nethack-3.4.3/doc/Guidebook.txt

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


                         Eric S. Raymond
            (Extensively edited and expanded for 3.4)


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 by 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 position.

.    Rest, do nothing for one turn.

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

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

^A   Redo the previous command.

c    Close a door.


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C    Call (name) an individual monster.

^C   Panic button.  Quit the game.

d    Drop something.  Ex. ``d7a'' means drop seven items  of  ob-
     ject 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 followed 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.   Engraving  the  word
     ``Elbereth'' will cause most  monsters  to  not  attack  you
     hand-to-hand  (but if you attack, you will rub it out); this
     is often useful to give yourself a breather.  (This  feature
     may  be  compiled out of the game, so your version might not
     have it.)

          E- - write in the dust with your fingers.

f    Fire one of the objects placed in your quiver.  You may  se-
     lect ammunition with a previous `Q' command, or let the com-
     puter pick something appropriate if autoquiver is true.

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

I    List selected parts of your inventory.

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

o    Open a door.

O    Set options.  A menu showing the current option values  will
     be  displayed.  You can change most values simply by select-
     ing the menu entry for the given option (ie, by  typing  its


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     letter  or  clicking  upon it, depending on your user inter-
     face).  For the  non-boolean  choices,  a  further  menu  or
     prompt will appear once you've closed this menu.  The avail-
     able options are listed later in  this  Guidebook.   Options
     are  usually  set  before  the game rather than with the `O'
     command; see the section on options below.

p    Pay your shopping bill.

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

^P   Repeat previous message.   Subsequent  ^P's  repeat  earlier
     messages.  The behavior can be varied via the msg_window op-
     tion.

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

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

r    Read a scroll or spellbook.

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

^R   Redraw the screen.

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

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

t    Throw an object or shoot a projectile.

T    Take off armor.

^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.

W    Wear armor.

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 empty, the exchange still takes place.


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X    Enter explore (discovery) mode, explained in its own section
     later.

^X   Display your name, role, race, gender, and alignment as well
     as the various deities in your game.

z    Zap a wand.  To aim at yourself, use `.' for the  direction.

Z    Zap  (cast)  a  spell.  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. May be preceded by `m' to force  a  se-
     lection 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.  They
     are shown via a menu, and if you  select  a  spell  in  that
     menu, you'll be re-prompted for another spell to swap places
     with it, and then  have  opportunity  to  make  further  ex-
     changes.

\    Show what types of objects have been discovered.

!    Escape to a shell.


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


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NetHack Guidebook                                              14


#    Perform an extended command.  As you can see, the authors of
     NetHack used up all the letters, so this is a way to  intro-
     duce  the less frequently used commands.  What extended com-
     mands are available depends on what features  the  game  was
     compiled with.

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

#chat
     Talk to someone.

#conduct
     List which challenges you have adhered to.  See the  section
     below entitled ``Conduct'' for details.

#dip Dip an object into something.

#enhance
     Advance or check weapons 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 horse standing next to you.

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

#name
     Name an item or type of object.

#offer
     Offer a sacrifice to the gods.

#pray
     Pray to the gods for help.

#quit
     Quit the program without saving your game.

#ride
     Ride (or stop riding) a monster.


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#rub Rub a lamp or a stone.

#sit Sit down.

#turn
     Turn undead.

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

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

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

#wipe
     Wipe off your face.

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

     If your keyboard has a meta key (which, when pressed in 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,  and  PC
NetHack, the `Alt' key can be used in this fashion.

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

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

M-a  #adjust

M-c  #chat

M-d  #dip

M-e  #enhance

M-f  #force

M-i  #invoke

M-j  #jump

M-l  #loot

M-m  #monster

M-n  #name


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M-o  #offer

M-p  #pray

M-q  #quit

M-r  #rub

M-s  #sit

M-t  #turn

M-u  #untrap

M-v  #version

M-w  #wipe

     If  the number_pad option is on, some additional letter 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 horse standing next to you.   Same  as  ``#loot''  or
     ``M-l''.

N    Name  an  item or type of object.  Same as ``#name'' or ``M-
     n''.

u    Untrap a trap, door, or chest.  Same as ``#untrap'' or  ``M-
     u''.


5.  Rooms and corridors

     Rooms  and  corridors in the dungeon are either lit or dark.
Any lit areas within your line of sight will be  displayed;  dark
areas  are  only  displayed  if they are within one space of you.
Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them.

     Secret corridors are hidden.  You can find them with the `s'
(search) command.

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


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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.

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


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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
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


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carrying 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 `C' allows you to assign a name to a monster, which  may  be
useful  to  help  distinguish one from another when multiple mon-
sters are present.  Assigning a name which is just a  space  will
remove any prior name.

     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.

     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


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monster  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
remember 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.

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.


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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.

     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 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 in-
stead of assigning a new one.


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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.

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


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(enchantment and/or erosion), experience level, strength, dexter-
ity, encumbrance, and proficiency (see below).  The monster's ar-
mor class - a general defense  rating,  not  necessarily  due  to
wearing  of armor - is a factor too; also, some monsters are par-
ticularly 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
(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
when the inventory slot used for `Q' runs out.


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     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
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


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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.

7.3.  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.

     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


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inhibit spell casting.

     The commands to use armor are `W' (wear) and `T' (take off).
The  `A'  command  can  also be used to take off armor as well as
other worn items.

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.

     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


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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
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,


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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 the skill group;
sufficient skill may increase the potency of the spell and reduce
the  risk  of spell failure.  Skill slots are shared with weapons
skills.  (See also the section on ``Weapon proficiency''.)

     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  your  current  spells,  their
levels, categories, and chances for failure.  The `Z' (cast) com-
mand casts a spell.


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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).

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.


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     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
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


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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
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.


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     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.

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


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     $ 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  ``DUN-
GEON='',  ``EFFECTS='',  ``MONSTERS='', ``OBJECTS='', ``TRAPS='',
or ``BOULDER='' is taken as defining the  corresponding  dungeon,
effects, monsters, objects traps or boulder option in a different
syntax, a sequence of decimal numbers giving the character  posi-
tion  in the current font to be used in displaying each entry.  A
zero in any entry in such a sequence leaves the display  of  that
entry  unchanged;  this feature is not available using the option
syntax.  Such a sequence can be continued to  multiple  lines  by
putting a `\' at the end of each line to be continued.

     If your copy of the game included the compile time AUTOPICK-
UP_EXCEPTIONS option, then any  line  starting  with  ``AUTOPICK-
UP_EXCEPTION=''  is  taken  as defining an exception to the pick-
up_types option.  There is a section of this Guidebook that  dis-
cusses 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.

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.   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'


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  (fire) command with an empty quiver.  When true,  the  computer
  will  fill your quiver with some suitable weapon.  Note that it
  will not take into account the blessed/cursed status,  enchant-
  ment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free to manual-
  ly fill your quiver with the `Q' command instead.  If no weapon
  is found or the option is false, the `t' (throw) command is ex-
  ecuted instead.  (default false)

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).

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.

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).

DECgraphics
  Use a predefined selection  of  characters  from  the  DEC  VT-
  xxx/DEC  Rainbow/ANSI line-drawing character set to display the
  dungeon/effects/traps instead of having to define a full graph-
  ics set yourself (default off).  This option also sets up prop-
  er handling of graphics characters for such terminals,  so  you
  should specify it when appropriate even if you override the se-
  lections with your own graphics strings.

disclose
  Controls options for disclosing various  information  when  the
  game ends (defaults to all possibilities being disclosed).  The
  possibilities are:


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       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.

  Each disclosure possibility can optionally  be  preceded  by  a
  prefix  which let 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.

  (ex. ``disclose:yi na +v -g -c'') 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 to prompt, conduct to not disclose and not to
  prompt.  Note that the vanquished monsters  list  includes  all
  monsters killed by traps and each other as well as by you.

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

dungeon
  Set the graphics symbols for displaying  the  dungeon  (default
  `` |--------||.-|++##.##<><>_|\\#{}.}..## #}'').   The  dungeon
  option should be followed by a string of 1-41 characters to  be
  used  instead  of the default map-drawing characters.  The dun-
  geon map will use the characters you specify instead of the de-
  fault  symbols, and default symbols for any you do not specify.
  Remember that you may need to escape some of  these  characters
  on a command line if they are special to your shell.

  Note  that  NetHack escape-processes this option string in con-
  ventional C fashion.  This means that `\' is a prefix  to  take
  the following character literally.  Thus `\' needs to be repre-
  sented as `\\'.  The special escape form `\m' switches  on  the
  meta  bit in the following character, and the `^' prefix causes
  the following character to be treated as a control character.

  The order of the symbols is:  solid rock, vertical wall,  hori-
  zontal  wall, upper left corner, upper right corner, lower left
  corner, lower right corner, cross wall, upward T wall, downward
  T  wall,  leftward  T wall, rightward T wall, no door, vertical
  open door, horizontal open door, vertical closed door, horizon-
  tal  closed door, iron bars, tree, floor of a room, dark corri-
  dor, lit corridor, stairs up, stairs down,  ladder  up,  ladder
  down,  altar,  grave,  throne,  kitchen sink, fountain, pool or
  moat, ice, lava, vertical lowered drawbridge,  horizontal  low-
  ered  drawbridge, vertical raised drawbridge, horizontal raised
  drawbridge, air, cloud, under water.


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  You might want to use `+' for the corners and  T  walls  for  a
  more aesthetic, boxier display.  Note that in the next release,
  new symbols may be added, or the present ones rearranged.

  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

effects
  Set the graphics symbols for displaying  special  effects  (de-
  fault ``|-\\/*!)(0#@*/-\\||\\-//-\\| |\\-/'').  The effects op-
  tion should be followed by a string of 1-29  characters  to  be
  used  instead  of the default special-effects characters.  This
  string is subjected to the same processing as the  dungeon  op-
  tion.

  The  order  of the symbols is:  vertical beam, horizontal beam,
  left slant, right slant, digging beam, camera flash beam,  left
  boomerang, right boomerang, four glyphs giving the sequence for
  magic resistance displays, the  eight  surrounding  glyphs  for
  swallowed  display,  nine  glyphs for explosions.  An explosion
  consists of three rows (top, middle, and bottom) of three char-
  acters.  The explosion is centered in the center of this 3 by 3
  array.

  Note that in the next release, new symbols may be added, or the
  present ones rearranged.

  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


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  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.  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.

IBMgraphics
  Use a predefined selection of IBM extended ASCII characters  to
  display the dungeon/effects/traps instead of having to define a
  full graphics set yourself (default  off).   This  option  also
  sets  up proper handling of graphics characters for such termi-
  nals, so you should specify it when  appropriate  even  if  you
  override the selections with your own graphics strings.

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

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.

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;


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  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 actu-
  ally 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_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 and X11 ports.  Default ':'.


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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
  ','.

monsters
  Set  the  characters  used  to display monster classes (default
  ``abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU-
  VWXYZ@ '&;:~]'').   This  string  is subjected to the same pro-
  cessing as the dungeon option.  The order of the symbols is ant
  or  other insect, blob, cockatrice, dog or other canine, eye or
  sphere, feline, gremlin, humanoid, imp or minor  demon,  jelly,
  kobold,  leprechaun, mimic, nymph, orc, piercer, quadruped, ro-
  dent, arachnid or centipede, trapper or lurker above, horse  or
  unicorn,  vortex, worm, xan or other mythical/fantastic insect,
  light, zruty, angelic being, bat or bird, centaur, dragon, ele-
  mental,  fungus  or mold, gnome, giant humanoid, invisible mon-
  ster, jabberwock, Keystone Kop, lich, mummy, naga,  ogre,  pud-
  ding or ooze, quantum mechanic, rust monster, snake, troll, um-
  ber hulk, vampire, wraith, xorn, apelike creature, zombie,  hu-
  man,  ghost, golem, demon, sea monster, lizard, long worm tail,
  and mimic.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

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, this was the behavior before 3.4.0).
       c - combination, two messages as `single', then as `full'.
       f - full window, oldest message first.
       r - full window, newest message first.

  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.


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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 off).

number_pad
  Use the number keys to move instead of [yuhjklbn] (default 0 or
  off).   (number_pad:2  invokes  the  old DOS behavior where `5'
  means `g', meta-`5' means `G',  and meta-`0' means `I'.)

objects
  Set the characters used  to  display  object  classes  (default
  ``])[="(%!?+/$*`0_.'').   This  string is subjected to the same
  processing as the dungeon option.  The order of the symbols  is
  illegal-object  (should  never  be  seen), weapon, armor, ring,
  amulet, tool, food, potion, scroll, spellbook, wand, gold,  gem
  or  rock, boulder or statue, iron ball, chain, and venom.  Can-
  not be set with the `O' command.

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.

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'' and ``none''.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

pickup_burden
  When  you  pick  up  an item that would exceed this encumbrance
  level (Unburdened, Burdened, streSsed, straiNed, overTaxed,  or
  overLoaded),  you  will be asked if you want to continue.  (De-
  fault `S').

pickup_types
  Specify the object types to be picked up when autopickup is on.
  Default is all types.  If your copy of the game has the experi-
  mental compile time option AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTIONS included,  you
  may  be  able  to  use  autopickup_exception configuration file
  lines to further refine autopickup behavior.


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prayconfirm
  Prompt for confirmation before praying (default on).

pushweapon
  Using the `w' (wield) command when already  wielding  something
  pushes  the  old  item into your alternate weapon slot (default
  off).

race
  Selects your race (for example,  ``race:human'').   Default  is
  random.  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.

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
  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).


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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).

sound
  Enable  messages  about what your character hears (default on).
  Note that this has nothing to do with your computer's audio ca-
  pabilities.   This  option is only partly under player control.
  The game toggles it off and on during and after sleep, for  ex-
  ample.

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'').

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


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  parent window, but it no longer leaves the  score  list  around
  after game end on a terminal or emulating window.

traps
  Set   the   graphics  symbols  for  displaying  traps  (default
  ``^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"^^^^'').  The traps option should  be  fol-
  lowed  by a string of 1-22 characters to be used instead of the
  default traps characters.  This string is subjected to the same
  processing as the dungeon option.

  The  order  of  the  symbols is: arrow trap, dart trap, falling
  rock trap, squeaky board, bear trap, land mine, rolling boulder
  trap, sleeping gas trap, rust trap, fire trap, pit, spiked pit,
  hole, trap door, teleportation trap,  level  teleporter,  magic
  portal,  web,  statue trap, magic trap, anti-magic field, poly-
  morph trap.

  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

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.

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 sup-
ported by the window port that you are currently using by  check-
ing  to see if it shows up in the Options list.  Some options are
dynamic and can be specified during the game with  the  `O'  com-
mand.

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).


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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.

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


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  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.

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

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


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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
  (default on, AMIGA NetHack only).

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.


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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,
  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

     There  is  an  experimental  compile  time option called AU-
TOPICKUP_EXCEPTIONS.  If your copy of the  game  was  built  with
that  option  defined, you can further refine the behavior of the
autopickup option beyond what  is  available  through  the  pick-
up_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 0 or more characters.
       ?--- matches any single character.


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     In addition, some characters are treated specially  if  they
occur as the first character in the string pattern, specifically:

     < - always pickup an object that matches the pattern that follows.
     > - never pickup an object that matches the pattern that follows.

     Can be set with the `O' command, but the setting is not pre-
served across saves and restores.

     Here's a couple of examples of autopickup_exceptions:

     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 exclusion of
items known to be cursed from autopickup.  A `never pickup'  rule
takes precedence over an `always pickup' rule if both match.

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 3.4).
       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
platform 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 plat-
forms.  There are plenty of references  available  elsewhere  for
explaining  ``regular expressions''. You can verify which pattern
matching is used by your port with the #version command.


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     NetHack's internal pattern matching routine uses the follow-
ing 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 inter-
nal 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 "gong.wav".  You can
have multiple SOUND entries in your config file.

9.9.  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 in  all  official  distributions  of
NetHack is a file called NHAccess.nh.  Replacing defaults.nh with
this 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 may want to alter settings to  better
suit your preferences. Instructions on how to do this are includ-
ed in the NHAccess.nh file itself. The most crucial  settings  to
make the game accessible are:

IBMgraphics
  Disable IBMgraphics by commenting out this option.

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


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NetHack Guidebook                                              50


  the screen.  If this is the case, disable the number_pad option
  and use the traditional Rogue-like commands.

Character graphics
  Comment  out  all character graphics sets found near the bottom
  of the defaults.nh file.  Most of these replace  NetHack's  de-
  fault  representation of the dungeon using standard ASCII char-
  acters with fancier characters from  extended  character  sets,
  and these fancier characters can annoy screen-readers.

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 may come equipped with an ``ex-
plore'' 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 switch.  The other is to issue the `X'
command while already playing the game.  The  other  benefits  of
explore mode are left for the trepid reader to discover.


12.  Credits

     The  original  hack  game  was  modeled on the Berkeley UNIX
rogue game.   Large  portions  of  this  paper  were  shamelessly


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NetHack Guidebook                                              51


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.

     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


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NetHack Guidebook                                              52


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
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.


NetHack 3.4                                      December 2, 2003


NetHack Guidebook                                              53


     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.

     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.


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NetHack Guidebook                                              54


     Ron Van Iwaarden maintained 3.4 for OS/2.

     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.

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

          - - - - - - - - - -

     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:


NetHack 3.4                                      December 2, 2003


NetHack Guidebook                                              55


          Adam Aronow            Izchak Miller         Mike Stephenson
          Alex Kompel            J. Ali Harlow           Norm Meluch
         Andreas Dorn              Janet Walz            Olaf Seibert
          Andy Church           Janne Salmijarvi        Pasi Kallinen
         Andy Swanson        Jean-Christophe Collet       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 Johnson
          Chris Russo              Ken Arnold         Roderick Schertler
          David Cohrs             Ken Arromdee          Roland McGrath
        David Damerell             Ken Lorber          Ron Van Iwaarden
         David Gentzel           Ken Washikita          Ronnen Miller
        David Hairston            Kevin Darcy             Ross Brown
          Dean Luick               Kevin Hugo          Sascha Wostmann
           Del Lamb               Kevin Sitze            Scott Bigham
         Deron Meranda          Kevin Smolkowski       Scott R. Turner
         Dion Nicolaas            Kevin Sweet          Stephen Spackman
        Dylan O'Donnell           Lars Huttar           Stephen White
          Eric Backus             Malcolm Ryan           Steve Creps
       Eric Hendrickson          Mark Gooderum          Steve Linhart
         Eric R. Smith            Mark Modrall        Steve VanDevender
        Eric S. Raymond         Marvin Bressler          Teemu Suikki
         Erik Andersen            Matthew Day             Tim Lennan
       Frederick Roeber           Merlyn LeRoy          Timo Hakulinen
          Gil Neiger            Michael Allison            Tom Almy
          Greg Laskin             Michael Feir             Tom West
          Greg Olson             Michael Hamel          Warren Cheung
        Gregg Wonderly          Michael Sokolov        Warwick Allison
         Hao-yang Wang            Mike Engber           Yitzhak Sapir
         Helge Hafting            Mike Gallop
     Irina Rempt-Drijfhout      Mike Passaretti

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


NetHack 3.4                                      December 2, 2003