Welcome to the NetHack FAQ! This document will attempt to answer some of the questions that new/potential NetHack players might encounter. This is a new version of the FAQ. Until recently, the FAQ was kept by Seth Scott (seth@cie-2.uoregon.edu), and some of this FAQ is based upon Seth's. I must also send my grateful thanks to the many many people who have emailed suggestions and corrections to me -- I hope the FAQ has incorporated as many of these as possible! The FAQ will be posted to the newsgroup twice monthly. Please email any suggestions or mistakes to me (Adam@beachyhd.demon.co.uk), so that I can incorporate them in to the FAQ. This FAQ does not contain any spoilers (if you think it does, please let me know and I'll consider rewording it). You should be able to read this safe in the knowledge that it won't ruin your game. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What is NetHack? NetHack (despite it's somewhat misleading title) is a single-user fantasy role-playing computer game. The objective of the game is to survive your way to the bottom of an extensive randomly-generated dungeon, fighting and killing a large number of monsters en-route, in an attempt to recover the mysterious Amulet of Yendor. The game gets its name because it was developed by a team of people over the Internet (this group is referred to as "The Dev Team"), and is based upon an old game of similar style, called "Hack". Q: What is the latest version? The latest version of NetHack is 3.1.3. Although this is nearly 3 years old at the time of writing, no more versions of Nethack have been forthcoming. The Dev Team is rumoured to still exist and are renowned for working with the utmost secrecy, so it is possible that a new version might appear at any time -- but don't hold your breath! Q: Where can I get Nethack for my computer? The best place to get Nethack is over the Internet. The "official" NetHack sites are ftp.uu.net:pub/games/nethack, and linc.cis.upenn.edu:pub/NH3.1. There is also a full "roguelike" WWW and FTP site: point your web browser at http://www.win.tue.nl/games/roguelike/nethack/ and you should find all you need. If you prefer using FTP, try ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/games/nethack. This site is in Europe, and might be a little slow if you're calling from too far away. Versions of NetHack are available for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh, MSDOS, OS2, Unix, VMS and WindowsNT platforms. The game is essentially identical on all platforms, though the user interface may vary a little. For the 'home' computers, precompiled versions of the game can be downloaded and run immediately. For the 'mainframe' computers, though, you will have to download the sourcecode and compile the game yourself. The sourcecode for all the different platforms is available from the same WWW/FTP sites. It should also be noted that anyone is free to make and distribute modifications to the sourcecode quite freely. Finally, there is a version of NetHack that is playable over the internet. Telnet to 'nethack.bitech.com' to play it. Q: I'm having some difficulties getting NetHack to run. What's wrong? There are a couple of known problems getting NetHack to work on various environments: 386 NetHack running with Windows If you constantly receive 'Out of memory' errors when trying to start NetHack, try creating a .PIF file for it. Load up the PIF editor in Windows, and set the program filename and startup directory as required. Now change the Required and Desired memory requirements so that they both contain the value -1. Save this as NetHack.PIF, and use this to start the game. It doesn't eliminate the problem entirely, but makes it happen a little less frequently. Amiga NetHack A number of the Amiga binary distributions had a slightly incorrect NetHack.cnf file. If you find yourself getting errors such as "can't open oracle.lev", or "can't open minefill.lev" then the chances are that you need to edit the .cnf file. Look for the line that reads "PATH=NetHack:" and change it to read "PATH=NetHack:;HackExe:". Now restart the game and the problem should have gone away. Macintosh NetHack In an unfortunate oversight, one of the Mac programmers left a piece of code used for debugging in the final binaries for the game. This normally presents no problems, but occasionally the message "unimplemented trap" may appear on the screen. This only ever happens when you play with the caps-lock on, so make sure you keep the caps-lock key unlocked whilst playing the game. Q: How can I play multi-user NetHack? Unfortunately, you can't. Due to the way NetHack works, it would be very difficult to write a multi-player version. There are a couple of variants which are multiplayer, and which resemble the NetHack style of game, namely "Myth" and "Crossfire". These are detailed in the "Roguelike Games Info and FTP Sites" FAQ (see the section on NetHack variants below) -- see that FAQ for more information on obtaining these games. Q: How can I get more information about playing the game? From a number of sources. First of all, you could read the guidebook and on-line help that come with NetHack. Press '?' or 'h' whilst playing the game to see the menu of on-line help. If this doesn't answer your questions, you could try consulting the NetHack Spoilers (see below). Finally, questions not answered by this FAQ or the spoilers can be posted to the rec.games.roguelike.nethack newsgroup. The inhabitants will be more than willing to answer you! Q: What are the NetHack Spoilers, and where can I get them? The spoilers are an extensive set of text files which give detailed information on many aspects of the game. They range from simple information (such as how many experience points you need to reach each experience level), through the essential information (such as potion/scroll/ spellbook/wand effects, good armour, what to wish for), to the extreme information (like the formulae to calculate the likelihood of your dog picking up an object). The spoilers are all available at the WWW and FTP site mentioned above. Q: Suddenly, the dungeon collapsed. Can I recover this game? Usually, yes. A utility called "Recover" is supplied with NetHack, and this can be used to reconstruct your game from the level files that it creates whilst you are playing. Read the instructions for the Recover program to see how to use it. If you are not playing on a single-user system, you may need to get whoever installed NetHack to recover the save file for you. Q: What are the NetHack variants? A large number of other games have been created and released, which have been based to some extent on the code and/or ideas behind NetHack. Some of these include NetHack+, NetHack--, NetHack: The Next Generation, Slash, and many others. For more information about the variants, look for the "Roguelike Games Info and FTP Sites" FAQ that is posted periodically in the reg.games.roguelike.* newsgroups. Most (if not all) of the variants are available from the WWW and FTP sites mentioned above. Q: What is explore mode? Explore mode makes the game very much easier by changing a few of the fundamental rules. If you start the game in explore mode, you are automatically given a wand of wishing. You also have the choice of not dying when your character is killed. You won't be make the high score table in explore mode, though, and its use to play is very much considered cheating. It's much more fun using the proper game modes. :) To start explore mode for NetHack, add a "-X" parameter to your start up command line. To enter explore mode whilst already in a game, use the "X" command (but beware, there's no way to get back to normal mode!) Q: What is Wizard mode, and how do I use it? Wizard mode is similar to explore mode, except that it offers a number of wizard commands. For example, you may wish for objects, map levels, find the locations of all the 'special' levels in the game, etc. Wizard mode is provided only for debugging purposes, not for actually playing the game. No one will be impressed if you manage to finish NetHack by using wizard mode (or explore mode, come to mention it). However, it is good to use to experiment with ideas you've had. Also it should be noted that you can wish for *anything* (even scenery items) in wizard mode. This is *not* the same as in a normal or explore-mode game, so some wishing ideas cannot be relied upon to work outside of wizard mode. To start NetHack in wizard mode, you need to run the game as follows: nethack -u -D (note: case sensitive). If you are playing on a single user system, replace "" with "wizard" (so: "nethack -u wizard -D"). If you are on a multi-user system, you will need to have logged in to the system using the account of whoever installed the game, or wizard mode will refuse to work (and will start you in explore mode instead). The command lines for NetHack+ and Slash are slightly different: NH+: nethack -u talden -Z Slash: nethack -u wizard -Z Q: What is the best character to play when I'm first starting out with NetHack? Discussions (read: arguments) on this topic frequently pop up in the r.g.r.nethack newsgroup, and opinion seems to be mostly split between three character classes: Barbarian (good fighter, poison resistant, good starting equipment) Valkyrie (good fighter, good abilities, good starting equipment) Samurai (good statistics, good starting equipment) Q: How can I stop my character from starving? The most obvious answer is: eat! Some classes start out with a reasonable amount of food (archeologist, barbarian, elf and valkyrie, and the tourist starts with half a delicatessen shop in his pack). A great number of the creatures you kill in the dungeon can be eaten. Some will also provide other benefits when you eat them. Of course there are a number of creatures that you *shouldn't* eat, but you'll soon work those out after the first time. :) If you're weak from hunger and can not find anything at all to eat, try praying. If it's been long enough since you last prayed and your God isn't angry with you, you should find the problem goes away for a little while. Q: What are these little 2-by-2 square rooms I keep seeing? They are known as "Magic Memory Vaults". Somewhere on the level you will most likely find a hidden teleporter that will take you to the vault. What you find there is well worth getting, but make sure you have a way to get out! Q: What on earth do I do with a can of grease? Or a crystal ball? Or a figurine? These are perhaps some of the more obscure objects of the game. Briefly: Can of grease: apply it to your weapon or armour, and they will be temporarily rustproofed. Creatures that try to grab you (Owlbears, for example) will not be able to do so whilst your armour is greased, but there is a 50% chance that the grease will wear off each time they try. Crystal ball: applying it will (providing it has some charges) allow you to locate all items or monsters using a particular character on the level. For example, you might like to locate all the scrolls, or potions, or traps, or dragons on the level. Be careful, though, if your intelligence isn't high enough, the crystal ball may have some unwanted side-effects. Figurines: when applied, the figurine will transform to a creature of the figurine's type. Provided the figurine wasn't cursed, the creature will be tame. Q: I often see monsters zapping themselves with wands. How can I zap myself with a wand? Zap the wand as normal, and when asked for a direction, enter a period ('.'). It is also possible to zap wands in the up and down directions by using '<' or '>' (though I doubt that zapping wands /upwards/ will be very useful..) Q: How can I bless something that I'm carrying? If you dip an object in to holy water (i.e., a blessed clear potion), it will become blessed (if it was previously uncursed), or uncursed (if it was previously cursed). Dipping an object in to unholy water (a cursed clear potion) will curse it (if it was previously uncursed) or make it uncursed it (if it was previously blessed). In all cases, the potion of water will be used up in the process. Note that dipping an object in an uncursed potion of water may have undesired effects: potions will become diluted, and scrolls and spellbooks will be erased. Q: What are "bones files"? Sometimes when your character gets killed, the game will save the current dungeon level into a file. Then in subsequent games when your new character arrives at that same level, there is a random chance that the old data will be loaded instead of a new level being generated. The ghost of the earlier character will be present, along with his/her equipment and also with whatever killed him/her. Whenever a "bones file" is loaded, the file itself is deleted so that it can only be used once. Bones files are also occasionally described as "ghost levels", but sometimes the revenant of the earlier character is some other type of monster rather than a ghost. Also, ghosts are created in other circumstances than from bones data, so the term "ghost level" may be somewhat misleading. If your new character gets killed on the same level, there is a chance that a new bones file will be created. The chance is randomly determined and is not affected by whether the level was previously a bones level. Bones files are not portable between platforms, so don't bother trying. :( Q: I just discovered a bug? What should I do? If you are running the current official version, bugs should be reported via email to the DevTeam, at nethack-bugs@linc.cis.upenn.edu. If you're running an out of date version or one of the NetHack variant, don't bother them as they won't be particularly interested.. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The NetHack FAQ, Copyright (c) Adam Dawes, 1996, all rights reserved.