dNetHack from Nethack

From NetHackWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

dNethack has a similar initial feel to regular Nethack but if you play the exact same way you might end up getting frustrated or losing a very promising character.

This guide's purpose is to help people seamlessly switch between Nethack and dNethack and therefore enjoy the game more!

Noteworthy Key Differences

  • The Pokedex used in dNethack for monsters is extremely helpful and will generally show special attacks and resistances for every monster you can view.
  • When looking at your item list ("i") you can click the letter for any item and then click "I" to describe the item. If the item is fully identified, this will give excellent information on most items and is extremely useful for understanding new items.
  • The item inspection view takes into account the "item form" or "item activation" (such as light sabers) but does not take into account enchantment level (+/-) for weapons.
  • Eating corpses for "resistances" will last only 5,000 turns. To get permanent "resistance" you must wear an item that confers it or be "crowned" or have a role-specific intrinsic.
  • Seduction effects are much more dangerous. Wearing an "engagement ring" (the unidentified appearance, no matter what that is in your game) will always prevent the seduction attempt from succeeding. This also works on nymph and phantasm thievery.
  • Many monsters take reduced damage from one or more type of weapon (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning). The game will always give you a message the first time you hit the monster indicating that the monster is taking reduced damage ("<weapon> is ineffective against <monster"). This will quarter the damage dealt, rounding down (so 0 damage is a possibility with weak weapons).
  • Corpses left on the ground have a low chance of reanimating as a "zombie" version of the dead monster. These monsters take reduced damage from bludgeoning and do more melee damage but are slow and do not have ranged attacks. Even the corpses of zombies may rise again multiple times potentially. If a dread seraph is on the level, they have a much higher chance of reanimating.
  • Monster power levels in the mid and late game are significantly higher than regular Nethack. Monsters have more special abilities and resistances and generally more hit points than mid and late game equivalents in regular Nethack. Remember to view the Pokedex record to gain insight.
  • Shopkeepers offer various services for a fee. They'll always offer at least one form of identification, and possibly uncursing, charging, armor works, or weapon works.
    • Shopkeepers will always offer basic ID, premium ID, or both. Basic only does the base item type (not even BUC), and premium is a full identify identical to the scroll. Shopkeepers will always be able to identify items of a type that they will buy/sell (for example, an unidentified helm at an armor shopkeeper). If you ask them to identify something they don't sell, it will only succeed 1/4 of the time (1/2 if premium). The price is based on the item's base type, with premium identify being twice as expensive, and artifacts being 1.5x more expensive. If you are confused or hallucinating, this will always fail.
    • Uncursing simply uncurses that item. It can uncurse anything regardless of type. If you are confused, it will curse the item instead. If you are hallucinating, it will instead bless the item 1/4 of the time, with nothing else happening otherwise. If you haven't BUC'd the object, nothing will happen.
    • Charging is mostly basic charging, but wand shopkeepers can rarely offer premium charging. They will only charge things they would sell (a tool shop will charge any tool, wand shop will charge wands, etc.). Tool shops, wand shops, ring shops, Izchak, and spellbook shops can offer charging.
    • Armor-works can enchant or rustproof. Rustproofing will always repair the item fully in addition to proofing, but costs more depending on how damaged the item is. Enchanting will enchant the item, costing more depending on how high the new enchantment is. No item can be enchanted past +3, even if it can normally be enchanted to +7. Attempting to do so will just cost a lot and fail. Only armor shopkeepers will offer armor-works.
    • Weapon-works can enchant, rustproof, or poison. Rustproofing and enchanting works the same way as armor, except you can enchant to +5. Poisoning can always poison, but can sometimes drug (somewhat often), stain (blindness) or envenom (paralysis), and very rarely filth-crust (sickness) weapons. Law quest acid shops or Mithardir sandwalker shops can acid-coat. Only weapon shopkeepers can offer weapon-works.
  • Converting altars will often result in the other god summoning in one or more monsters to protect the altar. These monsters may be very difficult for characters of lower level so use caution when converting an altar unless you have a good escape item. The monsters will be based on the god's alignment and which god (neutral gods tend to favor elementals, Offler favors crocodiles, drow gods favor drow minions, etc.), so some gods are worse than others. Be careful with unaligned altars to the Dread Fracture or the Black Mother.
  • Armor Class no longer conveys "damage reduction" and instead there is a separate visible field for "damage reduction" in the status bar labeled "DR". The "DR" value is actually per body location and a breakdown of each location can be seen by hitting "[" to see your equipped armor.
  • Luckstones make luck time out more slowly rather than never timing out (600 turns instead of 300 without a luckstone).
  • Switching weapons using "x" does not count as a turn so using ranged weapons and melee weapons together is extremely effective for all roles.
  • Sokoban levels only spawn monsters in the area outside the "boulder pushing" part of the level. Therefore level one of Sokoban does not spawn monsters.

Features in dNethack not in Nethack

  • You will see blue tildes (~) squares from time to time. These are "shallow water". You may walk in it, but if your boots are metal they may rust. The shallow water is useful for being able to #dip potions to turn them into water. You cannot drink it, and sea monsters can swim in it.
  • Drinking booze increases the character's future likelihood of being able to control movements while confused. The formula is ((Booze consumed / 3) - 1) / (Booze consumed / 3). The character can benefit from at most 3 total booze per character level.
  • Items may (very rarely) be of different materials. This will affect traits associated with the item. The main place you will find this is monster starting inventories (Rilmani, some uniques, etc.).
  • effigy is an item that at any BUC status will function the same way as a blessed scroll of remove curse. The one exception is when using it to remove the effect of a "weeping angel" in which case it will summon another weeping angel after removing the original effect.
  • Pets follow their owner far better than in regular Nethack so pet strategies are easier to utilize.

Early Game Strategy

Relative Branch Difficulty

See here for a good breakdown on roles, along with here for a good breakdown on the standard strategies. Lastly, see here for a list of items to pack for Astral.

  • Rule changes (Some of this stuff is pretty critical to know)

Ascension

  • Vlad's tower is located under the "Gnomish Mines" and does not include any candles so collect those from the Gnomish Mines stores or elsewhere.
Retrieved from "https://nethackwiki.com/index.php?title=DNetHack_from_Nethack&oldid=163727"