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Nethack problems
MasterGrater
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I decided to start up nethack again and dying a lot of times, I tried using explore mode. That didn't really do it for me. I heard about this wizard mode for it, but I have no idea how to get to it? help?
MasterGrater on
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Sadly I am not one of the Nethack players.
I highly recommend playing on http://alt.org/nethack though, theres an irc channel too.
Well, what everyone else does it find a nice FAQ that'll help them get through. My friend has ascended a tourist, wizard, barbarian and... one other. I don't remember which.
What I do? Because I'm stubborn? I started my own. As a consequence, I've never beaten the game.
Did learn some things that, evidently, the FAQs don't mention.
General ideas:
Pick a class who is cool as the game defines it; the Ranger, while my favorite, is one of the 3 or so hardest to ascend. Or so I've been told.
The Barbarian probably works well for this - he smashes things.
Take your time. Choose a keyboard layout that's useful to you. I use the home row. My friend uses the numpad.
If you have a ranged weapon, use it on the things that are painful to the touch.
Keep an extra-close eye on your health, the messages (ctrl+P, on my layout, displays the last 15 or so), fatigue level and status.
Take your time. Pay attention. Nethack is completely turn-based; there is absolutely no penalty to leaving the game running for 10 hours while you go to work and contemplate your best move.
Read the manual. It explains all the functions (and there are a lot of functions)... in a general sense. It'll mention the 'E'ngrave command (for example), but not what you should engrave, with what, or how.
Know that the path splits a number of times. It's always a good idea to hit the Gnomish Mines first - usually before level 5, you'll get two down staircases.
Keep an eye on what doesn't change from game to game. A great deal of it is random, but there are constants, which will be extremely useful to you.
Don't worry about the Voluntary Challenges. One of my biggest stumbling blocks is being obsessed with the vegan rule. Some really hard ones in there - no genocides (protip: If you are race $x, DO NOT genocide race $x. :whistle:), no wishes, no polymorphing.
Good luck, and be seeing you ...
(I find it continually fascinating how many different things reference The Prisoner.)
I don't remember how to turn off Auto-Pickup. Help?
(I lost a really promising valkyrie like this. -45 AC, +5 Grayswandir, all the useful intrinsics, etc. Wiped out in an instant.
1st wish 2 blessed scrolls of charging
2nd wish blessed +2 gray dragon scale mail
3rd wish ???
That's a tough call. You really need both reflection and a bag of holding, but you could get either one from Sokoban. What class are you? A Grayswandir could be useful, especially if you plan to #twoweapon. Also, you can never have too many magic markers. You could also wish for some other stuff (boots of speed, cloak of displacement, scrolls of genocide, ring of levitation, maybe even scrolls of enchant weapon/armor) but you're likely to find at least some of that in the early levels of the dungeon. On the other hand, you'd have a guaranteed wand of wishing waiting for you later on, so you're in no danger of running out of wishes...
Here are some tips:
1. Don't use anything you haven't identified, unless you are desperate.
-- 1.a. Once you have identified something, name it as such. There are ways you can lose your memory and there's few things more defeating than seeing your inventory turn into a pile of alphabet soup.
-- 1.b. You can get an idea of what a wand does by engraving with it "E". This is mostly harmless. A wand of create monster will create a monster, so don't go engraving with 2 hp. Also, gems.
-- 1.c. You can identify potions by throwing them at monsters and seeing what they do. I don't want to spoilerize too much, but unicorn horns are highly prized by aspiring quaffers.
2. Good classes for beginners are heavy on the STR and HP, light on magic. You don't technically need to be able to cast spells to do well: wands, potions, scrolls, and rings make up for a lot.
-- 2.a. The Barbarian is exhibit A for toughness. They live a long time.
-- 2.b. The Samurai is also quite good. Plus, they get a good ranged weapon.
-- 2.c. Valkyries
3. Keep an eye on your HP. Realize that food = HP on early levels. Not directly, but if you can find a safe room and chill out and heal, the only thing you have to fear is starvation.
4. If all seems lost, trying praying (#pray). Sometimes your patron deity will save you, and if they don't, you have someone to blame.
5. Watch some other players do stuff. Click my sig to get to alt.org/nethack. You can watch them play and even communicate via #mail. They might even chat back to you with extended command option (ex: #oh, hi there)
And now for something completely different:
Yeah, dwarves and mind flayers are both "h" types. That'll kill you. Will a dwarf survive if you genocide "@s, though? I'll have to check that out. My favorite experiment in exploration mode was to polymorph into some other race and then genocide my own.
My condolences about your Valk.
Depends on layout; @ works for me.
Edit: How well does a Camera work?
Oh and one more general hint, never ever ever walk around burdened or worse. And if you find wands or boots of speed, use them, on yourself and on your pets. Speed is key, people!
2 blessed scrolls of charging if it's from a wand
blessed +2 gray dragon scale mail magic resistance
blessed greased fireproof +2 cloak of magic resistance if you have SDSM
blessed fireproof +2 pair of speed boots makes you very fast
blessed rustproof +2 gauntlets of power esp. for a Valkyrie
blessed amulet of life saving
and blessed +2 Grayswandir
Got them all from the spoiler on wishing, I'd really like to beat this game one day.
I lose.
Already died. Attacked a Mind Flayer that was fleeing cause it was blind, thought it would continue to run away not decide that even blind it can still smell and eat my brain.
Next run died on Dlvl 2 from a Yeenoghu. I think this game has it out for me today.
mmmmmmmmmmbrainds
In the six or seven years that I've played nethack, my biggest obstacle has been the fact that the last 30-35 levels down feel like work (save for the special ones), and then you have to get back up. Fuck that, eh. I've gotten down two or three times, but the rest isn't very appealing.