Beat Nethack

Hate dying while playing NetHack? Hate getting engulfed by the Purple Worm you failed to see, running out of power in the middle of the most gigantic fight of your life, or even falling to the lowly Grid Bug? This tutorial will turn you from a grid bug failure to a Wizard of Yendor slayer.

Steps

Directions

  1. Create a character with what you want to play in mind. After the early game, things will get a lot easier. Valkyries are good for beginners, but some people play Barbarians because they start with a ton of HP and strength. Wizards are hard to get past the early game because of their low strength, but become very powerful late game.
  2. Choose an alignment. Neutral is average, Chaotic has almost no restrictions (you can kill shopkeepers without making your god angry at you), but has the weakest artifacts. Lawful has the chance to get Grayswandir (18-31 damage, worst case), but a complex code of conduct.
  3. Plan your moves, almost like a chess game. Time does not pass if you do not take action, and you can plan your next moves carefully. If you see the need to retreat coming up, you will more likely survive if you plan your escape earlier.
  4. Dive! Go down a dungeon level whenever possible for the first three DLs, then completely clear out the third. If you hear a shopkeeper, find him at all costs. Price identification is a huge chunk of the game, so never miss out.
  5. Make your choices wisely. Sokoban or not? Gnomish Mines or ordinary dungeons? Should you make an effort to clear out major demons? Convert altars?
  6. Get a Bag of Holding (50% chance to find one in Sokoban). The bag will lighten your load. Bless the bag to make it even lighter.
  7. Keep observant. Most stupid deaths happen due to boredom, so as soon as you find yourself holding down buttons, save and walk away.

Overview

  1. Make a strong character
  2. Finish quest, get Bell of Opening
  3. Get the Candelabrum of Invocation
  4. Get the Book of the Dead
  5. Perform the invocation ritual
  6. Get the Amulet of Yendor
  7. Offer the Amulet to your god

Dungeons of Doom

  1. You will start in the Dungeons of Doom. Explore the area to get useful items and helpful attributes.
  2. If you hear a shop, find it. Also, get some coins to use at the shops.
  3. Sacrifice some corpses to make your god happy, and if you kill enough monsters, you might get an artifact!

Gnomish Mines

  1. This is a huge level, and a great place to get experience and useful tools. You will want to bring good armor and a lamp, because some levels are not lighted.
  2. Bring an engraving tool to write "Elbereth", as crowds are common.
  3. Bring gold pieces. Lots of coins will be used in Minetown.
  4. Avoid traps. Traps are very common in the mines, and deadly. Have a leashed pet, or step on the fewest squares possible. (Except in Minetown, you will probably not want to explore the mine, due to the traps.)
  5. Kick gray stones. Many gray stones are load stones, which is a pain to have, they weigh 500 and by default, you cannot drop it (don't hit watchmen, or you will make them hostile).
  6. Kill gnomes that are near you, to get useful tools and things to to sell at Minetown.
  7. Once you get to Minetown, start shopping! If you encounter a monster, kill and sell!
    • Pretend Minetown is a shopping mall. At a shopping mall, you probably wouldn't pick lock, kick down a door, dig into a shop, cut down a tree, destroy a fountain, attack shop keepers and police officers, or steal from a shop. Well, same applies to Minetown.
    • Make a stash. Put extra wands, scrolls, etc. into a chest, lock it, and engrave "Elbereth" with a magic marker/magicbane, put the chest inside a room, and lock the room. This will ensure strong security from anything that has a key, anything that can lift a chest, and anything that can go though the wall.
    • Don't kill shopkeepers. This will decrease your luck, make your god angry, and will be counted as murder.
    • Go to the lighting store, because there is a 20.6% chance of a magic lamp. They will cost more than normal lamps, and have a chance of showing the message "You see a puff of smoke" when you rub it. Rubbing it repeatedly will cause a dent to show up, with a chance of granting you a wish. If you have not paid for the lamp when this happens, the shopkeeper will charge you a usage fee.
    • Let your dog or cat go inside the food shop There are many tripe rations your pet will treat themselves to, when you are shopping for other foods. Alternatively, get tripe rations yourself (pay for them or find them) and throw them at your pet when you feel the need to reward them (such as when they pick up items in shops and leave them where you can pick the items up without paying for them). Horses should, as a rule, not be let into shops.
    • Kill monsters and sacrifice the corpses, if there is an altar of your alignment. Converting the altar will turn the priest hostile, and you will most likely not be strong enough to survive their wrath (at least the first time you hit up Minetown).
  8. Go to the Mine's End when you are advanced because there are very hard monsters. The end lies somewhere between 10th and 13th level. There are luckstones, that will increase your luck, and gems.
  9. 'If you're chaotic, kill everythingchaotic gods will not mind if you kill the peaceful humans in Minetown, and will like it if you steal things. Cockatrice corpses\eggs may be useful for the priest

Oracle

  1. The Oracle will give you advice, experience points, and increase your score. "Chat" to the Oracle for a consultation. You will need some money to do this.
  2. Break apart the statues nearby, using a pick-axe or a wand of striking, to get spell books.
  3. Descend, and come back to Delphi to get more experience and score points. Repeat the cycle as many times as you like to get even more experience and raise your score.

Sokoban

  1. To get to Sokoban you have to climb up, somewhere beneath the Oracle’s level.
  2. Move boulders so they plug holes, so you can cross and go to the next level.
  3. Go up 3 levels to get to the last level. Complete the last puzzle, and kill every animal in the zoo.
  4. You deserve a reward! You get one of the two rewards, a bag of holding or an amulet of reflection. Unfortunately, you don't get to pick which one.

Big Room

  1. Get lots of experience points, or take the safe way. You choose. The best will probably be to take the risk, in exchange for a lot of experience points. To attack safely:
    1. Make a small fort, by reading a scroll of earth. Move a boulder to let monsters in.
    2. Fight at the corner, if you don't have a scroll of earth.
    3. Kill fast to reduce the risk of huge crowds. Most monsters in the big room will see you.
    4. Stay near the stairs. Better yet, make your fort at the stairs. Go up if you have major injuries. Continue when healed.

Fort Ludios

  1. Step into a magic portal. The portal can be in a vault somewhere between level 10 and Medusa. Not every game has a portal to Fort Ludios.
  2. Bring reflection or magic resistance. There will be many monsters that have wands.
  3. Bring a scroll of enchant armor, because there will be dragons, and you might want to make dragon scale mail.
  4. There will be a fort surrounded with a moat. The fort has very useful loot in gigantic amounts. Enter though the left end of the fort. Freeze, or float/jump over the moat, blast the door, and get inside.
  5. Inside the right side the fort lies a huge number of monsters, and Croesus. Fight him and the monsters, to go to the other side of the fort.
    • To make the battle with Croesus easier, don't engage him hand-to-hand.
  6. Take the loot! You will want to "search" to avoid the numerous land mines. Also, inspect the four corners; there will be gems there.
    • There are around 50,000 gold pieces, half of a strong character's total carrying capacity. Bring a Bag of Holding.

Quest

  1. All roles get different quests. Be prepared. Bring a lot of food, a lot of armor, and a happy god. Also, you won't need coins.
  2. Go fast, because crowds are common. If possible, bring speed boots.
  3. Get tips. "Chatting" with your leader will get you quite a lot of hints and tips about what will happen.
  4. Get the quest artifact and the bell. The quest artifact is very useful, and the bell (Bell of Opening) is required to win.

Medusa

  1. Bring reflection such as an amulet of reflection, or silver dragon scale mail. Medusa can turn you into a statue right when you enter her room. If you bring reflection, she will turn herself into a statue.
  2. Levitate, jump, swim, or walk on the water. The level is almost filled with water.
  3. If possible, stay away from water. Eels can drown you, resulting in sudden death.

Castle

  1. The Castle is the gateway to Gehennom, which lies directly beneath the Castle. Bring good tools for the great challenge at the Castle and later on.
  2. Bring forms of transport over water. There will be a moat, and you will need to levitate, jump, swim, or walk on the water.
  3. Play a game of Mastermind to crack the 5-digit code. Play the notes (letters A–G) on a musical instrument that can play notes. The drawbridge will open, allowing you to pass it and go inside the castle. If you are lazy, use this.
  4. Get the wand of wishing. It will be in a locked chest in one of the four rooms close to the corners of the castle, with the word "Elbereth" burned into the ground there.
  5. Go further to find four dragons hidden in a secret corridor behind the throne. Watch out for the numerous trap doors. Kill the dragons, and (if possible) make dragon scale mail. "Search" at the spot the dragons were, and go into a secret storage area. You will find four rooms filled with food, armor, weapons, and gems.
  6. Fall through one of the trap doors to go to Gehennom. Congratulations for making it through the Dungeons of Doom!

Gehennom

  1. Gehennom is the hell of the dungeons. This section is rather easy if you are prepared, and most deaths here are preventable. Be proud if you reach the stairs.
  2. Be prepared for level/life drainers and nasties. In particular, bring a good cloak; this will mostly protect you from life drainers. Make sure spellcasters don't surround you with summoned monsters.
  3. Go slow, don't hold any keys down. Think twice before pressing a key. Remember, this game is not in real-time; you could leave the computer, go to sleep, and the monsters still wouldn't be able to attack you.
  4. Don't explore. This time your goal is to get to the end, not to try to find wands. Not while an arch-lich is poking your back with the Magicbane.
  5. It is a good idea to zap a death wand at the High Priest of Moloch and the Wizard of Yendor. This will make things much easier.
  6. Bring 7 candles for the Candelabrum of Invocation.

Valley of the Dead

  1. Eat wraith corpses, because they give you experience levels. Wraiths are common in the Valley of the Dead, but they rarely leave corpses there so you might want to lure them to a lower level.
  2. Equip a silver saber if you can, because it can kill most nasties quickly.
  3. Clear the level of monsters. You will have to go through it again later on your way out when you don't have time to kill many monsters.
  4. Go to the temple. There is a temple in the Valley of the Dead. If you haven't yet, buy protection there. Vampires will also not attack you while you are on an altar, but you shouldn't need that by now.

Vlad

  1. To enter Vlad's tower, enter though one of the two upstairs in one of the level.
  2. Go up the ladders.
  3. Kill Vlad the Impaler. Vlad is infamously easy for such a late-game enemy, so anything should work except for wands of death; being undead, Vlad cannot be killed with death magic. Silver weapons work especially well.
  4. Take the Candelabrum of Invocation.

Wizard's Tower

  1. Go to a level with a moat you can step into. The Wizard's Tower is three levels tall. Two other levels in Gehennom have a possible entrance to the tower surrounded by a moat. The moat is tiny, but is in the middle of the levels. Zap a wand of digging at the exposed wall. It will make an opening to let you inside.
  2. Step into the magic portal. There will be a random kind of lich standing right on top of the portal, so watch out. If there is no portal inside, you will have to find the second level with a possible entrance; it looks like this level, except with a portal inside.
  3. Search for the secret doors and keep on going up 2 stories of stairs. Go to the middle of the level to find the moat.
  4. Zap a wand of digging at the building inside, and you will find the Wizard of Yendor waiting for you.
  5. Zap a wand of death at the Wizard of Yendor, and pick up the Book of the Dead.

Moloch's Sanctum

  1. To get here, you need to perform the invocation ritual. To do this, go to the lowest level you can go to using the stairs, and then step on every tile until it says: "You feel a strange vibration under your feet." To do the ritual:
    1. Light 7 candles on the non-cursed Candelabrum of Invocation.
    2. Ring the non-cursed Bell of Opening.
    3. Read the non-cursed Book of the Dead.
  2. Go past a graveyard to a wide, open place. Make sure you have full health. This will be a huge battle. If any of the demon lords is still alive, you can bring it here so it will fight the high priest for you.
  3. Go to the building in the middle. There are fire traps surrounding it, so don't go directly next to the wall.
  4. Find the secret door using your bell of opening. You might need a scroll of charging. The bell will find the door and open it for you. Alternatively, a wand of secret door detection will also work.
  5. Enter the temple to meet the High Priest of Moloch. Zap him with the wand of death. There is a chance he has magic resistance. In that case, you've got bad luck. You'll have to battle him without magic.
  6. Get the Amulet of Yendor. While it is in your inventory, the game tries even harder to make you lose; for example, you may teleport down 3 stories just because you are trying to climb up, and spellcasting takes much more energy than normally!
  7. Go to the upstairs on the first level in the Dungeons of Doom. When you use these with the Amulet, you will enter the Endgame.

Elemental Planes (End Game)

  1. If you have made it this far, you should feel very proud because not many people make it this far.
  2. Take all of your necessary items, because this time you will head straight for your victory. From this point, there is no return to the Dungeons of Doom.
  3. Leave all of your unnecessary items, including coins. You can also leave your Bell of Opening and the Book of the Dead, because they are useless now (the end game doesn't have doors).
  4. Have a method of portal detection. This will usually be 4 scrolls of gold detection and a reliable method of confusing yourself; reading the scroll while confused will tell you where the portal is located.

Plane of Earth

  1. Be prepared to fight the Wizard of Yendor. He is guaranteed to reappear when you enter the Plane of Earth.
  2. Have a method of digging. The monsters in the first room will have a spellbook and wand of digging and also a pick-axe. If you are good at magic, you might use the spell; otherwise, you should probably bring your own wands of digging in case one wand is not enough. Do not use the pick-axe if you can avoid it as it digs slowly and allows earth elementals to attack you.
  3. Portal detection will help. You can save yourself from a lot of digging. It is not required, but is recommended.
  4. Dig. All you have to do except fight. Dig, dig, dig.

Plane of Air

  1. Bring a ring of levitation. Without one, you will just walk on air, and waste precious turns.
  2. Bring a tooled horn or leather drum. This will scare the air elementals, which are the greatest danger on this Plane.
  3. Do not use missiles, unless you absolutely want to float the opposite way.
  4. Go though the clouds quickly. Clouds will generate lightning.

Plane of Fire

  1. Use your ring of levitation for this one, too. This way, you can take shortcuts across the lava.
  2. Watch out for fire traps. There are many fire traps trying to burn you to death, and while fire resistance will protect you, it will not protect any scrolls or potions you are carrying.

Plane of Water

  1. Use your ring of levitation here, too. Levitation allows you to float over the water. If you don't have levitation, you will have to stay in the bubbles; water walking does not work.
  2. Magic mapping will not work. The magic portal in this level will float around, moving slowly around every turn. You should still use a method of portal detection so you will be able to see the portal when it is nearby, however.
  3. If you can't levitate, stay on the edge of your bubble. Be prepared to get on another bubble if your bubble joins another bubble.

Astral Plane

  1. Use conflict if you have it. While your god will send some angels to fight you in this case, conflict is very helpful in fighting the Riders.
  2. Be careful with the Riders. Death, Pestilence and Famine will revive after you kill them. Use a wand of death against Pestilence and Famine. If you can, avoid Death; death rays will only make him stronger.
  3. Find your altar. There are 3 altars (lawful, neutral, chaotic) to offer the amulet. Of course, choose your alignment. You can look at the altar when standing on it (or at the priest when standing next to him/her) to find out.
    • If you don't mind cheating, you can exploit a bug to make life easier. When you "call" them a name, it will show the name of the priest of your god.
  4. Congratulations!! If you won. If you didn't, congratulations for making it to the End Game!

Tips

  • Eat a floating eye corpse. When you are blind, you will see all intelligent monsters on the level, which helps most of the time.
  • Get poison resistance.
  • Most intrinsics are good. Some are bad, like conflict and polymorphitis. You need to be able to turn that stuff on and off.
  • If you are a chaotic human and strong enough, kill and sacrifice shopkeepers whenever possible. +5 to alignment is too good (evil?) to be overlooked.
  • It's usually possible to get out of any situation.
  • In trouble? Try praying.
  • Practice your skills using wizard mode, or explore mode.
  • Always hold on to a lizard or acid blob corpse. If you're getting petrified, eat it. These corpses will counteract stoning/petrification. Lizard corpses never rot away; acid blob corpses do, but can be sacrificed at any time.
  • Use the E-Word ("Elbereth")
  • It's never too late to save your game.

Warnings

  • Don't fall for any cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor you may come across. Only the real thing will let you win the game, though you can polymorph a plastic Amulet into a more useful amulet.
  • Magic beams bounce! Don't zap a wand of fire at the wall next to you.
  • Don't eat meat if you're a monk unless you have to or it gives you resistances.
  • Do not pray in Gehennom. All prayers there will go to Moloch, who is always angered with you.
  • Watch out for: Floating eyes, gas spores, vortexes, mind flayers, Tiders, polymorph traps that monsters step on, fire traps that decrease your maximum HP, dragons, and cockatrices.
  • Kobold corpses are not good to eat.
  • Don't try to do your class specific quest while still haven´t advanced your class (Enchantress for Wiz). You will be sent away. Meanwhile your mentor will enjoy some nice polymorph trap next to his throne. The friendly Dingo won't be much of a help anymore.
  • Do not open the drawbridge doors while standing right where the drawbridge will fall! This will lead to instant death.
  • Sea creatures are on or directly next to water. You'll get dragged and drowned.
  • Angered gods. Avoid if at all possible, unless of course you like level drain, wisdom damage, and disintegration beams.
  • Killing shopkeepers will anger your god.

Things You'll Need

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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