A Topic for Nethack

Seems there isn't one. Surprised with how Trope Overdosed it seems.

Started playing it. Probably shouldn't have read all the spoilers but I imagine the wiki doesn't have EVERY possible surprise in the game listed.

What's concerning me is I seem to get impossible dungeons from the start. I remember reading that they only seem impossible depending on clever item use, I saw part of this when I realized my archeologist started with a pick and I could dig past locked doors. But my newest(slightly deceased while writing this) character is a priest and I haven't found anything or started with anything that gets me out of two rooms and two tunnels. Had two spells I couldn't cast, holy water, garlic, wolfsbane, none of it suggests opening/finding passages. I'm very new to the game, barely remember any commands between the help index and game window, but it certainly seemed like nothing can help me leave the first floor.

Any particular advice for starting this game? Can't figure out how to detect/search for traps/secrets for example. I don't know if the empty black dirt/stone space suddenly reveals if you push on it or if it shows all features via line of sight.

To search for hidden doors, press "s". You'll probably have to do it multiple times before you find anything.

The problem in that case was that I hit s but it didn't seem to do anything. The turn counter passed so I assume there is no "You didn't find anything" message.

Food seems to be a colossal problem. Third character who starved to death.

There is no "you didn't find anything" message. You have to be fairly patient. If it's been 100 turns and you haven't found anything, though, there probably isn't anything. You'll generally want to search in any dead-end hallways and rooms that seem to have a lot of unused space around them though. If searching continues to be problem, you might want to play a Ranger, since they auto-search every turn.

And yeah, food is a big deal. Most corpses you find in the early dungeon are good to eat, provided they've been killed recently and aren't something obviously poisonous (snakes, kobolds, etc). And when you're at fainting-level hunger, you can always pray to get some relief.

Also, locked doors can be kicked open, and locked chests can be forced open with bladed weapons.

I wouldn't mind giving this game another shot. I tried it once, but quickly got confused and stopped.

There's a pretty steep learning curve. Not to the degree of Dwarf Fortress or even ADOM, but still pretty steep. If you stick with it it's super rewarding though.

edited 28th Dec '10 12:00:11 AM by merton

If there's an empty room or a path to nowhere, search it thoroughly. That should solve most of those "impossible" floors.

Yes, thanks for the suggestions about searching the dead ends. I might never find a trap without triggering it but a lot of these dead ends go somewhere.

So... how many spoilers do you want? Because there is a lot of them.

In my experience it's pretty difficult to get very far in Nethack without spoilers.

It's also pretty difficult to get very far in Nethack with spoilers.

If I get trapped in an impossible level, I say whip it! Use a pickaxe. And if that don't work, use more pickaxe.

You know what I want to see? An artifact grappling hook. Yes, grappling hooks count as weapons, they use the flail skill. No, they deal piss-poor damage. Yes, you can jump across gaps with them. No, you will never find one as randomly-generated treasure.

Well, I read the whole page for Nethack here at least once in the past. I know a lot more then I'd like to know now.

Trying to decide on my next character. Been playing a lot of cavemen and barbarians for some reason. Haven't survived past level three.

Keep it up. Nethack is the best worst game ever!

Seriously though. In my last session alone, I played an orc wizard. the chaos started when I found a wand of wishing in an item shop and I used it to make some silver dragon scale mail, as you do, and then made magebane in order to pay for my prior usages. I went back to exploring without the wand, and came across a werekjackal, and was promptly surrounded and attacked by jackals. in desperation I quaffed a potion of polymorph that I gained at spawn, and ended up as a sliver dragon. I cut my way though the jackals but they left no corpses and mow my character was starving! So I dived into the gnomish mines in order to feed on gnome flesh but I was forced to retreat and was still on the edge of hunger, and on top of that was now a werekjackal. Fortuitously, I had a prayer charge left and it full healed me, solved my hunger, and removed my were-jackalness! I went back down to the mines in search of food, and started zapping gnomes like a madman with force bolt, and was eventually forced to teleport out of the area using a recently –identified scroll of teleport, and later died surround by my wolf brethren, a giant ant, and a gigantic meatball.

I could not die in a better way if I tried.

edit: also, use #pray when very close to death if you havn't recently used it, and pickaxes are completly boss. Get one early in the gnomish mines, love it forever.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:10:32 PM by doorhandle

I got quickly addicted to Engraving Elbereth for survival. Often, my wand of fire/lightning charges are spent doing nothing but burning the word in key places. Up till now, most of my deaths are due to recklessness or stupidity.

What does everyone here think of finding bones files with full ascension kits, or wizard mode bones files? I've ascended with both, but have never managed to get past level 23 without a bones level.

Elbereth is… Borderline cheating in my opinion.

The game shows no mercy. give it none.

Well, if the RNG wants to toss lots of Giant Ants, Soldier Ants, Leocrottas, and other crazy hardhitters, then I think Elberething myself some breathing room is a necessity.

I tried to play this game for a long time without reading spoilers... then I cracked, read some, and realized that I'd been completely wasting my time. I doubt anyone has ever even come close to winning without being spoiled or digging through the source code. The game is not at all self-explanatory, and the manual doesn't even come close to telling you what you need to know.

There's a lot of fantasy lore and some common sense in Nethack, so if you know your Tolkien, D&D, and other stuff, it becomes less of a chore to pick up the game. I only resorted to spoilers for the more anooying enemies and Identification.

edited 1st Jun '11 5:37:01 PM by AceOfScarabs

Wizard mode bones is cheating, pure and simple.

Using spoilers is not.

http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

Try this site.

The furthest I got in Nethack was either Fort Ludios or the level with quest portal, I don't remember which was deeper. In Ludios I had a nearly complete ascension kit but had an idiotic YASD (I was eating dragons for intrisics and forgot to remove ring of slow digestion; chocked on food pretty quickly) - and Ludios doesn't leave bones. On the level with quest portal I met leocrotta and RNG was fucking me over (seriously, my samurai shouldn't have missed so often with an Excalibur; what the hell?).

I've also lost two very good characters in Mine's End recently. Again, one was stupidity and one was bad luck. The first one rubbed a magic lamp and encountered a hostile djinni... and started to fight him with the lamp still equipped ;c The other one encountered a titan (!) which killed him two times (I had an amulet of life saving)

I've never gotten very far in Nethack, but I do enjoy the game.

Also, Nethack is actually my inspiration for the character Borghild. She started off as being the Nethack character I keep trying to ascend, but eventually took on a life of her own. I think the fact that she started off as a Nethack character might be the reason why she's a half-insane sociopath.

edited 2nd Jun '11 3:43:19 AM by annebeeche