A Guide to the Mazes of Menace

3.1. The status lines (bottom)

The bottom two (or three) lines of the screen contain several cryptic pieces of information describing your current status. Figure 1 shows the traditional two-line status area below the map. Figure 2 shows just the status area, when the statuslines:3 option has been set (not all interfaces support this option). If any status line becomes wider than the screen, you might not see all of it due to truncation. When the numbers grow bigger and multiple conditions are present, the two-line format will run out of room on the second line, but statuslines:2 is the default because a basic 24-line terminal isn’t tall enough for the third line.

Here are explanations of what the various status items mean:

Title Your character’s name and professional ranking (based on role and experience level, see below).

Strength A measure of your character’s strength; one of your six basic 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 carrying capacity from your constitution no longer matters.

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.

Alignment Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. Often, Lawful is taken as good and Chaotic as evil, but legal and ethical do not always coincide. 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 somewhere 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 unfriendly creatures. The lower this number is, the more effective the armor; it is quite possible to have negative armor class. See the Armor subsection of Objects for more information.

Experience Your current experience level. If the showexp option is set, it will be followed by a slash and experience points. As you adventure, you gain experience points. At certain experience point totals, you gain an experience level. The more experienced you are, the better you fight and withstand magical attacks. (By the time your level reaches double digits, the usefulness of showing the points with it has dropped significantly. You can use the ‘O’ command to turn showexp off to avoid using up the limited status line space.)

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 affects your ability to move. Values are Unencumbered, Burdened, 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 #attributes command (default key ^X) will show all current status information in unabbreviated format. It also shows other information which might be included on the status lines if those had more room.

3.2. The message line (top)

The top line of the screen is reserved for messages that describe 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.

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 something. 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:

- The horizontal or corner walls of a room, or an open east/west door.

| The vertical walls of a room, or an open north/south door, or a grave.

. The floor of a room, or ice, or a doorless doorway, or the span of an open drawbridge.

# A corridor, or iron bars, or a tree, or the portcullis of a closed drawbridge. Note: engravings in corridors also appear as # but are shown in a different color from normal corridor locations.

> 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 or an elf.

$ 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 or an engraving on the floor of a room. Note: statues are displayed as if they were the monsters they depict so won’t appear as a grave accent (aka back-tick).

0 An iron ball.

_ An altar, or an iron chain.

{ A fountain or a sink.

} A pool of water or moat or a wall of water or a pool of lava or a wall of lava.

\ An opulent throne.

a-z  and A-H J-Z  and @&':; Letters and certain other symbols represent the various inhabitants of the Mazes of Menace. Watch out, they can be nasty and vicious. Sometimes, however, they can be helpful.

I Rather than a specific type of monster, this marks the last known location of an invisible or otherwise unseen monster. Note that the monster could have moved. The s, F, and m commands may be useful here.

1-5 The digits 1 through 5 may be displayed, marking unseen monsters sensed via the Warning attribute. Less dangerous monsters are indicated by lower values, more dangerous by higher values.

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).

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. By default the autoopen option is enabled, so simply attempting to walk onto a closed door’s location will attempt to open it without needing o. Opening via autoopen will not work if you are confused or stunned or suffer from the fumbling attribute.

Open doors cannot be entered diagonally; you must approach them straight on, horizontally or vertically. Doorways without doors are not restricted in this fashion except on one particular level (described by #overview as “a primitive area”).

Unlocking magic exists but usually won’t be available early on. You can get through a locked door without magic by first using an unlocking tool with the a (apply) command, and then opening it. By default the autounlock option is also enabled, so if you attempt to open (via o or autoopen) a locked door while carrying an unlocking tool, you’ll be asked whether to use it on the door’s lock. Alternatively, you can break a closed door (whether locked or not) down by kicking it via the ^D (kick) command. Kicking down a door destroys it and makes a lot of noise which might wake sleeping monsters.

Some closed doors are booby-trapped and will explode if an attempt is made to open (when unlocked) or unlock (when locked) or kick down. Like kicking, an explosion destroys the door and makes a lot of noise. The #untrap command can be used to search a door for traps but might take multiple attempts to find one. When one is found, you’ll be asked whether to try to disarm it. If you accede, success will eliminate the trap but failure will set off the trap’s explosion. (If you decline, you effectively forget that a trap was found there.)

Closed doors can be useful for shutting out monsters. Most monsters cannot open closed doors, although a few don’t need to (for example, ghosts can walk through doors and fog clouds can flow under them). Some monsters who can open doors can also use unlocking tools. And some (giants) can smash doors.

Secret doors are hidden and appear to be ordinary wall (from inside a room) or solid rock (from outside). You can find them with the s (search) command but it might take multiple tries (possibly many tries if your luck is poor). Once found they are in all ways equivalent to normal doors. Mapping magic does not reveal secret doors.

5.2. Traps (^)

There are traps throughout the dungeon to snare the unwary intruder. For example, you may suddenly fall into a pit and be stuck for a few turns trying to climb out (see below). A trap usually won’t appear on your map until you trigger it by moving onto it, you see someone else trigger it, or you discover it with the s (search) command (multiple attempts are often needed; if your luck is poor, many attempts might be needed). Wands of secret door detection and spell of detect unseen also reveal traps within a modest radius but only if the trap is also within line-of-sight (whether you can see at the time or not). There is also other magic which can reveal traps.

Monsters can fall prey to traps, too, which can potentially be used as a defensive strategy. Unfortunately traps can be harmful to your pet(s) as well. Monsters, including pets, usually will avoid moving onto a trap which is shown on your map if they have encountered that type of trap before.

Some traps such as pits, bear traps, and webs hold you in one place. You can escape by simply trying to move to an adjacent spot and repeat as needed; eventually you will get free.

Other traps can send you to different locations. Teleporters send you elsewhere on the same dungeon level. Level teleporters send you to a random dungeon level, the destination chosen from a few levels lower all the way to the top. These traps choose a new destination each time they’re activated. Trap doors and holes also send you to another level, but one which is always below the current level. Usually that will be the next level down but it can be farther. Unlike (level) teleporters, the destination level of a particular trap door or hole is persistent, so falling into one will bring you to the same level each time—though not necessarily the same spot on the level. Magic portals behave similarly, but with some additional variation. Some portals are two-way and their remote destination is always the same: another portal which can take you back. Others are one-way and send you to a specific destination level but not necessarily to a specific location there.

There is a special multi-level branch of the dungeon with pre-mapped levels based on the classic computer game “Sokoban.” In that game, you operate as a warehouse worker who pushes crates around obstacles to position them at designated locations. In NetHack, the goal is to push boulders into pits or holes until those traps have all been nullified, giving access to whatever is beyond them. In the Sokoban game, you can only move in the four cardinal compass directions, and a crate in its final destination blocks further access to that spot. In the Sokoban levels of NetHack, you can move diagonally (unless that would let you pass between two neighboring boulders) but you can only push boulders in the four cardinal directions, and a boulder which fills a pit or hole removes both the boulder and the trap so opens up normal access to that spot. With careful foresight, it is possible to complete all of the levels according to the traditional rules of Sokoban. (Hint: to solve Sokoban puzzles, you often need to move things away from their eventual destinations in order to open up more room to maneuver.) Since NetHack does not support an undo capability, some allowances are permitted in case you get stuck. For example, each level has at least one extra boulder. Also, it is possible to drop everything in order to be able to squeeze into the same location as a boulder (and then presumably move past it), or to destroy a boulder with magic or tools, or to create new boulders with a scroll of earth. However, doing such things will lower your luck without any specific message given about that. See the Conduct section for information about getting feedback for your actions in Sokoban.

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 instance, fairly early in the dungeon you will find a level with two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon and the other 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 dungeon.

When you traverse a set of stairs, or trigger a trap which sends you to another level, the level you’re leaving will be deactivated 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 described 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, pets (see below) and some other monsters will follow along if they’re close enough when you travel up or down stairs, and occasionally 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 using the #chat command while standing on it. Using an item prior 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 sometime 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, will also show current shop debt or credit, if any. The Iu command lists unpaid items (those which still belong to the shop) if you are carrying 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.

5.5. Movement feedback

Moving around the map usually provides no feedback—other than drawing the hero at the new location—unless you step on an object or pile of objects, or on a trap, or attempt to move onto a spot where a monster is located. There are several options which can be used to augment the normal feedback.

The pile_limit option controls how many objects can be in a pile—sharing the same map location—for the game to state “there are objects here” instead of listing them. The default is 5. Setting it to 1 would always give that message instead of listing any objects. Setting it to 0 is a special case which will always list all objects no matter how big a pile is. Note that the number refers to the count of separate stacks of objects present rather than the sum of the quantities of those stacks (so 7 arrows or 25 gold pieces will each count as 1 rather than as 7 and 25, respectively, and total to 2 when both are at the same location).

The nopickup command prefix (default ‘m’) can be used before a movement direction to step on objects without attempting auto-pickup and without giving feedback about them.

The mention_walls option controls whether you get feedback if you try to walk into a wall or solid stone or off the edge of the map. Normally nothing happens (unless the hero is blind and no wall is shown, then the wall that is being bumped into will be drawn on the map). This option also gives feedback when rushing or running stops for some non-obvious reason.

The mention_decor option controls whether you get feedback when walking on furniture. Normally stepping onto stairs or a fountain or an altar or various other things doesn’t elicit anything unless it is covered by one or more objects so is obscured on the map. Setting this option to true will describe such things even when they aren’t obscured. Doorless doorways and open doors aren’t considered worthy of mention; closed doors (if you can move onto their spots) and broken doors are. Assuming that you’re able to do so, moving onto water or lava or ice will give feedback if not yet on that type of terrain but not repeat it (unless there has been some intervening message) when moving from water to another water spot, or lava to lava, or ice to ice. Moving off of any of those back onto normal terrain will give one message too, unless there is feedback about one or more objects, in which case the back on land circumstance is implied.

The confirm and safe_pet options control what happens when you try to move onto a peaceful monster’s spot or a tame one’s spot.

The nopickup command prefix (default ‘m’) is also the move-without-attacking prefix and can be used to try to step onto a visible monster’s spot without the move being considered an attack (see the Fighting subsection of Monsters below). The fight command prefix (default ‘F’; also ‘-’ if number_pad is on) can be used to force an attack, when guessing where an unseen monster is or when deliberately attacking a peaceful or tame creature.

The run_mode option controls how frequently the map gets redrawn when moving more than one step in a single command (so when rushing, running, or traveling).

5.6. Rogue level

One dungeon level (occurring in mid to late teens of the main dungeon) is a tribute to the ancestor game hack’s inspiration rogue.

It is usually displayed differently from other levels: possibly in characters instead of tiles, or without line-drawing symbols if already in characters; also, gold is shown as * rather than $ and stairs are shown as % rather than < and >. There are some minor differences in actual game play: doorways lack doors; a scroll, wand, or spell of light used in a room lights up the whole room rather than within a radius around your character. And monsters represented by lower-case letters aren’t randomly generated on the rogue level.

The slight strangeness of this level is a feature, not a bug….

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 intent, which can be error prone if you’re using y to move. You can set the paranoid_confirmation:attack 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 monster 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 remember a monster but want to try fighting anyway, you can use the 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 monsters 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 ridden 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 order 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 inventory 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 adventurers (or even former incarnations of yourself!) and their personal 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 persist 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.

7.1. 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 enchantments that make them less effective in combat. Other cursed objects may act poorly or detrimentally in other ways.

Objects can also be blessed instead. Blessed items usually work better or more beneficially than normal uncursed items. For example, a blessed weapon will do slightly 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. Dropping objects onto an altar will reveal their bless or curse state provided that you can see them land.

An item with unknown status will be reported in your inventory 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 enough other information is displayed. The implicit_uncursed option can be used to control this; toggle it off to have uncursed be displayed even when that can be deduced from other attributes.

Sometimes the bless or curse state of objects is referred to as their “BUC” attribute, for Blessed, Uncursed, or Cursed state, or “BUCX” for Blessed, Uncursed, Cursed, or unknown. (The term beatitude is occasionally used as well.)

7.2. Artifacts

Some objects have been imbued with special powers and are known as Artifacts. They have specific types (such as long sword or orcish dagger) and distinct names such as Giantslayer or Grimtooth. Artifact weapons typically do more damage than their ordinary counterparts. Some do extra damage against all monsters, others only against specific types of monsters so aren’t better than regular weapons against other types. Some confer defensive capabilities when wielded or have other powers that aren’t listed here.

You might find them simply lying on the floor, including but not limited to inside shops, or be granted as a reward for #offer on an altar to your patron deity. A few might be dropped by monsters, or might be converted from an ordinary object of the same type via assigning the right name. Or you might wish for them, if you happen to be granted a wish, but such wishes can fail.

Some artifacts have a specific alignment, others don’t. You won’t obtain aligned ones that have a different alignment from yours via offering and might get a shock if you attempt to wish for any of those or find one and attempt to use it.

Each role has a distinct artifact that is contained in the Quest dungeon branch. These are commonly known as quest artifacts. All are aligned and most are non-weapons. They won’t be found randomly.

The ‘\’ and ‘`a’ commands will list artifacts that you have fully identified (knowing the name and item type isn’t sufficient).

7.3. Relics

There are three unique items that are named and have limited special powers but aren’t classified as artifacts. Each is guarded by a particular monster and you’ll need to collect all three for use late in the game. They are the Bell of Opening, the Book of the Dead, and the Candelabrum of Invocation. Their corresponding descriptions when not yet identified are silver bell, papyrus spellbook, and candelabrum.

7.4. 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 crossbow 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 identified 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 (enchantment 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 simultaneously 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 command which allows you to unwield the current weapon in addition to taking off other worn items.

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 damage 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.

Some interfaces support the weaponstatus option. When it is enabled, an extra status condition is displayed, describing the currently wielded weapon.

The commands to use weapons are w (wield), t (throw), f (fire), Q (quiver), x (exchange), X (twoweapon), and #enhance (see below).

7.5. Armor ([)

Lots of unfriendly things lurk about; you need armor to protect 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 being 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 a list of the armor class values provided by suits of armor:

You can also wear other pieces of armor (cloak over suit, shirt under suit, helmet, gloves, boots, shield) to lower your armor class even further. Most of these provide a one or two point improvement to AC (making the overall value smaller and eventually negative) but can also be enchanted. Shirts are an exception; they don’t provide any protection unless enchanted. Some cloaks also don’t improve AC when unenchanted but all cloaks offer some protection against rust or corrosion to suits worn under them and against some monster touch attacks.

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 negative 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 inhibit spell casting.

The nudist option can be set (prior to game start) to attempt to play the entire game without wearing any armor (a self-imposed challenge which is extremely difficult to accomplish).

Some interfaces support the armorstatus option. When it is enabled, an extra status condition is displayed, summarizing currently worn armor.

The commands to use armor are W (wear) and T (take off). The A command can be used to take off armor as well as other worn items. Also, P (put on) and R (remove) which are normally for accessories can be used for armor, but pieces of armor won’t be shown as likely candidates in a prompt for choosing what to put on or remove.

7.6. 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 usually 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. Vegetarian monsters will typically never eat animal corpses, while vegetarian players can, but with some rather unpleasant side-effects.

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

The command to eat food is e.

7.7. 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).

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 objects of subtle enchantment are difficult to identify without these.

A scroll whose label is known can be read even when the hero is blind. If a scroll has been discovered, it will be listed in inventory by type rather than by label, but the label is known in that situation even though it isn’t shown.

Many scrolls produce a different effect from usual if they are blessed or cursed, or read while the hero is confused.

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 environment variable to the file name of your mailbox. You may also 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.

7.8. 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).

7.9. 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, attempts 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. This is not for the faint of heart. Doing so will almost certainly 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.

7.10. Rings (=)

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

Putting on a ring activates its magic. You can wear at most two rings at any time, one on the ring finger of each hand.

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

When wearing gloves, rings are worn underneath. If the gloves are cursed, rings cannot be put on and any already being worn cannot be removed. When worn gloves aren’t cursed, you don’t have to manually take them off before putting on or removing a ring and then re-wear them after. That’s done implicitly to avoid unnecessary tedium.

The commands to use rings are P (put on) and R (remove). A, W, and T can also be used; see Amulets.

7.11. 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 additional food. Casting of spells also requires practice. With practice, your skill in each category of spell casting will improve. 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, similar to wands. To cast one at yourself, just give a . or s for the direction. A few spells require you to pick a target location rather than just specify a particular direction. Other 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) command casts a spell.

7.12. 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 containers, which objects can be placed into or taken out of.

Some tools (such as a blindfold) can be worn and can be put on and removed like other accessories (rings, amulets); see Amulets. Other tools (such as pick-axe) can be wielded as weapons in addition to being applied for their usual purpose, and in some cases (again, pick-axe) become wielded as a weapon even when applied.

The blind option can be set (prior to game start) to attempt to play the entire game without being able to see (a self-imposed challenge which is very difficult to accomplish).

The command to use a tool is a (apply).

7.13. Amulets (")

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

Only one amulet may be worn at a time, around your neck. Like wearing rings, wearing an amulet affects your metabolism, causing you to grow hungry more rapidly.

The commands to use amulets are the same as for rings, P (put on) and R (remove). A can be used to remove various worn items including amulets. Also, W (wear) and T (take off) which are normally for armor can be used for amulets and other accessories (rings and eyewear), but accessories won’t be shown as likely candidates in a prompt for choosing what to wear or take off.

7.14. 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 projectile weapons (if you have a sling). In the most desperate of cases, you can still throw them by hand.

7.15. Large rocks (`)

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

Boulders occasionally block your path. You can push one forward (by attempting to walk onto its spot) when nothing blocks its path, or you can smash it into a pile of small rocks with breaking magic or a pick-axe. It is possible to move onto a boulder’s location if certain conditions are met; ordinarily one of those conditions is that pushing it any further be blocked. Using the move-without-picking-up prefix (default key ‘m’) prior to the direction of movement will attempt to move to a boulder’s location without pushing it in addition to the prefix’s usual action of suppressing auto-pickup at the destination.

Very large humanoids (giants and their ilk) have been known to pick up boulders and use them as missile weapons.

Unlike boulders, statues can’t be pushed, but don’t need to be because they don’t block movement. They can be smashed into rocks though.

For some configurations of the program, statues are no longer shown as ‘`’ but by the letter representing the monster they depict instead.

7.16. 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).

Gold pieces are the only type of object where bless/curse state does not apply. They’re always uncursed but never described as uncursed even if you turn off the implicit_uncursed option. You can set the goldX option if you prefer to have gold pieces be treated as bless/curse state unknown rather than as known to be uncursed. Only matters when you’re using an object selection prompt that can filter by “BUCX” state.

7.17. Persistence of Objects

Normally, if you have seen an object at a particular map location and move to another location where you can’t directly see that object any more, it 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 have forgotten that there was any object there regardless of whether the unseen monster actually took the object. If the object is still there, then once you see or feel that location again you will re-discover the object and resume remembering it.

The situation is the same for a pile of objects, except that only the top item of the pile is displayed. The hilite_pile option can be enabled in order to show an item differently when it is the top one of a pile.

8.1. Achievements

End of game disclosure will also display various achievements representing progress toward ultimate ascension, if any have been attained. They aren’t directly related to conduct but are grouped with it because they fall into the same category of bragging rights and to limit the number of questions during disclosure. Listed here roughly in order of difficulty and not necessarily in the order in which you might accomplish them.

Notes:

Achievements are recorded and subsequently reported in the order in which they happen during your current game rather than the order listed here.

There are nine <Rank> titles for each role, bestowed at experience levels 1, 3, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, and 30. The one for experience level 1 is not recorded as an achievement. Losing enough levels to revert to lower rank(s) does not discard the corresponding achievement(s).

There’s no guaranteed Novel so the achievement to read one might not always be attainable (except perhaps by wishing). Similarly, the Big Room level is not always present. Unlike with the Novel, there’s no way to wish for this opportunity.

The special items hidden in Mines’ End and Sokoban are not unique but are considered to be prizes or rewards for exploring those levels since doing so is not necessary to complete the game. Finding other instances of the same objects doesn’t record the corresponding achievement.

The Medusa achievement is recorded if she dies for any reason, even if you are not directly responsible, and only if she dies.

The 5-note tune can be learned via trial and error with a musical instrument played closely enough—but not too close!—to the Castle level’s drawbridge or can be given to you via prayer boon.

Blind, Deaf, Nudist, and Pauper are also conducts, and they can only be enabled by setting the correspondingly named option in NETHACKOPTIONS or run-time configuration file prior to game start. In the case of Blind and Deaf, the option also enforces the conduct. They aren’t really significant accomplishments unless/until you make substantial progress into the dungeon.

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 variable. 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 different operating systems.

On UNIX, Linux, and macOS it is .nethackrc in the user’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, the name is .nethackrc located in the folder “%USERPROFILE%”. 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%”. If you have not created the configuration file, NetHack will create one 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 and ignored. Empty lines are ignored.

Any line beginning with ‘[’ and ending in ‘]’ is a section marker (the closing ‘]’ can be followed by whitespace and then an arbitrary comment beginning with ‘#’). The text between the square brackets is the section name. Section markers are only valid after a CHOOSE directive and their names are case-insensitive. Lines after a section marker belong to that section up until another section starts or a marker without a name is encountered or the file ends. Lines within sections are ignored unless a CHOOSE directive has selected that section.

You can use different configuration directives in the file, some of which can be used multiple times. In general, the directives are written in capital letters, followed by an equals sign, followed by settings particular to that directive.

Here is a list of allowed directives:

OPTIONS There are two types of options, boolean and compound options. Boolean options toggle a setting on or off, while compound options 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 persistent, and apply only to new games. You can specify multiple OPTIONS directives, and multiple options separated by commas in a single OPTIONS directive. (Comma separated options are processed 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 necessary 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. Autocompletion has no effect for the X11 windowport. You can specify 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 “Configuring Autopickup Exceptions” section.

BINDINGS Change the key bindings of some special keys, menu accelerators, extended commands, or mouse buttons. 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
[] #end of CHOOSE
OPTIONS=!rest_on_space

If [] is present, the preceding section is closed and no new section begins; whatever follows will be common to all sections. Otherwise the last section extends to the end of the options file.

MENUCOLOR Highlight menu lines with different colors. See the “Configuring Menu Colors” section.

MSGTYPE Change the way messages are shown in the top line. See the “Configuring Message Types” section.

ROGUESYMBOLS Custom symbols for the rogue level’s symbol set. See SYMBOLS below.

SOUND Define a sound mapping. See the “Configuring User Sounds” section.

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

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_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. Entries are added to the wish history; see the wizwish-command. 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
OPTIONS=boulder:0
SYMBOLS=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” before 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 terminated by the next comma or the end of string.

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 directive in a configuration file. The OPTIONS= prefix is implied and comma separated options are processed from right to left. Other types of configuration directives 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 optional.

9.4. Customization options

Here are explanations of what the various options do. Character 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 configuration file applies only to new games.

accessiblemsg Add location or direction information to messages (default is off).

acoustics Enable messages about what your character hears (default on). Note that this has nothing to do with your computer’s audio capabilities. Persistent.

alignment Your starting alignment (align:lawful, align:neutral, or align:chaotic). You may specify just the first letter. Many roles and the non-human races restrict which alignments are allowed. See role for a description of how to use negation to exclude choices. If align is not specified, there is no default value; player will be prompted unless role and/or race forces a choice for alignment. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.

armorstatus Display an extra status condition which summarizes currently worn armor (default off, not supported by all interfaces). For the usual case where more than one piece of armor is worn, a list of letters is shown in the following order: G - gloves; C - cloak; A - suit; U - shirt; H - helmet; B - boots; S - shield.

autodescribe Automatically describe the terrain under cursor when asked to get a location on the map (default true). The whatis_coord option controls whether the description includes map coordinates.

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 closed door attempts to open it (default true). Persistent.

autopickup Automatically pick up things onto which you move (default off). Persistent. See pickup_types and also autopickup_exception for ways to refine the behavior. Note: prior to version 5.0.0, the default for autopickup was on.

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, enchantment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free to manually 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.

autounlock Controls what action to take when attempting to walk into a locked door or to loot a locked container. Takes a plus-sign separated list of values:

Omitting the value is treated as if autounlock:apply-key. Preceding autounlock with ! or no is treated as autounlock:none. Applying a key might set off a trap if the door or container is trapped. Successfully kicking a door will break it and wake up nearby monsters. Successfully forcing a container open will break its lock and might also destroy some of its contents or damage your weapon or both. The default is Apply-Key. Persistent.

blind Start the character permanently blind (default false). Persistent.

bones Allow saving and loading bones files (default true). Persistent.

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 example character:Monk). See role for more details.

checkpoint Save game state after each level change, for possible recovery after program crash (default on). Persistent.

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.

deaf Start the character permanently deaf (default false). Persistent.

dropped_nopick If this option is on, items you dropped will not be automatically picked up, even if autopickup is also on and they are in pickup_types or match a positive autopickup exception (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 response of n for each candidate). Persistent. The possibilities are:

Each disclosure possibility can optionally be preceded by a prefix which lets you refine how it behaves. Here are the valid prefixes:

The listings of vanquished monsters and of genocided types can be sorted, so there are two additional choices for v and g:

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 order specified by the sortvanquished option. Omitted categories are implicitly added with n prefix. Specified 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. (for example disclose:yi na +v -g o) The example sets inventory to prompt and default to yes, attributes to prompt and default to no, vanquished to disclose without prompting, genocided 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 dungeon overview shows all levels you had visited but does not reveal 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 traditional 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 available 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.

fireassist This option controls what happens when you attempt the f (fire) and don’t have an appropriate launcher, such as a bow or a sling, wielded. If on, you will automatically wield the launcher. Default is on.

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 either of the deprecated male and female options, if the gender option is also present it will take precedence. See role for a description of how to use negation to exclude choices. If gender is not specified, there is no default value; player will be prompted unless role and/or race forces a choice for gender. 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 default). Gold is never blessed or cursed, but it is not described 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). Turning 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 information. 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 commands.

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 tty or 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 in the status display (default off). The curses interface supports it even if the status highlighting feature has been disabled when building the program. The tty and mswin (aka Windows GUI) interfaces support it only if status highlighting is left enabled when building. You don’t need to set up any highlighting rules in order to display the bar. If there is one for hitpoints in effect and it specifies color, that color will be used for the bar. However if it specifies video attributes, they will be ignored in favor of inverse. For tty and curses, blink will also be used if the current hitpoint value is at or below the critical HP threshold. The Qt interface also supports hitpointbar, by drawing a solid bar above the name and title with a hard-coded color scheme. (As of this writing, having the bar enabled unintentionally inhibits resizing the status panel. To resize that, use the #optionsfull command to toggle the hitpointbar option off, perform the resize while it’s off, then use the same command to toggle it back 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). Persistent.

implicit_uncursed Omit uncursed from object descriptions when it can be deduced from other aspects of the description (default on). Persistent. If you use menu coloring, you may want to turn this off.

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_decor Give feedback when walking onto various dungeon features such as stairs, fountains, or altars which are ordinarily only described when covered by one or more objects (default off). Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.

mention_map Give feedback when interesting map locations change (default off).

mention_walls Give feedback when walking against a wall (default off). Persistent.

menucolors Enable coloring menu lines (default off). See “Configuring Menu Colors” on how to configure the colors.

menustyle Controls the method used when you need to choose various objects (in response to the Drop (aka droptype) command, for instance). The value specified should be the first letter of one of the following: traditional, combination, full, or partial. Default is full. Persistent. Traditional was the only method available for very 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 objects 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. (Choosing its A (Autoselect-All) choice skips the second menu. To avoid choosing that by accident, set paranoid_confirm:AutoAll to require confirmation.) Partial skips the object class filtering and immediately displays a menu of all objects.

menu_deselect_all Key to deselect all items in a menu. Default -.

menu_deselect_page Key to deselect all items on this page of a menu. Default \.

menu_first_page Key to jump to the first page in a menu. Default ^.

menu_headings Controls how the headings in a menu are highlighted. Takes a text attribute, or text color and attribute separated by ampersand. For allowed attributes and colors, see “Configuring Menu Colors”. Not all ports can actually display all types.

menu_invert_all Key to invert all items in a menu. Default @.

menu_invert_page Key to invert all items on this page of a menu. Default ~.

menu_last_page Key to jump to the last page in a menu. Default |.

menu_next_page Key to go to the next menu page. Default >.

menu_objsyms Inventory and other object menus are normally separated by object class (weapons, armor, and so forth), with a menu header line at the beginning of each group. You can have menus add the display symbol for the class of objects for each header line. You can also add the display symbol for the individual item in each menu entry. For a tiles map, that would be a small rendition of an object’s tile. For a text map, it is the same character as is used for the object’s class, which would be most useful when there are no headers separating objects among classes. Possible values are

Supported by tty and curses. When setting the value, it can be specified by digit or keyword. The default value is Conditional (4).

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. (default on)

menu_previous_page Key to go to the previous menu page. Default <.

menu_search Key to search for some text and toggle selection state of matching menu items. Default :.

menu_select_all Key to select all items in a menu. Default ..

menu_select_page Key to select all items on this page of a menu. Default ,.

menu_shift_left Key to scroll a menu—one which has been scrolled right—back to the left. Implemented for perm_invent only by curses and X11. Default {.

menu_shift_right Key to scroll a menu which has text beyond the right edge to the right. Implemented for perm_invent only by curses and X11. Default }.

mon_movement Show a message when hero notices a monster movement (default is off).

monpolycontrol Prompt for new form whenever any monster changes shape (default off). Debug mode only.

montelecontrol Prompt for destination whenever any monster gets teleported (default off). Debug mode only.

mouse_support Allow use of the mouse for input and travel. Valid settings are:

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:

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. On some systems, the default is the player’s user name; on others, there is no default and the player will be prompted. The former can made to behave like the latter by specifying a generic name such as `player''. 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:

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 accommodate 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 omitted 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_confirmation:pray swim trap”.

By default, the pray, swim, and trap choices are enabled, the others disabled. To disable them without setting any of the other choices, use paranoid_confirmation:none. To keep them enabled while setting any of the others, you can include them in the new list, such as paranoid_confirmation:attack pray swim Remove or you can precede the first entry in the list with a plus sign, paranoid_confirmation:+attack Remove. To remove an entry that has been previously set without removing others, precede the first entry in the list with a minus sign, paranoid_confirmation:-swim. To both add some new entries and remove some old ones, you can use multiple paranoid_confirmation option settings, or you can use the ‘+’ form and list entries to be added by their name and entries to be removed by ‘!’ and name. The positive (no !) and negative (with !) entries can be intermixed.

pauper Start the character with no possessions (default false). Persistent. Also start with no spells or skills, which are tied to starting equipment. Does not inhibit acquiring and using items, spells, and skills once play has started.

perm_invent If true, always display your current inventory in a window (default false). This only makes sense for windowing system interfaces that implement this feature. For those that do, the perminv_mode option can be used to refine what gets displayed for perm_invent. Setting that to a value other than none while perm_invent is false will change it to true.

perminv_mode Augments the perm_invent option. Value is one of

Default is none but if perm_invent gets set to true while it is none it will be changed to all. Note: if gold has been equipped in quiver/ammo-pouch then it will be included for all despite that mode normally omitting gold.

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 or tty interface only; value is one of none, bold, dim, underline, italic, blink, and inverse. Some of those choices might not work, depending upon terminal hardware or terminal emulation software.

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.

pickup_stolen If this option is on and autopickup is also on, try to pick up things that a monster stole from you, even if they aren’t in pickup_types or match an autopickup exception. Default is on. Persistent.

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. Persistent. The value is a list of object symbols, such as pickup_types:$?! to pick up gold, scrolls, and potions. You can use autopickup_exception configuration file lines to further refine autopickup behavior. There is no way to set pickup_types to “none”. (Setting it to an empty value reverts to “all”.) If you want to avoid automatically picking up any types of items but do want to have autopickup on in order to have autopickup_exception settings control what you do and don’t pick up, you can set pickup_types to ‘.’. That is the type symbol for venom and you won’t come across any venom items so won’t unintentionally pick such up.

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 results in explore mode instead. Default is normal play.

price_quotes Whenever the game mentions the name of an object you haven’t identified yet, it also mentions the range of buy and sell prices you have seen for that item (to help narrow down what it could be). The price shown is the unit price for one item (even when you are looking at a stack of multiple items). Many players may want to turn this on while identifying objects, and then turn it back off again for general play. Default is off.

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.

query_menu Use a menu when asked specific yes/no queries, instead of a prompt.

quick_farsight When set, usually prevents the “you sense your surroundings” message where play pauses to allow you to browse the map whenever clairvoyance randomly activates. Some situations, such as being underwater or engulfed, ignore this option. It does not affect the clairvoyance spell where pausing to examine revealed objects or monsters is less intrusive. Default is off. Persistent.

race Selects your race (for example, race:human). Choices are human, dwarf, elf, gnome, and orc but most roles restrict which of the non-human races are allowed. See role for a description of how to use negation to exclude choices. If race is not specified, there is no default value; player will be prompted unless role forces a choice for race. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.

reroll Allows rerolling your character’s starting inventory and attributes (default false). Persistent. Note that rerolling your character is not a recommended way to play if aiming merely to win (a lucky start has a much smaller influence on whether or not you win the game than your actions later in the game). This option exists partly as an acknowledgement that some players will insist on doing so anyway, and partly because rerolling may be necessary for certain types of challenge games.

rest_on_space Make the space bar a synonym for the . (#wait) command (default off). Persistent.

role Pick your type of character (for example, role:Samurai); synonym for character. See name for an alternate method of specifying your role. This option can also be used to limit selection when role is chosen randomly. Use a space-separated list of roles and either negate each one or negate the option itself instead. Negation is accomplished in the same manner as with boolean options, by prefixing the option or its value(s) with ! or no.

Examples:

OPTIONS=role:!arc !bar !kni
OPTIONS=!role:arc bar kni

There can be multiple instances of the role option if they’re all negations. If role is not specified, there is no default value; player will be prompted. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command. Persistent.

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:

This option only affects the game’s screen display, not the actual 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.

safe_wait Prevents you from waiting or searching when next to a hostile monster (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.

showdamage Whenever your character takes damage, show a message of the damage taken, and the amount of hit points left.

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 affects 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). By default, this feature is suppressed when building the program. Persistent.

showvers Include the game’s version number on the status lines (default off). Potentially useful if you switch between different versions or variants, or you are making screenshots or streaming video. Using the statuslines:3 option is recommended so that there will be more room available for status information, unless you’re using NetHack’s Qt interface or your terminal emulator window displays fewer than 25 lines. Persistent. The versinfo option provides limited control over what information showvers displays.

silent Suppress terminal beeps (default on). Persistent.

sortdiscoveries Controls the sorting behavior for the output of the ‘\’ and ‘`’ commands. Persistent. The possible values are:

Can be interactively set via the ‘O’ command or via using the ‘m’ prefix before the ‘\’ or ‘`’ command.

sortloot Controls the sorting behavior of the pickup lists for inventory and #loot commands and some others. Persistent. The possible values are:

sortpack Sort the pack contents by type when displaying inventory (default on). Persistent.

sortvanquished Controls the sorting behavior for the output of the #vanquished command and also for the #genocided command. Persistent. The possible values are:

Can be interactively set via the ‘m O’ command or via using the ‘m’ prefix before either the #vanquished command or the #genocided command.

sounds Allow sounds to be emitted from an integrated sound library (default on).

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

spot_monsters Show a message when hero notices a monster (default is off).

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.

terrainstatus Display an extra status condition describing the spot beneath the hero’s feet (default off, not supported by all interfaces).

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 explosions and moving objects, use a timer rather than sending extra characters to the screen. (Applies to tty and curses interfaces only; X11 interface always uses a timer-based delay. The default is on if configured into the program.) Persistent.

tips Show some helpful tips during gameplay (default on). Persistent.

tombstone Draw a tombstone graphic upon your death (default on). Persistent.

toptenwin Put the ending display in a NetHack window instead of on stdout (default off). Setting this option makes the score list visible 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 via mouse click (default on). Turning this option off will prevent the game from attempting unintended moves if you make inadvertent mouse clicks on the map window. Does not affect traveling via the ‘_’ (#travel) command. Persistent.

tutorial Play a tutorial level at the start of the game. Setting this option on or off in the config file will skip the query.

verbose Provide more commentary during the game (default on). Persistent.

versinfo Controls what the showvers option displays on the status lines.

weaponstatus Display an extra status condition which describes currently wielded weapon (default off, not supported by all interfaces). Some possible displayed values are: bare-hnds - no weapon and no gloves; empty-hnd - no weapon but gloves are worn; dual-weps - wielding two weapons.

whatis_coord When using the / or ; commands to look around on the map with autodescribe on, display coordinates after the description. Also works in other situations where you are asked to pick a location. The possible settings are:

The whatis_coord option is also used with the /m, /M, /o, and /O sub-commands of /, where the none setting is overridden 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 possible targets.

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. 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 depends 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 options. 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 adjusting 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)

align_status Where to align or place the status window (top, bottom, left, or right).

ascii_map If NetHack can, it should display the map using simple characters (letters and punctuation) rather than tiles graphics. In some cases, characters can be augmented with line-drawing symbols; use the symset option to select a symbol set such as DECgraphics or IBMgraphics if your display supports them. Setting ascii_map to True forces tiled_map to be False.

color If NetHack can, it should display color if it can for different monsters, objects, and dungeon features (default on).

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 window.

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.

fullscreen If NetHack can, it should try to 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 interface 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 specified.

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 example, 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 window.

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. Acceptable values are 2 and 3 (default is 2). When set to 3, the tty interface moves some fields around and mainly shows status conditions on their own line. A display capable of showing at least 25 lines is recommended. The value can be toggled back and forth during the game with the ‘O’ command. The curses interface does likewise if the align_status option is set to top or bottom but ignores statuslines when set to left or right. The Qt interface already displays more than 3 lines for status so uses the statuslines value differently. A value of 3 renders status in the Qt interface’s original format, with the status window spread out vertically. A value of 2 makes status be slightly condensed, moving some fields to different lines to eliminate one whole line, reducing the height needed. (If NetHack has been built using a version of Qt older than qt-5.9, statuslines can only be set in the run-time configuration file or via NETHACKOPTIONS, not during play with the ‘O’ command.)

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 specified but will settle for smaller sizes if they are too big. Default is the current window size.

tile_file Specify the name of an alternative tile file to override the default. Note: the X11 interface uses X resources rather than NetHack’s options to select an alternate tile file. See NetHack.ad, the sample X “application defaults” file.

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

tiled_map If NetHack can, it should display the map using tiles graphics rather than simple characters (letters and punctuation, possibly augmented by line-drawing symbols). Setting tiled_map to True forces ascii_map to be False.

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 specifies 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 interface only. Acceptable values are

(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 to show borders if align_status is set to left or right.) The persistent inventory window, when enabled, can grow until it is too big to fit on most displays, resulting in truncation of its contents. If borders are forced on (1) or the display is big enough to show them (2), setting the value to 3 or 4 instead will keep borders for the map, message, and status windows but have room for two additional lines of inventory plus widen each inventory line by two columns.

windowcolors If NetHack can, it should display all windows of a particular style with the specified foreground and background colors. Windows GUI and curses windowport only. The format is

OPTION=windowcolors:style foreground/background where style is one of menu, message, status, or text, and foreground and background are colors, either numeric (hash sign followed by three pairs of hexadecimal digits, #rrggbb), one of the named colors (black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan, orange, bright-green, yellow, bright-blue, bright-magenta, bright-cyan, white, gray, purple, silver, maroon, fuchsia, lime, olive, navy, teal, aqua), or (for Windows only) one of Windows UI colors (trueblack, activeborder, activecaption, appworkspace, background, btnface, btnshadow, btntext, captiontext, graytext, greytext, highlight, highlighttext, inactiveborder, inactivecaption, menu, menutext, scrollbar, window, windowframe, windowtext).

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. Crash Report Options

Please note that NetHack does not send any information off your computer unless you manually click submit on a form.

OPTION=crash_email:*email_address*

OPTION=crash_name:*your_name* These options are used only to save you some typing on the crash report and #bugreport forms.

OPTION=crash_urlmax:*bytes* This option is used to limit the length of the URLs generated and is only needed if your browser cannot handle arbitrarily long URLs.

9.7. Platform-specific Customization options

Here are explanations of options that are used by specific platforms or ports to customize and change the port behavior.

altkeyhandling Select an alternate way to handle keystrokes (Win32 tty NetHack only). The name of the handling type is one of default, ray, 340.

altmeta On 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 machines with an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default off, OS/2, PC, and ST NetHack only).

rawio Force raw (non-cbreak) mode for faster output and more bulletproof 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.

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=subkeyvalue:171/92 will return 92 to NetHack, if 171 was originally going to be returned. You can use multiple subkeyvalue assignments in the configuration file if needed. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

video Set the video mode used (PC NetHack only). Values are autodetect, default, vga, or vesa. Setting vesa will cause the game to display tiles, using the full capability of the VGA hardware. Setting vga will cause the game to display tiles, fixed at 640x480 in 16 colors, a mode that is compatible with all VGA hardware. Third party tilesets will probably not work. Setting autodetect attempts vesa, then vga, and finally sets default if neither of those modes works. Cannot be set with the ‘O’ command.

video_height Set the VGA mode resolution height (MS-DOS only, with video:vesa)

video_width Set the VGA mode resolution width (MS-DOS only, with video:vesa)

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 (default 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.

9.8. Regular Expressions

Regular expressions are normally POSIX extended regular expressions. It is possible to compile NetHack without regular expression support on a platform where there is no regular expression library. While this is not true of any modern platform, if your NetHack was built this way, patterns are instead glob patterns; regardless, this document refers to both as ‘regular expressions.’ This applies to Autopickup exceptions, Message types, Menu colors, and User sounds.

9.9. 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 autopickup_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 occur as the first character in the pattern, specifically:

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_exception 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 exclusion of items known to be cursed from autopickup.

9.10. 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), a meta key (M-x), a mouse button, 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. Unbind 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 object symbols or selection letters into menu accelerators. Some interfaces only support some of the menu accelerators.

Mouse buttons You can bind mouse1 or mouse2 to nothing, therecmdmenu, clicklook, or mouseaction.

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.

getdir.help When asked for a direction, the key to show the help. Default is ?.

getdir.mouse When asked for a direction, the key to initiate a simulated mouse click. You will be asked to pick a location. Use movement keystrokes to move the cursor around the map, then type the getpos.pick.once key (default ‘,’) or the getpos.pick key (default ‘.’) to finish as if performing a left or right click. Only useful when using the #therecmdmenu command. Default is _.

getdir.self When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. Default is ..

getdir.self2 When asked for a direction, an alternate key to target yourself. Default is s.

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

getpos.all.next When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest interesting 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 monster. 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 object. 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 previous keys to cycle through targets, toggle showing a menu instead. 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 ".

getpos.pick When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and possibly ask for more info. When simulating a mouse click after being asked for a direction (see getdir.mouse above), the key to use to respond as right click. Default is ..

getpos.pick.once When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and skip asking for more info. When simulating a mouse click after being asked for a direction, the key to respond as left click. 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. Default 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. Default is @.

getpos.unexplored.next When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest unexplored 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.

9.11. 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”

The pattern should be a regular expression. Allowed types are:

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.

9.12. 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

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-magenta, light-cyan, and white. And no-color, the default foreground color, which isn’t necessarily the same as any of the other colors. Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, italic, 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 pattern 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 underlined. You can have multiple MENUCOLOR entries in your configuration 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 specifications match  uncursed , you will probably want to turn the implicit_uncursed option off so that all items known to be uncursed are actually displayed with the uncursed description.

9.13. 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:

The pattern should be a regular expression.

For example:

SOUNDDIR=C:\nethack\sounds
SOUND=MESG "This door is locked" "lock.wav" 100
SOUND=MESG hide "^You miss the " "swing.wav" 75

9.14. 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 configuration 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-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, italic, 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 versa. On others, issuing an attribute request while another is already set up will replace the earlier attribute rather than combine with it. Since NetHack issues attribute requests sequentially (at least with the tty interface) rather than all at once, the only way a situation like that can be controlled is to specify just one attribute.

You can adjust the appearance of the following status fields:

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 conditionally displayed depending upon your other option settings. Instead of a behavior, condition takes the following condition flags: stone, slime, strngl, foodpois, termill, blind, deaf, stun, conf, hallu, lev, fly, and ride. You can use major_troubles as an alias for stone through termill, minor_troubles for blind through hallu, movement for lev, fly, and ride, and all for every condition. Allowed behaviors are always, up, down, changed, a percentage or absolute number threshold, or text to match against. For the hitpoints field, the additional behavior criticalhp is available. It overrides other behavior rules if hit points are at or below the major problem threshold (which varies depending upon maximum hit points and experience level).

* 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 out after statushilites turns.

* changed sets the field attribute for when the field value 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 value, 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 between 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 maximum 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 experience level to the start of the next level. So if level 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 level.

* absolute value sets the attribute when the field value matches that number. The number must be 0 or higher, except for “armor-class’ which allows negative values, and may optionally be preceded by =. If the number is preceded by <= or >= instead, it also matches when value is below or above. If the prefix is < or >, only match when strictly above or below.

* criticalhp only applies to the hitpoints field and only when current hit points are below a threshold (which varies by maximum hit points and experience level). When the threshold is met, a criticalhp rule takes precedence over all other hitpoints rules.

* 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 title. 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 statushilites to 0.

Example hilites:

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

9.15. 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 display on the rogue level.

You can also override one or more symbols using the SYMBOLS and ROGUESYMBOLS configuration file options. Symbols are specified 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 switches on the meta bit in the symbol value, and the ^ prefix causes the following character to be treated as a control character.

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 enabled 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 depict. So S_rock is only used for boulders and not used at all if overridden by the more specific S_boulder.

9.16. Customizing Map Glyph Representations Using Unicode

If your platform or terminal supports the display of UTF-8 character sequences, you can customize your game display by assigning Unicode codepoint values and red-green-blue colors to glyph representations. The customizations can be specified for use with a symset that has a UTF8 handler within the symbols file such as the enhanced1 set, or individually within your nethack.rc file.

The format for defining a glyph representation is:

OPTIONS=glyph:glyphid/U+nnnn/R-G-B

The window port that is active needs to provide support for displaying UTF-8 character sequences and explicit red-green-blue colors in order for the glyph representation to be visible. For example, the following line in your configuration file will cause the glyph representation for glyphid G_pool to use Unicode codepoint U+224B and the color represented by R-G-B value 0-0-160:

OPTIONS=glyph:G_pool/U+224B/0-0-160

The list of acceptable glyphid’s can be produced by nethack –dumpglyphids. Individual NetHack glyphs can be specified using the G_ prefix, or you can use an S_ symbol for a glyphid and store the custom representation for all NetHack glyphs that would map to that particular symbol.

You will need to select a symset with a UTF8 handler to enable the display of the customizations, such as the Enhanced symset.

9.17. 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 even the MS-DOS versions of NetHack (which use special line-drawing characters by default) 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 capabilities 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 character 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.

The most crucial settings to make the game more accessible are:

symset:plain Load a symbol set 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.

paranoid_confirmation:swim Prevent walking into water or lava.

accessiblemsg Adds direction or location information to messages.

spot_monsters Shows a message when hero notices a monster; combine with accessiblemsg.

mon_movement Shows a message when hero notices a monster movement; combine with spot_monsters and accessiblemsg.

autodescribe Automatically describe the terrain under the cursor when targeting.

mention_map Give feedback messages when interesting map locations change.

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 information can be seen via the #attributes command.

showdamage Give a message of damage taken and how many hit points are left.

9.18. Global Configuration for System Administrators

If NetHack is compiled with the SYSCF option, a system administrator 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 uses 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 escape 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. MSGHANDLER = A path and filename of executable. Whenever a message-window message is shown, NetHack runs this program. The program will get the message as the only parameter. MAXPLAYERS = Limit the maximum number of games that can be running at the same time. SUPPORT = A string explaining how to get local support (no default 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, WIZARDS, and SHELLERS check for the player name instead of the user’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 four 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, respectively, to identify unique people for the score file. HIDEUSAGE = 0 or 1 to control whether the help menu entry for command line usage is shown or suppressed. 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 locations. DUMPLOGFILE = A filename where the end-of-game dumplog is saved. Not defining this will prevent dumplog from being created. Only available if your game is compiled with DUMPLOG. Allows the following placeholders:

LIVELOG = A bit-mask of types of events that should be written to the livelog file if one is present. The sample sysconf file accompanying the program contains a comment which lists the meaning of the various bits used. Intended for server systems supporting simultaneous play by multiple players (to be clear, each one running a separate single player game), for displaying their game progress to observers. Only relevant if the program was built with LIVELOG enabled. When available, it should be left commented out on single player installations because over time the file could grow to be extremely large unless it is actively maintained. CRASHREPORTURL = If set to https://www.nethack.org/links/cr-37BETA.html and support is compiled in, brings up a browser window pre-populated with the information needed to report a problem if the game panics or ends up in an internally inconsistent state, or if the #bugreport command is invoked.

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 provide 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 particular 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.

12.1. 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 dungeoneers 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).

12.2. Dungeoneers

From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a particularly intriguing modification to help out 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:

Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.