









                           A Guide to the Mazes of Menace
                               (Guidebook for NetHack)


                                   Eric S. Raymond
                            (Edited and expanded for 3.6)



          1.  Introduction

          Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant
          in your daily occupation.  Strange dreams of prospecting,  steal‐
          ing,  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 recollec‐
          tion of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be  lurk‐
          ing  behind  every  corner  of  the dungeon in your dream.  Could
          these details haunting your dreams be real?  As each night  pass‐
          es,  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 en‐
          tered 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.



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                 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 morn‐
          ing, you gather your gear, eat what may be your  last  meal  out‐
          side, 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, with neolithic weapons.

               Healers are wise in medicine and apothecary.  They know  the
          herbs  and  simples  that  can restore vitality, ease pain, anes‐
          thetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instruments, 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.

               Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders  ad‐
          vancing  the  cause  of  righteousness with arms, armor, and arts
          thaumaturgic.  Their ability to commune with deities  via  prayer
          occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in
          it.

               Rangers are most at home in the woods, and some say slightly
          out of place in a dungeon.  They are, however, experts in archery
          as well as tracking and stealthy movement.


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               Rogues are agile and stealthy  thieves,  with  knowledge  of
          locks,  traps,  and  poisons.   Their advantage lies in surprise,
          which they employ to great advantage.

               Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon.   They  are
          lightly  armored  and  quick, and wear the dai‐sho, two swords of
          the deadliest keenness.

               Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for  shopping
          with),  a  credit card, lots of food, some maps, and an expensive
          camera.  Most monsters don’t like being photographed.

               Valkyries are hardy warrior women.  Their upbringing in  the
          harsh  Northlands  makes  them strong, inures them to extremes of
          cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning.

               Wizards start out with a knowledge of magic, a selection  of
          magical  items,  and a particular affinity for dweomercraft.  Al‐
          though seemingly weak and easy to overcome at first sight, an ex‐
          perienced Wizard is a deadly foe.

               You may also choose the race of your character:

               Dwarves are smaller than humans or elves, but are stocky and
          solid individuals.  Dwarves’ most notable trait  is  their  great
          expertise  in mining and metalwork.  Dwarvish armor is said to be
          second in quality not even to the mithril armor of the Elves.

               Elves are agile, quick, and perceptive; very little of  what
          goes  on  will escape an Elf.  The quality of Elven craftsmanship
          often gives them an advantage in arms and armor.

               Gnomes are smaller than but generally  similar  to  dwarves.
          Gnomes  are known to be expert miners, and it is known that a se‐
          cret underground mine complex built by this  race  exists  within
          the Mazes of Menace, filled with both riches and danger.

               Humans are by far the most common race of the surface world,
          and are thus the norm to which other races  are  often  compared.
          Although  they have no special abilities, they can succeed in any
          role.

               Orcs are a cruel and barbaric race that  hate  every  living
          thing  (including other orcs).  Above all others, Orcs hate Elves
          with a passion unequalled, and will go out of their way  to  kill
          one  at  any opportunity.  The armor and weapons fashioned by the
          Orcs are typically of inferior quality.

          3.  What do all those things on the screen mean?

               On the screen is kept a map of where you have been and  what
          you  have  seen on the current dungeon level; as you explore more
          of the level, it appears on the screen in front of you.



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               When NetHack’s ancestor rogue  first  appeared,  its  screen
          orientation  was  almost  unique  among  computer  fantasy games.
          Since then, screen orientation has become the  norm  rather  than
          the  exception;  NetHack  continues  this fine tradition.  Unlike
          text adventure games that accept commands in pseudo‐English  sen‐
          tences and explain the results in words, NetHack commands are all
          one or two keystrokes and the results are  displayed  graphically
          on  the  screen.  A minimum screen size of 24 lines by 80 columns
          is recommended; if the screen is larger,  only  a  21x80  section
          will be used for the map.

               NetHack can even be played by blind players, with the assis‐
          tance of Braille readers or  speech  synthesisers.   Instructions
          for  configuring NetHack for the blind are included later in this
          document.

               NetHack generates a new dungeon every time you play it; even
          the  authors  still find it an entertaining and exciting game de‐
          spite having won several times.

               NetHack offers a variety of display  options.   The  options
          available  to  you  will vary from port to port, depending on the
          capabilities of your hardware and software, and  whether  various
          compile‐time options were enabled when your executable was creat‐
          ed.  The three possible display options are: a monochrome charac‐
          ter  interface,  a color character interface, and a graphical in‐
          terface using small pictures called tiles.  The two character in‐
          terfaces allow fonts with other characters to be substituted, but
          the default assignments use standard ASCII characters  to  repre‐
          sent everything.  There is no difference between the various dis‐
          play options with respect to game play.  Because we cannot repro‐
          duce the tiles or colors in the Guidebook, and because it is com‐
          mon 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 way the screen looks  for  you  depends  on
          your platform.

          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
           The bat bites!

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




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           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


          3.1.  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 vari‐
          ous 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 ba‐
               sic attributes.  A human character’s  attributes  can  range
               from  3  to 18 inclusive; non‐humans may exceed these limits
               (occasionally you may get super‐strengths of the form 18/xx,
               and  magic  can  also  cause attributes to exceed the normal
               limits).  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.



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          Alignment
               Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.  Often, Lawful is taken as good
               and Chaotic as evil, but legal and ethical do not always co‐
               incide.  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  some‐
               where 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 un‐
               friendly creatures.  The lower this number is, the more  ef‐
               fective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative ar‐
               mor class.

          Experience
               Your current experience level and experience points.  As you
               adventure,  you  gain experience points.  At certain experi‐
               ence point totals, you gain an experience level.   The  more
               experienced you are, the better you fight and withstand mag‐
               ical 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 dis‐
               played.


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               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.

          3.2.  The message line (top)

               The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that de‐
          scribe  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.

          3.3.  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  some‐
          thing.   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.

          @    Your character or a human.

          $    A pile of gold.

          ^    A trap (once you have detected it).

          )    A weapon.

          [    A suit or piece of armor.

          %    Something edible (not necessarily healthy).

          ?    A scroll.

          /    A wand.

          =    A ring.



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          !    A potion.

          (    A useful item (pick‐axe, key, lamp...).

          "    An amulet or a spider web.

          *    A gem or rock (possibly valuable, possibly worthless).

          ‘    A boulder or statue.

          0    An iron ball.

          _    An altar, or an iron chain.

          {    A fountain.

          }    A pool of water or moat or a pool of lava.

          \    An opulent throne.

          a‐zA‐Z and other symbols
               Letters  and certain other symbols represent the various in‐
               habitants of the Mazes of Menace.  Watch out,  they  can  be
               nasty and vicious.  Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.

          I    This marks the last known location of an invisible or other‐
               wise  unseen  monster.   Note  that  the  monster could have
               moved.  The ’F’ and ’m’ commands may be useful here.

               You need not memorize all these symbols;  you  can  ask  the
          game  what  any  symbol  represents with the ‘/’ command (see the
          next section for more info).


          4.  Commands

               Commands are initiated by  typing  one  or  two  characters.
          Some  commands, like ‘‘search’’, do not require that any more in‐
          formation be collected by NetHack.  Other commands might  require
          additional  information, for example a direction, or an object to
          be used.  For those commands that require additional information,
          NetHack  will present you with either a menu of choices or with a
          command line prompt requesting information.  Which you  are  pre‐
          sented with will depend chiefly on how you have set the menustyle
          option.

               For example, a common question, in the form  ‘‘What  do  you
          want  to use? [a‐zA‐Z ?*]’’, asks you to choose an object you are
          carrying.  Here, ‘‘a‐zA‐Z’’ are the  inventory  letters  of  your
          possible  choices.   Typing  ‘?’  gives  you an inventory list of
          these items, so you can see what each letter refers to.  In  this
          example,  there  is  also a ‘*’ indicating that you may choose an
          object not on the list, if you wanted to use something  unexpect‐
          ed.  Typing a ‘*’ lists your entire inventory, so you can see the


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          inventory letters of every object you’re carrying.   Finally,  if
          you change your mind and decide you don’t want to do this command
          after all, you can press the ESC key to abort the command.

               You can put a number before some  commands  to  repeat  them
          that  many times; for example, ‘‘10s’’ will search ten times.  If
          you have the number_pad option set, you must type ‘n’ to prefix a
          count,  so  the  example  above  would be typed ‘‘n10s’’ instead.
          Commands for which counts make no sense ignore  them.   In  addi‐
          tion,  movement commands can be prefixed for greater control (see
          below).  To cancel a count or a prefix, press the ESC key.

               The list of commands is rather long, but it can be  read  at
          any  time during the game through the ‘?’ command, which accesses
          a menu of helpful texts.  Here are the commands for  your  refer‐
          ence:

          ?    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 par‐
               ticular spot on the map and then pressing one of  ‘.’,  ‘,’,
               ‘;’,  or ‘:’.  ‘.’ will explain the symbol at the chosen lo‐
               cation, conditionally check for ‘‘More info?’’ depending up‐
               on 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  loca‐
               tion  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 press‐
               ing ‘?’  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 a staircase or
               ladder).

          >    Go down to the next level (if you are on a staircase or lad‐
               der).

          [yuhjklbn]
               Go  one  step in the direction indicated (see Figure 2).  If
               you sense or remember 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.’’





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                                    y  k  u          7  8  9
                                     \ | /            \ | /
                                    h‐ . ‐l          4‐ . ‐6
                                     / | \            / | \
                                    b  j  n          1  2  3
                                              (if number_pad is set)

                                         Figure 2


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

          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  con‐
               sidered interesting.

          _    Travel to a map location via a shortest‐path algorithm.

               The  shortest  path  is computed over map locations the hero
               knows about (e.g. seen or previously traversed).   If  there
               is no known path, a guess is made instead.  Stops on most of
               the same conditions as the ‘G’ command, but without  picking
               up  objects,  similar  to  the  ‘M’ command.  For ports with
               mouse support, the command is also  invoked  when  a  mouse‐
               click takes place on a location other than the current posi‐
               tion.

          .    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.



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          c    Close a door.

          C    Call  (name)  a  monster, an individual object, or a type of
               object.

               Same as extended command ‘‘#name’’.

          ^C   Panic button.  Quit the game.

          d    Drop something.

               Ex. ‘‘d7a’’ means drop seven items of object a.

          D    Drop several things.

               In answer to the question

               ‘‘What kinds of things do you want to drop? [!%= BUCXaium]’’

               you  should  type  zero or more object symbols possibly fol‐
               lowed by ‘a’ and/or ‘i’ and/or ‘u’ and/or ‘m’.  In addition,
               one  or  more  of  the blessed/uncursed/cursed groups may be
               typed.

                    DB  ‐ drop all objects known to be blessed.
                    DU  ‐ drop all objects known to be uncursed.
                    DC  ‐ drop all objects known to be cursed.
                    DX  ‐ drop all objects of unknown B/U/C status.
                    Da  ‐ drop all objects, without asking for confirmation.
                    Di  ‐ examine your inventory 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.

                    E‐ ‐ write in the dust with your fingers.

               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 ver‐
               sion might not have it.)

          f    Fire one of the objects placed in  your  quiver  (or  quiver
               sack,  or that you have at the ready).  You may select ammu‐
               nition with a previous ‘Q’ command, or let the computer pick
               something appropriate if autoquiver is true.




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          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  en‐
               try for the given option (ie, by typing its letter or click‐
               ing 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 be‐
               fore the game rather than with the ‘O’ command; see the sec‐
               tion on options below.

          p    Pay your shopping bill.

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

               Use the ’W’ command to wear armor.

          ^P   Repeat previous message.

               Subsequent  ^P’s  repeat earlier messages.  The behavior can
               be varied via the msg_window option.

          q    Quaff (drink) something (potion, water, etc).

          Q    Select an object for your quiver, quiver sack, or just  gen‐
               erally  at  the  ready  (only one of these is available at a
               time).  You can then throw this (or one of these) 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).

               If you’re wearing more than  one,  you’ll  be  prompted  for
               which  one  to  remove.  If you’re only wearing one, then by
               default it will be removed without asking, but you  can  set
               the paranoid_confirmation option to require a prompt.

               Use the ’T’ command to take off armor.




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          ^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  au‐
               tomatically the next time you play.

          t    Throw an object or shoot a projectile.

          T    Take off armor.

               If  you’re  wearing  more than one piece, you’ll be prompted
               for which one to take off.  If you’re only wearing one, then
               by  default it will be taken off without asking, but you can
               set the paranoid_confirmation option to require a prompt.

               Use the ’R’ command to remove accessories.

          ^T   Teleport, if you have the ability.

          v    Display version number.

          V    Display the game history.

          w    Wield weapon.

                    w‐ ‐ wield nothing, use your bare hands.

               Some characters can wield two  weapons  and  once;  use  the
               ‘‘#twoweapon’’ extended command to do so.

          W    Wear armor.

               Use the ’P’ command to put on accessories.

          x    Exchange your wielded weapon with the item in your alternate
               weapon slot.

               The latter is used as your secondary weapon when engaging in
               two‐weapon  combat.  Note that if one of these slots is emp‐
               ty, the exchange still takes place.

          X    Toggle two‐weapon combat, if your character can do it.  Also
               available via the ‘‘#twoweapon’’ extended command

          ^X   Display basic information about your character.

               Displays  name,  role,  race, gender (unless role name makes
               that redundant, such as Caveman or  Priestess),  and  align‐
               ment,  along  with  your patron deity and his or her opposi‐
               tion.  It also shows most of the various items  of  informa‐
               tion from the status line(s) in a less terse form, including
               several additional things which don’t appear in  the  normal


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               status display due to space considerations.

          z    Zap a wand.

                    z. ‐ to aim at yourself, use ‘.’ for the direction.

          Z    Zap (cast) a spell.

                    Z. ‐ to cast at yourself, use ‘.’ for the direction.

          ^Z   Suspend the game (UNIX(R) versions with job control only).

          :    Look at what is here.

          ;    Show what type of thing a visible symbol corresponds to.

          ,    Pick up some things from the floor beneath you.

               May be preceded by ‘m’ to force a selection menu.

          @    Toggle the autopickup option on and off.

          ^    Ask for the type of a trap you found earlier.

          )    Tell what weapon you are wielding.

          [    Tell what armor you are wearing.

          =    Tell what rings you are wearing.

          "    Tell what amulet you are wearing.

          (    Tell what tools you are using.

          *    Tell what equipment you are using.

               Combines the preceding five type‐specific commands into one.

          $    Count your gold pieces.

          +    List the spells you know.

               Using this command, you can  also  rearrange  the  order  in
               which  your  spells are listed, either by sorting the entire
               list or by picking one spell from the menu then picking  an‐
               other  to  swap  places  with  it.  Swapping pairs of spells
               changes their casting letters, so the change lasts after the
               current  ‘+’  command  finishes.   Sorting the whole list is
               temporary.  To make the most recent sort order  persist  be‐
               yond  the  current ‘+’ command, choose the sort option again
               and then  pick  "reassign  casting  letters".   (Any  spells

          __________
          (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.


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               learned  after  that  will  be  added to the end of the list
               rather than be inserted into the sorted ordering.)

          \    Show what types of objects have been discovered.

          ‘    Show discovered types for one class of objects.

          !    Escape to a shell.

          #    Perform an extended command.

               As you can see, the authors of NetHack used up all the  let‐
               ters, so this is a way to introduce the less frequently used
               commands.  What extended commands are available  depends  on
               what features the game was compiled with.

          #adjust
               Adjust inventory letters (most useful when the fixinv option
               is ‘‘on’’).

               This command allows you to move an item from one  particular
               inventory  slot  to another so that it has a letter which is
               more meaningful for you or that it will appear in a particu‐
               lar  location when inventory listings are displayed.  ‘‘#ad‐
               just’’ can also be used to split a stack  of  objects;  when
               choosing the item to adjust, enter a count prior to its let‐
               ter.

          #chat
               Talk to someone.

          #conduct
               List voluntary challenges you have maintained.

               See the section below entitled ‘‘Conduct’’ for details.

          #dip
               Dip an object into something.

          #enhance
               Advance or check weapon and spell skills.

          #force
               Force a lock.

          #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 steed standing next to you.


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

          #name
               Name a monster, an individual object, or a type  of  object.
               Same as ‘C’.

          #offer
               Offer a sacrifice to the gods.

               You’ll  need to find an altar to have any chance at success.
               Corpses of  recently  killed  monsters  are  the  fodder  of
               choice.

          #pray
               Pray to the gods for help.

               Praying  too  soon after receiving prior help is a bad idea.
               (Hint: entering the dungeon alive is treated as  having  re‐
               ceived help.  You probably shouldn’t start off a new game by
               praying right away.)  Since using this command  by  accident
               can  cause  trouble,  there is an option to make you confirm
               your intent before praying.  It is enabled by  default,  and
               you  can  reset  the paranoid_confirmation option to disable
               it.

          #quit
               Quit the program without saving your game.

               Since using this command by accident would  throw  away  the
               current  game,  you  are asked to confirm your intent before
               quitting.  By default a response of  ’y’  acknowledges  that
               intent.  You can set the paranoid_confirmation option to re‐
               quire a response of "yes" instead.

          #ride
               Ride (or stop riding) a monster.

          #rub
               Rub a lamp or a stone.

          #sit
               Sit down.

          #terrain
               Show bare  map  without  displaying  monsters,  objects,  or
               traps.

          #tip
               Tip  over a container (bag or box) to pour out its contents.

          #turn
               Turn undead.


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          #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).

               In  some circumstances it can also be used to rescue trapped
               monsters.

          #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 com‐
          bination  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, PC and ST
          NetHack, the ‘Alt’ key can be used in this fashion; on the Amiga,
          set  the  altmeta option to get this behavior.  On other systems,
          if typing ‘Alt’ plus another key transmits a  two  character  se‐
          quence consisting of an Escape followed by the other key, you may
          set  the  altmeta  option  to  have  nethack  combine  them  into
          meta+key.

          M‐?  #? (not supported by all platforms)

          M‐2  #twoweapon (unless the number_pad option is enabled)

          M‐a  #adjust

          M‐A  #annotate (if supported)

          M‐c  #chat

          M‐C  #conduct

          M‐d  #dip

          M‐e  #enhance

          M‐f  #force

          M‐i  #invoke

          M‐j  #jump



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          M‐l  #loot

          M‐m  #monster

          M‐n  #name

          M‐o  #offer

          M‐O  #overview (if supported)

          M‐p  #pray

          M‐q  #quit

          M‐r  #rub

          M‐R  #ride (if supported)

          M‐s  #sit

          M‐t  #turn

          M‐T  #tip

          M‐u  #untrap

          M‐v  #version

          M‐w  #wipe

               If  the number_pad option is on, some additional letter com‐
          mands are available:

          h    Help menu:  display one of  several  help  texts  available,
               like ‘‘?’’.

          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 steed standing next to you.   Same  as  ‘‘#loot’’  or
               ‘‘M‐l’’.

          N    Name  a  monster, an individual object, or a type of object.
               Same as ‘‘#name’’ (or ‘‘M‐n’’) which is the same as the  ‘C’
               command.

          u    Untrap  a trap, door, or chest.  Same as ‘‘#untrap’’ or ‘‘M‐
               u’’.






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          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.

          5.1.  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 vertically.  Doorways without
          doors are not restricted in this fashion.

               Doors can be useful for shutting out  monsters.   Most  mon‐
          sters 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.

          5.2.  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 some‐
          thing fall into it, or you discover it with the ‘s’ (search) com‐
          mand.   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 tradi‐
          tional rules of Sokoban.  Some allowances are permitted  in  case
          the player gets stuck; however, they will lower your luck.






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          5.3.  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 in‐
          stance, fairly early in the dungeon you will find  a  level  with
          two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon and the oth‐
          er 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  dun‐
          geon.

               When  you  traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a trap which
          sends you to another level, the level you’re leaving will be  de‐
          activated  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 visited, it will be created (from scratch  for  most  random
          levels,  from  a  template for some ‘‘special’’ levels, or loaded
          from the remains of an earlier game  for  a  ‘‘bones’’  level  as
          briefly  described  below).  Monsters are only active on the cur‐
          rent level; those on other levels  are  essentially  placed  into
          stasis.

               Ordinarily  when  you climb a set of stairs, you will arrive
          on the corresponding staircase  at  your  destination.   However,
          pets  (see  below)  and  some other monsters will follow along if
          they’re close enough when you travel up or down stairs, and occa‐
          sionally  one  of  these  creatures  will displace you during the
          climb.  When that occurs, the pet or other monster will arrive on
          the staircase and you will end up nearby.

          5.4.  Ladders (‘<’, ‘>’)

               Ladders  serve  the  same purpose as staircases, and the two
          types of inter‐level  connections  are  nearly  indistinguishable
          during game play.

          5.5.  Shops and shopping

               Occasionally  you  will  run across a room with a shopkeeper
          near the door and many items lying on the  floor.   You  can  buy
          items by picking them up and then using the ‘p’ command.  You can
          inquire about the price of an item prior to picking it up by  us‐
          ing  the  ‘‘#chat’’  command while standing on it.  Using an item
          prior to paying for it will incur a charge,  and  the  shopkeeper
          won’t  allow  you  to leave the shop until you have paid any debt
          you owe.

               You can sell items to a shopkeeper by dropping them  to  the
          floor  while inside a shop.  You will either be offered an amount
          of gold and asked whether you’re willing to sell,  or  you’ll  be
          told  that  the shopkeeper isn’t interested (generally, your item
          needs to be compatible with the type of  merchandise  carried  by


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          the shop).

               If  you drop something in a shop by accident, the shopkeeper
          will usually claim ownership without offering  any  compensation.
          You’ll have to buy it back if you want to reclaim it.

               Shopkeepers  sometimes run out of money.  When that happens,
          you’ll be offered credit instead of gold when  you  try  to  sell
          something.   Credit  can  be used to pay for purchases, but it is
          only good in the shop where it was  obtained;  other  shopkeepers
          won’t  honor  it.   (If you happen to find a "credit card" in the
          dungeon, don’t bother trying to use it in shops; shopkeepers will
          not accept it.)

               The  ‘$’  command,  which reports the amount of gold you are
          carrying (in inventory, not inside bags or boxes), will also show
          current  shop debt or credit, if any.  The ‘Iu’ command lists un‐
          paid items (those which still belong to the shop) if you are car‐
          rying  any.   The ‘Ix’ command shows an inventory‐like display of
          any unpaid items which have been used up, along with  other  shop
          fees, if any.

          5.5.1.  Shop idiosyncracies

               Several aspects of shop behavior might be unexpected.

          * The price of a given item can vary due to a variety of factors.

          * A shopkeeper treats the spot immediately inside the door as  if
            it were outside the shop.

          * While the shopkeeper watches you like a hawk, he will generally
            ignore any other customers.

          * If a shop is "closed for inventory", it will not  open  of  its
            own accord.

          * Shops do not get restocked with new items, regardless of inven‐
            tory depletion.


          6.  Monsters

               Monsters you cannot see are not  displayed  on  the  screen.
          Beware!   You  may  suddenly come upon one in a dark place.  Some
          magic items can help you  locate  them  before  they  locate  you
          (which some monsters can do very well).

               The  commands  ‘/’ and ‘;’ may be used to obtain information
          about those monsters who are displayed on the screen.   The  com‐
          mand  ‘‘#name’’,  or its synonym ‘C’, allows you to assign a name
          to a monster, which may be useful to help  distinguish  one  from
          another  when  multiple  monsters  are present.  Assigning a name
          which is just a space will remove any prior name.


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               The extended command ‘‘#chat’’ can be used to interact  with
          an  adjacent monster.  There is no actual dialog (in other words,
          you don’t get to choose what you’ll say), but chatting with  some
          monsters such as a shopkeeper or the Oracle of Delphi can produce
          useful results.

          6.1.  Fighting

               If you see a monster and you wish to fight it, just  attempt
          to  walk  into  it.   Many  monsters you find will mind their own
          business unless you attack them.  Some of them are very dangerous
          when angered.  Remember:  discretion is the better part of valor.

               In most circumstances, if you attempt to attack  a  peaceful
          monster  by  moving into its location, you’ll be asked to confirm
          your intent.  By default an answer of ’y’ acknowledges  that  in‐
          tent,  which can be error prone if you’re using ’y’ to move.  You
          can set the paranoid_confirmation option to require a response of
          "yes" instead.

               If  you  can’t  see a monster (if it is invisible, or if you
          are blinded), the symbol ‘I’ will be shown when you learn of  its
          presence.   If you attempt to walk into it, you will try to fight
          it just like a monster that you can see; of course, if  the  mon‐
          ster has moved, you will attack empty air.  If you guess that the
          monster has moved and you don’t wish to fight, you  can  use  the
          ‘m’  command to move without fighting; likewise, if you don’t re‐
          member a monster but want to try fighting anyway, you can use the
          ‘F’ command.

          6.2.  Your pet

               You  start  the  game with a little dog (‘d’), cat (‘f’), or
          pony (‘u’), which follows you about the dungeon and  fights  mon‐
          sters  with  you.   Like you, your pet needs food to survive.  It
          usually feeds itself on fresh carrion and other meats.  If you’re
          worried  about  it  or want to train it, you can feed it, too, by
          throwing it food.  A properly trained pet can be very useful  un‐
          der certain circumstances.

               Your  pet  also  gains experience from killing monsters, and
          can grow over time, gaining hit points  and  doing  more  damage.
          Initially,  your  pet  may  even be better at killing things than
          you, which makes pets useful for low‐level characters.

               Your pet will follow you up and down  staircases  if  it  is
          next  to  you when you move.  Otherwise your pet will be stranded
          and may become wild.  Similarly, when you trigger  certain  types
          of  traps  which  alter  your location (for instance, a trap door
          which drops you to a lower dungeon level), any adjacent pet  will
          accompany you and any non‐adjacent pet will be left behind.  Your
          pet may trigger such traps itself; you will not be carried  along
          with it even if adjacent at the time.



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          6.3.  Steeds

               Some  types of creatures in the dungeon can actually be rid‐
          den if you have the right equipment and skill.  Convincing a wild
          beast  to  let  you  saddle  it up is difficult to say the least.
          Many a dungeoneer has had to resort to magic and wizardry in  or‐
          der to forge the alliance.  Once you do have the beast under your
          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.

          6.4.  Bones levels

               You may encounter the shades and corpses of other  adventur‐
          ers (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  op‐
          tion  (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  de‐
          pends  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 car‐
          rying 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.


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               When you pick up an object, it is assigned an inventory let‐
          ter.  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 pre‐
          sented  with a list of inventory letters to choose from (see Com‐
          mands, 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, or its synonym ‘C’, 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.

          7.1.  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 en‐
          chantments 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  ex‐
          ample, 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  inven‐
          tory 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.






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          7.2.  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 cross‐
          bow 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 iden‐
          tified 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 (en‐
          chantment 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  alternate weapons.  And if you have proficiency in
          the ‘‘two weapon combat’’ skill, you may wield both  weapons  si‐
          multaneously  as  primary and secondary; use the ‘#twoweapon’ ex‐
          tended 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  in‐
          curs 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’ com‐
          mand 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 existed in AD&D does roughly the same dam‐
          age  to  monsters  in  NetHack.  Some of the more obscure weapons


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          (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).

          7.2.1.  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  de‐
          pends mainly on the type of object and your strength.  Arrows can
          be thrown by hand, but can be thrown much  farther  and  will  be
          more likely to hit when thrown while you are wielding a bow.

               You  can  simplify  the  throwing operation by using the ‘Q’
          command to select your preferred ‘‘missile’’, then using the  ‘f’
          command  to  throw  it.   You’ll  be  prompted for a direction as
          above, but you don’t have to specify which  item  to  throw  each
          time you use ‘f’.  There is also an option, autoquiver, which has
          NetHack choose another item to automatically fill your quiver (or
          quiver  sack,  or have at the ready) when the inventory slot used
          for ‘Q’ runs out.

               Some characters have the ability to fire a volley of  multi‐
          ple  items  in a single turn.  Knowing how to load several rounds
          of ammunition at once ‐‐ or hold several missiles in your hand ‐‐
          and  still  hit  a target is not an easy task.  Rangers are among
          those who are adept at this task, as are those with a high  level
          of  proficiency  in  the  relevant  weapon skill (in bow skill if
          you’re wielding one to shoot arrows, in crossbow skill if  you’re
          wielding one to shoot bolts, or in sling skill if you’re wielding
          one to shoot stones).  The number of items that the character has
          a  chance  to  fire varies from turn to turn.  You can explicitly
          limit the number of shots by using a numeric  prefix  before  the
          ‘t’  or  ‘f’  command.   For example, ‘‘2f’’ (or ‘‘n2f’’ if using
          number_pad mode) would ensure that at most 2 arrows are shot even
          if  you  could have fired 3.  If you specify a larger number than
          would have been shot (‘‘4f’’ in this example), you’ll just end up
          shooting the same number (3, here) as if no limit had been speci‐
          fied.  Once the volley is in motion, all of the items will travel
          in the same direction; if the first ones kill a monster, the oth‐
          ers can still continue beyond that spot.

          7.2.2.  Weapon proficiency

               You will have varying degrees of skill in the weapons avail‐
          able.   Weapon proficiency, or weapon skills, affect how well you
          can use particular types of weapons, and you’ll be  able  to  im‐
          prove  your  skills  as you progress through a game, depending on


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          your role, your experience level, and use of the weapons.

               For the purposes of proficiency, weapons have  been  divided
          up   into  various  groups  such  as  daggers,  broadswords,  and
          polearms.  Each role has a limit on what level of  proficiency  a
          character  can achieve for each group.  For instance, wizards can
          become highly skilled in daggers or staves but not in  swords  or
          bows.

               The  ‘#enhance’  extended  command is used to review current
          weapons proficiency (also spell proficiency) and to choose  which
          skill(s) to improve when you’ve used one or more skills enough to
          become eligible to do so.  The skill rankings are ‘‘none’’ (some‐
          times  also  referred  to as ‘‘restricted’’, because you won’t be
          able to  advance),  ‘‘unskilled’’,  ‘‘basic’’,  ‘‘skilled’’,  and
          ‘‘expert’’.  Restricted skills simply will not appear in the list
          shown by ‘#enhance’.  (Divine  intervention  might  unrestrict  a
          particular skill, in which case it will start at unskilled and be
          limited to basic.)  Some characters can enhance their  barehanded
          combat  or  martial  arts  skill  beyond  expert to ‘‘master’’ or
          ‘‘grand master’’.

               Use of a weapon in which you’re restricted or unskilled will
          incur a modest penalty in the chance to hit a monster and also in
          the amount of damage done when you do hit; at basic level,  there
          is  no  penalty  or bonus; at skilled level, you receive a modest
          bonus in the chance to hit and amount of damage done;  at  expert
          level,  the  bonus  is  higher.  A successful hit has a chance to
          boost your training towards the next skill level  (unless  you’ve
          already  reached  the  limit for this skill).  Once such training
          reaches the threshold for that next level, you’ll  be  told  that
          you  feel  more  confident in your skills.  At that point you can
          use ‘#enhance’ to increase one or more skills.  Such  skills  are
          not  increased automatically because there is a limit to your to‐
          tal overall skills, so you need to actively choose  which  skills
          to enhance and which to ignore.

          7.2.3.  Two‐Weapon combat

               Some characters can use two weapons at once.  Setting things
          up to do so can seem cumbersome but becomes  second  nature  with
          use.   To  wield  two weapons, you need to use the ‘‘#twoweapon’’
          command.  But first you need to  have  a  weapon  in  each  hand.
          (Note  that  your two weapons are not fully equal; the one in the
          hand you normally wield with is considered primary and the  other
          one  is  considered secondary.  The most noticeable difference is
          after you stop‐‐or before you begin,  for  that  matter‐‐wielding
          two  weapons at once.  The primary is your wielded weapon and the
          secondary is just an item in your inventory that’s been designat‐
          ed as alternate weapon.)

               If your primary weapon is wielded but your off hand is empty
          or has the wrong weapon, use the sequence ’x’, ’w’, ’x’ to  first
          swap  your primary into your off hand, wield whatever you want as


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          secondary weapon, then swap them  both  back  into  the  intended
          hands.  If your secondary or alternate weapon is correct but your
          primary one is not, simply use ’w’ to wield the primary.  Lastly,
          if  neither  hand  holds the correct weapon, use ’w’, ’x’, ’w’ to
          first wield the intended secondary, swap it to off hand, and then
          wield the primary.

               The  whole  process  can  be simplified via use of the push‐
          weapon option.  When it is enabled, then using ’w’ to wield some‐
          thing  causes  the currently wielded weapon to become your alter‐
          nate weapon.  So the sequence ’w’, ’w’ can be used to first wield
          the weapon you intend to be secondary, and then wield the one you
          want as primary which will push the first  into  secondary  posi‐
          tion.

               When  in  two‐weapon  combat  mode, using the ‘‘#twoweapon’’
          command toggles back to single‐weapon mode.  Throwing or dropping
          either  of  the  weapons  or  having one of them be stolen or de‐
          stroyed will also make you revert to single‐weapon combat.

          7.3.  Armor (‘[’)

               Lots of unfriendly things lurk about; you need armor to pro‐
          tect yourself from their blows.  Some types of armor offer better
          protection than others.  Your armor class is a  measure  of  this
          protection.  Armor class (AC) is measured as in AD&D, with 10 be‐
          ing the equivalent of no armor, and lower numbers meaning  better
          armor.   Each  suit  of armor which exists in AD&D gives the same
          protection in NetHack.  Here is an (incomplete) list of the armor
          classes provided by various suits of armor:

                             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.



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               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 in‐
          hibit 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.

          7.4.  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 usu‐
          ally 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.  Veg‐
          etarian  monsters  will typically never eat animal corpses, while
          vegetarian players can, but with some rather unpleasant  side‐ef‐
          fects.

               You  can  name one food item after something you like to eat
          with the fruit option.

               The command to eat food is ‘e’.

          7.5.  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 another object is, whether it
          is  cursed  or  blessed, and how many uses it has left.  Some ob‐
          jects of subtle enchantment are  difficult  to  identify  without
          these.



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               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  vari‐
          ables  are  ignored.   You can disable the mail daemon by turning
          off the mail option.

               The command to read a scroll is ‘r’.

          7.6.  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).

          7.7.  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, at‐
          tempts 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  cer‐
          tainly cause a catastrophic release of magical energies.

               When  you have fully identified a particular wand, inventory
          display will include additional information in  parentheses:  the


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          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.

          7.8.  Rings (‘=’)

               Rings  are very useful items, since they are relatively per‐
          manent 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).

          7.9.  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.  Some of the magical  energy  released
          comes  from  within  you, and casting several spells in a row may
          tire you.  Casting of spells also requires practice.  With  prac‐
          tice,  your skill in each category of spell casting will improve.
          Over time, however, your memory of each spell will dim,  and  you
          will need to relearn it.

               Some  spells  are  directional—you  must give a direction in
          which to cast them.  You can also cast  them  at  yourself  (just
          give  a  ‘.’  or  ‘s’ for the direction). Be warned, however, for
          this is often unwise.  Other spells are nondirectional—they don’t
          require a direction.

               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 its skill group;
          using the ‘#enhance’ command to advance a sufficiently  exercised


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          skill  will  affect  all spells within the group.  Advanced skill
          may increase the potency of spells, reduce their risk of  failure
          during casting attempts, and improve the accuracy of the estimate
          for how much longer they will be retained in your memory.   Skill
          slots  are  shared with weapons skills.  (See also the section on
          ‘‘Weapon proficiency’’.)

               Casting a spell also requires flexible movement, and wearing
          various types of armor may interfere with that.

               The  command to read a spellbook is the same as for scrolls,
          ‘r’ (read).  The ‘+’ command lists each spell you know along with
          its level, skill category, chance of failure when casting, and an
          estimate of how strongly it is remembered.  The ‘Z’  (cast)  com‐
          mand casts a spell.

          7.10.  Tools (‘(’)

               Tools are miscellaneous objects with various purposes.  Some
          tools have a limited number of uses, akin to wand  charges.   For
          example,  lamps burn out after a while.  Other tools are contain‐
          ers, which objects can be placed into or taken out of.

               The command to use tools is ‘a’ (apply).

          7.10.1.  Containers

               You may encounter bags, boxes, and chests in  your  travels.
          A  tool  of  this  sort can be opened with the ‘‘#loot’’ extended
          command when you are standing on top of it (that is, on the  same
          floor  spot), or with the ‘a’ (apply) command when you are carry‐
          ing it.  However, chests are often locked, and are  in  any  case
          unwieldy  objects.   You must set one down before unlocking it by
          using a key or lock‐picking tool with the ‘a’ (apply) command, by
          kicking  it  with the ‘^D’ command, or by using a weapon to force
          the lock with the ‘‘#force’’ extended command.

               Some chests are trapped, causing nasty things to happen when
          you unlock or open them.  You can check for and try to deactivate
          traps with the ‘‘#untrap’’ extended command.

          7.11.  Amulets (‘"’)

               Amulets are very similar to rings, and often more  powerful.
          Like rings, amulets have various magical properties, some benefi‐
          cial, some harmful, which are activated by putting them on.

               Only one amulet may be worn at a time, around your neck.

               The commands to use amulets are the same as for  rings,  ‘P’
          (put on) and ‘R’ (remove).





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          7.12.  Gems (‘*’)

               Some  gems  are valuable, and can be sold for a lot of gold.
          They are also a far more efficient way of carrying  your  riches.
          Valuable gems increase your score if you bring them with you when
          you exit.

               Other small rocks are also categorized as gems, but they are
          much  less  valuable.  All rocks, however, can be used as projec‐
          tile weapons (if you have a sling).  In  the  most  desperate  of
          cases, you can still throw them by hand.

          7.13.  Large rocks (‘`’)

               Statues  and  boulders  are not particularly useful, and are
          generally heavy.  It is rumored that some statues  are  not  what
          they seem.

               Very  large humanoids (giants and their ilk) have been known
          to use boulders as weapons.

          7.14.  Gold (‘$’)

               Gold adds to your score, and you can  buy  things  in  shops
          with  it.  There are a number of monsters in the dungeon that may
          be influenced by the amount of gold you are carrying (shopkeepers
          aside).


          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 bene‐
          fits.  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 veg‐
          etables.  The corpses and tins of blobs (‘b’), jellies (‘j’), and


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          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 con‐
          sidered  vegan  food.   Note however that eating such items still
          counts against foodless conduct.

               Vegetarians do not eat animals; however, they are  less  se‐
          lective  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 poly‐
          morphed into a creature that can digest  it,  or  eating  monster
          brains while polymorphed into a 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 eat‐
          ing 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  con‐
          duct;  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 be‐
          ing 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


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          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 challenges tracked by the game.  It
          is possible to eliminate one or more species of monsters by geno‐
          cide;  playing  without  this  feature is considered a challenge.
          When the game offers you an opportunity to genocide monsters, you
          may  respond  with  the  monster type ‘‘none’’ if you want to de‐
          cline.  You can change the form of an item into another  item  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.
          Polymorphing monsters, including pets, does not break  either  of
          these  challenges.   Finally, you may sometimes receive wishes; a
          game without an attempt to wish for any items is a challenge,  as
          is  a  game without wishing for an artifact (even if the artifact
          immediately disappears).  When the game offers you an opportunity
          to  make  a  wish  for an item, you may choose ‘‘nothing’’ if you
          want to decline.


          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.

          9.1.  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 or a global
          configuration for system administrators.






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          9.2.  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’’ be‐
          fore 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 ter‐
          minated by the next comma or the end of string.

               For example, to set up an environment variable so that ‘‘au‐
          toquiver’’ 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.

          9.3.  Using a configuration file

               Any  line  in  the  configuration  file starting with ‘#’ is
          treated as a comment.  Any line in the configuration file  start‐
          ing  with ‘‘OPTIONS=’’ may be filled out with options in the same
          syntax as in NETHACKOPTIONS.  Any line starting with ‘‘SYMBOLS=’’
          is taken as defining the corresponding symbol in a different syn‐
          tax, 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 ‘‘AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTION=’’ is taken as
          defining an exception to the pickup_types  option.   There  is  a
          section of this Guidebook that discusses that.

               The default name of the configuration file varies on differ‐
          ent operating systems, but NETHACKOPTIONS can also be set to  the
          full  name  of  a  file  you want to use (possibly preceded by an
          ‘@’).

          9.4.  Customization options

               Here are explanations of what the various options do.  Char‐
          acter  strings  that  are too long may be truncated.  Some of the
          options listed may be inactive in your dungeon.




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          acoustics
            Enable messages about what your character hears  (default  on).
            Note that this has nothing to do with your computer’s audio ca‐
            pabilities.

          align
            Your  starting  alignment  (align:lawful,   align:neutral,   or
            align:chaotic).   You  may  specify just the first letter.  The
            default is to randomly pick an appropriate alignment.   If  you
            prefix  a  ‘!’  or  ‘‘no’’  to  the value, you can exclude that
            alignment from being picked randomly.  Cannot be set  with  the
            ‘O’ command.

          autodig
            Automatically dig if you are wielding a digging tool and moving
            into a place that can be dug (default false).

          autopickup
            Automatically pick up things onto which you move (default  on).
            See pickup_types to refine the behavior.

          autoquiver
            This  option  controls  what  happens  when you attempt the ‘f’
            (fire) command with an empty quiver (or  quiver  sack  or  have
            nothing  at the ready).  When true, the computer will fill your
            quiver or quiver sack or make ready some suitable weapon.  Note
            that  it  will not take into account the blessed/cursed status,
            enchantment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free  to
            manually fill your quiver or quiver sack or make ready with the
            ‘Q’ command instead.  If no weapon is found or  the  option  is
            false,  the  ‘t’ (throw) command is executed instead.  (default
            false)

          bones
            Allow saving and loading bones files.  (default true)

          boulder
            Set the character used to display  boulders  (default  is  rock
            class symbol).

          catname
            Name your starting cat (ex. ‘‘catname:Morris’’).  Cannot be set
            with the ‘O’ command.

          character
            Pick your type of character (ex.  ‘‘character:Monk’’);  synonym
            for ‘‘role’’.  See ‘‘name’’ for an alternate method of specify‐
            ing your role.  Normally only the first letter of the value  is
            examined; the string ‘‘random’’ is an exception.

          checkpoint
            Save  game state after each level change, for possible recovery
            after program crash (default on).



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          checkspace
            Check free disk space before writing  files  to  disk  (default
            on).   You may have to turn this off if you have more than 2 GB
            free space on the partition used for your save and level files.
            Only applies when MFLOPPY was defined during compilation.

          clicklook
            Allows  looking at things on the screen by navigating the mouse
            over them and clicking the right mouse button (default off).

          cmdassist
            Have the game provide some additional  command  assistance  for
            new  players  if  it detects some anticipated mistakes (default
            on).

          confirm
            Have user confirm  attacks  on  pets,  shopkeepers,  and  other
            peaceable creatures (default on).

          disclose
            Controls  what  information  the  program reveals when the game
            ends.  Value is a space separated  list  of  prompting/category
            pairs  (default is ‘ni na nv ng nc no’, prompt with default re‐
            sponse of ‘n’ for each candidate).  The possibilities are:

                 i ‐ disclose your inventory;
                 a ‐ disclose your attributes;
                 v ‐ summarize monsters that have been vanquished;
                 g ‐ list monster species that have been genocided;
                 c ‐ display your conduct;
                 o ‐ display dungeon overview.

            Each disclosure possibility can optionally  be  preceded  by  a
            prefix  which  lets  you  refine  how it behaves.  Here are the
            valid prefixes:

                 y ‐ prompt you and default to yes on the prompt;
                 n ‐ prompt you and default to no on the prompt;
                 + ‐ disclose it without prompting;
                 ‐ ‐ do not disclose it and do not prompt.

            Omitted categories are implicitly added with ‘n’ prefix.  Spec‐
            ified categories with omitted prefix implicitly use ‘+’ prefix.
            Order of the disclosure categories  does  not  matter,  program
            display for end‐of‐game disclosure follows a set sequence.

            (ex.  ‘‘disclose:yi na +v ‐g o’’) The example sets inventory to
            prompt and default to yes, attributes to prompt and default  to
            no,  vanquished to disclose without prompting, genocided to not
            disclose and not prompt, conduct to implicitly prompt  and  de‐
            fault to no, and overview to disclose without prompting.

            Note  that  the  vanquished monsters list includes all monsters
            killed by traps and each other as well  as  by  you.   And  the


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            dungeon  overview shows all levels you had visited but does not
            reveal things about them that you hadn’t discovered.

          dogname
            Name your starting dog (ex. ‘‘dogname:Fang’’).  Cannot  be  set
            with the ‘O’ command.

          extmenu
            Changes  the  extended  commands  interface to pop‐up a menu of
            available commands.  It is keystroke compatible with the tradi‐
            tional  interface  except that it does not require that you hit
            Enter. It is implemented only by the tty  port  (default  off),
            when the game has been compiled to support tty graphics.

          female
            An  obsolete synonym for ‘‘gender:female’’.  Cannot be set with
            the ‘O’ command.

          fixinv
            An object’s inventory letter sticks to  it  when  it’s  dropped
            (default  on).   If  this is off, dropping an object shifts all
            the remaining inventory letters.

          fruit
            Name a fruit after something you enjoy eating (ex. ‘‘fruit:man‐
            go’’)  (default  ‘‘slime mold’’).  Basically a nostalgic whimsy
            that NetHack uses from time to time.  You should  set  this  to
            something  you  find  more appetizing than slime mold.  Apples,
            oranges, pears, bananas, and melons already exist  in  NetHack,
            so don’t use those.

          gender
            Your  starting  gender (gender:male or gender:female).  You may
            specify just the first letter.  Although you can  still  denote
            your  gender  using  the  ‘‘male’’  and ‘‘female’’ options, the
            ‘‘gender’’ option will take precedence.  The default is to ran‐
            domly  pick  an  appropriate  gender.   If  you prefix a ‘!’ or
            ‘‘no’’ to the value, you can exclude  that  gender  from  being
            picked randomly.  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

          help
            If  more  information is available for an object looked at with
            the ‘/’ command, ask if you want to see it (default on).  Turn‐
            ing  help  off  makes  just looking at things faster, since you
            aren’t interrupted with the ‘‘More info?’’ prompt, but it  also
            means that you might miss some interesting and/or important in‐
            formation.

          horsename
            Name your starting horse (ex.  ‘‘horsename:Trigger’’).   Cannot
            be set with the ‘O’ command.

          ignintr
            Ignore interrupt signals, including breaks (default off).


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          legacy
            Display an introductory message when starting the game (default
            on).

          lit_corridor
            Show corridor squares seen by night vision or  a  light  source
            held by your character as lit (default off).

          lootabc
            Use  the old ‘a’, ‘b’, and ‘c’ keyboard shortcuts when looting,
            rather than the mnemonics ‘o’, ‘i’, and ‘b’ (default off).

          mail
            Enable mail delivery during the game (default on).

          male
            An obsolete synonym for ‘‘gender:male’’.  Cannot  be  set  with
            the ‘O’ command.

          mention_walls
            Give feedback when walking against a wall (default off).

          menustyle
            Controls the interface used when you need to choose various ob‐
            jects (in response to the Drop  command,  for  instance).   The
            value  specified  should be the first letter of one of the fol‐
            lowing:  traditional, combination, partial,  or  full.   Tradi‐
            tional  was  the only interface available for earlier versions;
            it consists of a prompt for object class  characters,  followed
            by  an  object‐by‐object  prompt for all items matching the se‐
            lected object class(es).  Combination starts with a prompt  for
            object  class(es)  of  interest,  but  then  displays a menu of
            matching objects rather  than  prompting  one‐by‐one.   Partial
            skips  the  object  class  filtering and immediately displays a
            menu of all objects.  Full displays a menu  of  object  classes
            rather than a character prompt, and then a menu of matching ob‐
            jects for selection.

          menu_deselect_all
            Menu character accelerator to deselect all  items  in  a  menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default ’‐’.

          menu_deselect_page
            Menu character accelerator to deselect all items on  this  page
            of  a  menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  De‐
            fault ’\’.

          menu_first_page
            Menu character accelerator to jump to the first page in a menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default ’^’.

          menu_headings
            Controls  how  the  headings in a menu are highlighted.  Values
            are ’bold’, ’inverse’,  or  ’underline’.   Not  all  ports  can


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            actually display all three types.

          menu_invert_all
            Menu  character accelerator to invert all items in a menu.  Im‐
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default ’@’.

          menu_invert_page
            Menu character accelerator to invert all items on this page  of
            a  menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default
            ’~’.

          menu_last_page
            Menu character accelerator to jump to the last page in a  menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default ’|’.

          menu_next_page
            Menu  character accelerator to goto the next menu page.  Imple‐
            mented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default ’>’.

          menu_objsyms
            Show object symbols in menu headings in menus where the  object
            symbols act as menu accelerators (default off).

          menu_previous_page
            Menu character accelerator to goto the previous menu page.  Im‐
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default ’<’.

          menu_search
            Menu character accelerator to search for a menu  item.   Imple‐
            mented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default ’:’.

          menu_select_all
            Menu  character accelerator to select all items in a menu.  Im‐
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default ’.’.

          menu_select_page
            Menu character accelerator to select all items on this page  of
            a  menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default
            ’,’.

          msghistory
            The number of top line messages to save (and  recall  with  ^P)
            (default 20).  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

          msg_window
            Allows  you  to change the way recalled messages are displayed.
            (It is currently implemented for tty only.)  The possible  val‐
            ues are:

                 s ‐ single message (default; only choice prior to 3.4.0);
                 c ‐ combination, two messages as ‘single’, then as ‘full’;
                 f ‐ full window, oldest message first;
                 r ‐ full window reversed, newest message first.



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            For  backward  compatibility,  no  value  needs to be specified
            (which defaults to ‘full’), or it can  be  negated  (which  de‐
            faults to ‘single’).

          name
            Set  your  character’s  name (defaults to your user name).  You
            can also set your character’s role by appending a dash and  one
            or more letters of the role (that is, by suffixing one of ‐A ‐B
            ‐C ‐H ‐K ‐M ‐P ‐Ra ‐Ro ‐S ‐T ‐V ‐W).  If ‐@  is  used  for  the
            role,  then  a random one will be automatically chosen.  Cannot
            be set with the ‘O’ command.

          news
            Read the NetHack news file, if present (default on).  Since the
            news is shown at the beginning of the game, there’s no point in
            setting this with the ‘O’ command.

          null
            Send padding nulls to the terminal (default on).

          number_pad
            Use digit keys instead of letters to move (default 0  or  off).
            Valid settings are:

             0 ‐ move by letters; ‘yuhjklbn’
             1 ‐ move by numbers; digit ‘5’ acts as ‘G’ movement prefix
             2 ‐ like 1 but ‘5’ works as ‘g’ prefix instead of as ‘G’
             3 ‐ by numbers using phone key layout; 123 above, 789 below
             4 ‐ combines 3 with 2; phone layout plus MSDOS compatibility
            ‐1 ‐ by letters but use ‘z’ to go northwest, ‘y’ to zap wands

            For  backward  compatibility,  omitting  a value is the same as
            specifying 1 and negating number_pad is the same as  specifying
            0.   (Settings  2 and 4 are for compatibility with MSDOS or old
            PC Hack; in addition to the different behavior for ‘5’, ‘Alt‐5’
            acts as ‘G’ and ‘Alt‐0’ acts as ‘I’.  Setting ‐1 is to accommo‐
            date some German keyboards which have the location of  the  ‘y’
            and  ‘z’  keys  swapped.)   When  moving by numbers, to enter a
            count prefix for those  commands  which  accept  one  (such  as
            ‘‘12s’’ to search twelve times), precede it with the letter ‘n’
            (‘‘n12s’’).

          packorder
            Specify  the  order  to   list   object   types   in   (default
            ‘‘")[%?+!=/(*‘0_’’).   The  value  of  this  option should be a
            string containing the symbols for  the  various  object  types.
            Any  omitted  types  are filled in at the end from the previous
            order.

          paranoid_confirmation
            A space separated list of specific situations  where  alternate
            prompting   is  desired.   The  default  is  paranoid_confirma‐
            tion:pray.



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            Confirm ‐ for any prompts which are set to require "yes" rather
                      than  ’y’, also require "no" to reject instead of ac‐
                      cepting any non‐yes response as no
            quit    ‐ require "yes" rather than ’y’ to confirm quitting the
                      game or switching into non‐scoring explore mode;
            die     ‐ require  "yes"  rather than ’y’ to confirm dying (not
                      useful in normal play; applies to explore mode);
            bones   ‐ require "yes" rather than ’y’ to confirm saving bones
                      data when dying in debug mode;
            attack  ‐ require  "yes" rather than ’y’ to confirm attacking a
                      peaceful monster;
            pray    ‐ require ’y’ to confirm an attempt to pray rather than
                      immediately praying; on by default;
            Remove  ‐ require selection from inventory for ’R’ and ’T’ com‐
                      mands even when wearing just one applicable item.

            By default, the pray choice is enabled,  the  others  disabled.
            To  disable  it  without  setting any of the other choices, use
            ‘‘paranoid_confirmation:none’’.  To keep it enabled while  set‐
            ting any of the others, include it in the list, such as ‘‘para‐
            noid_confirmation:attack pray Remove’’.

          perm_invent
            If true, always display your current  inventory  in  a  window.
            This  only makes sense for windowing system interfaces that im‐
            plement this feature.

          pettype
            Specify the type of your initial pet,  if  you  are  playing  a
            character  class that uses multiple types of pets; or choose to
            have no initial pet  at  all.   Possible  values  are  ‘‘cat’’,
            ‘‘dog’’, ‘‘horse’’, and ‘‘none’’.  If the choice is not allowed
            for the role you are currently playing, it will be silently ig‐
            nored.   For example, ‘‘horse’’ will only be honored when play‐
            ing a knight.  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

          pickup_burden
            When you pick up an item that  would  exceed  this  encumbrance
            level  (Unencumbered,  Burdened, streSsed, straiNed, overTaxed,
            or overLoaded), you will be asked  if  you  want  to  continue.
            (Default ‘S’).

          pickup_thrown
            If  this option is on and autopickup is also on, try to pick up
            things that you threw, even if they aren’t in  pickup_types  or
            match an autopickup exception.  Default is on.

          pickup_types
            Specify the object types to be picked up when autopickup is on.
            Default is all types.  You can use autopickup_exception config‐
            uration file lines to further refine autopickup behavior.

          pile_limit
            When  walking  across a pile of objects on the floor, threshold


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            at which the message "there are few/several/many objects  here"
            is  given  instead of showing a popup list of those objects.  A
            value of 0 means "no limit" (always list the objects); a  value
            of  1 effectively means "never show the objects" since the pile
            size will always be at least that big; default value is 5.

          playmode
            Values are ‘normal’, ‘explore’, or ‘debug’.   Allows  selection
            of  explore  mode  (also known as discovery mode) or debug mode
            (also known as wizard mode) instead of normal play.  Debug mode
            might  only be allowed for someone logged in under a particular
            user name (on multi‐user systems) or  specifying  a  particular
            character name (on single‐user systems) or it might be disabled
            entirely.  Requesting it when not allowed or not  possible  re‐
            sults in explore mode instead.  Default is normal play.

          pushweapon
            Using  the  ‘w’ (wield) command when already wielding something
            pushes the old item into your alternate  weapon  slot  (default
            off).   Likewise  for  the ‘a’ (apply) command if it causes the
            applied item to become wielded.

          race
            Selects your race (for example,  ‘‘race:human’’).   Default  is
            random.   If  you  prefix a ‘!’ or ‘‘no’’ to the value, you can
            exclude that race from being picked randomly.   Cannot  be  set
            with the ‘O’ command.

          rest_on_space
            Make  the  space  bar a synonym for the ‘.’ (rest) command (de‐
            fault off).

          role
            Pick your type of character (ex. ‘‘role:Samurai’’); synonym for
            ‘‘character’’.   See ‘‘name’’ for an alternate method of speci‐
            fying your role.  Normally only the first letter of  the  value
            is  examined;  ‘r’  is an exception with ‘‘Rogue’’, ‘‘Ranger’’,
            and ‘‘random’’ values. If you prefix a ‘!’  or  ‘‘no’’  to  the
            value, you can exclude that role from being picked randomly.

          roguesymset
            This  option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets
            found within ‘‘symbols’’ to alter the symbols displayed on  the
            screen on the rogue level.

          rlecomp
            When writing out a save file, perform run length compression of
            the map.  Not all ports support run length compression. It  has
            no effect on reading an existing save file.

          runmode
            Controls  the amount of screen updating for the map window when
            engaged in multi‐turn movement (running via shift+direction  or
            control+direction  and  so  forth, or via the travel command or


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            mouse click).  The possible values are:

            teleport ‐ update the map after movement has finished;
            run      ‐ update the map after every seven or so steps;
            walk     ‐ update the map after each step;
            crawl    ‐ like walk, but pause briefly after each step.

            This option only affects the game’s screen display, not the ac‐
            tual  results  of moving.  The default is ‘run’; versions prior
            to 3.4.1 used ‘teleport’ only.  Whether or not  the  effect  is
            noticeable will depend upon the window port used or on the type
            of terminal.

          safe_pet
            Prevent you from (knowingly) attacking your pets (default  on).

          scores
            Control  what  parts of the score list you are shown at the end
            (ex.  ‘‘scores:5 top scores/4 around  my  score/own  scores’’).
            Only  the  first  letter of each category (‘t’, ‘a’, or ‘o’) is
            necessary.

          showexp
            Show your accumulated experience points on bottom line (default
            off).

          showrace
            Display  yourself  as  the glyph for your race, rather than the
            glyph for your role (default off).  Note that this setting  af‐
            fects  only the appearance of the display, not the way the game
            treats you.

          showscore
            Show your approximate accumulated score on bottom line (default
            off).

          silent
            Suppress terminal beeps (default on).

          sortpack
            Sort  the  pack contents by type when displaying inventory (de‐
            fault on).

          sparkle
            Display a sparkly effect when a monster (including yourself) is
            hit by an attack to which it is resistant (default on).

          standout
            Boldface monsters and ‘‘‐‐More‐‐’’ (default off).

          suppress_alert
            This  option  may be set to a NetHack version level to suppress
            alert notification messages about feature changes for that  and
            prior versions (ex. ‘‘suppress_alert:3.3.1’’).


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          symset
            This  option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets
            found within ‘‘symbols’’ to alter the symbols displayed on  the
            screen.

          time
            Show  the  elapsed  game  time in turns on bottom line (default
            off).

          timed_delay
            When pausing momentarily for display effect, such as  with  ex‐
            plosions  and  moving  objects, use a timer rather than sending
            extra characters to the screen.  (Applies to ‘‘tty’’  interface
            only;  ‘‘X11’’  interface always uses a timer based delay.  The
            default is on if configured into the program.)

          tombstone
            Draw a tombstone graphic upon your death (default on).

          toptenwin
            Put the ending display in a NetHack window instead of on stdout
            (default  off).  Setting this option makes the score list visi‐
            ble when a windowing version of NetHack is  started  without  a
            parent  window,  but  it no longer leaves the score list around
            after game end on a terminal or emulating window.

          travel
            Allow the travel command (default on).  Turning this option off
            will  prevent  the game from attempting unintended moves if you
            make inadvertent mouse clicks on the map window.

          verbose
            Provide more commentary during the game (default on).

          windowtype
            Select which windowing  system  to  use,  such  as  ‘‘tty’’  or
            ‘‘X11’’  (default  depends on version).  Cannot be set with the
            ‘O’ command.

          zerocomp
            When writing out a save file, perform zero‐comp compression  of
            the  contents.  Not all ports support zero‐comp compression. It
            has no effect on reading an existing save file.

          9.5.  Window Port Customization options

               Here are explanations of the various options that  are  used
          to  customize  and  change  the characteristics of the windowtype
          that you have chosen.  Character strings that are too long may be
          truncated.   Not  all  window  ports will adjust for all settings
          listed here.  You can safely add any of  these  options  to  your
          config  file,  and  if the window port is capable of adjusting to
          suit your preferences, it will attempt to do so. If it  can’t  it
          will  silently  ignore  it.   You  can  find  out if an option is


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          supported by the window port that  you  are  currently  using  by
          checking to see if it shows up in the Options list.  Some options
          are dynamic and can be specified during the  game  with  the  ‘O’
          command.

          align_message
            Where  to align or place the message window (top, bottom, left,
            or right)

          align_status
            Where to align or place the status window (top,  bottom,  left,
            or right).

          ascii_map
            NetHack should display an ascii character map if it can.

          color
            NetHack  should display color if it can for different monsters,
            objects, and dungeon features

          eight_bit_tty
            NetHack should pass eight‐bit character  values  (for  example,
            specified  with the traps option) straight through to your ter‐
            minal (default off).

          font_map
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name for the  map  win‐
            dow.

          font_menu
            NetHack  should use a font by the chosen name for menu windows.

          font_message
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name  for  the  message
            window.

          font_status
            NetHack  should  use  a  font by the chosen name for the status
            window.

          font_text
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name for text  windows.

          font_size_map
            NetHack should use this size font for the map window.

          font_size_menu
            NetHack should use this size font for menu windows.

          font_size_message
            NetHack should use this size font for the message window.

          font_size_status
            NetHack should use this size font for the status window.


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          font_size_text
            NetHack should use this size font for text windows.

          fullscreen
            NetHack should try and display on the entire screen rather than
            in a window.

          hilite_pet
            Visually distinguish pets from similar animals  (default  off).
            The  behavior  of  this option depends on the type of windowing
            you use.  In text windowing, text highlighting or inverse video
            is  often  used;  with tiles, generally displays a heart symbol
            near pets.

          large_font
            NetHack should use a large font.

          map_mode
            NetHack should display the map in the manner specified.

          mouse_support
            Allow use of the mouse for input and travel.

          player_selection
            NetHack should pop up dialog boxes, or use prompts for  charac‐
            ter selection.

          popup_dialog
            NetHack should pop up dialog boxes for input.

          preload_tiles
            NetHack  should preload tiles into memory.  For example, in the
            protected mode MSDOS version, control whether  tiles  get  pre‐
            loaded  into  RAM  at the start of the game.  Doing so enhances
            performance of the tile graphics, but uses  more  memory.  (de‐
            fault on).  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

          scroll_amount
            NetHack  should scroll the display by this number of cells when
            the hero reaches the scroll_margin.

          scroll_margin
            NetHack should scroll the display when the hero  or  cursor  is
            this number of cells away from the edge of the window.

          selectsaved
            NetHack  should  display a menu of existing saved games for the
            player to choose from at game startup, if it can. Not all ports
            support this option.

          softkeyboard
            Display  an  onscreen  keyboard.   Handhelds are most likely to
            support this option.



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          splash_screen
            NetHack should display an opening splash screen when it  starts
            up (default yes).

          tiled_map
            NetHack should display a tiled map if it can.

          tile_file
            Specify  the  name  of an alternative tile file to override the
            default.

          tile_height
            Specify the preferred height of each tile  in  a  tile  capable
            port.

          tile_width
            Specify the preferred width of each tile in a tile capable port

          use_inverse
            NetHack should display inverse when the game specifies it.

          vary_msgcount
            NetHack should display this number of messages at a time in the
            message window.

          windowcolors
            NetHack   should  display  windows  with  the  specified  fore‐
            ground/background colors if it can.

          wraptext
            NetHack port should wrap long lines of text if they  don’t  fit
            in the visible area of the window.

          9.6.  Platform‐specific Customization options

               Here  are  explanations of options that are used by specific
          platforms or ports to customize and change the port behavior.

          altkeyhandler
            Select an alternate keystroke handler dll to  load  (Win32  tty
            NetHack  only).   The  name of the handler is specified without
            the .dll extension and without any path information.  Cannot be
            set with the ‘O’ command.

          altmeta
            On Amiga, this option controls whether typing ‘Alt’ plus anoth‐
            er key functions as a meta‐shift for that key (default on).

          altmeta
            On other (non‐Amiga) systems where this option is available, it
            can  be set to tell nethack to convert a two character sequence
            beginning with ESC into a meta‐shifted version  of  the  second
            character (default off).



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            This  conversion is only done for commands, not for other input
            prompts.  Note that typing one or more digits as a count prefix
            prior  to  a command‐‐preceded by n if the number_pad option is
            set‐‐is also subject to this conversion, so attempting to abort
            the  count by typing ESC will leave nethack waiting for another
            character to complete the two character sequence.  Type a  sec‐
            ond  ESC to finish cancelling such a count.  At other prompts a
            single ESC suffices.

          BIOS
            Use BIOS calls to update the screen display quickly and to read
            the  keyboard  (allowing  the use of arrow keys to move) on ma‐
            chines with an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default  off,  OS/2,
            PC, and ST NetHack only).

          flush
            (default off, AMIGA NetHack only).

          MACgraphics
            (default on, Mac NetHack only).

          page_wait
            (default on, Mac NetHack only).

          rawio
            Force  raw (non‐cbreak) mode for faster output and more bullet‐
            proof input (MS‐DOS sometimes treats ‘^P’ as a  printer  toggle
            without  it)  (default  off,  OS/2,  PC,  and ST NetHack only).
            Note:  DEC Rainbows hang if this is turned on.  Cannot  be  set
            with the ‘O’ command.

          soundcard
            (default on, PC NetHack only).  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ com‐
            mand.

          subkeyvalue
            (Win32 tty NetHack only).  May be used to alter  the  value  of
            keystrokes that the operating system returns to NetHack to help
            compensate for international keyboard issues.   OPTIONS=subkey‐
            value:171/92  will  return 92 to NetHack, if 171 was originally
            going to be returned.  You can use multiple subkeyvalue  state‐
            ments in the config file if needed.  Cannot be set with the ‘O’
            command.

          video
            Set the video mode used (PC NetHack only).  Values are ‘autode‐
            tect’,  ‘default’,  or  ‘vga’.   Setting ‘vga’ (or ‘autodetect’
            with vga hardware present)  will  cause  the  game  to  display
            tiles.  Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

          videocolors
            Set  the  color  palette for PC systems using NO_TERMS (default
            4‐2‐6‐1‐5‐3‐15‐12‐10‐14‐9‐13‐11, (PC NetHack only).  The  order
            of   colors   is   red,  green,  brown,  blue,  magenta,  cyan,


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            bright.white, bright.red,  bright.green,  yellow,  bright.blue,
            bright.magenta,  and  bright.cyan.   Cannot be set with the ‘O’
            command.

          videoshades
            Set the intensity level of the three gray scales available (de‐
            fault dark normal light, PC NetHack only).  If the game display
            is difficult to read, try adjusting these scales; if this  does
            not  correct  the  problem, try !color.  Cannot be set with the
            ‘O’ command.

          9.7.  Configuring autopickup exceptions

               You can further refine the behavior of the autopickup option
          beyond what is available through the pickup_types option.

               By  placing autopickup_exception lines in your configuration
          file, you can define patterns to be  checked  when  the  game  is
          about to autopickup something.

          autopickup_exception
            Sets  an  exception  to the pickup_types option.  The autopick‐
            up_exception option should be followed  by  a  string  of  1‐80
            characters  to be used as a pattern to match against the singu‐
            lar form of the description of an object at your location.

            You may use the following special characters in a pattern:

                 * ‐ matches zero or more characters;
                 ? ‐ matches any single character.

            In addition, some characters are treated specially if they  oc‐
            cur as the first character in the pattern, specifically:

                 < ‐ always pickup an object that matches rest of pattern;
                 > ‐ never pickup an object that matches rest of pattern.

            A  ‘never pickup’ rule takes precedence over an ‘always pickup’
            rule if both match.

            Exceptions can be set with the ‘O’ command, but ones  set  that
            way will not be preserved across saves and restores.

          Here are some examples:

                 autopickup_exception="<*arrow"
                 autopickup_exception=">*corpse"
                 autopickup_exception=">* cursed*"

               The  first  example  above  will result in autopickup of any
          type of arrow.  The second example results in  the  exclusion  of
          any  corpse from autopickup.  The last example results in the ex‐
          clusion of items known to be cursed from autopickup.



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          9.8.  Configuring User Sounds

               Some platforms allow you to define sound files to be  played
          when  a  message that matches a user‐defined pattern is delivered
          to the message window.  At this time the Qt port and the win32tty
          and win32gui ports support the use of user sounds.

               The  following  config  file entries are relevant to mapping
          user sounds to messages:

          SOUNDDIR
            The directory that houses the sound files to be played.

          SOUND
            An entry that maps a sound file  to  a  user‐specified  message
            pattern.   Each  SOUND  entry is broken down into the following
            parts:

            MESG       ‐ message window mapping (the only one supported  in
                         3.5);
            pattern    ‐ the pattern to match;
            sound file ‐ the sound file to play;
            volume     ‐ the volume to be set while playing the sound file.

            The exact format for the pattern depends on whether  the  plat‐
            form  is  built to use ‘‘regular expressions’’ or NetHack’s own
            internal pattern matching facility. The ‘‘regular expressions’’
            matching  can  be  much  more  sophisticated  than the internal
            NetHack pattern matching, but requires 3rd party  libraries  on
            some platforms.  There are plenty of references available else‐
            where for explaining ‘‘regular expressions’’.  You  can  verify
            which  pattern  matching is used by your port with the #version
            command.

            NetHack’s internal pattern matching routine uses the  following
            special characters in its pattern matching:

                 * ‐ matches 0 or more characters;
                 ? ‐ matches any single character.

            Here’s  an  example of a sound mapping using NetHack’s internal
            pattern matching facility:

                 SOUND=MESG "*chime of a cash register*" "gong.wav" 50

            specifies that any message with "chime of a cash register" con‐
            tained  in  it  will trigger the playing of file gong.wav.  You
            can have multiple SOUND entries in your config file.

          9.9.  Modifying NetHack Symbols

               NetHack can load entire symbol sets from the symbol file.




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               The options that are used to select a particular symbol  set
          from the symbol file are:

          symset
            Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load.

          roguesymset
            Set  the  name of the symbol set that you want to load for dis‐
            play on the rogue level.

               You can also override one or more symbols using the  SYMBOLS
          config  file  option.  Symbols are specified as name:value pairs.
          Note that NetHack escape‐processes the value  string  in  conven‐
          tional C fashion.  This means that \ is a prefix to take the fol‐
          lowing character literally. Thus \ needs to be represented as \\.
          The special escape form \m switches on the meta bit in the symbol
          value, and the \^ prefix causes the  following  character  to  be
          treated as a control character.

                                      NetHack Symbols
          Default Symbol Name            Description
          ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                  S_air                  (air)
             _    S_altar                (altar)
             "    S_amulet               (amulet)
             A    S_angel                (angelic being)
             a    S_ant                  (ant or other insect)
             ^    S_anti_magic_trap      (anti‐magic field)
             [    S_armor                (suit or piece of armor)
             [    S_armour               (suit or piece of armor)
             ^    S_arrow_trap           (arrow trap)
             0    S_ball                 (iron ball)
             #    S_bars                 (iron bars)
             B    S_bat                  (bat or bird)
             ^    S_bear_trap            (bear trap)
             ‐    S_blcorn               (bottom left corner)
             b    S_blob                 (blob)
             +    S_book                 (spellbook)
             )    S_boomleft             (boomerang open left)
             (    S_boomright            (boomerang open right)
             ‘    S_boulder              (boulder)
             ‐    S_brcorn               (bottom right corner)
             C    S_centaur              (centaur)
             _    S_chain                (iron chain)
             #    S_cloud                (cloud)
             c    S_cockatrice           (cockatrice)
             $    S_coin                 (pile of coins)
             #    S_corr                 (corridor)
             ‐    S_crwall               (wall)
             ^    S_dart_trap            (dart trap)
             &    S_demon                (major demon)
             *    S_digbeam              (dig beam)
             >    S_dnladder             (ladder down)



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             >    S_dnstair              (staircase down)
             d    S_dog                  (dog or other canine)
             D    S_dragon               (dragon)
             ;    S_eel                  (sea monster)
             E    S_elemental            (elemental)
             /    S_explode1             (explosion top left)
             ‐    S_explode2             (explosion top center)
            ‘\’   S_explode3             (explosion top right)
             |    S_explode4             (explosion middle left)
                  S_explode5             (explosion middle center)
             |    S_explode6             (explosion middle right)
            ‘\’   S_explode7             (explosion bottom left)
             ‐    S_explode8             (explosion bottom center)
             /    S_explode9             (explosion bottom right)
             e    S_eye                  (eye or sphere)
             ^    S_falling_rock_trap    (falling rock trap)
             f    S_feline               (cat or other feline)
             ^    S_fire_trap            (fire trap)
             !    S_flashbeam            (flash beam)
             %    S_food                 (piece of food)
             {    S_fountain             (fountain)
             F    S_fungus               (fungus or mold)
             *    S_gem                  (gem or rock)
                  S_ghost                (ghost)
             H    S_giant                (giant humanoid)
             G    S_gnome                (gnome)
             ’    S_golem                (golem)
             |    S_grave                (grave)
             g    S_gremlin              (gremlin)
             ‐    S_hbeam                (wall)
             #    S_hcdbridge            (horizontal raised drawbridge)
             +    S_hcdoor               (closed door)
             |    S_hodoor               (open door)
             ^    S_hole                 (hole)
             @    S_human                (human or elf)
             h    S_humanoid             (humanoid)
             ‐    S_hwall                (horizontal wall)
             i    S_imp                  (imp or minor demon)
             J    S_jabberwock           (jabberwock)
             j    S_jelly                (jelly)
             k    S_kobold               (kobold)
             K    S_kop                  (Keystone Kop)
             ^    S_land_mine            (land mine)
             }    S_lava                 (molten lava)
             l    S_leprechaun           (leprechaun)
             ^    S_level_teleporter     (level teleporter)
             L    S_lich                 (lich)
             y    S_light                (light)
             #    S_litcorr              (lit corridor)
             :    S_lizard               (lizard)
            ‘\’   S_lslant               (wall)
             ^    S_magic_portal         (magic portal)
             ^    S_magic_trap           (magic trap)



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             m    S_mimic                (mimic)
             ]    S_mimic_def            (mimic)
             M    S_mummy                (mummy)
             N    S_naga                 (naga)
             n    S_nymph                (nymph)
             O    S_ogre                 (ogre)
             o    S_orc                  (orc)
             p    S_piercer              (piercer)
             ^    S_pit                  (pit)
             ^    S_polymorph_trap       (polymorph trap)
             }    S_pool                 (water)
             !    S_potion               (potion)
             P    S_pudding              (pudding or ooze)
             q    S_quadruped            (quadruped)
             Q    S_quantmech            (quantum mechanic)
             =    S_ring                 (ring)
             ‘    S_rock                 (boulder or statue)
             r    S_rodent               (rodent)
             ^    S_rolling_boulder_trap (rolling boulder trap)
             /    S_rslant               (wall)
             ^    S_rust_trap            (rust trap)
             R    S_rustmonst            (rust monster or disenchanter)
             ?    S_scroll               (scroll)
             #    S_sink                 (sink)
             ^    S_sleeping_gas_trap    (sleeping gas trap)
             S    S_snake                (snake)
             s    S_spider               (arachnid or centipede)
             ^    S_spiked_pit           (spiked pit)
             ^    S_squeaky_board        (squeaky board)
             0    S_ss1                  (magic shield 1 of 4)
             #    S_ss2                  (magic shield 2 of 4)
             @    S_ss3                  (magic shield 3 of 4)
             *    S_ss4                  (magic shield 4 of 4)
             ^    S_statue_trap          (statue trap)
                  S_stone                (dark part of a room)
             ‐    S_sw_bc                (swallow bottom center)
            ‘\’   S_sw_bl                (swallow bottom left)
             /    S_sw_br                (swallow bottom right)
             |    S_sw_ml                (swallow middle left)
             |    S_sw_mr                (swallow middle right)
             ‐    S_sw_tc                (swallow top center)
             /    S_sw_tl                (swallow top left)
            ‘\’   S_sw_tr                (swallow top right)
             ‐    S_tdwall               (wall)
             ^    S_teleportation_trap   (teleportation trap)
                  S_throne               (opulent throne)
             ‐    S_tlcorn               (top left corner)
             |    S_tlwall               (wall)
             (    S_tool                 (useful item (pick‐axe key lamp...))
             ^    S_trap_door            (trap door)
             t    S_trapper              (trapper or lurker above)
             ‐    S_trcorn               (top right corner)
             #    S_tree                 (tree)



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             T    S_troll                (troll)
             |    S_trwall               (wall)
             ‐    S_tuwall               (wall)
             U    S_umber                (umber hulk)
             u    S_unicorn              (unicorn or horse)
             <    S_upladder             (ladder up)
             <    S_upstair              (staircase up)
             V    S_vampire              (vampire)
             |    S_vbeam                (wall)
             #    S_vcdbridge            (vertical raised drawbridge)
             +    S_vcdoor               (closed door)
             ‐    S_vodoor               (open door)
             v    S_vortex               (vortex)
             |    S_vwall                (vertical wall)
             /    S_wand                 (wand)
             }    S_water                (water)
             )    S_weapon               (weapon)
             "    S_web                  (web)
             w    S_worm                 (worm)
             ~    S_worm_tail            (long worm tail)
             W    S_wraith               (wraith)
             x    S_xan                  (xan or other mythical/fantastic insect)
             X    S_xorn                 (xorn)
             Y    S_yeti                 (apelike creature)
             Z    S_zombie               (zombie)
             z    S_zruty                (zruty)

          9.10.  Configuring NetHack for Play by the Blind

               NetHack  can be set up to use only standard ASCII characters
          for making maps of the dungeons. This makes the  MS‐DOS  versions
          of  NetHack  completely  accessible  to  the blind who use speech
          and/or Braille access technologies.  Players will require a  good
          working  knowledge  of their screen‐reader’s review features, and
          will have to know how to  navigate  horizontally  and  vertically
          character  by character. They will also find the search capabili‐
          ties of their screen‐readers to be quite valuable. Be certain  to
          examine  this  Guidebook  before playing so you have an idea what
          the screen layout is like. You’ll also need to be able to  locate
          the  PC  cursor.  It  is  always where your character is located.
          Merely searching for an @‐sign will not always find your  charac‐
          ter since there are other humanoids represented by the same sign.
          Your screen‐reader should also have a function  which  gives  you
          the  row  and  column  of  your  review cursor and the PC cursor.
          These co‐ordinates are often useful in giving  players  a  better
          sense of the overall location of items on the screen.

               While  it is not difficult for experienced users to edit the
          defaults.nh file to accomplish this, novices may find  this  task
          somewhat  daunting.   Included within the ‘‘symbols’’ file of all
          official distributions of NetHack is a  symset  called  NHAccess.
          Selecting  that  symset in your configuration file will cause the
          game to run in a manner accessible to the blind. After  you  have
          gained  some experience with the game and with editing files, you


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          may want to alter settings via  SYMBOLS=  in  your  configuration
          file  to better suit your preferences.  The most crucial settings
          to make the game accessible are:

          symset:NHAccess
            Load a symbol set appropriate for use by blind players.

          roguesymset:NHAccess
            Load a symbol set for the rogue level that is  appropriate  for
            use by blind players.

          menustyle:traditional
            This will assist in the interface to speech synthesizers.

          number_pad
            A  lot  of  speech access programs use the number‐pad to review
            the screen.  If this is the case, disable the number_pad option
            and use the traditional Rogue‐like commands.

          9.11.  Global Configuration for System Administrators

               If  NetHack  is compiled with the SYSCF option, a system ad‐
          ministrator should set up a global configuration; this is a  file
          in the same format as the traditional per‐user configuration file
          (see above).  This file should be named sysconf and placed in the
          same  directory  as the other NetHack support files.  The options
          recognized in this file are listed below.  Any option not set us‐
          es  a  compiled‐in default (which may not be appropriate for your
          system).

            WIZARDS A space‐separated list of user names who are allowed to
            play  in  wizard  mode (the debugging mode, not the magic‐using
            role).  A value of a single asterisk (*) allows anyone to start
            a game in wizard mode.

            SHELLERS  A  list of users who are allowed to use the shell es‐
            cape command (!).  The syntax is the same as WIZARDS.

            MAXPLAYERS Limit the maximum number of games that can  be  run‐
            ning at the same time.

            SUPPORT  A  string  explaining how to get local support (no de‐
            fault value).

            RECOVER A string explaining how to recover a game on this  sys‐
            tem (no default value).

            SEDUCE  0  or  1 to disable or enable, respectively, the SEDUCE
            option (see the source for details on this function).

               The following options affect the score file:

            PERSMAX Maximum number of entries for one person.



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            ENTRYMAX Maximum number of entries in the score file.

            POINTSMIN Minimum number of points to get an entry in the score
            file.

            PERS_IS_UID  0  or  1 to use user names or numeric userids, re‐
            spectively, to identify unique people for the score file.

            MAX_STATUENAME_RANK Maximum number of score file entries to use
            for random statue names (default is 10).

          10.  Scoring

               NetHack  maintains  a  list  of the top scores or scorers on
          your machine, depending on how it is set up.  In the latter case,
          each  account  on the machine can post only one non‐winning score
          on this list.  If you score higher  than  someone  else  on  this
          list,  or better your previous score, you will be inserted in the
          proper place under your current name.  How many scores  are  kept
          can also be set up when NetHack is compiled.

               Your  score  is  chiefly  based upon how much experience you
          gained, how much loot you accumulated, how deep you explored, and
          how the game ended.  If you quit the game, you escape with all of
          your gold intact.  If, however, you get killed in  the  Mazes  of
          Menace, the guild will only hear about 90% of your gold when your
          corpse is discovered (adventurers  have  been  known  to  collect
          finder’s  fees).   So, consider whether you want to take one last
          hit at that monster and possibly live,  or  quit  and  stop  with
          whatever  you  have.  If you quit, you keep all your gold, but if
          you swing and live, you might find more.

               If you just want to see what the current  top  players/games
          list is, you can type nethack ‐s all on most versions.


          11.  Explore mode

               NetHack  is  an intricate and difficult game.  Novices might
          falter in fear, aware of their ignorance of the means to survive.
          Well,  fear not.  Your dungeon comes equipped with an ‘‘explore’’
          or ‘‘discovery’’ mode that enables you to keep old save files and
          cheat  death, at the paltry cost of not getting on the high score
          list.

               There are two ways of enabling  explore  mode.   One  is  to
          start  the game with the ‐X command‐line switch or with the play‐
          mode:explore option.  The other is to issue the  ‘‘#exploremode’’
          extended  command while already playing the game.  Starting a new
          game in explore mode provides your character with a wand of wish‐
          ing  in  initial  inventory; switching during play does not.  The
          other benefits of explore mode are left for the trepid reader  to
          discover.



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          11.1.  Debug mode

               Debug mode, also known as wizard mode, is undocumented aside
          from this brief description.  It is intended  for  tracking  down
          problems  within the program rather than to provide god‐like pow‐
          ers to your character, and players who attempt debugging are  ex‐
          pected  to  figure out how to use it themselves.  It is initiated
          by starting the game with the ‐D command‐line switch or with  the
          playmode:debug option.

               For  some systems, the player must be logged in under a par‐
          ticular user name to be allowed to use debug  mode;  for  others,
          the  hero  must  be given a particular character name (but may be
          any role; there’s no connection between ‘‘wizard mode’’  and  the
          Wizard  role).   And  on  any system, the program might have been
          configured to omit debug mode entirely.  Attempting  to  start  a
          game  in debug mode when not allowed or not available will result
          in falling back to explore mode instead.


          12.  Credits

               The original hack game was  modeled  on  the  Berkeley  UNIX
          rogue  game.   Large  portions  of  this  paper  were shamelessly
          cribbed from A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom, by Michael  C.  Toy
          and  Kenneth  C.  R. C. Arnold.  Small portions were adapted from
          Further Exploration of the Dungeons of Doom, by Ken Arromdee.

               NetHack is the product of literally dozens of people’s work.
          Main  events  in the course of the game development are described
          below:


               Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack, with help  from  Kenny
          Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne.

               Andries Brouwer did a major re‐write, transforming Hack into
          a very different game, and published (at  least)  three  versions
          (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for UNIX machines to the Usenet.

               Don  G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft C and MS‐DOS,
          producing PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC  Rainbow  graphics
          in  version 1.03g, and went on to produce at least four more ver‐
          sions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6).

               R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to  Lattice  C  and  the  Atari
          520/1040ST, producing ST Hack 1.03.

               Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together,
          incorporating many of the added features,  and  produced  NetHack
          1.4.   He  then  coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and
          debugging NetHack 1.4 and released NetHack versions 2.2 and  2.3.




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               Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading
          a team which included Ken Arromdee, Jean‐Christophe Collet, Steve
          Creps, Eric Hendrickson, Izchak Miller, John Rupley, Mike Threep‐
          oint, and Janet Walz, to produce NetHack 3.0c.

               NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by  Eric  R.  Smith,  to
          OS/2  by  Timo Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel.  The three
          of them and Kevin Darcy later joined the main development team to
          produce subsequent revisions of 3.0.

               Olaf  Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga.  Norm
          Meluch, Stephen Spackman and Pierre  Martineau  designed  overlay
          code  for  PC  NetHack 3.0.  Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the
          Macintosh.  Along with various other Dungeoneers, they  continued
          to  enhance  the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports through the later
          revisions of 3.0.

               Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by  Izchak  Miller
          and  Janet  Walz, the development team which now included Ken Ar‐
          romdee, David Cohrs, Jean‐Christophe Collet,  Kevin  Darcy,  Matt
          Day,  Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric
          Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook  a  radical  revision  of  3.0.
          They re‐structured the game’s design, and re‐wrote major parts of
          the code.  They added multiple dungeons, a new  display,  special
          individual  character  quests,  a  new endgame and many other new
          features, and produced NetHack 3.1.

               Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson,  with  help  from
          Richard  Addison,  Mike  Passaretti,  and Olaf Seibert, developed
          NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.

               Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl  Sche‐
          lin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported
          NetHack 3.1 to the PC.

               Jon W{tte and Hao‐yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike
          Engber,  David  Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny
          Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke, and Andy Swanson,  developed  NetHack
          3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for MPW.  Building on their de‐
          velopment, Barton House added a Think C port.

               Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2.  Eric Smith port‐
          ed  NetHack  3.1 to the Atari.  Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua
          Delahunty, was responsible for the VMS version  of  NetHack  3.1.
          Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to Windows NT.

               Dean  Luick,  with  help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack
          3.1 for X11.  Warwick Allison wrote a tiled  version  of  NetHack
          for  the Atari; he later contributed the tiles to the DevTeam and
          tile support was then added to other platforms.

               The 3.2 development team, comprised of Michael Allison,  Ken
          Arromdee,  David  Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy,
          Timo Hakulinen, Steve  Linhart,  Dean  Luick,  Pat  Rankin,  Eric


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          Smith,  Mike  Stephenson,  Janet  Walz, and Paul Winner, released
          version 3.2 in April of 1996.

               Version 3.2 marked the tenth anniversary of the formation of
          the  development team.  In a testament to their dedication to the
          game, all thirteen members of the original development  team  re‐
          mained  on the team at the start of work on that release.  During
          the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and  3.2,  one  of  the
          founding  members of the development team, Dr. Izchak Miller, was
          diagnosed with cancer and passed away.  That release of the  game
          was dedicated to him by the development and porting teams.

               During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusi‐
          asts of the game added their own modifications to  the  game  and
          made these ‘‘variants’’ publicly available:

               Tom  Proudfoot  and  Yuval Oren created NetHack++, which was
          quickly renamed NetHack‐‐.  Working independently, Stephen  White
          wrote  NetHack Plus.  Tom Proudfoot later merged NetHack Plus and
          his own NetHack‐‐ to produce SLASH.  Larry Stewart‐Zerba and War‐
          wick  Allison  improved  the spell casting system with the Wizard
          Patch.  Warwick Allison also ported NetHack to use the Qt  inter‐
          face.

               Warren  Cheung  combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to pro‐
          duce Slash’em, and with the help of Kevin Hugo, added  more  fea‐
          tures.   Kevin later joined the DevTeam and incorporated the best
          of these ideas in NetHack 3.3.

               The final update to 3.2 was the bug fix release 3.2.3, which
          was  released  simultaneously with 3.3.0 in December 1999 just in
          time for the Year 2000.

               The 3.3 development team, consisting of Michael Allison, Ken
          Arromdee,  David  Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy,
          Timo Hakulinen, Kevin  Hugo,  Steve  Linhart,  Ken  Lorber,  Dean
          Luick,  Pat  Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and
          Paul Winner, released 3.3.0 in December 1999 and 3.3.1 in  August
          of 2000.

               Version 3.3 offered many firsts. It was the first version to
          separate race and profession. The Elf class was removed in  pref‐
          erence to an elf race, and the races of dwarves, gnomes, and orcs
          made their first appearance in the game  alongside  the  familiar
          human  race.  Monk and Ranger roles joined Archeologists, Barbar‐
          ians,  Cavemen,  Healers,  Knights,  Priests,  Rogues,   Samurai,
          Tourists,  Valkyries  and  of  course,  Wizards.  It was also the
          first version to allow you to ride a steed,  and  was  the  first
          version  to  have  a  publicly available web‐site listing all the
          bugs that had been discovered.  Despite that  constantly  growing
          bug  list,  3.3 proved stable enough to last for more than a year
          and a half.




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               The 3.4 development team initially consisted of Michael  Al‐
          lison,  Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin Hugo, Ken
          Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz,  and
          Paul  Winner,  with   Warwick Allison joining just before the re‐
          lease of NetHack 3.4.0 in March 2002.

               As with version 3.3, various people contributed to the  game
          as a whole as well as supporting ports on the different platforms
          that NetHack runs on:

               Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.

               Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS‐DOS  plat‐
          form.  Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir provided encouragement.

               Dean  Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and en‐
          hanced the Macintosh port of 3.4.

               Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Alex  Kompel,  Dion  Nicolaas,
          and  Yitzhak  Sapir maintained and enhanced 3.4 for the Microsoft
          Windows platform.  Alex Kompel contributed a new graphical inter‐
          face  for  the Windows port.  Alex Kompel also contributed a Win‐
          dows CE port for 3.4.1.

               Ron Van Iwaarden was the sole maintainer of NetHack for OS/2
          the  past several releases. Unfortunately Ron’s last OS/2 machine
          stopped working in early 2006. A great many  thanks  to  Ron  for
          keeping NetHack alive on OS/2 all these years.

               Janne  Salmijarvi  and  Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced
          the Amiga port of 3.4 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected  it  for
          3.3.1.

               Christian  ‘‘Marvin’’  Bressler maintained 3.4 for the Atari
          after he resurrected it for 3.3.1.

               The release of NetHack 3.4.3 in December 2003 marked the be‐
          ginning of a long release hiatus. 3.4.3 proved to be a remarkably
          stable version that provided continued enjoyment by the community
          for  more than a decade. The devteam slowly and quietly continued
          to work on the game behind the scenes during the tenure of 3.4.3.
          It  was during that same period that several new variants emerged
          within the NetHack community. Notably sporkhack by Derek S.  Ray,
          unnethack  by Patric Mueller, nitrohack and its successors origi‐
          nally by Daniel Thaler and then by Alex Smith,  and  Dynahack  by
          Tung  Nguyen.  Some  of  those variants continue to be developed,
          maintained, and enjoyed by the community to this day.

               In September 2014, an interim snapshot of the code under de‐
          velopment was released publicly by other parties. Since that code
          was a work‐in‐progress and had not gone through a period  of  de‐
          bugging,  it was decided that the version numbers present on that
          code snapshot would be retired and  never  used  in  an  official
          NetHack  release.  An  announcement  was  posted on the devteam’s


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          official nethack.org website to that effect, stating  that  there
          would never be a 3.4.4, 3.5, or 3.5.0 official release version.

               In  January  2015,  preparation  began  for  the  release of
          NetHack 3.6

               At the beginning of development for  what  would  eventually
          get  released as 3.6.0, the development team consisted of Warwick
          Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie  Col‐
          let,  Ken  Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet
          Walz, and Paul Winner.  Leading up to the  release  of  3.6.0  in
          early  2015,  new  members Sean Hunt, Pasi Kallinen, and Derek S.
          Ray joined the NetHack development team,

               3.6.0 TODO insert apprpriate description of 3.6.0 here

               The development team, as well as Steve VanDevender and Kevin
          Smolkowski  ensured  that  NetHack  3.6.0 continued to operate on
          various Unix flavors as well as maintaining the X11 interface.

               Ken Lorber, Haoyang Wang, Pat Rankin, and Dean  Luick  main‐
          tained the port of NetHack 3.6.0 for Mac.

               Michael  Allison,  Derek S. Ray, Yitzhak Sapir, Alex Kompel,
          and David Cohrs maintained the port  of  NetHack  3.6.0  for  Mi‐
          crosoft Windows.

               Jeff  Bailey  created and maintained a port of NetHack 3.6.0
          for Chrome.

               TODO Alex Kompel maintained a port of NetHack 3.6.0 to  Win‐
          dows Phone.

               This  version  of  the  game is special in a particular way.
          Near the end of the development of 3.6, one  of  the  significant
          inspirations  for  many of the humorous and fun features found in
          the game, author Terry Pratchett, passed away.  This  version  of
          the game is dedicated to him.

               The official NetHack web site is maintained by Ken Lorber at
          http://www.nethack.org/.

               SHOUT‐OUTS

               The devteam would like to  give  a  special  "shout‐out"  to
          thank  the  generous  people primarily responsible for the public
          NetHack servers available for playing the game at nethack.alt.org
          and devnull.net. In addition to providing a way for the public to
          play a game of NetHack from almost anywhere, they have hosted an‐
          nual NetHack tournaments for many, many years.

               On  behalf  of the NetHack community, thank you very much to
          M. Drew Streib, Pasi Kallinen and Robin Bandy.



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          NetHack Guidebook                                              64



                    ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐

               From time to time, some depraved  individual  out  there  in
          netland  sends a particularly intriguing modification to help out
          with the game.  The Gods of the Dungeon sometimes  make  note  of
          the  names  of the worst of these miscreants in this, the list of
          Dungeoneers:

               Adam Aronow            J. Ali Harlow         Mike Stephenson
               Alex Kompel              Janet Walz            Norm Meluch
              Andreas Dorn           Janne Salmijarvi         Olaf Seibert
               Andy Church        Jean‐Christophe Collet     Pasi Kallinen
              Andy Swanson             Jeff Bailey             Pat Rankin
              Ari Huttunen            Jochen Erwied           Paul Winner
              Barton House             John Kallen          Pierre Martineau
           Benson I. Margulies         John Rupley             Ralf Brown
                Bill Dyer              John S. Bien            Ray Chason
            Boudewijn Waijers           Johnny Lee          Richard Addison
                Bruce Cox               Jon W{tte            Richard Beigel
             Bruce Holloway          Jonathan Handler      Richard P. Hughey
             Bruce Mewborne          Joshua Delahunty          Rob Menke
              Carl Schelin            Keizo Yamamoto          Robin Bandy
               Chris Russo              Ken Arnold           Robin Johnson
               David Cohrs             Ken Arromdee        Roderick Schertler
             David Damerell             Ken Lorber           Roland McGrath
              David Gentzel           Ken Washikita         Ron Van Iwaarden
             David Hairston            Kevin Darcy           Ronnen Miller
               Dean Luick               Kevin Hugo             Ross Brown
                Del Lamb               Kevin Sitze          Sascha Wostmann
              Derek S. Ray           Kevin Smolkowski         Scott Bigham
              Deron Meranda            Kevin Sweet          Scott R. Turner
              Dion Nicolaas            Lars Huttar             Sean Hunt
             Dylan O’Donnell           Leon Arnott          Stephen Spackman
               Eric Backus            M. Drew Streib         Stephen White
            Eric Hendrickson           Malcolm Ryan           Steve Creps
              Eric R. Smith           Mark Gooderum          Steve Linhart
             Eric S. Raymond           Mark Modrall        Steve VanDevender
              Erik Andersen          Marvin Bressler          Teemu Suikki
            Frederick Roeber           Matthew Day             Tim Lennan
               Gil Neiger              Merlyn LeRoy          Timo Hakulinen
               Greg Laskin           Michael Allison            Tom Almy
               Greg Olson              Michael Feir             Tom West
             Gregg Wonderly           Michael Hamel          Warren Cheung
              Hao‐yang Wang          Michael Sokolov        Warwick Allison
              Helge Hafting            Mike Engber           Yitzhak Sapir
          Irina Rempt‐Drijfhout        Mike Gallop
              Izchak Miller          Mike Passaretti

          Brand and product names are trademarks or  registered  trademarks
          of their respective holders.






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