A

Printable ASCII characters
~	!	@	#	$	%	^	&	*	(	)	_	+	space
`	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	-	=	{	}	|
	Qq	Ww	Ee	Rr	Tt	Yy	Uu	Ii	Oo	Pp	:	"	[	]	\
	Aa	Ss	Dd	Ff	Gg	Hh	Jj	Kk	Ll	?	;	'	Ctrl
	Zz	Xx	Cc	Vv	Bb	Nn	Mm	,	.	/	<	>	Alt

In NetHack, the letter A serves the following purposes:

• a represents an insect:
  • a giant ant
  • a killer bee
  • a soldier ant
  • a fire ant
  • a giant beetle
  • a queen bee

• A represents an angelic being:
  • A couatl
  • A Aleax
  • A Angel
  • A ki-rin
  • A Archon

• It is also used for the following keyboard controls:
  • Press A to use or apply an item.
  • Press shift + A to take off multiple items at once.
  • Press ctrl + A to redo the previous command entered.

Historical uses

In hack121 and PDP-11 Hack, variants of Jay Fenlason's Hack, acid blobs and giant ants used the a and A glyphs respectively, and continued to from Hack 1.0 to NetHack 2.3e.

In NetHack 3.0.0, acid blobs are moved to the blob monster class at b, and giant ants are moved to a with other insects including the giant beetle (formerly b prior to 3.0.0) - A is used for the apelike creatures, which consists of the ape and carnivorous ape in this version. NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the angelic being monster class and gives them the A glyph, moving apelike creatures to Y; the yeti is merged into the apelike creature monster class, which uses its former monster class macro.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, there are 14 new monsters that use a and 5 that use A:

• a insect:
  • a assassin bug
  • a black wasp
  • a giant flea
  • a giant louse
  • a giant tick
  • a giant wasp
  • a killer beetle
  • a migo drone
  • a migo queen
  • a migo warrior
  • a snow ant
  • a spitting beetle
  • a tsetse fly
  • a yellow jacket
• A angelic being:
  • A movanic deva
  • A monadic deva
  • A astral deva
  • A Planetar
  • A Solar

SporkHack

SporkHack adds a new monster that uses the a glyph:

• a insect:
  • a locust

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds new monsters that use the a and A glyphs:

• a insect:
  • a snow ant
  • a locust
• A angelic being:
  • A Dark Angel
  • A weeping angel
  • A weeping archangel

dNetHack

In dNetHack, chaotic angels and minions use the A glyph - this includes many of the Eladrin, particularly the nobility:

• A lillend
• A weeping angel
• A Coure Eladrin
• A Noviere Eladrin
• A Bralani Eladrin
• A Firre Eladrin
• A Shiere Eladrin
• A Ghaele Eladrin
• A Tulani Eladrin
• A Gae Eladrin
• A Brighid Eladrin
• A Uiscerre Eladrin
• A Caillea Eladrin
• A Moonshadow
• A Dracae Eladrin
• A Jrt Netjer
• A kuker
• A polypoid being
• A Gwynharwyf
• A Ascodel
• A Faerinaal
• A Queen Mab
• A Keto
• A masked queen
• A Queen of Stars

All Eladrin are capable of taking on one or more different forms. Most of the Eladrin nobility that are present in the code are not encountered in-game.