I just found this on rec.games.roguelike.nethack and figured this might help some people who, like me, suck at this game.
It's long, but it's a good example of how much Nethack offers in terms of gameplay.
It's long, but it's a good example of how much Nethack offers in terms of gameplay.
- Absolute Beginner's Guide for NetHack 3.4.0 v.1.8 (3.5.2002)
(a.k.a. I Keep Dying And Dying And Dying, What Should I Do?
a.k.a. I Keep Dying In The Game And I Must Suck. What Am I Doing Wrong?)
Written by Mikko Saari with contributions from Raisse the Thaumaturge,
JPV, Aaron, Scott Schulz, David Damerell, Topi Linkala, Chip McCleary,
Timo Korvola, Eva Myers, Oisin "Curly++" Curtin, Virgo Vardja and
Dylan O'Donnell. Extra special thanks to Raisse for being a nitpick.
Thanks to Gary D. Young for the second subtitle, though this honour
probably belongs to the endless stream of newbies of r.g.r.n. May
Moloch leave you in peace, for you are our future!
_________________________________________________________________
NetHack is, without a doubt, the best game ever written. There are
many reasons for this. First, it's free. Second, it's more complicated
and deeper than pretty much anything else. And third, if zipped, it
fits on single 1,44 Mb diskette. How many games today can achieve all
that?
It is also one of the most difficult games I've ever met. I've only
ascended (NetHack term for winning the game) it once. And I've played
it for years. Ok, I suck, but it's also because the game is so
difficult. Especially in the beginning. And that's why I wrote this,
to help beginning players to get some idea what is going on, without
spoiling the fun.
If you have any comments/additions to this, please mail me (my address
can be found in the end of this file). This guide is valid for NetHack
3.4.0, but most things should be correct for earlier versions as well.
That I won't guarantee, however. And before you whine and complain to
me, please read the disclaimer in the end.
First, some quick notes which can help survival a lot, not in any
particular order (except the first one, which is very, very important!):
* NetHack is not Quake. If there is a monster beside you, it doesn't
mean you have to act quickly. Take your time and think!
* Don't get burdened. You want to be as fast as possible and being
burdened slows you down. It's bloody embarrassing to fall down the
stairs every single time, too. You can even die of that!
* Treat your pet with care. Gods like those who take good care of
their pets. Besides, your pet is often a lot wiser than you are.
And a lot tougher...
* Do not lean on keys. Learn the repeat command (n10s, if you use
number_pad, will search ten times).
* Turn rest_on_space off. It can be very dangerous, when skipping
messages during a battle. Pressing it more than enough will give
the monsters free chance to hit you.
* Autopickup can be a dangerous option as well. Either turn it off
or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. You
can also control it by using the pickup_burden option.
* Keep your eyes open. If you miss any messages, use Ctrl-P to read
them.
* Do not shift-run. It will run straight into traps, push boulders
and so on. Running with g-direction is safer (ctrl-direction with
the vi keys or 5-direction on numpad).
* Leave peaceful creatures alone. They should not be killed unless
there is a very good reason to do so. Usually you can just let
your pet kill them.
* Try to remember what you have in your inventory. It's not fun to
die when something you had in your pack would have saved you. Use
the 'i' command often; it doesn't take any time.
* Put valuable and fragile things in safe containers. Holding
multiple potions and scrolls in your pack just screams for a fire
trap or a monster with fire attack to appear.
* Be wary when (q)uaffing from from fountains. Beginning characters
usually just get killed that way. If you're low on hp's, leave
fountains alone. Sinks too. Dipping things into fountains is much
safer. Preferably cursed things that aren't normally affected by
water.
* Read the Guidebook. It has loads of useful information, for
example one good way for beginners to survive a bit longer. It has
to do with engraving, but I'm not telling it: go read the
Guidebook!
* If you can't find a stairway down, try (s)earching for secret
doors. Each normal level has an exit down; special levels which
don't have one are rare.
* Watch where you move those boulders; you might trap yourself if
you accidentally block a corridor with a boulder. However, if you
become stuck, strip naked, drop all your stuff and squeeze past
the boulder. Then you can push it back.
* When you find a staircase down, go down and come up. If you happen
to drop through a hole or trapdoor, you'll know where the upstairs
are. Some monsters will also be created on the next level so they
will be easier when you go there with more experience.
* If you see something you don't recognise, use /-command. It knows
all those odd monsters and items.
* When one turn away from death (you remembered to watch those hp,
didn't you?) try to quaff un-identified potions, read scrolls or
zap wands. Potions can be healing, scrolls can be teleport and
that wand just might be wand of death. After all, there's nothing
you can lose.
Then, some more information about following topics:
* Choosing your character
* Food
* Identifying things
* Monsters to avoid
* Two stairs up/down??
* Immortality
* Devteam thinks of everything
* More information
* Disclaimer
Choosing your character
It is a good idea to play a lot of random characters in the beginning.
If you get stuck on one character, you won't see the whole picture of
the game. For example, playing only priests with their ability to
detect the cursed or blessed state of an object might make you too
dependent on that ability. Play different classes to get the whole
picture, then choose your favourites.
There are, however, big differences in the survival rates of different
classes. Barbarians and Valkyries are the strongest classes and so
usually survive better than weaker classes. Lots of hit points, decent
equipment and strength to use it. Samurai are not bad either.
Archeologists start with a pickaxe (and should probably wield it,
until they get a better weapon; a dwarvish mattock, that is) and a
touchstone to identify gems.
Barbarians are strong warriors. They start with good weapons and some
food. They are also poison resistant.
Cavemen are a weaker version of Barbarians. Not good, play Barbarians
instead if you don't seek extra challenges. They, however, don't know
why cannibalism is a bad thing and that can be useful sometimes.
Healers have some interesting equipment and spells, but are rather
weak. They should have no problems getting food, though.
Knights have good equipment but are not really combat monsters. They
can jump and turn undead. They have also a code of conduct to follow,
which makes things complicated.
Monks are difficult, they are martial arts experts and should not use
body armour or eat meat. Food rations are vegetarian, but you can't
eat meaty corpses without a (small) penalty.
Priests can identify the blessed/cursed status of objects. It is a
very useful ability, but watch out that you don't get too used to it.
Rangers are experts with ranged weapons and can be very deadly from a
long distance.
Rogues can throw multiple daggers in one turn, which is good. They can
also be experts in two-weapon combat. They should use their daggers to
kill just about everything, until they reach a level high enough to
start to learn two-weapon combat.
Samurai can fight with two weapons too and are strong warriors. They
probably should start fighting with two weapons immediately to learn
it. Only when it's really important to hit something, use one weapon.
Tourists are a slightly curious bunch. They have lots of money and
food but not much else. They are one of the most difficult characters
to start with.
Valkyries are the best choice for newbies, they are the strongest
warriors and survive easily. Also, growing up in a cold climate has
made them cold resistant (I wish I was cold resistant too, but Finland
is not cold enough for that, I guess.)
Wizards start now with the force bolt spell, which increases their
chances of survival. Still, they are not the easiest class to start
with.
Don't care too much about the race of your character. It has little
impact on beginner's playing. Humans are the basic choice, other races
have some benefits (infravision, mostly). Dwarves are ok for warrior
types, elves for wizards. Being a dwarf or gnome makes the Gnomish
Mines a lot easier.
Food
One thing that kept killing me in my early NetHack days was
starvation. Many characters start without any food at all and it won't
take very long to get hungry. After you're hungry, you get weak and
sooner or later you'll be fainting and finally starving to death.
Where to find food?
Well, there's pretty much food just lying around. If you're getting
hungry and the level in which you currently are is empty of food, try
going down a level, there might be some food.
One option is to kill something and eat it. However, while eating some
corpses might give you certain benefits, eating some corpses will give
you nothing but food poisoning. A few rules of thumb are a) eat your
corpses fresh and b) your pet knows certain things better than you.
Don't eat anything your pet won't. It'll keep you out of the worst
trouble. Also remember, some corpses are more filling than others and
some are worth saving for later.
There also one way to get your stomach content, but that should be
left to the uttermost emergencies. If you have a healthy relationship
with your god, praying will fill your stomach if you are in real need.
However, one should not pray too often. Gods get angry and when they
are angry, mere mortals should beware. So, save praying for food to
those situations where it's a choice of praying or dying.
Identifying things
One of the first things you might notice is that you have little clue
what different items do. The item descriptions are always randomized,
so for example oval amulets are usually not what they were in previous
games. However, all oval amulets in a single game are the same. This
same principle works for all magical objects (but not for weapons and
similar stuff, 'crude dagger' is always 'orcish dagger'), of course.
One way to identify items is to use them. Put on some armour and see
what it does to your AC. Wield a weapon and look how easily the
monsters die. However, it's not a way I'd recommend. Armour might be
cursed. That amulet you try might just be a cursed amulet of
strangulation. Whoops, you just died. The safest and the best way is a
spell of identify (usually from a scroll of identify) which will
identify at least one item in your inventory, sometimes even more. The
scroll of identify itself is rather easy to identify; it is the
cheapest scroll available, usually costing about 20-30 gold. The price
can vary a lot, though.
Amulets and rings are pretty to safe to try on if you know that they
are not cursed. If they cause anything hazardous, just take them off
(though, I'd take rings off if they don't do anything useful
immediately; they might cause some big surprises...) Same goes for
armour and weapons. Wands can be identified when you engrave with them
and rings can be dropped in sinks. However, wand loses a charge when
you engrave with it and ring is lost in the sink. If you don't know
what the message you get means, you've just lost something you could
have used. Another tip for engravers: engrave something first with
your fingers!
Sometimes, you don't identify a thing but are instead asked for a name
to call it. You can also name items yourself, just use command #name.
If you don't name just a single item, the whole class of items gets
named. That is useful for example if you identify a wand when you
engrave with it but the game doesn't identify it for you. Just #name
the item class yourself.
There are some easy ways to figure out the blessed/cursed state of
objects. If something is cursed, your pet won't step on it, or "moves
only reluctantly". Also, if you drop things on an altar, it will tell
whether they are cursed or blessed.
Remember also the '\' command, which gives you a list of what you
already know. You might have seen a monster use something and know it
that way.
Monsters to avoid
You shouldn't be killing everything you meet. That will most probably
result in horrific deaths. Some monsters should be avoided, unless you
have means to combat them.
Floating eyes (e) - these little eyeballs are one of my favourite
monsters. They seem to be pretty harmless, but do not let their
peaceful appearance fool you. They are deadly! Even though they can't
damage you, attacking them might freeze you and then you will be
killed by some newt or other passing monster. Yet they are useful to
kill, for their bodies hold useful magical powers. They are slow, so
you should just throw stuff at them (sharp and pointy things, rocks,
glass, whatever useless stuff you have). Also, if you can't see them
or they can't see you, they are safe to attack.
Nymphs (n) - do not disturb nymphs unless you are prepared (with
ranged weapons or wands, that is). They steal your stuff and then
teleport away. However, they won't usually leave the level so if you
hunt and kill them, you'll get your stuff back.
Leprechauns (l) - leprechauns are similar to nymphs, but instead of
stealing equipment, they steal money. They are annoying, but the easy
way to handle them is to drop all your money (or put it in a sack) and
then go and beat them.
Rothes (q) - rothes are dangerous to beginning characters. Their
attack does lots of damage, mostly because they attack many times in a
round. Besides, they usually appear in groups. Watch out for them. A
good tactic to employ is the retreat-into-a-corridor-trick. If there's
a group of monsters trying to kill you, retreat into a corridor where
only one of them can attack you at time.
Fungi (F), molds (P), blobs (b), jellies (j) - while most of these are
pretty harmless, some of them can do surprising amounts of damage to
beginning characters. Also, they might be acidic and corrode your
weapon. Avoid them, kill them from a distance. They are very slow if
they move at all.
Mimics (m) - if you see a shop and there are some items, which don't
fit in the general content of the shop they are probably mimics. They
are dangerous! They are slow, but do lots of damage. Especially as
it's hard to flee from larger mimics. So watch out, they've been known
to kill a lot of promising characters.
Ants and bees (a) - these won't appear in the first few levels, but
when they appear, watch out! You're not probably ready to fight them.
They are pretty fast, appear in groups and are a pain.
It's also advisable to pick up all potions, scrolls and wands you see
lying around. Even if you have no use for it, some monster just might.
Intelligent monsters know how to use them and a puny gnome is a lot
less puny if it zaps you with a wand of lightning. And if you've never
met a monster with a wand of digging, you can't know how annoying
*that* is!
Two stairs up/down??
A few levels down from the beginning of the game, you will find a
level with two staircases down instead of one. The other stairs lead
to the Gnomish Mines, which is a branch of the main dungeon. It is
easily identified when entered, as it looks different from the normal
dungeon. If you play a fighter character and have descended carefully
enough so that you have about 50 hps, you might consider entering the
Mines. Weaker characters should continue down the main dungeon and
return when they are tougher. However, this is a playing style issue;
some enter the Mines right away.
The Gnomish Mines go down about 8-10 levels. Halfway down there is a
town, where one can find some shops and a temple with a priest who has
an 1 in 3 chance of being of your own alignment (you can donate money
to him/her and use the altar to discern blessings and curses even if
he/she isn't.) On the bottom level, there is some interesting stuff
(mostly valuable gems).
The second stairs up can be found deeper in the main dungeon, below
the Oracle level. Oracle level has a large room with statues in the
middle. The large room has smaller room in it, which has four
fountains and Oracle, who gives minor and major consultations. Minor
consultations are same messages than in fortune cookies, except that
those given by Oracle are always true. Major consultation tell about
bigger things in game and contain very important information which you
need to know if you don't want to read spoilers.
The second stairs lead to Sokoban, a puzzle which has four levels.
There you have to push boulders into holes that prevent your access to
upper levels. The last level has a prize (random one of two good and
very useful items) waiting. It's worth a try, at least to pick up the
food available on the first level. It's not required, however, so
don't worry about it if it seems to be too hard or if you get stuck (a
hint: if you get stuck in Sokoban, usually you can solve the situation
by dropping all your stuff, then you can squeeze behind the boulders).
There are other branches and special levels, but if you can reach
them, this guide is not for you.
Immortality
This ever-so-desired state can be achieved in this game. There are few
ways, but the most reliable is the explore mode. Just press X and
answer yes to the question. Ta-daa! You are now immortal. You won't
get your score recorded, but that's a small price to pay.
Indeed, if you ever feel like quitting playing when you've died once
or twice too often, try explore mode. You can freely experiment on
various things (especially if you start game with 'nethack -X', when
you will get a wand of wishing), without the fear of the error part of
trial and error leading to an early doom.
Using the command "nethack -u wizard -D" ("nethack -uwizard -D" in
Unix systems, however, only certain users are allowed to do that) to
start the game, you will get wizard mode. It's like explore, but you
get unlimited wishes, teleport, magic mapping, identify, create
monster and other goodies. It is a good way to experiment with things.
The Dev Team thinks of everything
Most things have multiple uses, many of which you probably wouldn't
think of. Try to do unexpected things and get unexpected results. For
example, the towel. You've read "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the
Galaxy", haven't you? A towel is a very useful item, in many different
ways. As the proverb says, "The Dev Team thinks of everything". They
certainly do...
More information
Maybe the single best source for information is the newsgroup,
rec.games.roguelike.nethack. There you can find lots of experienced
players and source divers, who can tell you anything you want to know
about the game. However, before asking questions there, check the
guidebook. If your question is answered there, you won't make people
angry. NetHackers are usually quite a jolly bunch, but it's annoying
to answer the same questions again and again.
The official NetHack site is http://www.nethack.org/. The latest
versions of the official binaries and sources are available there.
Maybe the best source for NetHack information is Kate Nepveu's
http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/, which has lots of links to
spoilers and other information and all of it is layed out clearly and
without unnecessary decorations.
Of course, the best source of information is the NetHack source code.
It takes a little knowledge about programming in general to
understand, but there are maps (Sokoban, all the Quest levels, endgame
levels and so on) and other data files you might like to take a look
at.
Disclaimer
I refuse any responsibility and so on. I am no NetHack god, just a
mere demigod (I have only ascended one character). Instead, I'm rather
experienced in dying with low level characters, which I think is more
than enough for me to write this guide. This is merely intended to
guide some beginners into safer waters, more experienced players will
surely do things in different ways.
(C) 2002 Mikko Saari. Distribution of this file is freely allowed and
highly encouraged, just keep it as it is. If you want to see some
changes, please contact me. I'm open to changes and can be reached by
e-mail at msaari@iki.fi. The latest version of this file is always
available, in ascii and html at
http://www.melankolia.net/nethack/index.en.html.
This guide will also be posted twice a month to
rec.games.roguelike.nethack. However, I don't read the newsgroup so if
you want to reach me, use e-mail.
