









                           A Guide to the Mazes of Menace
                               (Guidebook for NetHack)


                                   Eric S. Raymond
                      (Extensively edited and expanded for 3.4)



          1.  Introduction

          Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant
          in your daily occupation.  Strange dreams of prospecting,  steal-
          ing,  crusading,  and  combat  have haunted you in your sleep for
          many months, but you aren't  sure  of  the  reason.   You  wonder
          whether  you have in fact been having those dreams all your life,
          and somehow managed to forget about them until now.  Some  nights
          you awaken suddenly and cry out, terrified at the vivid recollec-
          tion of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be  lurk-
          ing  behind  every  corner  of  the dungeon in your dream.  Could
          these details haunting your dreams be real?  As each night  pass-
          es,  you feel the desire to enter the mysterious caverns near the
          ruins grow stronger.  Each morning, however, you quickly put  the
          idea  out  of  your head as you recall the tales of those who en-
          tered the caverns before you and did not return.  Eventually  you
          can  resist  the yearning to seek out the fantastic place in your
          dreams no longer.  After all, when other  adventurers  came  back
          this  way after spending time in the caverns, they usually seemed
          better off than when they passed through the first time.  And who
          was to say that all of those who did not return had not just kept
          going?


               Asking around, you hear about a bauble, called the Amulet of
          Yendor  by  some, which, if you can find it, will bring you great
          wealth.  One legend you were told even mentioned that the one who
          finds  the  amulet  will be granted immortality by the gods.  The
          amulet is rumored to be somewhere beyond the Valley of  Gehennom,
          deep  within  the Mazes of Menace.  Upon hearing the legends, you
          immediately realize that there is some profound and  undiscovered
          reason that you are to descend into the caverns and seek out that
          amulet of which they spoke.  Even if the rumors of  the  amulet's
          powers are untrue, you decide that you should at least be able to
          sell the tales of your adventures to the local  minstrels  for  a
          tidy  sum,  especially if you encounter any of the terrifying and
          magical creatures of your dreams along the way.   You  spend  one
          last  night  fortifying  yourself at the local inn, becoming more
          and more depressed as you watch the odds of  your  success  being
          posted on the inn's walls getting lower and lower.



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                 In the morning you awake, collect your belongings, and set
          off for the dungeon.  After several days  of  uneventful  travel,
          you  see the ancient ruins that mark the entrance to the Mazes of
          Menace.  It is late at night, so you make camp  at  the  entrance
          and  spend the night sleeping under the open skies.  In the morn-
          ing, you gather your gear, eat what may be your  last  meal  out-
          side, and enter the dungeon...


          2.  What is going on here?

               You have just begun a game of NetHack.  Your goal is to grab
          as much treasure as you can, retrieve the Amulet of  Yendor,  and
          escape the Mazes of Menace alive.

               Your abilities and strengths for dealing with the hazards of
          adventure will vary with your background and training:

               Archeologists understand dungeons pretty well; this  enables
          them  to  move  quickly  and sneak up on the local nasties.  They
          start equipped with the tools for a proper scientific expedition.

               Barbarians are warriors out of the hinterland,  hardened  to
          battle.   They  begin  their  quests  with  naught  but  uncommon
          strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.

               Cavemen and Cavewomen start with exceptional  strength  but,
          unfortunately, with neolithic weapons.

               Healers  are wise in medicine and apothecary.  They know the
          herbs and simples that can restore  vitality,  ease  pain,  anes-
          thetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instruments, they
          can divine a being's state of health or sickness.  Their  medical
          practice earns them quite reasonable amounts of money, with which
          they enter the dungeon.

               Knights are distinguished  from  the  common  skirmisher  by
          their  devotion  to  the ideals of chivalry and by the surpassing
          excellence of their armor.

               Monks are ascetics, who by rigorous practice of physical and
          mental disciplines have become capable of fighting as effectively
          without weapons as with.  They wear no armor but make up  for  it
          with increased mobility.

               Priests  and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders ad-
          vancing the cause of righteousness with  arms,  armor,  and  arts
          thaumaturgic.   Their  ability to commune with deities via prayer
          occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in
          it.

               Rangers are most at home in the woods, and some say slightly
          out of place in a dungeon.  They are, however, experts in archery
          as well as tracking and stealthy movement.


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               Rogues  are  agile  and  stealthy thieves, with knowledge of
          locks, traps, and poisons.  Their  advantage  lies  in  surprise,
          which they employ to great advantage.

               Samurai  are  the elite warriors of feudal Nippon.  They are
          lightly armored and quick, and wear the dai-sho,  two  swords  of
          the deadliest keenness.

               Tourists  start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping
          with), a credit card, lots of food, some maps, and  an  expensive
          camera.  Most monsters don't like being photographed.

               Valkyries  are hardy warrior women.  Their upbringing in the
          harsh Northlands makes them strong, inures them  to  extremes  of
          cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning.

               Wizards  start out with a knowledge of magic, a selection of
          magical items, and a particular affinity for  dweomercraft.   Al-
          though seemingly weak and easy to overcome at first sight, an ex-
          perienced Wizard is a deadly foe.

               You may also choose the race of your character:

               Dwarves are smaller than humans or elves, but are stocky and
          solid  individuals.   Dwarves'  most notable trait is their great
          expertise in mining and metalwork.  Dwarvish armor is said to  be
          second in quality not even to the mithril armor of the Elves.

               Elves  are agile, quick, and perceptive; very little of what
          goes on will escape an Elf.  The quality of  Elven  craftsmanship
          often gives them an advantage in arms and armor.

               Gnomes  are  smaller  than but generally similar to dwarves.
          Gnomes are known to be expert miners, and it is known that a  se-
          cret  underground  mine  complex built by this race exists within
          the Mazes of Menace, filled with both riches and danger.

               Humans are by far the most common race of the surface world,
          and  are  thus  the norm by which other races are often compared.
          Although they have no special abilities, they can succeed in  any
          role.

               Orcs  are  a  cruel and barbaric race that hate every living
          thing (including other orcs).  Above all others, Orcs hate  Elves
          with  a  passion unequalled, and will go out of their way to kill
          one at any opportunity.  The armor and weapons fashioned  by  the
          Orcs are typically of inferior quality.

          3.  What do all those things on the screen mean?

               On  the screen is kept a map of where you have been and what
          you have seen on the current dungeon level; as you  explore  more
          of the level, it appears on the screen in front of you.



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               When  NetHack's  ancestor  rogue  first appeared, its screen
          orientation was  almost  unique  among  computer  fantasy  games.
          Since  then,  screen  orientation has become the norm rather than
          the exception; NetHack continues  this  fine  tradition.   Unlike
          text  adventure games that accept commands in pseudo-English sen-
          tences and explain the results in words, NetHack commands are all
          one  or  two keystrokes and the results are displayed graphically
          on the screen.  A minimum screen size of 24 lines by  80  columns
          is  recommended;  if  the  screen is larger, only a 21x80 section
          will be used for the map.

               NetHack can even be played by blind players, with the assis-
          tance  of  Braille  readers or speech synthesisers.  Instructions
          for configuring NetHack for the blind are included later in  this
          document.

               NetHack generates a new dungeon every time you play it; even
          the authors still find it an entertaining and exciting  game  de-
          spite having won several times.

               NetHack  offers  a  variety of display options.  The options
          available to you will vary from port to port,  depending  on  the
          capabilities  of  your hardware and software, and whether various
          compile-time options were enabled when your executable was creat-
          ed.  The three possible display options are: a monochrome charac-
          ter interface, a color character interface, and a  graphical  in-
          terface using small pictures called tiles.  The two character in-
          terfaces allow fonts with other characters to be substituted, but
          the  default  assignments use standard ASCII characters to repre-
          sent everything.  There is no difference between the various dis-
          play options with respect to game play.  Because we cannot repro-
          duce the tiles or colors in the Guidebook, and because it is com-
          mon  to  all ports, we will use the default ASCII characters from
          the monochrome character display when  referring  to  things  you
          might see on the screen during your game.

               In  order  to  understand what is going on in NetHack, first
          you must understand what NetHack is doing with the  screen.   The
          NetHack  screen replaces the ``You see ...'' descriptions of text
          adventure games.  Figure 1 is a sample of what a  NetHack  screen
          might  look  like.   The  way the screen looks for you depends on
          your platform.

          --------------------------------------------------------------------
           The bat bites!

               ------
               |....|    ----------
               |.<..|####...@...$.|
               |....-#   |...B....+
               |....|    |.d......|
               ------    -------|--




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           Player the Rambler     St:12 Dx:7 Co:18 In:11 Wi:9 Ch:15  Neutral
           Dlvl:1 $:0  HP:9(12) Pw:3(3) AC:10 Exp:1/19 T:257 Weak

          --------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Figure 1


          3.1.  The status lines (bottom)

               The bottom two lines of the screen contain  several  cryptic
          pieces  of information describing your current status.  If either
          status line becomes longer than the  width  of  the  screen,  you
          might not see all of it.  Here are explanations of what the vari-
          ous status items mean (though your configuration may not have all
          the status items listed below):

          Rank
               Your character's name and professional ranking (based on the
               experience level, see below).

          Strength
               A measure of your character's strength; one of your six  ba-
               sic  attributes.   A  human character's attributes can range
               from 3 to 18 inclusive; non-humans may exceed  these  limits
               (occasionally you may get super-strengths of the form 18/xx,
               and magic can also cause attributes  to  exceed  the  normal
               limits).   The  higher  your strength, the stronger you are.
               Strength  affects  how  successfully  you  perform  physical
               tasks,  how  much damage you do in combat, and how much loot
               you can carry.

          Dexterity
               Dexterity affects your chances to hit in  combat,  to  avoid
               traps,  and do other tasks requiring agility or manipulation
               of objects.

          Constitution
               Constitution affects your ability to recover  from  injuries
               and other strains on your stamina.

          Intelligence
               Intelligence  affects  your  ability to cast spells and read
               spellbooks.

          Wisdom
               Wisdom comes from your practical experience (especially when
               dealing with magic).  It affects your magical energy.

          Charisma
               Charisma affects how certain creatures react toward you.  In
               particular, it can affect the prices shopkeepers offer you.



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          Alignment
               Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.  Often, Lawful is taken as good
               and Chaotic as evil, but legal and ethical do not always co-
               incide.  Your alignment influences how other monsters  react
               toward you.  Monsters of a like alignment are more likely to
               be non-aggressive, while those of an opposing alignment  are
               more likely to be seriously offended at your presence.

          Dungeon Level
               How deep you are in the dungeon.  You start at level one and
               the number increases as you  go  deeper  into  the  dungeon.
               Some  levels  are  special, and are identified by a name and
               not a number.  The Amulet of Yendor is reputed to  be  some-
               where beneath the twentieth level.

          Gold
               The  number  of  gold  pieces you are openly carrying.  Gold
               which you have concealed in containers is not counted.

          Hit Points
               Your current and maximum hit points.   Hit  points  indicate
               how  much  damage you can take before you die.  The more you
               get hit in a fight, the lower they get.  You can regain  hit
               points  by  resting,  or  by  using certain magical items or
               spells.  The number in parentheses  is  the  maximum  number
               your hit points can reach.

          Power
               Spell  points.  This tells you how much mystic energy (mana)
               you have available for spell casting.  Again,  resting  will
               regenerate the amount available.

          Armor Class
               A measure of how effectively your armor stops blows from un-
               friendly creatures.  The lower this number is, the more  ef-
               fective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative ar-
               mor class.

          Experience
               Your current experience level and experience points.  As you
               adventure,  you  gain experience points.  At certain experi-
               ence point totals, you gain an experience level.   The  more
               experienced you are, the better you fight and withstand mag-
               ical attacks.  Many dungeons show only your experience level
               here.

          Time
               The  number  of  turns elapsed so far, displayed if you have
               the time option set.

          Hunger status
               Your current hunger status, ranging from  Satiated  down  to
               Fainting.   If  your hunger status is normal, it is not dis-
               played.


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               Additional status flags may appear after the hunger  status:
          Conf  when you're confused, FoodPois or Ill when sick, Blind when
          you can't see, Stun when stunned, and Hallu when hallucinating.

          3.2.  The message line (top)

               The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that de-
          scribe  things that are impossible to represent visually.  If you
          see a ``--More--'' on the top line, this means that  NetHack  has
          another  message  to  display on the screen, but it wants to make
          certain that you've read the one that is there  first.   To  read
          the next message, just press the space bar.

          3.3.  The map (rest of the screen)

               The  rest  of the screen is the map of the level as you have
          explored it so far.  Each symbol on the screen  represents  some-
          thing.   You  can  set various graphics options to change some of
          the symbols the game uses; otherwise, the game will  use  default
          symbols.  Here is a list of what the default symbols mean:

          - and |
               The walls of a room, or an open door.  Or a grave (|).

          .    The floor of a room, ice, or a doorless doorway.

          #    A  corridor,  or iron bars, or a tree, or possibly a kitchen
               sink (if your dungeon has sinks), or a drawbridge.

          >    Stairs down: a way to the next level.

          <    Stairs up: a way to the previous level.

          +    A closed door, or a spellbook containing a spell you may  be
               able to learn.

          @    Your character or a human.

          $    A pile of gold.

          ^    A trap (once you have detected it).

          )    A weapon.

          [    A suit or piece of armor.

          %    Something edible (not necessarily healthy).

          ?    A scroll.

          /    A wand.

          =    A ring.



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          !    A potion.

          (    A useful item (pick-axe, key, lamp...).

          "    An amulet or a spider web.

          *    A gem or rock (possibly valuable, possibly worthless).

          `    A boulder or statue.

          0    An iron ball.

          _    An altar, or an iron chain.

          {    A fountain.

          }    A pool of water or moat or a pool of lava.

          \    An opulent throne.

          a-zA-Z and other symbols
               Letters  and certain other symbols represent the various in-
               habitants of the Mazes of Menace.  Watch out,  they  can  be
               nasty and vicious.  Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.

          I    This marks the last known location of an invisible or other-
               wise unseen monster.   Note  that  the  monster  could  have
               moved.  The 'F' and 'm' commands may be useful here.

               You  need  not  memorize  all these symbols; you can ask the
          game what any symbol represents with the  `/'  command  (see  the
          next section for more info).


          4.  Commands

               Commands  are  initiated  by  typing  one or two characters.
          Some commands, like ``search'', do not require that any more  in-
          formation  be collected by NetHack.  Other commands might require
          additional information, for example a direction, or an object  to
          be used.  For those commands that require additional information,
          NetHack will present you with either a menu of choices or with  a
          command  line  prompt requesting information.  Which you are pre-
          sented with will depend chiefly on how you have set the menustyle
          option.

               For  example,  a  common question, in the form ``What do you
          want to use? [a-zA-Z ?*]'', asks you to choose an object you  are
          carrying.   Here,  ``a-zA-Z''  are  the inventory letters of your
          possible choices.  Typing `?' gives  you  an  inventory  list  of
          these  items, so you can see what each letter refers to.  In this
          example, there is also a `*' indicating that you  may  choose  an
          object  not on the list, if you wanted to use something unexpect-
          ed.  Typing a `*' lists your entire inventory, so you can see the


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          inventory  letters  of every object you're carrying.  Finally, if
          you change your mind and decide you don't want to do this command
          after all, you can press the ESC key to abort the command.

               You  can  put  a  number before some commands to repeat them
          that many times; for example, ``10s'' will search ten times.   If
          you have the number_pad option set, you must type `n' to prefix a
          count, so the example above  would  be  typed  ``n10s''  instead.
          Commands  for  which  counts make no sense ignore them.  In addi-
          tion, movement commands can be prefixed for greater control  (see
          below).  To cancel a count or a prefix, press the ESC key.

               The  list  of commands is rather long, but it can be read at
          any time during the game through the `?' command, which  accesses
          a  menu  of helpful texts.  Here are the commands for your refer-
          ence:

          ?    Help menu:  display one of several help texts available.

          /    Tell what a symbol represents.  You may choose to specify  a
               location or type a symbol (or even a whole word) to explain.
               Specifying a location is done by moving the cursor to a par-
               ticular  spot  on the map and then pressing one of `.', `,',
               `;', or `:'.  `.' will explain the symbol at the chosen  lo-
               cation, conditionally check for ``More info?'' depending up-
               on whether the help option is on, and then you will be asked
               to  pick  another  location; `,' will explain the symbol but
               skip any additional information; `;'  will  skip  additional
               info  and also not bother asking you to choose another loca-
               tion to examine; `:' will  show  additional  info,  if  any,
               without  asking  for confirmation.  When picking a location,
               pressing the ESC key will terminate this command, or  press-
               ing `?'  will give a brief reminder about how it works.

               Specifying  a  name  rather than a location always gives any
          additional information available about that name.

          &    Tell what a command does.

          <    Go up to the previous level (if you are on  a  staircase  or
               ladder).

          >    Go down to the next level (if you are on a staircase or lad-
               der).

          [yuhjklbn]
               Go one step in the direction indicated (see Figure  2).   If
               you  sense  or  remember a monster there, you will fight the
               monster instead.   Only  these  one-step  movement  commands
               cause   you  to  fight  monsters;  the  others  (below)  are
               ``safe.''





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                                    y  k  u          7  8  9
                                     \ | /            \ | /
                                    h- . -l          4- . -6
                                     / | \            / | \
                                    b  j  n          1  2  3
                                              (if number_pad is set)

                                         Figure 2


          [YUHJKLBN]
               Go in that direction until you hit a wall or run into  some-
               thing.

          m[yuhjklbn]
               Prefix:   move  without picking up objects or fighting (even
               if you remember a monster there)

          F[yuhjklbn]
               Prefix:  fight a monster (even if  you  only  guess  one  is
               there)

          M[yuhjklbn]
               Prefix:  move far, no pickup.

          g[yuhjklbn]
               Prefix:  move until something interesting is found.

          G[yuhjklbn] or <CONTROL->[yuhjklbn]
               Prefix:   same  as `g', but forking of corridors is not con-
               sidered interesting.

          _    Travel to a map location via a shortest-path algorithm.  The
               shortest  path is computed over map locations the hero knows
               about (e.g. seen or previously traversed).  If there  is  no
               known  path,  a guess is made instead.  Stops on most of the
               same conditions as the `G' command, but without  picking  up
               objects,  similar  to the `M' command.  For ports with mouse
               support, the command is  also  invoked  when  a  mouse-click
               takes place on a location other than the current position.

          .    Rest, do nothing for one turn.

          a    Apply (use) a tool (pick-axe, key, lamp...).

          A    Remove one or more worn items, such as armor.  Use `T' (take
               off) to take off only one piece of armor or `R' (remove)  to
               take off only one accessory.

          ^A   Redo the previous command.

          c    Close a door.




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          C    Call (name) an individual monster.

          ^C   Panic button.  Quit the game.

          d    Drop  something.   Ex. ``d7a'' means drop seven items of ob-
               ject a.

          D    Drop several things.  In answer to the question ``What kinds
               of  things  do you want to drop? [!%= BUCXaium]'' you should
               type zero or more object symbols possibly  followed  by  `a'
               and/or  `i' and/or `u' and/or `m'.  In addition, one or more
               of the blessed/uncursed/cursed groups may be typed.

                    DB  - drop all objects known to be blessed.
                    DU  - drop all objects known to be uncursed.
                    DC  - drop all objects known to be cursed.
                    DX  - drop all objects of unknown B/U/C status.
                    Da  - drop all objects, without asking for confirmation.
                    Di  - examine your inventory before dropping anything.
                    Du  - drop only unpaid objects (when in a shop).
                    Dm  - use a menu to pick which object(s) to drop.
                    D%u - drop only unpaid food.

          ^D   Kick something (usually a door).

          e    Eat food.

          E    Engrave  a  message  on  the  floor.   Engraving  the   word
               ``Elbereth''  will  cause  most  monsters  to not attack you
               hand-to-hand (but if you attack, you will rub it out);  this
               is  often useful to give yourself a breather.  (This feature
               may be compiled out of the game, so your version  might  not
               have it.)

                    E- - write in the dust with your fingers.

          f    Fire  one of the objects placed in your quiver.  You may se-
               lect ammunition with a previous `Q' command, or let the com-
               puter pick something appropriate if autoquiver is true.

          i    List your inventory (everything you're carrying).

          I    List selected parts of your inventory.

                    I* - list all gems in inventory;
                    Iu - list all unpaid items;
                    Ix - list all used up items that are on your shopping bill;
                    I$ - count your money.

          o    Open a door.

          O    Set  options.  A menu showing the current option values will
               be displayed.  You can change most values simply by  select-
               ing  the  menu entry for the given option (ie, by typing its


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               letter or clicking upon it, depending on  your  user  inter-
               face).   For  the  non-boolean  choices,  a  further menu or
               prompt will appear once you've closed this menu.  The avail-
               able  options  are  listed later in this Guidebook.  Options
               are usually set before the game rather  than  with  the  `O'
               command; see the section on options below.

          p    Pay your shopping bill.

          P    Put on a ring or other accessory (amulet, blindfold).

          ^P   Repeat  previous  message.   Subsequent  ^P's repeat earlier
               messages.  The behavior can be varied via the msg_window op-
               tion.

          q    Quaff (drink) something (potion, water, etc).

          Q    Select  an  object for your quiver.  You can then throw this
               using the `f' command.  (In versions prior to 3.3  this  was
               the  command  to  quit the game, which has now been moved to
               `#quit'.)

          r    Read a scroll or spellbook.

          R    Remove an accessory (ring, amulet, etc).

          ^R   Redraw the screen.

          s    Search for secret doors and traps around  you.   It  usually
               takes several tries to find something.

          S    Save  (and suspend) the game.  The game will be restored au-
               tomatically the next time you play.

          t    Throw an object or shoot a projectile.

          T    Take off armor.

          ^T   Teleport, if you have the ability.

          v    Display version number.

          V    Display the game history.

          w    Wield weapon.

                    w- - wield nothing, use your bare hands.

          W    Wear armor.

          x    Exchange your wielded weapon with the item in your alternate
               weapon  slot.   The  latter is used as your secondary weapon
               when engaging in two-weapon combat.  Note  that  if  one  of
               these slots is empty, the exchange still takes place.


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          X    Enter explore (discovery) mode, explained in its own section
               later.

          ^X   Display your name, role, race, gender, and alignment as well
               as the various deities in your game.

          z    Zap a wand.  To aim at yourself, use `.' for the direction.

          Z    Zap  (cast)  a  spell.  To cast at yourself, use `.' for the
               direction.

          ^Z   Suspend the game (UNIX(R) versions with job control only).

          :    Look at what is here.

          ;    Show what type of thing a visible symbol corresponds to.

          ,    Pick up some things. May be preceded by `m' to force  a  se-
               lection menu.

          @    Toggle the autopickup option on and off.

          ^    Ask for the type of a trap you found earlier.

          )    Tell what weapon you are wielding.

          [    Tell what armor you are wearing.

          =    Tell what rings you are wearing.

          "    Tell what amulet you are wearing.

          (    Tell what tools you are using.

          *    Tell  what  equipment  you are using; combines the preceding
               five type-specific commands into one.

          $    Count your gold pieces.

          +    List the spells you know.  Using this command, you can  also
               rearrange  the  order in which your spells are listed.  They
               are shown via a menu, and if you  select  a  spell  in  that
               menu, you'll be re-prompted for another spell to swap places
               with it, and then  have  opportunity  to  make  further  ex-
               changes.

          \    Show what types of objects have been discovered.

          !    Escape to a shell.



          __________
          (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.


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          NetHack Guidebook                                              14



          #    Perform an extended command.  As you can see, the authors of
               NetHack used up all the letters, so this is a way to  intro-
               duce  the less frequently used commands.  What extended com-
               mands are available depends on what features  the  game  was
               compiled with.

          #adjust
               Adjust inventory letters (most useful when the fixinv option
               is ``on'').

          #chat
               Talk to someone.

          #conduct
               List which challenges you have adhered to.  See the  section
               below entitled ``Conduct'' for details.

          #dip Dip an object into something.

          #enhance
               Advance or check weapons and spell skills.

          #force
               Force a lock.

          #invoke
               Invoke an object's special powers.

          #jump
               Jump to another location.

          #loot
               Loot  a  box  or bag on the floor beneath you, or the saddle
               from a horse standing next to you.

          #monster
               Use a monster's special ability (when polymorphed into  mon-
               ster form).

          #name
               Name an item or type of object.

          #offer
               Offer a sacrifice to the gods.

          #pray
               Pray to the gods for help.

          #quit
               Quit the program without saving your game.

          #ride
               Ride (or stop riding) a monster.



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          #rub Rub a lamp or a stone.

          #sit Sit down.

          #turn
               Turn undead.

          #twoweapon
               Toggle  two-weapon combat on or off.  Note that you must use
               suitable weapons for this type of combat, or it will be  au-
               tomatically turned off.

          #untrap
               Untrap something (trap, door, or chest).

          #version
               Print compile time options for this version of NetHack.

          #wipe
               Wipe off your face.

          #?   Help menu:  get the list of available extended commands.

               If your keyboard has a meta key (which, when pressed in com-
          bination with another key, modifies  it  by  setting  the  `meta'
          [8th,  or  `high'] bit), you can invoke many extended commands by
          meta-ing the first letter of the command.  In NT,  OS/2,  and  PC
          NetHack, the `Alt' key can be used in this fashion.

          M-?  #? (not supported by all platforms)

          M-2  #twoweapon (unless the number_pad option is enabled)

          M-a  #adjust

          M-c  #chat

          M-d  #dip

          M-e  #enhance

          M-f  #force

          M-i  #invoke

          M-j  #jump

          M-l  #loot

          M-m  #monster

          M-n  #name




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          M-o  #offer

          M-p  #pray

          M-q  #quit

          M-r  #rub

          M-s  #sit

          M-t  #turn

          M-u  #untrap

          M-v  #version

          M-w  #wipe

               If  the number_pad option is on, some additional letter com-
          mands are available:

          h    Help menu:  display one of  several  help  texts  available,
               like ``?''.

          j    Jump to another location.  Same as ``#jump'' or ``M-j''.

          k    Kick something (usually a door).  Same as `^D'.

          l    Loot  a  box  or bag on the floor beneath you, or the saddle
               from a horse standing next to you.   Same  as  ``#loot''  or
               ``M-l''.

          N    Name  an  item or type of object.  Same as ``#name'' or ``M-
               n''.

          u    Untrap a trap, door, or chest.  Same as ``#untrap'' or  ``M-
               u''.


          5.  Rooms and corridors

               Rooms  and  corridors in the dungeon are either lit or dark.
          Any lit areas within your line of sight will be  displayed;  dark
          areas  are  only  displayed  if they are within one space of you.
          Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them.

               Secret corridors are hidden.  You can find them with the `s'
          (search) command.

          5.1.  Doorways

               Doorways connect rooms and corridors.  Some doorways have no
          doors; you can walk right through.  Others have  doors  in  them,
          which may be open, closed, or locked.  To open a closed door, use


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          the `o' (open) command; to close it again, use  the  `c'  (close)
          command.

               You  can  get  through a locked door by using a tool to pick
          the lock with the `a' (apply) command, or by kicking it open with
          the `^D' (kick) command.

               Open  doors  cannot be entered diagonally; you must approach
          them straight on, horizontally or vertically.   Doorways  without
          doors are not restricted in this fashion.

               Doors  can  be  useful for shutting out monsters.  Most mon-
          sters cannot open doors, although a few don't need to (ex. ghosts
          can walk through doors).

               Secret  doors  are  hidden.   You can find them with the `s'
          (search) command.  Once found they are in all ways equivalent  to
          normal doors.

          5.2.  Traps (`^')

               There  are  traps throughout the dungeon to snare the unwary
          delver.  For example, you may suddenly fall into  a  pit  and  be
          stuck for a few turns trying to climb out.  Traps don't appear on
          your map until you see one triggered by moving onto it, see some-
          thing fall into it, or you discover it with the `s' (search) com-
          mand.  Monsters can fall prey to traps, too, which can be a  very
          useful defensive strategy.

               There is a special pre-mapped branch of the dungeon based on
          the classic computer game ``Sokoban.''  The goal is to  push  the
          boulders  into  the pits or holes.  With careful foresight, it is
          possible to complete all of the levels according  to  the  tradi-
          tional  rules  of Sokoban.  Some allowances are permitted in case
          the player gets stuck; however, they will lower your luck.

          5.3.  Stairs (`<', `>')

               In general, each level in the dungeon will have a  staircase
          going up (`<') to the previous level and another going down (`>')
          to the next level.  There are some exceptions  though.   For  in-
          stance,  fairly  early  in the dungeon you will find a level with
          two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon and the oth-
          er  branching  into  an  area  known as the Gnomish Mines.  Those
          mines eventually hit a dead end, so after exploring them (if  you
          choose  to  do so), you'll need to climb back up to the main dun-
          geon.

               When you traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a  trap  which
          sends  you to another level, the level you're leaving will be de-
          activated and stored in a file on disk.  If you're  moving  to  a
          previously visited level, it will be loaded from its file on disk
          and reactivated.  If you're moving to a level which has  not  yet
          been  visited,  it  will be created (from scratch for most random


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          levels, from a template for some ``special''  levels,  or  loaded
          from  the  remains  of  an  earlier game for a ``bones'' level as
          briefly described below).  Monsters are only active on  the  cur-
          rent  level;  those  on  other levels are essentially placed into
          stasis.

               Ordinarily when you climb a set of stairs, you  will  arrive
          on  the  corresponding  staircase  at your destination.  However,
          pets (see below) and some other monsters  will  follow  along  if
          they're close enough when you travel up or down stairs, and occa-
          sionally one of these creatures  will  displace  you  during  the
          climb.  When that occurs, the pet or other monster will arrive on
          the staircase and you will end up nearby.

          5.4.  Ladders (`<', `>')

               Ladders serve the same purpose as staircases,  and  the  two
          types  of  inter-level  connections  are nearly indistinguishable
          during game play.

          5.5.  Shops and shopping

               Occasionally you will run across a room  with  a  shopkeeper
          near  the  door  and  many items lying on the floor.  You can buy
          items by picking them up and then using the `p' command.  You can
          inquire  about the price of an item prior to picking it up by us-
          ing the ``#chat'' command while standing on it.   Using  an  item
          prior  to  paying  for it will incur a charge, and the shopkeeper
          won't allow you to leave the shop until you have  paid  any  debt
          you owe.

               You  can  sell items to a shopkeeper by dropping them to the
          floor while inside a shop.  You will either be offered an  amount
          of  gold  and  asked whether you're willing to sell, or you'll be
          told that the shopkeeper isn't interested (generally,  your  item
          needs  to  be  compatible with the type of merchandise carried by
          the shop).

               If you drop something in a shop by accident, the  shopkeeper
          will  usually  claim ownership without offering any compensation.
          You'll have to buy it back if you want to reclaim it.

               Shopkeepers sometimes run out of money.  When that  happens,
          you'll  be  offered  credit  instead of gold when you try to sell
          something.  Credit can be used to pay for purchases,  but  it  is
          only  good  in  the shop where it was obtained; other shopkeepers
          won't honor it.  (If you happen to find a "credit  card"  in  the
          dungeon, don't bother trying to use it in shops; shopkeepers will
          not accept it.)

               The `$' command, which reports the amount of  gold  you  are
          carrying (in inventory, not inside bags or boxes), will also show
          current shop debt or credit, if any.  The `Iu' command lists  un-
          paid  items  (those  which  still  belong to the shop) if you are


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          carrying any.  The `Ix' command shows an  inventory-like  display
          of  any  unpaid  items  which have been used up, along with other
          shop fees, if any.

          5.5.1.  Shop idiosyncracies

               Several aspects of shop behavior might be unexpected.

          * The price of a given item can vary due to a variety of factors.

          * A shopkeeper treats the spot immediately inside the door as  if
            it were outside the shop.

          * While the shopkeeper watches you like a hawk, he will generally
            ignore any other customers.

          * If a shop is "closed for inventory", it will not  open  of  its
            own accord.

          * Shops do not get restocked with new items, regardless of inven-
            tory depletion.


          6.  Monsters

               Monsters you cannot see are not  displayed  on  the  screen.
          Beware!   You  may  suddenly come upon one in a dark place.  Some
          magic items can help you  locate  them  before  they  locate  you
          (which some monsters can do very well).

               The  commands  `/' and `;' may be used to obtain information
          about those monsters who are displayed on the screen.   The  com-
          mand  `C'  allows you to assign a name to a monster, which may be
          useful to help distinguish one from another  when  multiple  mon-
          sters  are  present.  Assigning a name which is just a space will
          remove any prior name.

               The extended command ``#chat'' can be used to interact  with
          an  adjacent monster.  There is no actual dialog (in other words,
          you don't get to choose what you'll say), but chatting with  some
          monsters such as a shopkeeper or the Oracle of Delphi can produce
          useful results.

          6.1.  Fighting

               If you see a monster and you wish to fight it, just  attempt
          to  walk  into  it.   Many  monsters you find will mind their own
          business unless you attack them.  Some of them are very dangerous
          when angered.  Remember:  discretion is the better part of valor.

               If  you  can't  see a monster (if it is invisible, or if you
          are blinded), the symbol `I' will be shown when you learn of  its
          presence.   If you attempt to walk into it, you will try to fight
          it just like a monster that  you  can  see;  of  course,  if  the


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          monster  has moved, you will attack empty air.  If you guess that
          the monster has moved and you don't wish to fight,  you  can  use
          the  `m' command to move without fighting; likewise, if you don't
          remember a monster but want to try fighting anyway, you  can  use
          the `F' command.

          6.2.  Your pet

               You  start  the  game with a little dog (`d'), cat (`f'), or
          pony (`u'), which follows you about the dungeon and  fights  mon-
          sters  with  you.   Like you, your pet needs food to survive.  It
          usually feeds itself on fresh carrion and other meats.  If you're
          worried  about  it  or want to train it, you can feed it, too, by
          throwing it food.  A properly trained pet can be very useful  un-
          der certain circumstances.

               Your  pet  also  gains experience from killing monsters, and
          can grow over time, gaining hit points  and  doing  more  damage.
          Initially,  your  pet  may  even be better at killing things than
          you, which makes pets useful for low-level characters.

               Your pet will follow you up and down  staircases  if  it  is
          next  to  you when you move.  Otherwise your pet will be stranded
          and may become wild.  Similarly, when you trigger  certain  types
          of  traps  which  alter  your location (for instance, a trap door
          which drops you to a lower dungeon level), any adjacent pet  will
          accompany you and any non-adjacent pet will be left behind.  Your
          pet may trigger such traps itself; you will not be carried  along
          with it even if adjacent at the time.

          6.3.  Steeds

               Some  types of creatures in the dungeon can actually be rid-
          den if you have the right equipment and skill.  Convincing a wild
          beast  to  let  you  saddle  it up is difficult to say the least.
          Many a dungeoneer has had to resort to magic and wizardry in  or-
          der to forge the alliance.  Once you do have the beast under your
          control however, you can easily climb in and out  of  the  saddle
          with the `#ride' command.  Lead the beast around the dungeon when
          riding, in the same manner as you would move yourself.  It is the
          beast that you will see displayed on the map.

               Riding  skill is managed by the `#enhance' command.  See the
          section on Weapon proficiency for more information about that.

          6.4.  Bones levels

               You may encounter the shades and corpses of other  adventur-
          ers (or even former incarnations of yourself!) and their personal
          effects.  Ghosts are hard to  kill,  but  easy  to  avoid,  since
          they're  slow and do little damage.  You can plunder the deceased
          adventurer's possessions; however, they are likely to be  cursed.
          Beware of whatever killed the former player; it is probably still
          lurking around, gloating over its last victory.


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          7.  Objects

               When you find something in the dungeon, it is common to want
          to pick it up.  In NetHack, this is accomplished automatically by
          walking over the object (unless you turn off the  autopickup  op-
          tion  (see  below),  or move with the `m' prefix (see above)), or
          manually by using the `,' command.

               If you're carrying too many items, NetHack will tell you  so
          and  you  won't  be able to pick up anything more.  Otherwise, it
          will add the object(s) to your pack and tell you  what  you  just
          picked up.

               As  you add items to your inventory, you also add the weight
          of that object to your load.  The amount that you can  carry  de-
          pends  on  your strength and your constitution.  The stronger you
          are, the less the additional load will affect you.  There comes a
          point,  though, when the weight of all of that stuff you are car-
          rying around with you through  the  dungeon  will  encumber  you.
          Your  reactions  will get slower and you'll burn calories faster,
          requiring food more frequently  to  cope  with  it.   Eventually,
          you'll  be  so overloaded that you'll either have to discard some
          of what you're carrying or collapse under its weight.

               NetHack will tell you how badly you  have  loaded  yourself.
          The  symbols  `Burdened', `Stressed', `Strained', `Overtaxed' and
          `Overloaded' are displayed on the bottom line display to indicate
          your condition.

               When you pick up an object, it is assigned an inventory let-
          ter.  Many commands that operate on objects must ask you to  find
          out  which  object  you  want  to  use.  When NetHack asks you to
          choose a particular object you are carrying, you are usually pre-
          sented  with a list of inventory letters to choose from (see Com-
          mands, above).

               Some objects, such as weapons,  are  easily  differentiated.
          Others,  like  scrolls  and potions, are given descriptions which
          vary according to type.  During a game, any two objects with  the
          same  description  are  the same type.  However, the descriptions
          will vary from game to game.

               When you use one of these objects, if its effect is obvious,
          NetHack  will  remember  what it is for you.  If its effect isn't
          extremely obvious, you will be asked what you want to  call  this
          type  of object so you will recognize it later.  You can also use
          the ``#name'' command for the same purpose at any time,  to  name
          all  objects  of  a particular type or just an individual object.
          When you use ``#name'' on an object which has already been named,
          specifying  a  space  as the value will remove the prior name in-
          stead of assigning a new one.





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          7.1.  Curses and Blessings

               Any object that you find may be cursed, even if  the  object
          is otherwise helpful.  The most common effect of a curse is being
          stuck with (and to) the item.  Cursed weapons weld themselves  to
          your  hand  when wielded, so you cannot unwield them.  Any cursed
          item you wear is not removable by ordinary means.   In  addition,
          cursed  arms and armor usually, but not always, bear negative en-
          chantments that make them less effective in combat.  Other cursed
          objects may act poorly or detrimentally in other ways.

               Objects  can  also  be  blessed.  Blessed items usually work
          better or more beneficially than normal uncursed items.  For  ex-
          ample, a blessed weapon will do more damage against demons.

               There are magical means of bestowing or removing curses upon
          objects, so even if you are stuck with one, you  can  still  have
          the  curse  lifted and the item removed.  Priests and Priestesses
          have an innate sensitivity to this property  in  any  object,  so
          they  can  more  easily avoid cursed objects than other character
          roles.

               An item with unknown status will be reported in your  inven-
          tory with no prefix.  An item which you know the state of will be
          distinguished in your inventory  by  the  presence  of  the  word
          ``cursed'', ``uncursed'' or ``blessed'' in the description of the
          item.

          7.2.  Weapons (`)')

               Given a chance, most monsters in the Mazes  of  Menace  will
          gratuitously  try to kill you.  You need weapons for self-defense
          (killing them first).  Without a weapon,  you  do  only  1-2  hit
          points  of damage (plus bonuses, if any).  Monk characters are an
          exception; they normally do much more damage with bare hands than
          they do with weapons.

               There are wielded weapons, like maces and swords, and thrown
          weapons, like arrows and spears.  To hit monsters with a  weapon,
          you  must wield it and attack them, or throw it at them.  You can
          simply elect to throw a spear.  To shoot  an  arrow,  you  should
          first  wield a bow, then throw the arrow.  Crossbows shoot cross-
          bow bolts.  Slings hurl rocks and (other) stones (like gems).

               Enchanted weapons have a ``plus'' (or ``to hit enhancement''
          which  can  be  either  positive  or  negative) that adds to your
          chance to hit and the damage you do to a monster.  The  only  way
          to determine a weapon's enchantment is to have it magically iden-
          tified somehow.  Most weapons are subject to some type of  damage
          like rust.  Such ``erosion'' damage can be repaired.

               The  chance  that an attack will successfully hit a monster,
          and the amount of damage such a hit will do,  depends  upon  many
          factors.   Among  them  are:  type  of  weapon, quality of weapon


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          (enchantment and/or erosion), experience level, strength, dexter-
          ity, encumbrance, and proficiency (see below).  The monster's ar-
          mor class - a general defense  rating,  not  necessarily  due  to
          wearing  of armor - is a factor too; also, some monsters are par-
          ticularly vulnerable to certain types of weapons.

               Many weapons can be wielded in one hand; some  require  both
          hands.   When  wielding  a  two-handed weapon, you can not wear a
          shield, and vice versa.  When wielding a one-handed  weapon,  you
          can  have  another  weapon ready to use by setting things up with
          the `x' command, which exchanges  your  primary  (the  one  being
          wielded)  and  alternate weapons.  And if you have proficiency in
          the ``two weapon combat'' skill, you may wield both  weapons  si-
          multaneously  as  primary and secondary; use the `#twoweapon' ex-
          tended command to engage or disengage that.  Only some  types  of
          characters  (barbarians,  for  instance) have the necessary skill
          available.  Even with that skill, using two weapons at  once  in-
          curs a penalty in the chance to hit your target compared to using
          just one weapon at a time.

               There might be times when you'd rather not wield any  weapon
          at  all.  To accomplish that, wield `-', or else use the `A' com-
          mand which allows you to unwield the current weapon  in  addition
          to taking off other worn items.

               Those  of you in the audience who are AD&D players, be aware
          that each weapon which existed in AD&D does roughly the same dam-
          age  to  monsters  in  NetHack.  Some of the more obscure weapons
          (such as the aklys, lucern hammer, and bec-de-corbin) are defined
          in an appendix to Unearthed Arcana, an AD&D supplement.

               The  commands  to  use weapons are `w' (wield), `t' (throw),
          `f' (fire, an alternative way of  throwing),  `Q'  (quiver),  `x'
          (exchange), `#twoweapon', and `#enhance' (see below).

          7.2.1.  Throwing and shooting

               You  can  throw just about anything via the `t' command.  It
          will prompt for the item to throw; picking `?' will  list  things
          in  your  inventory  which are considered likely to be thrown, or
          picking `*' will list your entire inventory.  After you've chosen
          what  to  throw, you will be prompted for a direction rather than
          for a specific target.  The distance something can be thrown  de-
          pends mainly on the type of object and your strength.  Arrows can
          be thrown by hand, but can be thrown much  farther  and  will  be
          more likely to hit when thrown while you are wielding a bow.

               You  can  simplify  the  throwing operation by using the `Q'
          command to select your preferred ``missile'', then using the  `f'
          command  to  throw  it.   You'll  be  prompted for a direction as
          above, but you don't have to specify which  item  to  throw  each
          time you use `f'.  There is also an option, autoquiver, which has
          NetHack choose another item to  automatically  fill  your  quiver
          when the inventory slot used for `Q' runs out.


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               Some  characters have the ability to fire a volley of multi-
          ple items in a single turn.  Knowing how to load  several  rounds
          of ammunition at once -- or hold several missiles in your hand --
          and still hit a target is not an easy task.   Rangers  are  among
          those  who are adept at this task, as are those with a high level
          of proficiency in the relevant weapon  skill  (in  bow  skill  if
          you're  wielding one to shoot arrows, in crossbow skill if you're
          wielding one to shoot bolts, or in sling skill if you're wielding
          one to shoot stones).  The number of items that the character has
          a chance to fire varies from turn to turn.   You  can  explicitly
          limit  the  number  of shots by using a numeric prefix before the
          `t' or `f' command.  For example, ``2f''  (or  ``n2f''  if  using
          number_pad mode) would ensure that at most 2 arrows are shot even
          if you could have fired 3.  If you specify a larger  number  than
          would have been shot (``4f'' in this example), you'll just end up
          shooting the same number (3, here) as if no limit had been speci-
          fied.  Once the volley is in motion, all of the items will travel
          in the same direction; if the first ones kill a monster, the oth-
          ers can still continue beyond that spot.

          7.2.2.  Weapon proficiency

               You will have varying degrees of skill in the weapons avail-
          able.  Weapon proficiency, or weapon skills, affect how well  you
          can  use  particular  types of weapons, and you'll be able to im-
          prove your skills as you progress through a  game,  depending  on
          your role, your experience level, and use of the weapons.

               For  the  purposes of proficiency, weapons have been divided
          up  into  various  groups  such  as  daggers,  broadswords,   and
          polearms.   Each  role has a limit on what level of proficiency a
          character can achieve for each group.  For instance, wizards  can
          become  highly  skilled in daggers or staves but not in swords or
          bows.

               The `#enhance' extended command is used  to  review  current
          weapons  proficiency (also spell proficiency) and to choose which
          skill(s) to improve when you've used one or more skills enough to
          become eligible to do so.  The skill rankings are ``none'' (some-
          times also referred to as ``restricted'', because  you  won't  be
          able  to  advance),  ``unskilled'',  ``basic'',  ``skilled'', and
          ``expert''.  Restricted skills simply will not appear in the list
          shown  by  `#enhance'.   (Divine  intervention might unrestrict a
          particular skill, in which case it will start at unskilled and be
          limited  to basic.)  Some characters can enhance their barehanded
          combat or martial arts  skill  beyond  expert  to  ``master''  or
          ``grand master''.

               Use of a weapon in which you're restricted or unskilled will
          incur a modest penalty in the chance to hit a monster and also in
          the  amount of damage done when you do hit; at basic level, there
          is no penalty or bonus; at skilled level, you  receive  a  modest
          bonus  in  the chance to hit and amount of damage done; at expert
          level, the bonus is higher.  A successful hit  has  a  chance  to


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          boost  your  training towards the next skill level (unless you've
          already reached the limit for this skill).   Once  such  training
          reaches  the  threshold  for that next level, you'll be told that
          you feel more confident in your skills.  At that  point  you  can
          use  `#enhance'  to increase one or more skills.  Such skills are
          not increased automatically because there is a limit to your  to-
          tal  overall  skills, so you need to actively choose which skills
          to enhance and which to ignore.

          7.3.  Armor (`[')

               Lots of unfriendly things lurk about; you need armor to pro-
          tect yourself from their blows.  Some types of armor offer better
          protection than others.  Your armor class is a  measure  of  this
          protection.  Armor class (AC) is measured as in AD&D, with 10 be-
          ing the equivalent of no armor, and lower numbers meaning  better
          armor.   Each  suit  of armor which exists in AD&D gives the same
          protection in NetHack.  Here is an (incomplete) list of the armor
          classes provided by various suits of armor:

                             dragon scale mail         1
                             plate mail                3
                             crystal plate mail        3
                             bronze plate mail         4
                             splint mail               4
                             banded mail               4
                             dwarvish mithril-coat     4
                             elven mithril-coat        5
                             chain mail                5
                             orcish chain mail         6
                             scale mail                6
                             studded leather armor     7
                             ring mail                 7
                             orcish ring mail          8
                             leather armor             8
                             leather jacket            9
                             no armor                 10

               You can also wear other pieces of armor (ex. helmets, boots,
          shields, cloaks) to lower your armor class even further, but  you
          can  only  wear one item of each category (one suit of armor, one
          cloak, one helmet, one shield, and so on) at a time.

               If a piece of armor is enchanted, its armor protection  will
          be  better  (or  worse)  than normal, and its ``plus'' (or minus)
          will subtract from your armor class.  For  example,  a  +1  chain
          mail  would  give  you  better protection than normal chain mail,
          lowering your armor class one unit further to 4.  When you put on
          a  piece  of  armor, you immediately find out the armor class and
          any ``plusses'' it provides.  Cursed pieces of armor usually have
          negative enchantments (minuses) in addition to being unremovable.

               Many  types of armor are subject to some kind of damage like
          rust.  Such damage can be repaired.   Some  types  of  armor  may


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          inhibit spell casting.

               The commands to use armor are `W' (wear) and `T' (take off).
          The `A' command can also be used to take off  armor  as  well  as
          other worn items.

          7.4.  Food (`%')

               Food  is  necessary  to survive.  If you go too long without
          eating you will faint, and eventually die  of  starvation.   Some
          types  of  food  will  spoil, and become unhealthy to eat, if not
          protected.  Food stored in ice boxes or tins (``cans'') will usu-
          ally  stay  fresh, but ice boxes are heavy, and tins take a while
          to open.

               When you kill monsters, they usually leave corpses which are
          also ``food.''  Many, but not all, of these are edible; some also
          give you special powers when you eat them.  A good rule of  thumb
          is ``you are what you eat.''

               Some character roles and some monsters are vegetarian.  Veg-
          etarian monsters will typically never eat animal  corpses,  while
          vegetarian  players can, but with some rather unpleasant side-ef-
          fects.

               You can name one food item after something you like  to  eat
          with the fruit option.

               The command to eat food is `e'.

          7.5.  Scrolls (`?')

               Scrolls  are labeled with various titles, probably chosen by
          ancient wizards for their amusement value (ex.  ``READ  ME,''  or
          ``THANX MAUD'' backwards).  Scrolls disappear after you read them
          (except for blank ones, without magic spells on them).

               One of the most useful of these is the scroll  of  identify,
          which can be used to determine what another object is, whether it
          is cursed or blessed, and how many uses it has  left.   Some  ob-
          jects  of  subtle  enchantment  are difficult to identify without
          these.

               A mail daemon may run up and deliver mail to you as a scroll
          of  mail  (on  versions compiled with this feature).  To use this
          feature on versions where NetHack mail delivery is  triggered  by
          electronic  mail  appearing  in your system mailbox, you must let
          NetHack know where to look for new mail by setting  the  ``MAIL''
          environment  variable  to the file name of your mailbox.  You may
          also want to set the ``MAILREADER'' environment variable  to  the
          file  name  of  your  favorite reader, so NetHack can shell to it
          when you read the scroll.  On versions of NetHack where  mail  is
          randomly  generated internal to the game, these environment vari-
          ables are ignored.  You can disable the mail  daemon  by  turning


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          off the mail option.

               The command to read a scroll is `r'.

          7.6.  Potions (`!')

               Potions  are distinguished by the color of the liquid inside
          the flask.  They disappear after you quaff them.

               Clear potions are potions of  water.   Sometimes  these  are
          blessed or cursed, resulting in holy or unholy water.  Holy water
          is the bane of the undead, so potions  of  holy  water  are  good
          things  to throw (`t') at them.  It is also sometimes very useful
          to dip (``#dip'') an object into a potion.

               The command to drink a potion is `q' (quaff).

          7.7.  Wands (`/')

               Magic wands usually have  multiple  magical  charges.   Some
          wands  are directional--you must give a direction in which to zap
          them.  You can also zap them at yourself (just give a `.' or  `s'
          for the direction). Be warned, however, for this is often unwise.
          Other wands are nondirectional--they don't require  a  direction.
          The  number  of  charges in a wand is random and decreases by one
          whenever you use it.

               When the number of charges left in a wand becomes zero,  at-
          tempts  to use the wand will usually result in nothing happening.
          Occasionally, however, it may be possible to squeeze the last few
          mana  points  from  an otherwise spent wand, destroying it in the
          process.  A wand may be recharged by using  suitable  magic,  but
          doing  so runs the risk of causing it to explode.  The chance for
          such an explosion starts out very small and increases  each  time
          the wand is recharged.

               In a truly desperate situation, when your back is up against
          the wall, you might decide to go for broke and break  your  wand.
          This  is  not  for the faint of heart.  Doing so will almost cer-
          tainly cause a catastrophic release of magical energies.

               When you have fully identified a particular wand,  inventory
          display  will  include additional information in parentheses: the
          number of times it has been recharged followed  by  a  colon  and
          then by its current number of charges.  A current charge count of
          -1 is a special case indicating that the wand has been cancelled.

               The command to use a wand is `z' (zap).  To break  one,  use
          the `a' (apply) command.

          7.8.  Rings (`=')

               Rings  are very useful items, since they are relatively per-
          manent magic, unlike the usually  fleeting  effects  of  potions,


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          scrolls, and wands.

               Putting  on  a  ring activates its magic.  You can wear only
          two rings, one on each ring finger.

               Most rings also cause you to grow hungry more  rapidly,  the
          rate varying with the type of ring.

               The commands to use rings are `P' (put on) and `R' (remove).

          7.9.  Spellbooks (`+')

               Spellbooks are tomes of mighty magic.  When studied with the
          `r' (read) command, they transfer to the reader the knowledge  of
          a  spell  (and  therefore eventually become unreadable) -- unless
          the attempt backfires.  Reading a cursed spellbook  or  one  with
          mystic runes beyond your ken can be harmful to your health!

               A  spell (even when learned) can also backfire when you cast
          it.  If you attempt to cast a spell well  above  your  experience
          level,  or  if  you  have little skill with the appropriate spell
          type, or cast it at a time when your luck  is  particularly  bad,
          you  can  end up wasting both the energy and the time required in
          casting.

               Casting a spell calls forth  magical  energies  and  focuses
          them  with  your naked mind.  Some of the magical energy released
          comes from within you, and casting several spells in  a  row  may
          tire  you.  Casting of spells also requires practice.  With prac-
          tice, your skill in each category of spell casting will  improve.
          Over  time,  however, your memory of each spell will dim, and you
          will need to relearn it.

               Some spells are directional--you must give  a  direction  in
          which  to  cast  them.   You can also cast them at yourself (just
          give a `.' or `s' for the direction).  Be  warned,  however,  for
          this  is  often  unwise.   Other  spells are nondirectional--they
          don't require a direction.

               Just as weapons are divided into groups in which a character
          can  become proficient (to varying degrees), spells are similarly
          grouped.  Successfully casting a spell exercises the skill group;
          sufficient skill may increase the potency of the spell and reduce
          the risk of spell failure.  Skill slots are shared  with  weapons
          skills.  (See also the section on ``Weapon proficiency''.)

               Casting a spell also requires flexible movement, and wearing
          various types of armor may interfere with that.

               The command to read a spellbook is the same as for  scrolls,
          `r'  (read).   The  `+'  command lists your current spells, their
          levels, categories, and chances for failure.  The `Z' (cast) com-
          mand casts a spell.



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          7.10.  Tools (`(')

               Tools are miscellaneous objects with various purposes.  Some
          tools have a limited number of uses, akin to wand  charges.   For
          example,  lamps burn out after a while.  Other tools are contain-
          ers, which objects can be placed into or taken out of.

               The command to use tools is `a' (apply).

          7.10.1.  Containers

               You may encounter bags, boxes, and chests in  your  travels.
          A  tool  of  this  sort can be opened with the ``#loot'' extended
          command when you are standing on top of it (that is, on the  same
          floor  spot), or with the `a' (apply) command when you are carry-
          ing it.  However, chests are often locked, and are  in  any  case
          unwieldy  objects.   You must set one down before unlocking it by
          using a key or lock-picking tool with the `a' (apply) command, by
          kicking  it  with the `^D' command, or by using a weapon to force
          the lock with the ``#force'' extended command.

               Some chests are trapped, causing nasty things to happen when
          you unlock or open them.  You can check for and try to deactivate
          traps with the ``#untrap'' extended command.

          7.11.  Amulets (`"')

               Amulets are very similar to rings, and often more  powerful.
          Like rings, amulets have various magical properties, some benefi-
          cial, some harmful, which are activated by putting them on.

               Only one amulet may be worn at a time, around your neck.

               The commands to use amulets are the same as for  rings,  `P'
          (put on) and `R' (remove).

          7.12.  Gems (`*')

               Some  gems  are valuable, and can be sold for a lot of gold.
          They are also a far more efficient way of carrying  your  riches.
          Valuable gems increase your score if you bring them with you when
          you exit.

               Other small rocks are also categorized as gems, but they are
          much  less  valuable.  All rocks, however, can be used as projec-
          tile weapons (if you have a sling).  In  the  most  desperate  of
          cases, you can still throw them by hand.

          7.13.  Large rocks (``')

               Statues  and  boulders  are not particularly useful, and are
          generally heavy.  It is rumored that some statues  are  not  what
          they seem.



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               Very  large humanoids (giants and their ilk) have been known
          to use boulders as weapons.

          7.14.  Gold (`$')

               Gold adds to your score, and you can  buy  things  in  shops
          with  it.  There are a number of monsters in the dungeon that may
          be influenced by the amount of gold you are carrying (shopkeepers
          aside).


          8.  Conduct

               As  if  winning  NetHack  were not difficult enough, certain
          players seek to challenge themselves by imposing restrictions  on
          the  way  they play the game.  The game automatically tracks some
          of these challenges, which can be checked at any  time  with  the
          #conduct  command or at the end of the game.  When you perform an
          action which breaks a challenge, it will  no  longer  be  listed.
          This gives players extra ``bragging rights'' for winning the game
          with these challenges.  Note that it is perfectly  acceptable  to
          win  the game without resorting to these restrictions and that it
          is unusual for players to adhere to  challenges  the  first  time
          they win the game.

               Several  of  the  challenges are related to eating behavior.
          The most difficult of these is the foodless challenge.   Although
          creatures can survive long periods of time without food, there is
          a physiological need for water; thus there is no  restriction  on
          drinking  beverages,  even  if they provide some minor food bene-
          fits.  Calling upon your god for help with  starvation  does  not
          violate any food challenges either.

               A  strict  vegan  diet  is one which avoids any food derived
          from animals.  The primary source of nutrition is fruits and veg-
          etables.  The corpses and tins of blobs (`b'), jellies (`j'), and
          fungi (`F') are also considered to be vegetable matter.   Certain
          human  food  is  prepared without animal products; namely, lembas
          wafers, cram rations, food rations (gunyoki), K-rations,  and  C-
          rations.   Metal  or another normally indigestible material eaten
          while polymorphed into a creature that can digest it is also con-
          sidered  vegan  food.   Note however that eating such items still
          counts against foodless conduct.

               Vegetarians do not eat animals; however, they are  less  se-
          lective  about eating animal byproducts than vegans.  In addition
          to the vegan items listed above, they may eat any kind of pudding
          (`P') other than the black puddings, eggs and food made from eggs
          (fortune cookies and pancakes), food made with milk  (cream  pies
          and candy bars), and lumps of royal jelly.  Monks are expected to
          observe a vegetarian diet.

               Eating any kind of meat violates the vegetarian, vegan,  and
          foodless  conducts.   This includes tripe rations, the corpses or


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          tins of any monsters not mentioned above, and the  various  other
          chunks  of meat found in the dungeon.  Swallowing and digesting a
          monster while polymorphed is treated as if you ate the creature's
          corpse.   Eating  leather, dragon hide, or bone items while poly-
          morphed into a creature that can digest  it,  or  eating  monster
          brains while polymorphed into a mind flayer, is considered eating
          an animal, although wax is only an animal byproduct.

               Regardless of conduct, there will be some  items  which  are
          indigestible,  and  others  which  are hazardous to eat.  Using a
          swallow-and-digest attack against a monster is equivalent to eat-
          ing the monster's corpse.  Please note that the term ``vegan'' is
          used here only in the context of diet.  You  are  still  free  to
          choose  not  to  use  or  wear  items  derived from animals (e.g.
          leather, dragon hide, bone, horns, coral), but the game will  not
          keep track of this for you.  Also note that ``milky'' potions may
          be a translucent white, but they do not contain milk, so they are
          compatible  with  a  vegan  diet.   Slime molds or player-defined
          ``fruits'', although they could be anything from ``cherries''  to
          ``pork chops'', are also assumed to be vegan.

               An atheist is one who rejects religion.  This means that you
          cannot #pray, #offer sacrifices to  any  god,  #turn  undead,  or
          #chat  with  a  priest.  Particularly selective readers may argue
          that playing Monk or Priest characters should violate  this  con-
          duct;  that  is a choice left to the player.  Offering the Amulet
          of Yendor to your god is necessary to win the  game  and  is  not
          counted against this conduct.  You are also not penalized for be-
          ing spoken to by an angry god, priest(ess),  or  other  religious
          figure; a true atheist would hear the words but attach no special
          meaning to them.

               Most players fight with a wielded weapon (or  tool  intended
          to be wielded as a weapon).  Another challenge is to win the game
          without using such a wielded weapon.  You are still permitted  to
          throw,  fire,  and kick weapons; use a wand, spell, or other type
          of item; or fight with your hands and feet.

               In NetHack, a pacifist refuses to cause  the  death  of  any
          other  monster  (i.e. if you would get experience for the death).
          This is a particularly difficult challenge, although it is  still
          possible to gain experience by other means.

               An illiterate character cannot read or write.  This includes
          reading a scroll, spellbook, fortune cookie message, or  t-shirt;
          writing a scroll; or making an engraving of anything other than a
          single ``x'' (the traditional signature of an illiterate person).
          Reading an engraving, or any item that is absolutely necessary to
          win the game, is not counted against this conduct.  The  identity
          of  scrolls  and  spellbooks  (and  knowledge  of spells) in your
          starting inventory is assumed to be learned  from  your  teachers
          prior to the start of the game and isn't counted.




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               There  are several other challenges tracked by the game.  It
          is possible to eliminate one or more species of monsters by geno-
          cide;  playing  without  this  feature is considered a challenge.
          When the game offers you an opportunity to genocide monsters, you
          may  respond  with  the  monster type ``none'' if you want to de-
          cline.  You can change the form of an item into another  item  of
          the  same type (``polypiling'') or the form of your own body into
          another creature (``polyself'') by  wand,  spell,  or  potion  of
          polymorph; avoiding these effects are each considered challenges.
          Polymorphing monsters, including pets, does not break  either  of
          these  challenges.   Finally, you may sometimes receive wishes; a
          game without an attempt to wish for any items is a challenge,  as
          is  a  game without wishing for an artifact (even if the artifact
          immediately disappears).  When the game offers you an opportunity
          to  make  a  wish  for an item, you may choose ``nothing'' if you
          want to decline.


          9.  Options

               Due to variations in personal tastes and conceptions of  how
          NetHack should do things, there are options you can set to change
          how NetHack behaves.

          9.1.  Setting the options

               Options may be set in a number of ways.   Within  the  game,
          the `O' command allows you to view all options and change most of
          them.  You can also set options automatically by placing them  in
          the  NETHACKOPTIONS  environment  variable  or in a configuration
          file.  Some versions of NetHack also have front-end programs that
          allow you to set options before starting the game.

          9.2.  Using the NETHACKOPTIONS environment variable

               The  NETHACKOPTIONS  variable  is  a comma-separated list of
          initial values for the various options.  Some can only be  turned
          on  or  off.   You turn one of these on by adding the name of the
          option to the list, and turn it off by typing a `!' or ``no'' be-
          fore  the  name.  Others take a character string as a value.  You
          can set string options by typing the  option  name,  a  colon  or
          equals sign, and then the value of the string.  The value is ter-
          minated by the next comma or the end of string.

               For example, to set up an environment variable so that ``au-
          toquiver''  is  on,  ``autopickup''  is  off,  the name is set to
          ``Blue Meanie'', and the fruit is set to  ``papaya'',  you  would
          enter the command

               % setenv NETHACKOPTIONS "autoquiver,\!autopickup,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:papaya"

          in  csh  (note the need to escape the ! since it's special to the
          shell), or



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               $ NETHACKOPTIONS="autoquiver,!autopickup,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:papaya"
               $ export NETHACKOPTIONS

          in sh or ksh.

          9.3.  Using a configuration file

               Any line in the configuration  file  starting  with  `#'  is
          treated  as a comment.  Any line in the configuration file start-
          ing with ``OPTIONS='' may be filled out with options in the  same
          syntax  as  in  NETHACKOPTIONS.   Any  line  starting with ``DUN-
          GEON='', ``EFFECTS='', ``MONSTERS='',  ``OBJECTS='',  ``TRAPS='',
          or  ``BOULDER=''  is taken as defining the corresponding dungeon,
          effects, monsters, objects traps or boulder option in a different
          syntax,  a sequence of decimal numbers giving the character posi-
          tion in the current font to be used in displaying each entry.   A
          zero  in  any entry in such a sequence leaves the display of that
          entry unchanged; this feature is not available using  the  option
          syntax.   Such  a  sequence can be continued to multiple lines by
          putting a `\' at the end of each line to be continued.

               If your copy of the game included the compile time AUTOPICK-
          UP_EXCEPTIONS  option,  then  any  line starting with ``AUTOPICK-
          UP_EXCEPTION='' is taken as defining an exception  to  the  pick-
          up_types  option.  There is a section of this Guidebook that dis-
          cusses that.

               The default name of the configuration file varies on differ-
          ent  operating systems, but NETHACKOPTIONS can also be set to the
          full name of a file you want to  use  (possibly  preceded  by  an
          `@').

          9.4.  Customization options

               Here are explanations of what the various options do.  Char-
          acter strings that are too long may be truncated.   Some  of  the
          options listed may be inactive in your dungeon.

          align
            Your   starting   alignment  (align:lawful,  align:neutral,  or
            align:chaotic).  You may specify just the  first  letter.   The
            default  is  to randomly pick an appropriate alignment.  Cannot
            be set with the `O' command.

          autodig
            Automatically dig if you are wielding a digging tool and moving
            into a place that can be dug (default false).

          autoopen
            Walking into a door attempts to open it (default true).

          autopickup
            Automatically  pick up things onto which you move (default on).
            See pickup_types to refine the behavior.


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          autoquiver
            This option controls what happens  when  you  attempt  the  `f'
            (fire)  command  with an empty quiver.  When true, the computer
            will fill your quiver with some suitable weapon.  Note that  it
            will  not take into account the blessed/cursed status, enchant-
            ment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free to manual-
            ly fill your quiver with the `Q' command instead.  If no weapon
            is found or the option is false, the `t' (throw) command is ex-
            ecuted instead.  (default false)

          boulder
            Set  the  character  used  to display boulders (default is rock
            class symbol).

          catname
            Name your starting cat (ex. ``catname:Morris'').  Cannot be set
            with the `O' command.

          character
            Pick  your  type of character (ex. ``character:Monk''); synonym
            for ``role''.  See ``name'' for an alternate method of specify-
            ing  your role.  Normally only the first letter of the value is
            examined; the string ``random'' is an exception.

          checkpoint
            Save game state after each level change, for possible  recovery
            after program crash (default on).

          checkspace
            Check  free  disk  space  before writing files to disk (default
            on).  You may have to turn this off if you have more than 2  GB
            free space on the partition used for your save and level files.
            Only applies when MFLOPPY was defined during compilation.

          cmdassist
            Have the game provide some additional  command  assistance  for
            new  players  if  it detects some anticipated mistakes (default
            on).

          confirm
            Have user confirm  attacks  on  pets,  shopkeepers,  and  other
            peaceable creatures (default on).

          DECgraphics
            Use  a  predefined  selection  of  characters  from the DEC VT-
            xxx/DEC Rainbow/ANSI line-drawing character set to display  the
            dungeon/effects/traps instead of having to define a full graph-
            ics set yourself (default off).  This option also sets up prop-
            er  handling  of graphics characters for such terminals, so you
            should specify it when appropriate even if you override the se-
            lections with your own graphics strings.

          disclose
            Controls  options  for  disclosing various information when the


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            game ends (defaults to all possibilities being disclosed).  The
            possibilities are:

                 i - disclose your inventory.
                 a - disclose your attributes.
                 v - summarize monsters that have been vanquished.
                 g - list monster species that have been genocided.
                 c - display your conduct.

            Each  disclosure  possibility  can  optionally be preceded by a
            prefix which let you refine how it behaves. Here are the  valid
            prefixes:

                 y - prompt you and default to yes on the prompt.
                 n - prompt you and default to no on the prompt.
                 + - disclose it without prompting.
                 - - do not disclose it and do not prompt.

            (ex. ``disclose:yi na +v -g -c'') The example sets inventory to
            prompt and default to yes, attributes to prompt and default  to
            no,  vanquished to disclose without prompting, genocided to not
            disclose and not to prompt, conduct to not disclose and not  to
            prompt.   Note  that  the vanquished monsters list includes all
            monsters killed by traps and each other as well as by you.

          dogname
            Name your starting dog (ex. ``dogname:Fang'').  Cannot  be  set
            with the `O' command.

          dumpfile
            The  name of a file where the disclosure information is written
            when the game ends. You may use the macro %n that will  be  re-
            placed  with  the  name of your player character. The game must
            have write permissions to the directory where the file is writ-
            ten. Normally /tmp may be used for unix systems.

          dungeon
            Set  the  graphics  symbols for displaying the dungeon (default
            `` |--------||.-|++##.##<><>_|\\#{}.}..## #}'').   The  dungeon
            option  should be followed by a string of 1-41 characters to be
            used instead of the default map-drawing characters.   The  dun-
            geon map will use the characters you specify instead of the de-
            fault symbols, and default symbols for any you do not  specify.
            Remember  that  you may need to escape some of these characters
            on a command line if they are special to your shell.

            Note that NetHack escape-processes this option string  in  con-
            ventional  C  fashion.  This means that `\' is a prefix to take
            the following character literally.  Thus `\' needs to be repre-
            sented  as  `\\'.  The special escape form `\m' switches on the
            meta bit in the following character, and the `^' prefix  causes
            the following character to be treated as a control character.

            The  order  of  the  symbols  is:   solid  rock, vertical wall,


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            horizontal wall, upper left corner, upper right  corner,  lower
            left  corner,  lower  right  corner, cross wall, upward T wall,
            downward T wall, leftward T wall, rightward T  wall,  no  door,
            vertical open door, horizontal open door, vertical closed door,
            horizontal closed door, iron bars, tree, floor of a room,  dark
            corridor, lit corridor, stairs up, stairs down, ladder up, lad-
            der down, altar, grave, throne, kitchen sink, fountain, pool or
            moat,  ice,  lava, vertical lowered drawbridge, horizontal low-
            ered drawbridge, vertical raised drawbridge, horizontal  raised
            drawbridge, air, cloud, under water.

            You  might  want  to  use `+' for the corners and T walls for a
            more aesthetic, boxier display.  Note that in the next release,
            new symbols may be added, or the present ones rearranged.

            Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          effects
            Set  the  graphics  symbols for displaying special effects (de-
            fault ``|-\\/*!)(0#@*/-\\||\\-//-\\| |\\-/'').  The effects op-
            tion  should  be  followed by a string of 1-29 characters to be
            used instead of the default special-effects  characters.   This
            string  is  subjected to the same processing as the dungeon op-
            tion.

            The order of the symbols is:  vertical beam,  horizontal  beam,
            left  slant, right slant, digging beam, camera flash beam, left
            boomerang, right boomerang, four glyphs giving the sequence for
            magic  resistance  displays,  the  eight surrounding glyphs for
            swallowed display, nine glyphs for  explosions.   An  explosion
            consists of three rows (top, middle, and bottom) of three char-
            acters.  The explosion is centered in the center of this 3 by 3
            array.

            Note that in the next release, new symbols may be added, or the
            present ones rearranged.

            Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          extmenu
            Changes the extended commands interface to  pop-up  a  menu  of
            available commands.  It is keystroke compatible with the tradi-
            tional interface except that it does not require that  you  hit
            Enter.  It  is  implemented only by the tty port (default off),
            when the game has been compiled to support tty graphics.

          female
            An obsolete synonym for ``gender:female''.  Cannot be set  with
            the `O' command.

          fixinv
            An  object's  inventory  letter  sticks to it when it's dropped
            (default on).  If this is off, dropping an  object  shifts  all
            the remaining inventory letters.


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          fruit
            Name a fruit after something you enjoy eating (ex. ``fruit:man-
            go'') (default ``slime mold'').  Basically a  nostalgic  whimsy
            that  NetHack  uses  from time to time.  You should set this to
            something you find more appetizing than  slime  mold.   Apples,
            oranges,  pears,  bananas, and melons already exist in NetHack,
            so don't use those.

          gender
            Your starting gender (gender:male or gender:female).   You  may
            specify  just  the first letter.  Although you can still denote
            your gender using the  ``male''  and  ``female''  options,  the
            ``gender'' option will take precedence.  The default is to ran-
            domly pick an appropriate gender.  Cannot be set with  the  `O'
            command.

          help
            If  more  information is available for an object looked at with
            the `/' command, ask if you want to see it (default on).  Turn-
            ing  help  off  makes  just looking at things faster, since you
            aren't interrupted with the ``More info?'' prompt, but it  also
            means that you might miss some interesting and/or important in-
            formation.

          horsename
            Name your starting horse (ex.  ``horsename:Trigger'').   Cannot
            be set with the `O' command.

          IBMgraphics
            Use  a predefined selection of IBM extended ASCII characters to
            display the dungeon/effects/traps instead of having to define a
            full  graphics  set  yourself  (default off).  This option also
            sets up proper handling of graphics characters for such  termi-
            nals,  so  you  should  specify it when appropriate even if you
            override the selections with your own graphics strings.

          ignintr
            Ignore interrupt signals, including breaks (default off).

          legacy
            Display an introductory message when starting the game (default
            on).

          lit_corridor
            Show  corridor  squares  seen by night vision or a light source
            held by your character as lit (default off).

          lootabc
            Use the old `a', `b', and `c' keyboard shortcuts when  looting,
            rather than the mnemonics `o', `i', and `b' (default off).

          mail
            Enable mail delivery during the game (default on).



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          male
            An  obsolete  synonym  for ``gender:male''.  Cannot be set with
            the `O' command.

          menustyle
            Controls the interface used when you need to choose various ob-
            jects  (in  response  to  the Drop command, for instance).  The
            value specified should be the first letter of one of  the  fol-
            lowing:   traditional,  combination,  partial, or full.  Tradi-
            tional was the only interface available for  earlier  versions;
            it  consists  of a prompt for object class characters, followed
            by an object-by-object prompt for all items  matching  the  se-
            lected  object class(es).  Combination starts with a prompt for
            object class(es) of interest,  but  then  displays  a  menu  of
            matching  objects  rather  than  prompting one-by-one.  Partial
            skips the object class filtering  and  immediately  displays  a
            menu  of  all  objects.  Full displays a menu of object classes
            rather than a character prompt, and then a menu of matching ob-
            jects for selection.

          menu_deselect_all
            Menu  character  accelerator  to  deselect all items in a menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default '-'.

          menu_deselect_page
            Menu character accelerator to deselect all items on  this  page
            of  a  menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  De-
            fault '\'.

          menu_first_page
            Menu character accelerator to jump to the first page in a menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default '^'.

          menu_headings
            Controls  how  the  headings in a menu are highlighted.  Values
            are 'bold', 'inverse', or 'underline'.  Not all ports can actu-
            ally display all three types.

          menu_invert_all
            Menu  character accelerator to invert all items in a menu.  Im-
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default '@'.

          menu_invert_page
            Menu character accelerator to invert all items on this page  of
            a  menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default
            '~'.

          menu_last_page
            Menu character accelerator to jump to the last page in a  menu.
            Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default '|'.

          menu_next_page
            Menu  character accelerator to goto the next menu page.  Imple-
            mented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default '>'.


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          menu_previous_page
            Menu character accelerator to goto the previous menu page.  Im-
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.  Default '<'.

          menu_search
            Menu  character  accelerator to search for a menu item.  Imple-
            mented by the Amiga, Gem and X11 ports.  Default ':'.

          menu_select_all
            Menu character accelerator to select all items in a menu.   Im-
            plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default '.'.

          menu_select_page
            Menu  character accelerator to select all items on this page of
            a menu.  Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports.   Default
            ','.

          monsters
            Set  the  characters  used  to display monster classes (default
            ``abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU-
            VWXYZ@ '&;:~]'').   This  string  is subjected to the same pro-
            cessing as the dungeon option.  The order of the symbols is ant
            or  other insect, blob, cockatrice, dog or other canine, eye or
            sphere, feline, gremlin, humanoid, imp or minor  demon,  jelly,
            kobold,  leprechaun, mimic, nymph, orc, piercer, quadruped, ro-
            dent, arachnid or centipede, trapper or lurker above, horse  or
            unicorn,  vortex, worm, xan or other mythical/fantastic insect,
            light, zruty, angelic being, bat or bird, centaur, dragon, ele-
            mental,  fungus  or mold, gnome, giant humanoid, invisible mon-
            ster, jabberwock, Keystone Kop, lich, mummy, naga,  ogre,  pud-
            ding or ooze, quantum mechanic, rust monster, snake, troll, um-
            ber hulk, vampire, wraith, xorn, apelike creature, zombie,  hu-
            man,  ghost, golem, demon, sea monster, lizard, long worm tail,
            and mimic.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          msghistory
            The number of top line messages to save (and  recall  with  ^P)
            (default 20).  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          msg_window
            Allows  you  to change the way recalled messages are displayed.
            (It is currently implemented for tty only.)  The possible  val-
            ues are:

                 s - single message (default, this was the behavior before 3.4.0).
                 c - combination, two messages as `single', then as `full'.
                 f - full window, oldest message first.
                 r - full window, newest message first.

            For  backward  compatibility,  no  value  needs to be specified
            (which defaults to `full'), or it can  be  negated  (which  de-
            faults to `single').




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          name
            Set  your  character's  name (defaults to your user name).  You
            can also set your character's role by appending a dash and  one
            or more letters of the role (that is, by suffixing one of -A -B
            -C -H -K -M -P -Ra -Ro -S -T -V -W).  If -@  is  used  for  the
            role,  then  a random one will be automatically chosen.  Cannot
            be set with the `O' command.

          newcolors
            Set the color palette for tty ports to  more  beautiful  values
            than  the  original  NetHack  palette. If black is not shown as
            dark gray, disable this option (default  on).   Cannot  be  set
            with the `O' command.

          news
            Read the NetHack news file, if present (default on).  Since the
            news is shown at the beginning of the game, there's no point in
            setting this with the `O' command.

          null
            Send padding nulls to the terminal (default off).

          number_pad
            Use the number keys to move instead of [yuhjklbn] (default 0 or
            off).  (number_pad:2 invokes the old  DOS  behavior  where  `5'
            means `g', meta-`5' means `G',  and meta-`0' means `I'.)

          objects
            Set  the  characters  used  to  display object classes (default
            ``])[="(%!?+/$*`0_.'').  This string is subjected to  the  same
            processing  as the dungeon option.  The order of the symbols is
            illegal-object (should never be  seen),  weapon,  armor,  ring,
            amulet,  tool, food, potion, scroll, spellbook, wand, gold, gem
            or rock, boulder or statue, iron ball, chain, and venom.   Can-
            not be set with the `O' command.

          packorder
            Specify   the   order   to   list   object  types  in  (default
            ``")[%?+!=/(*`0_'').  The value of  this  option  should  be  a
            string  containing  the  symbols  for the various object types.
            Any omitted types are filled in at the end  from  the  previous
            order.

          perm_invent
            If  true,  always  display  your current inventory in a window.
            This only makes sense for windowing system interfaces that  im-
            plement this feature.

          pettype
            Specify  the  type  of  your  initial pet, if you are playing a
            character class that uses multiple types of pets; or choose  to
            have  no  initial  pet  at  all.   Possible values are ``cat'',
            ``dog'' and ``none''.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.



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          pickup_burden
            When you pick up an item that  would  exceed  this  encumbrance
            level  (Unburdened, Burdened, streSsed, straiNed, overTaxed, or
            overLoaded), you will be asked if you want to  continue.   (De-
            fault `S').

          pickup_thrown
            If  this  boolean  option  is true and autopickup is on, try to
            pick up things that you threw, even if  they  aren't  in  pick-
            up_types.  Default is on.

          pickup_types
            Specify the object types to be picked up when autopickup is on.
            Default is all types.  If your copy of the game has the experi-
            mental  compile time option AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTIONS included, you
            may be able  to  use  autopickup_exception  configuration  file
            lines to further refine autopickup behavior.

          prayconfirm
            Prompt for confirmation before praying (default on).

          pushweapon
            Using  the  `w' (wield) command when already wielding something
            pushes the old item into your alternate  weapon  slot  (default
            off).

          qwertz_layout
            If  QWERTZ  was set in config.h at compile-time this option can
            be used to swap the y and z keys. This is useful for some  key-
            board layouts.

          race
            Selects  your  race  (for example, ``race:human'').  Default is
            random.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          rest_on_space
            Make the space bar a synonym for the `.'  (rest)  command  (de-
            fault off).

          role
            Pick your type of character (ex. ``role:Samurai''); synonym for
            ``character''.  See ``name'' for an alternate method of  speci-
            fying  your  role.  Normally only the first letter of the value
            is examined; `r' is an exception  with  ``Rogue'',  ``Ranger'',
            and ``random'' values.

          runmode
            Controls  the amount of screen updating for the map window when
            engaged in multi-turn movement (running via shift+direction  or
            control+direction  and  so  forth, or via the travel command or
            mouse click).  The possible values are:





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                 teleport - update the map after movement has finished;
                 run - update the map after every seven or so steps;
                 walk - update the map after each step;
                 crawl - like walk, but pause briefly after each step.

            This option only affects the game's screen display, not the ac-
            tual  results  of moving.  The default is `run'; versions prior
            to 3.4.1 used `teleport' only.  Whether or not  the  effect  is
            noticeable will depend upon the window port used or on the type
            of terminal.

          safe_pet
            Prevent you from (knowingly) attacking your pets (default on).

          scores
            Control what parts of the score list you are shown at  the  end
            (ex.   ``scores:5  top  scores/4 around my score/own scores'').
            Only the first letter of each category (`t', `a',  or  `o')  is
            necessary.

          showborn
            When  the game ends, show the number of each monster created in
            the "Vanquished creatures" list, if it differs from the  number
            of those monsters killed.

          showexp
            Show your accumulated experience points on bottom line (default
            off).

          showrace
            Display yourself as the glyph for your race,  rather  than  the
            glyph  for your role (default off).  Note that this setting af-
            fects only the appearance of the display, not the way the  game
            treats you.

          showscore
            Show your approximate accumulated score on bottom line (default
            off).

          silent
            Suppress terminal beeps (default on).

          sortpack
            Sort the pack contents by type when displaying  inventory  (de-
            fault on).

          sound
            Enable  messages  about what your character hears (default on).
            Note that this has nothing to do with your computer's audio ca-
            pabilities.   This  option is only partly under player control.
            The game toggles it off and on during and after sleep, for  ex-
            ample.




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          sparkle
            Display a sparkly effect when a monster (including yourself) is
            hit by an attack to which it is resistant (default on).

          standout
            Boldface monsters and ``--More--'' (default off).

          suppress_alert
            This option may be set to a NetHack version level  to  suppress
            alert  notification messages about feature changes for that and
            prior versions (ex. ``suppress_alert:3.3.1'').

          time
            Show the elapsed game time in turns  on  bottom  line  (default
            off).

          timed_delay
            When  pausing  momentarily for display effect, such as with ex-
            plosions and moving objects, use a timer  rather  than  sending
            extra  characters to the screen.  (Applies to ``tty'' interface
            only; ``X11'' interface always uses a timer based  delay.   The
            default is on if configured into the program.)

          tombstone
            Draw a tombstone graphic upon your death (default on).

          toptenwin
            Put the ending display in a NetHack window instead of on stdout
            (default off).  Setting this option makes the score list  visi-
            ble  when  a  windowing version of NetHack is started without a
            parent window, but it no longer leaves the  score  list  around
            after game end on a terminal or emulating window.

          traps
            Set   the   graphics  symbols  for  displaying  traps  (default
            ``^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"^^^^'').  The traps option should  be  fol-
            lowed  by a string of 1-22 characters to be used instead of the
            default traps characters.  This string is subjected to the same
            processing as the dungeon option.

            The  order  of  the  symbols is: arrow trap, dart trap, falling
            rock trap, squeaky board, bear trap, land mine, rolling boulder
            trap, sleeping gas trap, rust trap, fire trap, pit, spiked pit,
            hole, trap door, teleportation trap,  level  teleporter,  magic
            portal,  web,  statue trap, magic trap, anti-magic field, poly-
            morph trap.

            Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          travel
            Allow the travel command (default on).  Turning this option off
            will  prevent  the game from attempting unintended moves if you
            make inadvertent mouse clicks on the map window.



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          verbose
            Provide more commentary during the game (default on).

          windowtype
            Select which windowing  system  to  use,  such  as  ``tty''  or
            ``X11''  (default  depends on version).  Cannot be set with the
            `O' command.

          win_edge
            Align menus and text windows in tty left instead of right. (de-
            fault off)

          9.5.  Window Port Customization options

               Here  are  explanations of the various options that are used
          to customize and change the  characteristics  of  the  windowtype
          that you have chosen.  Character strings that are too long may be
          truncated.  Not all window ports will  adjust  for  all  settings
          listed  here.   You  can  safely add any of these options to your
          config file, and if the window port is capable  of  adjusting  to
          suit  your  preferences, it will attempt to do so. If it can't it
          will silently ignore it.  You can find out if an option  is  sup-
          ported  by the window port that you are currently using by check-
          ing to see if it shows up in the Options list.  Some options  are
          dynamic  and  can  be specified during the game with the `O' com-
          mand.

          align_message
            Where to align or place the message window (top, bottom,  left,
            or right)

          align_status
            Where  to  align or place the status window (top, bottom, left,
            or right).

          ascii_map
            NetHack should display an ascii character map if it can.

          color
            NetHack should display color if it can for different  monsters,
            objects, and dungeon features

          eight_bit_tty
            NetHack  should  pass  eight-bit character values (for example,
            specified with the traps option) straight through to your  ter-
            minal (default off).

          font_map
            NetHack  should  use a font by the chosen name for the map win-
            dow.

          font_menu
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name for menu windows.



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          font_message
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name  for  the  message
            window.

          font_status
            NetHack  should  use  a  font by the chosen name for the status
            window.

          font_text
            NetHack should use a font by the chosen name for text windows.

          font_size_map
            NetHack should use this size font for the map window.

          font_size_menu
            NetHack should use this size font for menu windows.

          font_size_message
            NetHack should use this size font for the message window.

          font_size_status
            NetHack should use this size font for the status window.

          font_size_text
            NetHack should use this size font for text windows.

          fullscreen
            NetHack should try and display on the entire screen rather than
            in a window.

          hilite_pet
            Visually  distinguish  pets from similar animals (default off).
            The behavior of this option depends on the  type  of  windowing
            you use.  In text windowing, text highlighting or inverse video
            is often used; with tiles, generally displays  a  heart  symbol
            near pets.

          large_font
            NetHack should use a large font.

          map_mode
            NetHack should display the map in the manner specified.

          mouse_support
            Allow use of the mouse for input and travel.

          player_selection
            NetHack  should pop up dialog boxes, or use prompts for charac-
            ter selection.

          popup_dialog
            NetHack should pop up dialog boxes for input.




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          preload_tiles
            NetHack should preload tiles into memory.  For example, in  the
            protected  mode  MSDOS  version, control whether tiles get pre-
            loaded into RAM at the start of the game.   Doing  so  enhances
            performance  of  the  tile graphics, but uses more memory. (de-
            fault on).  Cannot be set with the `O' command.

          scroll_amount
            NetHack should scroll the display by this number of cells  when
            the hero reaches the scroll_margin.

          scroll_margin
            NetHack  should  scroll  the display when the hero or cursor is
            this number of cells away from the edge of the window.

          softkeyboard
            Display an onscreen keyboard.  Handhelds  are  most  likely  to
            support this option.

          splash_screen
            NetHack  should display an opening splash screen when it starts
            up (default yes).

          tiled_map
            NetHack should display a tiled map if it can.

          tile_file
            Specify the name of an alternative tile file  to  override  the
            default.

          tile_height
            Specify  the  preferred  height  of each tile in a tile capable
            port.

          tile_width
            Specify the preferred width of each tile in a tile capable port

          use_inverse
            NetHack should display inverse when the game specifies it.

          vary_msgcount
            NetHack should display this number of messages at a time in the
            message window.

          windowcolors
            NetHack   should  display  windows  with  the  specified  fore-
            ground/background colors if it can.

          wraptext
            NetHack port should wrap long lines of text if they  don't  fit
            in the visible area of the window.





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          9.6.  Platform-specific Customization options

               Here  are  explanations of options that are used by specific
          platforms or ports to customize and change the port behavior.

          altkeyhandler
            Select an alternate keystroke handler dll to  load  (Win32  tty
            NetHack  only).   The  name of the handler is specified without
            the .dll extension and without any path information.  Cannot be
            set with the `O' command.

          altmeta
            (default on, AMIGA NetHack only).

          BIOS
            Use BIOS calls to update the screen display quickly and to read
            the keyboard (allowing the use of arrow keys to  move)  on  ma-
            chines  with  an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default off, OS/2,
            PC, and ST NetHack only).

          flush
            (default off, AMIGA NetHack only).

          MACgraphics
            (default on, Mac NetHack only).

          page_wait
            (default on, Mac NetHack only).

          rawio
            Force raw (non-cbreak) mode for faster output and more  bullet-
            proof  input  (MS-DOS sometimes treats `^P' as a printer toggle
            without it) (default off,  OS/2,  PC,  and  ST  NetHack  only).
            Note:   DEC  Rainbows hang if this is turned on.  Cannot be set
            with the `O' command.

          soundcard
            (default on, PC NetHack only).  Cannot be set with the `O' com-
            mand.

          subkeyvalue
            (Win32  tty  NetHack  only).  May be used to alter the value of
            keystrokes that the operating system returns to NetHack to help
            compensate  for international keyboard issues.  OPTIONS=subkey-
            value:171/92 will return 92 to NetHack, if 171  was  originally
            going  to be returned.  You can use multiple subkeyvalue state-
            ments in the config file if needed.  Cannot be set with the `O'
            command.

          video
            Set the video mode used (PC NetHack only).  Values are `autode-
            tect', `default', or `vga'.   Setting  `vga'  (or  `autodetect'
            with  vga  hardware  present)  will  cause  the game to display
            tiles.  Cannot be set with the `O' command.


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          videocolors
            Set the color palette for PC systems  using  NO_TERMS  (default
            4-2-6-1-5-3-15-12-10-14-9-13-11,  (PC NetHack only).  The order
            of  colors  is  red,  green,  brown,   blue,   magenta,   cyan,
            bright.white,  bright.red,  bright.green,  yellow, bright.blue,
            bright.magenta, and bright.cyan.  Other systems  compiled  with
            TTY_GRAPHICS  and VIDEOSHADES allow defining three more colors.
            The order of colors is red, green, brown, blue, magenta,  cyan,
            gray,  black,  bright.red,  bright.green,  yellow, bright.blue,
            bright.magenta, bright.cyan and white.  Cannot be set with  the
            `O' command.

          videoshades
            Set the intensity level of the three gray scales available (de-
            fault dark normal light, PC NetHack only).  If the game display
            is  difficult to read, try adjusting these scales; if this does
            not correct the problem, try !color.  Cannot be  set  with  the
            `O' command.

          9.7.  Configuring autopickup exceptions

               There  is  an  experimental  compile  time option called AU-
          TOPICKUP_EXCEPTIONS.  If your copy of the  game  was  built  with
          that  option  defined, you can further refine the behavior of the
          autopickup option beyond what  is  available  through  the  pick-
          up_types option.

               By  placing autopickup_exception lines in your configuration
          file, you can define patterns to be  checked  when  the  game  is
          about to autopickup something.

          autopickup_exception
            Sets  an  exception  to the pickup_types option.  The autopick-
            up_exception option should be followed  by  a  string  of  1-80
            characters  to be used as a pattern to match against the singu-
            lar form of the description of an object at your location.

               You may use the following special characters in a pattern:

                 *--- matches 0 or more characters.
                 ?--- matches any single character.

               In addition, some characters are treated specially  if  they
          occur as the first character in the string pattern, specifically:

               < - always pickup an object that matches the pattern that follows.
               > - never pickup an object that matches the pattern that follows.

               Can be set with the `O' command, but the setting is not pre-
          served across saves and restores.

               Here's a couple of examples of autopickup_exceptions:




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               autopickup_exception="<*arrow"
               autopickup_exception=">*corpse"
               autopickup_exception=">* cursed*"

          The first example above will result in autopickup of any type  of
          arrow.  The second example results in the exclusion of any corpse
          from autopickup.  The last example results in  the  exclusion  of
          items  known to be cursed from autopickup.  A `never pickup' rule
          takes precedence over an `always pickup' rule if both match.

          9.8.  Configuring User Sounds

               Some platforms allow you to define sound files to be  played
          when  a  message that matches a user-defined pattern is delivered
          to the message window.  At this time the Qt port and the win32tty
          and win32gui ports support the use of user sounds.

               The  following  config  file entries are relevant to mapping
          user sounds to messages:

          SOUNDDIR
            The directory that houses the sound files to be played.

          SOUND
            An entry that maps a sound file  to  a  user-specified  message
            pattern.   Each  SOUND  entry is broken down into the following
            parts:

                 MESG       - message window mapping (the only one supported in 3.4).
                 pattern    - the pattern to match.
                 sound file - the sound file to play.
                 volume     - the volume to be set while playing the sound file.

               The exact format for the  pattern  depends  on  whether  the
          platform is built to use ``regular expressions'' or NetHack's own
          internal pattern matching facility. The  ``regular  expressions''
          matching can be much more sophisticated than the internal NetHack
          pattern matching, but requires 3rd party libraries on some  plat-
          forms.   There  are  plenty of references available elsewhere for
          explaining ``regular expressions''. You can verify which  pattern
          matching is used by your port with the #version command.

               NetHack's internal pattern matching routine uses the follow-
          ing special characters in its pattern matching:

                 *--- matches 0 or more characters.
                 ?--- matches any single character.

               Here's an example of a sound mapping using NetHack's  inter-
          nal pattern matching facility:

                   SOUND=MESG "*chime of a cash register*" "gong.wav" 50

          specifies  that  any  message  with  "chime  of  a cash register"


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          contained in it will trigger the playing of "gong.wav".  You  can
          have multiple SOUND entries in your config file.

          9.9.  Configuring NetHack for Play by the Blind

               NetHack  can be set up to use only standard ASCII characters
          for making maps of the dungeons. This makes the  MS-DOS  versions
          of  NetHack  completely  accessible  to  the blind who use speech
          and/or Braille access technologies.  Players will require a  good
          working  knowledge  of their screen-reader's review features, and
          will have to know how to  navigate  horizontally  and  vertically
          character  by character. They will also find the search capabili-
          ties of their screen-readers to be quite valuable. Be certain  to
          examine  this  Guidebook  before playing so you have an idea what
          the screen layout is like. You'll also need to be able to  locate
          the  PC  cursor.  It  is  always where your character is located.
          Merely searching for an @-sign will not always find your  charac-
          ter since there are other humanoids represented by the same sign.
          Your screen-reader should also have a function  which  gives  you
          the  row  and  column  of  your  review cursor and the PC cursor.
          These co-ordinates are often useful in giving  players  a  better
          sense of the overall location of items on the screen.

               While  it is not difficult for experienced users to edit the
          defaults.nh file to accomplish this, novices may find  this  task
          somewhat  daunting.   Included  in  all official distributions of
          NetHack is a file called NHAccess.nh.  Replacing defaults.nh with
          this  file  will  cause the game to run in a manner accessible to
          the blind. After you have gained some experience  with  the  game
          and  with editing files, you may want to alter settings to better
          suit your preferences. Instructions on how to do this are includ-
          ed  in  the NHAccess.nh file itself. The most crucial settings to
          make the game accessible are:

          IBMgraphics
            Disable IBMgraphics by commenting out this option.

          menustyle:traditional
            This will assist in the interface to speech synthesizers.

          number_pad
            A lot of speech access programs use the  number-pad  to  review
            the screen.  If this is the case, disable the number_pad option
            and use the traditional Rogue-like commands.

          Character graphics
            Comment out all character graphics sets found near  the  bottom
            of  the  defaults.nh file.  Most of these replace NetHack's de-
            fault representation of the dungeon using standard ASCII  char-
            acters  with  fancier  characters from extended character sets,
            and these fancier characters can annoy screen-readers.





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          10.  Scoring

               NetHack maintains a list of the top  scores  or  scorers  on
          your machine, depending on how it is set up.  In the latter case,
          each account on the machine can post only one  non-winning  score
          on  this  list.   If  you  score higher than someone else on this
          list, or better your previous score, you will be inserted in  the
          proper  place  under your current name.  How many scores are kept
          can also be set up when NetHack is compiled.

               Your score is chiefly based upon  how  much  experience  you
          gained, how much loot you accumulated, how deep you explored, and
          how the game ended.  If you quit the game, you escape with all of
          your  gold  intact.   If, however, you get killed in the Mazes of
          Menace, the guild will only hear about 90% of your gold when your
          corpse  is  discovered  (adventurers  have  been known to collect
          finder's fees).  So, consider whether you want to take  one  last
          hit  at  that  monster  and  possibly live, or quit and stop with
          whatever you have.  If you quit, you keep all your gold,  but  if
          you swing and live, you might find more.

               If  you  just want to see what the current top players/games
          list is, you can type nethack -s all on most versions.


          11.  Explore mode

               NetHack is an intricate and difficult game.   Novices  might
          falter in fear, aware of their ignorance of the means to survive.
          Well, fear not.  Your dungeon may come  equipped  with  an  ``ex-
          plore''  or  ``discovery'' mode that enables you to keep old save
          files and cheat death, at the paltry cost of not getting  on  the
          high score list.

               There  are  two  ways  of  enabling explore mode.  One is to
          start the game with the -X switch.  The other is to issue the `X'
          command  while  already  playing the game.  The other benefits of
          explore mode are left for the trepid reader to discover.


          12.  Credits

               The original hack game was  modeled  on  the  Berkeley  UNIX
          rogue  game.   Large  portions  of  this  paper  were shamelessly
          cribbed from A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom, by Michael  C.  Toy
          and  Kenneth  C.  R. C. Arnold.  Small portions were adapted from
          Further Exploration of the Dungeons of Doom, by Ken Arromdee.

               NetHack is the product of literally dozens of people's work.
          Main  events  in the course of the game development are described
          below:





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               Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack, with help  from  Kenny
          Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne.

               Andries Brouwer did a major re-write, transforming Hack into
          a very different game, and published (at  least)  three  versions
          (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for UNIX machines to the Usenet.

               Don  G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft C and MS-DOS,
          producing PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC  Rainbow  graphics
          in  version 1.03g, and went on to produce at least four more ver-
          sions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6).

               R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to  Lattice  C  and  the  Atari
          520/1040ST, producing ST Hack 1.03.

               Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together,
          incorporating many of the added features,  and  produced  NetHack
          1.4.   He  then  coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and
          debugging NetHack 1.4 and released NetHack versions 2.2 and 2.3.

               Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading
          a team which included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet, Steve
          Creps, Eric Hendrickson, Izchak Miller, John Rupley, Mike Threep-
          oint, and Janet Walz, to produce NetHack 3.0c.

               NetHack  3.0  was  ported  to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to
          OS/2 by Timo Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel.   The  three
          of them and Kevin Darcy later joined the main development team to
          produce subsequent revisions of 3.0.

               Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga.   Norm
          Meluch,  Stephen  Spackman  and Pierre Martineau designed overlay
          code for PC NetHack 3.0.  Johnny Lee ported NetHack  3.0  to  the
          Macintosh.   Along with various other Dungeoneers, they continued
          to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports through  the  later
          revisions of 3.0.

               Headed  by  Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller
          and Janet Walz, the development team which now included  Ken  Ar-
          romdee,  David  Cohrs,  Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy, Matt
          Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin,  Eric
          Raymond,  and  Eric  Smith  undertook  a radical revision of 3.0.
          They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major parts of
          the  code.   They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
          individual character quests, a new endgame  and  many  other  new
          features, and produced NetHack 3.1.

               Ken  Lorber,  Gregg  Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from
          Richard Addison, Mike Passaretti,  and  Olaf  Seibert,  developed
          NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.

               Norm  Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Sche-
          lin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported
          NetHack 3.1 to the PC.


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               Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike
          Engber, David Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan  Handler,  Johnny
          Lee,  Tim  Lennan, Rob Menke, and Andy Swanson, developed NetHack
          3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for MPW.  Building on their de-
          velopment, Barton House added a Think C port.

               Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2.  Eric Smith port-
          ed NetHack 3.1 to the Atari.  Pat Rankin, with help  from  Joshua
          Delahunty,  was  responsible  for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1.
          Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to Windows NT.

               Dean Luick, with help from David  Cohrs,  developed  NetHack
          3.1  for  X11.   Warwick Allison wrote a tiled version of NetHack
          for the Atari; he later contributed the tiles to the DevTeam  and
          tile support was then added to other platforms.

               The  3.2 development team, comprised of Michael Allison, Ken
          Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps,  Kevin  Darcy,
          Timo  Hakulinen,  Steve  Linhart,  Dean  Luick,  Pat Rankin, Eric
          Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz,  and  Paul  Winner,  released
          version 3.2 in April of 1996.

               Version 3.2 marked the tenth anniversary of the formation of
          the development team.  In a testament to their dedication to  the
          game,  all  thirteen members of the original development team re-
          mained on the team at the start of work on that release.   During
          the  interval  between  the  release of 3.1.3 and 3.2, one of the
          founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak Miller,  was
          diagnosed  with cancer and passed away.  That release of the game
          was dedicated to him by the development and porting teams.

               During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusi-
          asts  of  the  game added their own modifications to the game and
          made these ``variants'' publicly available:

               Tom Proudfoot and Yuval Oren created  NetHack++,  which  was
          quickly  renamed NetHack--.  Working independently, Stephen White
          wrote NetHack Plus.  Tom Proudfoot later merged NetHack Plus  and
          his own NetHack-- to produce SLASH.  Larry Stewart-Zerba and War-
          wick Allison improved the spell casting system  with  the  Wizard
          Patch.   Warwick Allison also ported NetHack to use the Qt inter-
          face.

               Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch  to  pro-
          duce  Slash'em,  and with the help of Kevin Hugo, added more fea-
          tures.  Kevin later joined the DevTeam and incorporated the  best
          of these ideas in NetHack 3.3.

               The final update to 3.2 was the bug fix release 3.2.3, which
          was released simultaneously with 3.3.0 in December 1999  just  in
          time for the Year 2000.

               The 3.3 development team, consisting of Michael Allison, Ken
          Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps,  Kevin  Darcy,


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          Timo  Hakulinen,  Kevin  Hugo,  Steve  Linhart,  Ken Lorber, Dean
          Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet  Walz,  and
          Paul  Winner, released 3.3.0 in December 1999 and 3.3.1 in August
          of 2000.

               Version 3.3 offered many firsts. It was the first version to
          separate  race and profession. The Elf class was removed in pref-
          erence to an elf race, and the races of dwarves, gnomes, and orcs
          made  their  first  appearance in the game alongside the familiar
          human race.  Monk and Ranger roles joined Archeologists,  Barbar-
          ians,   Cavemen,  Healers,  Knights,  Priests,  Rogues,  Samurai,
          Tourists, Valkyries and of course,  Wizards.   It  was  also  the
          first  version  to  allow  you to ride a steed, and was the first
          version to have a publicly available  web-site  listing  all  the
          bugs  that  had been discovered.  Despite that constantly growing
          bug list, 3.3 proved stable enough to last for more than  a  year
          and a half.

               The  3.4 development team initially consisted of Michael Al-
          lison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin Hugo,  Ken
          Lorber,  Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and
          Paul Winner, with  Warwick Allison joining just  before  the  re-
          lease of NetHack 3.4.0 in March 2002.

               As  with version 3.3, various people contributed to the game
          as a whole as well as supporting ports on the different platforms
          that NetHack runs on:

               Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.

               Michael  Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS-DOS plat-
          form.  Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir provided encouragement.

               Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and  en-
          hanced the Macintosh port of 3.4.

               Michael  Allison,  David  Cohrs, Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas,
          and Yitzhak Sapir maintained and enhanced 3.4 for  the  Microsoft
          Windows platform.  Alex Kompel contributed a new graphical inter-
          face for the Windows port.  Alex Kompel also contributed  a  Win-
          dows CE port for 3.4.1.

               Ron Van Iwaarden maintained 3.4 for OS/2.

               Janne  Salmijarvi  and  Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced
          the Amiga port of 3.4 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected  it  for
          3.3.1.

               Christian  ``Marvin''  Bressler maintained 3.4 for the Atari
          after he resurrected it for 3.3.1.

               There is a NetHack web site  maintained  by  Ken  Lorber  at
          http://www.nethack.org/.



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                    - - - - - - - - - -

               From  time  to  time,  some depraved individual out there in
          netland sends a particularly intriguing modification to help  out
          with  the  game.   The Gods of the Dungeon sometimes make note of
          the names of the worst of these miscreants in this, the  list  of
          Dungeoneers:


                    Adam Aronow            Izchak Miller         Mike Stephenson
                    Alex Kompel            J. Ali Harlow           Norm Meluch
                   Andreas Dorn              Janet Walz            Olaf Seibert
                    Andy Church           Janne Salmijarvi        Pasi Kallinen
                   Andy Swanson        Jean-Christophe Collet       Pat Rankin
                   Ari Huttunen            Jochen Erwied           Paul Winner
                   Barton House             John Kallen          Pierre Martineau
                Benson I. Margulies         John Rupley             Ralf Brown
                     Bill Dyer              John S. Bien            Ray Chason
                 Boudewijn Waijers           Johnny Lee          Richard Addison
                     Bruce Cox               Jon W{tte            Richard Beigel
                  Bruce Holloway          Jonathan Handler      Richard P. Hughey
                  Bruce Mewborne          Joshua Delahunty          Rob Menke
                   Carl Schelin            Keizo Yamamoto         Robin Johnson
                    Chris Russo              Ken Arnold         Roderick Schertler
                    David Cohrs             Ken Arromdee          Roland McGrath
                  David Damerell             Ken Lorber          Ron Van Iwaarden
                   David Gentzel           Ken Washikita          Ronnen Miller
                  David Hairston            Kevin Darcy             Ross Brown
                    Dean Luick               Kevin Hugo          Sascha Wostmann
                     Del Lamb               Kevin Sitze            Scott Bigham
                   Deron Meranda          Kevin Smolkowski       Scott R. Turner
                   Dion Nicolaas            Kevin Sweet          Stephen Spackman
                  Dylan O'Donnell           Lars Huttar           Stephen White
                    Eric Backus             Malcolm Ryan           Steve Creps
                 Eric Hendrickson          Mark Gooderum          Steve Linhart
                   Eric R. Smith            Mark Modrall        Steve VanDevender
                  Eric S. Raymond         Marvin Bressler          Teemu Suikki
                   Erik Andersen            Matthew Day             Tim Lennan
                 Frederick Roeber           Merlyn LeRoy          Timo Hakulinen
                    Gil Neiger            Michael Allison            Tom Almy
                    Greg Laskin             Michael Feir             Tom West
                    Greg Olson             Michael Hamel          Warren Cheung
                  Gregg Wonderly          Michael Sokolov        Warwick Allison
                   Hao-yang Wang            Mike Engber           Yitzhak Sapir
                   Helge Hafting            Mike Gallop
               Irina Rempt-Drijfhout      Mike Passaretti

          Brand  and  product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
          of their respective holders.







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