nullprogram.com/blog/2008/09/17/
Patience. NetHack is all about patience. Never be too hasty, as the
game is extremely unforgiving. If you let your guard down for just a
few turns, you can easily lose everything. Death is permanent
(with
some exceptions), so dying means starting it all over with a new
character.
I got into NetHack a couple of
years ago. I play it in cycles, playing heavily for a couple of months
at a time, then take a break for a couple months after I tire of
getting stuck at the same point each game. I generally return a better
player. The game is very complex, taking probably a hundred hours of
play just to nail down the basic gameplay and techniques.
This is what my typical session looks like. I like it almost as simple
as it comes. By default, color is off, but I like to have it on (a lot
more information is available with color). The graphics may seem
crappy, but
it is said,
While the graphics may seem primitive by today's standards,
today's gameplay seems primitive by NetHack standards.
The dingo is blinded by the flash! The dingo turns to flee!
-------
|++...|
-------------- ---------- |.+...|
|............| -------- |>........# ---|---
|............| |......| |........|# #
|.........<...# #.......| |........|# ###
|...^........| ###|......| --.-------# #
--.----.------ # ------.-# # ### #
####### ### ### ### # #
#### # # # ### #
### ### #### ### # #
# # # # # ###---.----
## ### ######### # #.......|
-.---- # # -.-----|-- |@.....|
|.`...#### ##-........| |...[..|
|....| |........| |......|
|{...| 0##################-........|########-......|
------ |........|# --------
----------#
wellons the Sightseer St:12 Dx:12 Co:18 In:12 Wi:8 Ch:16 Neutral S:1967
Dlvl:6 $:1329 HP:48(48) Pw:17(17) AC:7 Xp:5/185 T:3717
Like most rogue-like games, playing NetHack is a rewarding experience,
so if you never tried it out before, I suggest taking a look at
the NetHack
Guidebook and firing it up for yourself! If you don't want to
install it, but you have a telnet client available, you can connect to
the nethack.alt.org server
to play and watch others play, which is a good way to learn
more. Building it from source can be a little tricky (took me a little
while to figure it out the first time), so using your package manager
is advised if you do choose to install it to try it out.
Another good resource is the NetHack
wiki NetHackWiki. However, if you
don't want to "spoil" yourself, don't go there. Learning things about
the game outside of the game is not considered cheating, but rather
spoiling. I don't mind spoiling myself. I will run into plenty of
things I have not yet spoiled myself on. The game is hard enough as it
is!
There is a theory that if someone ever completely beats NetHack under
the hardest conditions, the source code will be thrown out and
replaced with something even harder and more unforgiving. There is
another theory which states that this has already happened.
When play for the first time, start with a Valkyrie or a Barbarian as
these classes are pretty tough against baddies, simpler to play, and
more foolproof than some of the squishier classes, like wizards.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW
To give an idea of some of the interesting gameplay, I have a couple
examples.
#
-----.--
|....y.| ##
|......| #
|.n....@f######
|......|
|....n.|
--------
I am the @ symbol, which is how NetHack represents the
player. I am entering the room with two
awakened nymphs
(n) and a
yellow light
(y). Behind me is my cat who fights alongside me and
assists me. Nymphs do not do damage, but rather steal your
equipment. They approach you, charm you into giving them something
from your inventory, which includes weapons and armor, and teleport
away. This means that you generally want to kill them before they
close in.
Yellow lights also do no damage. They run up to you and explode,
causing you to be blind for a number of turns. Normally, this can be a
really bad situation if you do not have the right tools available to
you, which is typical for early in the game. In the worst case, which
also happens to be the most likely, while I work on the nymphs the
yellow light will run up to be blinding me. Now, since I cannot see
the nymphs, I cannot attack them at range and they run up to me each
stealing one item. If I remain blind for long enough, they may find me
again and steal something else while I am helpless. They would rob me
blind! It would be up to my cat to dispatch them.
However, I did have some good tools available. I happened to get
extremely lucky
(the Random Number God
was nice to me that day) and find both
a cloak
of displacement and
jumping
boots at a store at dungeon level 1. The cloak makes me appear to
be in a different place than I really am while the jumping boots let
me travel several squares in a single turn. I was also playing a
rogue, so my main attack was already a ranged one: throwing daggers.
The yellow light ran up to my displaced image and exploded, causing no
blindness to me. One down. Next, I threw my plentiful supply of
daggers at the nymphs, keeping my distance by jumping around the
room. I managed to prevent a deadly situation, being stuck naked with
no weapon, by applying my resources well. With NetHack, I had plenty
of time to plan out each move I made. There is no timer. NetHack moves
at my pace.
There was a another situation a couple months ago (which I will not
bother drawing) where I was attacked in the middle of a room by a
werewolf. The
werewolf summoned help immediately and I was surrounded by winter
wolves and coyotes and such. Winter wolves can be dangerous because
they shoot deadly frost bolts, and I had not yet have the
cold
resistance intrinsic.
I cut a hole through the canines towards the hallway where I could
fight them one at a time, and I lost most of my health in the
process. Then
I prayed to recover
my health. Then I starting hacking away at the canines. Again, I was
low on health and running out of options. The winter wolves were
firing bolts down the hallway at
me. Engraving Elbereth
on the floor was not going to save me from the ranged frost
bolts. Things were looking quite grim for me. The end seemed near.
I did the only thing I could think to do at this point: I reached down
and took a bite into one of the dead frost wolves that was resting on
the floor beneath me.
Take a moment and picture this. Frost bolts are zipping down a dark
cold hallway at a nearly dead Valkyrie. There are shattered potions
and frozen liquids all over the floor. The winter wolves have caused
the temperature to plummet. Her breath hangs visibly in the air. She
quickly crouches down and shoves her face into a dead wolf, taking a
nasty bite right into its furry, bloodied side. Between her clenched
teeth she tears off a piece dripping with blood. Desperately, she
stuffs her face with the fresh kill, trying to eat as much as fast as
she can as she dodges more frost bolts.
At this moment, the Random Number God blessed me with good fortune,
and I was granted the cold resistance intrinsic just before the next
frost bolt was going to kill me, allowing me to harmlessly absorb it
and continue hacking away the remaining canines. Her reward for
victory was a canine feast!
So, yes, the simple looking NetHack can be quite exciting. :-)