Encumbrance
Contents
Facts
There are six levels of encumbrance in Nethack: Unencumbered, Burdened, Stressed, Strained, Overtaxed and Overloaded. The exact inventory weight which determines which of these levels you experience is based on Strength and Constitution.
The maximum carrying capacity without becoming burdened is 1000 weight units. A player can carry up to 3000 weight units before becoming Overloaded, at which point any kind of action except dropping items becomes impossible.
Strategy
Your encumbrance level can be reduced by:
- Using a bag of holding
- Gaining strength or constitution, including polymorphing into a stronger creature.
- Dropping items
Commentary
When being suddenly polymorphed into a small creature (especially via lycanthropy), it is common to become instantly overloaded, and unable to move.
Being encumbered is generally considered a bad idea, because it slows you down and speed is crucial to survival in Nethack; further, climbing stairs becomes more difficult when Burdened (and impossible when Stressed or worse) as well as causing players to "fall down the stairs" when they attempt to descend (a fatal move when combined with a cockatrice corpse).
Although being Stressed trains strength, there are far safer ways such as pushing boulders around.
