Nethack 366 Guidebook

A Guide to the Mazes of Menace
(Guidebook for NetHack)
Original version - Eric S. Raymond

(Edited and expanded for 3.6 by Mike Stephenson and others)
January 27, 2020
1. Introduction
Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant in your daily occupation. Strange dreams of
prospecting, stealing, 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 recollection of the
strange and powerful creatures that seem to be lurking behind every corner of the dungeon in your dream. Could
these details haunting your dreams be real? As each night passes, 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 entered 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 spend-
ing 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.
In the morning you awake, collect your belongings, and set off for the dungeon. After several days of un-
eventful 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 morning, you gather your gear,
eat what may be your last meal outside, 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 un-
common strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.
NetHack Guidebook 1
NetHack Guidebook 2
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, anesthetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instruments, they can divine a being’s state of health or sick-
ness. 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 fight-
ing 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 advancing 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.
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. Although seemingly weak and easy to overcome at first sight, an experienced Wizard is a deadly foe.
You may also choose the race of your character (within limits; most roles have restrictions on which races are
eligible for them):
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 secret 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 to 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.
When NetHack’s ancestor rogue first appeared, its screen orientation was almost unique among computer fan-
tasy 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 sentences and explain the re-
sults 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 sec-
tion will be used for the map.
NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack Guidebook 3
NetHack can even be played by blind players, with the assistance 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 ex-
citing game despite having won several times.
NetHack offers a variety of display options. The options available to you will vary from port to port, depend-
ing on the capabilities of your hardware and software, and whether various compile-time options were enabled when
your executable was created. The three possible display options are: a monochrome character interface, a color
character interface, and a graphical interface using small pictures called tiles. The two character interfaces allow
fonts with other characters to be substituted, but the default assignments use standard ASCII characters to represent
everything. There is no difference between the various display options with respect to game play. Because we can-
not reproduce the tiles or colors in the Guidebook, and because it is common 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 dur-
ing 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......|
------ -------|--
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 sta-
tus. If either status line becomes longer than the width of the screen, you might not see all of it. Here are explana-
tions of what the various status items mean (though your configuration may not have all the status items listed be-
low):
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 basic 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 manipu-
lation of objects.
Constitution
Constitution affects your ability to recover from injuries and other strains on your stamina. When strength is

NetHack Guidebook 4
low or modest, constitution also affects how much you can carry. With sufficiently high strength, the contribu-
tion to carrying capacity from your constitution no longer matters.
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 of-
fer you.
Alignment
Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. Often, Lawful is taken as good and Chaotic as evil, but legal and ethical do not
always coincide. Your alignment influences how other monsters react toward you. Monsters of a like align-
ment are more likely to be non-aggressive, while those of an opposing alignment are more likely to be serious-
ly 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 somewhere 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, rest-
ing will regenerate the amount available.
Armor Class
A measure of how effectively your armor stops blows from unfriendly creatures. The lower this number is,
the more effective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative armor class.
Experience
Your current experience level and experience points. As you adventure, you gain experience points. At cer-
tain experience point totals, you gain an experience level. The more experienced you are, the better you fight
and withstand magical 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.
Status
Hunger: your current hunger status. Values are Satiated, Not Hungry (or Normal), Hungry, Weak, and
Fainting. Not shown when Normal.
Encumbrance: an indication of how what you are carrying affects your ability to move. Values are Unencum-
bered, Encumbered, Stressed, Strained, Overtaxed, and Overloaded. Not shown when Unencumbered.
Fatal conditions: Stone (aka Petrifying, turning to stone), Slime (turning into green slime), Strngl (being
strangled), FoodPois (suffering from acute food poisoning), TermIll (suffering from a terminal illness).
Non-fatal conditions: Blind (can’t see), Deaf (can’t hear), Stun (stunned), Conf (confused), Hallu (halluci-
nating).
Movement modifiers: Lev (levitating), Fly (flying), Ride (riding).

NetHack Guidebook 5
Other conditions and modifiers exist, but there isn’t enough room to display them with the other status fields.
The ‘^X’ command shows all relevant status conditions.
3.2. The message line (top)

The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that describe things that are impossible to represent visual-
ly. 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.
To change how and what messages are shown on the message line, see “Configuring Message Types” and the
verbose option.
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 repre-
sents something. 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.
! 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 inhabitants of the Mazes of Menace. Watch out, they
can be nasty and vicious. Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.

NetHack Guidebook 6
I This marks the last known location of an invisible or otherwise 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 ‘/’ com-
mand (see the next section for more info).
4. Commands
Commands can be initiated by typing one or two characters to which the command is bound to, or typing the
command name in the extended commands entry. 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 ei-
ther a menu of choices or with a command line prompt requesting information. Which you are presented 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 ‘*’ indicat-
ing that you may choose an object not on the list, if you wanted to use something unexpected. Typing a ‘*’ lists
your entire inventory, so you can see the 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 com-
mand.
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 addition, movement com-
mands 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 default key bindings for your reference:
? Help menu: display one of several help texts available.
/ The “whatis” command, to 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 particular
spot on the map and then pressing one of ‘.’, ‘,’, ‘;’, or ‘:’. ‘.’ will explain the symbol at the chosen location,
conditionally check for “More info?” depending upon 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, then let you
pick another location; ‘;’ will skip additional info and also not bother asking you to choose another location 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 pressing ‘?’ will give a brief reminder about how it
works.
If the autodescribe option is on, a short description of what you see at each location is shown as you move the
cursor. Typing ‘#’ while picking a location will toggle that option on or off. The whatis_coord option con-
trols whether the short description includes map coordinates.
Specifying a name rather than a location always gives any additional information available about that name.
You may also request a description of nearby monsters, all monsters currently displayed, nearby objects, or all
objects. The whatis_coord option controls which format of map coordinate is included with their descrip-
tions.
& 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 ladder).
[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 (be-
low) are “safe.”

NetHack Guidebook 7
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 something.
m[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: move without picking up objects or fighting (even if you remember a monster there).
A few non-movement commands use the ‘m’ prefix to request operating via menu (to temporarily override the
menustyle:Traditional option). Primarily useful for ‘,’ (pickup) when there is only one class of objects
present (where there won’t be any “what kinds of objects?” prompt, so no opportunity to answer ‘m’ at that
prompt).
A few other commands (eat food, offer sacrifice, apply tinning-kit) use the ‘m’ prefix to skip checking for ap-
plicable objects on the floor and go straight to checking inventory, or (for “#loot” to remove a saddle), skip
containers and go straight to adjacent monsters. The prefix will make “#travel” command show a menu of in-
teresting targets in sight. In debug mode (aka “wizard mode”), the ‘m’ prefix may also be used with the
“#teleport” and “#wizlevelport” commands.
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 considered 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.
. Wait or rest, do nothing for one turn.
a Apply (use) a tool (pick-axe, key, lamp...).
If used on a wand, that wand will be broken, releasing its magic in the process. Confirmation is required.
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.
Â Redo the previous command.
c Close a door.
C Call (name) a monster, an individual object, or a type of object.
Same as extended command “#name”.
^C Panic button. Quit the game.
d Drop something.
For example “d7a” means drop seven items of object a.

NetHack Guidebook 8
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 ad-
dition, 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.
The last example shows a combination. There are three categories of object filtering: class (‘!’ for potions, ‘?’
for scrolls, and so on), shop status (‘u’ for unpaid, in other words, owned by the shop), and bless/curse state
(‘B’, ‘U’, ‘C’, and ‘X’ as shown above). If you specify more than one value in a category (such as “!?” for
potions and scrolls or “BU” for blessed and uncursed), an inventory object will meet the criteria if it matches
any of the specified values (so “!?” means ‘!’ or ‘?’). If you specify more than one category, an inventory ob-
ject must meet each of the category criteria (so “%u” means class ‘%’ and unpaid ‘u’). Lastly, you may speci-
fy multiple values within multiple categories: “!?BU” will select all potions and scrolls which are known to be
blessed or uncursed. (In versions prior to 3.6, filter combinations behaved differently.)
^D Kick something (usually a door).
e Eat food.
Normally checks for edible item(s) on the floor, then if none are found or none are chosen, checks for edible
item(s) in inventory. Precede ‘e’ with the ‘m’ prefix to bypass attempting to eat anything off the floor.
If you attempt to eat while already satiated, you might choke to death. If you risk it, you will be asked
whether to “continue eating?” if you survive the first bite. You can set the paranoid_confirmation:eating op-
tion to require a response of yes instead of just y.
E Engrave a message on the floor.
E− - write in the dust with your fingers.
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.
f Fire (shoot or throw) one of the objects placed in your quiver (or quiver sack, or that you have at the ready).
You may select ammunition with a previous ‘Q’ command, or let the computer pick something appropriate if
autoquiver is true.
See also ‘t’ (throw) for more general throwing and shooting.
i List your inventory (everything you’re carrying).
I List selected parts of your inventory, usually be specifying the character for a particular set of objects, like ‘[’
for armor or ‘!’ for potions.
I* - list all gems in inventory;
Iu - list all unpaid items;
Ix - list all used up items that are on your shopping bill;
IB - list all items known to be blessed;
IU - list all items known to be uncursed;
IC - list all items known to be cursed;
IX - list all items whose bless/curse status is unknown;
I$ - count your money.

NetHack Guidebook 9
o Open a door.
O Set options.
A menu showing the current option values will be displayed. You can change most values simply by selecting
the menu entry for the given option (ie, by typing its 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
available 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.
Ô Show overview.
Shortcut for “#overview”: list interesting dungeon levels visited.
(Prior to 3.6.0, ‘Ô’ was a debug mode command which listed the placement of all special levels. Use “#wiz-
where” to run that command.)
p Pay your shopping bill.
P Put on an accessory (ring, amulet, or blindfold).
This command may also be used to wear armor. The prompt for which inventory item to use will only list ac-
cessories, but choosing an unlisted item of armor will attempt to wear it. (See the ‘W’ command below. It
lists armor as the inventory choices but will accept an accessory and attempt to put that on.)
^P Repeat previous message.
Subsequent ‘^P’s repeat earlier messages. For some interfaces, the behavior can be varied via the msg_win-
dow option.
q Quaff (drink) something (potion, water, etc).
Q Select an object for your quiver, quiver sack, or just generally at the ready (only one of these is available at a
time). You can then throw this (or one of these) using the ‘f’ command.
(In versions prior to 3.3 this was the command to quit the game, which has been moved to “#quit”.)
r Read a scroll or spellbook.
R Remove a worn accessory (ring, amulet, or blindfold).
If you’re wearing more than one, you’ll be prompted for which one to remove. When you’re only wearing
one, then by default it will be removed without asking, but you can set the paranoid_confirmation option to
require a prompt.
This command may also be used to take off armor. The prompt for which inventory item to remove only lists
worn accessories, but an item of worn armor can be chosen. (See the ‘T’ command below. It lists armor as
the inventory choices but will accept an accessory and attempt to remove it.)
^R Redraw the screen.
s Search for secret doors and traps around you. It usually takes several tries to find something.
Can also be used to figure out whether there is still a monster at an adjacent “remembered, unseen monster”
marker.
S Save the game (which suspends play and exits the program). The saved game will be restored automatically
the next time you play using the same character name.
In normal play, once a saved game is restored the file used to hold the saved data is deleted. In explore mode,
once restoration is accomplished you are asked whether to keep or delete the file. Keeping the file makes it
feasible to play for a while then quit without saving and later restore again.
There is no “save current game state and keep playing” command, not even in explore mode where saved
game files can be kept and re-used.
t Throw an object or shoot a projectile.
There’s no separate “shoot” command. If you throw an arrow while wielding a bow, you are shooting that ar-
row and any weapon skill bonus or penalty for bow applies. If you throw an arrow while not wielding a bow,
you are throwing it by hand and it will generally be less effective than when shot.

NetHack Guidebook 10
See also ‘f’ (fire) for throwing or shooting an item pre-selected via the ‘Q’ (quiver) command.
T Take off armor.
If you’re wearing more than one piece, you’ll be prompted for which one to take off. (Note that this treats a
cloak covering a suit and/or a shirt, or a suit covering a shirt, as if the underlying items weren’t there.) When
you’re only wearing one, then by default it will be taken off without asking, but you can set the para-
noid_confirmation option to require a prompt.
This command may also be used to remove accessories. The prompt for which inventory item to take off only
lists worn armor, but a worn accessory can be chosen. (See the ‘R’ command above. It lists accessories as the
inventory choices but will accept an item of armor and attempt to take it off.)
^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 (or gloved) hands.
Some characters can wield two weapons at once; use the ‘X’ command (or the “#twoweapon” extended com-
mand) to do so.
W Wear armor.
This command may also be used to put on an accessory (ring, amulet, or blindfold). The prompt for which in-
ventory item to use will only list armor, but choosing an unlisted accessory will attempt to put it on. (See the
‘P’ command above. It lists accessories as the inventory choices but will accept an item of armor and attempt
to wear it.)
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.
X Toggle two-weapon combat, if your character can do it. Also available via the “#twoweapon” extended com-
mand.
(In versions prior to 3.6 this was the command to switch from normal play to “explore mode”, also known as
“discovery mode”, which has now been moved to “#exploremode”.)
^X Display basic information about your character.
Displays name, role, race, gender (unless role name makes that redundant, such as Caveman or Priestess), and
alignment, along with your patron deity and his or her opposition. It also shows most of the various items of
information from the status line(s) in a less terse form, including several additional things which don’t appear
in the normal status display due to space considerations.
In normal play, that’s all that ‘^X’ displays. In explore mode, the role and status feedback is augmented by the
information provided by enlightenment magic.
z Zap a wand.
z. - to aim at yourself, use ‘.’ for the direction.
Z Zap (cast) a spell.
Z. - to cast at yourself, use ‘.’ for the direction.
®
^Z Suspend the game (UNIX versions with job control only).
: Look at what is here.
; Show what type of thing a visible symbol corresponds to.
®
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

, Pick up some things from the floor beneath you.

May be preceded by ‘m’ to force a selection menu.
@ Toggle the autopickup option on and off.
^ Ask for the type of an adjacent 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, either by sorting the en-
tire list or by picking one spell from the menu then picking another to swap places with it. Swapping pairs of
spells changes their casting letters, so the change lasts after the current ‘+’ command finishes. Sorting the
whole list is temporary. To make the most recent sort order persist beyond the current ‘+’ command, choose
the sort option again and then pick “reassign casting letters”. (Any spells learned after that will be added to
the end of the list rather than be inserted into the sorted ordering.)
\ Show what types of objects have been discovered.
` Show discovered types for one class of objects.
! Escape to a shell.
# Perform an extended command.
As you can see, the authors of NetHack used up all the letters, so this is a way to introduce the less frequently
used commands. What extended commands are available depends on what features the game was compiled with.
#adjust
Adjust inventory letters (most useful when the fixinv option is “on”). Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-a’.
This command allows you to move an item from one particular inventory slot to another so that it has a letter
which is more meaningful for you or that it will appear in a particular location when inventory listings are dis-
played. You can move to a currently empty slot, or if the destination is occupied — and won’t merge — the
item there will swap slots with the one being moved. “#adjust” can also be used to split a stack of objects;
when choosing the item to adjust, enter a count prior to its letter.
Adjusting without a count used to collect all compatible stacks when moving to the destination. That behavior
has been changed; to gather compatible stacks, “#adjust” a stack into its own inventory slot. If it has a name
assigned, other stacks with the same name or with no name will merge provided that all their other attributes
match. If it does not have a name, only other stacks with no name are eligible. In either case, otherwise com-
patible stacks with a different name will not be merged. This contrasts with using “#adjust” to move from one
slot to a different slot. In that situation, moving (no count given) a compatible stack will merge if either stack
has a name when the other doesn’t and give that name to the result, while splitting (count given) will ignore
the source stack’s name when deciding whether to merge with the destination stack.
#annotate
Allows you to specify one line of text to associate with the current dungeon level. All levels with annotations
are displayed by the “#overview” command. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-A’, and also ‘^N’ if num-
ber_pad is on.

#apply
Apply (use) a tool such as a pick-axe, a key, or a lamp. Default key is ‘a’.
If the tool used acts on items on the floor, using the ‘m’ prefix skips those items.
If used on a wand, that wand will be broken, releasing its magic in the process. Confirmation is required.
#attributes
Show your attributes. Default key is ‘^X’.
#autopickup
Toggle the autopickup option on/off. Default key is ‘@’.
#call
Call (name) a monster, or an object in inventory, on the floor, or in the discoveries list, or add an annotation for
the current level (same as “#annotate”). Default key is ‘C’.
#cast
Cast a spell. Default key is ‘Z’.
#chat
Talk to someone. Default key is ‘M-c’.
#close
Close a door. Default key is ‘c’.
#conduct
List voluntary challenges you have maintained. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-C’.
See the section below entitled “Conduct” for details.
#dip
Dip an object into something. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-d’.
#down
Go down a staircase. Default key is ‘>’.
#drop
Drop an item. Default key is ‘d’.
#droptype
Drop specific item types. Default key is ‘D’.
#eat
Eat something. Default key is ‘e’. The ‘m’ prefix skips eating items on the floor.
#engrave
Engrave writing on the floor. Default key is ‘E’.
#enhance
Advance or check weapon and spell skills. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-e’.
#exploremode
Enter the explore mode.
Requires confirmation; default response is n (no). To really switch to explore mode, respond with y. You can
set the paranoid_confirmation:quit option to require a response of yes instead.
#fire
Fire ammunition from quiver. Default key is ‘f’.
#force
Force a lock. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-f ’.
#glance
Show what type of thing a map symbol corresponds to. Default key is ‘;’.
#help
Show the help menu. Default key is ‘?’, and also ‘h’ if number_pad is on.

#herecmdmenu
Show a menu of possible actions in your current location.
#history
Show long version and game history. Default key is ‘V’.
#inventory
Show your inventory. Default key is ‘i’.
#inventtype
Inventory specific item types. Default key is ‘I’.
#invoke
Invoke an object’s special powers. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-i’.
#jump
Jump to another location. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-j’, and also ‘j’ if number_pad is on.
#kick
Kick something. Default key is ‘^D’, and ‘k’ if number_pad is on.
#known
Show what object types have been discovered. Default key is ‘\’.
#knownclass
Show discovered types for one class of objects. Default key is ‘`’.
#levelchange
Change your experience level. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#lightsources
Show mobile light sources. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#look
Look at what is here, under you. Default key is ‘:’.
#loot
Loot a box or bag on the floor beneath you, or the saddle from a steed standing next to you. Autocompletes.
Precede with the ‘m’ prefix to skip containers at your location and go directly to removing a saddle. Default
key is ‘M-l’, and also ‘l’ if number_pad is on.
#monster
Use a monster’s special ability (when polymorphed into monster form). Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-
m’.
#name
Name a monster, an individual object, or a type of object. Same as “#call”. Autocompletes. Default keys are
‘N’, ‘M-n’, and ‘M-N’.
#offer
Offer a sacrifice to the gods. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-o’.
You’ll need to find an altar to have any chance at success. Corpses of recently killed monsters are the fodder
of choice.
The ‘m’ prefix skips offering any items which are on the altar.
#open
Open a door. Default key is ‘o’.
#options
Show and change option settings. Default key is ‘O’.
#overview
Display information you’ve discovered about the dungeon. Any visited level (unless forgotten due to amne-
sia) with an annotation is included, and many things (altars, thrones, fountains, and so on; extra stairs leading
to another dungeon branch) trigger an automatic annotation. If dungeon overview is chosen during end-of-

game disclosure, every visited level will be included regardless of annotations. Autocompletes. Default keys
are ‘Ô’, and ‘M-O’.
#panic
Test the panic routine. Terminates the current game. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
Asks for confirmation; default is n (no); continue playing. To really panic, respond with y. You can set the
paranoid_confirmation:quit option to require a response of yes instead.
#pay
Pay your shopping bill. Default key is ‘p’.
#pickup
Pick up things at the current location. Default key is ‘,’. The ‘m’ prefix forces use of a menu.
#polyself
Polymorph self. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#pray
Pray to the gods for help. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-p’.
Praying too soon after receiving prior help is a bad idea. (Hint: entering the dungeon alive is treated as having
received help. You probably shouldn’t start off a new game by praying right away.) Since using this com-
mand by accident can cause trouble, there is an option to make you confirm your intent before praying. It is
enabled by default, and you can reset the paranoid_confirmation option to disable it.
#prevmsg
Show previously displayed game messages. Default key is ‘^P’.
#puton
Put on an accessory (ring, amulet, etc). Default key is ‘P’.
#quaff
Quaff (drink) something. Default key is ‘q’.
#quit
Quit the program without saving your game. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-q’.
Since using this command by accident would throw away the current game, you are asked to confirm your in-
tent before quitting. Default response is n (no); continue playing. To really quit, respond with y. You can set
the paranoid_confirmation:quit option to require a response of yes instead.
#quiver
Select ammunition for quiver. Default key is ‘Q’.
#read
Read a scroll, a spellbook, or something else. Default key is ‘r’.
#redraw
Redraw the screen. Default key is ‘^R’, and also ‘^L’ if number_pad is on.
#remove
Remove an accessory (ring, amulet, etc). Default key is ‘R’.
#ride
Ride (or stop riding) a saddled creature. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-R’.
#rub
Rub a lamp or a stone. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-r’.
#save
Save the game and exit the program. Default key is ‘S’.
#search
Search for traps and secret doors around you. Default key is ‘s’.
#seeall
Show all equipment in use. Default key is ‘*’.

#seeamulet
Show the amulet currently worn. Default key is ‘"’.
#seearmor
Show the armor currently worn. Default key is ‘[’.
#seegold
Count your gold. Default key is ‘$’.
#seenv
Show seen vectors. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#seerings
Show the ring(s) currently worn. Default key is ‘=’.
#seespells
List and reorder known spells. Default key is ‘+’.
#seetools
Show the tools currently in use. Default key is ‘(’.
#seetrap
Show the type of an adjacent trap. Default key is ‘^’.
#seeweapon
Show the weapon currently wielded. Default key is ‘)’.
#shell
Do a shell escape. Default key is ‘!’.
#sit
Sit down. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-s’.
#stats
Show memory usage statistics. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#suspend
Suspend the game. Default key is ‘^Z’.
#swap
Swap wielded and secondary weapons. Default key is ‘x’.
#takeoff
Take off one piece of armor. Default key is ‘T’.
#takeoffall
Remove all armor. Default key is ‘A’.
#teleport
Teleport around the level. Default key is ‘^T’.
#terrain
Show bare map without displaying monsters, objects, or traps. Autocompletes.
#therecmdmenu
Show a menu of possible actions in a location next to you.
#throw
Throw something. Default key is ‘t’.
#timeout
Look at the timeout queue. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#tip
Tip over a container (bag or box) to pour out its contents. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-T’. The ‘m’
prefix makes the command use a menu.
#travel
Travel to a specific location on the map. Default key is ‘_’. Using the “request menu” prefix shows a menu of

interesting targets in sight without asking to move the cursor. When picking a target with cursor and the au-
todescribe option is on, the top line will show “(no travel path)” if your character does not know of a path to
that location.
#turn
Turn undead away. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-t’.
#twoweapon
Toggle two-weapon combat on or off. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘X’, and also ‘M-2’ if number_pad is
off.
Note that you must use suitable weapons for this type of combat, or it will be automatically turned off.
#untrap
Untrap something (trap, door, or chest). Default key is ‘M-u’, and ‘u’ if number_pad is on.
In some circumstances it can also be used to rescue trapped monsters.
#up
Go up a staircase. Default key is ‘<’.
#vanquished
List vanquished monsters. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#version
Print compile time options for this version of NetHack. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-v’.
#versionshort
Show version string. Default key is ‘v’.
#vision
Show vision array. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#wait
Rest one move while doing nothing. Default key is ‘.’, and also ‘ ’ if rest_on_space is on.
#wear
Wear a piece of armor. Default key is ‘W’.
#whatdoes
Tell what a key does. Default key is ‘&’.
#whatis
Show what type of thing a symbol corresponds to. Default key is ‘/’.
#wield
Wield a weapon. Default key is ‘w’.
#wipe
Wipe off your face. Autocompletes. Default key is ‘M-w’.
#wizbury
Bury objects under and around you. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#wizdetect
Search for hidden things (secret doors or traps or unseen monsters) within a modest radius. Autocompletes.
Debug mode only. Default key is ‘Ê’.
#wizgenesis
Create a monster. May be prefixed by a count to create more than one. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
Default key is ‘^G’.
#wizidentify
Identify all items in inventory. Autocompletes. Debug mode only. Default key is ‘Î’.
#wizintrinsic
Set one or more intrinsic attributes. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.

#wizlevelport
Teleport to another level. Autocompletes. Debug mode only. Default key is ‘^V’.
#wizmap
Map the level. Autocompletes. Debug mode only. Default key is ‘^F’.
#wizrumorcheck
Verify rumor boundaries. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#wizsmell
Smell monster. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#wizwhere
Show locations of special levels. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#wizwish
Wish for something. Autocompletes. Debug mode only. Default key is ‘^W’.
#wmode
Show wall modes. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
#zap
Zap a wand. Default key is ‘z’.
#?
Help menu: get the list of available extended commands.
If your keyboard has a meta key (which, when pressed in combination 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 com-
mand.
In NT, OS/2, PC and ST NetHack, the “Alt” key can be used in this fashion; on the Amiga, set the altmeta op-
tion to get this behavior. On other systems, if typing “Alt” plus another key transmits a two character sequence con-
sisting of an Escape followed by the other key, you may set the altmeta option to have NetHack combine them into
meta+key.
M-? #? (not supported by all platforms)
M-2 #twoweapon (unless the number_pad option is enabled)
M-a #adjust
M-A #annotate
M-c #chat
M-C #conduct
M-d #dip
M-e #enhance
M-f #force
M-i #invoke
M-j #jump
M-l #loot
M-m #monster
M-n #name
M-o #offer
M-O #overview
M-p #pray
M-q #quit

M-r #rub
M-R #ride
M-s #sit
M-t #turn
M-T #tip
M-u #untrap
M-v #version
M-w #wipe
If the number_pad option is on, some additional letter commands are available:
h #help
j #jump
k #kick
l #loot
N #name
u #untrap
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 dis-
played; 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 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 kick-
ing 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 monsters cannot open doors, although a few don’t need
to (for example, 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 something fall into it, or you discover it with the ‘s’ (search) command. 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 traditional rules of Sokoban. Some allowances are permitted in case the player gets stuck; however,
they will lower your luck.

5.3. Stairs and ladders (‘<’, ‘>’)

In general, each level in the dungeon will have a staircase going up (‘<’) to the previous level and another go-
ing down (‘>’) to the next level. There are some exceptions though. For instance, fairly early in the dungeon you
will find a level with two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon and the other 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 dungeon.
When you traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a trap which sends you to another level, the level you’re leaving
will be deactivated 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 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 current 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 occasionally 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.
Ladders serve the same purpose as staircases, and the two types of inter-level connections are nearly indistin-
guishable during game play.
5.4. 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 using 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 of-
fered an amount of gold and asked whether you’re willing to sell, or you’ll be told that the shopkeeper isn’t interest-
ed (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 ob-
tained; 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 unpaid items (those which still belong to
the shop) if you are 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.
5.4.1. Shop idiosyncrasies

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 inventory 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 command “#name” (by default bound to ‘C’), allows you to assign a name to a monster, which may be
useful to help distinguish one from another when multiple monsters 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.
In most circumstances, if you attempt to attack a peaceful monster by moving into its location, you’ll be asked
to confirm your intent. By default an answer of ‘y’ acknowledges that intent, which can be error prone if you’re us-
ing ‘y’ to move. You can set the paranoid_confirmation option to require a response of “yes” instead.
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 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’), kitten (‘f’), or pony (‘u’), which follows you about the dungeon and
fights monsters with you. Like you, your pet needs food to survive. Dogs and cats usually feed themselves on fresh
carrion and other meats; horses need vegetarian food which is harder to come by. If you’re worried about your pet
or want to train it, you can feed it, too, by throwing it food. A properly trained pet can be very useful under 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 ridden if you have the right equipment and skill. Con-
vincing 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 order 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 infor-
mation about that.
Use the ‘a’ (apply) command and pick a saddle in your inventory to attempt to put that saddle on an adjacent
creature. If successful, it will be transferred to that creature’s inventory.

Use the “#loot” command while adjacent to a saddled creature to try to remove the saddle from that creature.
If successful, it will be transferred to your inventory.
6.4. Bones levels

You may encounter the shades and corpses of other adventurers (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.
6.5. Persistence of Monsters

Monsters (a generic reference which also includes humans and pets) are only shown while they can be seen or
otherwise sensed. Moving to a location where you can’t see or sense a monster any more will result in it disappear-
ing from your map, similarly if it is the one who moved rather than you.
However, if you encounter a monster which you can’t see or sense — perhaps it is invisible and has just
tapped you on the noggin — a special “remembered, unseen monster” marker will be displayed at the location where
you think it is. That will persist until you have proven that there is no monster there, even if the unseen monster
moves to another location or you move to a spot where the marker’s location ordinarily wouldn’t be seen any more.
7. Objects
When you find something in the dungeon, it is common to want to pick it up. In NetHack, this is accom-
plished automatically by walking over the object (unless you turn off the autopickup option (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 depends on your strength and your constitution. The stronger and sturdier 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 carrying around with
you through the dungeon will encumber you. Your reactions will get slower and you’ll burn calories faster, requir-
ing 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. If you are encumbered, one of the conditions
“Burdened”, “Stressed”, “Strained”, “Overtaxed” or “Overloaded” will be shown on the bottom line status display.
When you pick up an object, it is assigned an inventory letter. 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 car-
rying, you are usually presented with a list of inventory letters to choose from (see Commands, above).
Some objects, such as weapons, are easily differentiated. Others, like scrolls and potions, are given descrip-
tions 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 ef-
fect isn’t extremely obvious, you will be asked what you want to call this type of object so you will recognize it lat-
er. 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 instead of assigning a new one.
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 enchantments 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 example, a blessed weapon will do more damage against demons.
Objects which are neither cursed nor blessed are referred to as uncursed. They could just as easily have been
described as unblessed, but the uncursed designation is what you will see within the game. A “glass half full versus
glass half empty” situation; make of that what you will.
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 inventory 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. In some cases “uncursed” will be omitted as being redundant when enough other informa-
tion is displayed. The implicit_uncursed option can be used to control this; toggle it off to have “uncursed” be dis-
played even when that can be deduced from other attributes.
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 more damage with bare (or gloved) hands than they do with
weapons.
There are wielded weapons, like maces and swords, and thrown weapons, like arrows and spears. To hit mon-
sters 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 crossbow 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 identified 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, de-
pends upon many factors. Among them are: type of weapon, quality of weapon (enchantment and/or erosion), expe-
rience level, strength, dexterity, encumbrance, and proficiency (see below). The monster’s armor class — a general
defense rating, not necessarily due to wearing of armor — is a factor too; also, some monsters are particularly vul-
nerable 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 ‘X’ 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 incurs 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’ command 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 damage 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 alternate way of throwing), ‘Q’
(quiver), ‘x’ (exchange), ‘X’ (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 dis-
tance something can be thrown depends 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 (or quiver sack, or have at the ready) when the inventory slot used for ‘Q’ runs out.
Some characters have the ability to fire a volley of multiple items in a single turn. Knowing how to load sev-
eral 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 specified. Once the volley is in motion,
all of the items will travel in the same direction; if the first ones kill a monster, the others can still continue beyond
that spot.
7.2.2. Weapon proficiency

You will have varying degrees of skill in the weapons available. Weapon proficiency, or weapon skills, affect
how well you can use particular types of weapons, and you’ll be able to improve 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” (sometimes also referred to as “restricted”, because you won’t be able to advance), “un-
skilled”, “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 mas-
ter”.
Use of a weapon in which you’re restricted or unskilled will incur a modest penalty in the chance to hit a mon-
ster 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 high-
er. A successful hit has a chance to 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 in-
creased automatically because there is a limit to your total overall skills, so you need to actively choose which skills
to enhance and which to ignore.
7.2.3. Two-Weapon combat

Some characters can use two weapons at once. Setting things up to do so can seem cumbersome but becomes
second nature with use. To wield two weapons, you need to use the “#twoweapon” command. But first you need to
have a weapon in each hand. (Note that your two weapons are not fully equal; the one in the hand you normally
wield with is considered primary and the other one is considered secondary. The most noticeable difference is after
you stop — or before you begin, for that matter — wielding two weapons at once. The primary is your wielded

weapon and the secondary is just an item in your inventory that’s been designated as alternate weapon.)
If your primary weapon is wielded but your off hand is empty or has the wrong weapon, use the sequence ‘x’,
‘w’, ‘x’ to first swap your primary into your off hand, wield whatever you want as secondary weapon, then swap
them both back into the intended hands. If your secondary or alternate weapon is correct but your primary one is
not, simply use ‘w’ to wield the primary. Lastly, if neither hand holds the correct weapon, use ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘w’ to first
wield the intended secondary, swap it to off hand, and then wield the primary.
The whole process can be simplified via use of the pushweapon option. When it is enabled, then using ‘w’ to
wield something causes the currently wielded weapon to become your alternate weapon. So the sequence ‘w’, ‘w’
can be used to first wield the weapon you intend to be secondary, and then wield the one you want as primary which
will push the first into secondary position.
When in two-weapon combat mode, using the ‘X’ command toggles back to single-weapon mode. Throwing
or dropping either of the weapons or having one of them be stolen or destroyed will also make you revert to single-
weapon combat.
7.3. Armor (‘[’)

Lots of unfriendly things lurk about; you need armor to protect yourself from their blows. Some types of ar-
mor offer better protection than others. Your armor class is a measure of this protection. Armor class (AC) is mea-
sured as in AD&D, with 10 being 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 class-
es 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
dragon scales 7
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 (for example 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 nor-
mal 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 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 usually 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 edi-
ble; 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. Vegetarian monsters will typically never eat animal
corpses, while vegetarian players can, but with some rather unpleasant side-effects.
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 (for ex-
ample “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 objects 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 ran-
domly generated internal to the game, these environment variables are ignored. You can disable the mail daemon by
turning 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 some-
times very useful to dip (“#dip”) an object into a potion.
The command to drink a potion is ‘q’ (quaff).
7.7. Wands (‘/’)

Wands usually have multiple magical charges. Some types of wands require 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 un-
wise. Other types of wands 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, attempts to use the wand will usually result in noth-
ing 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 certainly 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 permanent magic, unlike the usually fleeting effects of
potions, 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 par-
ticularly 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 en-
ergy released comes from within you. Casting temporarily drains your magical power, which will slowly be recov-
ered, and causes you to need additional food. Casting of spells also requires practice. With practice, 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 require a direction in which to cast them, similar to wands. To cast one at yourself, just give a ‘.’
or ‘s’ for the direction. A few spells require you to pick a target location rather than just specify a particular direc-
tion. Other spells don’t require any direction or target.
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 its skill group; using the “#enhance” command to
advance a sufficiently exercised skill will affect all spells within the group. Advanced skill may increase the potency
of spells, reduce their risk of failure during casting attempts, and improve the accuracy of the estimate for how much
longer they will be retained in your memory. 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 each spell you
know along with its level, skill category, chance of failure when casting, and an estimate of how strongly it is re-
membered. The ‘Z’ (cast) command casts a spell.
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 containers, which objects can be placed
into or taken out of.
The command to use a tool 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) com-
mand when you are carrying 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 proper-
ties, some beneficial, 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 projectile 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.
Very large humanoids (giants and their ilk) have been known to use boulders as weapons.
For some configurations of the program, statues are no longer shown as ‘`’ but by the letter representing the
monster they depict instead.
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 dun-
geon that may be influenced by the amount of gold you are carrying (shopkeepers aside).
7.15. Persistence of Objects

Normally, if you have seen an object at a particular map location and move to another location where you
can’t directly see that object any more, if will continue to be displayed on your map. That remains the case even if it
is not actually there any more — perhaps a monster has picked it up or it has rotted away — until you can see or feel
that location again. One notable exception is that if the object gets covered by the “remembered, unseen monster”
marker. When that marker is later removed after you’ve verified that no monster is there, you will forget that there
was any object there regardless of whether the unseen monster actually took the object. If the object is still there,
then once you see or feel that location again you will re-discover the object and resume remembering it.
The situation is the same for a pile of objects, except that only the top item of the pile is displayed. The
hilite_pile option can be enabled in order to show an item differently when it is the top one of a pile.
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 benefits. 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 vegetables. 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 poly-
morphed into a creature that can digest it is also considered vegan food. Note however that eating such items still
counts against foodless conduct.
Vegetarians do not eat animals; however, they are less selective 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 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 polymorphed into a creature that can digest it, or eating monster brains while poly-
morphed 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 eating 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 ve-
gan 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 conduct; that is a choice left to the player. Offering the Amulet of Yendor to your god is neces-
sary to win the game and is not counted against this conduct. You are also not penalized for being 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.
There are several other challenges tracked by the game. It is possible to eliminate one or more species of
monsters by genocide; playing without this feature is considered a challenge. When the game offers you an opportu-
nity to genocide monsters, you may respond with the monster type “none” if you want to decline. 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 re-
ceive wishes; a game without an attempt to wish for any items is a challenge, as is a game without wishing for an ar-
tifact (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 a configuration file, or in the
NETHACKOPTIONS environment variable. Some versions of NetHack also have front-end programs that allow
you to set options before starting the game or a global configuration for system administrators.
9.2. Using a configuration file

The default name of the configuration file varies on different operating systems.
On UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X it is “.nethackrc” in the user’s home directory. The file may not exist, but it
is a normal ASCII text file and can be created with any text editor.
On Windows, it is “.nethackrc” in the folder “\%USERPROFILE%\NetHack\3.6”. The file may not exist, but
it is a normal ASCII text file can can be created with any text editor. After running NetHack for the first time, you
should find a default template for the configuration file named “.nethackrc.template” in “\%USERPRO-
FILE%\NetHack\3.6”. If you had not created the configuration file, NetHack will create the configuration file for
you using the default template file.
On MS-DOS, it is “defaults.nh” in the same folder as nethack.exe.
Any line in the configuration file starting with ‘#’ is treated as a comment. Empty lines are ignored.
Any line beginning with ‘[’ and ending in ‘]’ is considered a section marker. The text between the square
brackets is the section name. Lines after a section marker belong to that section, and are ignored unless a CHOOSE
statement was used to select that section. Section names are case insensitive.
You can use different configuration statements in the file, some of which can be used multiple times. In gener-
al, the statements are written in capital letters, followed by an equals sign, followed by settings particular to that
statement.
Here is a list of allowed statements:
OPTIONS
There are two types of options, boolean and compound options. Boolean options toggle a setting on or off, while
compound options take more diverse values. Prefix a boolean option with “no” or ‘!’ to turn it off. For compound
options, the option name and value are separated by a colon. Some options are persistent, and apply only to new
games. You can specify multiple OPTIONS statements, and multiple options separated by commas in a single
OPTIONS statement. (Comma separated options are processed from right to left.)
Example:
OPTIONS=dogname:Fido
OPTIONS=!legacy,autopickup,pickup_types:$"=/!?+
HACKDIR
Default location of files NetHack needs. On Windows HACKDIR defaults to the location of the NetHack.exe or
NetHackw.exe file so setting HACKDIR to override that is not usually necessary or recommended.
LEVELDIR
The location that in-progress level files are stored. Defaults to HACKDIR, must be writable.
SAVEDIR
The location where saved games are kept. Defaults to HACKDIR, must be writable.
BONESDIR
The location that bones files are kept. Defaults to HACKDIR, must be writable.
LOCKDIR
The location that file synchronization locks are stored. Defaults to HACKDIR, must be writable.

TROUBLEDIR
The location that a record of game aborts and self-diagnosed game problems is kept. Defaults to HACKDIR, must
be writable.
AUTOCOMPLETE
Enable or disable an extended command autocompletion. Autocompletion has no effect for the X11 windowport.
You can specify multiple autocompletions. To enable autocompletion, list the extended command. Prefix the
command with “!” to disable the autocompletion for that command.
Example:
AUTOCOMPLETE=zap,!annotate
AUTOPICKUP_EXCEPTION
Set exceptions to the pickup_types option. See the “Configuring Autopickup Exceptions” section.
BINDINGS
Change the key bindings of some special keys, menu accelerators, or extended commands. You can specify multi-
ple bindings. Format is key followed by the command, separated by a colon. See the “Changing Key Bindings”
section for more information.
Example:
BIND=^X:getpos.autodescribe
CHOOSE
Chooses at random one of the comma-separated parameters as an active section name. Lines in other sections are
ignored.
Example:
OPTIONS=color
CHOOSE=char A,char B
[char A]
OPTIONS=role:arc,race:dwa,align:law,gender:fem
[char B]
OPTIONS=role:wiz,race:elf,align:cha,gender:mal
MENUCOLOR
Highlight menu lines with different colors. See the “Configuring Menu Colors” section.
MSGTYPE
Change the way messages are shown in the top status line. See the “Configuring Message Types” section.
ROGUESYMBOLS
Custom symbols for for the rogue level’s symbol set. See SYMBOLS below.
SOUND
Define a sound mapping. See the “Configuring User Sounds” section.
SOUNDDIR
Define the directory that contains the sound files. See the “Configuring User Sounds” section.
SYMBOLS
Override one or more symbols in the symbol set used for all dungeon levels except for the special rogue level.
See the “Modifying NetHack Symbols” section.
Example:
# replace small punctuation (tick marks) with digits
SYMBOLS=S_boulder:0,S_golem:7
WIZKIT
Debug mode only: extra items to add to initial inventory. Value is the name of a text file containing a list of item
names, one per line, up to a maximum of 128 lines. Each line is processed by the function that handles wishing.

Example:
WIZKIT=~/wizkit.txt
Here is an example of configuration file contents:

# Set your character’s role, race, gender, and alignment.
OPTIONS=role:Valkyrie, race:Human, gender:female, align:lawful
#
# Turn on autopickup, set automatically picked up object types
OPTIONS=autopickup,pickup_types:$"=/!?+
#
# Map customization
OPTIONS=color # Display things in color if possible
OPTIONS=lit_corridor # Show lit corridors differently
OPTIONS=hilite_pet,hilite_pile
# Replace small punctuation (tick marks) with digits
SYMBOLS=S_boulder:0,S_golem:7
#
# No startup splash screen. Windows GUI only.
OPTIONS=!splash_screen
9.3. 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” before 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 terminated by the next comma
or the end of string.
For example, to set up an environment variable so that color is on, legacy is off, character name is set to
“Blue Meanie”, and named fruit is set to “lime”, you would enter the command
% setenv NETHACKOPTIONS "color,\!leg,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:lime"
in csh (note the need to escape the ‘!’ since it’s special to that shell), or the pair of commands
$ NETHACKOPTIONS="color,!leg,name:Blue Meanie,fruit:lime"
$ export NETHACKOPTIONS
in sh, ksh, or bash.
The NETHACKOPTIONS value is effectively the same as a single OPTIONS statement in a configuration
file. The “OPTIONS=” prefix is implied and comma separated options are processed from right to left. Other types
of configuration statements such as BIND or MSGTYPE are not allowed.
Instead of a comma-separated list of options, NETHACKOPTIONS can be set to the full name of a configura-
tion file you want to use. If that full name doesn’t start with a slash, precede it with ‘@’ (at-sign) to let NetHack
know that the rest is intended as a file name. If it does start with ‘/’, the at-sign is optional.
9.4. Customization options

Here are explanations of what the various options do. Character strings that are too long may be truncated.
Some of the options listed may be inactive in your dungeon.
Some options are persistent, and are saved and reloaded along with the game. Changing a persistent option in
the configuration file applies only to new games.
acoustics
Enable messages about what your character hears (default on). Note that this has nothing to do with your comput-
er’s audio capabilities. Persistent.

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. If you prefix the value with ‘!’ or “no”, you will exclude
that alignment from being picked randomly. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.
autodescribe
Automatically describe the terrain under cursor when asked to get a location on the map (default true). The
whatis_coord option controls whether the description includes map coordinates.
autodig
Automatically dig if you are wielding a digging tool and moving into a place that can be dug (default false). Per-
sistent.
autoopen
Walking into a door attempts to open it (default true). Persistent.
autopickup
Automatically pick up things onto which you move (default on). Persistent. See pickup_types to refine the be-
havior.
autoquiver
This option controls what happens when you attempt the ‘f’ (fire) command when nothing is quivered or readied
(default false). When true, the computer will fill your quiver or quiver sack or make ready some suitable weapon.
Note that it will not take into account the blessed/cursed status, enchantment, damage, or quality of the weapon;
you are free to manually fill your quiver or quiver sack or make ready with the ‘Q’ command instead. If no
weapon is found or the option is false, the ‘t’ (throw) command is executed instead. Persistent.
blind
Start the character permanently blind (default false). Persistent.
bones
Allow saving and loading bones files (default true). Persistent.
boulder
Set the character used to display boulders (default is the “large rock” class symbol, ‘`’).
catname
Name your starting cat (for example “catname:Morris”). Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
character
Synonym for “role” to pick the type of your character (for example “character:Monk”). See role for more details.
checkpoint
Save game state after each level change, for possible recovery after program crash (default on). Persistent.
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 (because too much space might overflow
the calculation and end up looking like insufficient space). Only applies when MFLOPPY was defined during
compilation.
clicklook
Allows looking at things on the screen by navigating the mouse over them and clicking the right mouse button
(default off).
cmdassist
Have the game provide some additional command assistance for new players if it detects some anticipated mis-
takes (default on).
confirm
Have user confirm attacks on pets, shopkeepers, and other peaceable creatures (default on). Persistent.
dark_room
Show out-of-sight areas of lit rooms (default on). Persistent.

disclose
Controls what information the program reveals when the game ends. Value is a space separated list of prompt-
ing/category pairs (default is “ni na nv ng nc no”, prompt with default response of ‘n’ for each candidate). Per-
sistent. 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;
o - display dungeon overview.
Each disclosure possibility can optionally be preceded by a prefix which lets 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.
The listing of vanquished monsters can be sorted, so there are two additional choices for ‘v’:
? - prompt you and default to ask on the prompt;
# - disclose it without prompting, ask for sort order.
Asking refers to picking one of the orderings from a menu. The ‘+’ disclose without prompting choice, or being
prompted and answering ‘y’ rather than ‘a’, will default to showing monsters in the traditional order, from high
level to low level.
Omitted categories are implicitly added with ‘n’ prefix. Specified categories with omitted prefix implicitly use ‘+’
prefix. Order of the disclosure categories does not matter, program display for end-of-game disclosure follows a
set sequence.
(for example “disclose:yi na +v -g o”) 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 prompt,
conduct to implicitly prompt and default to no, and overview to disclose without prompting.
Note that the vanquished monsters list includes all monsters killed by traps and each other as well as by you. And
the dungeon overview shows all levels you had visited but does not reveal things about them that you hadn’t dis-
covered.
dogname
Name your starting dog (for example “dogname:Fang”). 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 traditional interface except that it does not require that you hit Enter. It is implemented for the tty inter-
face (default off).
For the X11 interface, which always uses a menu for choosing an extended command, it controls whether the
menu shows all available commands (on) or just the subset of commands which have traditionally been consid-
ered extended ones (off).
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. Persistent.
force_invmenu
Commands asking for an inventory item show a menu instead of a text query with possible menu letters. Default
is off.

fruit
Name a fruit after something you enjoy eating (for example “fruit:mango”) (default “slime mold”). Basically a
nostalgic whimsy that NetHack uses from time to time. You should set this to something you find more appetiz-
ing 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 randomly pick an appropriate gender. If you prefix the value with ‘!’ or “no”, you will exclude that gender
from being picked randomly. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.
goldX
When filtering objects based on bless/curse state (BUCX), whether to treat gold pieces as X (unknown bless/curse
state, when “on”) or U (known to be uncursed, when “off”, the default). Gold is never blessed or cursed, but it is
not described as “uncursed” even when the implicit_uncursed option is “off”.
help
If more information is available for an object looked at with the ‘/’ command, ask if you want to see it (default
on). Turning 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 information. Persistent.
herecmd_menu
When using a windowport that supports mouse and clicking on yourself or next to you, show a menu of possible
actions for the location. Same as “#herecmdmenu” and “#therecmdmenu” commands.
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 dis-
plays a heart symbol near pets.
With the curses interface, the petattr option controls how to highlight pets and setting it will turn the hilite_pet
option on or off as warranted.
hilite_pile
Visually distinguish piles of objects from individual objects (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 small plus-symbol beside the object on the top of the pile.
hitpointbar
Show a hit point bar graph behind your name and title. Only available for TTY and Windows GUI, and only
when statushilites is on.
horsename
Name your starting horse (for example “horsename:Trigger”). Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
ignintr
Ignore interrupt signals, including breaks (default off). Persistent.
implicit_uncursed
Omit "uncursed" from inventory lists, if possible (default on).
legacy
Display an introductory message when starting the game (default on). Persistent.
lit_corridor
Show corridor squares seen by night vision or a light source held by your character as lit (default off). Persistent.
lootabc
When using a menu to interact with a container, use the old ‘a’, ‘b’, and ‘c’ keyboard shortcuts rather than the
mnemonics ‘o’, ‘i’, and ‘b’ (default off). Persistent.
mail
Enable mail delivery during the game (default on). Persistent.

male
An obsolete synonym for “gender:male”. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
mention_walls
Give feedback when walking against a wall (default off).
menucolors
Enable coloring menu lines (default off). See “Configuring Menu Colors” on how to configure the colors.
menustyle
Controls the interface used when you need to choose various objects (in response to the Drop command, for in-
stance). The value specified should be the first letter of one of the following: traditional, combination, full, or
partial. Traditional was the only interface available for early versions; it consists of a prompt for object class char-
acters, followed by an object-by-object prompt for all items matching the selected 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. Full displays a menu of object classes rather than a character prompt, and then a menu of
matching objects for selection. Partial skips the object class filtering and immediately displays a menu of all ob-
jects. Persistent.
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. Default ‘\’.
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 “none”, “bold”, “dim”, “underline”, “blink”, or
“inverse”. Not all ports can actually display all types.
menu_invert_all
Menu character accelerator to invert all items in a menu. Implemented 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. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default
‘>’.
menu_objsyms
Show object symbols in menu headings in menus where the object symbols act as menu accelerators (default off).
menu_overlay
Do not clear the screen before drawing menus, and align menus to the right edge of the screen. Only for the tty
port. (default on)
menu_previous_page
Menu character accelerator to goto the previous menu page. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. De-
fault ‘<’.
menu_search
Menu character accelerator to search for a menu item. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.

Default ‘:’.
menu_select_all
Menu character accelerator to select all items in a menu. Implemented 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 ‘,’.
monpolycontrol
Prompt for new form whenever any monster changes shape (default off). Debug mode only.
mouse_support
Allow use of the mouse for input and travel. Valid settings are:
0 - disabled
1 - enabled and make OS adjustments to support mouse use
2 - like 1 but does not make any OS adjustments
Omitting a value is the same as specifying 1 and negating mouse_support is the same as specifying 0.
msghistory
The number of top line messages to keep (and be able to recall with ‘^P’) (default 20). Cannot be set with the ‘O’
command.
msg_window
Allows you to change the way recalled messages are displayed. Currently it is only supported for tty (all four
choices) and for curses (‘f’ and ‘r’ choices, default ‘r’). The possible values are:
s - single message (default; only choice prior to 3.4.0);
c - combination, two messages as “single”, then as “full”;
f - full window, oldest message first;
r - full window reversed, newest message first.
For backward compatibility, no value needs to be specified (which defaults to “full”), or it can be negated (which
defaults to “single”).
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.
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.
nudist
Start the character with no armor (default false). Persistent.
null
Send padding nulls to the terminal (default on). Persistent.
number_pad
Use digit keys instead of letters to move (default 0 or off). Valid settings are:
0 - move by letters; “yuhjklbn”
1 - move by numbers; digit ‘5’ acts as ‘G’ movement prefix
2 - like 1 but ‘5’ works as ‘g’ prefix instead of as ‘G’
3 - by numbers using phone key layout; 123 above, 789 below
4 - combines 3 with 2; phone layout plus MS-DOS compatibility
-1 - by letters but use ‘z’ to go northwest, ‘y’ to zap wands
For backward compatibility, omitting a value is the same as specifying 1 and negating number_pad is the same

as specifying 0. (Settings 2 and 4 are for compatibility with MS-DOS or old PC Hack; in addition to the different
behavior for ‘5’, ‘Alt-5’ acts as ‘G’ and ‘Alt-0’ acts as ‘I’. Setting -1 is to accommodate some QWERTZ
keyboards which have the location of the ‘y’ and ‘z’ keys swapped.) When moving by numbers, to enter a count
prefix for those commands which accept one (such as “12s” to search twelve times), precede it with the letter ‘n’
(“n12s”).
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.
paranoid_confirmation
A space separated list of specific situations where alternate prompting is desired. The default is paranoid_confir-
mation:pray.
Confirm - for any prompts which are set to require “yes” rather than ‘y’, also require “no” to reject instead of
accepting any non-yes response as no
quit - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm quitting the game or switching into non-scoring explore
mode;
die - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm dying (not useful in normal play; applies to explore mode);
bones - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm saving bones data when dying in debug mode;
attack - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm attacking a peaceful monster;
wand-break - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm breaking a wand;
eating - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm whether to continue eating;
Were-change - require “yes” rather than ‘y’ to confirm changing form due to lycanthropy when hero has poly-
morph control;
pray - require ‘y’ to confirm an attempt to pray rather than immediately praying; on by default;
Remove - require selection from inventory for ‘R’ and ‘T’ commands even when wearing just one applicable
item.
all - turn on all of the above.
By default, the pray choice is enabled, the others disabled. To disable it without setting any of the other choices,
use “paranoid_confirmation:none”. To keep it enabled while setting any of the others, include it in the list, such
as “paranoid_confirmation:attack pray Remove”.
perm_invent
If true, always display your current inventory in a window. This only makes sense for windowing system inter-
faces that implement this feature.
petattr
Specifies one or more text highlighting attributes to use when showing pets on the map. Effectively a superset of
the hilite_pet boolean option. Curses interface only; value is one or more of the following letters.
n - Normal text (no highlighting)
i - Inverse video (default)
b - Bold text
u - Underlined text
k - blinKing text
d - Dim text
t - iTalic text
l - Left line indicator
r - Right line indicator
Some of those choices might not work, particularly the final three, depending upon terminal hardware or terminal
emulation software.
Currently multiple highlight-style letters can be combined by simply stringing them together (for example, “bk”),
but in the future they might require being separated by plus signs (such as “b+k”, which works already). When
using the ‘n’ choice, it should be specified on its own, not in combination with any of the other letters.

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”, “horse”, and “none”. If the choice is not allowed for
the role you are currently playing, it will be silently ignored. For example, “horse” will only be honored when
playing a knight. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
pickup_burden
When you pick up an item that would exceed this encumbrance level (Unencumbered, Burdened, streSsed,
straiNed, overTaxed, or overLoaded), you will be asked if you want to continue. (Default ‘S’). Persistent.
pickup_thrown
If this option is on and autopickup is also on, try to pick up things that you threw, even if they aren’t in pick-
up_types or match an autopickup exception. Default is on. Persistent.
pickup_types
Specify the object types to be picked up when autopickup is on. Default is all types. You can use autopick-
up_exception configuration file lines to further refine autopickup behavior. Persistent.
pile_limit
When walking across a pile of objects on the floor, threshold at which the message “there are few/several/many
objects here” is given instead of showing a popup list of those objects. A value of 0 means “no limit” (always list
the objects); a value of 1 effectively means “never show the objects” since the pile size will always be at least that
big; default value is 5. Persistent.
playmode
Values are “normal”, “explore”, or “debug”. Allows selection of explore mode (also known as discovery mode)
or debug mode (also known as wizard mode) instead of normal play. Debug mode might only be allowed for
someone logged in under a particular user name (on multi-user systems) or specifying a particular character name
(on single-user systems) or it might be disabled entirely. Requesting it when not allowed or not possible results in
explore mode instead. Default is normal play.
pushweapon
Using the ‘w’ (wield) command when already wielding something pushes the old item into your alternate weapon
slot (default off). Likewise for the ‘a’ (apply) command if it causes the applied item to become wielded. Persis-
tent.
race
Selects your race (for example, “race:human”). Default is random. If you prefix the value with ‘!’ or “no”, you
will exclude that race from being picked randomly. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.
rest_on_space
Make the space bar a synonym for the ‘.’ (#wait) command (default off). Persistent.
role
Pick your type of character (for example “role:Samurai”); synonym for “character”. See “name” for an alternate
method of specifying your role. Normally only the first letter of the value is examined; ‘r’ is an exception with
“Rogue”, “Ranger”, and “random” values. If you prefix the value with ‘!’ or “no”, you will exclude that role from
being picked randomly. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.
roguesymset
This option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets found within “symbols” to alter the symbols dis-
played on the screen on the rogue level.
rlecomp
When writing out a save file, perform run length compression of the map. Not all ports support run length com-
pression. It has no effect on reading an existing save file.
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:
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 actual 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. Persistent.
safe_pet
Prevent you from (knowingly) attacking your pets (default on). Persistent.
sanity_check
Evaluate monsters, objects, and map prior to each turn (default off). Debug mode only.
scores
Control what parts of the score list you are shown at the end (for example “scores:5 top scores/4 around my
score/own scores”). Only the first letter of each category (‘t’, ‘a’, or ‘o’) is necessary. Persistent.
showexp
Show your accumulated experience points on bottom line (default off). Persistent.
showrace
Display yourself as the glyph for your race, rather than the glyph for your role (default off). Note that this setting
affects only the appearance of the display, not the way the game treats you. Persistent.
showscore
Show your approximate accumulated score on bottom line (default off). Persistent.
silent
Suppress terminal beeps (default on). Persistent.
sortloot
Controls the sorting behavior of the pickup lists for inventory and #loot commands and some others. Persistent.
The possible values are:
full - always sort the lists;
loot - only sort the lists that don’t use inventory letters, like with the #loot and pickup commands;
none- show lists the traditional way without sorting.
sortpack
Sort the pack contents by type when displaying inventory (default on). Persistent.
sparkle
Display a sparkly effect when a monster (including yourself) is hit by an attack to which it is resistant (default
on). Persistent.
standout
Boldface monsters and “−−More−−” (default off). Persistent.
statushilites
Controls how many turns status hilite behaviors highlight the field. If negated or set to zero, disables status hilit-
ing. See “Configuring Status Hilites” for further information.
status_updates
Allow updates to the status lines at the bottom of the screen (default true).
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 (for example “suppress_alert:3.3.1”).
symset
This option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets found within “symbols” to alter the symbols dis-
played on the screen. Use “symset:default” to explicitly select the default symbols.
time
Show the elapsed game time in turns on bottom line (default off). Persistent.

timed_delay
When pausing momentarily for display effect, such as with explosions 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.) Persistent.
tombstone
Draw a tombstone graphic upon your death (default on). Persistent.
toptenwin
Put the ending display in a NetHack window instead of on stdout (default off). Setting this option makes the score
list visible 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.
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. Persistent.
verbose
Provide more commentary during the game (default on). Persistent.
whatis_coord
When using the ‘/’ or ‘;’ commands to look around on the map with autodescribe on, display coordinates after
the description. Also works in other situations where you are asked to pick a location.
The possible settings are:
c - compass (“east” or “3s” or “2n,4w”);
f - full compass (“east” or “3south” or “2north,4west”);
m - map <x,y> (map column x=0 is not used);
s - screen [row,column] (row is offset to match tty usage);
n - none (no coordinates shown) [default].
The whatis_coord option is also used with the “/m”, “/M”, “/o”, and “/O” sub-commands of ‘/’, where the “none”
setting is overridden with “map”.
whatis_filter
When getting a location on the map, and using the keys to cycle through next and previous targets, allows filtering
the possible targets.
n - no filtering [default]
v - in view only
a - in same area only
The area-filter tries to be slightly predictive — if you’re standing on a doorway, it will consider the area on the
side of the door you were last moving towards.
Filtering can also be changed when getting a location with the “getpos.filter” key.
whatis_menu
When getting a location on the map, and using a key to cycle through next and previous targets, use a menu in-
stead to pick a target. (default off)
whatis_moveskip
When getting a location on the map, and using shifted movement keys or meta-digit keys to fast-move, instead of
moving 8 units at a time, move by skipping the same glyphs. (default off)
windowtype
When the program has been built to support multiple interfaces, select which one to use, such as “tty” or “X11”
(default depends on build-time settings; use “#version” to check). Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
When used, it should be the first option set since its value might enable or disable the availability of various other
options. For multiple lines in a configuration file, that would be the first non-comment line. For a comma-sepa-
rated list in NETHACKOPTIONS or an OPTIONS line in a configuration file, that would be the rightmost option
in the list.

wizweight
Augment object descriptions with their objects’ weight (default off). Debug mode only.
zerocomp
When writing out a save file, perform zero-comp compression of the contents. Not all ports support zero-comp
compression. It has no effect on reading an existing save file.
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 configuration file, and if the win-
dow 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 supported by the window port that you are currently using by checking 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
If NetHack can, it should display an ascii character map if it can.
color
If NetHack can, it should display color if it can for different monsters, objects, and dungeon features.
eight_bit_tty
If NetHack can, it should pass eight-bit character values (for example, specified with the traps option) straight
through to your terminal (default off).
font_map
if NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for the map window.
font_menu
If NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for menu windows.
font_message
If NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for the message window.
font_status
If NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for the status window.
font_text
If NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for text windows.
font_size_map
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for the map window.
font_size_menu
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for menu windows.
font_size_message
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for the message window.
font_size_status
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for the status window.
font_size_text
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for text windows.
fullscreen
If NetHack can, it should try and display on the entire screen rather than in a window.

guicolor
Use color text and/or highlighting attributes when displaying some non-map data (such as menu selector letters).
Curses interface only; default is on.
large_font
If NetHack can, it should use a large font.
map_mode
If NetHack can, it should display the map in the manner specified.
player_selection
If NetHack can, it should pop up dialog boxes, or use prompts for character selection.
popup_dialog
If NetHack can, it should pop up dialog boxes for input.
preload_tiles
If NetHack can, it should preload tiles into memory. For example, in the protected mode MS-DOS version, con-
trol 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. (default on). Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
scroll_amount
If NetHack can, it should scroll the display by this number of cells when the hero reaches the scroll_margin.
scroll_margin
If NetHack can, it should scroll the display when the hero or cursor is this number of cells away from the edge of
the window.
selectsaved
If NetHack can, it should display a menu of existing saved games for the player to choose from at game startup, if
it can. Not all ports support this option.
softkeyboard
Display an onscreen keyboard. Handhelds are most likely to support this option.
splash_screen
If NetHack can, it should display an opening splash screen when it starts up (default yes).
statuslines
Number of lines for traditional below-the-map status display. Acceptable values are 2 and 3 (default is 2). Curses
and tty interfaces only.
term_cols and
term_rows
Curses interface only. Number of columns and rows to use for the display. Curses will attempt to resize to the
values specified but will settle for smaller sizes if they are too big. Default is the current window size.
tiled_map
If NetHack can, it 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_darkgray
Use bold black instead of blue for black glyphs (TTY only).
use_inverse
If NetHack can, it should display inverse when the game specifies it.

vary_msgcount
If NetHack can, it should display this number of messages at a time in the message window.
windowborders
Whether to draw boxes around the map, status area, message area, and persistent inventory window if enabled.
Curses interface only. Acceptable values are
0 - off, never show borders
1 - on, always show borders
2 - auto, on if display is at least (24+2)x(80+2) (default)
(The 26x82 size threshold for ‘2’ refers to number of rows and columns of the display. A width of at least 110
columns (80+2+26+2) is needed for align_status set to left or right.)
windowcolors
If NetHack can, it should display windows with the specified foreground/background colors. Windows GUI only.
The format is
OPTION=windowcolors:wintype foreground/background
where wintype is one of “menu”, “message”, “status”, or “text”, and foreground and background are colors,
either a hexadecimal \’#rrggbb’, one of the named colors (black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan, orange,
brightgreen, yellow, brightblue, brightmagenta, brightcyan, white, trueblack, gray, purple, silver, maroon, fuchsia,
lime, olive, navy, teal, aqua), or one of Windows UI colors (activeborder, activecaption, appworkspace, background,
btnface, btnshadow, btntext, captiontext, graytext, greytext, highlight, highlighttext, inactiveborder, inactivecaption,
menu, menutext, scrollbar, window, windowframe, windowtext).
wraptext
If NetHack can, it should wrap long lines of text if they don’t fit in the visible area of the window.
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
On Amiga, this option controls whether typing “Alt” plus another key functions as a meta-shift for that key (de-
fault on).
altmeta
On other (non-Amiga) systems where this option is available, it can be set to tell NetHack to convert a two charac-
ter sequence beginning with ESC into a meta-shifted version of the second character (default off).
This conversion is only done for commands, not for other input prompts. Note that typing one or more digits as a
count prefix prior to a command — preceded by n if the number_pad option is set — is also subject to this con-
version, so attempting to abort the count by typing ESC will leave NetHack waiting for another character to com-
plete the two character sequence. Type a second ESC to finish cancelling such a count. At other prompts a single
ESC suffices.
BIOS
Use BIOS calls to update the screen display quickly and to read the keyboard (allowing the use of arrow keys to
move) on machines 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 bulletproof 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’ command.
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=subkeyvalue:171/92 will return 92 to
NetHack, if 171 was originally going to be returned. You can use multiple subkeyvalue statements in the configu-
ration file if needed. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
video
Set the video mode used (PC NetHack only). Values are “autodetect”, “default”, or “vga”. Setting “vga” (or “au-
todetect” with vga hardware present) will cause the game to display tiles. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
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. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.
videoshades
Set the intensity level of the three gray scales available (default 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. Regular Expressions

Regular expressions are normally POSIX extended regular expressions. It is possible to compile NetHack
without regular expression support on a platform where there is no regular expression library. While this is not true
of any modern platform, if your NetHack was built this way, patterns are instead glob patterns. This applies to Au-
topickup exceptions, Message types, Menu colors, and User sounds.
9.8. Configuring Autopickup Exceptions

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 autopickup_exception option should be followed by a regu-
lar expression to be used as a pattern to match against the singular form of the description of an object at your lo-
cation.
In addition, some characters are treated specially if they occur as the first character in the pattern, specifically:
< - always pickup an object that matches rest of pattern;
> - never pickup an object that matches rest of pattern.
The autopickup_exception rules are processed in the order in which they appear in your configuration file, thus
allowing a later rule to override an earlier rule.
Exceptions can be set with the ‘O’ command, but because they are not included in your configuration file, they
won’t be in effect if you save and then restore your game. autopickup_exception rules and not saved with the
game.
Here are some examples:

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 ex-
clusion of any corpse from autopickup. The last example results in the exclusion of items known to be cursed from
autopickup.
9.9. Changing Key Bindings

It is possible to change the default key bindings of some special commands, menu accelerator keys, and ex-
tended commands, by using BIND stanzas in the configuration file. Format is key, followed by the command to bind
to, separated by a colon. The key can be a single character (“x”), a control key (“^X”, “C-x”), a meta key (“M-x”),
or a three-digit decimal ASCII code.
For example:
BIND=^X:getpos.autodescribe
BIND={:menu_first_page
BIND=v:loot
Extended command keys
You can bind multiple keys to the same extended command. Unbind a key by using “nothing” as the extended
command to bind to. You can also bind the “<esc>”, “<enter>”, and “<space>” keys.
Menu accelerator keys
The menu control or accelerator keys can also be rebound via OPTIONS lines in the configuration file. You can-
not bind object symbols into menu accelerators.
Special command keys
Below are the special commands you can rebind. Some of them can be bound to same keys with no problems,
others are in the same “context”, and if bound to same keys, only one of those commands will be available. Spe-
cial command can only be bound to a single key.
count
Prefix key to start a count, to repeat a command this many times. With number_pad only. Default is ‘n’.
doinv
Show inventory. With number_pad only. Default is ‘0’.
fight
Prefix key to force fight a direction. Default is ‘F’.
fight.numpad
Prefix key to force fight a direction. With number_pad only. Default is ‘−’.
getdir.help
When asked for a direction, the key to show the help. Default is ‘?’.
getdir.self
When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. Default is ‘.’.
getdir.self2
When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. Default is ‘s’.
getpos.autodescribe
When asked for a location, the key to toggle autodescribe. Default is ‘#’.
getpos.all.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest interesting thing. Default is ‘a’.
getpos.all.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest interesting thing. Default is ‘A’.
getpos.door.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest door or doorway. Default is ‘d’.

getpos.door.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest door or doorway. Default is ‘D’.
getpos.help
When asked for a location, the key to show help. Default is ‘?’.
getpos.mon.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest monster. Default is ‘m’.
getpos.mon.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest monster. Default is ‘M’.
getpos.obj.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest object. Default is ‘o’.
getpos.obj.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest object. Default is ‘O’.
getpos.menu
When asked for a location, and using one of the next or previous keys to cycle through targets, toggle showing a
menu instead. Default is ‘!’.
getpos.moveskip
When asked for a location, and using the shifted movement keys or meta-digit keys to fast-move around, move by
skipping the same glyphs instead of by 8 units. Default is ‘*’.
getpos.filter
When asked for a location, change the filtering mode when using one of the next or previous keys to cycle through
targets. Toggles between no filtering, in view only, and in the same area only. Default is ‘"’.
getpos.pick
When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and possibly ask for more info. Default is ‘.’.
getpos.pick.once
When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and skip asking for more info. Default is ‘,’.
getpos.pick.quick
When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, skip asking for more info, and exit the location asking
loop. Default is ‘;’.
getpos.pick.verbose
When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and show more info without asking. Default is ‘:’.
getpos.self
When asked for a location, the key to go to your location. Default is ‘@’.
getpos.unexplored.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest unexplored location. Default is ‘x’.
getpos.unexplored.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest unexplored location. Default is ‘X’.
getpos.valid
When asked for a location, the key to go to show valid target locations. Default is ‘$’.
getpos.valid.next
When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest valid location. Default is ‘z’.
getpos.valid.prev
When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest valid location. Default is ‘Z’.
nopickup
Prefix key to move without picking up items. Default is ‘m’.
redraw
Key to redraw the screen. Default is ‘^R’.

redraw.numpad
Key to redraw the screen. With number_pad only. Default is ‘^L’.
repeat
Key to repeat previous command. Default is ‘Â’.
reqmenu
Prefix key to request menu from some commands. Default is ‘m’.
run
Prefix key to run towards a direction. Default is ‘G’.
run.nopickup
Prefix key to run towards a direction without picking up items on the way. Default is ‘M’.
run.numpad
Prefix key to run towards a direction. With number_pad only. Default is ‘5’.
rush
Prefix key to rush towards a direction. Default is ‘g’.
9.10. Configuring Message Types

You can change the way the messages are shown in the message area, when the message matches a user-de-
fined pattern.
In general, the configuration file entries to describe the message types look like this: MSGTYPE=type "pat-
tern"
type - how the message should be shown;
pattern - the pattern to match.
The pattern should be a regular expression.
Allowed types are:
show - show message normally;
hide - never show the message;
stop - wait for user with more-prompt;
norep - show the message once, but not again if no other message is shown in between.
Here’s an example of message types using NetHack’s internal pattern matching facility:
MSGTYPE=stop "You feel hungry."
MSGTYPE=hide "You displaced *."
specifies that whenever a message “You feel hungry” is shown, the user is prompted with more-prompt, and a
message matching “You displaced <something>.” is not shown at all.
The order of the defined MSGTYPE lines is important; the last matching rule is used. Put the general case first,
exceptions below them.
9.11. Configuring Menu Colors

Some platforms allow you to define colors used in menu lines when the line matches a user-defined pattern.
At this time the tty, curses, win32tty and win32gui interfaces support this.
In general, the configuration file entries to describe the menu color mappings look like this:
MENUCOLOR="pattern"=color&attribute
pattern - the pattern to match;
color - the color to use for lines matching the pattern;
attribute - the attribute to use for lines matching the pattern. The attribute is optional, and if left out, you
must also leave out the preceding ampersand. If no attribute is defined, no attribute is used.
The pattern should be a regular expression.

Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue,
light-magenta, light-cyan, and white. And no-color, the default foreground color, which isn’t necessarily the
same as any of the other colors.
Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink, and inverse. “Normal” is a synonym for “none”. Note
that the platform used may interpret the attributes any way it wants.
Here’s an example of menu colors using NetHack’s internal pattern matching facility:
MENUCOLOR="* blessed *"=green
MENUCOLOR="* cursed *"=red
MENUCOLOR="* cursed *(being worn)"=red&underline
specifies that any menu line with “ blessed ” contained in it will be shown in green color, lines with “ cursed ” will
be shown in red, and lines with “ cursed ” followed by “(being worn)” on the same line will be shown in red color
and underlined. You can have multiple MENUCOLOR entries in your configuration file, and the last MENU-
COLOR line that matches a menu line will be used for the line.
Note that if you intend to have one or more color specifications match “ uncursed ”, you will probably want to
turn the implicit_uncursed option off so that all items known to be uncursed are actually displayed with the “un-
cursed” description.
9.12. Configuring User Sounds

Some platforms allow you to define sound files to be played when a message that matches a user-defined pat-
tern 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 configuration 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 3.6);
pattern - the pattern to match;
sound file - the sound file to play;
volume - the volume to be set while playing the sound file.
The pattern should be a POSIX extended regular expression.
9.13. Configuring Status Hilites
Your copy of NetHack may have been compiled with support for “Status Hilites”. If so, you can customize
your game display by setting thresholds to change the color or appearance of fields in the status display.
The format for defining status colors is:
OPTION=hilite_status:field-name/behavior/color&attributes
For example, the following line in your configuration file will cause the hitpoints field to display in the color
red if your hitpoints drop to or below a threshold of 30%:
OPTION=hilite_status:hitpoints/<=30%/red/normal
(That example is actually specifying red&normal for <=30% and no-color&normal for >30%.)
For another example, the following line in your configuration file will cause wisdom to be displayed red if it
drops and green if it rises:
OPTION=hilite_status:wisdom/down/red/up/green
Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue,
light-magenta, light-cyan, and white. And “no-color”, the default foreground color on the display, which is not nec-
essarily the same as black or white or any of the other colors.

Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink, and inverse. “Normal” is a synonym for “none”; they
should not be used in combination with any of the other attributes.
To specify both a color and an attribute, use ‘&’ to combine them. To specify multiple attributes, use ‘+’ to
combine those. For example: “magenta&inverse+dim”.
Note that the display may substitute or ignore particular attributes depending upon its capabilities, and in gen-
eral may interpret the attributes any way it wants. For example, on some display systems a request for bold might
yield blink or vice versa. On others, issuing an attribute request while another is already set up will replace the earli-
er attribute rather than combine with it. Since NetHack issues attribute requests sequentially (at least with the tty
interface) rather than all at once, the only way a situation like that can be controlled is to specify just one attribute.
You can adjust the appearance of the following status fields:
title dungeon-level experience-level
strength gold experience
dexterity hitpoints HD
constitution hitpoints-max time
intelligence power hunger
wisdom power-max carrying-capacity
charisma armor-class condition
alignment score
The pseudo-field “characteristics” can be used to set all six of Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, and Cha at once. “HD” is
“hit dice”, an approximation of experience level displayed when polymorphed. “experience”, “time”, and “score”
are conditionally displayed depending upon your other option settings.
Instead of a behavior, “condition” takes the following condition flags: stone, slime, strngl, foodpois, termill, blind,
deaf, stun, conf, hallu, lev, fly, and ride. You can use “major_troubles” as an alias for stone through termill, “mi-
nor_troubles” for blind through hallu, “movement” for lev, fly, and ride, and “all” for every condition.
Allowed behaviors are “always”, “up”, “down”, “changed”, a percentage or absolute number threshold, or text to
match against.
* “always” will set the default attributes for that field.
* “up”, “down” set the field attributes for when the field value changes upwards or downwards. This attribute
times out after statushilites turns.
* “changed” sets the field attribute for when the field value changes. This attribute times out after sta-
tushilites turns. (If a field has both a “changed” rule and an “up” or “down” rule which matches a change
in the field’s value, the “up” or “down” one takes precedence.)
* percentage sets the field attribute when the field value matches the percentage. It is specified as a number
between 0 and 100, followed by ‘%’ (percent sign). If the percentage is prefixed with ‘<=’ or ‘>=’, it also
matches when value is below or above the percentage. Use prefix ‘<’ or ‘>’ to match when strictly below or
above. (The numeric limit is relaxed slightly for those: >-1% and <101% are allowed.) Only four fields
support percentage rules. Percentages for “hitpoints” and “power” are straightforward; they’re based on the
corresponding maximum field. Percentage highlight rules are also allowed for “experience level” and “ex-
perience points” (valid when the showexp option is enabled). For those, the percentage is based on the
progress from the start of the current experience level to the start of the next level. So if level 2 starts at 20
points and level 3 starts at 40 points, having 30 points is 50% and 35 points is 75%. 100% is unattainable
for experience because you’ll gain a level and the calculations will be reset for that new level, but a rule for
=100% is allowed and matches the special case of being exactly 1 experience point short of the next level.
* absolute value sets the attribute when the field value matches that number. The number must be 0 or higher,
except for “armor-class’ which allows negative values, and may optionally be preceded by ‘=’. If the num-
ber is preceded by ‘<=’ or ‘>=’ instead, it also matches when value is below or above. If the prefix is ‘<’ or
‘>’, only match when strictly above or below.
* text match sets the attribute when the field value matches the text. Text matches can only be used for
“alignment”, “carrying-capacity”, “hunger”, “dungeon-level”, and “title”. For title, only the role’s rank title
is tested; the character’s name is ignored.

The in-game options menu can help you determine the correct syntax for a configuration file.
The whole feature can be disabled by setting option statushilites to 0.
Example hilites:
OPTION=hilite_status: gold/up/yellow/down/brown
OPTION=hilite_status: characteristics/up/green/down/red
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/100%/gray&normal
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/<100%/green&normal
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/<66%/yellow&normal
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/<50%/orange&normal
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/<33%/red&bold
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/<15%/red&inverse
OPTION=hilite_status: condition/major/orange&inverse
OPTION=hilite_status: condition/lev+fly/red&inverse
9.14. Modifying NetHack Symbols
NetHack can load entire symbol sets from the symbol file.
The options that are used to select a particular symbol set from the symbol file are:
symset
Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load.
roguesymset
Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load for display on the rogue level.
You can also override one or more symbols using the SYMBOLS and ROGUESYMBOLS configuration file
options. Symbols are specified as name:value pairs. Note that NetHack escape-processes the value string in conven-
tional C fashion. This means that \ is a prefix to take the following character literally. Thus \ needs to be represented
as \\. The special prefix form \m switches on the meta bit in the symbol value, and the ^ prefix causes the following
character to be treated as a control character.
NetHack Symbols
Symbol Name Description
S_air (air)
_ S_altar (altar)
" S_amulet (amulet)
A S_angel (angelic being)
a S_ant (ant or other insect)
^ S_anti_magic_trap (anti-magic field)
[ S_armor (suit or piece of armor)
[ S_armour (suit or piece of armor)
^ S_arrow_trap (arrow trap)
0 S_ball (iron ball)
# S_bars (iron bars)
B S_bat (bat or bird)
^ S_bear_trap (bear trap)
− S_blcorn (bottom left corner)
b S_blob (blob)
+ S_book (spellbook)
) S_boomleft (boomerang open left)
( S_boomright (boomerang open right)
` S_boulder (boulder)
− S_brcorn (bottom right corner)
C S_centaur (centaur)
_ S_chain (iron chain)

# S_cloud (cloud)
c S_cockatrice (cockatrice)
$ S_coin (pile of coins)
# S_corr (corridor)
− S_crwall (wall)
# S_darkroom (dark room)
^ S_dart_trap (dart trap)
& S_demon (major demon)
* S_digbeam (dig beam)
> S_dnladder (ladder down)
> S_dnstair (staircase down)
d S_dog (dog or other canine)
D S_dragon (dragon)
; S_eel (sea monster)
E S_elemental (elemental)
/ S_explode1 (explosion top left)
− S_explode2 (explosion top center)
\ S_explode3 (explosion top right)
| S_explode4 (explosion middle left)
S_explode5 (explosion middle center)
| S_explode6 (explosion middle right)
\ S_explode7 (explosion bottom left)
− S_explode8 (explosion bottom center)
/ S_explode9 (explosion bottom right)
e S_eye (eye or sphere)
^ S_falling_rock_trap (falling rock trap)
f S_feline (cat or other feline)
^ S_fire_trap (fire trap)
! S_flashbeam (flash beam)
% S_food (piece of food)
{ S_fountain (fountain)
F S_fungus (fungus or mold)
* S_gem (gem or rock)
S_ghost (ghost)
H S_giant (giant humanoid)
G S_gnome (gnome)
´ S_golem (golem)
| S_grave (grave)
g S_gremlin (gremlin)
− S_hbeam (horizontal beam [zap animation])
# S_hcdbridge (horizontal raised drawbridge)
+ S_hcdoor (closed door in horizontal wall)
. S_hodbridge (horizontal lowered drawbridge)
| S_hodoor (open door in horizontal wall)
^ S_hole (hole)
@ S_human (human or elf)
h S_humanoid (humanoid)
− S_hwall (horizontal wall)
. S_ice (ice)
i S_imp (imp or minor demon)
I S_invisible (invisible monster)
J S_jabberwock (jabberwock)

j S_jelly (jelly)
k S_kobold (kobold)
K S_kop (Keystone Kop)
^ S_land_mine (land mine)
} S_lava (molten lava)
l S_leprechaun (leprechaun)
^ S_level_teleporter (level teleporter)
L S_lich (lich)
y S_light (light)
# S_litcorr (lit corridor)
: S_lizard (lizard)
\ S_lslant (diagonal beam [zap animation])
^ S_magic_portal (magic portal)
^ S_magic_trap (magic trap)
m S_mimic (mimic)
] S_mimic_def (mimic)
M S_mummy (mummy)
N S_naga (naga)
. S_ndoor (doorway without door)
n S_nymph (nymph)
O S_ogre (ogre)
o S_orc (orc)
p S_piercer (piercer)
^ S_pit (pit)
# S_poisoncloud (poison cloud)
^ S_polymorph_trap (polymorph trap)
} S_pool (water)
! S_potion (potion)
P S_pudding (pudding or ooze)
q S_quadruped (quadruped)
Q S_quantmech (quantum mechanic)
= S_ring (ring)
` S_rock (boulder or statue)
r S_rodent (rodent)
^ S_rolling_boulder_trap (rolling boulder trap)
. S_room (floor of a room)
/ S_rslant (diagonal beam [zap animation])
^ S_rust_trap (rust trap)
R S_rustmonst (rust monster or disenchanter)
? S_scroll (scroll)
# S_sink (sink)
^ S_sleeping_gas_trap (sleeping gas trap)
S S_snake (snake)
s S_spider (arachnid or centipede)
^ S_spiked_pit (spiked pit)
^ S_squeaky_board (squeaky board)
0 S_ss1 (magic shield 1 of 4)
# S_ss2 (magic shield 2 of 4)
@ S_ss3 (magic shield 3 of 4)
* S_ss4 (magic shield 4 of 4)
^ S_statue_trap (statue trap)
S_stone (solid rock or unexplored terrain

or dark part of a room)

] S_strange_obj (strange object)
− S_sw_bc (swallow bottom center)
\ S_sw_bl (swallow bottom left)
/ S_sw_br (swallow bottom right)
| S_sw_ml (swallow middle left)
| S_sw_mr (swallow middle right)
− S_sw_tc (swallow top center)
/ S_sw_tl (swallow top left)
\ S_sw_tr (swallow top right)
− S_tdwall (wall)
^ S_teleportation_trap (teleportation trap)
\ S_throne (opulent throne)
− S_tlcorn (top left corner)
| S_tlwall (wall)
( S_tool (useful item (pick-axe, key, lamp...))
^ S_trap_door (trap door)
t S_trapper (trapper or lurker above)
− S_trcorn (top right corner)
# S_tree (tree)
T S_troll (troll)
| S_trwall (wall)
− S_tuwall (wall)
U S_umber (umber hulk)
u S_unicorn (unicorn or horse)
< S_upladder (ladder up)
< S_upstair (staircase up)
V S_vampire (vampire)
| S_vbeam (vertical beam [zap animation])
# S_vcdbridge (vertical raised drawbridge)
+ S_vcdoor (closed door in vertical wall)
. S_venom (splash of venom)
^ S_vibrating_square (vibrating square)
. S_vodbridge (vertical lowered drawbridge)
− S_vodoor (open door in vertical wall)
v S_vortex (vortex)
| S_vwall (vertical wall)
/ S_wand (wand)
} S_water (water)
) S_weapon (weapon)
" S_web (web)
w S_worm (worm)
~ S_worm_tail (long worm tail)
W S_wraith (wraith)
x S_xan (xan or other extraordinary insect)
X S_xorn (xorn)
Y S_yeti (apelike creature)
Z S_zombie (zombie)
z S_zruty (zruty)
S_pet_override (any pet if ACCESSIBILITY=1 is set)
S_hero_override (hero if ACCESSIBILITY=1 is set)
Notes:

* Several symbols in this table appear to be blank. They are the space character, except for S_pet_override and
S_hero_override which don’t have any default value and can only be used if enabled in the “sysconf” file.
* S_rock is misleadingly named; rocks and stones use S_gem. Statues and boulders are the rock being referred to,
but since version 3.6.0, statues are displayed as the monster they depict. So S_rock is only used for boulders and
not used at all if overridden by the more specific S_boulder.
9.15. 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 technolo-
gies. 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 capabilities 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 lo-
cated. Merely searching for an @-sign will not always find your character since there are other humanoids represent-
ed by the same sign. Your screen-reader should also have a function which gives you the row and column of your re-
view cursor and the PC cursor. These co-ordinates are often useful in giving players a better sense of the overall lo-
cation of items on the screen.
NetHack can also be compiled with support for sending the game messages to an external program, such as a
text-to-speech synthesizer. If the “#version” extended command shows “external program as a message handler”,
your NetHack has been compiled with the capability. When compiling NetHack from source on Linux and other
POSIX systems, define MSGHANDLER to enable it. To use the capability, set the environment variable
NETHACK_MSGHANDLER to an executable, which will be executed with the game message as the program’s on-
ly parameter.
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 within the “symbols” file of all official distributions of NetHack is a symset
called NHAccess. Selecting that symset in your configuration 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 set-
tings via SYMBOLS= and ROGUESYMBOLS= in your configuration file to better suit your preferences. See the
previous section for the special symbols S_pet_override to force a consistent symbol for all pets and S_hero_over-
ride to force a unique symbol for the player character if accessibility is enabled in the sysconf file.
The most crucial settings to make the game more accessible are:
symset:NHAccess
Load a symbol set appropriate for use by blind players.
roguesymset:NHAccess
Load a symbol set for the rogue level that is appropriate for use by blind players.
menustyle:traditional
This will assist in the interface to speech synthesizers.
nomenu_overlay
Show menus on a cleared screen and aligned to the left edge.
number_pad
A lot of speech access programs use the number-pad to review the screen. If this is the case, disable the num-
ber_pad option and use the traditional Rogue-like commands.
autodescribe
Automatically describe the terrain under the cursor when targeting.
mention_walls
Give feedback messages when walking towards a wall or when travel command was interrupted.
whatis_coord:compass
When targeting with cursor, describe the cursor position with coordinates relative to your character.
whatis_filter:area
When targeting with cursor, filter possible locations so only those in the same area (eg. same room, or same

corridor) are considered.

whatis_moveskip
When targeting with cursor and using fast-move, skip the same glyphs instead of moving 8 units at a time.
nostatus_updates
Prevent updates to the status lines at the bottom of the screen, if your screen-reader reads those lines. The same in-
formation can be seen via the “#attributes” command.
9.16. Global Configuration for System Administrators

If NetHack is compiled with the SYSCF option, a system administrator should set up a global configuration;
this is a file in the same format as the traditional per-user configuration file (see above). This file should be named
sysconf and placed in the same directory as the other NetHack support files. The options recognized in this file are
listed below. Any option not set uses a compiled-in default (which may not be appropriate for your system).
WIZARDS = A space-separated list of user names who are allowed to play in debug mode (commonly referred to
as wizard mode). A value of a single asterisk (*) allows anyone to start a game in debug mode.
SHELLERS = A list of users who are allowed to use the shell escape command (!). The syntax is the same as
WIZARDS.
EXPLORERS = A list of users who are allowed to use the explore mode. The syntax is the same as WIZARDS.
MAXPLAYERS = Limit the maximum number of games that can be running at the same time.
SUPPORT = A string explaining how to get local support (no default value).
RECOVER = A string explaining how to recover a game on this system (no default value).
SEDUCE = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the SEDUCE option. When disabled, incubi and succubi be-
have like nymphs.
CHECK_PLNAME = Setting this to 1 will make the EXPLORERS, WIZARDS, and SHELLERS check for the
player name instead of the user’s login name.
CHECK_SAVE_UID = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the UID (used identification number) checking
for save files (to verify that the user who is restoring is the same one who saved).
The following options affect the score file:
PERSMAX = Maximum number of entries for one person.
ENTRYMAX = Maximum number of entries in the score file.
POINTSMIN = Minimum number of points to get an entry in the score file.
PERS_IS_UID = 0 or 1 to use user names or numeric userids, respectively, to identify unique people for the score
file.
MAX_STATUENAME_RANK = Maximum number of score file entries to use for random statue names (default
is 10).
ACCESSIBILITY = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the ability for players to set S_pet_override and
S_hero_override symbols in their configuration file.
PORTABLE_DEVICE_PATHS = 0 or 1 Windows OS only, the game will look for all of its external files, and
write to all of its output files in one place rather than at the standard locations.
DUMPLOGFILE = A filename where the end-of-game dumplog is saved. Not defining this will prevent dumplog
from being created. Only available if your game is compiled with DUMPLOG. Allows the following placehold-
ers:
%% - literal ‘%’
%v - version (eg. “3.6.3−0”)
%u - game UID
%t - game start time, UNIX timestamp format
%T - current time, UNIX timestamp format
%d - game start time, YYYYMMDDhhmmss format

%D - current time, YYYYMMDDhhmmss format

%n - player name
%N - first character of player name
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, how-
ever, 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 ver-
sions.
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 comes equipped with an “explore” 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 command-line switch or
with the playmode:explore option. The other is to issue the “#exploremode” extended command while already
playing the game. Starting a new game in explore mode provides your character with a wand of wishing in initial
inventory; switching during play does not. The other benefits of explore mode are left for the trepid reader to dis-
cover.
11.1. Debug mode
Debug mode, also known as wizard mode, is undocumented aside from this brief description and the various
“debug mode only” commands listed among the command descriptions. It is intended for tracking down problems
within the program rather than to provide god-like powers to your character, and players who attempt debugging are
expected to figure out how to use it themselves. It is initiated by starting the game with the −D command-line
switch or with the playmode:debug option.
For some systems, the player must be logged in under a particular user name to be allowed to use debug mode;
for others, the hero must be given a particular character name (but may be any role; there’s no connection between
“wizard mode” and the Wizard role). Attempting to start a game in debug mode when not allowed or not available
will result in falling back to explore mode instead.
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 develop-
ment are described below:
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 versions (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 re-
leased 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 Threepoint, 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 NetHack Development Team to produce subse-
quent 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 re-
visions of 3.0.
Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller and Janet Walz, the NetHack Development
Team which now included Ken Arromdee, 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 Schelin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDeven-
der, and Paul Winner, ported NetHack 3.1 to the PC.
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 development, Bart House added a Think C port.
Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2. Eric Smith ported 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 NetHack Development Team and tile support
was then added to other platforms.
The 3.2 NetHack 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 NetHack Development Team remained 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 mem-
bers of the NetHack Development Team, Dr. Izchak Miller, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. That re-
lease of the game was dedicated to him by the development and porting teams.
During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusiasts 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 inde-
pendently, Stephen White wrote NetHack Plus. Tom Proudfoot later merged NetHack Plus and his own NetHack--
to produce SLASH. Larry Stewart-Zerba and Warwick Allison improved the spell casting system with the Wiz-
ard Patch. Warwick Allison also ported NetHack to use the Qt interface.
Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to produce Slash’EM, and with the help of Kevin
Hugo, added more features. Kevin later joined the NetHack Development Team 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 Decem-
ber 1999 just in time for the Year 2000.
The 3.3 NetHack Development Team, consisting of Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie
Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy, 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 re-
moved in preference 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, Barbarians, Cavemen, Heal-
ers, Knights, Priests, Rogues, Samurai, Tourists, Valkyries and of course, Wizards. It was also the first version to al-
low 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 NetHack Development Team initially consisted of Michael Allison, 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 release 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 dif-
ferent platforms that NetHack runs on:
Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.
Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS-DOS platform. Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir pro-
vided encouragement.
Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and enhanced 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 interface for the Windows port.
Alex Kompel also contributed a Windows CE port for 3.4.1.
Ron Van Iwaarden was the sole maintainer of NetHack for OS/2 the past several releases. Unfortunately
Ron’s last OS/2 machine stopped working in early 2006. A great many thanks to Ron for keeping NetHack alive on
OS/2 all these years.
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.
The release of NetHack 3.4.3 in December 2003 marked the beginning of a long release hiatus. 3.4.3 proved to
be a remarkably stable version that provided continued enjoyment by the community for more than a decade. The
NetHack Development Team slowly and quietly continued to work on the game behind the scenes during the tenure
of 3.4.3. It was during that same period that several new variants emerged within the NetHack community. Notably
sporkhack by Derek S. Ray, unnethack by Patric Mueller, nitrohack and its successors originally by Daniel Thaler
and then by Alex Smith, and Dynahack by Tung Nguyen. Some of those variants continue to be developed, main-
tained, and enjoyed by the community to this day.
In September 2014, an interim snapshot of the code under development was released publicly by other parties.
Since that code was a work-in-progress and had not gone through the process of debugging it as a suitable release, it
was decided that the version numbers present on that code snapshot would be retired and never used in an official
NetHack release. An announcement was posted on the NetHack Development Team’s official nethack.org website to
that effect, stating that there would never be a 3.4.4, 3.5, or 3.5.0 official release version.
In January 2015, preparation began for the release of NetHack 3.6.
At the beginning of development for what would eventually get released as 3.6.0, the NetHack Development
Team consisted of Warwick Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Ken Lorber,
Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner. In early 2015, ahead of the release of
3.6.0, new members Sean Hunt, Pasi Kallinen, and Derek S. Ray joined the NetHack Development Team.

Near the end of the development of 3.6.0, one of the significant inspirations for many of the humorous and fun
features found in the game, author Terry Pratchett, passed away. NetHack 3.6.0 introduced a tribute to him.
3.6.0 was released in December 2015, and merged work done by the development team since the release of
3.4.3 with some of the beloved community patches. Many bugs were fixed and some code was restructured.
The NetHack Development Team, as well as Steve VanDevender and Kevin Smolkowski, ensured that
NetHack 3.6 continued to operate on various UNIX flavors and maintained the X11 interface.
Ken Lorber, Haoyang Wang, Pat Rankin, and Dean Luick maintained the port of NetHack 3.6 for Mac
OSX.
Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Bart House, Pasi Kallinen, Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas, Derek S. Ray
and Yitzhak Sapir maintained the port of NetHack 3.6 for Microsoft Windows.
Pat Rankin attempted to keep the VMS port running for NetHack 3.6, hindered by limited access. Kevin
Smolkowski has updated and tested it for the most recent version of OpenVMS (V8.4 as of this writing) on Alpha
and Integrity (aka Itanium aka IA64) but not VAX.
Ray Chason resurrected the msdos port for 3.6 and contributed the necessary updates to the community at
large.
In late April 2018, several hundred bug fixes for 3.6.0 and some new features were assembled and released as
NetHack 3.6.1. The NetHack Development Team at the time of release of 3.6.1 consisted of Warwick Allison,
Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Pasi Kallinen, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Patric
Mueller, Pat Rankin, Derek S. Ray, Alex Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner.
In early May 2019, another 320 bug fixes along with some enhancements and the adopted curses window port,
were released as 3.6.2.
Bart House, who had contributed to the game as a porting team participant for decades, joined the NetHack
Development Team in late May 2019.
NetHack 3.6.3 was released on December 5, 2019 containing over 190 bug fixes to NetHack 3.6.2.
NetHack 3.6.4 was released on December 18, 2019 containing a security fix and a few bug fixes.
NetHack 3.6.5 was released on January 27, 2020 containing some security fixes and a small number of bug
fixes.
The official NetHack web site is maintained by Ken Lorber at https://www.nethack.org/.
12.1. SPECIAL THANKS
On behalf of the NetHack community, thank you very much once again to M. Drew Streib and Pasi Kallinen
for providing a public NetHack server at nethack.alt.org. Thanks to Keith Simpson and Andy Thomson for hard-
fought.org. Thanks to all those unnamed dungeoneers who invest their time and effort into annual NetHack tourna-
ments such as Junethack, The November NetHack Tournament and in days past, devnull.net (gone for now, but not
forgotten).
----------
From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a particularly intriguing modification
to help out with the game. The NetHack Development Team sometimes makes note of the names of the worst of
these miscreants in this, the list of Dungeoneers:
Adam Aronow J. Ali Harlow Mikko Juola
Alex Kompel Janet Walz Nathan Eady
Alex Smith Janne Salmijarvi Norm Meluch
Andreas Dorn Jean-Christophe Collet Olaf Seibert
Andy Church Jeff Bailey Pasi Kallinen
Andy Swanson Jochen Erwied Pat Rankin
Andy Thomson John Kallen Patric Mueller
Ari Huttunen John Rupley Paul Winner
Bart House John S. Bien Pierre Martineau

Benson I. Margulies Johnny Lee Ralf Brown

Bill Dyer Jon W{tte Ray Chason
Boudewijn Waijers Jonathan Handler Richard Addison
Bruce Cox Joshua Delahunty Richard Beigel
Bruce Holloway Karl Garrison Richard P. Hughey
Bruce Mewborne Keizo Yamamoto Rob Menke
Carl Schelin Keith Simpson Robin Bandy
Chris Russo Ken Arnold Robin Johnson
David Cohrs Ken Arromdee Roderick Schertler
David Damerell Ken Lorber Roland McGrath
David Gentzel Ken Washikita Ron Van Iwaarden
David Hairston Kevin Darcy Ronnen Miller
Dean Luick Kevin Hugo Ross Brown
Del Lamb Kevin Sitze Sascha Wostmann
Derek S. Ray Kevin Smolkowski Scott Bigham
Deron Meranda Kevin Sweet Scott R. Turner
Dion Nicolaas Lars Huttar Sean Hunt
Dylan O’Donnell Leon Arnott Stephen Spackman
Eric Backus M. Drew Streib Stefan Thielscher
Eric Hendrickson Malcolm Ryan Stephen White
Eric R. Smith Mark Gooderum Steve Creps
Eric S. Raymond Mark Modrall Steve Linhart
Erik Andersen Marvin Bressler Steve VanDevender
Fredrik Ljungdahl Matthew Day Teemu Suikki
Frederick Roeber Merlyn LeRoy Tim Lennan
Gil Neiger Michael Allison Timo Hakulinen
Greg Laskin Michael Feir Tom Almy
Greg Olson Michael Hamel Tom West
Gregg Wonderly Michael Sokolov Warren Cheung
Hao-yang Wang Mike Engber Warwick Allison
Helge Hafting Mike Gallop Yitzhak Sapir
Irina Rempt-Drijfhout Mike Passaretti
Izchak Miller Mike Stephenson
Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Nethack 366 Guidebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nethack 366 Guidebook

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nethack 366 Guidebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Guide to the Mazes of Menace

(Guidebook for NetHack)

Original version - Eric S. Raymond

January 27, 2020

2. What is going on here?

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

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

The bat bites!

3.1. The status lines (bottom)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

3.2. The message line (top)

3.3. The map (rest of the screen)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

D Drop several things.

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

, Pick up some things from the floor beneath you.

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

5. Rooms and corridors

5.2. Traps (‘^’)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

5.3. Stairs and ladders (‘<’, ‘>’)

5.4. Shops and shopping

5.4.1. Shop idiosyncrasies

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

6.2. Your pet

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

6.4. Bones levels

6.5. Persistence of Monsters

7.1. Curses and Blessings

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.2. Weapons (‘)’)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.2.1. Throwing and shooting

7.2.2. Weapon proficiency

7.2.3. Two-Weapon combat

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.3. Armor (‘[’)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.4. Food (‘%’)

7.5. Scrolls (‘?’)

7.6. Potions (‘!’)

7.7. Wands (‘/’)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.8. Rings (‘=’)

7.9. Spellbooks (‘+’)

7.10. Tools (‘(’)

NetHack 3.6 January 27, 2020

7.11. Amulets (‘"’)