Nethack

[LordKestrel]

In my game, I'm standing on the upstairs on the Medusa level, staring at a black dragon that was summoned by the titan, and I don't have reflection. I figure I can get 1 shot off with a wand of death, but if it misses, I'm probably toast. I might just run up stairs and do a bunch of summon+saccing in the hopes of getting some form of reflection.

While staring at my inventory after loading the save up, I realized I had a wand of teleport. Quick zap with that, and the dragon wasn't around to bother me. (you can teleport others on a no-teleport map, just not yourself). Got lucky with the wand of death and nailed the titan first try. After cleaning out the entrance hall, I decided to haul it all back up to my stash on level 16. Because that nasty black dragon was still out there, I decided to wander up to Soko, and see if I could get reflection. The boh would be nice too, my inventory has been perpetually full. Turned out to be reflection, which was probably the better thing at the time, as it meant I could handle the dragon.

I had learned the jumping spell, so getting across Medusa's lair was slow, but easy. Bunch of liches/mind flayers, but thanks to all those little islands, I could kill them with daggers from range. The dragon was trivial with reflection, and I never even saw Medusa. The statue had levitation boots, which came in really handy in the castle.

I cleaned out the outside of the castle, and having learned the passtune from my god, I opened and closed the drawbridge a few times, letting a few soldiers out to play before squishing a bunch in the bridge. During this time, I finally hit level 14, so I decided to put the castle on hold while I went to do the quest.

Quest was pretty easy, although I ended up losing 4 of my pets, so I'm down to just 2, a leprechaun and a storm giant. One of them became untame when I hit him with a dagger, the other 3 were hit with a black dragon blast. At least I got scales from this one, so I finally have an AC under 0. I've had the worst luck with armor this game, everything I've found has been +0 enchantment.

Things are looking pretty good right now. Just finished up the quest, have the Eye and the Bell, and I'm going to head back to my stash and try and do a little saccing in the hopes of getting a spellbook of identify, and a marker or two. I haven't learned charging yet, but I should have max luck, so writing charging shouldn't be too difficult. And I have a ton of junk scrolls to practice on, I just need the markers. ID scrolls have been rare, so a book of id would help a lot. If after a few thousand turns I haven't found anything, I do have a blessed magic lamp stashed, I could polish it up and wish for a marker, but I'd rather not have to do that.

My current stats:

Spoiler :

Currently known spells

  ···································               ·······     Name                 Level  Category     Fail
  ·····················#····##·#·····               ····#·· a - force bolt             1    attack         0%
  ··········###·····················###             ······· b - magic missile          2    attack         0%
  ········##········┌─────────┐······ # #   #   #   ·#····· c - healing                1*   healing        0%
  ·······#·····┌────┼─────────┼────┐···#··#··#··#·········· d - slow monster           2    enchantment    0%
  ······#··#···├────┤··[%·····├────┤····#·····#······^····· e - light                  1*   divination     0%
  ········#···┌┤····│······(··│····├┐······················ f - jumping                1*   escape         0%
  ·······#····││····│···H%@l··▒··@·││··················)··· g - finger of death        7*   attack       100%
  ·······#···┌┼┴──▒─┘%···%%···│····│└┐····················· h - knock                  1    matter         0%
  ······#····││··········@·$··├┬─▒┬┴┐│············^········ i - remove curse           3    clerical      64%
  ···········│├──▒──┬+·┬───┬──┴┤>·│ ············#······#··· j - drain life             2    attack         0%
  ········#··││·····│··│   │·· ├──┘ ││··##··#·····#········ k - confuse monster        2    enchantment    0%
  ·······#···└┤·····│··│ ──┘·│ │    ├┘·······       ···#··# l - cure blindness         2    healing        0%
  ·····#······├┐····│··│·····│ │)──┬┤··#··#··       ·#····· m - restore ability        4*   healing       91%
  ······#·#···└┤····│··└────·│     ├┘···#·#·#  *    ······· n - detect food            2    divination     0%
  ·········#···├────┤········├─────┤····#··#·    #  ##·#··· o - create monster         2*   clerical       0%
  ·········##··└────┼────────┘┌────┘···#·#··#     #####·#·· p - cure sickness          3    healing       64%
  ·········#········└─────────┘··········#·#·······###····· q - turn undead            6    clerical     100%
  ··········#·#·························#············#····· r - levitation             4    escape        91%
  ······················###·#······························ s - detect unseen          3    divination    64%
Arcana the Enchantress    St:18 Dx:15 Co:16 In:18 Wi:17 Ch: t - cause fear             3    enchantment    0%
Home 1 $:0  HP:105(105) Pw:190(190) AC:-10 Xp:15/161512 T:4 u - protection             1    clerical       0%
                                                            (end)

 Amulets
 I - the blessed Eye of the Aethiopica
 Y - an uncursed amulet of reflection named reflection (being worn)
 Weapons
 a - the blessed rustproof +0 Magicbane (weapon in hand)
 h - 7 +0 daggers (in quiver)
 Armor
 g - an uncursed burnt +2 cornuthaum (being worn)
 v - a blessed +0 pair of low boots (being worn)
 y - an uncursed +0 pair of leather gloves (being worn)
 B - an uncursed +2 small shield (being worn)
 K - an uncursed +0 cornuthaum
 Q - an uncursed +0 cloak of magic resistance (being worn)
 V - an uncursed +0 black dragon scale mail (being worn)
 Comestibles
 u - an uncursed tripe ration
 J - 4 uncursed food rations
 Potions
 f - an uncursed potion of hallucination
 o - an uncursed potion of fruit juice
 r - a potion of confusion
 E - 3 uncursed potions of extra healing
 F - 2 uncursed potions of invisibility
 G - an uncursed potion of healing
 M - an uncursed potion of confusion
 P - 2 uncursed potions of booze
 W - a potion of unholy water
 X - an uncursed potion of restore ability
 Rings
 (1 of 2)
 e - an uncursed ring of free action (on left hand)
 L - an uncursed ring of conflict
 Wands
 i - a wand of striking (0:5)
 j - a wand of digging (0:3)
 k - a wand of death (0:4)
 l - a wand of teleportation (0:3)
 p - a wand of magic missile (0:4)
 A - a wand of fire (0:4)
 D - a cursed wand of polymorph (0:7)
 N - a wand of digging (0:5)
 R - a wand of digging (0:7)
 Tools
 n - an uncursed magic lamp (lit)
 s - an uncursed lock pick
 t - an uncursed magic whistle
 w - a +0 unicorn horn
 x - an uncursed blindfold
 T - the Bell of Opening (0:3)
 Z - a +0 pick-axe
 Gems
 b - a gem called SOFT yellow 2
 c - a gem called SOFT red 1
 d - a gem called SOFT black 1
 m - a gem called SOFT violet 1
 q - 2 gems called SOFT orange 1
 z - an uncursed luckstone
 (2 of 2)

    #  dagger             [Expert]
 a -   attack spells      [Basic]
       healing spells     [Unskilled]
 b -   divination spells  [Unskilled]
 c -   enchantment spells [Basic]
 d -   clerical spells    [Unskilled]
 e -   escape spells      [Unskilled]
 f -   matter spells      [Unskilled]

 

[LordKestrel]

Things are coming along nicely now.

79k turns in (no speed ascension for me ), and I finally picked up the last of the spells that I wanted (Teleport Away).

I've spent a few thousand turns playing with puddings, but most of that time has been running around clearing the dungeons, the castle, the quest, etc. I'm actually surprised at how fast the turns seem to be flying by, although hitting "25." to recover energy has certainly added it's share of turns.

It took 500-1000 turns to clear out the Castle, and unfortunately it looks like there is no Ludios in this game. I just learned Magic Mapping though, so I'm about to head back to Medusa and start mapping my way up in case I missed any vaults.

I've cleared out around half of the VotD, Magic Missile is 1-2 hitting most monsters so far.

Castle wand was (0:3). Burned the first two wishes on markers, third wish on a blessed/greased BoH. Of the "essential" ascension gear, I have reflection, conflict, free action, MR and MC3. I can cast Levitation and Teleport Away, although I'll need to bump up Escape skill levels. I can also cast Dig at 0% for Earth/Air Elementals. About the only thing I'm really missing is very fast. I ate a Quantum Mechanic to get fast, but Speed Boots would be nice. I'd have to give up my water walking boots though, which are incredibly useful. Level 30 would be nice too, MM is pretty overpowered at that point. Slow Digestion is actually really appealing, it'd let me wear free action/reflection constantly and not worry about the hunger. I have 60+ K/C-Rations from the Castle, so food isn't much of a problem, but I hate being forced to eat often when wearing an amulet/rings.

I'm actually semi-considering trying to extinct some things, I'm pretty sure I've already extincted Kops, Soldiers, bees, and hill orcs. With the gear I have, I'm not invincible, but damn close. Everything really bad will respect the E-word, and everything that won't respect it I can kill. The downside to setting up an extinction farming shop is I'd have to find a different altar, or I'd end up corrupting my pudding farm. I'll probably try it out for a bit, and then if it becomes as boring as I think it might be, I'll give up and ascend, but I'll at least give it a try.

This is my first Wizard that has ever made it this far, and I'm amazed at how versatile it is. Thanks to deity spellbook gifts, you end up learning most of the spells if you do a lot of saccing (an early create monster book helped a lot with this). Once you get the Eye, you have enough energy regeneration to let you use your spells pretty much whenever you want to. High Int gives hungerless casting, Slow Digestion practically eliminates food requirements, and Magicbane/unicorn horn protect you from nearly everything early on. Once you find/convert an altar, you're set. Going for an athiest conduct would be slower and more tedious, but would still hit that plateau.

For the curious, inventory/spells/#enhance are below. Most of my stuff is in the box I'm standing on, and there is so much junk in there that it would be pointless to show. I have spellbooks for all the expired spells, I'll read them before moving on.

Spoiler :

                                                                 Amulets
                                                                  I - the blessed Eye of the Aethiopica
                                                          P       Y - an uncursed amulet of reflection named reflection
                     ┌────────┐                           P     ┌ Weapons
      ┌────┐         │········│                   # PPP   P    PP a - the blessed rustproof +0 Magicbane (weapon in hand)
      │PPP·│         │P·······│          PPPPPPPPPPPPPP   P  PPP│ c - a thoroughly corroded -3 knife named Dull (alternate weapon; not wielded)
      │PPPP·#########│P···@···│     P#PPPP        PP  PPP P  P  │ Armor
      │PP··│        #·········│    PP             P   P P PPPP  └ g - an uncursed burnt +2 cornuthaum (being worn)
      └─▒──┘      ###│········P#  PP              P     P PP      A - an uncursed +3 pair of leather gloves (being worn)
        # #       # #│········│   P              ┌P─────PPPP      G - an uncursed +0 pair of water walking boots (being worn)
        #       ### #└───l──·─┘  P              PPPPPPPPPPPP      Q - an uncursed +0 cloak of magic resistance (being worn)
        #       #   ###########PPPPP#PPP#PPPPPPPt│PSPPPP0·0P      V - an uncursed +0 black dragon scale mail (being worn)
        #     ###       #*##P#PP#P             PPPPPPPPP0P0PS     Comestibles
        # #   ##       #  ###T#  #P #00PP0PPPPMPPPPPPPPP0@0 PP    l - 4 uncursed meatballs
       ┌·──┐### m     #    ###    PPPPP*     PPPsPPPPPPPPPP  PP   m - an uncursed C-ration
       │P··│#    #   #     ###     P  PPPPPPPPPPP│PP·PPPP0PPPPPPP U - 2 uncursed lizard corpses
       │nP·▒#     ###     #P#####PPPP#P#PPPPPPS P└────P───┘    PP Rings
       │···│       # 0   P#┌─·──┐   PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPFPPPPP i - an uncursed ring of free action
       │P···########O######·····P#*P#PPPPP│PP   P                 u - an uncursed ring of conflict
       │·P·│           ##  │m···│    P·PPPPPP   P                 Wands
      PP·P··############## └─▒──┘    P··PP·PPPPPP                 o - a wand of teleportation (0:4)
      PPPP#                  #       P          P                 Tools
Arcana the Necromancer    St:18 Dx:18 Co:16 In:20 Wi:20 Ch:15  Ch n - an uncursed magic lamp (lit)
Dlvl:16 $:0  HP:205(206) Pw:122(297) AC:-10 Exp:22 T:79198        t - an uncursed magic whistle
                                                                  w - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
                                                                  Gems
                                                                  z - a blessed luckstone
                                                                  (end)

Spoiler :

 Pick a skill to advance:

                                                          P       ^                     (Skills flagged by "#" cannot be enhanced any further.)
                     ┌────────┐                           P     ┌─E─┐
      ┌────┐         │········│                   # PPP   P    PPPPPPP                  Fighting Skills
      │PPP·│         │P·······│          PPPPPPPPPPPPPP   P  PPP│PPP│P                        bare handed combat [Unskilled]
      │PPPP·#########│P···@···│     P#PPPP        PP  PPP P  P  │PPP│P                        riding             [Unskilled]
      │PP··│        #·········│    PP             P   P P PPPP  └───┘P                  Weapon Skills
      └─▒──┘      ###│········P#  PP              P     P PP         P                     #  dagger             [Expert]
        # #       # #│········│   P              ┌P─────PPPP         P                        knife              [Unskilled]
        #       ### #└───l──·─┘  P              PPPPPPPPPPPP         P                        axe                [Unskilled]
        #       #   ###########PPPPP#PPP#PPPPPPPt│PSPPPP0·0P       PPP                        short sword        [Unskilled]
        #     ###       #*##P#PP#P             PPPPPPPPP0P0PS      P┌────────┐                broadsword         [Unskilled]
        # #   ##       #  ###T#  #P #00PP0PPPPMPPPPPPPPP0@0 PP    PPPPPPPPPPP│          a -   long sword         [Unskilled]
       ┌·──┐### m     #    ###    PPPPP*     PPPsPPPPPPPPPP  PP   PP│PPPPPPPP│                club               [Unskilled]
       │P··│#    #   #     ###     P  PPPPPPPPPPP│PP·PPPP0PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP│                mace               [Unskilled]
       │nP·▒#     ###     #P#####PPPP#P#PPPPPPS P└────P───┘    PP   │PPPPPPPP│                quarterstaff       [Basic]
       │···│       # 0   P#┌─·──┐   PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPFPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP│                polearms           [Unskilled]
       │P···########O######·····P#*P#PPPPP│PP   P                PP └────────┘                spear              [Unskilled]
       │·P·│           ##  │m···│    P·PPPPPP   P                 PP                          javelin            [Unskilled]
      PP·P··############## └─▒──┘    P··PP·PPPPPP                  PP                         trident            [Unskilled]
      PPPP#                  #       P          P                    #                        sling              [Unskilled]
Arcana the Necromancer    St:18 Dx:18 Co:16 In:20 Wi:20 Ch:15  Chaotic                        dart               [Unskilled]
Dlvl:16 $:0  HP:205(206) Pw:122(297) AC:-10 Exp:22 T:79198                                    shuriken           [Unskilled]
                                                                                        Spellcasting Skills
                                                                                        b -   attack spells      [Skilled]
                                                                                        c -   healing spells     [Basic]
                                                                                        d -   divination spells  [Skilled]
                                                                                        e -   enchantment spells [Basic]
                                                                                           #  clerical spells    [Skilled]
                                                                                        f -   escape spells      [Unskilled]
                                                                                        g -   matter spells      [Skilled]
                                                                                        (end)

Spoiler :

 Currently known spells

     Name                 Level  Category     Fail
 a - magic missile          2    attack         0%
 b - finger of death        7    attack        56%
 c - sleep                  1*   enchantment    0%
 d - extra healing          3    healing        0%
 e - dig                    5    matter         0%
 f - jumping                1    escape         0%
 g - turn undead            6    clerical       0%
 h - remove curse           3*   clerical       0%
 i - light                  1    divination     0%
 j - polymorph              6    matter         0%
 k - create monster         2    clerical       0%
 l - detect food            2    divination     0%
 m - cancellation           7    matter        56%
 n - identify               3    divination     0%
 o - create familiar        6    clerical       0%
 p - magic mapping          5    divination     0%
 q - restore ability        4    healing        0%
 r - levitation             4*   escape        56%
 s - detect unseen          3*   divination     0%
 t - fireball               4*   attack         0%
 u - protection             1*   clerical       0%
 v - cure blindness         2    healing        0%
 w - healing                1*   healing        0%
 x - slow monster           2    enchantment    0%
 y - stone to flesh         3*   healing        0%
 z - detect monsters        1    divination     0%
 A - confuse monster        2*   enchantment    0%
 B - clairvoyance           3    divination     0%
 C - force bolt             1    attack         0%
 D - wizard lock            2    matter         0%
 E - invisibility           4*   escape        56%
 F - drain life             2*   attack         0%
 G - cause fear             3    enchantment    0%
 H - cure sickness          3*   healing        0%
 I - knock                  1*   matter         0%
 J - teleport away          6    escape       100%

 

[Hitti-Litti]

1. Why didn't you wish for scrolls of charging with your wand of wishing, you could have charged your wand and get 2 more wishes?

2. As you have "create familiar" and "polymorph" spells, you should use those to make a nice pet army!

 

[LordKestrel]

1. Why didn't you wish for scrolls of charging with your wand of wishing, you could have charged your wand and get 2 more wishes?

I already know charging, so with a marker I can write a scroll of charging, along with all kinds of other things while it lasts. I'm saving the last 4 charges for now, there isn't anything I need badly enough to wish for. More markers would probably be useful if I decide to start reverse genociding things.

2. As you have "create familiar" and "polymorph" spells, you should use those to make a nice pet army!

I'm planning on it I've let all my pets go feral while I'm saccing, but once I'm ready to head down into Ghennom (well, I'm ready now, once I decide to go ) I'll conjure up a bunch of stuff, and then poly them. The downside to that of course is that if I extinct too many things, I won't have anything for them to poly into.

I've set shop in Minetown, and have been casting create monster for a while. So far, it's not as boring as I was afraid it would be. We'll see how things look once I hit 100k turns though

 

[LordKestrel]

92k turns

Level 29, 334/453 hp/power. Incubii dancing helped level me there, I still have two of them running around to bump me up to 30. All stats but Charisma are maxed, and that is at 15. I know every spell but cone of cold. I'm hoping to get that one eventually, freezing water is incredibly useful. I think I've id'd every ring, and every amulet except magical breathing. Found "oLS the hard way, by having a monster id it for me

0% in every spell except for cancellation, which I could bump up to 0% by advancing Matter, but it's not worth spending the skill slots on. I am tempted to bump escape skills up to expert though, long distance jumping can be useful. It's a shame that getting escape up to expert only helps out the one skill, it'd be nice if haste self received extra turns at expert level.

I've been camped out in mine-town for a while now, and it's pretty funny. There is absolutely nothing here that can hurt me. My AC is only -17, although if I enchanted up my armor that'd drop to about -40. Demogorgon is a statue, once I clear things out some more, I'll do the stone/unstone thing with him; I'm hoping to extinct him.

Unfortunately I have tendonitis again, so it'll be a while until I can play some more. If I get around to it, I'll set up a proper boulder fort around the altar, so I can just paste a chain of create monster/finger of death commands. That'll cut down on the keypresses, which is a good thing Even with a properly macroed sequence, it'll be weeks before I can play.

 

[LordKestrel]

127k turns

Level 30, 576/736 hp/power. Naked AC is -26 thanks to divine protection. Nurses can't hit me, so I've stopped trying to dance with them, and started just tinning them.

I've managed to polypile at least one of everything, except for that elusive amulet of magical breathing. 3 life saving amulets, although I've watched another 3 or 4 poof from monsters wearing them.

It's getting pretty boring, but I'm making good progress. I've probably extincted several species by now, and have between 5 and 10 thousand kills. I've gotten to the point where I'm just polypiling +3 gear, everything else I toss in a box which I then poly when it hits 50 pages of inventory. Keeps things nice and tidy, and prevents game crashes from too many objects in the same square.

The one time things got interesting is when I let a Demilich spend a while outside my fort summoning, he managed to pull in a pair of green slimes, which I quickly dispatched. I was kind of tempted to slap on a ring of conflict and let them turn the entire level into slime, but I eventually realized that'd probably be a bad idea. Even getting slimed wouldn't be fatal, I could always just fireball myself, but no point in getting my armor burned for nothing. Short of self-inflicted deaths like that, or zapping myself with finger of death, I just don't see myself dieing. Not to say it can't happen of course, but nothing so far has managed to touch me. Reflection + MC3 + MR + Magicbane combine to give me near immunity to any and every spell, and the -46ish AC I have mean monsters can't even hit me with weapons.

Next update will be around turn 150k - 200k. I think by then I'll have extincted enough things that it'll require me to move further down the dungeon.

 

[Izipo]

Wow !

Wait, you're still not into Gehemon ?

 

[LordKestrel]

I've gone into the entrance cavern in the VotD, but haven't done much more than kill a few things while making my way back to the upstairs. You can't sacrifice anything there (well, you can but *very* bad things happen), so I've been using Minetown for the work. Once create monster stops creating monsters I'll head down there, but first I want to extinct everything that can spawn pre-Gehennom. For Gehennom, I'll work in Vlad's tower. Although it's a part of Gehennom, you can safely pray there, and it has nice alcoves perfect for standing in and summoning from. While I won't get the altar benefits, it's not really required, it just makes prayers come faster. By the time I head down there I'll likely have a naked AC of under -50, so I won't really need anymore divine protection. The golden glows would be nice, but again I won't *really* need the max hp by then.

 

[Izipo]

Probably a stupid question, but I guess Mind flayers and Liches have been genocided/extinct by now ?

 

[LordKestrel]

No, I don't think I've killed more than a dozen or two of each type of lich/mind flayer. They have a high enough difficulty + rarity that they aren't summoned very often where I currently am. If I was summoning in the Castle, I'd probably see a lot more of them (but then wouldn't get to kill all the little newts, etc).

I don't plan on genociding anything, I want to extinct them all via killing everything that moves. I've left Izchak alone of course. In fact, he's how I get Kops to spawn

 

[LordKestrel]

Arcana the Mage St:18 Dx:21 Co:16 In:20 Wi:20 Ch:15 Chaotic
Dlvl:7 $:0 HP:735(735) Pw:133(1022) AC:-67 Exp:30 T:150313

About the only thing of significance has been finally getting the last Nazgul, so all of them are extinct now. I let a pair of demi-liches run around for a while with a ring of conflict on, which sped things up considerably. I've killed a few dozen of everything that can spawn pre-Gehennom by now, with things like orcs, gnomes, soldiers and rothes being fully extinct.

My AC has obviously gone down quite a bit, all from blessings. My armor is pretty much identical to what it was previously, just swapping out the +3 leather gloves for +3 gauntlets of dexterity. I polyed a helm of brilliance, but I'm keeping the cornutham on for the charisma boost when #chatting with incubi. I'm not getting as many incubi as I'd like though, which is why my power is still low. I do have ~40 potions of gain energy, and have not done any alchemy yet, so that'll help with boosting my max power. I also have several hundred of the various healing potions, which I'll turn into blessed fulls for mass quaffing. I almost have enough cursed potions of gain level to just drink my way up from the Sanctum.

At this point, it looks like another 50-100k turns to finish clearing out everything that can be created in minetown. I'll put out another update around the 250k turn mark.

 

[Izipo]

Man, this is huge. I was just thinking about this the other day, wondering if something bad had happened to you.

and good luck for the ascension run.

 

[LordKestrel]

Things got pretty busy at work with the end of our fiscal year on Sep 1st, so I haven't had much time to work on it. And it's pretty slow going anyway. Glad to see someone is enjoying it though

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Started playing NetHack again. I chose a female chaotic monk. Everything went nicely in the beginning, I steamrolled through Gnomish Mines, grabbed the luckstone, learnt a couple of nice spells etc. . My housecat stepped on a polymorph trap, turned into a hell hound. Yay. After Gnomish Mines, I went through Sokoban, took the bag of holding.

Then things started to go nuts.

First, I used "charm monster" spell on a baby green dragon, but it turned out to be a chameleon. Later on, when the chameleon was polymorphed into a weak creature, I accidentally killed it with "magic missile" spell. Damn. One level deeper in the dungeons, I heard a "Burrrrp!", and had a sad feeling for a moment. A purple worm had eaten my hell hound. Damn. One level deeper in the dungeons, there were many swamp rooms. I had tamed a hill giant couple of levels earlier, and here I accidentally stepped on a water tile. Damn. I stepped out of the water, and after that accidentally displaced my hill giant into water, thus drowning it.

So, in just a couple of levels, I had lost all my three pets, I myself killing two of them. You can guess how happy my god was after that....

 

[Reno]

My latest game as a Valkyrie, I've progressed a bit since these were taken by taking down Vlad and getting the Candelabrum of Invocation.

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Reno]

The "you have been killed once" comes from an amulet of life saving. I managed to find two more of those, one in Vlad's tower. I forget where the other one came from.

 

[Reno]

Just completed my first ascension ~40 minutes ago as Freedert a Lawful, Female, Human Knight.

 

[vicawoo]

I've played it once before. An experienced player recommend I eat a corpse that my kitten killed, and I think I got sick and died.

I could learn it the hard way, that is dying a lot and learning from my mistakes, or following some online guide, which always cheapens rpgs and makes it feel like cheating. Is avoiding guides an unreasonable approach?

 

[Reno]

Not unreasonable, but definitely makes playing the game harder. Dying in Nethack is almost inevitable, so using guides doesn't really take away the fun in the case of Nethack. (using guides will not stop you from dying) Though, your mileage may vary on this.

http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page (one of the more complete and better guides out there)

 

[LDiCesare]

Congratulations for a first win!
Took me... was it one or two years to ascend?
Avoiding guides is possible. But you will die a lot, and following a guide does not guarantee that you'll win. At all. The only thing is that without a guide, you'll probably have to waste a lot of money on the oracle until she tells you all the stuff you need to know. In Olde English.