A Guide to the Mazes of Menace
(Guidebook for NetHack)
Eric S. Raymond
(Extensively edited and expanded for 3.4)
1. Introduction
Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant
in your daily occupation. Strange dreams of prospecting, steal-
ing, crusading, and combat have haunted you in your sleep for
many months, but you aren't sure of the reason. You wonder
whether you have in fact been having those dreams all your life,
and somehow managed to forget about them until now. Some nights
you awaken suddenly and cry out, terrified at the vivid recollec-
tion of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be lurk-
ing behind every corner of the dungeon in your dream. Could
these details haunting your dreams be real? As each night pass-
es, you feel the desire to enter the mysterious caverns near the
ruins grow stronger. Each morning, however, you quickly put the
idea out of your head as you recall the tales of those who en-
tered the caverns before you and did not return. Eventually you
can resist the yearning to seek out the fantastic place in your
dreams no longer. After all, when other adventurers came back
this way after spending time in the caverns, they usually seemed
better off than when they passed through the first time. And who
was to say that all of those who did not return had not just kept
going?
Asking around, you hear about a bauble, called the Amulet of
Yendor by some, which, if you can find it, will bring you great
wealth. One legend you were told even mentioned that the one who
finds the amulet will be granted immortality by the gods. The
amulet is rumored to be somewhere beyond the Valley of Gehennom,
deep within the Mazes of Menace. Upon hearing the legends, you
immediately realize that there is some profound and undiscovered
reason that you are to descend into the caverns and seek out that
amulet of which they spoke. Even if the rumors of the amulet's
powers are untrue, you decide that you should at least be able to
sell the tales of your adventures to the local minstrels for a
tidy sum, especially if you encounter any of the terrifying and
magical creatures of your dreams along the way. You spend one
last night fortifying yourself at the local inn, becoming more
and more depressed as you watch the odds of your success being
posted on the inn's walls getting lower and lower.
NetHack Guidebook 1
NetHack Guidebook 2
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.
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 3
Rogues are agile and stealthy thieves, with knowledge of
locks, traps, and poisons. Their advantage lies in surprise,
which they employ to great advantage.
Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon. They are
lightly armored and quick, and wear the dai-sho, two swords of
the deadliest keenness.
Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping
with), a credit card, lots of food, some maps, and an expensive
camera. Most monsters don't like being photographed.
Valkyries are hardy warrior women. Their upbringing in the
harsh Northlands makes them strong, inures them to extremes of
cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning.
Wizards start out with a knowledge of magic, a selection of
magical items, and a particular affinity for dweomercraft. Al-
though seemingly weak and easy to overcome at first sight, an ex-
perienced Wizard is a deadly foe.
You may also choose the race of your character:
Dwarves are smaller than humans or elves, but are stocky and
solid individuals. Dwarves' most notable trait is their great
expertise in mining and metalwork. Dwarvish armor is said to be
second in quality not even to the mithril armor of the Elves.
Elves are agile, quick, and perceptive; very little of what
goes on will escape an Elf. The quality of Elven craftsmanship
often gives them an advantage in arms and armor.
Gnomes are smaller than but generally similar to dwarves.
Gnomes are known to be expert miners, and it is known that a se-
cret underground mine complex built by this race exists within
the Mazes of Menace, filled with both riches and danger.
Humans are by far the most common race of the surface world,
and are thus the norm by which other races are often compared.
Although they have no special abilities, they can succeed in any
role.
Orcs are a cruel and barbaric race that hate every living
thing (including other orcs). Above all others, Orcs hate Elves
with a passion unequalled, and will go out of their way to kill
one at any opportunity. The armor and weapons fashioned by the
Orcs are typically of inferior quality.
3. What do all those things on the screen mean?
On the screen is kept a map of where you have been and what
you have seen on the current dungeon level; as you explore more
of the level, it appears on the screen in front of you.
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NetHack Guidebook 4
When NetHack's ancestor rogue first appeared, its screen
orientation was almost unique among computer fantasy games.
Since then, screen orientation has become the norm rather than
the exception; NetHack continues this fine tradition. Unlike
text adventure games that accept commands in pseudo-English sen-
tences and explain the results in words, NetHack commands are all
one or two keystrokes and the results are displayed graphically
on the screen. A minimum screen size of 24 lines by 80 columns
is recommended; if the screen is larger, only a 21x80 section
will be used for the map.
NetHack can even be played by blind players, with the assis-
tance of Braille readers or speech synthesisers. Instructions
for configuring NetHack for the blind are included later in this
document.
NetHack generates a new dungeon every time you play it; even
the authors still find it an entertaining and exciting game de-
spite having won several times.
NetHack offers a variety of display options. The options
available to you will vary from port to port, depending on the
capabilities of your hardware and software, and whether various
compile-time options were enabled when your executable was creat-
ed. The three possible display options are: a monochrome charac-
ter interface, a color character interface, and a graphical in-
terface using small pictures called tiles. The two character in-
terfaces allow fonts with other characters to be substituted, but
the default assignments use standard ASCII characters to repre-
sent everything. There is no difference between the various dis-
play options with respect to game play. Because we cannot repro-
duce the tiles or colors in the Guidebook, and because it is com-
mon to all ports, we will use the default ASCII characters from
the monochrome character display when referring to things you
might see on the screen during your game.
In order to understand what is going on in NetHack, first
you must understand what NetHack is doing with the screen. The
NetHack screen replaces the ``You see ...'' descriptions of text
adventure games. Figure 1 is a sample of what a NetHack screen
might look like. The way the screen looks for you depends on
your platform.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The bat bites!
------
|....| ----------
|.<..|####...@...$.|
|....-# |...B....+
|....| |.d......|
------ -------|--
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 5
Player the Rambler St:12 Dx:7 Co:18 In:11 Wi:9 Ch:15 Neutral
Dlvl:1 $:0 HP:9(12) Pw:3(3) AC:10 Exp:1/19 T:257 Weak
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Figure 1
3.1. The status lines (bottom)
The bottom two lines of the screen contain several cryptic
pieces of information describing your current status. If either
status line becomes longer than the width of the screen, you
might not see all of it. Here are explanations of what the vari-
ous status items mean (though your configuration may not have all
the status items listed below):
Rank
Your character's name and professional ranking (based on the
experience level, see below).
Strength
A measure of your character's strength; one of your six ba-
sic attributes. A human character's attributes can range
from 3 to 18 inclusive; non-humans may exceed these limits
(occasionally you may get super-strengths of the form 18/xx,
and magic can also cause attributes to exceed the normal
limits). The higher your strength, the stronger you are.
Strength affects how successfully you perform physical
tasks, how much damage you do in combat, and how much loot
you can carry.
Dexterity
Dexterity affects your chances to hit in combat, to avoid
traps, and do other tasks requiring agility or manipulation
of objects.
Constitution
Constitution affects your ability to recover from injuries
and other strains on your stamina.
Intelligence
Intelligence affects your ability to cast spells and read
spellbooks.
Wisdom
Wisdom comes from your practical experience (especially when
dealing with magic). It affects your magical energy.
Charisma
Charisma affects how certain creatures react toward you. In
particular, it can affect the prices shopkeepers offer you.
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NetHack Guidebook 6
Alignment
Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. Often, Lawful is taken as good
and Chaotic as evil, but legal and ethical do not always co-
incide. Your alignment influences how other monsters react
toward you. Monsters of a like alignment are more likely to
be non-aggressive, while those of an opposing alignment are
more likely to be seriously offended at your presence.
Dungeon Level
How deep you are in the dungeon. You start at level one and
the number increases as you go deeper into the dungeon.
Some levels are special, and are identified by a name and
not a number. The Amulet of Yendor is reputed to be some-
where beneath the twentieth level.
Gold
The number of gold pieces you are openly carrying. Gold
which you have concealed in containers is not counted.
Hit Points
Your current and maximum hit points. Hit points indicate
how much damage you can take before you die. The more you
get hit in a fight, the lower they get. You can regain hit
points by resting, or by using certain magical items or
spells. The number in parentheses is the maximum number
your hit points can reach.
Power
Spell points. This tells you how much mystic energy (mana)
you have available for spell casting. Again, resting will
regenerate the amount available.
Armor Class
A measure of how effectively your armor stops blows from un-
friendly creatures. The lower this number is, the more ef-
fective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative ar-
mor class.
Experience
Your current experience level and experience points. As you
adventure, you gain experience points. At certain experi-
ence point totals, you gain an experience level. The more
experienced you are, the better you fight and withstand mag-
ical attacks. Many dungeons show only your experience level
here.
Time
The number of turns elapsed so far, displayed if you have
the time option set.
Hunger status
Your current hunger status, ranging from Satiated down to
Fainting. If your hunger status is normal, it is not dis-
played.
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 7
Additional status flags may appear after the hunger status:
Conf when you're confused, FoodPois or Ill when sick, Blind when
you can't see, Stun when stunned, and Hallu when hallucinating.
3.2. The message line (top)
The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that de-
scribe things that are impossible to represent visually. If you
see a ``--More--'' on the top line, this means that NetHack has
another message to display on the screen, but it wants to make
certain that you've read the one that is there first. To read
the next message, just press the space bar.
3.3. The map (rest of the screen)
The rest of the screen is the map of the level as you have
explored it so far. Each symbol on the screen represents some-
thing. You can set various graphics options to change some of
the symbols the game uses; otherwise, the game will use default
symbols. Here is a list of what the default symbols mean:
- and |
The walls of a room, or an open door. Or a grave (|).
. The floor of a room, ice, or a doorless doorway.
# A corridor, or iron bars, or a tree, or possibly a kitchen
sink (if your dungeon has sinks), or a drawbridge.
> Stairs down: a way to the next level.
< Stairs up: a way to the previous level.
+ A closed door, or a spellbook containing a spell you may be
able to learn.
@ Your character or a human.
$ A pile of gold.
^ A trap (once you have detected it).
) A weapon.
[ A suit or piece of armor.
% Something edible (not necessarily healthy).
? A scroll.
/ A wand.
= A ring.
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 8
! A potion.
( A useful item (pick-axe, key, lamp...).
" An amulet or a spider web.
* A gem or rock (possibly valuable, possibly worthless).
` A boulder or statue.
0 An iron ball.
_ An altar, or an iron chain.
{ A fountain.
} A pool of water or moat or a pool of lava.
\ An opulent throne.
a-zA-Z and other symbols
Letters and certain other symbols represent the various in-
habitants of the Mazes of Menace. Watch out, they can be
nasty and vicious. Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.
I This marks the last known location of an invisible or other-
wise unseen monster. Note that the monster could have
moved. The 'F' and 'm' commands may be useful here.
You need not memorize all these symbols; you can ask the
game what any symbol represents with the `/' command (see the
next section for more info).
4. Commands
Commands are initiated by typing one or two characters.
Some commands, like ``search'', do not require that any more in-
formation be collected by NetHack. Other commands might require
additional information, for example a direction, or an object to
be used. For those commands that require additional information,
NetHack will present you with either a menu of choices or with a
command line prompt requesting information. Which you are pre-
sented with will depend chiefly on how you have set the menustyle
option.
For example, a common question, in the form ``What do you
want to use? [a-zA-Z ?*]'', asks you to choose an object you are
carrying. Here, ``a-zA-Z'' are the inventory letters of your
possible choices. Typing `?' gives you an inventory list of
these items, so you can see what each letter refers to. In this
example, there is also a `*' indicating that you may choose an
object not on the list, if you wanted to use something unexpect-
ed. Typing a `*' lists your entire inventory, so you can see the
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 9
inventory letters of every object you're carrying. Finally, if
you change your mind and decide you don't want to do this command
after all, you can press the ESC key to abort the command.
You can put a number before some commands to repeat them
that many times; for example, ``10s'' will search ten times. If
you have the number_pad option set, you must type `n' to prefix a
count, so the example above would be typed ``n10s'' instead.
Commands for which counts make no sense ignore them. In addi-
tion, movement commands can be prefixed for greater control (see
below). To cancel a count or a prefix, press the ESC key.
The list of commands is rather long, but it can be read at
any time during the game through the `?' command, which accesses
a menu of helpful texts. Here are the commands for your refer-
ence:
? Help menu: display one of several help texts available.
/ Tell what a symbol represents. You may choose to specify a
location or type a symbol (or even a whole word) to explain.
Specifying a location is done by moving the cursor to a par-
ticular spot on the map and then pressing one of `.', `,',
`;', or `:'. `.' will explain the symbol at the chosen lo-
cation, conditionally check for ``More info?'' depending up-
on whether the help option is on, and then you will be asked
to pick another location; `,' will explain the symbol but
skip any additional information; `;' will skip additional
info and also not bother asking you to choose another loca-
tion to examine; `:' will show additional info, if any,
without asking for confirmation. When picking a location,
pressing the ESC key will terminate this command, or press-
ing `?' will give a brief reminder about how it works.
Specifying a name rather than a location always gives any
additional information available about that name.
& Tell what a command does.
< Go up to the previous level (if you are on a staircase or
ladder).
> Go down to the next level (if you are on a staircase or lad-
der).
[yuhjklbn]
Go one step in the direction indicated (see Figure 2). If
you sense or remember a monster there, you will fight the
monster instead. Only these one-step movement commands
cause you to fight monsters; the others (below) are
``safe.''
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 10
y k u 7 8 9
\ | / \ | /
h- . -l 4- . -6
/ | \ / | \
b j n 1 2 3
(if number_pad is set)
Figure 2
[YUHJKLBN]
Go in that direction until you hit a wall or run into some-
thing.
m[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: move without picking up objects or fighting (even
if you remember a monster there)
F[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: fight a monster (even if you only guess one is
there)
M[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: move far, no pickup.
g[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: move until something interesting is found.
G[yuhjklbn] or <CONTROL->[yuhjklbn]
Prefix: same as `g', but forking of corridors is not con-
sidered interesting.
_ Travel to a map location via a shortest-path algorithm. The
shortest path is computed over map locations the hero knows
about (e.g. seen or previously traversed). If there is no
known path, a guess is made instead. Stops on most of the
same conditions as the `G' command, but without picking up
objects, similar to the `M' command. For ports with mouse
support, the command is also invoked when a mouse-click
takes place on a location other than the current position.
. Rest, do nothing for one turn.
a Apply (use) a tool (pick-axe, key, lamp...).
A Remove one or more worn items, such as armor. Use `T' (take
off) to take off only one piece of armor or `R' (remove) to
take off only one accessory.
^A Redo the previous command.
c Close a door.
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 11
C Call (name) an individual monster.
^C Panic button. Quit the game.
d Drop something. Ex. ``d7a'' means drop seven items of ob-
ject a.
D Drop several things. In answer to the question ``What kinds
of things do you want to drop? [!%= BUCXaium]'' you should
type zero or more object symbols possibly followed by `a'
and/or `i' and/or `u' and/or `m'. In addition, one or more
of the blessed/uncursed/cursed groups may be typed.
DB - drop all objects known to be blessed.
DU - drop all objects known to be uncursed.
DC - drop all objects known to be cursed.
DX - drop all objects of unknown B/U/C status.
Da - drop all objects, without asking for confirmation.
Di - examine your inventory before dropping anything.
Du - drop only unpaid objects (when in a shop).
Dm - use a menu to pick which object(s) to drop.
D%u - drop only unpaid food.
^D Kick something (usually a door).
e Eat food.
E Engrave a message on the floor. Engraving the word
``Elbereth'' will cause most monsters to not attack you
hand-to-hand (but if you attack, you will rub it out); this
is often useful to give yourself a breather. (This feature
may be compiled out of the game, so your version might not
have it.)
E- - write in the dust with your fingers.
f Fire one of the objects placed in your quiver. You may se-
lect ammunition with a previous `Q' command, or let the com-
puter pick something appropriate if autoquiver is true.
i List your inventory (everything you're carrying).
I List selected parts of your inventory.
I* - list all gems in inventory;
Iu - list all unpaid items;
Ix - list all used up items that are on your shopping bill;
I$ - count your money.
o Open a door.
O Set options. A menu showing the current option values will
be displayed. You can change most values simply by select-
ing the menu entry for the given option (ie, by typing its
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
NetHack Guidebook 12
letter or clicking upon it, depending on your user inter-
face). For the non-boolean choices, a further menu or
prompt will appear once you've closed this menu. The avail-
able options are listed later in this Guidebook. Options
are usually set before the game rather than with the `O'
command; see the section on options below.
p Pay your shopping bill.
P Put on a ring or other accessory (amulet, blindfold).
^P Repeat previous message. Subsequent ^P's repeat earlier
messages. The behavior can be varied via the msg_window op-
tion.
q Quaff (drink) something (potion, water, etc).
Q Select an object for your quiver. You can then throw this
using the `f' command. (In versions prior to 3.3 this was
the command to quit the game, which has now been moved to
`#quit'.)
r Read a scroll or spellbook.
R Remove an accessory (ring, amulet, etc).
^R Redraw the screen.
s Search for secret doors and traps around you. It usually
takes several tries to find something.
S Save (and suspend) the game. The game will be restored au-
tomatically the next time you play.
t Throw an object or shoot a projectile.
T Take off armor.
^T Teleport, if you have the ability.
v Display version number.
V Display the game history.
w Wield weapon.
w- - wield nothing, use your bare hands.
W Wear armor.
x Exchange your wielded weapon with the item in your alternate
weapon slot. The latter is used as your secondary weapon
when engaging in two-weapon combat. Note that if one of
these slots is empty, the exchange still takes place.
NetHack 3.4 December 2, 2003
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