Astral call bug

From NetHackWiki
Revision as of 22:54, 19 August 2006 by Jayt (talk | contribs) (initial version)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

SC343-12, also known as the astral call bug is a fairly serious loophole in NetHack's handling of the call command when using telepathy. The bug is listed as:

Hero using telepathy can abuse Call on the Astral Plane.

It works as follows:

  1. Reach the Astral Plane with telepathy, then blind yourself
  2. Use call ([C]) to select a @ which looks like it might be a high priest(ess)
  3. Call him or her anything you like

The game will then tell you:

The high priestess of <Hermes> doesn't like being called names!

where <Hermes> is the name of a god in your pantheon. Repeat the procedure until you find a high priest(ess) of your god. You then know which altar to go to first, significantly cutting down the time spent (and hence danger) on the Astral Plane.

This bug is serious in that it can be used on public servers. If you are caught using it, don't expect people to take your ascension seriously.