‘-’, or else use the ‘A’ command which allows you to unwield the current weapon in addition to taking off other worn items. Those of you in the audience who are AD&D players, be aware that each weapon which exists in AD&D does roughly the same damage to monsters in NetHack. Some of the more obscure weapons (such as the aklys, lucern hammer, and bec-de-corbin) are defined in an appendix to Unearthed Arcana, an AD&D supplement. The commands to use weapons are ‘w’ (wield), ‘t’ (throw), ‘f’ (fire, an alternative way of throwing), ‘Q’ (quiver), ‘x’ (exchange), ‘#twoweapon’, and ‘#enhance’ (see below).

Throwing and shooting

You can throw just about anything via the ‘t’ command. It will prompt for the item to throw; picking ‘?’ will list things in your inventory which are considered likely to be thrown, or picking ‘*’ will list your entire inventory. After you’ve chosen what to throw, you will be prompted for a direction rather than for a specific target. The distance something can be thrown depends mainly on the type of object and your

dragon scale mail 1 plate mail 3 crystal plate mail 3 bronze plate mail 4 splint mail 4 banded mail 4 dwarvish mithril-coat 4 elven mithril-coat 5 chain mail 5 orcish chain mail 6 scale mail 6 studded leather armor 7 ring mail 7 orcish ring mail 8 leather armor 8 leather jacket 9 no armor 10

You can also wear other pieces of armor (ex. helmets, boots, shields, cloaks) to lower your armor class even further, but you can only wear one item of each category (one suit of armor, one cloak, one helmet, one shield, and so on) at a time. If a piece of armor is enchanted, its armor protection will be better (or worse) than normal, and its “plus” (or minus) will subtract from your armor class. For example, a +1 chain mail would give you better protection than normal chain mail, lowering your armor class one unit further to 4. When you put on a piece of armor, you immediately find out the armor class and any “plusses” it provides. Cursed pieces of armor usually have negative enchantments (minuses) in addition to being unremovable. Many types of armor are subject to some kind of damage like rust. Such damage can be repaired. Some types of armor may inhibit spell casting. The commands to use armor are ‘W’ (wear) and ‘T’ (take off). The ‘A’ command can also be used to take off armor as well as other worn items.

Food (‘%’)

Food is necessary to survive. If you go too long without eating you will faint, and eventually die of starvation. Some types of food will spoil, and become unhealthy to eat, if not protected. Food stored in ice boxes or tins (“cans”) will usually stay fresh, but ice boxes are heavy, and tins take a while to open. When you kill monsters, they usually leave corpses which are also “food.” Many, but not all, of these are edible; some also give you special powers when you eat them. A good rule of thumb is “you are what you eat.” Some character roles and some monsters are vegetarian. Vegetarian monsters will typically never eat animal corpses, while vegetarian players can, but with some rather unpleasant side-effects. You can name one food item after something you like to eat with the fruit option. The command to eat food is ‘e’.

Scrolls (‘?’)

Scrolls are labeled with various titles, probably chosen by ancient wizards for their amusement value (ex. “READ ME,” or “THANX MAUD” backwards). Scrolls disappear after you read them (except for blank ones, without magic spells on them). One of the most useful of these is the scroll of identify, which can be used to determine what an- other object is, whether it is cursed or blessed, and how many uses it has left. Some objects of subtle enchantment are difficult to identify without these. A mail daemon may run up and deliver mail to you as a scroll of mail (on versions compiled with this feature). To use this feature on versions where NetHack mail delivery is triggered by electronic mail appearing in your system mailbox, you must let NetHack know where to look for new mail by setting the “MAIL” environment variable to the file name of your mailbox. You may also want to set the “MAILREADER” environment variable to the file name of your favorite reader, so NetHack can shell to it when you read the scroll. On versions of NetHack where mail is randomly generated internal to the game, these environment variables are ignored. You can disable the mail daemon by turning off the mail option. The command to read a scroll is ‘r’.

Potions (‘!’)

Potions are distinguished by the color of the liquid inside the flask. They disappear after you quaff them. Clear potions are potions of water. Sometimes these are blessed or cursed, resulting in holy or unholy water. Holy water is the bane of the undead, so potions of holy water are good things to throw (‘t’) at them. It is also sometimes very useful to dip (“#dip”) an object into a potion. The command to drink a potion is ‘q’ (quaff).

Wands (‘/’)

Magic wands usually have multiple magical charges. Some wands are directional—you must give a direction in which to zap them. You can also zap them at yourself (just give a ‘.’ or ‘s’ for the direction). Be warned, however, for this is often unwise. Other wands are nondirectional—they don’t require a direction. The number of charges in a wand is random and decreases by one whenever you use it. When the number of charges left in a wand becomes zero, attempts to use the wand will usually result in nothing happening. Occasionally, however, it may be possible to squeeze the last few mana points from an otherwise spent wand, destroying it in the process. A wand may be recharged by using suitable magic, but doing so runs the risk of causing it to explode. The chance for such an explosion starts out very small and increases each time the wand is recharged. In a truly desperate situation, when your back is up against the wall, you might decide to go for broke and break your wand. This is not for the faint of heart. Doing so will almost certainly cause a catastrophic release of magical energies. When you have fully identified a particular wand, inventory display will include additional information in parentheses: the number of times it has been recharged followed by a colon and then by its current number of charges. A current charge count of -1 is a special case indicating that the wand has been cancelled. The command to use a wand is ‘z’ (zap). To break one, use the ‘a’ (apply) command.

Rings (‘=’)

Rings are very useful items, since they are relatively permanent magic, unlike the usually fleeting effects of potions, scrolls, and wands. Putting on a ring activates its magic. You can wear only two rings, one on each ring finger. Most rings also cause you to grow hungry more rapidly, the rate varying with the type of ring. The commands to use rings are ‘P’ (put on) and ‘R’ (remove).

Spellbooks (‘+’)

Spellbooks are tomes of mighty magic. When studied with the ‘r’ (read) command, they transfer to the reader the knowledge of a spell (and therefore eventually become unreadable) — unless the attempt backfires. Reading a cursed spellbook or one with mystic runes beyond your ken can be harmful to your health! A spell (even when learned) can also backfire when you cast it. If you attempt to cast a spell well above your experience level, or if you have little skill with the appropriate spell type, or cast it at a time when your luck is particularly bad, you can end up wasting both the energy and the time required in casting. Casting a spell calls forth magical energies and focuses them with your naked mind. Releasing the magical energy releases some of your memory of the spell with it. Each time you cast a spell, your familiarity with it will dwindle, until you eventually forget the details completely and must relearn it. Just as weapons are divided into groups in which a character can become proficient (to varying degrees), spells are similarly grouped. Successfully casting a spell exercises the skill group; sufficient skill may increase the potency of the spell and reduce the risk of spell failure. Skill slots are shared with weapons skills. (See also the section on “Weapon proficiency”.)

8 Conduct

As if winning NetHack were not difficult enough, certain players seek to challenge themselves by imposing restrictions on the way they play the game. The game automatically tracks some of these challenges, which can be checked at any time with the #conduct command or at the end of the game. When you perform an action which breaks a challenge, it will no longer be listed. This gives players extra “bragging rights” for winning the game with these challenges. Note that it is perfectly acceptable to win the game without resorting to these restrictions and that it is unusual for players to adhere to challenges the first time they win the game. Several of the challenges are related to eating behavior. The most difficult of these is the foodless challenge. Although creatures can survive long periods of time without food, there is a physiological need for water; thus there is no restriction on drinking beverages, even if they provide some minor food benefits. Calling upon your god for help with starvation does not violate any food challenges either. A strict vegan diet is one which avoids any food derived from animals. The primary source of nutrition is fruits and vegetables. The corpses and tins of blobs (‘b’), jellies (‘j’), and fungi (‘F’) are also considered to be vegetable matter. Certain human food is prepared without animal products; namely, lembas wafers, cram rations, food rations (gunyoki), K-rations, and C-rations. Metal or another normally indigestible material eaten while polymorphed into a creature that can digest it is also considered vegan food. Note however that eating such items still counts against foodless conduct. Vegetarians do not eat animals; however, they are less selective about eating animal byproducts than vegans. In addition to the vegan items listed above, they may eat any kind of pudding (‘P’) other than the black puddings, eggs and food made from eggs (fortune cookies and pancakes), food made with milk (cream pies and candy bars), and lumps of royal jelly. Monks are expected to observe a vegetarian diet. Eating any kind of meat violates the vegetarian, vegan, and foodless conducts. This includes tripe rations, the corpses or tins of any monsters not mentioned above, and the various other chunks of meat found in the dungeon. Swallowing and digesting a monster while polymorphed is treated as if you ate the creature’s corpse. Eating leather, dragon hide, or bone items while polymorphed into a creature that can digest it, or eating monster brains while polymorphed into a (master) mind flayer, is considered eating an animal, although wax is only an animal byproduct. Regardless of conduct, there will be some items which are indigestible, and others which are hazardous to eat. Using a swallow-and-digest attack against a monster is equivalent to eating the monster’s corpse. Please note that the term “vegan” is used here only in the context of diet. You are still free to choose not to use or wear items derived from animals (e.g. leather, dragon hide, bone, horns, coral), but the game will not keep track of this for you. Also note that “milky” potions may be a translucent white, but they do not contain milk, so they are compatible with a vegan diet. Slime molds or player-defined “fruits”, although they could be anything from “cherries” to “pork chops”, are also assumed to be vegan. An atheist is one who rejects religion. This means that you cannot #pray, #offer sacrifices to any god, #turn undead, or #chat with a priest. Particularly selective readers may argue that playing Monk or Priest characters should violate this conduct; that is a choice left to the player. Offering the Amulet of Yendor to your god is necessary to win the game and is not counted against this conduct. You are also not penalized for being spoken to by an angry god, priest(ess), or other religious figure; a true atheist would hear the words but attach no special meaning to them. Most players fight with a wielded weapon (or tool intended to be wielded as a weapon). Another challenge is to win the game without using such a wielded weapon. You are still permitted to throw, fire, and kick weapons; use a wand, spell, or other type of item; or fight with your hands and feet. In NetHack , a pacifist refuses to cause the death of any other monster (i.e. if you would get experience for the death). This is a particularly difficult challenge, although it is still possible to gain experience by other means. An illiterate character cannot read or write. This includes reading a scroll, spellbook, fortune cookie message, or t-shirt; writing a scroll; or making an engraving of anything other than a single “x” (the traditional signature of an illiterate person). Reading an engraving, or any item that is absolutely necessary to win the game, is not counted against this conduct. The identity of scrolls and spellbooks

(and knowledge of spells) in your starting inventory is assumed to be learned from your teachers prior to the start of the game and isn’t counted. There are several other minor challenges. It is possible to eliminate a species of monsters by genocide; playing without this feature is considered a challenge. You can change the form of any object into another object of the same type (“polypiling”) or the form of your own body into another creature (“polyself”) by wand, spell, or potion of polymorph; avoiding these effects are each considered challenges. Finally, you may sometimes receive wishes; a game without an attempt to wish for an object is a challenge, as is a game without wishing for an artifact (even if the artifact immediately disappears).

9 Options

Due to variations in personal tastes and conceptions of how NetHack should do things, there are options you can set to change how NetHack behaves.

Setting the options

Options may be set in a number of ways. Within the game, the ‘O’ command allows you to view all options and change most of them. You can also set options automatically by placing them in the “NETHACKOPTIONS” environment variable or in a configuration file. Some versions of NetHack also have front-end programs that allow you to set options before starting the game.

Using the NETHACKOPTIONS environment variable

The NETHACKOPTIONS variable is a comma-separated list of initial values for the various options. Some can only be turned on or off. You turn one of these on by adding the name of the option to the list, and turn it off by typing a ‘!’ or “no” before the name. Others take a character string as a value. You can set string options by typing the option name, a colon or equals sign, and then the value of the string. The value is terminated by the next comma or the end of string. For example, to set up an environment variable so that autoquiver is on, autopickup is off, the name is set to “Blue Meanie”, and the fruit is set to “papaya”, you would enter the command

setenv NETHACKOPTIONS "autoquiver,!autopickup,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:papaya"

in csh (note the need to escape the! since it’s special to the shell), or

NETHACKOPTIONS="autoquiver,!autopickup,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:papaya" export NETHACKOPTIONS

in sh or ksh.

Using a configuration file

Any line in the configuration file starting with “OPTIONS=” may be filled out with options in the same syntax as in NETHACKOPTIONS. Any line starting with “DUNGEON=”, “EFFECTS=”, “MONSTERS=”, “OBJECTS=”, or “TRAPS=” is taken as defining the corresponding dungeon, effects, monsters, objects, or traps option in a different syntax, a sequence of decimal numbers giving the character position in the current font to be used in displaying each entry. Such a sequence can be continued to multiple lines by putting a ‘\’ at the end of each line to be continued. Any line starting with ‘#’ is treated as a comment. The default name of the configuration file varies on different operating systems, but NETHACKOP- TIONS can also be set to the full name of a file you want to use (possibly preceded by an ‘@’).