I had just made it to that village that is always created in the mines. Went to a store and bought a spellbook. There were wererats outside, so I decided to study inside, in the safety bought by the shopkeeper standing in the doorway. I grabbed a random item from the floor to keep the shopkeeper in the doorway and started reading.

The stupid book teleported me away and disappeared! And not only was the money spent on it wasted, but I also left the store without paying! I got the watchmen and Kops after me, my dog is dead, and there's a 5x5 area filled with hostile creatures right next to me. And they're beating me with a fire hoses.

When, oh when, will I learn to expect these things beforehand?

Nethack as in the ancient RPG? Never thought I'd meet another person who played that [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Wow...I started playing this 2 days ago!

Okay...I'm not hard-core enough for the ascii version. I'm playing Falcon's Eye.

So far most of my characters have died not in battle, but from problems related to eating. Either I'm starving and passing out, or to prevent such an occurrence I eat whatever I can find, which has killed me a LOT.

A very cool game though.

Btw, you veterans feel free to chastise me for taking too long in the early levels or whatever I'm doing wrong. It's the only way I'll learn lol. That can be read as: tips welcome.

I've never made it past level 4 so I wouldn't worry. I have a guide somewhere, will see if I can dig it up. In Linux it comes with it - might be worth checking your readme's.

Here you go:

http://www.seamoor.force9.co.uk/Guidebook.txt.gz

It's a gzipped text file due to its size - I'm not sure how a Windows text editor would cope with this, but a decent browser like Firefox or Opera should be able to open it off the bat. Otherwise unzip it first to get at the normal text file.

This is a big document with lots of stuff you won't need, but well worth skimming through it as it explains virtually every aspect of the game.

Also the Nethack Tips for Beginners which may be useful.

I play the tiled version, every letter is replaced with a very small picture.

About eating, kobolds are always poisonous. don't eat those. Archeologists start with a tinning kit. Tinned food does not rot. And if your pet eats it, it's likely to be safe. And if you eat a cocatrice, you die instantly. And yellow molds make you hallucinate. You should try it sometimes. :D Other molds might raise resistances.

And if you kick a sink, a succubus sometimes appears. Or an incubus, in case you're female.

And if you drink from a fountain, there's a chance that some water moccasins of a water demon or a water elemental comes and kills you.

To protect yourself from Medusa, wrap a towel or a blindfold on your head. To protect yourself from ravens, wear goggles.

You can throw cocatrice eggs. You can dip weapons in poison. You can use a magic marker to scribe scrolls. You can pick locks with a credit card.

If you get a wish, be careful with it. And precise. If you wish for "a sword", you're likely to get a cursed orcish short sword -7.

Try everything. If it doesn't work, don't try it a second time.

Whee! Life was bad but now it's good forever again! I managed to succesfully steer a monk to the city in the mines. And I'm high enough level to sense high-level creatures! That thing when powerful beings appear as question marks on the map if you can't see them. I also found a strategy for killing a mimic without getting hit! I think I got some penalties to something, though. I threw a poisoned dart and the game told me it made me feel like a coward.

Sometimes you just get really lucky. Or unlucky. In an other game I stumbled on an invisibility cloak. Just bought it from an armour salesman for 30 gold or so. Alas, he died when some rothes attacked out of nowhere.

Another hint, engrave "elbereth" on the ground and enemies won't attack you. However, if you move, you'll wipe the writing away.

Thanks guys!

My average death time is about 10 minutes now, which is actually perfect for me. It's a good game to play on break when, start to finish lasts between 30 seconds and 10 minutes.

My favorite so far :D

Lucern-Hum-Kni-Male (ect) level 6...on level 5, killed by a small dog, while helpless.

What made you helpless, Lucern? Fainted from lack of food? Floating eye? Sleep trap?

That time it was food...but I don't always know the cause, really. I really like the archaeologist's tinning kit! Then I'm sure to at least be killed by his weak fighting skills rather than food lol.

Last night was awesome...I actually did battle with a ranger I made, Silas's, er, his ghost. He got the furthest of anyone, but I put on an amulet that actually strangled me to death. I found all of his elven goods (the lembas bread was still good lol), including a certain amulet, but the ghost just disappeared. Not sure if I defeated him or if he escaped. I died on that level casting a scroll that summoned more creatures than I could handle, by far! I may well meet up with both ghosts in the future.

Do vanquished ghosts come back? I have to say that was the coolest thing I've seen in any RPG in a long time.

[ 11-19-2005, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

That IS cool. Dead characters sometimes leave themselves lying around. I once dug open my own grave. And once or twice in wizard mode I found my corpse, turned to stone in the medusa level and cast stone to flesh on it. Then it attaced me.

Remember, though, whatever killed the character might still be around. And most of the time all the equipment is cursed. Drop it on an altar to find out.

And never ever put on amulets or rings if they might be cursed. And if something is cursed, pour holy water on it to uncurse it.

Ahh...that's what holy water is for... I was almost 100% certain was going to be the amulet of strangulation. There weren't any monsters around, but thanks to my death that time, a gold naga, and maybe about 10 other creatures will await some other poor adventurer I bet.

Had to update here, because I am clearly awesome.

After making a respectible (for me) run down to level 6 with an orc barbarian, I was trounced slowly by a stream of dwarves, hobbits, and gnomes, but the resulting carnage put that character at the #1 slot (of my 34 attempts) by twice as many experience points.

But that's not why I'm awesome, by far. Wanting revenge, I created a wizard and died in exactly 6 turns! I drank from the fountain that was in the first room, created about 5 water moccassins, and was slain the very next turn. Ah nethack. My graphics card may have died on me, but this will always work.

Don't drink from fountains. There's a chance of summoning a water elemental, water demon of some water moccasins. All are deadly.

Arrgh.

I took a orcish caveman down to level 9, and a series of unfortunate events occurred...

I was doing quite well, even after eating several killer bees and having a mere 13 strength afterwards. Permanently.

On level 7 I killed 35 leprechauns all in a single room. Of course I had to chase them around and throw daggers at them, but I got them all, and walked away with $7000 gold. On level 8, I dropped through the floor into a 4 square room with no exit. A 'guard' came by, and asked me to drop my gold. Not seeing a way out, I did. The guard disappeared, and there stood a hobgoblin. I killed him in one blow, turned around to get my gold, and could't go in. Searching only produced a wraith, also dead in one or two hits. I proceeded, hoping to find another way into that vault. Instead, I was blinded...it's kindof a blur now, and I'm not sure who or what the culprit was. I retreated, trying to wait out the blindness, defeated a red naga, and retreated further. I'm not sure what caused it or if it was just there, but there was an energy vortex after I dropped the wraith corpse (possibly unrelated). I certainly wasn't going to eat it. I was blind, telepathic, and fighting (?) and energy vortex that I didn't know was an energy vortex. There I died, 151 opponents dead, a mere $400 gold, level 9, 18,900 points, and firmly at the #1 place. It wasn't all bad, after all. I did think that character (Greystoke, hehe) had some real potential though. Such a shame.

Quick questions:

Am I using my pet right? Sometimes I lose it and can't get it to stand next to me to get it going to the next level. I also read that I can train it, which I may have done, sorta, by letting it fight sometimes.

Can I save and exit at any point, or should I just let it sit there and come back if I have to leave?

Are there ever dungeon levels that seem suspiciously small, and are in fact that small, or are they roughly the same size, and I should keep searching?

Try not to lose your pet, it's a lot tougher than you are. And I heard this rumour that you can train it by giving it food.

Yes, you can save and exit at any point.

As far as I have seen, most dungeon levels are the same size.

Oh, and I have heard that when you eat a whraith corpse you instantly gain another level. Alas, I've never had a wraith drop a corpse, so I'm not sure.

Tinned food however can be "rotten". They also generally contain less nutrition then the origional monster.

Use a wand of digging and it'll last longer.
Use a wand of fire, or wand of lightning to engrave it and it'll last forever unless you do something pretty extream to it.
You can use something like a hard gem, or an edged weapon, you can get an effect similar to the wand of digging but it takes many more turns to do it.

[ 12-17-2005, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

I just got a level 10 barbarian to the third level of sokoban. Killed by arrogance. I was so engulfed by sokoban that I forgot to eat. I fainted and a fire ant ate me.

Sorry to ressurect this thread, but will the game ever give you a dead-end level? I have the feeling that it's behind a boulder, but I'm only on dungeon 4 and have no pickaxe or wand of digging to help me bust through.

Yes, I've used the wizard mode quite a lot and there is indeed an end to the dungeon. Can't remember the exact level, though, I think it was around fifty.

You can also squeeze past boulders, just drop every single item in your inventory. then you can push the boulder elsewhere and pick up your stuff again. If you still can't find the stairway, search the walls for hidden tunnels.