OT: Nethack

[azn_apocalypse]

Re: OT: Nethack

Yes, valks are quite easier than other classes.

For example, I just started a valk after I lost my tourist, and now she is all the way in Gehennom! Thanks to a scroll shop she was able to obtain a +4 Excalibur very early in the game, it just dominated everything in the dungeon. She also found Mjollnir randomly in the dungeon (unusual, since valks usually get this a gift from their deity, not as a random find).

She was missing quite a bit of necessities (crap armor, no container of any kind) until she reached the castle level and found the wand of wishing. After wishing for GDSM she improved her armor a bit but overall AC is still not good (-4). Main reason is, she has not found a single scroll of enchant armor anywhere in the entire dungeon, and she can't even make one because she doesn't know what it looks like. Once she finds her first scroll of EA she will probably be able to improve on her AC quite a bit - got a few blank scrolls and a magic marker saved up.

Scariest moment thus far was fighting an invsible titan on the castle level. No see invisible = an endless wave of summoned monsters plus hordes of soldiers. The valk actually got killed but had an amulet of life saving. She eventually used a ring of conflict to kill the titan while it was surrounded by soldiers.

 

[maareek]

Re: OT: Nethack

You people are giving me the itch to play again...

Me too. Haven't played Nethack in a year or so, and wasn't exactly skilled with it then, but this thread has started me back. Not touching my parked wizard from back then, though, who's just past Medusa, to hopefully avoid YASD due to rust.

Thanks to jiansonz's write up and their starting gear, I went with an archaelogist. Randomed everything else. Char's dwarvish, so no blessed genocide of mind flayers. Maybe I can get lucky and polymorph a Mind Flayer pet like I did with the wiz...

Currently at dlvl3 and clvl4 (planning to level up a bit more before heading down). Not much to report other than already finding a luckstone and a wand of cold. General store shop on the same level, as well, but only a couple scrolls, none ID.

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Looking forward to your updates, maareek, good luck!

(And @Smips: you too, once you are done with YASFinal)

--

I followed CG's advice and went for Sokoban first this time, hoping for "oR. Of course it should be apparent that I got a BoH! Oh well, I like those too. I'm already down pretty deep, and no altar yet. I'm really hoping Minetown's will be coaligned...

Update: Yep, it was coaligned! Woohoo! Magic lamp for sale! Woohoo! Did a water prayer, blessed my BoH and the lamp. GOT MY FIRST WISH! Man, I am walking on air. I wished for +2 GDSM; may have been a dumb idea, seeing as how I didn't find the "oR in Sokoban. But in any case, I'm really excited about it!

I do have another lamp (currently cursed)... if I get it up to blessed, will I still have a chance of getting a wish? If so, what would make a good next wish?

Oh, a shop in minetown sold another BoH There's no point in having 2, is there?

 

[jiansonz]

Re: OT: Nethack

I do have another lamp (currently cursed)... if I get it up to blessed, will I still have a chance of getting a wish?

Yes, it does not matter what has happened before.

And you actually have a chance to get a wish regardless of cursedness of the lamp (but it´s only 5% if it´s cursed; it´s 20% if uncursed and 80% if it´s blessed).

If so, what would make a good next wish?

I would go for amulet of reflection in your case. Or speed boots.

Oh, a shop in minetown sold another BoH There's no point in having 2, is there?

There can be a point in eventually having a second bag of some sort. I like to carry some sort of uncursing gear (holy waters, scrolls of remove curse, wand of cancellation (but the latter can only be put in a sack or oilskin sack; if you put in a BoH, the bag is going to explode and vanish, along with everything in it)) in a second container, so they are protected from fire/cold/lightning/water.

 

[Colorless Green]

Re: OT: Nethack

Regarding containers beyond the first BoH: jiansonz's mention of a second bag for a few things is a very good idea - when applying a cursed bag of holding, every item within has a 1/3 chance of vanishing (IIRC - may be off on the exact mechanics because I just memorized "do not ever touch your cursed bag of holding"), so having uncursing stuff in a non-BoH to uncurse your BoH is a very good idea. Also, as jiansonz mentioned, putting certain items in a bag of holding (wand of cancellation, bag of tricks, bag of holding) will cause the bag of holding to explode, taking with it everything in it. Including magic lamps and wands of wishing (I had to be taught the hard way to be very, very careful when moving large quantities of items into a BoH, though IIRC I still ascended the char).

Additionally, I frequently use my second BoH to store high value gems, wands of digging, k rations, scrolls of gold detection, etc. right at the up-stairs on dlvl 1 (in other words, everything I plan to use in the planes but don't want to carry along on my ascension run to add to my weight when rodney curses my main BoH). It's easy to grab on the way through but doesn't get in the way during the ascension run. Other than that, the only uses I've found for extra BoH's is as a backup to your first.

-CG

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Thank you muchly for the advice!

I grabbed the luckstone from Mines' End, diluted/cleared some lame potions and did another water prayer. Blessed my magic lamp and some scrolls of ID. First scroll read ID'd my inventory; sweet!

Is it better to sell valuable gems or keep them for unicorns?

I got another wish! I can't believe my luck. jiansonz's mention of speed boots intrigued me, so I wished for those (+3).

So I'm now clvl 10, AC -10, magic resistant and very fast. Also, wearing an amulet of ESP which I'm a big fan of. Oh, and permanently invisible :\ but I grabbed a mummy wrapping.

 

[jiansonz]

Re: OT: Nethack

Is it better to sell valuable gems or keep them for unicorns?

If you have a blessed luckstone, your 'good luck variable' will not time out, so you will likely soon be at maximum luck, if you aren´t already. It´s quite easy to see if you are: if you do a couple of sacrifices, and none show any four-leafed clover, you are probably at maximum luck.

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Alright, cool, looks like I am at max luck.

So I just got my first ever sacrifice gift! (Cleaver of course as I'm a barb.) Can future sacrifices bring other useful things?

I found the portal to my quest, but I'm only halfway to 13... takes a long time to level at this point... Edit: Two lucky wraiths later, and I'm at 14! woo

The rogue level was cute

 

[maareek]

Re: OT: Nethack

25374 envy-Arc-Dwa-Mal-Law died in Sokoban on level 4[max 9].

Bleh. Finished the puzzle and had a giant mimic left in the way to the zoo. Got near him, wrote Elbereth and started throwing daggers since I had utter crap for equipment (manly AC of 1 and was still using the bullwhipl pickaxe at expert but impassable spotted jelly corroded it) but didn't realize he could still close and grapple me. Fun times.

I searched pretty well and hadn't found the entrance to the mines, so I continued on to Sokoban. Really wish I could have gotten to the mines and picked up a mattock though, especially since the Sokoban map was with the ammy, and since I had a ton of cash to buy protection with which might have made a difference. Oh well. I feel a little more comfortable with the archaeologist now, hopefully I can get farther with the next one.

Had one seriously tough NDE earlier with a pack of soldier ants followed by a pack of ~6 hill orcs while the dog was frozen from attacking a floating eye. Managed to line the baddies up and take them out with a wand of cold, but there was a lot of tense moments. Just never found anything with any real power and the archaeologist just can't grind it out vs the monsters for long.

@Nerigazh: Nice progress, hope it continues for you! IIRC, you can still get useful things from your god by sacrificing, but be careful about getting crowned.

 

[smips]

Re: OT: Nethack

Alright, cool, looks like I am at max luck.

So I just got my first ever sacrifice gift! (Cleaver of course as I'm a barb.) Can future sacrifices bring other useful things?

I found the portal to my quest, but I'm only halfway to 13... takes a long time to level at this point... Edit: Two lucky wraiths later, and I'm at 14! woo

The rogue level was cute

I can't remember if you get more things if you keep sacrificing off the top of my head, but you can check the Wikihack page for it. I posted it in my first post if you're interested Just a thought for those little questions or if you're just curious about something.

Edit: Apparently I didn't have it there. Oh well, it's there now .

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Quest is done! It actually was no problem at all, thanks in huge part to having found a tinning kit some time ago (so many trolls!)

Thoth-Amon was cake because I opened with a zap from a wand of cancellation. However, I'd never fought "retreating monsters" before, so it took me a couple levels to realize you have to physically block him from using the upstairs so he doesn't run like a pansy.

So, update:
clvl 14, gear:
Cleaver (haven't found any uncursed enc weapon/armor scrolls yet )
+3 speed boots
+2 GDSM
+3 dwarven cloak
lame leather gloves
lame helmet
Amulet of ESP
Ring of Free Action

I've found most wands, including death (not sure how many charges it has though), no /oW though

This game absolutely loves to drop ID scrolls for me. I've probably found a dozen.

 

[Pijus1]

Re: OT: Nethack

I was wondering, can I ask my noobish question about the game in this thread?

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Yes, plenty of us have been doing so, ask away

 

[Pijus1]

Re: OT: Nethack

Good, cause I have(and will have) plenty

First, the big list of commands says that "." is the rest command. When I press it, nothing seems to happen. Is there simply no notification for resting, or am I missing something very obvious and am making a fool of myself right now?

 

[jiansonz]

Re: OT: Nethack

Good, cause I have(and will have) plenty

First, the big list of commands says that "." is the rest command. When I press it, nothing seems to happen. Is there simply no notification for resting, or am I missing something very obvious and am making a fool of myself right now?

Just to clarify, 'rest' only means: 'do nothing for a turn.' Nethack characters do not need to "rest" in the sense many AD&D roleplaying games use (i.e. to prevent fatigue, and memorize/regain spells/abilities).

You will not get any message, but if your status bar shows for how many turns the game has been going*, you can see that the time is moving when you rest. Also, if you have a pet close by, it´s very obvious that time flies, as the pet is quite likely to end up on another square than before the turn.


(* I do not know if the 'show time' info is on by default, or if you need to change some settings. It´s on in my games, but I may have changed it long ago in a command text file).

 

[Trim]

Re: OT: Nethack

Also, if your HP is below maximum, after a few turns of rest you should see yourself regaining hit points.

I do believe you have to alter the .txt file to get it to permanently show how many turns you've taken for every character, but you can also change it in the options screen for that individual character, as well. I recommend the former, since it's a helpful thing to know for prayer timeouts and such.

I haven't given up, but I haven't been back at it yet. Glad to see smips nearly rejoining his own thread and mareek falling back on the 'hack.

Oh, and to gazh: It's pronounced "red" menace. I was a bookwork as a child and an English major back in the day, so it's a clever play on words. But you can call my TRM like most others around here.
...and to answer your next question, No, I'm not a Commie. :thumbup:

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Just thought I would add, I almost always "search" ('s' key) instead of rest ('.') when I want to skip turns. As far as I can tell, it has the exact same benefits as resting (HP regeneration, time passing, etc.) plus the added benefit that you might just uncover a nearby trap or something after a few searches.

Also note that if you want to do something for several turns in a row, you can type a number before the command: 100s will search for 100 turns (or until something interesting happens, like a monster approaching).

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

Thought this would be a great thing to mention:

Since several newbies like me have started playing, this article is a great little guide to how to get far in NetHack. Some of the advice has already been mentioned in this thread, but sometimes it's difficult to find here just because the thread has grown to so many pages.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/05/column_play_how_to_win_at_neth.php

 

[jiansonz]

Re: OT: Nethack

That was a really good article, Nerigazh (even though it had a couple of errors).

Whenever I need to look something up, I use this very good list of spoilers that Eva Myers maintains. There are some newbie guides as well, in case you don´t want too many outright spoilers.

 

[Nerigazh]

Re: OT: Nethack

So, Heart of Ahrimen in hand (boy does this seem like a crappy quest reward), I decided it was time for a round of sacrifices to try and get crowned or at least get another artifact weapon...

Well, I got the latter: Ogresmasher.

I did get cold resistance from a monster I summoned, though. I think I might try finding a sink and kicking it.

Edit: LOL! Man, that was the stupidest thing ever. You guys need to tell me if I should bother continuing, or just kill myself now... I had dropped the important stuff from my inventory before drinking from a fountain, to avoid that nasty curse effect that's happened to me before. Well, the fountain created pools of water, including one right over where I had dropped all my possessions: my armor, weapon, and bag of holding. So it's gone. Poof! I actually had to laugh as well as curse.

Technically, the game is still winnable I think, as I still have the bell on me, but now I'm naked, broke, etc... What should I do?