Nethack

[Hitti-Litti]

GRAAAHAHAHAH!

Died as the tourist after reading a cursed scroll of create monster. I had AC -1, but I stepped on a polymorph trap and turned to a baby orange dragon. Then I went up to Minetown, found a ring mail, read some scrolls and drank some potions to get rid of burdened-status, and WHAM! About twenty monsters around me. I almost escaped them, but I used my expensive camera on the horse instead of praying, so I was killed.

I'll never listen to my brother again when he advises me in NetHack.

BTW, you don't need a scale mail early on if you get a wish as a tourist. Grayswandir was absolutely great, and it's a weapon that you may use for a long time. Also it can't break on a polymorph trap, so I prefer Grayswandir over scale mail.

 

[kcwong]

Gray dragon scale mail provides magic protection - you can walk over polymorph traps and nothing would happen to you. Using Grayswandir requires you to get to melee range and land a hit successfully. That's not what I'd want to do with a young tourist.

Magic protection is a must have in the ascension kit. You can get it from a short list of items... some artifacts, cloak of magic protection (wizards start with one) and gray dragon scale [mail]. Gray dragon scale is very high on the list of stuff to wish for.

When you get surrounded by monsters (e.g. cursed scroll of create monster or a summoning storm), Grayswandir won't save you - better AC provided by the dragon scale mail will. Instead of attacking, you should finger-engrave Elbereth in the dust, repeatedly. This will scare monsters that respect Elbereth away. They can still use projectiles and spells, yes, but that's where gray dragon scale mail can be useful (good AC and magic protection). With that you can take most of the heat off you, and deal with those who do not fear Elbereth.

BTW you should never use items without BUC checking them first, unless you have the knowledge of how items are generated (and thus know what couldn't be cursed). Pet, altar or identify spell/scroll. And there're plenty of items that are harmful without being cursed.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

I wanted to get a good weapon fast, so I wouldn't have to rely on some lousy scimitar before getting a good weapon via sacrificing, and training it to "skilled". You don't need any skills to wear armor, and I rather get skills when opponents are jackals and foxes, not gremlins and gargoyles.

The polymorph trap was my fault, I forgot that I didn't pick up the gold that the gnome --> storm giant left was because there was a polymorph trap.

Another reason why I read the scroll was that I wanted to get some corpses to sacrifice, that's why I tried to fight them off first before teleporting. I actually didn't have any need to write Elbereth before escaping, as I had the teleport scrolls. I had a good way of escaping, maybe I just used it too late.

I always identify the scrolls I read and the potions I drink(well, when I've identified the worst and the best, I may drink and read anything ). I had identified the scroll of create monster. The reason I died was that I was stupid by not praying but blinding the horse. With prayer I would have reached my max HP again and beaten the horse with a couple of blows.

 

[Izipo]

Finally I managed to do something with one of my games.
Izipo40 rolled a dwarf Valkyrie, I'm now XL12, have cleared sokoban, got turned down at the quest... And now that I think about it, I have to go back to mine's end.
Also, can you believe I didn't find a SINGLE scroll of identify...
I have tons of unidentified things stashed on dlvl15. Definitely time to go back to minetown.

Is it possible to bless a bag of holding (or an ID scroll) ? I'm guessing I could pray at an altar with the thing on it, but I'm not sure.

 

[kcwong]

Is it possible to bless a bag of holding (or an ID scroll) ? I'm guessing I could pray at an altar with the thing on it, but I'm not sure.

You need to create a blessed potion of water, then #dip your items in it. Blessing your items is a good idea... some items won't reach their full potential until blessed. Bag of holding will weigh a lot less when blessed, and blessed ID scrolls have a chance of identifying your whole inventory. For all your other items, being blessed means they are one step away from being cursed.

Spoiler :

To create blessed water, first you have to have some potions of water. You might find them as random loot (clear potions), but 10 out of 10 times you won't have enough.

You can create new potions of water though. During your travels, mark the locations of fountains. You can then #dip potions there. First #dip will dilute; second #dip will turn the diluted potion into water. As a side effect cursed potions will be uncursed as well, but the risk of using fountains still applies.

You can use moats and swamps to dilute as well, but those require other precautions, or you will get your whole inventory wet, or even drown.

Then find a co-aligned altar, and drop all your potions of water on it. Then step onto the altar, and #pray. The potions of water will glow amber if your #pray is successful.

You can #dip a stack of items into a single potion... so here's a trick: if you have one blessed water left, you can #dip a stack of normal water into it, to mass produce blessed water.

 

[Izipo]

AAAAARGH !!!!one!!!six

Let us all pray to Tyr upon the death of Izipo40 the Valkyrie.
I'm so sad I lost my best character to date on YASD...

I finally got around to go back up, in the hope of picking up a scroll of ID somewhere, or barring that the luckstone in mine's end.
Thanks to Kcwong good advice, I blessed my bag of holding, which helped my burdening problems.
In minetown, as I remembered, there was no scroll. Made my way down easily. Then I stumbled on a bone's level just above Mine' end. picked up a cursed luckstone (didn't know it at the time, of course), and all went to hell in 50 moves.

I already had Excalibur, Mjolnir and the fiery blade, a decent character with lots of resistances, and a decent set of armor (blessed glass plate, AC -7).
Everything's good, right?
I arrive at mine's end, wear a towel, see a few monsters and a DJINN !
Here I am, dreaming of a Grey DSM, when I suddenly see myself turning into a vampire (polymorph trap).
Okay, don't panic, I still have all my items, my armor is undamaged, everything looks fine, it will probably wear out by the time I reach the Djinn.

I round a corner, see a cockatrice : No problem, I've killed dozens already, I have gloves. Here, taste a piece of Excalibur, you filthy beast !

You turn to stone, do you want your possessions identified (y/n)?

WTH??

I swear, I stared at the screen with unbelieving eyes for a whole minute.

Turns out vampires also bite when they attack = Instadeath

This game is so unforgiving, I'll probably stop playing for a while...
But, I'll get back to it eventually. As soon as my grieving is over

 

[kcwong]

at @ Izipo

Are you naming your characters with a count (40th)? You're so brave... I dared not to do that. I've killed more than 100 characters on my first day.

Be careful with luckstones...

Spoiler :

Uncursed luckstone makes your good *and* bad luck never timeout. Yes, you can have both good luck and bad luck. Blessed luckstone makes your good luck never timeout, and cursed luckstone makes your bad luck never timeout.
Luckstones must also be in your open inventory to have any effect.

In fact you should be careful about all unidentified gray stones. There are four kinds of gray stones:
flint stone - nothing special, but it is a better ammo for sling

luckstone

touchstone - a blessed touchstone will identify gems when you #rub a gem against it. Archaeologists can use uncursed touchstone with the same effect. With uncursed touchstone, gems will leave coloured streaks, while worthless glass will just leave scratch marks. #rubbing metals against touchstone will generate sound (scritch, scritch) so you can identify touchstones that way.

Loadstone - It is nasty. It is rather common, extremely heavy, and it is not generated as cursed. It auto-curses itself when you try to drop it... so once it enters your inventory, you're stuck. You must uncurse (spell, #dip in blessed water, pray, etc.) to get rid of it. But luckily you can identify it easily... when you find an unidentified gray stone, kick it towards open space. If it's a loadstone, it will not move and you will hurt your leg. If it's not, you will kick the gray stone away (so look where you're kicking it to). You should not be wearing kicking boots or gauntlets of power when doing this test, because you will still be able to kick the loadstone away.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Iam I suppose to go to the gnome area or go down to the orcale area ???
I got my wizard with a ring of slow digestion which is a huge boom
I also had good luck of having my "ghost" attack an poor shop keeper and having totally free accesss to hes equipment shop but saddly the items suit fighters mostly.

 

[kcwong]

You need to go down the main dungeon (passing through the Oracle level) to win the game.

But Gnome Mines can provide you a lot of things to help you on your way.

- Better armor. Gnomes and dwarves in the mines carry a lot of them. If they are peaceful to you, you can let your pet do the dirty work.

- Pick axe or dwarvish mattock (broad pick). You need this to dig and break statues. Pick axe is lighter and 1-handed. Dwarvish mattock is heavy and 2-handed, but it's a decent early weapon for archaeologists because of its big damage.

- Mine Town. There are shops and a guaranteed temple. The mine town guard captain is may have a silver saber.

- Gems (and worthless glass). These are money for you to buy from shops, or sling ammo if you're desperate.

- Luckstone. The last level in the Gnome Mines, called Mine's End, has a guaranteed luckstone.

- Polymorph Trap. Not for destroying your armor or turning you into a rat... it's for your pet. Find one, and your tiny cat could become a fierce red dragon.

 

[zxcvbnm]

- Polymorph Trap. Not for destroying your armor or turning you into a rat... it's for your pet. Find one, and your tiny cat could become a fierce red dragon.

WOW!

WOWWOWWOWWOW!

I'm going to try that!

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Well, my kitten turned into a master mind flayer(I zapped it with a wand of polymorph).

Unfortunately, I didn't wear a helmet when the mind flayer attacked a gnome next to me, so my wisdom and intelligence decreased... But anyway, the master mind flayer pet is maybe the coolest thing after wishing for a blessed figurine of Archon and getting it as a pet.

 

[kcwong]

I like purple worm better... "blurrp!" and a monster disappears forever.

Reverse genocide purple worms, followed by a scroll of taming. Then pull out a wand of teleport and send them off!

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Magic whistle + master mind flayer = I don't have to worry of any monsters that have brains, as my master mind flayer can kill the in max 2 turns with it's short sword and brain sucking.

Just cleared Sokoban, got the bag of holding. Now I'll just wonder what to put in it, as I don't have anything that I wouldn't use. Now I'll maybe just collect anything interesting is sight and put it in the bag...

 

[Tor Inge]

Nethack is one of those games I've played for a long time. It's a game you can just pick up and play, and leave for a while, then go for it again.

My most YASD must be the time I was on my way to my first ascension, and removed my amulet of levitation on the plane of water, believing that the boots of water walking would carry me. I don't do that mistake again... But as you say, it's all about learning. The hard way.

I can't say I'm very experienced. I've ascended once. And on the usenet group for nethack (rec.games.roguelike.nethack) they called the ascension a low level one. To be honest, I ran like heck from Rodney when I had gotten the amulet. Many others just stop and kill him a couple of hundred times to get some levels from other creatures.

Another good tip for beginners is to kill a unicorn as fast as possible. It's hard as heck, but the reward is worth it. (Just be careful with what you do with the body. But that's another spoiler). The unicorn horn is your #1 life insurance when exploring the features of nethack. Bless it as fast as you can. A few basic things it can do:

Spoiler :

1. Applying it on yourself will cure most troubles you've got into. (Not stoning, sliming or strangulation though.)
2. #dipping it into an unidentified potion will result in this: Good potion: nothing happens. Bad potion: it turns to water or fruit juice. Only one potion will turn to fruit juice. But you'll find out But remember to #name the potion before you test it, in case it was bad. Then all the similar potions will have the same #name when you pick them up. (Like call it "bad", and change the name afterwards if it did nothing.

This was the turning point for me. Having a blessed unicorn horn, means you can eat all you come over (but remember to stop before you die of too much food) . And you know you can quaff unidentified potions if in trouble.

Another thing is to learn what some of the food/corpses do to you. Try to notice any of the visible stats when you get a message after eating something. If nothing shows up, then you might want to find a way of displaying your "hidden" stats. (intristics). One way is to die. That's not the one I recommend though.

Btw, it was said that elbereth is close to cheating. Well, the game is the most unforgiving one ever created. So you need every help you can get. They even recommend you use the spoilers and do the god mode to learn the game. So use the elbereth for all it's worth.

And of course. When you travel down the dungeon, you will hoard a lot of stash. Useful or not. A tip is to find a chest, place it at one of the stairs of that level, or move it to a nice level. (For example with an altar). And stash everything you just don't need now, but perhaps later on. Perhaps you get a better armor than the one you're wearing? Stash the old one. You never know if you run into something that destroys it.

And again: Nethack is unforgiving. Use every trick you know to survive.

(For the record: Purple worm is my favourite tamed pet. Just for that reason.)

 

[kcwong]

Magic whistle + master mind flayer = I don't have to worry of any monsters that have brains, as my master mind flayer can kill the in max 2 turns with it's short sword and brain sucking.

Deeper in the dungeon your mind flayer won't be sturdy enough to survive long, and be careful if it turns wild... they do make short work of shopkeepers though

Just cleared Sokoban, got the bag of holding. Now I'll just wonder what to put in it, as I don't have anything that I wouldn't use. Now I'll maybe just collect anything interesting is sight and put it in the bag...

Certain attacks and traps will break items (and even cause them to explode, hurting you). Putting those fragile items inside bags will protect them from harm, except getting wet. For items that can be broken by water, use a greased bag (the grease will wear off after getting wet though) or an oilskin sack.

Though beware about putting unidentified wands into BoH (which may be also unidentified).

 

[Tor Inge]

Though beware about putting unidentified wands into BoH (which may be also unidentified).

I thought about mentioning that too. But I wouldn't spoil the fun. I've quit a really promising char after putting an unidentified bag into my BoH.

Need I repeat..? Nethack is evil.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

I died. I was levitating with a cockatrice corpse on my hand, pressed the wrong button which made me levitate over the sink, crashed, the corpse hit me, I got petrified.

Yet Another Stupid Death...

 

[Izipo]

Hello again, this is a bit of thread Necro, but I really need some help from the more experienced players here.
Heres' my problem (with Izipo86 the valkyrie).
I'm doing good, have a lvl 13 character, wielding Excalibur and wearing a +2 GDSM. Cleared Sokoban, the mines, down to Dlvl 25.
Have a stash on lvl 22 and another on lvl 15.

My problem is I'm stuck between two levels.
The castle is on lvl 25 (I'm in front of the drawbridge), and above is Medusa's lair (killed her already). But the thing is I neither have a way of levitation, nor a musical instrument. I cannot go back to the up stairs in medusa's level (which I would like to do).
So what should I do to cross the water ?
I'm aware I could strike the drawbridge to open it, or maybe dig down. But I'm uncomfortable progressing further and would really like to go back up.
What do you think ? What should I do ?

 

[kcwong]

I died. I was levitating with a cockatrice corpse on my hand, pressed the wrong button which made me levitate over the sink, crashed, the corpse hit me, I got petrified.

Yet Another Stupid Death...

With NetHack you will learn how to touch type... perfectly. I walked a valkyrie into lava myself.

 

[kcwong]

Hello again, this is a bit of thread Necro, but I really need some help from the more experienced players here.
Heres' my problem (with Izipo86 the valkyrie).
I'm doing good, have a lvl 13 character, wielding Excalibur and wearing a +2 GDSM. Cleared Sokoban, the mines, down to Dlvl 25.
Have a stash on lvl 22 and another on lvl 15.

My problem is I'm stuck between two levels.
The castle is on lvl 25 (I'm in front of the drawbridge), and above is Medusa's lair (killed her already). But the thing is I neither have a way of levitation, nor a musical instrument. I cannot go back to the up stairs in medusa's level (which I would like to do).
So what should I do to cross the water ?
I'm aware I could strike the drawbridge to open it, or maybe dig down. But I'm uncomfortable progressing further and would really like to go back up.
What do you think ? What should I do ?

<Edit>
On second thought, why can't you go back? Did you dig your way down into Medusa and Castle level?
</Edit>

Wand of cold/Cone of cold spell - turn water to ice, which you can walk on (and will not melt).

Boulders - see if there're any on your side of the castle maze. Push it down the moat. Be careful about something breaking the drawbridge from the inside.

Water walking boots - Got some unidentified boots on you? With blessed waters you can even try the cursed ones. Depends on how many boots you've identified, this may or may not be useful.

Amulet of magical breathing - Swim! Stash away anything that could get wet. Blessed metallic items are a bit less likely to rust.

Polymorph - If you have polymorph control, turn into something that can fly. Then you can fly over the moat, either into the castle or back up.

Saddle - chances are slim, but you can ride a flying pet (like a dragon).

Just swim - with the drawbridge broken, you might get lucky and get back up on the other side. Standard procedure for protecting items that could get wet. (Edit: not usable for crossing Medusa level)

A cursed potion of gain level. NH like puns.

Dig down - if you can handle the nasties down there, just dig down. You might find a way to fly down there.

Or some crazier idea. Get punished! Make your god mad (might get other effects), or better yet read a scroll of punishment. Then throw your connected iron ball and see how far Physics will take you!