Guidebook.txt

                 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)

                          March 8, 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 recollec-
tion of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be  lurk-
ing  behind  every  corner  of  the dungeon in your dream.  Could
these details haunting your dreams be real?  As each night  pass-
es,  you feel the desire to enter the mysterious caverns near the
ruins grow stronger.  Each morning, however, you quickly put  the
idea  out  of  your head as you recall the tales of those who en-
tered the caverns before you and did not return.  Eventually  you
can  resist  the yearning to seek out the fantastic place in your
dreams no longer.  After all, when other  adventurers  came  back
this  way after spending time in the caverns, they usually seemed
better off than when they passed through the first time.  And who
was to say that all of those who did not return had not just kept
going?

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


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

2.  What is going on here?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

     You may also choose the race of your character (within  lim-
its; 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  se-
cret  underground  mine  complex built by this race exists within
the Mazes of Menace, filled with both riches and danger.

     Humans are by far the most common race of the surface world,
and  are  thus  the norm 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


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

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

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

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

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












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+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|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 status.  If either
status line becomes longer than the  width  of  the  screen,  you
might not see all of it.  Here are explanations of what the vari-
ous status items mean (though your configuration may not have all
the status items listed below):

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

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

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

Constitution
     Constitution affects your ability to recover  from  injuries
     and  other strains on your stamina.  When strength is low or
     modest, constitution also affects how much  you  can  carry.
     With  sufficiently high strength, the contribution to carry-
     ing capacity from your constitution no longer matters.

Intelligence
     Intelligence affects your ability to cast  spells  and  read


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     spellbooks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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     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 af-
     fects your ability to move.  Values are Unencumbered, Encum-
     bered,  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 (hallucinating).

     Movement modifiers: Lev  (levitating),  Fly  (flying),  Ride
     (riding).

     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 de-
scribe things that are impossible to represent visually.  If  you
see a "--More--" on the top line, this means that NetHack has an-
other message to display on the screen, but it wants to make cer-
tain  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  represents  some-
thing.   You  can  set various graphics options to change some of
the symbols the game uses; otherwise, the game will  use  default
symbols.  Here is a list of what the default symbols mean:

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



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.    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 in-
     habitants of the Mazes of Menace.  Watch out,  they  can  be
     nasty and vicious.  Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.


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

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

4.  Commands

     Commands 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 information be collected by NetHack.  Other
commands  might require additional information, for example a di-
rection, or an object to be used.  For those  commands  that  re-
quire  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  pos-
sible  choices.   Typing `?' gives you an inventory list of these
items, so you can see what each letter refers to.  In this  exam-
ple, there is also a `*' indicating that you may choose an object
not on the list, if you wanted to use something unexpected.  Typ-
ing  a `*' lists your entire inventory, so you can see the inven-
tory letters of every object you're carrying.   Finally,  if  you
change your mind and decide you don't want to do this command af-
ter all, you can press the ESC key to abort the command.

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


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     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 ask-
     ing 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  cur-
     sor.   Typing  `#' while picking a location will toggle that
     option on or off.  The whatis_coord option controls  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 ob-
     jects.  The whatis_coord option controls which format of map
     coordinate is included with their descriptions.

&    Tell what a command does.

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

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

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

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

                               Figure 2

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

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


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     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 tin-
     ning-kit) use the `m' prefix to skip checking for applicable
     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 "#trav-
     el" command show a menu of interesting 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 con-
     sidered interesting.

_    Travel to a map location via a shortest-path algorithm.

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

.    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.




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^A   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.

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  fol-
     lowed by `a' and/or `i' and/or `u' and/or `m'.  In addition,
     one or more of the  blessed/uncursed/cursed  groups  may  be
     typed.

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

     The last example shows a combination.  There are three cate-
     gories 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 object must meet each of the category
     criteria  (so "%u" means class `%' and unpaid `u').  Lastly,
     you may specify 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,  fil-
     ter combinations behaved differently.)

^D   Kick something (usually a door).



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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 at-
     tempting 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 option 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.

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 en-
     try for the given option (ie, by typing its letter or click-
     ing  upon  it,  depending  on your user interface).  For the
     non-boolean choices, a further menu or  prompt  will  appear
     once  you've  closed  this  menu.  The available options are


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     listed later in this Guidebook.  Options are usually set be-
     fore the game rather than with the `O' command; see the sec-
     tion on options below.

^O   Show overview.

     Shortcut for "#overview":  list interesting  dungeon  levels
     visited.

     (Prior  to 3.6.0, `^O' was a debug mode command which listed
     the placement of all special levels.  Use "#wizwhere" 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 accessories,  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  inter-
     faces, the behavior can be varied via the msg_window option.

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

Q    Select  an object for your quiver, quiver sack, or just gen-
     erally 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 acces-
     sories, 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.)



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^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 mon-
     ster 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" com-
     mand, 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  arrow  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.

     See also `f' (fire) for throwing or shooting an item pre-se-
     lected 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 paranoid_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 choic-
     es but will accept an item of armor and attempt to  take  it
     off.)

^T   Teleport, if you have the ability.




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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 command) 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 inventory item
     to use will only list armor, but choosing an unlisted acces-
     sory will attempt to put it on.  (See the `P' command above.
     It lists accessories as the inventory choices but  will  ac-
     cept 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 emp-
     ty, the exchange still takes place.

X    Toggle two-weapon combat, if your character can do it.  Also
     available via the "#twoweapon" extended command.

     (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  align-
     ment,  along  with  your patron deity and his or her opposi-
     tion.  It also shows most of the various items  of  informa-
     tion 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  in-
     formation provided by enlightenment magic.

z    Zap a wand.

          z. - to aim at yourself, use `.' for the direction.

Z    Zap (cast) a spell.



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          Z. - to cast at yourself, use `.' for the direction.

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

:    Look at what is here.

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

,    Pick up some things 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  entire
     list  or by picking one spell from the menu then picking an-
     other 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 be-
     yond 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.



__________
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.


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!    Escape to a shell.

#    Perform an extended command.



     As  you can see, the authors of NetHack used up all the let-
ters, so this is a way to introduce the less frequently used com-
mands.  What extended commands are available depends on what fea-
tures 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 particu-
     lar location when inventory listings are displayed.  You can
     move to a currently empty slot, or if the destination is oc-
     cupied -- 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 eligi-
     ble.  In either case, otherwise  compatible  stacks  with  a
     different  name will not be merged.  This contrasts with us-
     ing "#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 dis-
     played  by the "#overview" command.  Autocompletes.  Default
     key is `M-A', and also `^N' if number_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.



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     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.   Autocom-
     pletes.  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'.



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#exploremode
     Enter the explore mode.

     Requires confirmation; default response is n (no).  To real-
     ly  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.  De-
     fault 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 ``'.



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#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 mon-
     ster 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 al-
     tar.

#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 amnesia) with an
     annotation is included, and many  things  (altars,  thrones,
     fountains,  and  so on; extra stairs leading to another dun-
     geon branch) trigger an automatic  annotation.   If  dungeon
     overview is chosen during end-of-game disclosure, every vis-
     ited level will be included regardless of annotations.   Au-
     tocompletes.  Default keys are `^O', and `M-O'.




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#panic
     Test the panic routine.  Terminates the current game.  Auto-
     completes.  Debug mode only.

     Asks for confirmation; default is n (no); continue  playing.
     To  really  panic,  respond  with  y.  You can set the para-
     noid_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  re-
     ceived help.  You probably shouldn't start off a new game by
     praying right away.)  Since using this command  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  intent  before
     quitting.  Default response is n (no); continue playing.  To
     really quit, respond with y.  You can set the  paranoid_con-
     firmation:quit option to require a response of yes instead.




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#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 `('.



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#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 inter-
     esting  targets  in sight without asking to move the cursor.
     When picking a  target  with  cursor  and  the  autodescribe


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     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.  Au-
     tocompletes.  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'.




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#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 `^E'.

#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 `^I'.

#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.  De-
     fault key is `^W'.

#wmode
     Show wall modes.  Autocompletes.  Debug mode only.

#zap
     Zap a wand.  Default key is `z'.




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



     If your keyboard has a meta key (which, when pressed in com-
bination  with  another  key,  modifies  it by setting the "meta"
[8th, or "high"] bit), you can invoke many extended  commands  by
meta-ing the first letter of the command.

     In NT, OS/2, PC and ST NetHack, the "Alt" key can be used in
this fashion; on the Amiga, set the altmeta option  to  get  this
behavior.   On  other  systems,  if typing "Alt" plus another key
transmits a two character sequence consisting of an  Escape  fol-
lowed  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




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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  com-
mands 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  displayed;  dark
areas  are  only  displayed  if they are within one space of you.
Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them.

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

5.1.  Doorways

     Doorways connect rooms and corridors.  Some doorways have no
doors; you can walk right through.  Others have  doors  in  them,
which may be open, closed, or locked.  To open a closed door, use
the `o' (open) command; to close it again, use  the  `c'  (close)
command.

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


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

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

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

5.2.  Traps (`^')

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

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

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

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

     When you traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a  trap  which
sends  you to another level, the level you're leaving will be de-
activated and stored in a file on disk.  If you're  moving  to  a
previously visited level, it will be loaded from its file on disk
and reactivated.  If you're moving to a level which has  not  yet
been  visited,  it  will be created (from scratch for most random
levels, from a template for some "special" levels, or loaded from
the remains of an earlier game for a "bones" level as briefly de-
scribed 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,


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

     Ladders  serve  the  same purpose as staircases, and the two
types of inter-level  connections  are  nearly  indistinguishable
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  us-
ing the "#chat" command while standing on it.  Using an item pri-
or to paying for it will incur a charge, and the shopkeeper won't
allow you to leave the shop until you have paid any debt you owe.

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

6.  Monsters

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

     The  commands  `/' and `;' may be used to obtain information
about those monsters who are displayed on the screen.   The  com-
mand  "#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 mon-
sters  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 in-
tent, which can be error prone if you're using `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 mon-
ster 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  re-
member a monster but want to try fighting anyway, you can use the


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

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

     Use the `a' (apply) command and pick a saddle in your inven-
tory  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  adventur-
ers (or even former incarnations of yourself!) and their personal


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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 disappearing 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 per-
sist 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 accomplished automatically by
walking  over  the object (unless you turn off the autopickup op-
tion (see below), or move with the `m' prefix  (see  above)),  or
manually by using the `,' command.

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

     As you add items to your inventory, you also add the  weight
of  that  object to your load.  The amount that you can carry de-
pends on your strength and your constitution.  The  stronger  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 encum-
ber you.  Your reactions will get slower and you'll burn calories
faster,  requiring food more frequently to cope with it.  Eventu-
ally, 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 let-
ter.   Many commands that operate on objects must ask you to find


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out which object you want to  use.   When  NetHack  asks  you  to
choose a particular object you are carrying, you are usually pre-
sented with a list of inventory letters to choose from (see  Com-
mands, above).

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

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

7.1.  Curses and Blessings

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

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

     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 inven-
tory with no prefix.  An item which you know the state of will be
distinguished  in  your  inventory  by  the  presence of the word
"cursed", "uncursed" or "blessed" in the description of the item.
In  some cases "uncursed" will be omitted as being redundant when


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enough other information is displayed.  The implicit_uncursed op-
tion  can  be  used  to  control this; toggle it off to have "un-
cursed" be displayed even when that can be deduced from other at-
tributes.

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

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

     The chance that an attack will successfully hit  a  monster,
and  the  amount  of damage such a hit will do, depends upon many
factors.  Among them are: type of weapon, quality of weapon  (en-
chantment and/or erosion), experience 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
vulnerable to certain types of weapons.

     Many  weapons  can be wielded in one hand; some require both
hands.  When wielding a two-handed weapon, you  can  not  wear  a
shield,  and  vice versa.  When wielding a one-handed weapon, you
can have another weapon ready to use by setting  things  up  with
the  `x'  command,  which  exchanges  your primary (the one being
wielded) and alternate weapons.  And if you have  proficiency  in
the  "two weapon combat" skill, you may wield both weapons simul-
taneously 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' com-
mand which allows you to unwield the current weapon  in  addition
to taking off other worn items.


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

     The  commands  to  use weapons are `w' (wield), `t' (throw),
`f' (fire, an alternate way of throwing), `Q' (quiver), `x'  (ex-
change), `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 distance something can be thrown  de-
pends mainly on the type of object and your strength.  Arrows can
be thrown by hand, but can be thrown much  farther  and  will  be
more likely to hit when thrown while you are wielding a bow.

     You  can  simplify  the  throwing operation by using the `Q'
command to select your preferred "missile", then  using  the  `f'
command  to  throw  it.   You'll  be  prompted for a direction as
above, but you don't have to specify which  item  to  throw  each
time you use `f'.  There is also an option, autoquiver, which has
NetHack choose another item to automatically fill your quiver (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  multi-
ple  items  in a single turn.  Knowing how to load several rounds
of ammunition at once -- or hold several missiles in your hand --
and  still  hit  a target is not an easy task.  Rangers are among
those who are adept at this task, as are those with a high  level
of  proficiency  in  the  relevant  weapon skill (in bow skill if
you're wielding one to shoot arrows, in crossbow skill if  you're
wielding one to shoot bolts, or in sling skill if you're wielding
one to shoot stones).  The number of items that the character has
a  chance  to  fire varies from turn to turn.  You can explicitly
limit the number of shots by using a numeric  prefix  before  the
`t'  or  `f'  command.  For example, "2f" (or "n2f" if using num-
ber_pad mode) would ensure that at most 2 arrows are shot even if
you  could  have  fired  3.   If you specify a larger number than
would have been shot ("4f" in this example), you'll just  end  up
shooting the same number (3, here) as if no limit had been speci-
fied.  Once the volley is in motion, all of the items will travel
in the same direction; if the first ones kill a monster, the oth-
ers can still continue beyond that spot.






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7.2.2.  Weapon proficiency

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

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

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

     Use of a weapon in which you're restricted or unskilled will
incur a modest penalty in the chance to hit a monster and also in
the  amount of damage done when you do hit; at basic level, there
is no penalty or bonus; at skilled level, you  receive  a  modest
bonus  in  the chance to hit and amount of damage done; at expert
level, the bonus is higher.  A successful hit  has  a  chance  to
boost  your  training towards the next skill level (unless you've
already reached the limit for this skill).   Once  such  training
reaches  the  threshold  for that next level, you'll be told that
you feel more confident in your skills.  At that  point  you  can
use  "#enhance"  to increase one or more skills.  Such skills are
not increased automatically because there is a limit to your  to-
tal  overall  skills, so you need to actively choose which skills
to enhance and which to ignore.

7.2.3.  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" com-
mand.   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 sec-
ondary  is  just an item in your inventory that's been designated


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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  push-
weapon option.  When it is enabled, then using `w' to wield some-
thing causes the currently wielded weapon to become  your  alter-
nate 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 posi-
tion.

     When in two-weapon combat mode, using the `X'  command  tog-
gles  back to single-weapon mode.  Throwing or dropping either of
the weapons or having one of them be stolen or destroyed will al-
so make you revert to single-weapon combat.

7.3.  Armor (`[')

     Lots of unfriendly things lurk about; you need armor to pro-
tect yourself from their blows.  Some types of armor offer better
protection  than  others.   Your armor class is a measure of this
protection.  Armor class (AC) is measured as in AD&D, with 10 be-
ing  the equivalent of no armor, and lower numbers meaning better
armor.  Each suit of armor which exists in AD&D  gives  the  same
protection in NetHack.  Here is an (incomplete) list of the armor
classes provided by various suits of armor:
                   dragon scale mail         1
                   plate mail                3
                   crystal plate mail        3
                   bronze plate mail         4
                   splint mail               4
                   banded mail               4
                   dwarvish mithril-coat     4
                   elven mithril-coat        5
                   chain mail                5
                   orcish chain mail         6
                   scale mail                6
                   dragon scales             7
                   studded leather armor     7
                   ring mail                 7
                   orcish ring mail          8
                   leather armor             8
                   leather jacket            9
                   no armor                 10



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     You can also wear other pieces of armor  (for  example  hel-
mets, boots, shields, cloaks) to lower your armor class even fur-
ther, but you can only wear one item of each category  (one  suit
of  armor,  one  cloak,  one  helmet, one shield, and so on) at a
time.

     If a piece of armor is enchanted, its armor protection  will
be  better (or worse) than normal, and its "plus" (or minus) will
subtract from your armor class.  For example,  a  +1  chain  mail
would give you better protection than normal chain mail, lowering
your armor class one unit further to 4.  When you put on a  piece
of  armor,  you  immediately  find  out  the  armor class and any
"plusses" it provides.  Cursed pieces of armor usually have nega-
tive 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  in-
hibit 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 usual-
ly  stay fresh, but ice boxes are heavy, and tins take a while to
open.

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

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

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

     The command to eat food is `e'.

7.5.  Scrolls (`?')

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



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

     A mail daemon may run up and deliver mail to you as a scroll
of  mail  (on  versions compiled with this feature).  To use this
feature on versions where NetHack mail delivery is  triggered  by
electronic  mail  appearing  in your system mailbox, you must let
NetHack know where to look for new mail by setting the "MAIL" en-
vironment variable to the file name of your mailbox.  You may al-
so want to set the "MAILREADER" environment variable to the  file
name of your favorite reader, so NetHack can shell to it when you
read the scroll.  On versions of NetHack where mail  is  randomly
generated  internal  to the game, these environment 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 sometimes 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 unwise.  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, at-
tempts to use the wand will usually result in nothing  happening.
Occasionally, however, it may be possible to squeeze the last few
mana points from an otherwise spent wand, destroying  it  in  the
process.   A  wand  may be recharged by using suitable magic, but
doing so runs the risk of causing it to explode.  The chance  for
such  an  explosion starts out very small and increases each time
the wand is recharged.

     In a truly desperate situation, when your back is up against
the  wall,  you might decide to go for broke and break your wand.


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This is not for the faint of heart.  Doing so  will  almost  cer-
tainly cause a catastrophic release of magical energies.

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

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

7.8.  Rings (`=')

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

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

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

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

7.9.  Spellbooks (`+')

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

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

     Casting  a  spell  calls  forth magical energies and focuses
them with your naked mind.  Some of the magical  energy  released
comes  from  within you.  Casting temporarily drains your magical
power, which will slowly be recovered, and causes you to need ad-
ditional  food.   Casting of spells also requires practice.  With
practice, your skill in each category of spell casting  will  im-
prove.   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, simi-
lar  to  wands.   To cast one at yourself, just give a `.' or `s'
for the direction.  A few spells require you to pick a target lo-
cation  rather  than  just specify a particular direction.  Other


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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 remembered.  The `Z' (cast) com-
mand 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  contain-
ers, 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  com-
mand  when  you  are  standing on top of it (that is, on the same
floor spot), or with the `a' (apply) command when you are  carry-
ing  it.   However,  chests are often locked, and are in any case
unwieldy objects.  You must set one down before unlocking  it  by
using a key or lock-picking tool with the `a' (apply) command, by
kicking it with the `^D' command, or by using a weapon  to  force
the lock with the "#force" extended command.

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

7.11.  Amulets (`"')

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




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

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

7.12.  Gems (`*')

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

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

7.13.  Large rocks (``')

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

     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 dungeon 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 lo-
cation  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 mon-
ster actually took the object.  If the  object  is  still  there,
then once you see or feel that location again you will re-discov-
er the object and resume remembering it.




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     The situation is the same for a pile of objects, except that
only  the top item of the pile is displayed.  The hilite_pile op-
tion 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 bene-
fits.  Calling upon your god for help with  starvation  does  not
violate any food challenges either.

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

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

     Eating any kind of meat violates the vegetarian, vegan,  and
foodless  conducts.   This includes tripe rations, the corpses or
tins of any monsters not mentioned above, and the  various  other
chunks  of meat found in the dungeon.  Swallowing and digesting a
monster while polymorphed is treated as if you ate the creature's
corpse.   Eating  leather, dragon hide, or bone items while poly-
morphed into a creature that can digest  it,  or  eating  monster
brains while polymorphed into a mind flayer, is considered eating


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an animal, although wax is only an animal byproduct.

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

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

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

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

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

     There  are several other challenges tracked by the game.  It
is possible to eliminate one or more species of monsters by geno-
cide;  playing  without  this  feature is considered a challenge.
When the game offers you an opportunity to genocide monsters, you
may  respond with the monster type "none" if you want to 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


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creature ("polyself") by wand, spell,  or  potion  of  polymorph;
avoiding  these effects are each considered challenges.  Polymor-
phing monsters, including pets, does not break  either  of  these
challenges.   Finally,  you  may sometimes receive wishes; a game
without an attempt to wish for any items is a challenge, as is  a
game  without wishing for an artifact (even if the artifact imme-
diately 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 vari-
able.  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 differ-
ent operating systems.

     On  UNIX,  Linux, and Mac OS X it is ".nethackrc" in the us-
er'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 "\%USERPRO-
FILE%\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 "\%USERPROFILE%\NetHack\3.6".  If you had not created the con-
figuration  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  sec-
tion,  and  are  ignored  unless  a  CHOOSE statement was used to


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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 general, the state-
ments 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  op-
  tions  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 per-
  sistent, 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  pro-
  cessed 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 neces-
  sary 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.  Autocom-
  pletion has no effect for the X11 windowport.  You can  specify


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  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 "Configur-
  ing Autopickup Exceptions" section.

BINDINGS
  Change the key bindings of some special  keys,  menu  accelera-
  tors, or extended commands.  You can specify multiple 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 "Configur-
  ing 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  SYM-
  BOLS below.

SOUND
  Define a sound mapping.  See the "Configuring User Sounds" sec-
  tion.

SOUNDDIR
  Define the directory that contains the sound  files.   See  the
  "Configuring User Sounds" section.


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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" be-
fore the name.  Others take a character string as a  value.   You
can  set  string  options  by  typing the option name, a colon or
equals sign, and then the value of the string.  The value is ter-
minated by the next comma or the end of string.




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     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 configuration 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  op-
tional.

9.4.  Customization options

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

     Some  options  are  persistent,  and  are saved and reloaded
along with the game.  Changing a persistent option in the config-
uration 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 computer's audio ca-
  pabilities.  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 align-
  ment  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 op-
  tion controls whether the description includes map coordinates.


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

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

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

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, enchant-
  ment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free to manual-
  ly  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).  Persis-
  tent.

bones
  Allow saving and loading bones files (default  true).   Persis-
  tent.

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 ex-
  ample "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.


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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  mistakes  (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 prompting/category
  pairs (default is "ni na nv ng nc no", prompt with default  re-
  sponse of `n' for each candidate).  Persistent.  The possibili-
  ties 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.  Spec-
  ified 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.


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  (for  example "disclose:yi na +v -g o") The example sets inven-
  tory to prompt and default to yes, attributes to prompt and de-
  fault to no, vanquished to disclose without prompting, genocid-
  ed 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 dun-
  geon overview shows all levels you had visited but does not re-
  veal things about them that you hadn't discovered.

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 tradi-
  tional  interface  except that it does not require that you hit
  Enter.  It is implemented for the tty interface (default off).

  For the X11 interface, which always uses a menu for choosing an
  extended command, it controls whether the menu shows all avail-
  able commands (on) or just the subset of  commands  which  have
  traditionally been considered 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  appetizing  than  slime  mold.
  Apples,  oranges,  pears,  bananas, and melons already exist in
  NetHack, so don't use those.

gender
  Your starting gender (gender:male or gender:female).   You  may
  specify  just  the first letter.  Although you can still denote
  your gender using the "male" and "female" options, the "gender"
  option  will  take precedence.  The default is to randomly pick
  an appropriate gender.  If you prefix the  value  with  `!'  or
  "no",  you will exclude that gender from being picked randomly.


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  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  de-
  fault).   Gold  is  never  blessed or cursed, but it is not de-
  scribed 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).  Turn-
  ing  help  off  makes  just looking at things faster, since you
  aren't interrupted with the "More info?" prompt,  but  it  also
  means that you might miss some interesting and/or important in-
  formation.  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"  com-
  mands.

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

  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).  Per-
  sistent.


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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 ob-
  jects (in response to the Drop  command,  for  instance).   The
  value  specified  should be the first letter of one of the fol-
  lowing:  traditional, combination, full,  or  partial.   Tradi-
  tional  was the only interface available for early versions; it
  consists of a prompt for object class characters,  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 ob-
  jects 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  ob-
  ject 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.   De-
  fault `\'.


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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.   Im-
  plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports.  Default `@'.

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

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

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

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.  (de-
  fault on)

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

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

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

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

monpolycontrol
  Prompt for new form whenever any monster changes shape (default


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  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:


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   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 accommo-
  date  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 omit-
  ted 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_confirma-
  tion:pray.

  Confirm     - for any prompts which are set  to  require  "yes"
                rather  than `y', also require "no" to reject in-
                stead 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 attack-
                ing 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 polymorph
                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.


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  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  "para-
  noid_confirmation:attack pray Remove".

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

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.


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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 pickup_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 autopickup_exception config-
  uration file lines to further refine autopickup behavior.  Per-
  sistent.

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 re-
  sults 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.  Persistent.

race
  Selects your race (for example, "race:human").  Default is ran-
  dom.  If you prefix the value with `!' or "no",  you  will  ex-
  clude 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  (de-
  fault off).  Persistent.

role
  Pick  your type of character (for example "role:Samurai"); syn-
  onym 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.


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roguesymset
  This  option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets
  found within "symbols" to alter the symbols  displayed  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 compression. 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 ac-
  tual  results  of moving.  The default is "run"; versions prior
  to 3.4.1 used "teleport" only.  Whether or not  the  effect  is
  noticeable will depend upon the window port used or on the type
  of terminal.  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 af-
  fects 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.


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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 (de-
  fault on).  Persistent.

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

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 hiliting.
  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  displayed  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 ex-
  plosions and moving objects, use a timer  rather  than  sending
  extra  characters  to  the screen.  (Applies to "tty" interface
  only; "X11" interface always uses a  timer  based  delay.   The


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  default is on if configured into the program.)  Persistent.

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

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

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).   Persis-
  tent.

whatis_coord
  When  using  the  `/' or `;' commands to look around on the map
  with autodescribe on, display coordinates  after  the  descrip-
  tion.   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 over-
  ridden 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 possi-
  ble 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.




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  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 instead 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  de-
  pends 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 op-
  tions.  For multiple lines in a configuration file, that  would
  be  the  first non-comment line.  For a comma-separated 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 window port is capable of adjust-
ing 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'
command.

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



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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  win-
  dow.

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.


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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 in-
  terface 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  speci-
  fied.

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 exam-
  ple,  in  the  protected  mode  MS-DOS version, control whether
  tiles get pre-loaded into RAM at the start of the game.   Doing
  so  enhances  performance  of  the tile graphics, but uses more
  memory. (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  win-
  dow.

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.


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  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 spec-
  ified  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  speci-
  fies 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 in-
  terface 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




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     OPTION=windowcolors:wintype foreground/background

     where  wintype  is  one  of  "menu", "message", "status", or
"text", and foreground and background are colors, either a  hexa-
decimal  \'#rrggbb',  one of the named colors (black, red, green,
brown, blue, magenta, cyan, orange, brightgreen, yellow,  bright-
blue,  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, inactivecap-
tion, menu, menutext,  scrollbar,  window,  windowframe,  window-
text).

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 anoth-
  er key functions as a meta-shift for that key (default on).

altmeta
  On other (non-Amiga) systems where this option is available, it
  can be set to tell NetHack to convert a two character  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 conversion, so attempting to
  abort the count by typing ESC will leave  NetHack  waiting  for
  another character to complete 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  ma-
  chines  with  an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default off, OS/2,
  PC, and ST NetHack only).



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flush
  (default off, Amiga NetHack only).

MACgraphics
  (default on, Mac NetHack only).

page_wait
  (default on, Mac NetHack only).

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

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

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

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

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

9.7.  Regular Expressions

     Regular  expressions are normally POSIX extended regular ex-
pressions. It is possible  to  compile  NetHack  without  regular


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expression  support  on  a platform where there is no regular ex-
pression 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 Autopickup 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 pickup_types option.

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

autopickup_exception
  Sets an exception to the pickup_types  option.   The  autopick-
  up_exception  option should be followed by a regular expression
  to be used as a pattern to match against the singular  form  of
  the description of an object at your location.

  In  addition, some characters are treated specially if they oc-
  cur 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_ex-
  ception 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  exclusion  of
any  corpse from autopickup.  The last example results in the ex-
clusion 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 extended 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"),


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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.  Un-
  bind 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 cannot bind ob-
  ject 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.  Special 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.  De-
  fault is `.'.

getdir.self2
  When asked for a direction, the key to  target  yourself.   De-
  fault is `s'.

getpos.autodescribe
  When  asked  for  a  location,  the key to toggle autodescribe.


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  Default is `#'.

getpos.all.next
  When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest inter-
  esting 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 mon-
  ster.  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 ob-
  ject.  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 previ-
  ous keys to cycle through targets, toggle showing  a  menu  in-
  stead.  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 `"'.



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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.  De-
  fault 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.  De-
  fault is `@'.

getpos.unexplored.next
  When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest  unex-
  plored 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 `^A'.



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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-defined pattern.

     In  general,  the configuration file entries to describe the
message types look like this: MSGTYPE=type "pattern"

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  mes-
          sage 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.





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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 pat-
                    tern;
       attribute  - the attribute to use for lines  matching  the
                    pattern.  The  attribute  is optional, and if
                    left out, you must also leave out the preced-
                    ing  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-ma-
  genta, light-cyan, and white.  And no-color, the default  fore-
  ground  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  pat-
  tern 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  under-
  lined.  You can have multiple MENUCOLOR entries in your config-
  uration file, and the last MENUCOLOR line that matches  a  menu
  line will be used for the line.

     Note that if you intend to have one or more color specifica-
tions match " uncursed ", you will probably want to turn the  im-
plicit_uncursed option off so that all items known to be uncursed
are actually displayed with the "uncursed" description.





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9.12.  Configuring User Sounds

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

     The  following  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 configura-
tion 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-


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magenta,  light-cyan,  and  white.   And  "no-color", the default
foreground color on the display, which  is  not  necessarily  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  general  may
interpret  the attributes any way it wants.  For example, on some
display systems a request for bold might yield blink or vice ver-
sa.  On others, issuing an attribute request while another is al-
ready set up will replace the earlier attribute rather than  com-
bine  with  it.   Since NetHack issues attribute requests sequen-
tially (at least with the tty interface) rather than all at once,
the only way a situation like that can be controlled is to speci-
fy 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  condition-
  ally displayed depending upon your other option settings.

  Instead  of  a behavior, "condition" takes the following condi-
  tion flags: stone, slime,  strngl,  foodpois,  termill,  blind,
  deaf,  stun, conf, hallu, lev, fly, and ride.  You can use "ma-
  jor_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 per-
  centage 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


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       out after statushilites turns.

     * "changed" sets the field attribute for when the field val-
       ue changes.  This attribute times out after  statushilites
       turns.   (If a field has both a "changed" rule and an "up"
       or "down" rule which matches a change in the field's  val-
       ue, 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  be-
       tween  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  maxi-
       mum  field.   Percentage  highlight rules are also allowed
       for "experience level" and "experience points" (valid when
       the showexp option is enabled).  For those, the percentage
       is based on the progress from the start of the current ex-
       perience level to the start of the next level.  So if lev-
       el 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 lev-
       el.

     * absolute value sets the attribute  when  the  field  value
       matches  that number.  The number must be 0 or higher, ex-
       cept for "armor-class' which allows negative  values,  and
       may  optionally be preceded by `='.  If the number is pre-
       ceded 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  "ti-
       tle".   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 sta-
tushilites to 0.

     Example hilites:




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     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 dis-
  play on the rogue level.

     You can also override one or more symbols using the  SYMBOLS
and  ROGUESYMBOLS configuration file options.  Symbols are speci-
fied as name:value pairs.  Note that NetHack escape-processes the
value  string  in conventional 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)



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)  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)



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-  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)



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@  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)



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   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 en-
  abled 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  de-
  pict.   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 technologies.  Players will require a good
working knowledge of their screen-reader's review  features,  and
will  have  to  know  how to navigate horizontally and vertically
character by character. They will also find the search  capabili-
ties  of their screen-readers to be quite valuable. Be certain to
examine this Guidebook before playing so you have  an  idea  what
the  screen layout is like. You'll also need to be able to locate
the PC cursor. It is always  where  your  character  is  located.
Merely  searching for an @-sign will not always find your charac-
ter since there are other humanoids represented by the same sign.
Your  screen-reader  should  also have a function which gives you
the row and column of your  review  cursor  and  the  PC  cursor.
These  co-ordinates  are  often useful in giving players a better
sense of the overall location of items on the screen.

     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 only 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 of-
ficial distributions of NetHack is a symset called NHAccess.  Se-
lecting 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 settings via SYMBOLS= and ROGUESYMBOLS= in your


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configuration file to better suit your preferences.  See the pre-
vious  section  for the special symbols S_pet_override to force a
consistent symbol for all pets and  S_hero_override  to  force  a
unique  symbol  for  the player character if accessibility is en-
abled 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 number_pad option
  and use the traditional Rogue-like commands.

autodescribe
  Automatically describe the terrain under the cursor  when  tar-
  geting.

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.




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9.16.  Global Configuration for System Administrators

     If NetHack is compiled with the SYSCF option, a  system  ad-
ministrator  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 us-
es 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 es-
  cape 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 run-
  ning at the same time.

  SUPPORT = A  string explaining how to get local support (no de-
  fault 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 behave like nymphs.

  CHECK_PLNAME = Setting this to 1 will make the EXPLORERS,  WIZ-
  ARDS, and SHELLERS check for the player name instead of the us-
  er'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,  re-
  spectively, to identify unique people for the score file.


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  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  loca-
  tions.

  DUMPLOGFILE = A  filename  where  the  end-of-game  dumplog  is
  saved.  Not defining this will prevent dumplog from being  cre-
  ated. Only available if your game is compiled with DUMPLOG. Al-
  lows the following placeholders:

  %% - 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, however, you get killed in the Mazes of
Menace, the guild will only hear about 90% of your gold when your
corpse  is  discovered  (adventurers  have  been known to collect
finder's fees).  So, consider whether you want to take  one  last
hit  at  that  monster  and  possibly live, or quit and stop with
whatever you have.  If you quit, you keep all your gold,  but  if
you swing and live, you might find more.

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






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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  play-
mode: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 wish-
ing in initial inventory; switching during play  does  not.   The
other  benefits of explore mode are left for the trepid reader to
discover.

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 pro-
vide 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 par-
ticular 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 development  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


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(1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for UNIX machines to the Usenet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

     Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by  Izchak  Miller
and  Janet  Walz, the 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  Sche-
lin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDevender, 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


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development, Bart House added a Think C port.

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

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

     The 3.2 NetHack Development Team, comprised of Michael Alli-
son, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin
Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Er-
ic 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 members of the NetHack Development Team, Dr.  Izchak
Miller,  was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.  That release
of the game was dedicated to him by the development  and  porting
teams.

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

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

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

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

     The 3.3 NetHack Development Team, consisting of Michael  Al-
lison,  Ken  Arromdee,  David  Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps,
Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Kevin Hugo, Steve Linhart, Ken  Lor-
ber,  Dean  Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet


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Walz, and Paul Winner, released 3.3.0 in December 1999 and  3.3.1
in August of 2000.

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

     The 3.4 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 different platforms
that NetHack runs on:

     Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.

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

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

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

     Ron Van Iwaarden 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 af-
ter he resurrected it for 3.3.1.

     The release of NetHack 3.4.3 in December 2003 marked the be-
ginning of a long release hiatus. 3.4.3 proved to be a remarkably


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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 con-
tinue to be developed, maintained, and enjoyed by  the  community
to this day.

     In September 2014, an interim snapshot of the code under de-
velopment 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  ver-
sion  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 Stephen-
son, 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 signif-
icant  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 oper-
ate on various UNIX flavors and maintained the X11 interface.

     Ken Lorber, Haoyang Wang, Pat Rankin, and Dean  Luick  main-
tained 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  main-
tained the port of NetHack 3.6 for Microsoft Windows.




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     Pat  Rankin  attempted  to  keep  the  VMS  port running for
NetHack 3.6, hindered by limited access. Kevin Smolkowski has up-
dated  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 contrib-
uted 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 con-
sisted  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 en-
hancements  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.

     NetHack 3.6.6 was released on March 8, 2020 containing a se-
curity fix and some 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 hardfought.org. Thanks to all those unnamed dun-
geoneers  who  invest  their  time and effort into annual NetHack
tournaments 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


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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 trade-
marks of their respective holders.








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