Exercise
If you play NetHack, then you want to exercise your six attributes to help the hero survive the dungeon. Though increases in experience level might grant you more hit points and power, the hero requires boosts to attributes to fight well and succeed in more situations.
Of the six attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma), you can only exercise four; there is no way to exercise intelligence or charisma.
Here are examples of how to exercise strength, dexterity, constitution, and wisdom:
- Push boulders around for strength.
- Wield a blade and #force open locked chests for dexterity.
- Eat and avoid becoming hungry or satiated for constitution.
- Engrave Elbereth with uppercase "E" and lowercase "lbereth" for wisdom.
You should already be exercising during normal gameplay. However, exercise does not cause immediate gains in your attributes. Instead, exercise increments a counter. At random times, NetHack does a check and increases your attribute if the counter is high enough. However, increases become less likely over time.
Abuse
Abuse is the opposite of exercise. Acts of abuse can undo exercise, or even cause your strength, dexterity, consitution or wisdom to drop. If your stats are abused, use a unicorn horn to heal any such loss.
