1 Welcome to NetHack! ( description of version 3.3 ) 2 3 NetHack is a Dungeons and Dragons like game where you (the adventurer) 4descend into the depths of the dungeon in search of the Amulet of Yendor, 5reputed to be hidden somewhere below the twentieth level. You begin your 6adventure with a pet that can help you in many ways, and can be trained 7to do all sorts of things. On the way you will find useful (or useless) 8items, quite possibly with magic properties, and assorted monsters. You can 9attack a monster by trying to move onto the space a monster is on (but often 10it is much wiser to leave it alone). 11 12 Unlike most adventure games, which give you a verbal description of 13your location, NetHack gives you a visual image of the dungeon level you are 14on. 15 16 NetHack uses the following symbols: 17 18 - and | The walls of a room, possibly also open doors or a grave. 19 . The floor of a room or a doorway. 20 # A corridor, or iron bars, or a tree, or possibly a kitchen 21 sink (if your dungeon has sinks), or a drawbridge. 22 > Stairs down: a way to the next level. 23 < Stairs up: a way to the previous level. 24 @ You (usually), or another human. 25 ) A weapon of some sort. 26 [ A suit or piece of armor. 27 % Something edible (not necessarily healthy). 28 / A wand. 29 = A ring. 30 ? A scroll. 31 ! A potion. 32 ( Some other useful object (pick-axe, key, lamp...) 33 $ A pile of gold. 34 * A gem or rock (possibly valuable, possibly worthless). 35 + A closed door, or a spellbook containing a spell 36 you can learn. 37 ^ A trap (once you detect it). 38 " An amulet, or a spider web. 39 0 An iron ball. 40 _ An altar, or an iron chain. 41 { A fountain. 42 } A pool of water or moat or a pool of lava. 43 \ An opulent throne. 44 ` A boulder or statue. 45 A to Z, a to z, and several others: Monsters. 46 47 You can find out what a symbol represents by typing 48 '/' and following the directions to move the cursor 49 to the symbol in question. For instance, a 'd' may 50 turn out to be a dog. 51 52 53y k u 7 8 9 Move commands: 54 \|/ \|/ yuhjklbn: go one step in specified direction 55h-.-l 4-.-6 YUHJKLBN: go in specified direction until you 56 /|\ /|\ hit a wall or run into something 57b j n 1 2 3 g<dir>: run in direction <dir> until something 58 numberpad interesting is seen 59 G<dir>, same, except a branching corridor isn't 60 < up ^<dir>: considered interesting 61 > down m<dir>: move without picking up objects 62 If the number_pad option is set, the number keys move instead. 63 64Commands: 65 NetHack knows the following commands: 66 ? Help menu. 67 / Tell what a symbol represents. You may choose to specify 68 a location or give a symbol argument. 69 & Tell what a command does. 70 < Go up a staircase (if you are standing on it). 71 > Go down a staircase (if you are standing on it). 72 . Rest, do nothing for one turn. 73 a Apply (use) a tool (pick-axe, key, lamp...) 74 A Remove all armor. 75 ^A Redo the previous command 76 c Close a door. 77 C Call (name) an individual monster. 78 d Drop something. d7a: drop seven items of object a. 79 D Drop multiple items. This command is implemented in two 80 different ways. One way is: 81 "D" displays a list of all of your items, from which you can 82 pick and choose what to drop. A "+" next to an item means 83 that it will be dropped, a "-" means that it will not be 84 dropped. Toggle an item to be selected/deselected by typing 85 the letter adjacent to its description. Select all items 86 with "+", deselect all items with "=". The <SPACEBAR> moves 87 you from one page of the listing to the next. 88 The other way is: 89 "D" will ask the question "What kinds of things do you want 90 to drop? [!%= au]". You should type zero or more object 91 symbols possibly followed by 'a' and/or 'u'. 92 Da - drop all objects, without asking for confirmation. 93 Du - drop only unpaid objects (when in a shop). 94 D%u - drop only unpaid food. 95 ^D Kick (for doors, usually). 96 e Eat food. 97 E Engrave a message on the floor. 98 E- - write in the dust with your fingers. 99 f Fire ammunition from quiver. 100 F Followed by direction, fight a monster (even if you don't 101 sense it). 102 i Display your inventory. 103 I Display selected parts of your inventory, as in 104 I* - list all gems in inventory. 105 Iu - list all unpaid items. 106 Ix - list all used up items that are on your shopping bill. 107 I$ - count your money. 108 o Open a door. 109 O Review current options and possibly change them. 110 A menu displaying the option settings will be displayed 111 and most can be changed by simply selecting their entry. 112 Options are usually set before the game with a NETHACKOPTIONS 113 environment variable, or via a config file (defaults.nh, 114 NetHack Defaults, nethack.cnf, .nethackrc, etc.), not with 115 the 'O' command. 116 p Pay your shopping bill. 117 P Put on an accessory (ring, amulet, etc). 118 ^P Repeat last message (subsequent ^P's repeat earlier messages). 119 q Drink (quaff) a potion. 120 Q Select ammunition for quiver. 121 r Read a scroll or spellbook. 122 R Remove an accessory (ring, amulet, etc). 123 ^R Redraw the screen. 124 s Search for secret doors and traps around you. 125 S Save the game. 126 t Throw an object or shoot a projectile. 127 T Take off armor. 128 ^T Teleport, if you are able. 129 v Displays the version number. 130 V Display a longer identification of the version, including the 131 history of the game. 132 w Wield weapon. w- means wield nothing, use bare hands. 133 W Wear armor. 134 x Swap wielded and secondary weapons. 135 X Switch the game to explore (discovery) mode. 136 z Zap a wand. 137 Z Cast a spell. 138 ^Z Suspend the game. 139 : Look at what is here. 140 ; Look at what is somewhere else. 141 , Pick up some things. 142 @ Toggle the pickup option. 143 ^ Ask for the type of a trap you found earlier. 144 ) Tell what weapon you are wielding. 145 [ Tell what armor you are wearing. 146 = Tell what rings you are wearing. 147 " Tell what amulet you are wearing. 148 ( Tell what tools you are using. 149 * Tell what equipment you are using; combines the preceding five. 150 $ Count your gold pieces. 151 + List the spells you know; also rearrange them if desired. 152 \ Show what types of objects have been discovered. 153 ! Escape to a shell, if supported in your version and OS. 154 # Introduces one of the "extended" commands. To get a list of 155 the commands you can use with "#" type "#?". The extended 156 commands you can use depends upon what options the game was 157 compiled with, along with your class and what type of monster 158 you most closely resemble at a given moment. If your keyboard 159 has a meta key (which, when pressed in combination with another 160 key, modifies it by setting the 'meta' (8th, or 'high') bit), 161 these extended commands can be invoked by meta-ing the first 162 letter of the command. 163 164 If the "number_pad" option is on, some additional letter commands 165 are available: 166 167 j Jump to another location. 168 k Kick (for doors, usually). 169 l Loot a box on the floor. 170 n Name an object or type of object. 171 u Untrap a trapped object or door. 172 173 You can put a number before a command to repeat it that many times, 174 as in "40." or "20s.". If you have the number_pad option set, you 175 must type 'n' to prefix the count, as in "n40." or "n20s". 176 177 178 Some information is displayed on the bottom line. You see your 179 attributes, your alignment, what dungeon level you are on, how many 180 hit points you have now (and will have when fully recovered), what 181 your armor class is (the lower the better), your experience level, 182 and the state of your stomach. Optionally, you may or may not see 183 other information such as spell points, how much gold you have, etc. 184 185 Have Fun, and Happy Hacking! 186