Alignment record
| Religion in NetHack |
|---|
Your alignment record refers to your standing with your god. It is often simply called alignment, but it is not the same as lawful/neutral/chaotic-status. Its initial value is 0 for Cave(wo)men, Priests, Tourists, Valkyries and Wizards, and 10 for Archeologists, Barbarians, Healers, Knights, Monks, Rogues, Rangers, and Samurai. Its maximum is initially 10, and its upper bound increases by 1 for every 200 game turns. It has no lower bound. The value can not be found precisely (except in wizard mode), but enlightenment or a stethoscope can give you a clue. Additionally, your quest leader will not permit you to go on your quest if your alignment record is below 20. This means you cannot enter the quest before turn 2000, which may or may not be a problem for speed ascenders.
Your alignment record gradually increases as you kill monsters, and decreases when you do actions your god does not approve of.
Contents
Checking your alignment
Enlightenment by a wand or potion include a statement of your alignment. You can also apply a stethoscope to yourself.
| Alignment statement | Alignment range |
|---|---|
| "You are piously aligned." | 20 or higher |
| "You are devoutly aligned." | 14 to 19 |
| "You are fervently aligned." | 9 to 13 |
| "You are stridently aligned." | 4 to 8 |
| "You are aligned." | 3 |
| "You are haltingly aligned." | 1 to 2 |
| "You are nominally aligned." | 0 |
| "You have strayed." | -3 to -1 |
| "You have sinned." | -8 to -4 |
| "You have transgressed." | -9 or lower |
Ways to alter your alignment
In this table, MAX means your maximum alignment, which is 10 + (turns / 200). This chart does not include the (large number of) monsters that you will get one or more alignment points for killing. Many of the following can have other effects as well, such as on luck or your god's anger, but for brevity these are not shown here.
Generally, for a character not attempting a pacifist conduct, who has not irritated his god, your alignment will be very close to the maximum.
| Adjustment | Cause |
|---|---|
| -MAX/2 | As a chaotic with negative alignment and positive anger, sacrificing at a non-coaligned altar and converting |
| -MAX/8 | Killing one of the friendlies around your quest leader |
| up to -15 | Killing monster a peaceful monster of a type which is "Always Peaceful." (see below) |
| -15 | Killing your pet (stacks with -3 for displacing into trap) |
| -5 | Killing a peaceful creature without angering it (as opposed to in one attack) |
| -5 | Angering a coaligned priest |
| -5 | As a non-chaotic, sacrificing a member of your own race |
| -5 | Attempting to change alignment at an altar a second time |
| -2 | Killing a coaligned priest |
| -3 | As a lawful Archaeologist, digging up a grave |
| -3 | Displacing your pet into a trap (stacks with -15 for killing) |
| -3 | Sacrificing your pet |
| -1 | Praying on a non-coaligned altar, at a time when praying does not annoy your god |
| -1 | As any other lawful (non-Archeologist?), digging up a grave |
| -1 | As a Knight, attacking a fleeing or sleeping monsters ("You caitiff!") |
| -1 | As a Knight, eating while satiated ("You feel like a glutton!") |
| -1 | As a Knight, digging down in a shop ("You feel like a common thief.") |
| -1 | As a Samurai, attacking a peaceful creature ("You dishonorably attack the innocent!") |
| -1 | As a lawful or Samurai, attacking with a poisoned weapon |
| -1 | As a Monk, eating meat ("You feel guilty.") |
| -1 | As an Archaeologist, breaking a historic statue ("You feel guilty about damaging such a historic statue.") |
| -1 | Sacrificing an identified fake Amulet of Yendor |
| -1 | As a lawful human or a chaotic demon, genociding something |
| -1 | While riding, having your steed drown in water or lava |
| -1 | Angering a peaceful creature |
| -1 | Contributing 0 gold to a coaligned priest ("Thou shalt regret thine action!") |
| -1 | As a lawful, stealing from a shop (reversed if shopkeeper is later made peaceful) |
| -1 | As a lawful, choosing not to pay for damage to a shop |
| -1 | As a lawful, lying when asked your name by a vault guard |
| -1 | As a chaotic, casting a heal spell on a pet or peaceful creature |
| +1 | As a chaotic, being seduced by a foocubus |
| +1 | As a chaotic human or a lawful demon, genociding something |
| +1 | Praying successfully, with alignment 1 or less and a minor trouble |
| +1 | With alignment below -5, contributing 200*level to 400*level to a priest, getting clairvoyance |
| +1 | As a chaotic non-rogue, stealing from a shop (reversed if shopkeeper is later made peaceful) |
| +1 | As a chaotic, choosing not to pay for damage to a shop |
| +1 | As a lawful, untrapping a monster (probability about 5-15%, depending on luck) |
| +1 | As a lawful or Healer, casting a heal spell on a pet or peaceful creature |
| +2 | Angering a non-coaligned priest |
| +2 | Killing a non-coaligned priest |
| +2 | With alignment positive, donating more than 600*level to a coaligned priest, which is more than half your visible gold, and this hasn't happened in the past 5000 moves |
| +3 | Freeing a prisoner during your quest |
| +5 | As a chaotic, sacrificing a member of your own race |
| +5 | Sacrificing a non-coaligned unicorn on a coaligned altar |
| up to +15 | Killing a hostile monster of a type which is "Always Peaceful" (see below) |
| +MAX/4 | Killing your quest nemesis |
| +MAX/4 | Killing a priest of Moloch |
| +MAX/2 | As a lawful with negative alignment and positive anger, sacrificing at a non-coaligned altar and converting |
| set to -MAX/2 | Killing your quest leader |
| set to -1 | Sacrificing a coaligned unicorn on a non-coaligned alter (A conversion is likely to follow) |
| set to 0 | With alignment negative, donating more than 600*level to a coaligned priest, which is more than half your visible gold, and this hasn't happened in the past 5000 moves |
This page is based on a spoiler by Matthew Lahut, available at http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/pray.html
Alignment gains from killing monsters
Normal alignment changes from killing monster are determined by the function set_malign(mtmp). Note that this is applied after the above modifiers. So if you kill your quest leader, your alignment is actually set to ((-MAX/2) - 20).
Monster alignment (malign) is defined for each monster in monst.c. It is largely independent of monster difficulty. In the table below, we always use the absolute value of malign.
| who | change |
|---|---|
| quest leader | -20 |
| unaligned monsters (Rodney, priests of Moloch) | +20 if hostile; 0 if peaceful (the Valley of the Dead priest) |
| "always peaceful"[1] (shopkeepers, aligned priests) | -3 * max(5, malign) if peaceful, +3 * max(5, malign) if hostile (hostile priests on the astral plane)
|
| "always hostile"[2] monsters (a very large list) | 0 if co-aligned; max(5, malign) otherwise.
|
| co-aligned monsters | -3 * max(3, malign) if peaceful, max(3, malign) if hostile
|
| all other monsters | malign
|
Examples
- Vlad the Impaler: 0 if you're chaotic (co-aligned, always hostile); +10 otherwise (Vlad's alignment is -10[3])
- A lichen, a newt, or Death: +5 if you are lawful or chaotic (neutral, always hostile); 0 if you are neutral
- A gnome or a Air elemental: 0 (neutral, can be peaceful)
- The Minetown priest: -15 (always peaceful, priest alignments are 5, 0, -5)
- A peaceful golden naga, and you are lawful: -16 (-1 for attacking a peaceful monster, -3 * the naga's alignment of 5[4])
- A hostile golden naga, and you are lawful: +5 (the absolute value of the monster's alignment)
- A peaceful golden naga, and you are not lawful: +4 (-1 for peaceful, +5 for the naga's alignment)
- A hostile golden naga, and you are not lawful: +5 (naga's alignment)
As long as you are killing monsters and commit no major violations (killing quest leader, pet, priest), you can safely assume that your alignment is positive. If you need to raise your alignment quickly, kill easy always-hostile monsters: fungi, insects, non-pet canines and felines.
Source code references
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
