Nethack

[kcwong]

How does one fire from a bow again. Is it a case of having the bow as primary and the arrows as secondary. What's the range on them?

wield your bow as primary weapon, and quiver your stack of arrows. Then use f to fire. Moving into an enemies in that state would mean you smack them with your bow. You can press x to switch to your secondary weapon slot, and w a melee weapon there. Then you can x between the two easily.

Range is random, but adjusted according to your strength. Try a few times and make a note. Test again if your strength changes.

How does one use spells?

Z to cast spells. You will be presented a list of spells you know. Be careful... your character will eventually (after a large amount of turns) forget how to cast the spells. Those spells will be marked with an asterisk, and trying to cast them would confuse your character as your magical energy goes wild.

Does anyone have a complete listing of the controlls?

It's in the guide (Guidebook.html) that comes with the game. You can also press ? in the game to display the in-game help.

I keep getting so far (usually the mines) I tend to pick up alot of stuff but never seem to get anywhere.

Exploration is a big part of NetHack, to figure out how you can use an item you've found. Many items have a number of different uses... I'll let you have the fun of exploration.

Just one advice: Don't pickup too much. If you get burdened (or the other more serious levels), you will only able to act once every few turns. Your enemies in the mean time can hit you freely. Drop items you don't need... setup a stash, take note of where it is, and return to it later if you need something.

Setting up a stash so other intelligent inhabitants of the dungeon cannot pickup your things though, is another important lesson you'll have to learn...

What are the gems and the like for? I tend to accumulate a few

You can sell them in shops (by using the drop command)... not all types of shops buy gems though. If it said the shopkeep is not interested, you can pick your gems backup and try another shop.

Also many gems are made of hard materials... you can throw them if you run out of projectiles. Using a sling to throw gems will get you better range and damage.

There are also rumors that unicorns love gems... unicorns come in three colours, black, white and grey, which is interestingly related to your character's alignment, chaotic, lawful and neutral...

 

[Izipo]

Wikihack is your friend. I now spend more time on it than on the game (while I should be playing Oblivion).

To fire arrows, put some in your quiver (Q), wield a bow, and fire them at monsters.

The mines is, so far, the best I can do.
My problem now is identifying what I found... I seem to never get scrolls of ID.

 

[kcwong]

Wikihack is your friend.

Wikihack contains a lot of information, however, it also contains huge amount of spoilers. Part of the fun is to figure out how things work.

My problem now is identifying what I found... I seem to never get scrolls of ID.

I can give a few tips for you here.

Identify scroll is pretty common, you will often find them lying around or inside shops. The trick is how to find out which scroll is identify.

There's a technique in NetHack called "Price ID". While the magical items' appearances change, their price do not. By checking the price inside a shop you can get idea about what an unidentified item would be. And among all the scrolls, Identify scroll is the cheapest.

However, the price in shops varies. It depends on your character's charisma ability score (the higher your charisma, the better the deal would be), if you're a tourist or not (shop butchers tourists ), wearing a T-shirt on the outside (so you look like a tourist ). Blessed items are a bit more expensive... cursed ones a bit cheaper. Selling unidentified objects will also worsen the deal.

But in general, enter a shop and stand on a square with scrolls. Use the #chat extended command to ask the shopkeep for price. Look for a list of the cheapest scrolls (usually, for even the ugliest characters, they would be under $30). One of those cheapest scrolls would probably be identify, and even if they are not, the other possibilities are not harmful. Just make sure the scrolls are not cursed, and test them by reading one.

Before I learned about the price ID trick, I usually find Identify scrolls by reading non-cursed scrolls... and take the risks of bad side effects.

 

[Izipo]

This game is AWESOME!!
Izipo24 just died YAAD.
First time in Sokoban, found it while escaping after a werejackal attack. Turned into a jackal at the entrance. Then inadvertently woke up a panther while trying to complete the level... changed back naked facing a very irate panther
Too bad, I had high hopes for this character. Funny thing is I was also previously cured of being a wererat

 

[kcwong]

Infected by a werefoo is bad.

Here is a funny post I've read about werefoo, by Rob Ellwood:

Spoiler :

Here's a repost of my "Pet shop follies: a foolish
anecdote", from 1999:
_________________

Earlier today, I started up an Archeologist. On level 2,
I was attacked by a were-rat plus friends. I had to pray for
healing before the battle ended. Even though I attacked the were-
rat first, I was were-ified before I zeroed him.

This left me hundreds of turns to kill while I waited
for the prayer timeout. Most of it was spent as a 2 pound rat
underneath 200 pounds of possessions. Bored of pressing the
space bar, I wondered if #monster brought in extra rats each
time, or whether the old ones were teleported back to you.
I used #monster a couple of times, and you get extra rats.
("Would you like extra rat with that, sir?" "Yes; please.")

OK, maybe I used #monster more than a couple of times.
I had to confirm my findings.

Once back to human form, I went to a shop on that
level. I figured that a dozen or so rats milling around
for a while would randomly scatter the shop contents across
several city blocks. I could wander through the rest of
the level, idly picking stuff up and slaying beasts. This
would be far less boring than standing at the shop entrance
and waiting for DumbCat to pick up something better than a
-2 Tribblebane.

Before I got to the shop, I turned back to the 2 lb
rat again. In retrospect, I must have used #monster a couple
of times more at this point. I had rabid rats, giant rats,
and sewer rats. And people thought that I would never amount
to anything!

I eventually got to the shop, which quickly half-
filled with rats. My evil plan failed. (So much for my
potential career as an Evil Overlord.) The rats at the back
couldn't push their way to the front. The rats at the front
weren't trained as retrievers, so they just milled around,
then dropped their loot. I also got the impression that most
of the objects were too heavy for rats to pick up.

You just can't find decent minions anymore.

Foiled in my villainy, I pushed my way (with some
difficulty) through mobs of rats to the stairs leading to
the Gnomish Mines. (How many rats do you get per #monster,
anyway? Or were they starting to breed?) I prayed my were-
dom away, then ferried down a few loads of rats, averaging
about three rats a load. I started wandering around the
mines, to see what my loyal subjects were up to.

I saw a few civilians in the distance, but I never
had to draw whip: they died of, ah, natural causes before
I got there. All I had to do was pick up the loot. (Maybe
I do have a career as an E.O. after all.)

By the third corner, I was ahead of the rats. I
turned the corner and saw a squad of the GRA (Gnomish
Republican Army) nearby and closing fast. I wielded my whip,
snarled in defiance, and fled. (See! Definitely E.O.
material!)

One gnome almost caught up when I had to dodge
around a particularly stubborn rat. By then, the other
gnomes were debating the local pecking order with my
immigrant rodents. A bit later, the fast gnome got into
his own argument.

I went all the way back to the first corner and
waited. After a long time of listening to noises in the
distance, a lone gnome staggered around the corner. He
made it three steps before two members of my Home Guard
had a chat with him about where they could grab a bite to
eat.

He only had 8 GP on him, the cheapskate.

Bored again, I ferried DumbCat up the stairs,
leaving the rats to conquer the Mines or die in the attempt.
(Not much of an E.O. plan, but hey, rats are cheap.) I
went over to the stairs down to the normal dungeon level.
I ferried down ten or twelve rats to keep me company, then
started exploring.

Nothing really interesting happened. One rat went
crazy from hunger and attacked another rat. Down one. I
felt a moment of sadness a while later. Down two. I
peeked up at level two at one point, just in time to see a
rat starve to death. Down three. Ten percent lost to
attrition isn't that bad. The E.O. wasn't part of the ten
percent, so everything was spiffy.

I had just finished pickaxing a statue when a grey
slug showed up and a rat vanished from sight. I looked at
the slug, but it was far enough away that I could clear up
my end of the room before going to greet him. I looked for
the trap door that the rat had fallen through, but didn't
see it. I stepped to the pile of ex-statue rocks, and found
the trap door.

I landed right beside a were-jackal. Deja vu: I
zeroed him and his buddies, again with the help of a prayer,
and again I got were-ified. This time, I ended up as a 20
pound critter under the 200 pounds of loot.

This time, I got a bit carried away with #monster.
(I did not get carried away with #monster when I was a were-
rat. At least, not by my standards.) The room had about 30
jackals milling around before I stopped. I suppose there
were a similar number in the adjacent rooms and corridors.

Early on, a gnome or two had tried to gate-crash.
For some mysterious reason, they did not succeed. I sus-
pected that I wouldn't be picked up many experience points
on this level.

With hundreds of moves still to go before I could
re-pray, I was suddenly attacked by a giant ant! I hadn't
noticed it, since it was a brown "a" in a sea of brown "d"s.
The jackals hadn't attacked it. (Defected to the rebel
alliance, no doubt.) It quickly blasted me back to human
form.

I grabbed my arms and armor, then squished the ant.
I had some difficulty. The jackals just milled around and
laid bets. Five rooms away, a jackal politian was haranguing
the crowd about "the ants, our natural allies". (Are critters
of the same color friendly to each other? Or did I scramble
the program by overflowing the "pet" array?) [The ants were
too tough for the jackals.]

A second ant forced its way to the front. This time,
the totes only gave me even odds. Down to only two HP, I
seized a wand and zapped. I missed the ant, but killed two
jackal spectators. (Served 'em right, the traitors.) A moment
later, I bit the biscuit myself.

In the post-mortum, NetHack told me that my Archeologist
was unlucky. Jeez, tell me something I don't know.

I just hope that turkey doesn't get turned into a bones
level. "The jackal hits! The jackal hits! The jackal hits!
The jackal hits! The jackal hits! You die..." <What! I never
even got off the stairs!>

Fortunately, there is a defense. If you go down the
stairs surrounded by a solid wall of friendly rats or jackals....

 

[zxcvbnm]

I have played it a little but it never really got me. I was more used to ADOM and never got so far in Nethack, as the system of commands is so different that mastering both would be hard. I also don't like the forced ironman mode without difficulty options

 

[kcwong]

I have played it a little but it never really got me. I was more used to ADOM and never got so far in Nethack, as the system of commands is so different that mastering both would be hard. I also don't like the forced ironman mode without difficulty options

The controls will slowly come to you... plus there's no need to remember everything all at once, you can always consult the in-game help (press ?).

As for iron man mode, I have to confess - I used to cheat in NetHack.

In my first week of playing NetHack, I savescum - which means, I backup my saves to reload when I died. One more week of savescumming and I found I had made no progress at all. I still die because of the same reasons, on the same early levels.

Then I asked Reno for help, and stopped savescumming. Instead, I paid more attention as I played. I kept in mind NetHack is a turn-based single player game, there's no need to hurry. I kept notes - it helped me to slow down and calm down so I could think.

Slowly, I found the things that killed me two weeks ago were no longer a problem. Before I was always worried about getting killed in combat, died of food poisoning or lack of food. Now magically those problems no longer bother me at all.

NetHack is a game of learning... learn from your failures. Observe, learn and improve, so your dead characters do not die in vain.

There is a difficulty slider... it's in the race, alignment and class you choose to play. If you want an easier time, play a lawful dwarf Valkyrie. She starts the game with decent equipment (a +3 small shield), and with decent combat abilities. Find her some armor (helm, gloves, foot wear and body armor) to wear and she will be ready for the early levels.

Read through this thread, there are a lot of tips posted.

 

[steviejay]

What is a good way of avoiding from dying of starvation? I always seem to have that problem?

What does everyone spend their money on? I tend to get a sizable fund but I'm always dubious about buying potions with them

 

[steviejay]

also, can you pick up the animal you start with? I never seem to keep in contact with it

 

[Hitti-Litti]

1) Just eat all corpses you see, unless they have been there for a while(rotten), they're from zombies or mummies, they're your own race or if they are poisonous.

2) Donating to a coaligned priest is a good idea. My must-buy list in Minetown is:
- all lamps in Izchak's store
- magic marker(if I don't have any), if Minetown happens to have it
- some food that is guaranteed to be good, like food rations
- towel or blindfold if I don't have any yet
- magic whistle

3) No, you can't pick your pet up. You'll just have to use a leash or wait before it comes(go find it and then travel to the staircase you're going to, but don't go too fast, or it can't keep up on your speed).

 

[FriendlyFire]

stupid shopkeeper sold me a crused item.

 

[kcwong]

What is a good way of avoiding from dying of starvation? I always seem to have that problem?

1) Just eat all corpses you see, unless they have been there for a while(rotten), they're from zombies or mummies, they're your own race or if they are poisonous.

There are other corpses you shouldn't eat. Mold corpses are bad (causes confusion or hallucination depending on the type), as are rats, kobolds and bats (basically critters that are very dirty). Shriekers (a green mushroom that screams) are fine though. You can eat your own race if you are an orc or caveman/cavewoman (it's considered natural behavior to them).

Also don't eat your former pets. If you do, you will get this message from your god...

"So this is how you repay loyalty?"

To be safe, never eat dogs, cats and horses (pets left on other levels might become peaceful or even hostile when you get back later).

Lichen corpses are good... it is vegetable (so monks, vegans and vegetarians can eat it without breaking the conduct), and it never rots or spoils. If you got some, you can save them for later use.

All the above can be learned if you keep notes while experimenting (during your dead characters' short lives)

What does everyone spend their money on? I tend to get a sizable fund but I'm always dubious about buying potions with them

stupid shopkeeper sold me a crused item.

Shopkeepers *are* evil in NetHack. If you damage their goods (e.g. break potions, burn scrolls, destroy their doors) and you do not have the gold to pay for the damage, they will happily kill you and take all your possessions. Read my first few posts in this thread (in the first page). I had a few screenshots posted there. I kicked down a door and the shopkeeper immediately shot me dead with a wand. The game was nice enough to tell me the shopkeeper took all my possessions, and asked if I want to know about what I had before I was killed.

Shopkeepers will try to undercut you whenever possible. When you sell unidentified items (e.g. a red gem that is actually a ruby), they will only give you very little money, because you don't know the red gem is really expensive. Items in shops can be of any BUC (Blessed/Uncursed/Cursed) status, but if you have multiple copies there, you can compare the price. Blessed items will be a bit pricier, cursed ones cheaper.

2) Donating to a coaligned priest is a good idea. My must-buy list in Minetown is:
- all lamps in Izchak's store
- magic marker(if I don't have any), if Minetown happens to have it
- some food that is guaranteed to be good, like food rations
- towel or blindfold if I don't have any yet
- magic whistle

Donating to any priest is fine... they all give you blessings as long as you donate enough to gain beneficial effects. It's randomized a bit, but make it at least 600 times your level. e.g. A level 10 character needs to donate 6000 gold to gain protection (for better AC).

That list Hitti-Litti posted is good. Towel is better than blindfold though... it is identical to blindfold when you need to temporarily blind yourself, and a towel has other uses.

You should also look out for lock pick or key, if you don't have one already. Expensive camera could be useful (to blind monsters), as are tinning kits (though a bit heavy). If you cannot find magic whistle, even a normal whistle is good to have; as are leash. If you see a stethoscope, grab it! It's pretty rare as random loot.

As you learn more about NetHack, you will have ways to identify items (with or without identify spell)... then you will know what to buy in shops. Wands, scrolls, rings, cloaks, boots, gloves, potions.

also, can you pick up the animal you start with? I never seem to keep in contact with it

I posted about it in this thread a while back; read this thread.

 

[steviejay]

Heh got it thanks, I was wondering why I kept finding all this odd stuff.

Why would you want to blind yourself with a blindfold or towel?

 

[Hitti-Litti]

If you see a yellow or black "y", you most certainly want to blind yourself. That way the yellow "y" can't blind you, and the black "y" can't make you hallucinate. Also if you have telepathy(eat a floating eye to do this), you can blind yourself to see all the monsters in your level that have brains(not molds, acid blobs or gelatinous cubes). And when you reach Medusa's Island, blinding yourself is practically the only way to survive without reflection.

 

[steviejay]

oooooh interesting. ok thanks

 

[FriendlyFire]

how do i search statues ???
I break them apart with a pick axe but after so many of them and getting only rocks i think iam doing it wrong

 

[kcwong]

how do i search statues ???
I break them apart with a pick axe but after so many of them and getting only rocks i think iam doing it wrong

You're not doing anything wrong... 99% of the statues contain nothing. If a creature (even you, as a bone level) got petrified, then the resulting statue will have whatever the creature has.

Statues on two particular levels may contain loot. One is on Oracle level, where the statues have a chance of containing a spellbook. The other is on Medusa's level, where you might find Shield of Reflection or Boots of levitation in Perseus' statue (the poor guy failed in NetHack ).

Deeper in the dungeon you might find more surprise from statues...

 

[kcwong]

how do i search statues ???
I break them apart with a pick axe but after so many of them and getting only rocks i think iam doing it wrong

You're not doing anything wrong... 99% of the statues contain nothing. If a creature (even you, as a bone level) got petrified, then the resulting statue will have whatever the creature has.

Statues on two particular levels may contain loot. One is on Oracle level, where the statues have a chance of containing a spellbook. The other is on Medusa's level, where you might find Shield of Reflection or Boots of levitation in Perseus' statue (the poor guy failed in NetHack ).

Deeper in the dungeon you might find more surprise from statues...

BTW sometimes things got generated under statues. Loot, or even the stairs going down.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Heh, started as a Tourist(don't ask why, even I don't know) yesterday, drank from a fountain, water demon gave me a wish. So now I'm wielding a fixed blessed +3 Grayswandir.

 

[kcwong]

I'd have wished for a "fixed blessed +2 gray dragon scale armor"... better AC meant much more for a tourist than an artifact weapon...